VIII

-Calpurnia, my Calpurnilla….Do not worry . I hope that you have not told anything to any of the girl. Not to mention the High Vestal.

The main priestess had come to visit me, as Cornelia had been informed by Blodwynn, who….

–…. has had to go back to Cumae but told me to take care of you. It is something to be expected, as this is quite a….dramatic treatment, call it like this if you like. What does... Kornel….have to do with all this? –I saw that Cornelia Sulla kept her wide-open, steady acquamarine –coloured look on my face, waiting for the right moment. –All right, I imagine that, given your social position and what it means regarding your safety, you will be absolute discreet. Kornel (who is not my brother, though sharing my name)…..you must have realized it when you first saw him fugaciously in Cumae: he is a wise man, of a kind that we do not have here in Rome. He is not exactly an aruspex or flamen. In a certain way, he is not so different from Gallic priests and priestesses, like Blodwynn, his….kinswoman. Remember that she was brought up in a Britannia bangor and had to sail away, fleeing from….your lord’s serious likely plans of conquering the island. Once in the peninsula, Kornel and she met again and I must say she has learnt quite a lot from him, despite all that she was taught as a young girl. Mainly therapies for heal barrenness. In this aspect, I can say that Blodwynn has been an efficacious collaborator for him. I will confide you something that I want you to know right now, before you may get informed distortedly. Perhaps you ignore that Kornel himself has assisted several patrician ladies, even those of most ancient stock, aided by Blodwynn in most cases. Of course their husbands do not know anything about it, that is plain to see. As for its immediate results, I can assure you that those who used to be virtuous matronly ladies have become much more sensuous and full of life . It is easy to guess how this may stimulate fertility inside their wombs…. –She dropped some kind of intentionally lengthened silence, waiting for my answer. – By no means can I tell you who they are. It is a sealed secret, as you can imagine . Anyway, the effect is almost tangible, evident at first sight…

However, I was not able to ask her the question that I had in mind. Cornelia herself had told me that her stepmother Caecilia had given birth to a couple of twins.  But they had not reached adulthood. Besides, they were younger than my friend. On the other hand, it was not known that Lucius Cornelius Sulla had had another son who was more or less the same age as this hypothetic sister, whose eyes started to show tiredness and lose that magnetism, which could have been permanent in the merciless dictator’s. I remembered what she had made remarks about, his Gallic wife … Yes, but, why wouldn’t she have spoken straightaway about Kornel as Blodwynn’s father and her own brother? Thus my doubts would have been cleared away. When news about Sulla’s death reached far beyond Roman limes, Kornel would have estimated the convenience of contacting this sister about whom his father had undoubtedly spoken to him. What obstacle might have impeded them from keeping some occasional clandestine contact?

 –Then , Kornel…. Is he going to continue performing his …. –I did not know whether I should call it priesthood, craft or profession –…. task  here in Cumae? What about if all Rome learns about it?

 –In fact he is not in Cumae any longer. He has returned where he really belongs. No, it is not Gaul. Why on earth should he go there, to a land which is occupied by our legions? Neither would he go to Britannia; he has never been there. It is somewhere beyond our sea, a sacred place for ancient people, where he devotes himself to …. –She strove to find the right words –learning about the wisdom within each tree, the earth itself, the rivers, herbs, the sea, the air…. That force beyond what is purely human, enlivening and nourishing everything. It has a lot in common with the lore of  wise Gallic and British priests and our ancient deities, those in which Rome had steadily believed before the conquest of Greek colonies imposed theirs…which, as you know, have only an official meaning. What is Bona Dea but a reminder of that Wise Mother Goddess who reigned over the ancient peoples living around our sea… or the Great Lady of Gallic people and Britons.?

Frankly speaking, I got really startled by the fact that a clever calculating wine-dealer should also be gifted with that intense spirituality. She seemed to read my mind.

 –Let’s change the subject. You see, in the kitchen I left you an amphora with Falernian wine. It is scented with clove and orange juice so that it will heal your frailty. Are your vestals teetotallers?

With that joking smile and a warm kiss she gracefully went out through the peristylium. No, I would not have been able to go on asking questions. I could not admit it all have been just a simple brewing-infused dream. Never before had I experienced such a detailed vision, such a tangible sensation, in spite of that weightlessness that I remembered having felt. I should speak to other ladies who could have been healed by Kornel and Blodwynn…. Anyway, yes, it might well have been a dream. However, I could still recognise that voice, merged into sea breeze and time, coming from the deep of the cave, whose timbre, like salt over there, remained in my skin pores, taking me back to my childhood, when it used to haunt me:

“Calpurnia, my little Calpurnia”