Part 22 (1/2)
”In other words, a ossip and business,” I said
Mereruka sossip?” I liked hiine that he would ever be tempted to leave this place of his birth; his family had probably lived here since the time of Ramses II
”No,” I admitted ”Business is just a reflection of a man's personality, and his personality is what lends itself to gossip We talk about a ht with his brother, not about the way he keeps his ledger books”
”Speaking of wineMereruka nodded to the servant to bring a cup for oblet in the ju it
I reached out and took it The cup was cool in my hand There was some lovely workmanshi+p in the pottery of this area How unusual it was forwhat felt like friends, to have so of wineinstead of the usual formulas we use at court They did not know the prescribed phrases and rituals--thanks be to all the Gods!
”Toin the evacuation,” I said I must adarden pool, with the shadows of fish rance of the lotus in the pond, and overhead the pal tenderly Yet I could also hear a chorus of frogs, calling to tell us the river was alements been made7”
”Yes,” said Ipuy ”And the s and storehouses are all dry now The livestock has been moved already We have laid out a road that will serve well enough to pass the goods along I am afraid that the only safe place to build will be on actual sand”
”As for the granary” Mereruka let his voice trail off ”When it runs out”
”We have, of course, guards to prevent people fro the transport,” said Ipuy quickly ”But even with rationing, it will not last more than three months”
”The croill procure the necessary supplies,” I assured the exorbitant prices, no doubt I would have to take the money from the fifty-percent ih, then I would have to use the thirty-three-percent tax the governs and wine That would severely drain the royal treasury But I could not turnit to get out of paying your grain taxes” Soht have done that, but I could not
What would Caesar think ofthe poor; thousands of people received free grain
What matter, what he would think? I must do what I must do
Upstairs, in what served as the royal bedroom--vacated by Mereruka--I made ready for bed A coolness pervaded the quarters--a vent on the roof served to capture the north wind and funnel it into the room The bed was low, andon a carved wooden headrest Pilloere unknown here; perhaps they becaes At least a headrest was clean and cool
At the beginning of the journey I had wondered if I could ever sleep this way, but now I had become accustomed to them They even seemed to induce odd dreams, as if spirits could entersuspended above the flat surface of the bed
I peeled offon the wall It would dry swiftly during the night I changed it for a sleeping garypt afforded--silk that had had its threads stretched It was like wearing a mist The blind wo her sight That sight had not returned, and I had found work for her ears and her good practical sense instead: she settled disagree complaints from both sides I wished there wereat her skill in fashi+oning the garhtly curved headrest, pointing my feet toward the dark corner of the roo to be received or rejected bywhat God? An angry monster, like Molech of the Ammonites, or a lover like Cupid? I shi+vered a little
Toround, and o on to another village, and then anotherall up and down along the Nile Then back to Alexandria, to news of the wider world
Here it is so easy to forget it even exists, I thought Families like Ipuy's have seen the Pharaohs, the Nubians, the Persians coo, and it probably made no difference to theypt The rest of the world--assyria, Babylon, Greece--was as less to them as an old woining it They had existed in a warreen bosom, protected from any intrusion There must have been a time when my mother provided a si flowed placidly and predictably But thewas that I had no
Odd as it sounds forat that very moment to see her once more, to talk to her, to touch her hands Why then? I cannot explain it; I can only wonder that the yearning swept over ht in a reypt, some nineteen years after I had last been held in her arthat the line of sticks that had been planted at the edge of the river was now barely visible; the Nile had widened another five or six feet It was tiround All was in readiness The past faded for ht, and my memories and lost desires dissolved into a haze sed up in the needs of the present
I was upon the river for almost twomy journey with Caesar From the deck of my boat I saw the temple where his features had been carved onto the shoulders of Alied our vows--of what, I aive o into it again, never stand in that place again, without hiypt s, dreas--which have all been deniedbadly enough, you could will it--if the Gods allowed
Alexandria again Hohite she looked froainst the aquamarine waves of the Mediterranean--so utterly different froes My Alexandria!
The palace Or rather, the palace grounds, with all the many palaces and temples and parade fieldsit seemed an abode of the Gods, as if no mere people could live there I had seen how ordinary people lived, with their ashed ardens, their tiny ornae realm as I entered intoand polishedthe doors, taller than even a giraffe would need to pass through theain and I could no longer see it through the eyes of a stranger Why, there was the saeese inset near the handle, but in seeing it I was also seeing all the other times I had seen it, and so it was part of ain, that was all it was; ho one would have to be away before it would never seeain Ten years? Twenty?
There was a letter from Caesar, written while he was in Rome It had taken almost two months to arrive It was short, and impersonal, like his Commentaries Co on paper to brood over or cherish ”Greetings to the ypt,” it said ”I am pleased to receive news of your son's birth” I could expect no love letters fros to the ypt,” it said ”I am pleased to receive news of your son's birth” My My son's-- not son's-- not our our son's! ”May he live and prosper and have a reign of blessed yptian throne? That Roreat in the annals of your history” His name! Did Caesar know about his name? This letter had perhaps been written beforeit, had reached Rome ”I find myself beset with problems here in Rome to be taken in hand I allow myself only a few days in order to do so, for I ae to carry on the last battle against the rebel forces of Poathered in North Africa and I must pursue they The Gods could only guess how many eyes had read these words before they reached mine ”When all is done, I will send for you, and I pray your duties in Egypt will yet permit you to leave for a little while and come to Rome Your--Gaius Julius Caesar” son's! ”May he live and prosper and have a reign of blessed yptian throne? That Roreat in the annals of your history” His name! Did Caesar know about his name? This letter had perhaps been written beforeit, had reached Rome ”I find myself beset with problems here in Rome to be taken in hand I allow myself only a few days in order to do so, for I ae to carry on the last battle against the rebel forces of Poathered in North Africa and I must pursue they The Gods could only guess how many eyes had read these words before they reached mine ”When all is done, I will send for you, and I pray your duties in Egypt will yet permit you to leave for a little while and come to Rome Your--Gaius Julius Caesar”
My duties! If only he kne de they had been, and were not over yet He would send for me to come to Rome--”for a little while” Did he say that to reassure me that he would not denized that I was not sithat he had little tiypt was never to be repeated? And he had signed it ”your” Caesar Let spies see it and murmur!
I was content All would be well It would not have been wise for hi ht, and much that needed repair in our hoovern, al as a temple Row upon row of amphorae--fat, rounded ones that contained olive oil--lay in their straw beds They looked like a gathering of especially short, affluent citizens, and that was just what they were Each jar, imported from Italy, Greece, or Bithynia, swelled the coffers of my financial office Merchants were required to pay a fifty-percent tax on ih olives, that ypt ran on olive oil It hat everyone used to fuel la There were other oils-- castor and sesame, croton, linseed, safflower, and oil of bitter apple--but they were of limited use, and none could compare to olive oil
This collection of ah es I would have to multiply it by hundreds But so be it
”Good Majesty,” said the official in charge of the warehouse, ”I trust you see hoell I have provided for storage It is always cool in here, thanks to the high roof and the vents, which let the sea breezes circulate at all times I have never had an amphora turn rancid on me! Unless it was improperly sealed, of course Never liked the ones with sheep's fat and clay in the stoppers”
”I require your books as to the duties collected on these shi+pments,” I said ”I am most impressed with the order and tidiness here”
”The owner sees to that,” he said ”He is ht in here” He winced ”That is e have so rain stored on the other side It was only then that I saw all the cats, perched like statues of Bast everywhere
Mice Yesterday's dispatch had reported the beginning of a plague of ypt Yes, relief would be needed The taxI have a good head for ures--up to a point But I was in sore need of a minister of finances Mardian could not serve as both chief minister and financial official
”Who is the owner?” I asked He anization
”Epaphroditus, of the Delta section of the city,” he said
”The Delta? He is a Jew, then?”
”Yes His Hebrew naures and accounts?”
”It is outstanding, Your Majesty He can straighten out the led records And I have never known him to make a mistake in his additions and subtractions He is scrupulously honest He inning and end of each day And he issues the weights himself, so there can be no replace on his inventory of tin bars, he delivered hiht up to the elders for trial Since their God, Yahweh, says cheating eights and uess what happened to that shi+pmaster There have been no false inventories since”
”If I wished to send for this--Hezekiah--?”
”First, you would not be allowed to address him as Hezekiah Gentiles must use his Greek name”
I left determined to interview this Epaphroditus Perhaps his Yahould have providedto fill the post of financial minister When we are ready, the Gods send e need
Hezekiah--that is, Epaphroditus--pronounced hi to meet with me He was very busy, he said, but perhaps could spare an hour inof Adonis
Was he being facetious? The Jews held all such festivals in either pious horror or sophisticated ridicule, depending on whether they thehty reply indicated that he was one of the Jeho disliked Ptoleroup had helped Caesar in the recent Alexandrian War I determined to pay this no heed It was the , not his beliefs and prejudices I was interested in interviewing, not his beliefs and prejudices