A Place of Greater Safety

by Hilary Mantel

As soon as words had become crimes against the state, it was only a small step to transform into offences mere glances, sorrow, compassion, sighs, even silence … It was a crime against the state that Libonius Drusus asked the fortune tellers if he would ever be rich … It was a crime against the state that one of Cassius’ descendants had a portrait of his ancestor in his house. Mamercus Scaurus committed a crime by writing a tragedy in which certain verses were capable of a double meaning. It was a crime against the state that the mother of the consul Furius Geminus mourned for the death of her son … It was necessary to rejoice at the death of a friend or relative, if one wished to escape death oneself. Was a citizen popular? He might start a faction. Suspect. Did he try instead to retreat from public life? Suspect. Are you rich? Suspect. Are you – to all appearances – poor? You must be hiding something. Suspect. Are you melancholy? The state of the nation must upset you. Suspect. Are you cheerful? You must be rejoicing at national calamities. Suspect. Are you a philosopher, an orator or a poet? Suspect.