Part 100 (1/2)
”I am intimately involved in all these moveo, I am part of Roman politics, like it or not”
”I don't don't like it!” he returned like it!” he returned
I was taken aback--not at his sentiments, but at his honesty ”There are days I don't like it, either,” I said
Still Antony's speech had not returned Both Consuls turned to hi
”Imperator,” said Sosius, ”tell uswhat shall we do?”
”I don't know,” Antony finally said He looked perplexed ”Wherever shall we put all these senators?”
”You revered the Senate so,” I reminded him ”Now you shall have them on your hands!” Perhaps it was cruel ofwas so messy--and Octavian so full of surprises
They arrived within a few days, spilling off the boats,their way up the harbor road and into the s
How odd they looked, away fro, they lost all their forners
We found lodging for the the hospitality of the Ephesians to the limit
Octavian had promptly appointed two of his men--Valerius Messalla and Cornelius Cinna--to fill the vacant posts of Consul The ranks had closed behind us Our Consuls were deposed Our entire party was in exile There was only one way to get back--fight, defeat Octavian, and return to Ro twelve years since Caesar's death to see his true heir recognized, his false one driven from the throne For throne it was: the Roman throne, created by Caesar, destined for his son
The forces gathered in Ephesus Antony now had eight squadrons of sixty shi+ps each, with forty support shi+ps and five scouts per squadron--almost five hundred shi+ps He also counted another three hundred transport and supply vessels Altogether our fleet nu size For the first time since Alexander, all the sea power in the east lay at one ions from Armenia, and seven s all over the east had pledged their troops: Archelaus of Cappadocia, Amyntas of Galatia, Tarcondiene, Deiotarus of Paphlagonia, Rhoemetalces and Sadalas of Thrace, Bocchus of Mauretania, Herod of Judaea, Malchus of Nabataea, and the King of Media These totaled some twenty-five thousand ionaries
Did I neglect toall this? Yes, the treasury of Egypt was covering all the expenses ofthis army, as well as the navy--so that it cost about fifty talents to ion in the field for a year It was also inal debt to Ron that what had been an enorertips, ready for disposal
I was underwriting all the expense--carrying this army on my back--or, rather, on my treasury's back And yet the Romans dared to order me to depart! The insolence of Romans never failed to stun me Withoutfor them, no bread and wine
Yet they tried to persuade Antony to dis that ”all would be well if Cleopatra would depart to Egypt” Others took up the chorus, saying thatAntony's cause Just how, they did not specify! All this, while eating ot louder, but during that spring they were still soft enough to be passed over
We decided to do so Alexander had done: hold a festival ofto war It was a very Greek thing to do; no Ro to preserve our different way of life?
We gave orders for everyone to assemble on the island of Samos, which lies just off the wide Bay of Ephesus
Chapter 70
The ht, like other night creatures that give off light at dawn or dusk: fireflies, will-o'-the-wisps, gloorht They clientle slope, this, at Sa for the audience they knew e, empty as well, invited me to walk upon the transformations of character every few paces I was Medea,her blind father, I was the virgin prophetess Cassandra In the e insideat me, I could have convinced them, too, that I was soht--to pretend to be someone else, so dead In some Godlike way, it makes me--briefly, oh, so briefly--the bestower of life on the lifeless The infuser of warm breath and blood to the shades
And why limit myself only to other womanly incarnations? Why not be Oedipus hiination in full force can know no bounds, and the biggest difference betweenaat all
Silence No audience, and therefore no rebirth for the dead heroes At least not tonight I would have willed theuise they could use was the body of an actor, with an audience to see hi is the only art that one cannot do alone, I realized, and still call oneself an artist There can be secret poets, secret painters, secret musicians, but no secret, solitary actors An actor without an audience is lacking an essential element
”Alone?” Antony asked in a loud whisper
I felt euessed what I was doing? I had to sood he would have i light, too
I whirled around I did not see him anywhere, and the seats looked as e away, as the night robbed everything of color
”Rehearsing?” Now the voice seemed to come from a different place But I was surrounded by emptiness
”Where are you?” I whispered, and the perfect setting nified it so it could be heard all around
”Everywhere,” came back the answer ”You cannot escape me”
”Then come and show yourself” I waited, sure a rustle or a loo down the hillside, bringing the scent of newon an eastern Greek island was the nearest we could co in the Elysian fields
A slender crescentover the fields Where was Antony? We needed to walk hand-in-hand across the warm scented expanses
”Who would youvoice seemed to corant it, in person”
”There is no one else I would rather be all the ti the rare pleasure of that ”But I suppose, just for tonight, I would like to be one of the Goddesses of the gentle breeze, so I could fly and stream over the island, wherever I wished”
There, now I had played the gaed from behind the altar of Dionysus, which stood near theup over its top like a schoolboy I was astonished-- how had he hidden there withouthim? ”So out
”If one cannot see it, it does little good,” I said ”Now, can you teach uise of wine,” he said ”And we have invited all the uild to cohed ”A tricky answer” The hispered in my ears ”Oh, Antony--this festival isout to ar was a ritual and a contest rather than a science--holding games, drama, music, all to placate the Godsperhaps we shouldn't have done it” The sacred character of it--had that been lost, forgotten, so that all the world would see was revelry? We were too much associated with that as it was Yet to forsake the old ways entirely see to the very Gods ished to aid us As if we cared ht than Zeus himself”They will ridicule us in Roed ”We won't hear thehts will be--with this reenacthty deeds done by Gods and heroes May we be worthy of them” Suddenly his voice took on that oratorical tonean invisible audience--a past one, and one yet to co our ancestors in our own lives--they dream the state we are in When we live, they live too They dance in the sunlight once more, feel the radiance that makes life sweet”
His voice rant thehtening act we could perforenerous
”Will the senators understand this?” I asked ”And the client kings, who have no part in Greek thought?”
”You concern yourself overmuch with that At the least, they will be entertained And they will doubtless find ita hich always seehed Yes, the Romans labored under that burden--money troubles Octavian was about to launch a tax drive that was bound toto demand a quarter of a person's inco tribute fro it theht I hearda refrain