Triumph (25 page)

‘Your absence was convenient, perhaps too much so.’

‘I was away hunting,’ Flavius added, ‘having just successfully foiled the aims of the Sassanids and driven their army back into their own territory. Since you have never, I suspect, commanded soldiers in battle – and certainly not an army – you will be unaware of the strain such office imposes, nor will you know of the need to take time to replace responsibility with pleasure.’

‘Or intrigue.’

‘I challenge you again, as is my right as a senator. Produce the letter sent from Edessa and let my august colleagues pronounce upon it. If they can see guilt, then I am willing to abide by whatever judgement they make, albeit, as I said at the outset, my conscience is clear.’

Vicinus turned to the ex-consul Decius. ‘There are matters here that require to be pondered on. I request a suspension of the examination until the morrow.’

‘Granted.’

The session broke up noisily, the chatter of the senators echoing off the marble columns and stone walls as they filed out. Few even looked
at Flavius and only two deigned to speak, one John the Cappadocian, who still held his senatorial rank. But he came second after Ancinius Probus Vicinus, whose look was one of pure disdain.

‘You do not know me, Flavius Belisarius, do you?’

‘Perhaps I do, if not to recognise, know of you.’

‘I am the son of Senuthius Vicinus.’

‘That occurred to me and all I can offer you is my sympathy for such a tainted bloodline. It cannot be easy to have a murderer for a parent.’

‘You destroyed my family,’ Vicinus hissed, ‘and left my sister and me as near beggars.’

He was about to add more but Flavius cut across him, his tone one of truly suppressed anger. ‘Damn you, how dare you even allude to loss after what your father did to mine? At least I let you live, which should have you kiss my feet in gratitude.’

‘The only thing I wish to kiss is your gravestone.’

‘Then if you are the true son of your father you will be looking for someone able to use a knife on a dark night. For, like him, you are more likely a coward than a fighter. I do, however, offer you this. Meet me any time you choose with any weapon you choose and I will happily give you a chance for the revenge you have no right to expect.’

Vicinus held up the bundle of papers that had formed the case. ‘I have my weapons in my hand and they are such that you will be unable to fight them. If I have my way, the knife will be visible just before it takes out your eyes. You will end up begging in the street and when I spit on you be assured I will name myself!’

Flavius wanted to hit him and was about to, when the bustle from the balcony distracted him and that allowed Vicinus to slip by and leave the chamber. John, who had been witness to the exchange now came forward.

‘He begged to be your examiner.’

‘One day I will tell you why.’

That was responded to by a smile from thick wet lips. ‘The rumours of how you aided Justinian’s uncle to the purple are not the only ones that float about. It is said that Justinian contrived your revenge and in doing so brought down one of the most powerful senators to serve Anastatius, a man who might have strong say in the succession.’

‘Such stories are old and from a long time past.’

‘Do you think you have seen off Theodora?’

‘I have dented the case.’

‘True, which would be of use if it was the only one against you.’

‘What else could there be?’

Again a smile, but neither friendly nor humorous. ‘I sensed when we met you do not trust me, for which I can see sound reasons. But know this, Flavius Belisarius, survival in this world is not like the field of battle. Here there are no friends or enemies to see and recognise, merely people with whom to associate or not and time bears on that. Yesterday’s problem can be today’s solution.’

‘So?’

‘When you appear tomorrow there will be other charges laid against you.’

‘What charges?’

‘Come to my villa later and I will tell you.’

His absolute assurance irritated Flavius, who had not fully calmed down from his brush with Vicinus. It was only later that he wondered if it had been wise to so abruptly decline any aid from the Cappadocian by saying, as he strode away, ‘My conscience is clear!’

T
hinking the following day would be a repeat of its predecessor, Flavius was thrown when the object of the questioning went nowhere near the meeting at Edessa. Vicinus, who should have been chastened, looked supremely confident when he stood to speak to a hushed chamber. Now it was he who with some deliberation threw a glance at the balcony.

‘The senate has decided to call into question, Flavius Belisarius, certain of your decisions in your campaigns on the Persian border. I will put certain points to you and ask for an interpretation. I remind you that when you answer you do so before not only the senate of the Roman Empire but the Augustus whom we see fit to elevate to a position of guidance.’

Flavius, as Vicinus produced a dramatic pause, was thinking the word ‘guidance’ to be farcical; the assembly never dared challenge any decision made by Justinian or any of his predecessors all the way back to Octavian. The graveyards of the empire both east and west were full of the bones of those who had gambled and lost.

‘Added to that, you are answerable to God Almighty for the replies you provide.’

‘I have never doubted that the Almighty can see into the very
depths of our souls and that sins committed in this life are paid for in the next.’

Meant to check Vicinus it failed; he flushed angrily. ‘You will confine yourself to answering what questions the senate puts to you. Your observations are not welcome.’

‘To some more than others,’ Flavius added pointedly. Such blatant defiance had Vicinus turn to the presiding officer, Decius, who responded with a sonorous rebuke.

‘Ancinius Probus Vicinus speaks for this house, Flavius Belisarius. When you defy him you likewise defy the senate, which will hardly bend us to whatever defence you produce.’

‘I ask that the charges be read out to me.’

‘A task I will happily undertake.’

Vicinus aimed his words at Decius who told him to proceed with a nod. His prosecutor then picked up a sheaf of papers and made his way to the well of the chamber there to wave them, though he obviously knew the contents off by heart as he made no reference to them as he spoke.

‘Item. That in the campaign of the Year of Our Lord, five-forty-one, you prematurely broke off fighting the enemy King Khusrow in order to rendezvous with your wife Antonina Belisarius at the fortress of Dara. In short, you placed your private desires ahead of the needs of you responsibilities.’

Flavius actually laughed, which brought a flush of anger to the cheeks of Vicinus. But he did not add any words to state how absurd such a notion was, given he had no desire that she should be at his side at all. That was dirty washing, not to be aired in public.

‘I hear no reply?’

‘While I suspect that given the inane nature of such an accusation you have more stupidities with which to accuse me.’

That got a look around the chamber from Vicinus. He was enjoying playing to the crowd, his face now wearing a smile that spoke of a deeper knowledge than his peers.

‘We are, my fellow senators, in the eyes of the accused, stupid.’

The voices of protest did not come from all the attendees, Flavius supposed it only emanated from the throats of those seeking to impress Theodora, and their desire to do so could be graded by their level of shouted rebuke.

‘By your actions you left isolated a substantial body of your own command. Your precipitate withdrawal handed back to Khusrow not only the recently captured city of Sisauranon, but in bypassing the fortress of Nisibis you failed to counter a thorn in the side of the empire. In what way do you plead?’

‘I retired because of plague in the army. Sisauranon was too far into Sassanid territory to be defended and there was no threat to our territory from Nisibis.’

‘No threat from Nisibis,’ Vicinus sneered. ‘Such a small matter that Anastatius Augustus, may God rest his soul, doled out a fortune in gold to build the fortress of Dara so that what you call “no threat” could be countered.’

‘There are many august people here in attendance, but few are soldiers, even less are commanders and none, I can say with confidence, have beaten the Sassanids in battle. I bow the knee to no man in that.’

Again Flavius was acutely aware of the way his words were received; that some of the senators were embarrassed when reminded of his famous victory, it was not enough to give him the impression that his statement altered the mood of the entire chamber.

‘Past splendours are not germane to this examination of your conduct, for what happened in forty-one was only a precursor to an even more telling dereliction shortly before you were called
back to face this house. You are called upon to answer as to how it was possible that the Sassanid King could, at will, sack the city of Callinicum and enslave the entire population while you had an army in the field with the express purpose of opposing him. I might add he is now demanding we ransom these unfortunate captives.’

‘We agreed a truce, he broke it and it would not be the first time a ruler of the lands of Persia had broken a solemn undertaking.’

‘Solemn undertaking,’ Vicinus intoned, as if it were a disease as deadly as the plague. ‘And to whom was this “solemn undertaking” given?’

‘To me, as
magister militium per Orientem.
’

‘How convenient that you can produce this notion that is unknown to anyone else. Perhaps you would care to show where in writing this agreement exists.’

‘It was verbal and witnessed by my officers—’

‘Who would be the same men,’ Vicinus interrupted, ‘who saw you as a potential emperor? I doubt we can look to them for an honest assessment.’

‘You could if you were willing to try, which I sense is not your intention.’

Flavius was thinking of John the Cappadocian and his hints of the previous day. He had been foolish not to listen; at least he would have been prepared for this travesty of a trial, though he knew the outcome to have already been decided. Vicinus was not finished, as for the first time he consulted his papers and the list of further accusations poured out.

‘There is the matter of misappropriation of part of the Vandal treasure of North Africa, the tardiness of campaigning in Italy and questions regarding whether pay due to the army was instead diverted to your own coffers.’

On and on he went, there seeming to be no part of the past decades’ service in which Flavius had not either lined his own purse or, as a general, acted in a way inimical to the needs of the empire. It was odd to be so described and hear the disbelieving sighs of a group of men who were, unlike him, usually guilty of such crimes. It raised the nature of the word hypocrisy to heights never before achieved.

‘How do you plead?’ Vicinus demanded, holding up the list of supposed transgressions.

‘My conscience is clear,’ Flavius replied with slow deliberation, ‘but your own, Ancinius Probus Vicinus, is as clouded as that of the man from whose loins you sprang.’

‘Fellow senators,’ was the shouted response, those papers waved with fury this time. ‘Am I to be so traduced, and you with me, by such an ingrate? What honours has the empire bestowed on him only to find their faith misplaced?’

It was necessary for Flavius to detach himself from the proceedings as they continued, he refusing to grace the accusations with a reply, which carried on until the point where the ex-consul Decius asked that he remove himself while the chamber deliberated on how to respond. That he prayed was hardly surprising but it was not for forgiveness, if you discounted his own known sins, or for his life or eyesight, because he had to believe that not even Theodora would dare to be so vindictive with a man who was such a hero to the citizenry.

‘I beg not to be dishonoured.’

He begged for that in vain; the first act, sonorously pronounced by Decius but surely previously decided by the Empress, was to strip him of his title of
magister
. Next came the sequestration of nearly everything he possessed in terms of money and goods, though he was allowed to keep his villa south of Galatea. Lastly he was stripped of his
comitatus
, the best soldiers in the empire, they to be put up
for auction to anyone seeking a military command and who had the means to fund their pay.

‘Finally, Flavius Belisarius, you are to attend daily the imperial palace so that at his own convenience the Emperor may call upon you to explain your manifest crimes and failures.’

If Flavius could not fathom the need for the last it soon became plain as, wandering the corridors with no real purpose, he was exposed to endless ridicule from anyone who chose to employ it; he was a pariah now and he would not be allowed to forget it, yet he harked back to Marcus Aurelius and the stoicism he had preached, so that when insulted he could smile in response, which did much to discomfit those seeking to diminish him.

The real problem was that he was barred from the audience chamber and had no contact by which he could apply pressure to Justinian to reverse the malice of his wife.

Of Antonina there was no sight; she made no attempt to contact him and he responded in kind. It was deeply wounding that part of the case presented by Vicinus must have been formed by her malevolence; no doubt she blamed him for the death of Theodosius, as if he could have fought off the disease that killed him. Or was it that she was such a dupe as to provide testimony coloured by her own twisted logic without a thought to the consequences?

Even ignored he was able to garner news of the state of fighting in the various theatres of war. In the east it was stalemate, which was of credit to Martinus, who had continued the Belisarian policy of containment. Matters were going well in Hispania, but in Italy the Goths had revived under a new king called Totila and his successes, allied to Byzantine losses, made for grim telling.

On leaving Ravenna his replacement, a patrician imperial administrator called Alexander had been appointed to rule Italy as a
province of empire. He had turned out to be rapacious to an alarming degree, even going so far, it was reported, as to debase the coinage, the gold thus removed from the edges being split between himself and the imperial treasury, which kept quiet those stealing from that same sum of money in Constantinople.

His other acts, also condoned, were equally grasping. Alexander levied fines for the smallest perceived infringement and added to this was his accusation that the troops for whom Flavius had been responsible had been overpaid and thus must make restitution. He accused the Italians of underpaying Goth taxes going back to their invasion a century before and demanded such sums be made good, which infuriated the native citizens. In short, Alexander had undone all the good work Flavius had achieved in keeping the local population as supporters of Byzantine rule.

Worse, Alexander’s inferior commanders took their cue from him so that all over Italy there was now discontent at Byzantine rule and that had allowed the Goths to revive their military fortunes. The king who had taken the sceptre from Witigis, Ildibadus, had immediately sought to reverse the gains made by Flavius but with little success and part of that was brought on by an endemic Goth problem of internal dissension.

The ramifications of their disputes were tedious to relate and almost too tangled to comprehend but one fact was plain: Idilbadus had so alienated some of his close followers that one of them had taken advantage of his position to stab him to death and he was replaced by a tribal chieftain called Eraric.

In that leader they had seemingly found a fitting replacement for Theodahad, though his manoeuvres were aided by the inactivity of those who should have contained him, the numerous military commanders who now seemed more interested in fleecing the citizens
of the towns over which they had control than fighting the Goths.

Even a pariah picked up gossip, although a good source of information was John the Cappadocian, who seemed willing to risk the displeasure of Theodora to openly communicate with him. Thus he knew of Eraric’s open request that he be granted the peace offered to Witigis, which involved the Goths surrendering all the lands south of the River Po.

‘I swear,’ John had informed him, ‘that these Goths make us look like saints. This Eraric has secretly offered to sell Justinian the whole of Italy.’

‘I can imagine the price to be high,’ had been Flavius’s jaundiced reply.

The price had proved too high for the Goths as well; Eraric should have known such an offer could not be kept from gossip and that proved to be the case. Murdered by his own troops the kingship had devolved onto Totila and in that king they had found a leader worthy of the title.

The moribund military commanders in Italy, prompted it was said by a furious Justinian, had finally roused themselves to react. Gathering in Ravenna they had set out to confront Totila who held Ticinum, the Goth city in which their rulers were chosen. Verona was on the way and it seemed sensible to take it first, but what the army in Italy now suffered from was the curse of divided command and it was not just two generals but several.

What followed, as passed to Flavius by John, had been an unmitigated disaster, yet at first the matter seemed easily settled. An imperial supporter resident in Verona had offered to surrender one of the gates and after much discussion and seeming reluctance to be responsible for taking advantage, one man had taken up the gauntlet. He was Artabazes, the former Governor of Sisauranon, who
had entered Byzantine service with the men Flavius had sent back to Constantinople.

The reports indicated he had succeeded in taking control of the surrendered gate with as few as a hundred fighters, at which point he called for support from an army that was encamped too far away to speedily provide it. It was also a force in which endless discussion must proceed any action, so by the time it began to advance it was too late. When they finally arrived outside Verona, Artabazes and his men were in dire straits.

They held the curtain wall but the Goths, having seen how tardy was the Byzantine response, had retaken the actual gate, which left Artabazes and his men isolated. Pleas that an attack should be launched to aid them to withdraw fell to another lengthy and ultimately destructive dispute amongst the various generals and that left those still fighting no choice but to get away as best they could.