The Death of Antinous || bxb ✔︎

ACTA NON VERBA

They took a river craft down the Tiber to the dock at Ostia where they would board a large galley ship and set sail on the Mediterranean.

Antinous bid farewell to the Eternal City, its temples, amphitheatres, villas and pleasure gardens falling behind the yew trees like a shy maiden drawing her veil.

He remembered his excitement when he passed the riverbank five years earlier and gazed upon Rome's prickly beauty for the first time. It was the most exciting moment of his life and the most frightening. It was difficult to say goodbye. He was at once her lover and her prisoner.

He couldn't bear to tear his eyes away and took one last glimpse of the city to see the great statue made in Hadrian's image of a resting Hercules wearing a lion's skin.

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There were three galley ships waiting in Ostia.

Commodus appeared on the dock first. He was surrounded by half-starved slaves who could barely lift the ostrich feathers to fan him. His physician begged him to feed them. They looked about ready to drop dead and he was worried they wouldn't survive the trip, but Commodus insisted it was the fashion in the East and his slaves his most important accessory. Their bones rattled as loudly as the bracelets on their master's pale wrists.

He kissed Hadrian's signet ring.

"Safe travels, Caesar. It's a shame we won't be sailing together."

He shot Antinous a jealous glare before boarding his ship with a weary Remus in tow.

On the other side of the dock, Sabina emerged from her litter. The slaves set down the wheelless carriage from their shoulders and she stepped out with her ill aunt. Plotina coughed blood into her handkerchief.

"Remember, you are Empress not him, assume your rightful place at diplomatic functions, stop hiding behind your embroidery like a mouse—"

She kissed Plotina's cheek and told her to be well. Though she was no doubt happy to be out from under her aunt's thumb. 

Still furious about the exile of her lover, Seutonius, she ignored Hadrian and Antinous both and boarded the ship trailed by a dozen haughty handmaidens.

With his heir and his wife safely aboard their own ships, Hadrian turned to Antinous and sighed.

"One big happy family."

The Emperor's ship was the largest, with masts as tall as columns and three rows of oars jutting out the sides like an impaled boar.

Antinous glanced around as they walked up the gangplank. Half of the Praetorian Guard surrounded them while the other half were examining the vessel for their safety. Leonides must have already been onboard.

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They dined by rocking candlelight. Antinous retired early to their sleeping quarters while Hadrian took advantage of the ship's extensive library of scrolls. He wanted to read up on the prose of famed Greek writer Tatius before they reached Athens. Leucippe and Clitophon was a tawdry tale of romance and mistaken identity, but it was all the rage among the Greeks and Hadrian, like Commodus, was a slave to foreign fashion.

The next two days little changed. He spent the morning and afternoon sunning himself on deck while Hadrian recited the prose he'd memorized the night before. They had a good laugh at the plot twists. One moment Leucippe is sacrificed, the next moment her lover finds out her death was staged with props, then she is kidnapped by bandits and has her head chopped off, but it turns out that too was a ruse and it was another woman who was decapitated.