Free The Roman by Mika Waltari

desire nothing more than to live a simple life in peace and quiet. But my freedmen have taught me that it is a crime against the State and the common good to save gold coins in bags in a chest. In addition I want to buy more land in Caere, where my real family lives. You must never forget that we are of the Manilianus family only by adoption.� He looked at me with troubled eyes. �You have a fold in your eyelid,� he said, �just as I have. It is a sign of our true origins. But when I searched in the State
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    archives, I saw with my own eyes the rolls of knighthood from Emperor Gaius� day, and there is no mark against my name, only a snakelike wavy line through it. Gaius� hands shook badly because of his illness. There was no court judgment or action against me. Whether this was because of my absence or not, I don�t know. The Procurator Pontius Pilate himself fell from grace ten years ago, lost his office and was removed to Galilee. But Emperor Claudius has that secret record and it could obviously contain something to my disadvantage. I have met his freedman Felix, who is interested in the affairs of Judaea. He has promised to consult Narcissus, the Emperor�s private secretary, at a suitable moment. I should prefer to meet this influential man myself, but he is said to be so important that it costs ten thousand sesterces just to meet him. For the sake of my honor and certainly not from meanness, I should prefer not to bribe him directly.� My father went on to tell me that he had listened carefully and memorized everything said about Emperor Claudius, the bad as well as the good. The return of our name to the rolls depended in the long run on the Emperor personally. With increasing age, Emperor Claudius had become so capricious that at a whim or an omen, he would reverse the firmest decisions. He might also fall asleep in the middle of a session of the Senate, or at a trial, and forget what was being dealt with. While waiting, my father had taken the opportunity of reading all the works Emperor Claudius had published, even his manual on the game of dice. �Emperor Claudius is one of the few Romans who can still speak the Etruscans� language and read their script,� explained my father. �If you want to please me, go to the public library in Palatine and ask to read the book he has written on the history of the Etruscans. It is several scrolls long and not a very dull book. It also explains the words in many of the priests� sacrificial rituals which they have hitherto had to learn by heart. Then we�ll go to Caere and look at our property, which I have still not yet seen myself. You will be able to ride there.� But my father�s advice depressed me even more and I felt more like biting my lips and weeping than anything else. When my lather had gone, Barbus gave me a sly look. �It�s odd how many middle-aged men forget what it�s like to be young,� he said. �I remember very well indeed how when I was
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    your age I wept without cause and had bad dreams. I know perfectly well how you could retrieve your peace of mind and sound sleep, but because of your father I daren�t arrange any such thing for you.� Aunt Laelia also began to look at me with troubled eyes, and then she asked me into her room, looking around carefully before speaking. �If you swear not to tell your father,� she said, �I�ll tell you a secret.� From politeness I promised I would not, although I was laughing inwardly, for I thought that Aunt Laelia would be unlikely to have any thrilling secrets. But in this I was wrong. �In the room you sleep in,� she said, �a Jewish magician called Simon used to live as my guest. He himself says he is a Samaritan, but they�re Jews too, aren�t they? His incense and magical symbols have probably been disturbing your sleep. He came to Rome some years ago and soon won a reputation as a physician, fortuneteller and miracle worker. Senator Marcellus let him live in his house