The Magic Circle Katherine Neville (top 100 novels of all time TXT) đ
- Author: Katherine Neville
Book online «The Magic Circle Katherine Neville (top 100 novels of all time TXT) đ». Author Katherine Neville
âGood heaven!â he chortled. âNo, no, I hadnât guessed such a thing at allâand what a surprise! Indeed, how could I have guessed? I mean, youâve said âmy sister,â but in fact you have three of them, and each one lovelier than the next!â
âEveryone in the family is right about you, Uncle Claudius,â said Caligula coldly. âYou are a complete fool. Now Iâm rather sorry Iâve made you my first co-consul, to rule the state with me. Though Iâve always liked you better than anyone in the family, I really might have chosen someone more astute.â
âNow, now, that appointment can always be changed at any timeâthough of course Iâm pleased and overjoyed at the honor,â said Claudius hastily, wondering what on earth to do. He waited, praying for divine guidance, until at last his nephew spoke.
âIâm not talking about my sister!â Caligula hissed under his breath, though the guards posted around the field werenât even within shouting distance to overhear them. âDonât you understand? I was speaking of the goddess.â
âAhâthe goddess,â said Claudius, trying hard not to avoid Caligulaâs gaze, though his dark eyes were burning into him like awful coals.
âThe goddess!â Caligula screamed. His hands were balled into fists in fury. His face had resumed its blackened color. âDonât you understand? I canât make a mere mortal my empress! Mortal brothers and sisters cannot marry! But gods always marry their sistersâitâs always doneâthatâs how they do it! Thatâs how we know that theyâre really gods, you see: because they all fuck their sisters!â
âOf course,â said Claudius, tapping his head as if heâd just had a revelation. âBut you didnât say it was the goddess, thatâs why I was confused. Your sister the goddess. Of course. So youâre speaking ofâDrusilla!â he finished, praying wildly to all the real goddesses he could possibly think of that this was the right answer.
Caligula smiled.
âUncle Claudius,â he said, âyouâre a fox. You knew all along, but were just pretending in order to make me have to tell you. Now, let me share with you all my ideas on what I think we should do to save the empire.â
Caligulaâs ideas on how to save the empire were astounding even to Claudius, whose predilection for expensive women and lavish, drunken banquets was well known. In the one hour they spent touring the Augustan mausoleum and temple together, discussing how the structure might be completed, Claudius quickly calculated what such ideas must represent in terms of cost.
Caligula had already bestowed rare jewels upon the comedian Mnester and many of his other favorites. And when Herod Agrippa, brother-in-law of the Galilean tetrarch Herod Antipas, was released from the prison where heâd languished by order of Tiberius these past six months, Caligula had made a public display of replacing the iron chains heâd worn in prison with gold ones of equal weight. If only a small portion of his other projects went forward as planned, Claudius calculated, it would consume all of Tiberiusâs private fortuneâa legacy of twenty-seven million gold piecesâand would substantially deplete the state treasury as well.
âHere at Rome, Iâll complete the Augustan temple and the theater of Pompey,â the young emperor said, ticking it all off on his fingers. âIâll expand the imperial palace across Capitoline Hill, connect it with the temple of Castor and Pollux, add an aqueduct for the gardens, and create a new amphitheater for Mnester to perform in. At Syracuse Iâll rebuild all the ruined temples. Iâll dig a canal through the isthmus to Greece, restore the palace of Polycrates on the isle of Samos, bring back the statue of Olympian Jupiter to Rome where it belongsâand I also plan to create a new temple to Didymaean Apollo at Ephesus, the design and construction of which I shall personally supervise myself.âŠâ
It went on this way the whole of the morning until they reached the palace. It was only then, once they were within Caligulaâs private apartments, that Claudius was able to ask a question that had been nagging his mind all morning.
âWhat a paragon of altruism youâve proven to be to the Roman people, my dear Gaius!â he told his nephew, who had seated himself on a bejeweled throne atop a small flight of steps that placed him several feet above his uncle, so Claudius had to strain to be heard. âThey will surely be gratified for their love and the faith theyâve placed in you. And you say youâve even arranged to resume the bread and circuses, as resplendently as in the days before Tiberius put a halt to all such things! But the role of tax collector hardly seems your style. Therefore, itâs clear youâve hatched some clever way to replenish your coffers?â
âYouâd speak to a god about grubbing after money?â Caligula replied disdainfully.
Taking up the golden Thunderbolt of Jove he liked to carry about at public affairs of state, he meditatively began cleaning his fingernails with its tip.
âVery well, since youâre my co-consul, I suppose I should tell you,â Caligula said, looking down at Claudius from his golden perch. âYou recall Publius Vitellius, the aide-de-camp to my father Germanicus? He was there when Father died, at only age thirty-three, on his last campaign in Syria.â
âI knew Publius very well,â said Claudius. âHe was my brotherâs most trusted ally, even in death. You were only a child at the time, so perhaps you donât know it was he who brought Pisoâan agent and friend of Tiberiusâto trial on charges of poisoning your father. Tiberius too might have been charged in the murder, if he hadnât burned Pisoâs secret instructions when they were presented before him. But Tiberius had a long memory for such betrayals, and did not soon forget the Vitellii. Publius was later arrested and accused of being a member of the Sejanus conspiracy. He tried to slash his wrists, then fell ill and died in prison. Later his brother Quintus, the senator, was publicly degraded in one of
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