Lustrum

Histrians – harrying the Roman column as it marched along the Danube valley.
    'The prosecution alleges that when you heard there was a large enemy force ahead, you split your force in two, taking the cavalry with you to safety and leaving the infantry undefended. Is that true?'
    'Not at all.'
    'You were in fact bravely pursuing the Histrian army, is that correct?'
    'That's right.'
    'And while you were away, the Bastarn forces crossed the Danube and attacked the infantry from the rear?'
    'True.'
    'And there was nothing you could do?'
    'I am afraid there was not.' Hybrida lowered his head and wiped his eyes, as Cicero had instructed him.
    'You must have lost many friends and comrades at the hands of the barbarians.'
    'I did. A great many.'
    After a long pause, during which there was complete silence in the court, Cicero turned to the jury. 'The fortunes of war, gentlemen,' he said, 'can be cruel and capricious. But that is not the same as treason.'
    As he resumed his seat there was prolonged applause, not only from the crowd but among the jury, and for the first time I daredto hope that Cicero's skill as an advocate might once again have saved the day. Rufus smiled to himself and took a sip of wine and water before getting to his feet. He had an athlete's way of loosening his shoulders by linking his hands behind his head and rotating his upper torso from side to side. Watching him do it then, just before he started his cross-examination, the years seemed to fall away, and suddenly I remembered how Cicero used to send him running errands across the city and tease him for the looseness of his clothes and the length of his hair. And I recalled how the boy would steal money from me and stay out all night drinking and gambling, and yet how hard it was to feel angry with him for long. What pattern of ambition's twisting paths had brought us each to this place?
    Rufus sauntered over to the witness stand. He was entirely without nerves. He might have been meeting a friend at a tavern. 'Do you have a good memory, Antonius Hybrida?'
    'I do.'
    'Well then, I expect you remember a slave of yours who was murdered on the eve of your consulship.'
    A look of great mystification passed across Hybrida's face and he glanced across in puzzlement towards Cicero. 'I'm not sure that I do. One's had so many slaves over the years …'
    'But you must remember this slave?' persisted Rufus. 'A Smyrnan? Twelve years old or thereabouts? His body was dumped in the Tiber. Cicero was there when his remains were discovered. His throat had been cut and his intestines removed.'
    There was a gasp of horror around the court, and I felt my mouth go dry, not only at the memory of that poor lad, but at the realisation of where this chain of questioning might lead. Cicero saw it too. He jumped up in alarm and appealed to the praetor, 'This is irrelevant, surely? The death of a slave morethan four years ago can have nothing to do with a lost battle on the shores of the Black Sea.'
    'Let the prosecutor ask his question,' ruled Clodianus, and then added philosophically: 'I have found in life that all sorts of things are often linked.'
    Hybrida was still looking hopelessly at Cicero. 'I believe perhaps I do remember something of the sort.'
    'I should hope so,' responded Rufus. 'It's not every day that a human sacrifice is performed in one's presence! Even for you, I would have thought, with all your abominations, that must have been a rarity.'
    'I know nothing about any human sacrifice,' muttered Hybrida.
    'Catilina did the killing, and then required you and others present to swear an oath.'
    'Did he?' Hybrida screwed up his face as if he were trying to remember some long-forgotten acquaintance. 'No, I don't think so. No, you are mistaken.'
    'Yes he did. You swore an oath on the blood of that slaughtered child to murder your own colleague as consul – the man who now sits beside you as your advocate!'
    These words produced a fresh sensation, and when the cries had died away, Cicero got up. 'Really, this is a pity,' he said, with a regretful shake of his head, 'a great pity, because my young friend was not doing a bad job as prosecutor up to this moment – he was my pupil once, gentlemen, so actually I flatter myself as well as him by conceding it. Unfortunately now he has gone and ruined his own case with an insane allegation. I fear I shall have to take him back to the classroom.'
    'I know it is true, Cicero,' retorted Rufus, smiling even more broadly,