Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Antoinette May Read Free Book Online Page B

your father refusing Germanicus?"
    I couldn't, any more than I could imagine Mother refusing to accompany Father, yet the long journey, the close shipboard confinement with its unavoidable proximity to Agrippina, felt intolerable. Her defection was harder to bear than Livia's and Caligula's evil. As long as I could remember, Auntie had been there: bossy, generous, irritating, and lovable. How could I ever forgive her betrayal?
    Arrangements for the tour fell smoothly into place. Too smoothly. I overheard Tata comment to Mother: "Tiberius must have planned it months ago."
    So little time remained to spend with Marcella. Bittersweet hours, my sister's sparkle fading before my eyes. All Marcella's impetuous charm must, as a Vestal, be submerged. Though Vesta's priestesses are honored above all others, they are set apart and expected to exist chastely as the goddess herself. Sitting with my sister in the great temple's marble anteroom, it dawned on me that, though Vesta and her sacred flame provide the focus for the home, for the family, for Rome itself, there's no statue of her anywhere. Vesta is invisible .
    "There's so much to memorize," Marcella complained. "Vesta's divine lore can't be entrusted to writing; we learn it word by word. Rituals are hardest. One mistake and the whole ceremony must be repeated from the beginning. It will take ten years to learn it all."
    How brave she was to joke. I forced myself to laugh. "What are you really doing?"
    "I just told you," she said, a bit of the old flash in her eyes. "It is nothing to laugh about, I assure you."
    My heart ached for her. I'd struggled to put the best possible face on Marcella's new life. Vestals were highly respected, their box at circuses or theaters second only to the imperial ones. They were allowed visitors and could come and go as they pleased, never answering to men. I liked that. I'd admired her white gown, too--beautifully fashioned from the finest silk. Now I realized that the ethereal look was romantic only because it emphasized her remoteness. The enormity of it hit me once again: Marcella--mischievous, high-spirited Marcella--lost to us, lost to the world, imprisoned for a lifetime.
    "What follows?" I forced myself to ask.
    "Ten years of practicing those rituals."
    "And then?"
    "I get to teach the rituals to novices." Marcella smiled tremulously at my incredulity. "Yes, it's truly so. Thirty years of ritual." Her eyes brimmed with tears. "That isn't the worst."
    "What is?"
    "The Vestals are very kind..." Marcella began to sob. "But it's all such a...woman's world."

     

    O NCE ON SHIPBOARD, MY PARENTS AND A GRIPPINA SETTLED INTO accustomed routines that shocked me. Father was polite and deferential as always, Mother appeared to resent her no more nor less than she ever had. Though overt disrespect was unthinkable, I politely ignored Agrippina's attempts to slip back into the old familiarity and avoided her as much as possible.
    The rhythmic pounding of the ship's drums awed me at first. Soon I scarcely noticed. Only at night in my bunk was I aware of the steady cadence that kept the slaves rowing. Reflecting on the eight hundred men who manned the ship's oars in continuous shifts, I saw similarities between their lot and my own. No overseer lashed my shoulders, but was I any less a slave? Rome was master of all our fates.
    Germanicus's command ship, a massive quinquereme, sailed at the center of an honor guard, six triremes, purple sails stretched across four masts of Lebanese cedar. Galley slaves praised Neptune for the stiff breeze that eased their labors.
    I continued my studies, sharing the same pedagogue with Julia and Druscilla. We all missed Marcella. Bright, though not a scholar, she had livened many tedious hours with her quips. Nero and Drusus, too, were absent, junior officers serving their first tours of duty, Nero in Carthage, Drusus in Spain. My consolation was that Caligula no longer studied with us. At Germanicus's suggestion, the ship's