The Inquest by Stephen Dando-Collins Read Free Book Online Page A

to keep them moist, and virgin scrolls of parchment in protective leather cases—the raw material of the questor’s ultimate report. Several carts were devoted to the questor’s personal needs, his tent, furniture, armor and clothing, and his silver dining plate.
    Between the baggage train and the rearguard of another ten Vettonian cavalrymen walked the thirty male slaves serving the expedition. Some of these men had official duties. One group of three had the sole responsibility of the care and operation of the expedition’s water clock by night and sundial by day. Most of the others were the personal slaves of the officers and freedman officials. Varro had instructed his subordinates to keep their staff numbers down, for efficiency’s sake, but none had brought less than two slaves. Diolces the physician had brought five, including three medical orderlies. Martius had three: an armor-bearer, a handservant, and a cook. Young Venerius had a similar number. As for Varro himself, apart from Paris his freedman cook, he had brought along just two slaves, Timeus his baker, and Hostilis, a Briton, who, because he was the questor’s chief slave, acted as supervisor of the entire slave party.
    Before dawn that morning, prior to leaving Antioch, Varro had gone to the city’s Temple of Mars. There, the augurs of the temple had performed the lustratio ceremony, purifying the 4th Scythica vexillum with perfumes and attaching sacred ribbons representing garlands of flowers to bring protection and good fortune to the unit on its mission. Varro had then presided over the obligatory ritual animal sacrifice before he set out on the expedition. The entrails of the sacrificial goat had been found to be clear, and the augurs had pronounced that the omens for the questor’s mission were fortuitous. The chief augur had then walked outside with Varro. Pointing to the cloudless early morning sky with its carpet of twinkling stars, the augur had proclaimed that the clear sky also boded well for Varro’s endeavor.
    Riding the highway now, deep in contemplation of the augur’s words, the pragmatic Varro told himself that while the god of war may have been on his side success on this expedition would also depend on the flesh and blood people in his party. He knew from experience that Callidus was utterly dependable, as was Artimedes his faithful Greek secretary. As for Pedius, he had known his lictor for only a matter of months, but he felt sure that the officious former centurion would not let him down.
    Pythagoras was pompous, but he excelled as a secretary, and Varro knew he would be loyal to General Collega’s purpose in all this. Knowing that Pythagoras would be sending reports back to Collega with Varro’s official dispatches, about the expedition and the way that Varro was handling it, Varro would be careful not to allow the secretary entry into his innermost thoughts. As for the military men, Martius would be a solid deputy, and Crispus would do his best to please.
    Heading the other side of the ledger was Antiochus. The previous year, to obtain his appointment as magistrate of the Jewish community of Antioch, the man had sworn off Judaism and informed on his father, the incumbent holder of the post of Jewish magistrate, telling General Collega that Antiochus senior and other Jewish elders had been planning to put the capital of Syria to the torch in revenge for Rome’s suppression of the Jewish Revolt to the south. Believing the son’s accusation, Collega had executed Antiochus’ father and other leading Jews of Antioch, incinerating them in the amphitheater. The affair had given Antiochus his position of power, and had given the now deceased merchants Priscus and Plancus their incendiary inspiration for the subsequent Fire of Antioch, which they had hoped would be blamed on the Jews. Varro himself had never run foul of Antiochus, but the man’s duplicitous past and the fact that Governor Collega did not trust Antiochus