Then to Egypt. A land so old! Rome had been influential for hundreds of years, Egypt for thousands. If the buildings around the forum were large, those at Karnak were immense. Yet the power of Egypt was gone, probably forever. So, eventually, would go Rome's power, a thought that brought that prophecy back to his head. No, that was ridiculous. Rome could not fall into decay in his lifetime. Unless someone developed a new weapon!
The prophecy was stupid. No! The prophecy was useless. If Rome was to fall because of a new weapon, the required information was what this new weapon was, so that Rome could prepare. . and void the prophecy. If a prophecy was to be useful, it had to be true, but if anything could be altered the prophecy would become not true. Therefore any prophecy had to be so obscure as to be useless, except for someone to say, "Well, I warned you, but. ." Unless the prophecy caused someone to carry out the one action that the prophecy required to become true! There was a thought, but not a very useful one, because how did anyone know what would be required? Why not simply explain what had to be done and why?
Which in some ways came to the nub of his problem. That prophecy had no apparent purpose, either for him or anybody else. Yet the image of the woman had been so vivid, so specific, and to make matters more complicated, there was nobody on Rhodes who looked remotely like her. Her skin had been pale, and she had had almost golden hair. There was nobody on the island with golden hair, nobody with that pale skin, but more importantly, nobody with lips or a nose like that. In fact, if asked what race she came from, he would have had to reply, 'None that he had ever met.' Her clothes seemed to be made of material that simply did not exist. The only explanation was, 'Clothes of the Gods'. And as far as everyone was concerned, that temple had been abandoned for hundreds of years.
Could it really have been a message from the Gods? If so, there had to be Gods. But why that message to him? If the Gods wanted him to do something, it would have been easier to tell him what it was they wanted! Why the riddles? And what could he do about them? Simply wait? He would see great truths. What sort of a prediction was that? Perhaps that had already happened. He was convinced Aristarchus was correct, and overturning the great Aristotle would be a great. . But he was not overturning anything. As things stood, the Earth did not fall to pieces, so Aristarchus was wrong. He would make an invention that would change. . Nothing except his own future? And not in his lifetime?
Once again, he considered the possibility that someone had played a trick on him, and once again he rejected it. The moss on the temple, the girl and her clothes, were too convincing to be possible. So what was it? Did it matter? He had been given no instructions, other than to 'go on', and what else could he do?
It was so confusing. And while he was seeing wonders in Egypt, there were no great truths and no inventions, although shortly they would visit Alexandria. More irritating, he had yet to meet the most beautiful woman in the world. Or, for that matter, the ugliest!! The last could definitely be put off!
* * *
One thing that could not have been put off after reaching Alexandria was the visit to Governor Aulus Avillius Flaccus, particularly if Tiberius was to send his appointment through the governor. When Gaius turned up, he was annoyed that he had to wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually he was shown into the room.
"So. ." Flaccus said eventually, "you are honouring us with your presence?" The sarcasm was obvious, but there was also the sneering sign of the bully in the tone.
"My family has estates towards the Nile," Gaius replied politely.
"Egypt belongs to the government of Rome," Flaccus challenged.
"Apart from those specially granted by the divine Augustus," Gaius replied.
"They could be confiscated," Flaccus mused, "although perhaps I could put in a good word. ." He left his sentence hanging, and Gaius recognized it for what it was: extortion.
"Tiberius confirmed the grant," Gaius said quickly. Strictly speaking, this was not true, but then again, he knew about it and had not rescinded it. Tiberius had found it convenient to have a nervous Claudian organizing corn shipments.
"I see," Flaccus muttered. That might or might not be true, but if he challenged the assertion he had better be right because Tiberius was getting less and less tolerant of having his orders questioned. He then stared at Gaius and added, "You should be in the army."
"I await Tiberius' orders," Gaius replied. Clearly, no orders had come through Flaccus.
"Perhaps I could put in a recommendation?"
Another attempt at extortion! As if Flaccus could change Tiberius' mind!
"If you let Tiberius know I've arrived," Gaius replied, a little stiffly, "I would appreciate that."
"I'll certainly do that," Flaccus grunted. "Well, unless you have anything else to offer, I'm busy."
"Of course, Governor," Gaius said. He saluted, turned and left.
Yes, he could afford to grease Flaccus, but he was not going to do so. Flaccus should be doing his job, not getting rich from his job.
* * *
Gaius sat down under a palm and looked across the open space. There were so many people. This was a city that rivalled Rome for status, if not for influence. Yet Alexandria was such a strangely new city compared with others in this land. He had visited the ancient temples, he had seen the remains of such a powerful nation, and he had even seen the more modern temples, including the one with the door opened by sunlight.
Gaius smiled. Timothy was almost obsessed with this pneuma thing. At first sight, the use of the sunlight to heat air to open a temple door was impressive, but on second sight less so. The door was so finely balanced with the big counterweight that opening it was easy. An interesting trick, but that was all.
Yesterday was a slightly different matter. Somehow Timothy had heard of someone using steam. They had visited this man's workshop, and to Gaius' surprise, there was a small device that turned a tiny wheel. A small sphere was filled with water and when heated by a fire, a jet of steam came out and turned a small paddlewheel. Another useless device! There was a small hole on top, and a small bob was seated in this, seemingly to keep the steam pressure down. If too much steam was generated to get out the other little hole, or the hole blocked, the device could blow up. Apparently that had happened once, and the operator had been badly scalded. The bob was a safety valve, and made sure the steam pressure stayed low enough to be safe, but it also meant that all the steam could do was to turn this tiny wheel, and then only as long as the load was light. If there was any more than the tiniest load, the wheel stalled and steam went around it anyway.
That figured! Steam wasn't going to work hard. Just like a slave, give it half a chance, it would find the easy way out! The device was a useless toy. Except that Athene had mentioned that he had to build something based on something like that. What was it? Something revolutionary that would change everything. That wretched toy would change nothing!
He leaned back and watched as two grossly overladen donkeys were being led across his field of view. The load of one was hopelessly out of balance, and it began to slide. Two young boys leaped into action and tried to hold the load. Two young women were watching and laughing as the load swayed, steadied, then began to slip elsewhere. Melons came out of their bags, and fell to the ground and began rolling away. Then the man who was presumably the owner of the melons appeared and began swearing at the boy leading the donkey, at the young women, and even at the two boys who had tried to help. Soon a small crowd began to gather, and the straying melons began to disappear.