The Roman (28 page)

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see that the barracks were cleaned, the weapons polished, that the men shaved, cut their hair, and in general tried to look like Romans. I promised to return the following morning for an inspection at sunrise, for which I also had the prison scrubbed and fresh switches prepared. The veterans looked alternately in surprise at me and at the furiously grimacing centurion, but they thought it best to say nothing. I remembered the advice I had been given and hung up my parade uniform in the equipment store and instead put on a simple leather tunic and a round exercise helmet when I went back to the inn. Hierex had had cabbage and beans cooked for me. I drank water with my food and went to my room so depressed that I felt no desire whatsoever to make the acquaintance of the sights of Corinth. When I returned at dawn to the barracks, something had indeed been happening in my absence. The guards on duty at the entrance stood to attention with raised lances and gave me a rousing greeting. The senior centurion was dressed for exercises. He did his best to make the sleepy men wash at the water troughs, barking at them in a hoarse voice. The barber was fully occupied and on the sooty altar a crackling fire was burning and the yard smelled of clean soldiers rather than of a pigsty. �I�m sorry I didn�t have the signal blown when you arrived,� said the centurion sarcastically, �but Commander Rubrius is particular about his morning sleep. Now you�d better take over. I�ll watch. The men are eagerly awaiting a sacrifice. A couple of pigs would do if an oxen is too expensive.� Because of my training and upbringing, I�d had little experience of sacrifices and under no circumstances was I going to make a fool of myself by spearing squealing pigs to death. �It�s not yet time for sacrifices,� I snapped. �I must first see whether it�s worth staying here or whether I�ll give up the whole assignment.� As I walked around, I soon noticed that the small number of men there knew the drill and could march properly if they wanted to. They did get rather breathless after marching at the double, but in the group battle-drill they could all throw their lances at least somewhere near the sacks of straw. During the sword exercises with blunt weapons, I noticed that there were several

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really skilled swordsmen. When they were all finally panting and sweating, the centurion made a suggestion. �What about standing them at ease,� he said, �and showing us how you can fence? I�m a bit old and fat of course, but I�d be glad to show you how we used to use a sword in Pannonia. It was there, in Carnuntum, that I got my centurion�s stave.� To my surprise, I found I had to exert myself with him. He would have had me against the wall with his shield, despite my longer sword, if he had not become out of breath so soon. The swift motions and the clear sunlight of Corinth gradually began to make me ashamed of my former irritability and to remember that all these men were older than I and had served a couple of decades longer. There were just about as many degrees of service as there were men in the troop. A legion of normal strength has nearly seventy different pay grades to increase the zeal for service. I began to seek a reconciliation with the centurion. �Now I�m prepared to sacrifice a young bull,� I said. �I�ll also pay for a ram for you to sacrifice. The eldest of the veterans can sacrifice a pig. Then we�ll have meat of the best kinds. It�s not worth bearing a grudge against me for a little exercise in acquaintanceship, is it?� The centurion looked me up and down and his face lit up. �I�ll send the best men I�ve got down to the cattle market,� he said, �and they can choose the animals. You�ll provide some wine, too, I suppose.� Naturally I could not refuse to take part in the sacrificial meal with the men. They vied with each other at extracting good bits of meat for me from the jars. I had to drink some wine too. After the exertions of the day, I was made drunk by the meat alone and the wine went straight to my knees after such a long period of abstention. After dark, a number of women whose profession no one could mistake, though some of them were young and pretty, came creeping cautiously into the camp. I seem to remember that I wept bitterly and told the centurion that one could never trust any woman because every woman was guile itself and a trap. I also remember that the soldiers carried me lying on the God of War�s couch high up on their shoulders around the yard, singing the Pannonian legion�s bawdy songs in my honor. I remember nothing else.

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During the last night spell of guard duty, I woke by being sick all over myself as I lay on a hard wooden truckle-bed in the quarters. My legs buckling beneath me, my hands holding my head, I staggered out and saw men lying all over the yard, every one of them where he had fallen. I felt so appallingly ill that the stars in the morning sky danced in front of my eyes as I tried to look up. I washed myself as best I could and was so bitterly ashamed of my conduct that I might have thrown myself on my sword had not all the sharp weapons been locked up in good time the night before. Tottering through the streets of Corinth with their fading torches and pitch caldrons, I at last found my inn. Hierex had been anxiously waiting up for me. When he saw my wretched condition he undressed me, wiped my limbs with a damp cloth, gave me something bitter to drink and put me to bed under a woolen coverlet. When I woke again, cursing the day I was born, he fed me carefully with a few spoonfuls of wine in whipped-up yolks of egg. Before I even had time to think about my promise, I had gobbled down a portion of well-spiced meat stew. Sighing with relief, Hierex became voluble. �Blessed be all the gods,� he said, �both known and unknown, but most of all your own Goddess of Fortune. I had been very worried about you and was afraid your reason was going. It�s neither natural nor right that a youngster of your age and rank should see the world through sad eyes and eat nothing but cabbage and drink nothing but water. So it was as if a burden had fallen from my back when you came back stinking of wine and vomit and I realized that you had thrown in your lot with ordinary men.� �I�m afraid I�ve brought disgrace on myself all over Corinth,� I said bitterly. �I dimly remember that I danced a Greek goat dance with the legionaries. When Proconsul Gallio gets to hear of this, I�m certain he�ll send me straight back to Rome to be a writer or a lawyer.� Hierex forced me to go out and walk with him in the wide streets of the city, telling me the exercise would do me good. We saw the sights of Corinth together, the ancient sternpost of the Argonauts� ship in the temple of Neptune, the Pegasus spring and the hoof mark in the rock beside it. Hierex tried to lure me

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up to the Venus temple on the mountain, but I still had enough sense left to refuse. Instead we looked at the wonder of Corinth, a waxed wooden track on which quite large ships could be hauled by slaves from Cenchreae to Lycaea and back. One would have thought this would have needed hordes of slaves and endless whiplashes, but the Greek shipbuilders, with the help of windlasses and cogs, had arranged it all so skillfully that the ships slid along the track as if by themselves. A seaman who noticed our interest swore on the Nereids that with a good wind behind them, it was sufficient just to hoist the sails. I felt better afterwards, my troubles fading, as Hierex told me about his life and several times made me laugh. But I still felt embarrassed when I went back to the barracks the next day. Fortunately everything had been cleared up after the orgy, the men on guard were smartly in their places and the usual daily routine in force. Rubrius summoned me and reproached me tactfully. �You are still young and inexperienced,� he said. �There was no valid reason for inciting these old warriors to fight each other and brawl drunkenly all night. I hope it will be the last time. Try not to give free rein to the Roman crudeness in your nature, and adapt yourself as best you can to Corinth�s more refined customs.� The senior centurion took me, as he had promised, to inspect the men on the cohort rolls who were tradesmen in the city. They were smiths, tanners, weavers and potters, but many had simply used their Roman citizenship, earned by long service, and married into wealthy tradesmen�s families, and acquiring from them privileges which assured themselves an easy life of abundance. Their equipment had rat-gnawed straps, the points of their lances were rusty and their shields had not been polished within living memory. Some of them could not even find their equipment. At every place they offered us wine and food, even silver pieces. One legionary, who had become a perfume dealer and could not find his shield, tried to push me into a room with a girl. When I remonstrated with him, he said bitterly, �All right, you can turn on the screws then. But we already pay so much to Rubrius for the right to practice a free trade that I at least haven�t many drachmas to put into your purse.�

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When I realized what he was saying, I hurriedly assured him that I had certainly not come to exact bribes but just to see, as was my duty, that all the men on the rolls were equipped and took care of their weapons. The perfume dealer calmed down and promised to buy a new shield at the flea market as soon as he had time. He also promised to join in the exercises if I wanted him to, and said that a little physical exercise would do him good, because in his line of business he was always sitting still and he was getting much too fat. I saw that it would be wisest if I did not look too deeply into Commander Rubrius� affairs, especially as his sister was the most important priestess in Rome. The senior centurion and I made out a program which at least appeared to give the men something to do. After inspecting the traditional guard posts, we agreed the guards should be relieved by the sun and the water clock. The guard would no longer be allowed to lie or sit and must be fully equipped. I could not really see what a double guard at the city gates was really guarding, but the centurion said that these places had been guarded for a hundred years and so could not be left without. It would have offended the Corinthians, for it was they who through taxation maintained the Roman garrison in their city. After a while, I considered I had carried out my tribune�s duties in Corinth as best I could. The legionaries had overcome their initial dislike for me and now greeted me cheerfully. On the Proconsul�s court day, I reported to him in my toga. A Greek clerk went through the cases beforehand and Gallio yawningly ordered his judge�s throne to be carried out to the front of the building. Gallio proved himself to be a mild and fair judge. He asked us our views, joked occasionally, questioned the witnesses carefully himself and postponed every case he thought had not been sufficiently explained by the lawyers� speeches and the witnesses. He refused to pronounce judgment on what he thought were too trivial cases, but demanded that both parties should settle the matter between them or he would fine each of them for lack of respect for the court. After the session, he invited me to a good meal and gave me some advice on Corinthian bronzes, which at that time it was fashionable to collect in Rome.

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When I returned to the inn, despite everything depressed by Gallio�s sober wisdom and the ordinariness of the court, Hierex had a suggestion to make. �You can undoubtedly afford to live as you like,� he said. �But to live for a whole year in an inn is downright waste. Corinth is a prosperous city. It would be wisest to put your money into a house of your own and let me help to make you comfortable there. If you�ve not enough money here, as a Roman official you would certainly get as much credit as you have the nerve to ask for.� �Houses always need repairing,� I replied, �and servants are always quarreling. As a house owner I�d have to pay taxes to the city. Why should I give myself all those worries? It�s simpler to move to a cheaper inn if I think they�re fleecing me here.� �That�s what I�m here for,� said Hierex; �to look after your worries as best I can. Just give me the authority and I�ll arrange things for the best. The only thing you need do is put your name to a document from the temple of Mercury. Later on you�ll have to return hospitality with hospitality. Think what you�d have to pay at an inn, for instance, when you invite six people to a festive meal with wine. In your own house, I�d do the marketing myself, get wines at wholesale prices and advise your cook. And you wouldn�t have to live like this, when any stranger knows it every time you make water or blow your nose.� There was a great deal of good sense in his suggestion, and several days later I found myself the owner of quite a large two- story house with a garden. The reception room had a lovely mosaic floor and there were more inner rooms than I needed. I noticed that I also had a cook and a Greek doorkeeper. The house was furnished with comfortable old furniture, so nothing looked new and brash. Even a pair of Greek household gods stood in their niches each side of the altar, greasy and sooty with age. Hierex had also bought some ancestral wax masks at an auction, but I said I did not want someone else�s ancestors. Rubrius, the senior centurion, and Gallio�s Greek lawyer were my first guests. Hierex appointed a Greek sage to talk to the guests and a skillful dancing-girl with a flute player for lighter entertainment. The food was excellent. My guests left me at midnight in a state of civilized inebriation. Later I found out that

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they had had themselves taken straight to the nearest brothel, for from there they had a bill sent to me to teach me Corinthian customs. I was unmarried, so I should have acquired a woman guest from the Temple mountain for each of my guests. But I did not want to be part of such customs. Anyhow, I do not know what would have happened, because Hierex did his best, quietly and gradually, to train me to be the kind of master he wished to have. But it was court day again. Gallio, still with a hangover from the previous night, had hardly sat down and adjusted his toga properly when a crowd of Jews rushed up to him, dragging with them two men who were also Jews. In the Jewish way, they all shouted at once until Gallio, after smiling for a while, said sharply that one of them should speak for the rest. After they had consulted together to decide on the charge, their leader stepped forward. �This man,� he said, �is misleading people into worshiping God in an unlawful manner.� I was depressed and frightened to find that even here, and as a member of the court too, I was to be involved in the quarrels of the Jews. I looked carefully at the accused man. He was nearly bald, his eyes burning and his ears large. He stood proudly upright in his worn goatskin cloak. As if in a dream I remembered I had seen him many years ago in my father�s house in Antioch. I was even more frightened then, for in Antioch he had caused so much trouble that the Jews who recognized Christ had preferred to send him away to sow dissension among Jews elsewhere. The man had already opened his mouth to begin his defense, but Gallio, guessing what was coming, signaled to him to be quiet and turned to the Jews. �If this were a matter of a crime or an evil deed, then I might have listened to you with patience,� he said. �But if you are disagreeing on your teaching and its name and your own laws, then those are your own troubles. I do not wish to sit in judgment on them.� He ordered the Jews to move away and turned to us. �If I gave the Jews my little finger,� he explained, �I should never hear the end of it.� But he did not rid himself of them quite so lightly as that.