Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor Read Free Book Online Page B

money, they run to him with their palms up.
    "Cicero also dredged up old charges of corruption from the days when Catilina was an administrator in Africa. A few years ago Catilina was tried on those particular charges—and Cicero himself considered defending him! Catilina was found innocent, for what it's worth. Lodging such criminal charges is just another tool that Roman politicians use to embarrass a rival and disqualify him from running for office. Both the charge and the verdict are purely political; any link to truth or justice is purely coincidental.
    "Then there were the more serious accusations and innuendoes—
    rumors of sexual scandal, incest, murder . . . but perhaps all this talk of politics is beginning to bore you."
    "Not at all!" Meto's wide eyes showed I had his full attention.
    I cleared my throat. "Very well. They say that back in the terrible days of Sulla the dictator, Catilina served as one of his henchmen, killing Sulla's enemies and bringing in their heads for the bounty. They say he got away with murdering his own brother-in-law that way; Catilina's sister wanted the man killed and Catilina did it in cold blood, then made it legal by listing the man as one of Sulla's enemies."
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    "Is it true?"
    I shrugged. "Men did terrible things in Sulla's time. Crassus made himself rich by buying up murdered men's estates. When murder is made legal, you see the true capacity of men for wickedness. Perhaps the story about Catilina is true, perhaps not. He was brought to trial for one instance of murder, twenty years after the fact, and found innocent. Who knows? But these were only the first of his alleged murders.
    "A few years ago, when he came back from Africa, Catilina took a new wife. They say the woman refused to wed Catilina if there was already an heir in his house, so he murdered his son. As for the young bride, she happens to be the daughter of one of Catilina's former mistresses—there are even those who say she's Catilina's daughter!"
    "Incest!" whispered Meto.
    "Cicero himself never said that word aloud, he only made the innuendo. And that is only the beginning of the list of Catilina's alleged sexual crimes. They claim he corrupted one of the Vestal Virgins in a great scandal ten years ago; about that I happen to know a little, because I was summoned to investigate the matter in secret. It's the only time I've ever had personal dealings with Catilina, and I found him a puzzlement—utterly charming and utterly suspicious. Cicero likes to remind his listeners of the scandal, but only to a point, since his wife's sister was the Vestal accused of fornicating with Catilina! Oh, in some ways Rome is quite a small town."
    "And did they? Catilina and the Vestal?" Meto was positively glowing with interest.
    "That I don't know, though I have my suspicions. I'll tell you the full story some other time. At any rate, both Catilina and the Vestal won acquittal—which, as I told you, has little to do with guilt or innocence."
    "It sounds as if Catilina has spent most of his career defending himself in court, or else murdering people!"
    "And the rest of the time he fornicates, if you believe the stories.
    His circle in Rome is said to be utterly dissolute; he charms the bright young men of Rome by pimping for them, and charms rich, aging matrons by guiding the same young men into their bedrooms; they say he occasionally takes the best-looking of the young men and the richest of the matrons for himself. Certainly a contrast to Cicero! Say, do you want to hear a joke about Cicero that was going around during the campaign?"
    "Yes."
    "Keep in mind this probably came from Catilina. You have to know that Cicero has a daughter who's thirteen, Tullia, and a son who's barely two, Marcus. Well, they say that Cicero hates sex so much that he's tried it only twice in his life. Tullia came of the first time, but he hated it as much as he thought he would. Eleven years later his wife nagged
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    him into trying it