of decades of concentrated thought, deepened. "Augusta?"
"You heard what I said."
"Augusta, the emperor's physician believes that he will recover."
"Xenophon has changed his diagnosis. My husband will be dead before dawn. I need the acclamation time by then."
The astrologer's eyes blinked with confusion.
Agrippina went on, "Be sure that the Moon is well placed. Fate decrees that my son needs my help."
Balbillus glanced at the water clock as hurried into his study, he told me many years later. It showed that the Sun would rise in two hours. It had taken him three days to find the propitious moment for Nero to be born, that dreadful morning when Agrippina had his birth induced precisely at sunrise to ensure him his imperial destiny. She had then murdered both the physician and the midwife so the birth time would remain a secret. But now the astrologer had no more than two hours to find the moment when all the brilliant promises he’d made were destined to be kept.
Making an effort to steady his hands, he unrolled the chart. Just the sight of a horoscope calmed him, the perfection of the wheel, the precision of the degrees separating the planets, the elegance of the angles, the sublime profundity of the mathematical relationships. Astrology was the medium that translated the language of heaven into the language of earth. It soared far above the sweat and squabble of mundane affairs. It was unsoiled by human spittle. It was the tongue of god.
Serene now, he examined Agrippina’s horoscope. “Be sure that the Moon is well placed,” that's what she'd told him. Well, the most powerful place for the Moon to be was in Cancer because that was the Moon's celestial home. When would the Moon be in Cancer? It was then that he cursed myself for allowing emotion to debase his intellect. He was asking himself a question to which he already knew the answer! The Moon was already in Cancer, at twenty two degrees of Cancer, to be exact, not yet exactly in a fortunate sextile to Nero's Saturn, but so very close to it that...
That's when Balbillus made the discovery and it made his head reel. Agrippina reason for choosing tonight to murder Claudius was written across heaven. This was no sudden homicidal impulse. It was murder in cold blood, planned four months previously, immediately after the appearance of the comet and then, when the appointed time came, ruthlessly executed. Yes the evidence was clear enough, but the crime was so monstrous that he had to make sure.
Since the appearance of the comet the Moon had passed through the twenty-sixth degree of Cancer four times, once every month during its orbit around the earth. Yet only during the coming day, during the Moon's fifth passage, would Mars be conjunct Nero's Jupiter, a configuration that indicated magnificent power. That's what Agrippina must have discovered soon after he'd explained that by pointing its tail at Hydra's head the comet was foretelling that Claudius would be poisoned. For four months she'd waited, sleeping in Claudius's bed, tasting his food, wiping away the spit that drooled from his mouth when he got angry or sexually aroused. Then on the night that preceded the Moon's fifth transit of the twenty-sixth degree of Cancer she'd murdered him, or rather tried to murder him. When Claudius had begun to recover, she'd somehow persuaded Xenophon to change his diagnosis, that chilling euphemism.
Of course Agrippina had known that Balbillus would find her footprints in the future, footprints that oozed with the blood of the man he'd been honored to call his friend. Now he was an accessory to regicide, everyone would assume that he'd computed the day of the murder for Agrippina. She held him in the palm of hand.
"As you know." Those were the words Balbillus succeeded in holding back when he returned to the room where she waited. “Tomorrow is the auspicious day, Augusta,” he said instead. “The moment is half an hour before midday."
To Agrippina it was no
"You heard what I said."
"Augusta, the emperor's physician believes that he will recover."
"Xenophon has changed his diagnosis. My husband will be dead before dawn. I need the acclamation time by then."
The astrologer's eyes blinked with confusion.
Agrippina went on, "Be sure that the Moon is well placed. Fate decrees that my son needs my help."
Balbillus glanced at the water clock as hurried into his study, he told me many years later. It showed that the Sun would rise in two hours. It had taken him three days to find the propitious moment for Nero to be born, that dreadful morning when Agrippina had his birth induced precisely at sunrise to ensure him his imperial destiny. She had then murdered both the physician and the midwife so the birth time would remain a secret. But now the astrologer had no more than two hours to find the moment when all the brilliant promises he’d made were destined to be kept.
Making an effort to steady his hands, he unrolled the chart. Just the sight of a horoscope calmed him, the perfection of the wheel, the precision of the degrees separating the planets, the elegance of the angles, the sublime profundity of the mathematical relationships. Astrology was the medium that translated the language of heaven into the language of earth. It soared far above the sweat and squabble of mundane affairs. It was unsoiled by human spittle. It was the tongue of god.
Serene now, he examined Agrippina’s horoscope. “Be sure that the Moon is well placed,” that's what she'd told him. Well, the most powerful place for the Moon to be was in Cancer because that was the Moon's celestial home. When would the Moon be in Cancer? It was then that he cursed myself for allowing emotion to debase his intellect. He was asking himself a question to which he already knew the answer! The Moon was already in Cancer, at twenty two degrees of Cancer, to be exact, not yet exactly in a fortunate sextile to Nero's Saturn, but so very close to it that...
That's when Balbillus made the discovery and it made his head reel. Agrippina reason for choosing tonight to murder Claudius was written across heaven. This was no sudden homicidal impulse. It was murder in cold blood, planned four months previously, immediately after the appearance of the comet and then, when the appointed time came, ruthlessly executed. Yes the evidence was clear enough, but the crime was so monstrous that he had to make sure.
Since the appearance of the comet the Moon had passed through the twenty-sixth degree of Cancer four times, once every month during its orbit around the earth. Yet only during the coming day, during the Moon's fifth passage, would Mars be conjunct Nero's Jupiter, a configuration that indicated magnificent power. That's what Agrippina must have discovered soon after he'd explained that by pointing its tail at Hydra's head the comet was foretelling that Claudius would be poisoned. For four months she'd waited, sleeping in Claudius's bed, tasting his food, wiping away the spit that drooled from his mouth when he got angry or sexually aroused. Then on the night that preceded the Moon's fifth transit of the twenty-sixth degree of Cancer she'd murdered him, or rather tried to murder him. When Claudius had begun to recover, she'd somehow persuaded Xenophon to change his diagnosis, that chilling euphemism.
Of course Agrippina had known that Balbillus would find her footprints in the future, footprints that oozed with the blood of the man he'd been honored to call his friend. Now he was an accessory to regicide, everyone would assume that he'd computed the day of the murder for Agrippina. She held him in the palm of hand.
"As you know." Those were the words Balbillus succeeded in holding back when he returned to the room where she waited. “Tomorrow is the auspicious day, Augusta,” he said instead. “The moment is half an hour before midday."
To Agrippina it was no
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