Rome's Lost Son(44)

‘It is a conundrum, proconsul.’

‘One which you helped to create.’ Vespasian looked at her pointedly. ‘Time to really press to prove your loyalty to Rome, I think. Persuade your nephew to step down.’

‘You’ll have to kill him because he won’t relinquish the throne now.’

The suggestion came as no surprise to Vespasian. ‘And will you help me do it?’

‘What would I gain by it?’

‘You would regain Rome’s trust.’

Tryphaena pointed to Sabinus still deep in conversation with the worthy. ‘I have just sold out at least a dozen of my former countrymen to do that. What would I really gain by helping you kill my nephew? Claudius will soon be dead, as you’ve worked out; my kinswoman Agrippina will see to that for the good of Rome before he completely loses our family’s power to his freedmen. In his place will be our golden boy Nero, and my Roman family will once again be back in control. So I will retain Rome’s favour and the favour of my brother in Pontus, my brother-in-law in Iberia and my nephew in Armenia; I am surrounded by friends.’ She indicated again to an enthusiastic-looking Sabinus. ‘What is more, the Governor of Thracia is now very well disposed towards me, and the new Governor of Asia, as you know, is my old friend Corbulo. So I ask you again: what would I gain?’

‘So you do want war with Parthia?’

‘Of course, proconsul; as you have already guessed – quietly and in private, but for many of the wrong reasons – that’s what this is all about. I may not be a queen any more, Vespasian, but the blood of the royal houses of the East and the Emperors of the West still flows in my veins. I would have neither of those great houses return to the level of the rural poor, as you so astutely observed.’

It was as if curtains before Vespasian’s eyes were drawn back and he suddenly saw Tryphaena for what she really was: another Antonia. But she was not fighting for one family’s survival in power, but two. ‘It’s you who is behind this, not Agrippina. You knew of the Parthian embassy and you timed your nephew’s invasion of Armenia to make it look as if they had instigated it in order to get a Roman embassy sent there; you wanted Parthia provoked. You know Corbulo, you had him recalled and given Asia so you could have Rome’s best general awaiting in the region because you couldn’t afford to have Rome lose the war that would secure both your families. If Rome beats Parthia in Armenia you gain even more than Agrippina.’

Tryphaena tutted with disappointment. ‘I always had high hopes for you, Vespasian; you’re close but you’ve missed one vital point. I knew that you had a keen mind and Antonia mentioned a few times in her letters just how impressed she was with your development; she evidently was being a little too generous. However, you did work out who my agent was when I carelessly as much as admitted that he was still with you; but you tried to take care not to let me know by changing the subject. Do you know which one?’

‘By a process of deduction, if it is one of my lictors – and how else would my words travel as fast as me? – then it has to be the only one that could disappear for half an hour without the permission of the senior lictor so that he could brief you upon our arrival before you came up here. Therefore it has to be the senior one himself and that would be confirmed by the fact that I saw him lurking outside the triclinium door the other night when it was opened suddenly and I had been talking quietly and in private.’

‘Very good. Will you keep him? As a favour to me, that is.’

‘So that he can spy on me?’

‘No, so that he can keep you alive.’

‘That’s what lictors are meant to do, amongst other things.’

‘Yes, but he will keep you alive for my sake because I chose him specifically to look after you.’

‘How? I only knew that I was coming East three days before I left; you had no time to get that news here and then fiddle with the lictor appointments.’

‘I’d already done it.’

‘So you’d already decided who would lead our embassy?’ Vespasian did not need an answer; now he truly understood and his eyes widened. ‘Your agent knew of the Parthian embassy because he was with it when it arrived in Tyras; he was with it because …’ Vespasian paused in admiration.

‘Go on; say it.’

‘He was with it because it didn’t come from Parthia, it came from here.’ Vespasian’s eyes widened as Tryphaena did nothing to deny his assertion. ‘It was false. You set it up to seem as if the Parthians had negotiated with the northern tribes and had your agent tell Sabinus who, naturally, believed him; and then you made sure that his failure to capture it was brought to the notice of the people who count in Rome. Meanwhile, the fake embassy returned here and you paid a trierarchus heading back to Rome to give Agarpetus information that implied that the embassy had travelled via Iberia; this was enough for Narcissus’ spy-master to bring the matter to his master’s notice. You timed the Iberian attack on Armenia at the same moment as the embassy would have been in that country to make the whole thing look as if it were a Parthian plot. Finally, you made sure that Narcissus suspected his enemy, the Empress, of treason by having Agarpetus intercept a false message purporting to be from one of her agents that implied that Agrippina knew of the embassy and was trying to keep it a secret from you. Pallas was right: he had been purposely kept in the dark while Narcissus was purposely enlightened. You also rightly concluded that Narcissus would think that he had an ally in me because Agrippina hated me and would use any excuse to block me. He also guessed that my brother might have known more than he had let on so therefore my uncle and I would be the best people to talk to him. But most of all you knew that a consul, newly stepped down, is the most obvious candidate to lead an embassy to Armenia if the grandeur of Rome is to be taken seriously and Pallas, who would make the final choice, would see me as his ally in a delicate matter. You are why I’m here.’