Lustrum

man in turn. 'Imperator.'
    'We have matters we need to discuss with you,' began Metellus in a menacing tone.
    'I know exactly what you are about to say, and I assure you I shall keep my promise and argue your case in the senate to the full extent of my powers. But that's for another day. Do you see how hard pressed I am at the moment? I need some assistance, not for my sake but for the nation's. Celer, will you help me save the republic?'
    Celer exchanged glances with his cousin. 'I don't know. That depends on what you want me to do.'
    'It's dangerous work,' warned Cicero, knowing full well that this would make the challenge irresistible to a man such as Celer.
    'I've never been called a coward. Tell me.'
    'I want you to take a detachment of your cousin's excellent legionaries, cross the river, climb the Janiculum and haul down the flag.'
    Even Celer swayed back on his heels at that, for the lowering of the flag – signalling the approach of an enemy army – would automatically suspend the assembly, and the Janiculum wasalways heavily protected by guards. Both he and his cousin turned to Lucullus, the senior of the trio, and I watched as that elegant patrician calculated the odds. 'It's a fairly desperate trick, Consul,' he said.
    'It is. But if we lose this vote, it will be a disaster for Rome. No consul will ever again be sure he has the authority to suppress an armed rebellion. I don't know why Caesar wishes to set such a precedent, but I do know we can't afford to let him.'
    In the end, it was Metellus who said, 'He's right, Lucius. Let's give him the men. Quintus,' he said to Celer, 'are you willing?'
    'Of course.'
    'Good,' said Cicero. 'The guards should obey you as praetor, but in case they make trouble, I'll send my secretary with you,' and to my dismay he pulled his ring from his finger and pressed it into my hand. 'You're to tell the commander that the consul says an enemy threatens Rome,' he said to me, 'and the flag must be lowered. My ring is the proof that you are my emissary. Do you think you can do that?'
    I nodded. What else could I do? Metellus meanwhile was beckoning to the centurion who had weighed in against Catilina, and very soon afterwards I found myself panting along behind a contingent of thirty legionaries, their swords drawn, moving at the double, with Celer and the centurion at their head. Our mission – let us be frank about this – was to disrupt the Roman people in a lawful assembly, and I remember thinking, Never mind Rabirius,
this
is treason.
    We left the Field of Mars and trotted across the Sublician Bridge, over the swollen brown waters of the Tiber, then traversed the flat plain of the Vaticanum, which was filled with the squalid tents and small makeshift huts of the homeless. At the foot of the Janiculum the crows of Juno watched from thebare branches of their sacred grove – such a mass of gnarled black shapes that when we passed and sent them crying into the air it was as if the very wood itself had taken flight. We toiled on up the road to the summit, and never did a hill seem so steep. Even as I write, I can feel again the thump of my heart and the searing of my lungs as I sobbed for breath. The pain in my side was as sharp as a spear tip being pressed into my flesh.
    On the ridge of the hill, at the highest point, stands a shrine to Janus, with one face turned to Rome and the other to the open country, and above this, atop a high pole, flew a huge red flag, flapping and cracking in the stiff wind. About twenty legionaries were huddled around two large braziers, and before they could do anything to stop us we had them surrounded.
    'Some of you men know me!' shouted Celer. 'I am Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer – praetor, augur, lately returned from the army of my brother-in-law, Pompey the Great. And this fellow,' he said, gesturing to me, 'comes with the ring of our consul, Cicero. His orders are to lower the flag. Who's in command here?'
    'I am,' said a centurion, stepping forward. He was an experienced man of about forty. 'And I don't care whose brother-in-law you are, or what authority you have, that flag stays flying unless an enemy threatens Rome.'
    'But an enemy does threaten Rome,' said Celer. 'See!' And he pointed to the countryside west of the city, which was all spread out beneath us. The centurion turned to look, and in a flash, Celer had seized him from behind by his hair and had the edge of his sword at the soldier's throat. 'When I tell you there's an