She walked along the wall, summarizing her interpretation of the events portrayed in the carvings and recording everything that she saw. The upside-down image of the horned man meant the death of Alexander. The transition toward Roman influence was conveyed in the form of a giant wolf.
‘It’s probably a rendition of the Capitoline Wolf,’ Jasmine said. ‘Legend holds that the city of Rome was founded by twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. They had been abandoned at birth and were raised by a she-wolf.’
Jasmine paused, carefully studying the next image.
Her lips slowly curled into a smile.
Sarah stared at the symbol. ‘What is it?’
Jasmine traced the outline with her finger. ‘Three cobras. The trio of Uraei. This was the personal symbol of Cleopatra.’
Sarah understood Jasmine’s reaction. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. As queen, she was believed to be the living manifestation of the goddess Isis. She was beloved by her people and revered by her peers. In an era ruled by men, Cleopatra’s reign proved that there was no such thing as the weaker sex.
As Jasmine marveled at the scene of Cleopatra, Sarah moved further down the line. Though she lacked Jasmine’s training, she was still able to decipher some of the images. She recognized the Christian cross and the papal seal, indicating the rise of Christianity. She understood the scenes of battle, though she had no way of knowing that they represented the Kitos War, when the Romans targeted the local Jewish population.
But there was one picture that she could not interpret.
She called for help. ‘Jasmine, come look at this.’
Jasmine rushed over and immediately understood the emblems portrayed in the image. Not only that, she was excited by their significance.
‘It’s the destruction of the library,’ she explained as she pointed to the long, rectangular block drawn with columns on all sides. There was a split carved through the center of the block, as if it had been broken in half.
Jasmine beamed. ‘If this is accurate, we now know when it was destroyed.’
‘How can you tell that from the picture? I don’t see any dates.’
‘There aren’t any dates, but we can infer from the context.’
Jasmine pointed to an image of a man with rays of sunlight radiating from his head. ‘This is the symbol of Sol Invictus, the Roman sun god. It was adopted by the Emperor Aurelian during his reign as an expression of his belief that Sol alone held divinity over all others in the pantheon. In an effort to assert Roman dominance in Alexandria, Aurelian destroyed the city’s Royal Quarter in a great fire.’
Sarah understood the implications of such an act. ‘A fire that also consumed the Library of Alexandria.’
Jasmine nodded. ‘There has never been any sense of certainty when it came to the history of the library. Rumors place its destruction at any one of a number of instances. But this would appear to give us a specific occurrence. If Aurelian did in fact destroy the library, then we know it fell sometime around 270 AD.’
Sarah understood Jasmine’s excitement. ‘That question has been haunting historians for centuries, and I saw it before anyone else. How cool is that?’
As Sarah patted herself on the back, Jasmine moved on to the final frame of the pictograph. The news about the Library of Alexandria was certainly fascinating, but in her mind it was overshadowed by the final piece of information.
This was the clue they were looking for.
A revelation about Alexander’s tomb.
27
Jasmine deciphered the final images in silence, completely immersed in the message. It was a new insight that would have far-reaching implications — both for the history of Alexandria and the future of their mission.
After what seemed like an hour, Sarah couldn’t wait any longer. ‘So, what are we looking at?’
There was no reply.
‘Jasmine?’
‘Sorry,’ she said as she snapped out of her trance. ‘I just got a little caught up in everything. This is unbelievable.’
To Sarah, it was little more than rough sketches and symbols she couldn’t translate in the slightest. All she knew was that they had just determined the fate of the Library of Alexandria — something that no one had been able to do in modern history. Given that frame of reference, she was ready to believe almost anything from the last section of the pictograph. She simply needed Jasmine to explain it to her.
‘What’s unbelievable?’ she demanded.
‘These markings,’ said Jasmine as she circled her finger around three of the carvings on the wall. ‘These symbols represent the Roman Parcae — the female personification of destiny. The spindle represents Nona, the maiden. She spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. The scroll is Decima, the matron. She determined the length of each thread with her measuring rod. The shears is Morta, the crone. When the thread had reached its end, it was Morta who cut it. Together they embody the Fates. According to Roman mythology, they controlled the destiny of mankind.’
‘Believe it or not, I’m familiar with the Fates.’
‘Really?’
Sarah nodded. ‘What can I say? I’m a fan of powerful women. I could’ve sworn they had different names, though.’
‘Actually, different cultures used different names to represent similar myths. If you learned the myths in school, you probably learned the Greek version. Instead of the Parcae, they were known as the Moirai.’
‘Yes. That’s what I was thinking: the Moirai.’
‘That’s what I figured. Their names were Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, and they were mentioned in Homeric poems, in Plato’s Republic, and even Hesiod’s Theogony. Centuries later and thousands of miles away, the Norse had their own version of the Fates. They were called Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld.’
‘And how does it help us?’
‘It doesn’t. I was just showing off.’
Sarah laughed, happy to see Jasmine in her element.
‘Anyway,’ she said as she directed Sarah’s attention back to the pictograph. Starting with the Fates, she traced the path of an arrow toward the etching of an ominous cube. ‘This represents Pandora’s box. When opened, it released Moros, the spirit of doom.’
Below the cube were images of people forming a line from the city to a waiting ship at the shoreline. They were carrying a large block above their heads, and in that block lay the horned man. Their path was the very same tunnel Jasmine and Sarah were standing in.
Jasmine continued. ‘They thought the end was coming. They used this tunnel to escape the city. The boat was there to take them to safety.’
Sarah shook her head. ‘Okay, back up. One: why would they think the city was doomed? And two: why go through all the effort of building this tunnel when they could have just walked across the city, not under it?’
Jasmine was ready with an answer. ‘The concept of prophecy was rife in the culture of the ancient Romans — and remember, that’s what this was, even though Alexandria was in Egypt. Not only did they believe that all events resulted from the will of the gods, but they also believed that the gods spoke their will through human mediums. These oracles were said to justify and admonish the deeds of man by conveying the gods’ approval or displeasure with their actions.’
Sarah wanted to make sure she understood things correctly. ‘You’re saying that these prophets were able to channel divine messages and relay them to the people, and that the people would in turn live their lives in accordance with the message?’
Jasmine nodded. ‘They would rigorously adhere to the words of the prophets. It would have been as if the god or goddess had spoken to them directly. So if the Fates, or Moros, or any other deity had sent a message letting them know that the city was in jeopardy, they would not have challenged it. They would have made the necessary preparations to save what they could.’