The Venus Throw Read online

  The Venus Throw - Roman Sub Rosa 04

  Book Jacket

  Series: Roman Sub Rosa [4]

  Tags: 1, Historical Novel, Z

  EDITORIAL REVIEW:

  On a chill January evening in 56 B.C., two strange visitors to Rome - an Egyptian ambassador and a eunuch priest - seek out Gordianus the Finder whose specialty is solving murders. But the ambassador, a philosopher named Dio, has come to ask for something Gordianus cannot give - help in staying alive. Before the night is out, he will be murdered.

  Now Gordianus begins his most dangerous case. Hired to investigate Dio's death by a beautiful woman with a scandalous reputation, he will follow a trail of political intrigue into the highest circles of power and the city's most hidden arenas of debauchery. There Gordianus will learn nothing is as it seems - not the damning evidence he uncovers, not the suspect he sends to trial, not even the real truth behind Dio's death which lies in secrets - not of state, but of the heart.

  **Steven Saylor** is the author of the long running series featuring Gordianus the Finder as well as the *New York Times* bestselling novel, *Roma*. He has appeared as an on-air expert on Roman history and life on The History Channel. He divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

  On a chill January evening in 56 B.C., two strange visitors to Rome—an Egyptian ambassador and a eunuch priest—seek out Gordianus the Finder whose specialty is solving murders. But the ambassador, a philosopher named Dio, has come to ask for something Gordianus cannot give—help in staying alive. Before the night is out, he will be murdered.

  Now Gordianus begins his most dangerous case. Hired to investigate Dio's death by a beautiful woman with a scandalous reputation, he will follow a trail of political intrigue into the highest circles of power and the city's most hidden arenas of debauchery. There Gordianus will learn nothing is as it seems—not the damning evidence he uncovers, not the suspect he sends to trial, not even the real truth behind Dio's death which lies in secrets—not of state, but of the heart.

  "Imaginative . . . Saylor's style is smooth . . . An absorbing look at a time when men tried to rule themselves wisely and failed."—***San Francisco Chronicle***

  "Saylor writes with vision and clarity, balancing sound historical scholarship with a gift for storytelling."—***Anniston Star

  ***"Engrossing . . . Intensely dramatic . . . Erotic, funny, compelling . . . A bona fide page-turner."—***Detroit Free Press***

  "Steven Saylor transports you to Ancient Rome with spellbinding effectiveness."—***Austin Chronicle***

  "Finely etched historical background . . . The finest flower yet of Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series."—***Kirkus Reviews

  ***"Engrossing . . . Simmering with eroticism . . . An absorbing brew of Rome's decay."—***Publishers Weekly***

  ****

  ****

  ****

  ****

  **Table of Contents**

  CHRONOLOGY

  Part One: NEX [death, usually violent death: murder]

  Part Two: NOXIA [a fault or offense: a crime]

  Part Three: NOX [the goddess Night, sister of Eros; blindness; gloom]

  Part Four: NEXUS [a binding or tying together]

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  STEVEN SAYLOR

  THE VENUS THROW

  To Rick

  BY STEVEN SAYLOR

  ROMA SUB ROSA

  consisting of:

  Roman Blood

  Arms of Nemesis

  Catilina's Riddle

  The Venus Throw

  CONTENTS

  CHRONOLOGY

  Part One: N E X

  [death, usually violent death: murder]

  Part Two: N O X I A

  [a fault or offense: a crime]

  Part Three: N o x

  [the goddess Night, sister of Eros; blindness; gloom]

  Part Four: NEXUS

  [a binding or tying together]

  CHRONOLOGY

  Listed below are some significant events preceding the action of The Venus Throw, which begins in mid-January, 56 B.C.

  90 B.C.

  Gordianus in Alexandria.

  80 B.C.

  King Soter of Egypt dies; succeeded briefly by Alexander II, then by Ptolemy Auletes. Sulla dictator in Rome; Cicero's first major speech, in defense of Sextus Roscius; the events of Roman Blood.

  76 B.C.

  Appius Claudius (father of Clodia and Clodius) dies.

  75 B.C.

  First senatorial attempt to act on the alleged will of Alexander II bequeathing Egypt to Rome.

  72 B.C.

  Second year of Spartacan slave revolt; the events of Arms of Nemesis.

  68 B.C.

  Clodius incites mutiny in Lucullus's army.

  65 B.C.

  Crassus as censor makes a foiled attempt to declare Egypt a tributary province of Rome.

  63 B.C.

  Cicero's consulship; the events of Catilina's Riddle. Caesar and Pompey attempt to exact Egyptian tribute with Rullan Legislation, foiled by Cicero.

  62 B.C.

  Clodia's husband Quintus Metellus Celer governor of Cisalpine Gaul. Clodius disrupts the celebration of the Good Goddess.

  61 B.C.

  Clodius tried for the Good Goddess scandal and acquitted.

  59 B.C.

  Caelius prosecutes Antonius (Cicero defending). Caesar as consul arranges for King Ptolemy to be recognized as "Friend and Ally of the Roman People" in return for thirty-five million denarii. King Ptolemy raises taxes in Egypt, angering the populace. Clodius becomes a plebeian in order to run for tribune. Clodia widowed by the death of Quintus Metellus Celer.

  58 B.C.

  Clodius tribune. Cicero forced into exile (March). Roman takeover of Egyptian Cyprus. King Ptolemy flees to Rome.

  57 B.C.

  Cicero returns from exile (September). Caelius supports Bestia for praetor. The delegation of one hundred Alexandrians, headed by Dio, arrives in Italy.

  At dice I sought the Venus Throw. Instead: damned Dogs—the lose-all low!

  PROPERTIUS, Elegies

  iv , vii : 45-46

  We've all heard about Alexandria, and now we know about it—the source of all trickery and deceit, where the plots of all the mimes come from.

  CICERO, Pro C. Rabirio Postumo, 35

  Democritus disapproved of sexual intercourse as being merely the act whereby one human being springs from another—and by Hercules, the less of that the better! On the other hand, sluggish athletes find that sex rejuvenates them; sex can relieve hoarseness, cure pain in the loins, sharpen eyesight; sex can restore mental balance and banish melancholy.

  PLINY, Natural History, x x v III ,58

  PART

  ONE

  NEX

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  Two visitors at the front door, Master." Belbo looked at me

  from under his brow and shifted from foot to foot uncertainly. "Their names?" "They wouldn't say." "Familiar faces?"

  "I've never seen them before, Master."

  "Did they say what they wanted?"

  "No, Master."

  I pondered this for a moment and stared into the flames of the brazier.

  "I see. Two men—"

  "Not exactly, Master ... "

  "Two visitors, you said. Are they both men or not?" "Well," Belbo said, wrinkling his brow, "I'm pretty sure that one of them is a man. At least I think so . . ." "And the other?"

  "A woman—I think. Or maybe not . . ." He looked thoughtfully but without much concern into the middle distance, as if trying to remember what he had eaten for breakfast.

  I raised an eyebrow and looked beyond the flaming brazier, through the narrow window and into the garden, where the statue of Minerva kept watch
over a little fishpond. The sun was beginning to lower. Days in Januarius are all too short, especially for a man of fifty-four like myself, old enough to feel the cold in his bones. But the daylight was still strong enough to see clearly, certainly clearly enough to tell if someone at the door was male or female. Was Belbo's sight beginning to fail?

  Belbo is not the cleverest of slaves. What he lacks in brains he has always made up for with brawn. For a long time this hulking mass of bulging muscles and straw-colored hair has been my bodyguard, but in recent years his reflexes have grown noticeably slower. I had thought I might be able to start using him as a doorkeeper, reasoning that his long service at my side would enable him to recognize most of my visitors and that his size should intimidate those he didn't. Alas, if he couldn't even tell the difference between a man and a woman it would hardly do to have him answering the door.

  Belbo ceased to ponder the middle distance and cleared his throat. "Should I show them in, Master?"

  "Let me see if I understand you: two strangers of indeterminate sex, who refuse to give their names, have come to call on a man with a lifetime's worth of enemies, here in the most dangerous city in the world. Show them in, you ask? Why not?"

  My sarcasm was apparently too subtle. Belbo nodded and left the room before I could call him back.

  A moment later he returned with my visitors. I stood to greet them, and realized that Belbo's eyes were indeed still sharp, probably sharper than my own. Had I seen this couple across the street or walking through the Forum, I might have taken them to be exactly what they appeared to be, a rather small young man with delicate features, dressed in an ill-fitting toga and wearing a broad-brimmed hat (despite the less than sunny weather), and a much older, much larger woman wrapped in a stola that modestly covered her from head to toe. But on closer inspection, there was something amiss.

  I could see nothing of the young man's body, obscured as it was by the loose folds of his oversize toga, but his face was not quite right; there was no sign of a beard on his cheeks, and his soft, beautifully manicured hands moved with a delicacy that was not masculine. Also, instead of lying flat around his ears and the back of his neck, his hair appeared to have been pushed up under his hat, which meant it must be unusually long. The color of his hair was odd as well—dark at the roots, but turning blond where it was tucked up under the brim of his hat, which he declined to take off.

  As for the woman, a woollen mantle draped over her head obscured much of her face, but I could see that her cheeks had been painted, and not too expertly, with a rose-colored blush. The wrinkles of her neck hung down in folds considerably looser than the folds of the stola that strained to contain her bulk, especially around the middle. Her shoulders seemed a bit too broad and her hips too narrow. Nor did her hands seem quite right, for Roman matrons take pride in keeping their flesh as pale as possible, and hers were dark and weathered as if by many years of exposure to the sun, and while any woman vain enough to color her cheeks might be expected to take good care of her fingernails, those of my visitor were ragged and bitten down to the quick. The couple stood mute beside the brazier.

  "I understand that you've come to pay me a visit," I finally said.

  They merely nodded. The young man pursed his lips and peered at me, his face stiff. The old woman tilted her head so that the brazier lit up her eyes. Between lashes stained black with antimony I saw a flash of apprehension.

  I waved to Belbo, who fetched a pair of folding chairs and placed them opposite my own.

  "Sit," I offered. They did, demonstrating even more clearly that things were not what they seemed. The wearing of the toga is an art, as is the wearing of the stola, I imagine. From their manifest awkwardness it seemed highly unlikely that the little man had ever worn a toga before, or that his companion had ever worn a stola. Their clumsiness was almost comical.

  "Wine?" I offered.

  "Yes!" said the young man, sitting forward, his face suddenly ani-mated. His voice was high and somehow too delicate, like his hands. The old woman stiffened and whispered "No!" in a hoarse voice. She nervously fiddled with her fingers, then bit at her thumbnail.

  I shrugged. "For myself, I feel the need of something to stave off the chill in the air. Belbo, ask one of the serving girls to bring some water and wine. And something to eat, perhaps?" I looked inquiringly at my visitors.

  The young man brightened and nodded eagerly. The woman glow-ered and struck at his arm, making him wince. "Are you mad?" she whispered gruffly. I thought I detected a slight accent, and was trying to place it when I heard her stomach growl.

  "Yes, of course, exactly," the young man muttered. He too had an accent, faint but vaguely eastern. This was curious, for only Roman citizens wear the toga. "No food, please," he said.

  "How unfortunate," I said, "for we have some very good must-cakes left over from breakfast this morning, flavored with honey and pepper in the Egyptian style. My wife comes from Alexandria, you see. I spent some time there myself as a young man — oh, that must have been over thirty years ago. The Egyptians are famous for their soft breads, as I'm sure you know. My wife says it was a baker at the mouth of the Nile who discovered the secret of leavening and dedicated his first loaf to the great Alexander when he founded the city."

  The woman's mouth began to twitch. She pulled at her mantle to shade her eyes, but I could feel her gaze on me as hot as the flames of the brazier. The little man's face lost its animation and turned stiff again.

  Belbo returned with a small folding table which he set between us. A serving girl followed with three cups and two ewers, one of water and one of wine. The girl poured wine into each cup and then departed, leaving it to me to apportion the water. "For myself, in the cold months I take it almost straight," I said, leaning forward and adding only a splash of water to the nearest cup. "And you?" I looked at the young man. He held up his forefinger and pressed his thumb against the furthest joint. "A knuckle's worth of water," I said, pouring, then looked at his companion. "And will you join us after all?" She hesitated, then copied the little man's gesture. Again I noticed her bitten nails and the sun-weathered flesh of her hands.

  "You won't regret it," I said. "This comes from my private stock. I still have some jars of wine remaining from my brief tenure as a farmer up in Etruria a few years ago. It was a very good year—for the wine, anyway." I handed them each a cup. Before I could pick up my own, the woman quickly put hers down and reached for mine. "I changed my mind," she whispered hoarsely. "Less water will suit me. If you don't mind."

  "Of course not." I picked up the cup she had abandoned and held it before my lips, pretending to savor the bouquet. She watched me intently and put her cup beneath her fleshy nose, sniffing at it cautiously with no pretense of enjoyment, waiting for me to take a sip before she would do the same. It was an absurd moment, like a scene in some hackneyed comedy, except that had we been on a stage the audience would have hooted at us for playing our parts too broadly.

  At last I put the cup to my mouth and drank, letting the red wine linger on my lips for a moment before licking them clean, to show her I had swallowed. Only then did she sip cautiously from her cup. Her companion, having watched this interchange as if awaiting permission, put his cup to his lips and drained it. "Excellent!" he exclaimed, his voice slipping into a higher register. He cleared his throat. "Excellent," he said again in a voice that was deeper but still distinctly feminine.

  For a moment we sipped our wine in silence, listening to the crackling of the brazier. "You seem cautious about stating your purpose," I finally said. "Perhaps you could begin by telling me your names."

  The little man looked at the woman, who then turned away from the flames and hid her face in shadow. After a moment the little man looked back to me. "No names," he said softly. "Not yet."

  I nodded. "As you wish. What do names matter, anyway? Names are but a cloak, a garment which men put on and take off. A disguise, if you will. Don't you agree?"

  The little man looked at m
e with gleaming eyes—was he intrigued, or had he simply drained his cup too quickly? His companion kept her face in shadow, but again I felt the heat of her gaze. "A name is not the same as a thing," she finally whispered.

  I nodded. "So I was taught long ago—when I lived in Alexandria, as a matter of fact. And yet, without names, we have no way of discoursing with one another about the things those names represent."

  The woollen mantle nodded gravely up and down.

  "A thing is called one name in Greek, another in Latin," I said. "The thing remains the same. That which applies to things must also apply to persons. King Ptolemy of Egypt, for example, is King Ptolemy, whether we give him the Greek title basileus or the Latin title rex."

  The figure in the stola drew a sharp breath and seemed on the verge of speaking, but held back.

  "So it is with the gods themselves," I went on. "Romans call the father of the gods Jupiter; Greeks call him Zeus. 'Jupiter' is an onomatopoeia for the sound of lightning striking the earth, while 'Zeus' captures the sound of a thunderbolt cutting through the air. Thus do names convey to the ear what the eye and the soul of man perceive, however imperfectly."

  "Exactly!" whispered my visitor. The head tilted to reveal the eyes, which were fixed upon me with the excitement of a teacher who hears his pupil repeating back to him a lesson learned long ago but never forgotten.

  "Still, names are not things," I said, "and while the study of names may fascinate us, it is the study of things, or more precisely our human perception of things, which must occupy anyone who cares to discover philosophy. For example: I see the flame in this brazier, yet how do I know that it exists?"

  The little man, who had availed himself of more wine during my discourse, laughed out loud. "Simple — put your hand into the flame!"

  I clucked my tongue disapprovingly. "You must be of the Epicurean School, if you believe that by sense perception alone we can determine the actuality of existence. Epicurus taught that all sensations are true; still, the fact that I am burned by the fire should be no proof to you of its existence, since you would feel no pain."

  "Ah, but I would hear you scream."

  "Perhaps; but there are those who can endure such pain without screaming. If I didn't scream, would the fire be any more or less real? What if I did scream, and you happened to be deaf and looking elsewhere—would I still have been burned? Then again, if I were to scream, and if you were to hear me, you still would have no way of knowing whether my pain was real or a sham."