Aspasia’s Shadow looked up from the corpse and across a valley to the city the Roman army was besieging. The Jews were a stubborn people, he would give them that. At the base of the hill Aspasia’s Shadow’s legion was deployed on were over three thousand crosses on which those who tried to escape the besieged town were crucified, as an example to those still inside. On a rotating basis the corpses on the crosses were cut down and new victims nailed into place. Long ago, in a previous lifetime, Aspasia’s Shadow had changed the method of crucifixion the memories of Aspasiaheld — using leather — out of a desire to see blood. He’d had his legionnaires use nails instead. By trial and error — and numerous bodies falling off as the nails ripped through hands, they had learned the proper place to drive the iron stakes— between the bones of the forearm and just above the ankles.
Titus had been most pleased with Aspasia’s Shadow’s innovations in torture and intimidation. Titus was the Emperor Vespasian’s son, and as such was in line to be the next Emperor. His goal was the complete subjugation of the Judeans — and, more important, capturing the gold and riches that was rumored to be hidden in the Temple of the Jews. Aspasia’s Shadow was also interested in something hidden in the Temple — the Ark and Grail.
Of course, he was not known as Aspasia’s Shadow to Titus and the other Romans. Over twenty years previously, upon awakening from the deep sleep, he had taken the name Tacitus. He had surveyed the current situation and found that things had changed greatly since he’d last walked the planet. A large empire had arisen on a peninsula on the north side of the Middle Sea and now commanded a large portion of the known world. The Romans had invaded Judea over one hundred years previously and made it a province of the empire.
As his guards dragged the body away, Aspasia’s Shadow sat down on an ornate chair he’d had brought with him from a villa they’d sacked several months previously on the way to Jerusalem. He put his chin on his fist and glared at Jerusalem. The Grail was so close, but guarded by zealots who were willing to die in the tens of thousands rather than surrender. Humans were very strange creatures.
Five years earlier, Aspasia’s Shadow had formed his own legion in Syria and offered its services to Titus, who had been more than happy to accept the force into his fold. Aspasia’s Shadow had recruited many Roman soldiers to serve for him, principally as officers and centurions, while the bulk of the fighting men were mercenaries. The Twelfth Legion was positioned on Mount Scopus, to the northeast of the old city of Jerusalem, along with the Fifteenth Legion. Other legions were deployed in a large encirclement around the city.
Every effort to assault the city proper had been repulsed up to this point and Aspasia’s Shadow knew from his spies that Titus’s father was growing impatient in Rome. With their short life spans, humans knew very little of patience. What was amazing about the level of resistance was that, as had been their way even during the Exodus with Moses, the Judeans were still bickering among themselves. There were two leaders inside the walls of Jerusalem, not one. There were the zealots led by Eleazer, son of Simon, and a private army led by a man named John of Gischala. The schism between the two was between primary allegiance to religion and primary allegiance to state.
Unfortunately, their bickering tended to fall by the way-side when faced with the common threat of the Romans. Things had been peaceful in Judea for many years, but revolt had begun four years earlier. Aspasia’s Shadow had had a hand in that, desiring to cause instability in order to open the road to Jerusalem and its highly guarded Temple.
He’d come to the realization that leaving the Ark and Grail in the care of the Judeans had been a dangerous ploy. True, it was out of the hands of the Airlia and he knew where it was, but there had been several instances when control had been lost by the Judeans. During the realm of King Samuel of the Judeans, the Philistines had penetrated into Jerusalem and stolen the Ark from the city. Aspasia’s Shadow had been forced to raise an army and lead it against them to return the Ark to Jerusalem. He’d then imprinted a king — Solomon— with the directive to build a powerful temple fortress to house the artifact. Aspasia’s Shadow had even spent time in Jerusalem under the name of Hiram Abiff, the architect designing the new Temple.
What was curious about this was that the Judeans spent eight years building the magnificent temple according to Aspasia’s Shadow’s specification, under the command of Solomon, yet they never really questioned why they were doing so. After all, the one God they claimed to worship had, according to the prophets, not asked for such a thing to be built — indeed, He had been very specific about no idols being built to Him.
With the Temple completed, Aspasia’s Shadow had disappeared, returning to Mount Sinai and the regeneration tube. He’d taken the chance to go into the deep sleep for a while, weary of dealing with humans. When he’d awoken, it had been to learn that during one of the many internal power struggles among the Judeans, the Ark and Grail had been separated and the former removed from Palestine. Aspasia’s Shadow had suspected that to be the work of Guides or Ones Who Wait. As far as his spies could learn, the Ark had been carried to the south, into Africa, by Solomon’s son and a queen named Sheva with whom he was besotted. The Ark was now somewhere in the Kingdom of Axum. Some spies even reported that the Judean king had allowed the Ark to be taken as a ruse to deflect attention from the Grail.
Aspasia’s Shadow’s priority was the Grail — he could care less about the Ark, which was mainly a historical recording device. He also learned that Jerusalem had been conquered once more while he slept, this time by the Babylonians, who had razed the Temple and taken the Judeans into captivity. The Grail, though, had been saved, hidden on Mount Nebo in the Abraham Mountains, by a prophet named Jeremiah. When the Temple was rebuilt, the Grail was returned to Jerusalem and hidden deep inside, passing from history into legend as the centuries came and went.
And then the Romans arrived in Palestine. All had been peaceful for over a hundred years, but eventually the Romans and the Judeans came into conflict.
The religion of the Jews had worked too well, Aspasia’s Shadow now knew. There were also disturbing rumors of another religion, one which also worshipped one God, but which had been established by a prophet who was said to have been crucified and risen from the dead. Aspasia’s Shadow found this report disturbing and he suspected the role of the Grail in it. Perhaps this man, this prophet, had partaken of the Grail? Aspasia’s Shadow had never been able to find out and the man, whoever he was, had disappeared shortly after his “resurrection,” passing into myth and religion.
The wind shifted direction and Aspasia’s Shadow’s nose wrinkled as the stench from the corpses that filled the valley between his position and the Old City wafted across the camp. There were more than just those who had been crucified. Many noncombatants had tried to escape the city. Since Titus had staged the siege to coincide with the start of the Jewish Passover, over a half million pilgrims had been trapped inside the city. When they tried to make their way out, begging for mercy, the Syrians and Arabians in Aspasia’s Shadow’s Legion had showed no mercy, slaughtering them and then, for profit, cutting their bodies open, searching for the coins many of the escapees had swallowed in a desperate attempt to salvage something.
Aspasia’s Shadow could sense the great disapproval of the Roman officers in his legion for this last, but he cared nothing for their opinion. The Romans thought themselves part of a great empire, but they knew nothing of greatness or empires. Aspasia’s Shadow had his imprinted memories of the vastness of space and the Airlia Empire stretching across galaxies.