Three Hands In The Fountain

There was, an obvious cause for our problem today. Public slaves receive no official stipend for their duties. Naturally I had come equipped with the usual ex gratia offering, but the clerk thought that if he made things look difficult he could garner a more spectacular tip than usual. The hour's argument was needed to persuade him that I had no more money.;

He started weakening. Julia then remembered she wanted to be fed, so she screwed up her little eyes and screamed as if she were practising for when she grew up and wanted to go to parties that I disapproved of. She received her certificate without further delay.

Rome is a masculine city. Places where' a respectable woman can feed her young child modestly are rare. That is because respectable nursing mothers are supposed to stay at home. Helena disapproved of staying at home. Perhaps it was my fault for not providing a more alluring habitat. She also despised suckling the baby at the women's latrines, and seemed in no mood to proffer an entry to the women's baths. So we ended up hiring a carrying chair, making sure it had window curtains. If there was one thing that grated on me more than paying for a chair, it was paving for it to go nowhere.

`That's all right,' Helena soothed me. 'We can take a trip. You don't have to stand on guard outside feeling embarrassed.'

The child had to be nourished. Besides, I was proud of the fact that. Helena was high-mindedly feeding Julia herself. Many women of her status praise the idea but pay a wet-nurse instead. `I'll wait.'

`No, ask the men to carry us to the Atrium' of Liberty,' Helena ordered decisively.

`What's' at the Atrium?"

'It's where they store the overflow archive of the Censor's records office. Including notices of the dead.' I knew that.

`Who's died?' I had guessed what she was up to, but I hated being shoved into things.

`That's what you have to find out, Marcus.'

`Pardon me?'

`The hand that you and Petro found? I'm not suggesting you will be able to trace its owner, but there must be a clerk who can at least tell you the procedure when a' person disappears.'

I said I had had enough of clerks, but we were all carried off to the Atrium of Liberty anyway.

Like funeral directors, the clerks in the death notice section were a chirpy lot, a bright contrast to their surly colleague registering births. I knew a couple of them already, Silvius and Brixius. Informers are often sent to the Atrium archives by heirs or executors of wills. It was the first time I had shuf fled into their office with my stately girlfriend, a sleeping baby, and a; curious dog, however. They took it well, presuming that Helena was my client – a pushy one who insisted on supervising my every move. Apart from the fact that I would not be sending her an invoice, that was close.

They worked in the same cubicle, swapping bad jokes and scrolls as if they had no idea what they were doing; on the whole I thought they were efficient. Silvius was about forty, slim and neat. Brixius was younger but favoured the same short hairstyle and elaborate tunic belt. It was pretty clear they had a sexual relationship. Brixius was the soppy one who wanted to dandle Julia. Silvius, putting on a:show of tart annoyance, dealt with me.

`I'm seeking general information, Silvius.' I explained about the discovery of the hand, and that Petronius and I were now curious. `Looks like a blind alley. If a person goes missing, and it's reported to the vigiles, they keep a note, but I wouldn't like to speculate how long the scroll stays active. Whether they pursue the issue depends on a lot of things. But that's not the problem. This relic is in no condition to be identified. It may be ages old, too.'

`So how can we help?' asked Silvius, suspiciously. He was a public slave. He spent his life trying to think up novel ways of referring requests for information to a different department.' `Our records relate to whole personalities, not unpleasant portions of their anatomy.'

`Suppose we had found a whole body, then. If it was nameless, and stayed so, would it be recorded here?'

`No. It could be a foreigner or a slave. Why would anyone want to know about them? We only register the extinction of known Roman citizens.'

`All right; consider it from the other end. What if somebody goes missing? A citizen, one of the three ranks? When their anguished relatives reach the point where they are forced to assume the person is dead, do they come to you?'

`They might. It's up to them.'

`How?'

`If they want a formal record of their loss, they can ask for a certificate.'

`It's not needed' for any official purpose, though?'

Silvius consulted Brixius with a glance. `If the missing person was a head of household, the certificate would confirm to the Treasury that he had ceased to be liable for taxation, by virtue of paying his debts in! Hades. Death is the only acknowledged let-off.'

`Very droll.'

`A formal certificate is not relevant for the will?' Helena

put in.