The Fifth Hour

Domitian’s last day: a foretold hour, the servants’ lie and a man with a bandaged arm.

Transcript

September eighteenth, AD ninety-six. Around midnight the emperor leaps out of bed in terror.

In the morning he tries a soothsayer from Germania who foretold a change of ruler. Domitian sentences him to death.

Then he asks the hour. The servants, in on it, say the sixth. But it is the fifth.

The emperor sighs with relief. The hour is past. He hurries to bathe.

On the way his chamberlain Parthenius stops him. Someone has come on urgent business and will not leave.

The emperor dismisses his attendants and goes to his bedroom. Stephanus waits there. For days his left arm has been in woolen bandages.

He hands him a letter.

Soon Domitian will call for the dagger under his pillow. The boy who tends the shrine will find only the hilt.