Page 38 of Agrippa

He was not yet twenty-seven.

XIII

Following the victory in Sicily, in November Caesar and I returned to Rome together.

The Senate had awarded him an ovation, and he entered the city to applause from the entire population – the man who had finally cleared the seas of pirates! He allowed me to ride behind him. After processing in triumph to the Capitoline Hill, he sacrificed to Jupiter. A naked statue of him, heroically endowed, was raised high on a column in the forum.

I did not begrudge him his day of glory. He was graciously generous to me. He created a unique military decoration, a golden wreath called the naval crown, that I was permitted to wear on special occasions. A silver coin was minted in my honour. He also gave me estates in Sicily, which yielded an enormous income, on the usual condition that they would revert to him in the event of my death.

I was glad to be home after so many months away. In my absence, Caecilia had given birth to another daughter. We named her Attica in honour of her grandfather.

Caesar had also hoped to come back to a child, but Livia’s baby was stillborn. And that was not the only family trouble that awaited him.

I was lying on the nursery floor a few days after our return, playing with Agrippina beside her sleeping sister’s crib, when a slave entered with a message from Caesar summoning me urgently to his house.

I found him closeted with Maecenas and Livia, who was reclining on a couch, still pale from the loss of blood she had suffered during her confinement. Most surprising was the presence of Octavia, who was supposed to be in Athens with Mark Antony. Her eyes were red from crying. At the sight of me, she began again.

Caesar put his arm around her shoulders.

– Compose yourself, my dearest, and tell Agrippa what you’ve just told us.

She bowed her head.

– Antony has sent me away!

Her story came out slowly, broken by bouts of weeping. The gist of it was that to begin with the marriage had been happy, or so she had thought. They had lived together in Athens for several years, and she had given birth to two daughters. But a month ago he had sent her packing back to Rome, along with her three children by Marcellus and his own three by his previous wives. He excused his desertion by saying he needed to go to Egypt to mount an expedition against the Parthians.

Wishing to comfort her, I said that surely that was a plausible reason. A military campaign was no place for a wife and children. She shook her head miserably.

– No, he has gone back to Cleopatra, I am sure of it. Throughout our marriage she was always sending him gifts and messages and portraits of their children. Sometimes, when he was drunk, he told me he still loved her. He wouldn’t even let me stay in Athens while he went to Egypt. He wanted me as far away as possible.

Maecenas, the original instigator of the marriage, quickly pointed out that he hadn’t actually divorced her.

– That must be significant. Clearly he doesn’t dare antagonise you, Caesar, by formally breaking your alliance.

– But this is even worse! He has insulted my sister, which is an insult to me. Either I do nothing about it and look weak, or I complain and threaten retaliation and then take the blame if it turns into another war. What do you say, Agrippa?

The idea that he might seriously contemplate going to war over such a matter filled me with alarm.

– Roman has fought Roman almost continuously for thirteen years. The people are sick of such endless slaughter. They will not forgive you if you start it all again.

The silence that followed was broken by Livia.

– You should go to Egypt, Octavia, no matter what he says. Shame him into taking you back.

– That is unthinkable! I would sooner divorce him.

– No doubt you would, but I fear that would be bad politics. If there is any divorcing to be done, he must be the one to do it, not you. Go to Egypt and force him to make the choice. Let the people see what he’s like.

Poor Octavia. She looked to her brother to save her from such a humiliation, but I could see that the idea impressed him.

– You wouldn’t need to go immediately. Winter is a bad time to travel. Rest here and wait until the spring. I’ll write to him in the meantime, and hopefully he will see sense. But if he doesn’t, Livia’s plan sounds a good one.

And he smiled at his wife with something that for him was always more powerful than affection – respect.

After a summer away fighting, I would have preferred to stay at home with my young family for at least a few more months. But Caesar needed a reason to keep his immense army together in case he had to fight Antony. And he was determined to prove he was capable of leading men into battle. For this, he needed me.

He also wanted – assuming Antony defeated the Parthians – to show that he too could vanquish an enemy other than Romans. He settled on an invasion of Illyricum, even though we had no quarrel with the local tribes and they had never attacked us.