Germanicus Read online

YOUNG OFFICER [Breathlessly]

  It’s done. Gods! I’ve never seen the like.

  Look at my hands. Sticky-wet with blood.

  To hunt like that, hunt people; strike them in the eyes

  that beg with shuddering whites, to feel again,

  again the sword sink in ... soft and deep and quivering;

  and then pluck out – as a blade cuts through your hand;

  people fleeing, confused, their weapons cast aside ...

  I was a child, when I saw ants act like this

  on the metal of a stove: so tiny, so scared, so disarrayed:

  one fear, one chasm, one pit of fright

  that I shall nightly have to face in horror ...

  Pulls himself together

  I need to wash before I eat.

  To Secretary

  You’re writing, on this night!

  You chase black letters over a piece of paper

  and we put sixty thousand men to flight today!

  SECRETARY

  Without looking up

  Wash? You want to wash? There’s a jug ... [He points]

  YOUNG OFFICER [Nervously]

  Stir up your ancient blood! Drink Spanish fly, rouse yourself!

  Caesar won today – a battle

  such as these armies never struck before ...

  SECRETARY

  That’s nice,

  that’s nice.

  YOUNG OFFICER

  Ye Gods – he goes on writing!

  SECRETARY [35]

  The little fellow dances –

  now he wants us all to skip with him.

  Looks up

  Listen, my boy: great battles are all very fine –

  but my job is to see to it that corn, coins and horses

  reach this camp for all these pretty fellows.

  Right-ho: it’s fine, it’s really fine:

  they have a say: “white” or “chestnut” or even “pied”,

  they curse me when a mule is lame, a wagon creaks;

  if each brush-head does not get his dole,

  then they come buzzing round my ears.

  Now they are standing here

  and dance and skip – and talk of such great victories

  when I have to concentrate,

  Tell me – you know it all –

  just how many horses we can get from Gaul?

  Just a rough estimate?

  How was the harvest in Aquitania?

  If you must wash – there’s water, in the barrel at the door.

  [Flexes his fingers] My old joints ...

  YOUNG OFFICER

  Is this wine? [Takes a deep draught]

  Listen, old horse-trader – about our general today:

  when in the early daylight hours we stood before

  the battlements of the blonde Cheruscans – the woods, the copses

  bristled bright with weapons – we hesitated.

  And Germanicus sighted eight eagles

  wheeling above us, then heading for the woods.

  “Follow our Roman birds as I give chase!

  Thrust with your short swords – thrust at their faces!”

  – and into the spears we rushed ahead!

  SECRETARY

  Oh, that’s not bad.

  It’s not bad at all.

  YOUNG OFFICER [36]

  This afternoon when we broke through

  he threw away his helmet and clear-faced

  – like a god – he led us on, that everyone,

  soldier or foe could know his face ...

  his white horse ahead amongst the fleeing hordes!

  He cannot die, no weapons can touch him, no!

  SECRETARY

  The helmet – I trust – you brought along?

  Or else I have another job. A new crested helm ...

  Notes down something on his paper. Agrippina enters with Marcia

  AGRIPPINA

  You here! Is he still safe? Has he been wounded?

  SECRETARY

  How pale she is.

  AGRIPPINA

  Reckless, was he? Where did you see him last?

  YOUNG OFFICER

  Germanicus is safe. He’s with a legion

  which stayed to pile the outworks of the camp

  where we shall rest tonight.

  AGRIPPINA

  And did he win?

  You men talk and talk of all these things ...

  YOUNG OFFICER

  Respectfully I bring you his message:

  The armies of Tiberius this day

  struck a blow that echoes through the world

  and jogs the farthest nations into fright.

  AGRIPPINA

  That’s good.

  There’s one that will not like this blow: Tiberius –

  he that sits in his grey web, Rome, and waits

  and draws the earth’s waters to him like a moon.

  SECRETARY [Softly] [37]

  Caesar in Rome hears all that is said here.

  AGRIPPINA

  That’s good; quite good. There’s much that must be said.

  YOUNG OFFICER

  Tiberius Augustus once more was proclaimed victor

  And imperator by the army in the field

  – so was Germanicus’ command.

  AGRIPPINA

  That’s good. That’s good.

  And do you all concur?

  YOUNG OFFICER

  It was like that: just the general’s command.

  Here come the officers: Cneius Piso,

  Marcus Veranius and their men ...

  A vociferous group of officers comes on stage: Cneius Piso, Marcus Veranius and others; some are wounded. Marcus has a bandaged arm; some are so tired that they sit or even lie down.

  AN OFFICER

  Small, swarthy; interested in the technicalities of war; to Piso

  The thrusting sword should be three inches longer

  and heavier at its point – for this tough place,

  not for those easy fights in Parthia, no ...

  I could feel that today – these tall Germans all ...

  MARCUS

  Burly farmer-type, but tense

  Forget it now! Or speak to the scribe over there

  and later with the general.

  Agrippina,

  Herman fared badly with his winnow: the dead,

  they’re lying spread like chaff ten miles abroad

  strewn on the ground: there was a mess today.

  Like one chases rabbits from the rye

  that’s how we chased Herman and his men today, [38]

  chased ’em from these endless, endless forests,

  where they all hide.

  And the waters of the Weser now run sticky-red

  with blood

  AGRIPPINA

  Bravely spoken like a true man, my loyal Marcus,

  just as I always hear from you. Noble Piso,

  I thank you as Germanicus would thank ...

  She walks around among them and shakes each by the hand

  I wish that I could thank each and every one

  of thousands who helped to make this day so great,

  take each brave man by the hand, and thank him.

  I have held myself erect before you: now humbled,

  a woman, feeling rather sad

  that I can in no way share your glory.

  Standing next to a young officer

  You’re bleeding! Come, rest, and let me bind your wound.

  Come, Marcia, let us act our kind

  and aim for humbler glory than these men.

  To serve the brave is higher service still.

  OFFICER

  You are too kind. It’s nothing.

  MARCUS

  The badly wounded

  are being tended well; their pain is greater;

  the wounds we carry are slight marks of honour

  that we shall show our sons when we are old

  and speak of this great day, Germanicus

 
and you.

  CAIUS

  I still see him, standing young and glorious,

  in sight of all, a target for every bolt,

  wherever the fight was thickest – and calm and peaceful

  as if he stood among the vines and showed,

  instructing men to carry gold and purple grapes [39]

  from where they picked to tread them in the vats.

  A god it was that aided us today.

  FIRST OFFICER

  What we saw today, is unfamiliar in Rome:

  even the great Julius was never greater nor more wild

  In combat ...

  ANOTHER OFFICER

  Germanicus: he is a broad, great stream

  that roars unchecked to glory’s greater fame

  and the joy of every Roman.

  CAIUS

  Imbued with divine ecstasy

  that gods alone can send, our Rulers in the sky!

  His Fortune is unstoppable:

  his armies lay buried in the gleaming marshland

  of the Batavians, struck down in the black forest ways;

  his fleets lay broken on those foreign strands

  and dunes, washed up on sombre capes

  watched over by birds that no man knows, nesting yet

  on dead men’s reeking bones, and nightly screeching

  – I hear them shrilling in my head – above the foam

  and the white rock of Britain, that secret place;

  above each downfall he rises stronger:

  for sure a god raised him and leads him still!

  Germanicus enters with other officers

  AGRIPPINA

  My husband!

  GERMANICUS

  It was a day so strong and ... yes, strong,

  that it will still shine a hundred years ahead

  rising above all other, greyer days,

  days of measured quiet and bitter care;

  a day for you, that wear farsight and bravery

  around you like a gauzy robe.

  AGRIPPINA [40]

  And it will stay with me through every care.

  But now it’s a better time to rest.

  GERMANICUS

  My fellow-soldiers! Brothers through this day.

  There is no need for sober talk of thanks,

  rewards for sailormen

  who brought a bauble back from foreign shores,

  men still foreign and unknown to me.

  Who have together tasted the sour wine of death

  – each one still lonely in his private fears –

  leave that meal still drunk, but bound as one.

  It’s days like these that make blood brotherhood

  stronger than the turgid dark red blood

  that binds a father’s single brood.

  And ... of reward, then ...

  We all today allied ourselves to serve,

  an office that the Empire dare not soon forget,

  and each is now a member of my house:

  my most exalted officer or humblest trooper,

  my sentinel, messenger, carrier of water,

  what I have, you all shall share:

  our fortune and our luck will stay still linked

  in times that lie ahead, by great Caesar’s grace.

  And ... between brothers ... why should I be ashamed?

  Are we not human? Are we not afraid of death?

  but daring to attack as each man came on

  – with you, dear Piso, with Marcus, always joyful,

  Caius, with you, so stern, or with Lucius

  who now lies calm and white for all of time

  and never now can lose his purity of heart

  in days less glorious –

  with you and through you I lost my fearful heart

  – for I am human – and I grew light and joyful;

  and happiness returned ... it was all a game

  death, annihilation, disappearance ... only play, [41]

  drunk, glorious, carefree and reckless,

  as played by friends at table. Nobody, I tell you nobody

  brought this day to such glory by himself;

  no one man can call this glory only his.

  But let us now take our rest.

  Many who share in our blood brotherhood

  will never more return from their deep rest.

  But rest is good, and well deserved today.

  The officers, all except Cneius Piso, Marcus Veranius and Caius, leave the tent. Occasionally a letter is brought to Germanicus or a message is whispered in his ear

  GERMANICUS

  Lucius: he is the lucky one;

  so clean-cut, young and now so well assured

  against all the spite with which life can strike us

  in all our future years, the years ahead ...

  And rest is good. Why then do we not rest?

  Why do we leap from day to day from act

  to act – and one day something occurs, we fall:

  all drops from our hands; and the silence

  that always was encroaching, seeps into us,

  and tames us and calls us all its own ...

  PISO

  So no Empire is built. One does not rule like that:

  with sighs and yearnings. It is our right to rule;

  to allow the ones that we have overcome

  the joys of quiet and of rest.

  GERMANICUS

  Perhaps that is how one should rule – should really rule –;

  Piso, tell me: if you leap forward to attack

  (you’re always quiet, surly, have few words)

  ... do you feel joy? a terrible intoxication,

  within you? What thrills you as you strike?

  PISO

  I am a Roman soldier and officer. [42]

  I do my duty as I know it.

  GERMANICUS

  It’s strange that words can form so thick a crust

  around the heart. A man who sits fine and quivering

  like a little child, he never learns to live,

  somewhere, somewhere. Perhaps it’s just as well:

  we cannot all go bare ... not all of us; so, Piso?

  CAIUS

  You’re tired, Germanicus, and not yet old –

  like me – and tough enough for this dire trade.

  MARCUS

  Drink mulled wine, heavy-scented, and eat,

  eat well, eat meat, and so to sleep.

  GERMANICUS

  My dear Marcus!

  Night’s coming on and we shall all eat meat ...

  eat meat, drink mulled wine, drink and sleep

  on this our glory.

  He prepares to enter the inner tent, a Messenger enters

  MESSENGER

  Segestes, the German,

  greets great Germanicus and brings his laud

  to you and to Tiberius the emperor,

  today, right now.

  MARCUS

  Segestes, who stayed loyal

  through all the wily plots laid by Arminius ...

  dear tame old Segestes with his beard,

  his father-in-law!

  MESSENGER

  He’s waiting outside with women from his house,

  they look anxious, these women ...

  GERMANICUS [43]

  Tell the soldiers and the guards to show respect!

  and bring them in here. [Messenger off]

  GERMANICUS

  Marcus,

  you are a Roman: if this day had ended differently,

  would you have honoured Herman, tonight?

  MARCUS

  But it did not! We are still the masters.

  GERMANICUS

  For these, yes. But Herman still hides free

  and bitter, unvanquished in his black woodlands.

  It’s him I want to see.

  PISO

  You’ll have to haul him out.

  He won’t volunteer.

  Segestes, Thusnelda and women are brought inside. />
  GERMANICUS

  Still addressing Piso

  And haul means dragging, Piso?

  SEGESTES

  Germanicus! Your father won the name

  through us, and I can say it without spite:

  I am old and far from youthful love of power.

  Today you have deserved the name and took it

  without inheritance; wear it with honour.

  It’s a proud name; it suits your high estate.

  I do not come here to betray my land,

  but to seek peace, that precious gift

  that suits my age and peaceful bent.

  I honour the imperial power of Rome,

  and the Germans that are no nation yet: fierce

  and dissolute; turned against themselves and cruel

  even to themselves – that German is too young for me,

  his day will come long hence with dreadful might,

  but when I am long gone, dead and gone. [44]

  May I still ask – if a supplicant may seek

  the favour of his victor – show to my people

  your mercy. You hit us hard today:

  no man was spared, no man was captured;

  ten thousand hide shivering in the forests;

  they seek, so powerless, revenge and sorrow, both

  from despair, tonight. But also mercy,

  that they do not want. And I, although I’m old,

  understand.

  The greater gods, the Inscrutables,

  grant us defeat or victory, youth and death –

  grant it to nations too.

  The voice of peace sounds weak and thin

  where power and fate lead on. I led them once.

  Now I ask: be good to me and to these women,

  the daughters of my house. Let us, the weak ones,

  that have landed between the two stones

  of a grinding mill just now, be granted rest

  in the great Empire. Please be very kind to her

  especially, the wife of Herman, Thusnelda;

  I had to drag her here.

  GERMANICUS

  [To Segestes] Your loyalty to Rome will be rewarded.

  [To Thusnelda] I should have bidden you a different welcome –

  not as supplicant, not as captive, no.

  The brave retain their honour, also when held fast,

  and I should rather have seen you come with Herman,

  with his weapons but in friendship.

  THUSNELDA

  No friendship can be forged between the likes of us;

  you stand astride the world in power

  and trample down the nations that are meek

  or suffering despair; you even rule the hearts

  – a bitter truth, that – of many of my people ...

  like this man here that was born free, my father; [45]

  and we? We are the wolves that slink around the pen!

  at night we howl helplessly around your palisades.

  But we are free! We go our ways and wait.

  And I would rather come here, dragged and hauled,

  than grovel in meek friendship

  GERMANICUS

  Not bitterness, blind rebellion and vengeful spite

  I would reject – as if Roman, German men,

  are two beasts that only meet with fang and claw

  to try each other out.

  THUSNELDA

  I don’t know you ... perhaps,

  perhaps you may be noble:

  but noble Romans also bow to serve

  to give soft names to horror-deeds,

  and after carnage and fell battery to speak.

  Your softest words reflect blind might.

  You’re out to grab, humiliate, keep tight –

  first with the sword, then with a word, this friendship;

  or maybe friendship first, then demands and then the sword.

  So Herman found you out. But he stands free.

  Go, fetch him in his lair, he’s always there!

  He will fight back right into shadowlands

  up north, the iron icebergs of the chilly sea

  and the long black night that you will never know

  – and many legions will be strewn along the way!

  But I am here. Drag me to Rome with you,

  let me walk in your triumphal march, let them laugh,

  those dusky Roman maidens point and say:

  “Thusnelda, Herman’s bride, the ruddy German girl!”

  And then the prison where many have been held

  – those too that sought a gentle word from you.

  It’s might, might, that blind and dull black might

  of a great empire.

  But listen, the wolves are howling, [46]

  those sly lean wolves howl up in the north!

  The day will come when borders all are porous,

  and then we’ll see, but also, so will Rome!

  PISO

  While even traitors, and the children of deserters

  can still speak words like these, there’s work aplenty

  for Rome and for her general.

  SEGESTES

  Noble Germanicus, forget these unruly words.

  She is a woman, pregnant; let me who have grown old

  speak quietly with you, I know men’s hearts:

  foolhardy and impetuous,

  and where they break because they can no more ...

  AGRIPPINA

  This woman’s brave, like Roman women were before.

  GERMANICUS

  I am as much a prisoner as she.

  She speaks the truth:

  I too am caught up in the treadmill’s wheels ...

  the great Empire grinds all around me and breaks,

  and does not care a jot for me. I am the force

  that works for it at this last outpost,

  works for Empire – but it could as well find

  other forces, other hands for its dark work,

  grind all so many times – also without me.

  I’d send her back, to her husband and her people:

  such greatness is seldom found on this round earth

  but she’s a captured trophy of the Caesar, and of Rome,

  and both loom dark and mighty over me.

  ... If I could grasp, would the world seem any different,

  and somehow greater?

  Agrippina,

  Take care of her – as noble must serve noble.

  Agrippina goes off with Thusnelda and the women

  [To Segestes] And you ... tonight we party, if you want [47]

  to come, today we celebrate, as we always do,

  it is the ruler’s right of Rome, the downfall too

  of those who rise against her.

  [To an officer] See to the king.

  Segestes off

  And now to pleasant things:

  Bring here the wine that Marcus hankers for!

  The elderly Secretary goes out to fetch it, and appears with it after a few moments; they pour and drink

  and, friends, forgive me: I do not want to end this day

  so without showing how much I care for you.

  For those of us who must grow old,

  some lonely days will come that are more bleak

  with no part in the honours of this special day:

  and bitterness, grudging faces of an unknown foe

  Who do not know the love deep hidden in our hearts

  – how can we avoid this unless we die?

  Let these things become our sign of grace

  in cold years ahead:

  Takes off his sword and gives it to Piso

  Piso – my sword: it’s quiet, sharp and true

  and keeps its secret counsel in its scabbard;

  Take it and wear it and never, ever forget.

  To Marcus

  Marcus – you take my belt: it’s coarse but tough;

  let it bind us as if its copper buckle

&
nbsp; binds round both bodies in a single loop.

  To Caius

  Caius, here, take my mantle: it’s not soft

  like those they wear in Rome; it’s kept out the rain

  in far worse nights than this; may it

  keep our friendship warm against the world –

  And think of me.

  For Lucius I have nought to give,

  He gave his all and made us the poorer [48]

  so that tears are now all that we have left to give.

  CAIUS

  I thank you, as I have to thank you for everything.

  But it’s too sad, there’s something disconcerting ...

  it sounds as if you’re dying – this handing out.

  GERMANICUS [Smiling]

  Not yet, not yet. There’s still a long time before I die.

  PISO

  There’s still long dying-time before we grow weak.

  And dying-places abound between these borders:

  today is not an end – scarce a halting-place.

  GERMANICUS

  Also in this your friendship is clairvoyant, Piso.

  A messenger enters

  MESSENGER

  Cneius Calpurnius Piso! A message awaits you

  from Rome, from Caesar, I think, at your tent.

  PISO

  A message from Tiberius Claudius Caesar

  to a Calpurnius, Cneius Piso –

  and I fear that the Calpurnius will have to go,

  this era demands what in former times was different.

  Forgive me. [Piso off]

  MARCUS

  Eyes that watch us all, messengers

  that come and go – between each great victory

  ears that listen nightly at each tent flap;

  tablets secretly annotated and hidden safe;

  mouths that break open more than all these letters;

  they’re more secret – and they’re safer ...

  GERMANICUS

  Marcus,

  don’t think you see ghosts – there’re too many sheets.

  Caesar ... he takes an interest in his legions.

  MARCUS [49]

  If one of those pale and thin spies of his,

  the “messengers” from Rome, should cross my path,

  I should squash him flat like this wine-fly here:

  these creature can always sniff, sniff out, where there’s wine

  – now you see nothing, and moments later if your glass

  stands filled, twenty whirl above it;

  they seem to breed just there up in the air,

  are made of air and mist ...

  GERMANICUS

  Shall I then have to waylay every messenger,

  open letters, hold rags up to the light for scrutiny

  and pry to find out what each thinks or writes of me?

  listen for what nightly listeners have heard?

  Safety cannot be bought at such a price.

  Here we speak freely and all who will, may hear.

  CAIUS

  Then let me speak – right now – of what all of us

  think every moment. We pretend we’re drunk

  and merry, pretend escape and flaunt our safety

  as scraps of comfort; but we know well:

  a mad beast lies and watches day and night:

  Tiberius in his den, he lies and slavers,

  but he will never forgive you for this day.

  GERMANICUS [Deep in thought]

  Tiberius is old and suspicious, secretive,

  but he’s my uncle, adopted me as son,

  I watched over his legions faithfully,

  erected trophies for him, called out his name.

  MARCUS [Laughs]

  And when the people shout “Tiberius” out loud,

  then below that he always hears “Germanicus”,

  “Germanicus!” ... such beasts keep their ears well cocked

  GERMANICUS

  Tiberius Caesar will not live for ever.

  After him I rule, that was Augustus’ will. [50]

  CAIUS

  There you have said the word that Caesar fears

  Caesar and Livia.

  MARCUS

  That grandma with a beard,

  that twists the Empire in her skinny fingers

  a tassel for her gown, no less, and peers.

  She spins and weaves – she wove Augustus

  weird spells into her web and woof –

  that now she weaves for you.

  The messengers from Rome

  shoot back and forth like spindles – just for you!

  He sings drunkenly

  They’re all so meek and humble

  They sit at the spindle and weave

  But!

  Oh ! !

  Every small crab and the Moon

  Must feel that love so soon

  And!

  Oh ! !

  The rag doll, the rag doll is stirring.

  That’s what the men sing.

  CAIUS

  They fear another will inherit first

  – their desire too. Where is Agrippa now?

  and he was named the heir ...

  GERMANICUS

  That’s just our guess.

  CAIUS

  And Drusus, he was feared and closely watched –

  Tiberius’ own son, his firstborn – ambushed,

  spied on. It’s never safe to be too close to Caesar;

  his son was not much different from – his foes.

  That is the case when men must wade towards the throne. [51]

  Princes die young in that old house, and those

  that do get old, get twisted, surly and spiteful.

  GERMANICUS

  That’s true. As if a large visage,

  larger than half of heaven looms down over us

  and overshadows the clean honour of this day.

  – But against that too I must keep straight;

  keep myself clean in this filth.

  Servant enters with letter that he hands to Germanicus

  SERVANT

  A messenger from Caesar waits, from Rome.

  GERMANICUS

  For me? Give here. [Agrippina enters]

  AGRIPPINA

  She is asleep, the beautiful woman is sunk

  in heavy dull sleep like one that felt a blow.

  To rest like that, is terrible.

  GERMANICUS

  Caesar calls me back: the people yearn,

  so he writes, and he too yearns to see us all

  with every glorious victory sign:

  an ovation, a second consulate,

  and great work in the East, where he – he’s old

  and sickly, so he writes – needs the youthful powers

  of his “son” ... [Silence and consternation]

  AGRIPPINA

  Go! Go to Rome! But in among your legions,

  lest this letter be both judgement and sentence!

  MARCUS

  Nothing’s ignoble against a feral beast.

  ... Again friendly, again treacherous as always:

  he’s outlawed by his own hatefulness.

  Why hesitate? The armies all are yours.

  You know what the legions speak of every day.

  Listen at every tent, hear next the fires, [52]

  hear them as they dig in this land’s boggy earth

  at every nightly bivouac:

  not for the horror that hides at Rome,

  – for you, for us, and for themselves they do it!

  AGRIPPINA

  Forgive me that I speak out among you men:

  there is no retreat left here for you.

  You know the man –

  cold, bitter, quiet. He feels no anger.

  Lonely and loveless he held on and on

  in those long years when Augustus would not die.

  He was a man once: and he loved too;

  but when Augustus made him put away his wife

  to ma
rry Julia – then something in him died.

  I know he’s dead. What now rules in Rome,

  it is a corpse – no human, a corpse,

  a grey despairing body with the power

  of bone and muscle – but without blood.

  Vipsania,

  he could not bear to see her again. I was a child,

  he at the window when she passed –

  the only time I ever saw him shake and tremble.

  But just to rule he allowed himself to die.

  Long years of insults he withstood – he’s silent;

  then honours came, and certainty – he’s silent.

  He knows death too well for regret or spite.

  Keeps his own counsel, and that wicked hag

  that handed empire to him, she will die;

  his son will die; all that is good in Rome

  will all be dead – and his two ancient eyes

  will dully watch, as long as he can rule.

  How can you go! You have become too great.

  CAIUS

  And all your officers: Marcus, I, Caecina ...

  MARCUS [53]

  But what of Piso?

  CAIUS

  He stays silent, keeps his pride

  to himself. The soldiers call him “Black Piso”

  “the Dark One”, “the gloomy Piso”; he isn’t loved.

  MARCUS

  A small Tiberius!

  But if he crosses me, I’ll give him silence

  – more than he wants – silence; and darkness too ...

  that’s also to be had ...

  CAIUS

  I’ve known him since his youth.

  He’s embittered and I don’t know why.

  Perhaps about all his mighty forebears

  that raised Rome’s ramparts high from our red soil

  and held them in their hands – but are no more.

  but because of that he dares to do great deeds.

  He’s brave – but he does not love you, Germanicus.

  GERMANICUS

  I am not sure – sometimes he looks at me, so ...

  I am his friend, let him be what he wants.

  His honour’s mine, I trust his grave fidelity.

  CAIUS

  I call on you ...

  MARCUS

  Dismiss the secretary:

  he hears it all, writes all things down ...

  GERMANICUS

  Yes, he has power. He builds up crumb for crumb

  A yellow termite, he; he could strike us all

  down in a moment, reporting to Tiberius.

  ... yet stays my friend, not so, old man? ...

  MARCUS

  Let’s all get drunk. Let’s drink great Gaul dry.

  It’s clearly madness here: it’s glorious: [54]

  the sacred disease lurks and laughs at us ...

  we conspire together on the marketplace, call out:

  “Come, listen here! Here’s treachery afoot!”

  “We’re talking secrets!” – it’s glorious and great

  to be both drunk and crazy when all is mad.

  Piso re-enters

  CAIUS

  It’s too late now to act as if it’s secret.

  I place my life in your hand, Germanicus.

  Let me go out and stand before this tent

  and shout: Caesar Germanicus Augustus!

  Then all your legions will answer

  and Rome will be clean again.

  MARCUS

  And we shall blow across the farthest borders

  – three mighty winds unknown before upon the earth –

  and everything will bear the name of Rome!

  He goes to the tent flap en opens it; calls to the guards

  You standing there! Shout and call the men together!

  Caesar is to speak!

  [He shouts outside] Come here, you leathery old veterans!

  Come listen up! Who wants to go to Rome?

  Great things are now afoot!

  Germanicus is Caesar!

  GERMANICUS

  Still half amused

  Marcus, shut up. Stand back. The wine is talking now

  MARCUS

  Does not hear him; louder

  Who is your Caesar? Is it Tiberius?

  That drunkard lolling round in Rome?

  It’s not me that’s drunk. You there, say: is it Livia

  that old monkey, that leads these legions forth?

  Or is it this man [points to the inner tent] [55]

  who will now speak?

  Caius Julius Caesar Germanicus

  Augustus Imperator.

  GERMANICUS

  I speak as your commander now! Stand back.

  Stands at the tent flap, addresses those outside

  Marcus Veranius is tanked. We’re partying tonight.

  I, your commander, am a Caesar.

  There’s wine enough, tonight – enjoy it.

  But first make sure our moat and ramparts around

  protect our tents properly!

  Goes inside, speaks to one of the younger officers

  See to it that these troops move

  to the other camp, and place guards around.

  There are thousands more that wait.

  Marcus Veranius, give me your sword.

  Germanicus puts it down on a table

  It’s strange that we, such old friends and brothers

  still always speak a different language

  with each other. The sacred disease, Marcus,

  the sacred disease has taken hold of all of us

  for we are men; it rends, it makes us scream and curse;

  we are sombre and alone in all we say,

  and no-one listens; each seeks a separate good.

  I know that I have reached the precipice

  I know that I have no power to do what’s right

  before I take all power as my own.

  But the cold wind of Rome has blown to here

  – too far it blew – across each foreign nation.

  We have a stew here, a cold, grey, slippery broth

  of nations, scrambled all together; it lies before us [56]

  flat and greasy; like in a pan.

  At times a man creates his own commander;

  those shining, glorious times

  when one man speaks for all men everywhere;

  they know him well, and he can help let loose

  what they had in them, hidden and tied fast –

  then there are times that mankind, all the nations,

  go mad with dissent and with factions,

  no words, no compromise can heal them then;

  where all within them fight against themselves

  and blaspheme.

  Who would rule then, fights at last against himself.

  One man could come to turn them once again to men,

  men as of old – he would have to be a god,

  or else he’d need to wade through madness,

  stumble through injustice, terror, towards right as his goal.

  CAIUS

  That is your doom. This doom will touch us all.

  GERMANICUS

  It won’t touch you.

  The world has poured its filth on us,

  And we must see to it ...

  think straight: tonight we party;

  they are waiting; we cannot neglect our manners,

  not even now dare we neglect them. [Off, to the inner tent]

  MARCUS

  Looks around in a daze

  Caius: you, and when did you die then?

  The Mamertine? Without an axe? With a rope?

  I shall not die like that.

  Where are your children, Agrippina? Dead?

  Why, they were still so soft! [57]

  But look, there it grows through your cheek, your lips:

  the skull is straining through like the white shoot

  of a bean strains to leave the soil! It’s coming!

  Did they
starve you then?

  I will not die like that. Rather twice as mutinous:

  what was it again?

  He took my sword. I’ll steal it back again.

  Look at old Marcus: committing treachery again.

  Tell him that. I will not die like that.

  Not like a scrawny cow in the holding pen.

  CAIUS

  Marcus Veranius! Go, rest, and wait until tomorrow.

  MARCUS

  Was that my master Germanicus that spoke?

  He grabs his sword and runs outside with it; Caius follows; noise outside; Caius returns

  CAIUS

  We could do nothing. There was nothing we could do.

  He struck it home. Mad as he was, it went home.

  Turns to the door through which Germanicus left

  But him: he’s sacred. Nothing can touch him.

  AGRIPPINA

  Covers her face with her hands

  The skull sprouts out of us.