Venus in Pearls(8)

Caesar frowned. "I thought the head would be complete, as if it were merely shaved."

"Thyrsites tells me that this way the casting is greatly simplified." I went to the windlass and unwound some rope tipped with a hook. Then I climbed the ladder again, passed hook and rope over the pulley, and lowered it into the goddess's head. "And now, Caesar, if you will give that windlass a few turns?"

He set the thing into creaking motion, and slowly something that resembled a gleaming white cable emerged. When the hook reached the pulley, I tugged the remainder out and spread the hem of the garment over the bronze head and shoulders. Caesar lowered the hook and within moments the goddess was wearing her pearly mantle once more. I restored her wig and stood back to get the full effect. Truly glorious.

"You see how quickly that went?" I said. "With a windlass and pulley, even a weighty object like the aegis can be moved swiftly using only the strength of a child. Of course Chloe was careful to act as if she were ignorant of basic mechanics. She summoned some of your soldiers to assist her in lifting the mantle. Spread the suspicion that way, too."

"She is a clever girl. But I take it she did not plan this on her own?"

"No, she was put up to it by a man who knows his business and has the wherewithal to reward her. Your women really love their pearls, Caesar. Shall we go arrest him now?"

"No, plenty of time in the morning." He clapped me on the shoulder. "Come, Decius, let's have dinner. But," he said ominously, "this will not be among the subjects of dinner conversation." Meaning I was never to speak of this, ever.

The next morning we paid a visit to the manufactory of Considius in the Trans-Tiber district. We dispensed with the polite formalities, and Caesar's lictors bashed the door in with their fasces. In the courtyard we found a number of slaves or free craftsmen assembling another aegis apparently identical to the original. We also found Considius, his face gone paler than his pearls.

Caesar surveyed the scene. "As you said, Decius. Congratulations." His tone was almost jovial, a dangerous sign. "A pity you are a citizen, Considius. Citizens can't be crucified. Lucky you."

"But how—" Considius began.

"Chloe let it slip that thirty thousand pearls required something like two hundred eighty yards of fine gold chain. Demaratus told me you ordered a bit more than five hundred sixty yards. Why would you need twice the required chain unless you were making two mantles? You conspired with Chloe to make the original disappear. You knew that Caesar had sworn to have the goddess draped with that mantle in time for his triumph, so he would have to come to you for another. Not bad. Another thirty thousand pearls sold and a generous bonus for a quick job. As a Julian and a priestess of Venus, Chloe could get you access to the new temple at any time so you could retrieve the original, unstring the pearls, and sell them as hundreds of necklaces, earrings, and so on. Pure profit for you, and a nice cut for Chloe, I imagine."

"Considius," Caesar said quietly, "would you like to continue breathing?"

'Very much so, Dictator," the man said.

"Then you will be happy to know that you are donating this splendid new mantle to Pompey's temple of Venus. You will retire to some remote town and hope that I never take an interest in you again. If you had to borrow to purchase all these pearls, I hope you can come to a satisfactory arrangement with your creditors. If word of this matter ever comes out, I will know who talked, and this empire is mine. I will find you."

"As you wish, Caesar." Big drops of sweat poured down his face like a shower of his own pearls.

"A nice gesture," I said to Caesar as we walked back to the Campus Martius. "A mantle for Pompey's temple, I mean. It will go a long way to reconciling you with the old Pompeians."

"He was my son-in-law and my friend. I never would have harmed him. It was young Ptolemy who cut his head off, and for that I killed him. I've never touched his statues or his inscriptions, nor have I torn down his trophies as was done to Marius."

"And now his Venus will have an aegis as fine as yours."

"Not quite," he said. "After all, mine is made of Britannic river pearls, while the other is made of common eastern sea pearls."

"And what will you do to Chloe?"

"Send her to Arpinum and marry her off to some dull clod without political ambition. As I have said before, the women of my household must be above suspicion."

"It used to be just your wife."

"Times change, Decius." And so they did.

These were the events of two days in the year 708 of the City of Rome, during the third Dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar.