‘Oh no,’ Sejanus replied. ‘We are not friends yet.’

Such thoughts heightened my anxiety, standing in that dusty gallery of the Palatine Palace. I decided to flee. I was not one of the powerful ones of Rome so why should I be troubled? I stopped and stared back at Agrippina’s room. If I returned to that chamber, I could die an excruciating death, yet Agrippina was right, for if I reported her conversation, the same fate awaited me. I heard a footfall on the stairs and stepped into a shadowy recess. A slithering, soft sound, someone taking their time, coming up slowly, stealthily. Was Agrippina playing some cruel game? I peered out and recognised Metellus. I’d been introduced to him in the imperial box at the Games. He was a balding, narrow-faced scribe, responsible for ordering stores and ensuring the kitchen was well supplied. However, he wasn’t mounting those stairs like a scribe, more like the spy he was. He came onto the gallery and tiptoed by. I held my breath. He stopped at Agrippina’s door and listened carefully. Satisfied, he withdrew and slipped back down the stairs. I made my decision, or rather Metellus had made it for me. I waited until I was sure he wouldn’t return and crept back into the chamber. Agrippina was sitting where I had left her, tapping her foot as if listening to some invisible tune.

‘Well?’ she asked, raising her head.

I was about to kneel in front of her but she tapped the couch beside me.

‘You are with me, aren’t you, Parmenon?’

I nodded. She pulled down the front of her stola, exposing her beautiful breasts, their nipples dark and enlarged. She took my hand and pressed it against her left breast, her face only a few inches from mine.

‘Swear, Parmenon, by earth, sea and sky!’

I found it difficult to speak. My throat had gone dry. It was a strange sensation, my hand clasped against that beautiful breast, her lovely lips not far from mine, juxtaposed to the silence of the room, the terrors beyond the door, Metellus waiting like some snake.

‘Swear!’ she hissed.

I took the oath, and she kissed me full on the lips, pushed my hand away and re-arranged her stola.

‘What’s the matter, Parmenon? Are you shocked?’

‘No, Domina, frightened. Metellus is slinking like a fox outside.’

‘Foxes can be trapped.’

Clearing her throat, a mannerism employed whenever she was excited, Agrippina snuggled closer.

‘Tiberius is Emperor,’ she whispered. ‘He’s mad, bad or both.’ She smoothed her face. ‘But, there again, I’m no different. We have rotten blood in our veins. Tiberius’s son was poisoned.’

I started.

‘No, be still.’ She tapped my knee. ‘The Emperor’s true son is dead and that’s the end of the matter. Tiberius, therefore, has several possible heirs: Gemellus who is weak; or one of my elder brothers. However,’ she sighed, ‘we must consider them, like my mother, as dead. That leaves me, my sisters and “Little Boots”.’

Her voice took on a mocking tone as she referred to her brother, the seventeen-year-old Caligula, who was now Tiberius’s house prisoner on Capri.

‘Tiberius,’ she continued, ‘is worrying enough. Sejanus, however, is the more pressing danger. He’s Prefect of the city and commands the Praetorian Guard. The Senate are a claque and his bosom friends command the German legions. Sejanus has spun a web in which everyone is caught up. What he’ll do next is try to get rid of Caligula, myself and my sisters before we can beget any children. We’ll soon be arrested for treason, and either exiled or imprisoned. And then we shall certainly be executed, probably sooner rather than later.’ Agrippina paused as if she had forgotten something. ‘Yes, yes, that’s how it will go. Once he’s finished with us, Sejanus will turn on Tiberius, and the Emperor will go into the dark. Sejanus will marry Tiberius’s widowed daughter-in-law and have himself proclaimed Emperor.’ She tapped her foot and cleared her throat.

‘So, what can you do? Flee Rome?’

Agrippina threw her head back and laughed. ‘Flee Rome, Parmenon? We wouldn’t get as far as the Forum.’ She pinched my arm. ‘Don’t you have any life in those veins, a heart which beats? Haven’t you heard of a blood feud? Tiberius and Sejanus have struck at my family. Now I will strike at theirs.’ She waggled a finger like an aged housewife telling her husband off. ‘Where’s the weakness in all of this, Parmenon?’

‘You’ve thought all this through, haven’t you?’ I asked.

She grinned. ‘The weakness, in fact, is Sejanus himself. Tiberius regards Sejanus as too low-born to pose any real threat. However, our Emperor, by nature, is very suspicious. At the moment he puts up with Sejanus because he once saved Tiberius’s life. They were dining out in some cave and there was a rock fall. Tiberius believes he has a debt to pay. He must now be made to realise that this debt is cleared and Sejanus is his greatest enemy.’

‘How will you do that?’

‘We must get to Capri.’

Agrippina got up, walked to the door and opened it.

‘You will arrange that, Parmenon. In the meantime, ask Metellus to come up!’

I looked up in surprise.

‘Go on!’ she urged. ‘Tell him I need him now!’

I obeyed her command and went down the gallery. I could hear shouts, doors opening and closing. The festivities after the Games were now in full swing. I slipped downstairs into the gallery below, where servants and their girls were milling about, some much the worse for drink. Metellus was sitting at a table, tapping his fingers as if mystified by what had happened.

‘Domina Agrippina will see you now!’ I declared.

‘Will she? Where has she been? Where have you been?’

‘I’ve been nowhere,’ I slurred, pretending to be tipsy. ‘You’d best go upstairs now.’

Metellus scraped back the stool and followed me up. I went along the gallery and knocked on the door. Agrippina opened it, almost dragged the fellow through, then slammed it shut in my face. I stood wondering what was to happen. I heard Agrippina laugh, the clink of cups. Was she playing some game? I tried the handle but the bolts were in place. I was walking down the gallery when I heard the screams, terrible piercing yells, so strident they quelled the clamour below. I ran back towards the door and pushed against it. From inside I could hear the clatter of noise as if a violent struggle was taking place. The alarm was being raised. Two Praetorian guards came running up, swords drawn. Burly fellows, they shoved me aside. Using the pommel of their swords, they hammered on the door, from behind which came Agrippina’s screams and yells, and the sounds of a scuffle grew more strident. Stools and benches were used to force open the door and I followed the soldiers into the room. Metellus lay sprawled on the floor before the couch, a gaping wound in his chest. Agrippina, her tunic covered in blood, knelt beside him holding a dagger. Her stola had been ripped, and she had scratch marks on her face. She pushed her hair back and stared wildly at the soldiers.

‘He tried to rape me!’ she hissed. She pointed to the goblets lying in a pool of wine in the middle of the room. ‘He was drunk.’

She caught my gaze and, for a second, I saw the smile in her eyes. She got to her feet still holding the dagger.

‘Is this the way — ’ she yelled, ‘- to treat the daughter of Germanicus? Am I some common whore to be pawed at by servants?’

Her maids appeared. Agrippina yelled obscenities, asking them where they had been. They tried to reply but Agrippina threw the dagger on the floor. She crumpled on the couch, put her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly. The soldiers, both outraged and fearful at what had happened, grabbed Metellus’s corpse and flung it through the window onto the courtyard below. I decided it was time to act as if I was the Domina’s secretarius. Water and towels were ordered. I thanked the soldiers and asked them to leave. Once they had, Agrippina got to her feet and allowed the maids to dab at the cuts on her face and hands. She seized a moment in the hustle and bustle to beckon me over.