I bade her good evening and made my way down to the party once more. In later years Marcus Antonius was reviled for being so besotted with Cleopatra, forgetting Rome and everything else to serve her. They thought him weak and unmanly. But I knew Cleopatra when she was ten, and poor Antonius never had a chance.
I was beginning to feel the need of something to go with the wine. On a broad marble table was coiled a gigantic sausage, made from the intestines of an elephant stuffed with the sweet flesh of waterfowl. It smelled delicious, but the appearance was horrifying. A slave offered me a skewer strung with the bloated bodies of huge locusts. These are a great delicacy in the desert, but scarcely to Roman taste. Luckily, I encountered a tray of pork ribs simmered in garum before starvation set in, I feasted on these and other agreeable items and felt ready to face the balance of the evening.
The sound of clashing weapons drew me to a lawn where athletes were putting on an exhibition of swordsmanship. These were not true gladiators, for there were none in Egypt in those days. They were skillful and pleasant to watch, but none of them would have lasted a minute in an Italian amphitheater. I saw Fausta and Berenice watching them. To my relief, the cheetahs were gone.
"This is a most extraordinary event, Highness," I said to Berenice.
"We do our best. Fausta was just telling me about the gladiator fights she and her brother put on at her father's funeral games. Our priests and philosophers and such would never allow death-fights here, I'm afraid They sound thrilling."
"The munera are an integral part of our religion," I told her. "Other people sometimes find the fights a bit strong for their tastes."
"We showed a thousand pairs fighting over a period of twenty days," Fausta said, "not to mention hundreds of lions and tigers and rhinoceroses, along with the more common bears and bulls. The Senate protested the extravagance, but who cares about them?" Spoken like a true daughter of Sulla. "Of course, women are supposed to be forbidden to attend the munera, but we do anyway, I find them far more enjoyable than the chariot races."
"Each has its advantages," I said. "You can bet openly on the races, for instance, while it's frowned on at the fights. Speaking of religious matters," I said cleverly, "I would be most interested in hearing the princess tell how she found the holy man Ataxas and his god, Baal-Ahriman." Fausta looked at me quizzically. This was the last subject she would have expected me to bring up.
"Ah, it was so marvelous! I was in my garden in my
Alexandrian palace just before the last floods, when the image of Horus spoke to me."
"Spoke to you?" I said, with a conscious effort to keep my eyebrows level.
"Yes, very clearly. He said, 'Daughter, I proclaim the advent of a new god to rule over the Red Land and the Black. His prophet will appear in your court before the floods. Receive him as befits one sent by the immortal gods of Egypt.'"
"And that was all?" I asked. In most accounts, the gods are wordier.
"It was enough," she said.
"And did the god's mouth, or rather his beak, move as he spoke?" Perhaps I should explain that Horus is one of the less repellent of the Egyptian gods, having the noble head of a falcon.
"I did not notice. I prostrated myself at his feet the moment he began to speak. Even a princess must abase herself before a god."
"Quite understandable," I assured her.
"You can imagine my transports of joy when the Holy Ataxas arrived to proclaim the truth of Baal-Ahriman. He was quite modest and unassuming, you know. He was astonished when I told him that Horus had already announced his coming."
"Indeed, indeed. And has he manifested greater than normal powers since his arrival?"
"Of course. He has healed many believers of afflictions such as deafness and palsy. He has bidden other statues to speak, and they have, foretelling a brilliant future for Egypt. But he claims no special powers for himself. He says that he is the mere conduit for the glorious might of Baal-Ahriman." When she spoke of Ataxas, her eyes seemed to disengage from each other, as if seeing something infinitely far away, or else seeing nothing at all.
"You say a 'brilliant future.' Is there any indication of the nature of this brilliance?"
"No, but I believe that is to be the matter of the divine words we shall soon hear from Baal-Ahriman himself."
I had more questions, but at that moment the major-domo arrived, gasping for breath. Another eunuch.
"Princess, a hippo has left the pond and is attacking the Cretan dancers!"
"They probably think it's Zeus in disguise again," I said, "looking for another mortal woman to ravish. If he gets any volunteers, this might be worth seeing."
"Oh, I suppose I must attend to it," Berenice said, "Seti, summon the guards. Tell them to bring long spears. They can probably poke the beast back into the pond. It is not to be harmed. It is sacred to Taveret."
"There goes the reason why the gods frown upon incest," I said when she was gone.
"Rome is full of eccentrics, too," Fausta said. "It just seems sillier in foreign royalty."
"I suppose so. But if Horus wanted to proclaim the coming of a new god, why not to Ptolemy? Why choose his deranged daughter?"
"I take it you find her story difficult to accept?"
"Decidedly. Divine visitations are common enough in legend, but they always sound more plausible in the age of heroes. Mind you, my own grandfather was visited by the Dioscuri, but that was in a dream and I think he'd been drinking."
"Why this sudden interest in religion, Decius? Surely being in Egypt hasn't infected you with their odd passions?" A true daughter of Sulla, Fausta believed in very little save greed and the lust for power.
"Religion is powerful and dangerous, Fausta. That's why we Romans harnessed it to the service of the state centuries ago. That's why we made the priesthoods a part of the civil service. It's why we forbade consultation of the Sybilline Books except in extreme situations, andonly then at the behest of the Senate."
"Your point being?"
"The most dangerous sort of religion is the volatile, emotional sort peddled by charismatic holy men like Ataxas. They have a way of making their short-term prophecies come true by inciting their fanatical followers to make them come true. People are unbelievably credulous. You notice that he heals deafness and palsy, afflictions easy to simulate. I'll wager he's never restored an amputated hand or foot."
"You wouldn't be interested if it was just some fraud enriching himself at the expense of fools," she asserted. "Do you detect a power play at work here?"
"I feel sure of it, although I am mystified as to its actual nature."
"Why do you care anything about the affairs of Egypt?" she asked.
"Because virtually anything that happens here touches upon Roman interests. Whatever Ataxas is up to, it can't be anything good. It would seem a pity to send in the legions to settle things here when a simple exposure of a plot might solve the problem."
Fausta smiled. "Julia says that you are mad but very interesting. I'm beginning to see what she means." No sooner had she pronounced this enigmatic statement than the lady herself showed up.
"This affair is getting utterly out of hand," Julia said. "Decius, I think we should return to the embassy."
"You talk as if the two of you were married already," Fausta observed.
"Will you come with us?" Julia asked Fausta, not bothering to inquire whether I wished to leave.
"I think I'll stay," Fausta said. "I've always heard about the debauchery of the Egyptian court, and this is a chance for a close look. Go on, you two. Enough of the Roman embassy staff remains for the sake of decorum." Actually, most of them had passed out or were well on their way, but I never doubted Fausta's ability to take care of herself.