The Sacrilege

"Is anything known about her?" I asked.

"Nothing but her name and occupation," Domitius said.

"I don't suppose she had a license to practice her trade here?"

"How could she?" he said. "It's illegal." He caught my reproving look. "All right, I know it's our duty to expel them from the Forums and markets, but the office of aedile was assigned when Rome was about one-tenth the size it is now. We have to test weights and measures, guard against usury and counterfeiting, put on the public games, keep all the public works in repair, clean and pave the streets-" He threw up his hands. "I could devote my whole year just to inspecting the wineshops and whorehouses, another of our duties, and never get to all of them!"

"The burdens of office are great," I agreed. "Any idea whether she was freeborn? If she was a freedwoman her former master may want to claim the body for burial."

"I intend to find out. One of my secretaries will go from here to the Archives."

"When you find out, could you send me word? I didn't get to finish questioning her, and there is a great deal I would like to know. I would esteem it a great personal favor."

He had been bored with the onerousness of office, but this brightened him. This meant he would be able to call on me for a favor someday, and that was not a small thing when the parties had names like Domitius and Metellus.

"I shall be most glad to, Senator."

"Thank you. My house is in the Subura. Your messenger can ask anyone there where to find me." I took my leave and went outside. I checked to make sure that my caestus was handy and my dagger was loose in its sheath. The way things were progressing, it couldn't be long before the man with the knife and the hammer came for me.

The Temple of Castor is the most beautiful in Rome. It had been built over four hundred years before, in gratitude for our victory at Lake Regillus. Actually, its full name was the Temple of Castor and Pollux, but nobody bothers with poor old Pollux, who, like Remus, is the forgotten brother of the Twins.

I found Julia standing atop the steps, between two of the tall, slender columns. She wore a belted gown of pale saffron and a shawl of darker yellow. Her only jewelry was a string of gold and amber beads. She was as different from Clodia as it was possible for a woman to be, and that was the highest praise I could think of. She smiled as I came up the steps toward her. She had wonderful teeth.

"You're early," she said. "The sun isn't quite down."

"I was anxious to see you again." I looked around the portico, which seemed to be deserted. "No grandmothers lurking in the shadows?"

"We're safe," she said. "I'm supposed to be visiting an aunt in the House of the Vestals."

"I have an aunt there myself," I said inanely.

"Actually, I went there," she said. "I wouldn't lie about it. I just didn't stay as long as I hinted I might."

"That's nothing to anger the gods," I assured her. "Before I forget-when you said that Fulvia was at Caesar's house on the night of the Mysteries, did you mean the younger one, the one who is betrothed to Clodius?"

"Yes, that's the one. The elder Fulvia left the city in disgrace last year. I met Fulvia that night, before the unmarried women had to withdraw. She's a beautiful creature. I've heard rumors about her, but I would not believe them. Nobody that young can be that bad."

"Oh, yes, they can," I affirmed. "Some people are bad from birth. Age merely confers experience and discretion upon their youthful promise. I met her yesterday, and I couldn't have picked a better match for Clodius. With luck, they'll kill each other, but I tremble for the fate of Rome, should they produce children who live."

She laughed merrily. "I love the way you exaggerate, Decius." Poor, simple girl. She thought I exaggerated.

"Just what is it that you unmarried women did that night? Or is that another of those forbidden subjects?"

"Oh, no. There is a preliminary ceremony, an invocation of the goddess. After that the Mysteries began, and we had to leave. Mostly, we sat around gossiping in the back of the house, and we would have been there all night, but things broke up in the uproar over Clodius being there."

"I see."

"Well, don't you want to hear what I've found out?" she said impatiently.

"Certainly. Whatever makes you think otherwise?"

"Because you're acting just like a man!" As if that were some sort of condemnation.

"I should hope so. Now, what is it you've discovered?"

"I found out how Clodius got in!"

"Splendid. We already know he was dressed as a woman."

"Yes, yes, but he didn't arrive with the others. It was later, when the Mysteries were already well under way. He arrived with the woman who brought the laurel leaves."

"Laurel leaves?" I said. "You mean wreaths?"

"No, leaves steeped in something or other according to some ancient formula. The women chew them during the later phase of the rites. Things get rather: abandoned, I understand."

"Imagine that," I said. "Respectable Roman matrons carrying on like a pack of maenads." Then the implication struck me. "This woman Clodius arrived with-you wouldn't have got her name, would you?"

Julia shrugged. "Just a peasant herb-woman. Is it important?"

I leaned against one of the fluted columns and rubbed my eyes. My head was begi

"I could take you across the Forum and show you her corpse."

Julia's eyes widened and she gasped. She had led a sheltered life. "She was murdered?"

"The carnage is getting warlike," I said. "Four dead so far, slave, peasant and patrician. What next? A eunuch?"

"Then my information was of no use to you?" She looked so crestfallen that I was swift to reassure her.

"By no means. What you've told me is sure to be of the utmost importance. The murders tie in somehow with the sacrilege."

"Certainly it was scandalous," she said, "but worthy of multiple murder?"

"No. The profanation of the rites has been a real laugh-raiser. Romans aren't as pious as they used to be. Clodius was up to something else that night, and that is what he doesn't want discovered."

"Then you think Clodius has done all this?"

I shook my head. "He is involved, but I can't believe that he originated anything so devious. Direct action is his style. No, what we need to find out is who else was there that night."

"Who else? You mean you think Clodius was not the only man to profane the rites?"

"If not the rites themselves, then in another part of the house. Where better to meet for nefarious reasons than in a house where men are supposed to be ba

"Conspiracy! This gets better all the time!" I could tell that her delight in winkling out plots matched my own.

"I suspect that Clodius attended whatever conference he and his co-conspirators had arranged, and then almost ruined everything because he couldn't resist sneaking back in to spy on the rituals. Serves them all right, whoever they are. Anyone who would trust Clodius deserves whatever happens to them." I glanced into the temple, where the priests were placing fires before the statues of the Twins. The moment the word "twins" entered my mind, the question that had plagued me was shaken loose.

"Julia, you said that Fausta was there that night. Yet she is not married. Was she with you unmarried ladies?"

Julia frowned in thought. "No, she wasn't. She arrived with Claudia the wife of Lucullus. She wore a veil, but it was almost transparent and I knew her by sight. I didn't notice if she withdrew when the rest of us did. Are you sure she isn't widowed?"

"She has never married. So what was she up to? All sorts of anomalies keep cropping up in that night's doings. You will find that it is the anomalies that are truly important, when investigating the deeds of infamous men."