Domitia by S. Baring-Gould
CHAPTER XIII.
TO ROME!
"Plancus, come hither!"
The lady Longa Duilia was in an easy-chair, and a slave-girl, Lucilla, wasengaged in driving away the flies that, perhaps attracted by hercosmetics, came towards the lady.
Summer was over, and winter storms were beginning to bluster, and theflies were dull with cold and only maintained alive by the warmth of thechambers, heated by underground stoves, and with pipes to convey the hotair carried through every wall.
"Plancus, did you hear me speak?"
"I am here, my lady, at your service."
"Really; you have become torpid like the flies. Has the chill made youdeaf as well as sluggish?"
"My lady, I can always hear when you speak."
"Do you mean to imply that I shout like a fishwife?"
"I mean not that. But when a harp is played, it sets every thread in everyother stringed instrument a-chiming; and so is it with me."
"The simile is wiredrawn. What I want you for is--no, I will have nostroking of your face like a cat!--is to go to Rome and see that the palaceis made ready to receive us. The stoves must be well heated, andeverything properly aired, The country at best of times is tedious; inwinter, intolerable. Besides, I have no right to remain here buried. Imust consider--Plancus, why are you scratching? I must consider mydaughter. She is in a fit of the blues, and has nothing to say to amuseme. You need not blow like a sea-horse, breathe more evenly andequably;--Plancus, you are becoming unendurable. I must not consider mybereaved feelings, but her welfare, her health. The air or the situationof Gabii does not suit her. Rome is an extraordinarily healthy place inwinter. I myself am never better anywhere than I am there. I was prettywell at Antioch; there were military there, and I find the soil andclimate salubrious where there are military. Plancus?--as the Gods love me,you have been in the stables. I know it by infallible proofs. Stand at adistance, I insist. And, Plancus! you are not showing off conjuringtricks, that you should fold and unfold your hands. You go to Rome andtake such of the family with you as are necessary. I am not going to bemewed up here any longer, because my two years of widowhood are not over.You are making faces at me, positively you are, Plancus. Do, I entreatyou, look as if you were not a mountebank mouthing at a crowd."
"I fly, mistress, as though winged at heel like Mercury."
"Much more like Mercury's tortoise. Send me Claudius Senecio. I must knowwhat ails Domitia. She has the vapors."
"I obey," said Plancus,
"Am I much worn, Lucilla?" asked the lady, as soon as her steward hadwithdrawn. "The laceration of the heart tells on a sensitive nature, andprecipitates wrinkles and so on."
"Madam, you bloom as in a second spring."
"A second spring, Lucilla!" exclaimed Longa, sitting bolt upright. "Youhussy, how dare you? A second spring, indeed! Why, by the zone of Venus, Iam not through my first summer yet."
"You misconceive me, dear lady. When a virgin has been wedded, then comeon her the cares of matronhood, the caprices, the ill-humors of herhusband--and to some, not without cause, the vexation of his jealousy. Butwhen the Gods have removed him, it sometimes happens that the ravagescaused by the annoyances of marriage disappear, and she reverts to thefreshness and loveliness of her virginity."
"There is something in what you say; of course it is true only of highlyprivileged natures, in which is some divine blood. A storm ruffles thesurface of the lake. When the storm is past, the lake resumes itsplacidity and beauty--exactly as it was before. I have noted it a thousandtimes. Yes, of course it is so. Here comes Senecio; he waddles just likethe Hindu nurse I saw at Antioch, laboring about with two fat babies."
The Philosopher approached.
"I will trouble you to come in front of me," said the widow. "Have youeaten so heavy a meal as to shrink from so much unnecessary exertion? Icannot talk with my neck twisted. The windpipe is not naturallyconstructed like a thread in a rope. I am returning to Rome."
"To Rome, madam! I do not advise that. The place is in commotion. Therehave been sad scenes of riot and pillage in the capital."
"As the Gods love me! what care I so long as they do not invade the housein the Carinae?"
"But there have been also massacres."
"Well, when princes shift about, that is inevitable. They all do it. Formy part, I rather like--that is, I don't object to massacres in theirproper places and confined to the proper persons."
"Madam, you are secure where you are. Why, there was Galba,--he had notbeen in Rome seven months before he was killed, and he did not enter thecity save over the bodies of seven thousand men, butchered on theFlaminian Way."
"Well! I am not a man. Moreover, I thank the Gods, my house is not on theFlaminian Way, nor is it in the Velabrum, nor the Suburra, nor in theForum Boarium either. We happen to live in the Carinae, and I conceive thatthere have been no massacres and all that sort of thing there."
"No, my dear lady, but when the entire city is disturbed----"
"And here, in Gabii, down to the lizards--dead asleep. Give me massacresrather than stagnation. I shall get back to Rome before the Ides ofDecember, on account of my daughter's health. By the way, will you believeit? She gave away the sword of my dear Corbulo to Lucius Lamia. Justconceive!--how effective that sword would be in my house--in the tablinum,the atrium, anywhere--and how I could point to it, and my feelings!--I canimagine nothing more striking. I have told Lamia to restore it. I wouldnot lose it for a great deal. Well now, come. Any news from the capital?"
"Madam, you are aware that Galba fell, and that Otho threw himself on hissword after a reign of ninety days; and now the new Caesar Vitellius ismenaced. I hear that the East has risen, and that Vespasian has beenproclaimed in Syria. The legions in Illyria have also declared for him andare marching into Italy. Egypt has pronounced against Vitellius, and it isbut seven months since Otho died by his own hand."
"Vespasian, did you say?" exclaimed the lady. "My good Senecio, he is asort of cousin, a country cousin, just one of those cousins that can becultivated into kinship, or dropped out of relationship as circumstancesdecide. His father was a pottering sort of a man, an auctioneer, andcommissioner of drains and dirt and all that sort of thing. A worthyfellow, I dare say; I believe he had a statue erected to him somewherebecause he did the scavengering so well. He married above his position,one Vespasia Polla; I have seen and heard of her, a round-faced woman likea pudding; he took her for her blood, but she was only a knight'sdaughter; and those city knights, as the Gods love me! what amoney-grubbing low set they are! His son, Flavius Vespasianus isproclaimed! It is really funny. It is, O Morals! I must laugh. Now, if mygood man had but listened to me. But there, I shall become mad.--I don'tknow how long it is since you have been pecking, or whether you eat allday long? But you have crumbs sticking in your beard. Another time be goodenough to comb your beard before approaching me. Tell me, what has givenDomitia the dumps?"
"I believe, madam, she has been frightened by that unscrupulous impostor,Elymas, or Ascleparion, or whatever he is called. I do not knowparticulars, but believe that he pretended to show her the future."
"The future! Delicious! And what did she see?"
"That I cannot say, but she has looked wan ever since, neither smiles norspeaks, but sits, when the sun shines, on the balustrade above the water,looking into it, as in a dream. I hear that she holds converse with none,save her maid, Euphrosyne."
"I wonder what she has seen! Anything concerning me?"
"Madam, that braggart and intriguer is made up of lies. He has frightenedher with pretended predictions. If I might advise, I would counsel hisexpulsion from the house."
"I should like to hear what are the chances for Flavius Vespasian. I thinkI shall inquire myself. I knew Vespasian once, of course he is vastly mysenior. If he be successful, he may get a proconsulship for our Lamia. He!Flavius Vespasian a Caesar! There is push for you! As the Gods love me,there is nothing like push.