Gates of Rome

CHAPTER 56

AD 54, Imperial Palace, Rome

Cato unrolled a map of the city across a table in the palace gardens, and weighted the corners down with several stones.

‘Gather round, gentlemen,’ he said to the assembled officers, the centurions and optiones of the first cohort. His men. Some of them roused from their cots only minutes ago were still bleary-eyed as they fiddled with the straps and buckles of their armour.

They pressed forward around the table as their tribune began to brief them quickly.

‘I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that the rest of the Guard will be mustering outside the Castra Praetoria at first light.’

‘What’s happened, sir?’

Cato looked up at a bull-necked centurion with a flattened boxer’s nose and a fuzz of blond hair clipped short almost to the scalp.

‘It seems the general in charge of the Tenth and Eleventh has decided he’s had enough of our emperor, Rufus. The Guard will be marching out to meet them.’

‘Bit sudden, isn’t it, sir? I thought Lepidus was the emperor’s man.’

Cato shrugged. ‘You know what it’s like with these equites… they all think they’re entitled to the job one way or the other. Anyway, to the point. Our cohort is being left behind to guard the city. When everyone wakes up tomorrow morning and hears of this… and they discover the majority of the Guard have packed up and gone, we’re going to have riots in every district. A complete breakdown of order. So, it’s going to be down to us to protect the city’s infrastructure where we can.’

Cato leaned across the map. ‘Starting with you, Rufus, I want your second century deployed over here in Campus Martius to protect the temple buildings. You as well, Lectus, your century over here guarding the Stratum. Sulla, Marcellus, I want your men protecting the aqueduct here and here. The rest of you, I’ll be assigning perimeter positions in the Palatinus District to protect the government buildings.’ He turned to Fronto. ‘And your men, Fronto, will provide security for the palace itself.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Rufus cocked his head. ‘Just one century to protect the emperor?’

Cato looked at him. Rufus was like most of the men in the Guard: tough, but certainly not stupid. ‘The emperor has his personal bodyguards.’

‘The Stone Men,’ uttered one of the optiones.

Cato disliked the term. It implied a supernatural quality about them. Now he knew they were just muscle-and-bone devices made by men from a more advanced time, the name smacked of superstition.

‘He will be quite safe as long as he stays in the palace,’ Cato assured them. He nodded at Fronto. ‘Won’t he?’

‘Yes, sir. Perfectly safe, sir.’

Just then they heard a raised voice booming out across the flame-lit palace gardens. ‘What the hell is going on here?!’

The officers all turned to see their praefectus, Quintus, striding towards them. He easily identified Cato’s tall outline among the knot of men. ‘Tribune! Who in the name of Jupiter took my authority and ordered the Guard to — ’

‘The emperor himself, sir!’

‘What?’ Quintus stopped in his tracks. ‘ Caligula? But… only I have the authority… to…’

‘Quintus!’ Caligula’s voice cut across the darkness. He emerged into the night, flanked by two of his Stone Men. The prefect’s face paled. Nobody but a stupid fool bellowed the emperor’s nickname across the palace grounds.

‘Caesar, I…’

Caligula waved at him to be silent. ‘I exercised my prerogative as emperor to mobilize them, since you were nowhere to be found!’

‘But, sire.’ Quintus swallowed nervously. ‘There… there is a protocol that should — ’

‘More precisely, my prerogative as God-in-waiting,’ added Caligula. He smiled. ‘Say another word, Quintus, and I’ll have your tongue removed from your mouth.’

His cool glare left Quintus staring down at the ground like a chastened schoolboy.

‘Now then, where’s that Tribune Cato? Ahhh, there you are!’

‘Caesar?’

‘I have decided that I shall in fact be leading the Guard.’

‘What?!’ He almost forgot himself. ‘What’s that, sire?’

‘Yes, I think it’s fitting that I come along. The men should be led by me and, of course, my Stone Men. It will truly inspire them.’

Cato glanced quickly across heads at the only other conspirator present: Fronto. ‘But, sire, it would be much wiser for you to stay in the palace. The people need to see you right here in Rome. They need to see that Lepidus’s… foolishness… is nothing that you’re particularly worried about!’

‘Oh, I’m not worried.’ Caligula chuckled happily. ‘In fact, I’m actually looking forward to having a splendid big battle! It’s been too long.’ He sniffed the evening air as if there was a faint scent that only he could detect. ‘One last battle before I ascend to the heavens. How marvellous!’

He turned to one of his Stone Men standing behind him, holding his armour. ‘And I really wouldn’t want to miss seeing that fat, treacherous fool Lepidus grovelling at my feet.’

Cato struggled to keep his voice even. ‘Sire! Please… it will be dangerous — ’

‘Dangerous! Oh, hardly!’ said Caligula, lifting his arms up as one of the Stone Men helped him into his bronze cuirass. ‘This is what the people need to see… what they need to realize; that I’m not just a god, but also a warrior, a great general.’

Cato clenched his teeth with frustration. The whole plan, for what it was, had relied on the certainty that Caligula would choose to remain in the comfort and apparent safety of his palace.

‘Tribune,’ said the emperor, ‘you just make sure everyone behaves themselves while I’m away. I really don’t want to come back to a messy city.’ Caligula let the Stone Man finish tightening the straps at his side then turned to the prefect. ‘Come along, Quintus! Don’t stand around like an old woman! You better go and get your armour on too. We shall be moving out from the Castra Praetoria at first light.’

He turned to Cato and winked at him. ‘I shall leave you three of my bodyguards to help guard the palace. I’m trusting you with my home, Tribune. Do try and keep it nice and tidy.’ He turned back to Quintus and slapped his shoulder impatiently. ‘Off you go, man!’

Cato watched Quintus turn and leave, and Caligula leading his bodyguards towards the imperial stables. He watched until the night swallowed them up then turned to his assembled officers.

‘All right, then, gentlemen, you all have your orders! Dismissed!’

The officers saluted and then turned to gather their men. Fronto dismissed his own optio to go and organize the first century. Both men stood silently until they were entirely alone and out of earshot.

Cato cursed.

‘Our plan is already broken so it seems,’ said Fronto.

Cato nodded. The plan had rested on an assumption that Caligula would remain, and hopefully send out most of his Stone Men along with the Guard. Now he’d chosen to go, it was a battle that would probably go Caligula’s way and embolden the madman even more.

‘Unless Lepidus manages to be victorious. Do you think that likely?’

Cato shook his head. The Praetorians with those Stone Men in the vanguard were probably more than a match for Lepidus’s men. ‘All we have managed to achieve with this, Fronto, is to organize a few days’ worth of blood sport for Caligula. That’s all.’

He wondered whether there had been a moment during the last few hours when he could have reached for his sword and dealt the death blow. Certainly he would have been dead within seconds of the emperor. The Stone Men were quick and lethal. Quite probably it would have resulted in an unsuccessful lunge for Caligula, and him being wrestled to the floor and executed then and there.

Truth was, on his return Caligula was probably going to find out one way or another that Crassus had met with fellow conspirators. Cicero and Paulus were two men the emperor would probably have at the top of his list of people he’d like to have a little chat with, for sure. And how long before either of those old men let slip his name?

‘If he wins, Fronto… if he’s victorious and returns, then I shall make a try for him.’ He looked at his First Centurion. ‘Our names will come up soon enough once he gets back.’

‘We will be dead men, then,’ said Fronto.

‘Indeed.’