Catilina's riddle

'The third headless corpse was another of your slaves, wasn't it? You didn't kill Nemo, who died of an illness. Nor did you kill Forfex; Gnaeus did that But this slave you murdered, didn't you, Claudia?'

'Why do you say that?' she said, casting me a sullen glance.

'Because you needed someone on whom to test your poison. You had already tested it once, on a poor old slave of mine named Clementus. He was a witness of sorts on the night that Congrio dropped the body of Forfex down my well. His recollection was vague and muddled, but to a slave like Congrio, guilty of compiling against his master, even old Clementus must have seemed a terrible threat. Congrio had to get rid of him simply, quietly. You supplied him with a poison — strychnos, the deadly nightshade. That accounts for the blue lips, the vomiting, and the slurred speech that afflicted Clementus before he died. I always suspected he had been hurried along. Now I know for certain, for Congrio has confessed everything.

'Still, a poison that kills a doddering old slave may not work on a strong man of forty-seven, so you tried it out on one of your hapless slaves, didn't you, Claudia? How did you pick the poor fellow? Had he been showing signs of laziness, or was he weakened by bad joints, or had he offended you somehow? Or was he simply a good match for me, of about the same size and age, so that you could make sure of an adequate dosage to finish me off?'

She stared into the distance but made no answer:

'Wretched slave, to have such a mistress! Once you'd killed him with your poison — well, there was no use wasting the corpse, was there? Send another signal to Gordianus! A warning of things to come! Again, you removed the head to avoid any possibility of having him recognized, and delivered him via Congrio. Like Nemo, he was discovered by my daughter. Does that make you feel nothing, to know that you gave such a shock to a little girl? I suppose not, knowing what monstrosities you've shown yourself capable of committing.'

Claudia abruptly stood. 'I didn't come here to be judged, by you or anyone else. Your message said you wanted to come to some resolution and indicated that you had a proposition for me. Make it now and spare me your accusations and hand-wringing.'

'Sit down, Claudia. It's a poor murderess who can't bear to hear her crimes recited.'

'Poisoning a slave is not murder!'

'Ah, but kidnapping a freeborn child must surely be a crime.'

'That's enough!' she said, and turned to go. I seized her shoulders and pushed her down onto the stump.

'You swore you wouldn't hurt me!' she shrieked, and pulled out a long, thin dagger. I knocked it from her hand and she covered her face. I looked hurriedly around, but saw no one in the bushes. She had come armed, but alone.

'Yes, Claudia, I swore it and I meant it, though neither gods nor men would object if I were to strangle you here on this spot. You can drop your haughty demeanour; it doesn't suit you. You'll listen to all I have to say, and together we'll arrive at the truth. Nothing can proceed without that, so don't deny it when I say you intended to poison me. Congrio has confessed! You grew impatient. Months passed, intimidation had failed to move me, and so you were finally ready to resort to the murder of a freeborn citizen — ah, but only an upstart plebeian! Did you think that with me gone you could more easily pressure Bethesda and Eco to sell the farm to you? Or would you have poisoned them as well?

'You wanted Congrio to poison me. Your agent kept pestering him, but Congrio resisted. That was a little too much for him, a little too dangerous. Clementus he had poisoned for his own protection, but to murder his master was too grave a sin. And then disaster — Congrio and your agent were indiscreet and let a little girl overhear them. You know the rest. What I don't know is what you could have been thinking when you sent your men to leave Diana in the mine. Were they meant to strangle her and leave her body there? Were they to abandon her alive and let her slowly starve to death? Or would you have rescued her in time and sold her into slavery, sending her to some foreign city on a ship out of Ostia while her parents mourned her for dead?'

Claudia's eyes darted wildly. I stepped closer, making it impossible for her to bolt. 'I said that I wouldn't harm you, Claudia, and I meant it, though at this moment I regret the promise. You should be punished, Claudia — for your duplicity, for your arrogance, for murder, for kidnapping my daughter and making my wife mad with worry. But where would it end? Your cousins have too much bile in them and too much idle time; I should never feel safe if I exacted my just revenge on you. If only one could trust the gods to strike the balance against creatures such as yourself! But I've seen too much of the world to trust justice, human or divine. We make our own justice in our own way, just as you and I are going to strike a bargain, here and now.'

'A bargain?'

'An agreement, Claudia, from which we shall move forward and never look back. My sons won't be satisfied. They think you should be destroyed, like a wild dog. Nor will Bethesda be happy. She would like to pluck out your eyes and make you swallow them. But they will abide by my decision. And my decision is that you should have this farm'

She looked at me with such a blank expression that I thought she hadn't heard me. Then she looked out at the farm and I saw a glimmer in her eyes. 'Is this a trick, Gordianus?'

'Not a trick, a bargain. You shall have the farm, just as you wanted. We shall go down to Rome, to the place in the Forum where the records are kept, and I shall sign over the deed to you. And in return…'

She turned her head and looked at me sharply.

'In return, you shall give me the house on the Palatine, which you inherited from Lucius, complete with all its furnishings.'

'Absolutely nod'

'No? What use do you have for the house? It means nothing to you.'

'It's a splendid house, worth a considerable fortune!' 'Yes, probably worth more than my farm, considering all the statuary that Lucius collected, and the fine marble he installed, and the elegant furniture in each room, and the prime location on the Palatine. A valuable house, indeed I'm sure that you don't think a mere nobody like me has any business living in such a house, any more than I had inheriting Lucius's farm, but the fact is that Lucius meant for me to have a legacy from him, and I will. He intended it to be the farm, because he thought the farm would please me. It has pleased me, but it has also brought me much grief

'You, on the other hand, must want the farm very badly to have schemed so doggedly to take it from me. You'll double your holdings and have land on both sides of the ridge. You shall be the envy of your cousins, though, knowing your cousins, I shouldn't care to have their envy. So you see, the trade is equitable. Can you devise any other solution to the pass we've come to?'

She sat gazing out at the farm and began to tremble. 'You condemn me for scheming against you, Gordianus, but how can you know how much this land means to me? I've wanted it ever since I was a little girl. I used to daydream for hours that it was mine. But the land went to Lucius. Every year that passed without his marrying and having a son, I rejoiced, for there was always the chance that he would leave it to me, if only I outlived him. Patience, patience! But then Gnaeus began complaining in the family councils about his lot, and it was tacitly decided that he should be put ahead of anyone else in our wills. Even so, there was always a chance that the land would come to me in time. Patience and hope! Then, when Lucius died and left the property to a stranger from the city — oh, you can't imagine the shock! It had slipped away from me forever! But now…'