1852 From the Founding of the City
Steam and dust filled the air outside. A whistle
announced their arrival. The rhythm of the aeolipile
was slowing down. Having heard little else all morning and most
of the previous day, Crispina had grown fond of the rhythm. It was the sound of
progress.
Outside the expanse of sand and rock gave way to
ancient walls and mudbrick houses. Youths waved and ran alongside the train. As
they entered the heart of the city, the buildings became grander. Many of them
were in the old Mesopotamian style, so stocky and solid that they looked as
though they could have been there since the dawn of civilisation, although Crispina
did spot an alabaster dome which must have been a masjid.
The train ground to a halt. Crispina got out of
the compartment and stretched her limbs. The platform erupted with activity as
the train hissed as though from exhaustion. Crispina watched as Lusine unloaded
their luggage.
“Legatus!”
She turned around. Marching towards her, parting
the crowd, were a dozen tall dark men with spears, and with them a bald man wearing
a black toga.
“Buteo. Thank you for the welcoming party”
“A Roman in foreign lands can’t be too careful.
Shall we?”
With the mercenaries in formation around them
and Lusine carrying the luggage, they walked down the platform. The exit of the
station was guarded by two bearded stone sphinxes which towered over the new
arrivals, their gazes warning them to toe the line in their city. Charax was as
lively as any capital. Enthusiastic young men tried to sell them trinkets but
were pushed away by the mercenaries. Carts raced past carrying amphora –
probably filled with nectar – their drivers hurrying to catch the train before
it went back west.
Crispina noticed she was getting some stares. At
first she assumed it was because she was a foreigner, but then she noticed that
every other woman on the street was wearing a veil. Her golden, curly locks
were not something people were used to seeing in this part of the world, at
least in public.
“You may want to get your slave to buy a hijab
for you”, said Buteo
“That won’t be necessary”
“So, how’s Damascus?”
“Fine. I’d still be there now if you did your
job”
The two Romans walked in stony silence towards
the acropolis. Crispina showed her documentation at a gateway in an imposing wall
decorated with golden lions against deep blues. The streets became wider,
quieter and steeper, and at the top of the hill they reached the pyramidal
palace, its white walls shining in the sun.
Buteo bid his farewells and left with his
mercenaries. A eunuch in a white robe welcomed Crispina at the doorway to the
palace, and said a slave would take Lusine and their luggage to their apartment.
The eunuch led her through the cool and airy corridors. Crispina caught a glimpse
of embarrassed women scampering out of sight. Two levels up, they reached a room
filled with sumptuous cushions arranged around hookahs, the walls decorated
with geometric patterns. There was a balcony – the clear blue Tigris flowed
from horizon to horizon, its banks bursting with vivid greens and the
surrounding hills covered with lush-looking farms.
“Legatus!” boomed a voice behind her
A bear of a man, with a well-groomed beard and
wide eyes, strode across the room.
“As salam aleykum”, said Crispina with a bow
“Wa aleykum as salam! Isn’t she a beautiful
country?”
“Yes, very beautiful”
“Did you know, this city was Roman once?” said
the king, “Many centuries ago”
“Yes, I knew,” said Crispina, “Charax was as far
east as we could go”
“And you couldn’t hold onto it for long, could
you?”
The king walked over to a dais and sank into the
largest cushion with a sigh.
“So, they told me you were coming, but they did
not say why”, he said, adjusting the keffiyeh on his head
“I am here to express Rome’s displeasure,” said
Crispina, “as you know, the price of nectar has been rising very quickly”
“Ah, the price, yes it is a shame, but it cannot
be helped. You see, the nectar is running out. Wells are running dry. We are
looking for more, we will find more, but in the meantime we must charge you
more. It is only fair, eh? Any Roman merchant would do the same”
“Be that as it may, the Emperor is unhappy, and
you may want to consider lowering the price, for the sake of the friendship
between Rome and Lower Iraq”
“Of course, I shall consider it. We want nothing
more than to stay friends with the mighty Roman Empire. You must be tired from
your journey, we can talk more tomorrow”
He waved towards the door. Crispina bowed and made
her exit, hearing the king sink deeper into the cushion.
***
That night, Lusine stalked the dark streets on
the orders of her master. There was something fishy in Charax, she had said.
Lusine had learnt Arabic in Damascus, which she now used to interrogate the
locals, and it wasn’t long before she found what she was looking for. There was
a lodge in the western quarter, one of the few establishments in the city that
served wine. It wasn’t crowded, and the murals of ancient winged gods gave it
an exclusive ambience, but Lusine, despite wearing a dusty cloak, didn’t seem
to attract any attention.
Nursing her wine in a corner, she listened to a
large group of men speaking in Latin. They were in good spirits, casting lots
and celebrating boisterously. Anyone would have thought they were merchants,
merrily gambling away their profits from a successful deal, were it not for
their caps which had little wooden cones at their apex – a headdress which had
been co-opted from the priesthood by scientists.
“To the future!” they toasted
One of them stumbled outside. Lusine decided to
follow. She found him relieving himself against a wall. She grabbed his hair
and pushed his face into the mud-bricks.
“Having a good night?” she asked, “What are you
celebrating?”
“Please, just take everything”, he said,
emptying his pockets onto the ground
Lusine pulled his head back, then slammed it
into the wall again.
“I’ll ask again, what are you celebrating?”
“We’ve finished building something for the
Arabs…”
“What have you built?”
“I can’t…ow ow ow!”
She dragged him into an alleyway, where they
spent some time together, discovering what his pain threshold was. Eventually
the message got through to him.
“We’ve built an excolium for the Arabs”, he said
with a bit of a whistle, now that we had a few less teeth
“An excolium?” said Lusine, “They want to refine
the nectar? Does that mean they’re keeping some back?”
“That’s right, they’re not selling it all to
Rome. There are warehouses full of nectar amphoras”
Lusine mulled over this revelation for a minute,
then patted his head and turned to go.
“Tell your friends you were ambushed by robbers.
Unless, of course, you’d like to see me again”
***
“Ah, Legatus! Come and sit”
Crispina sank into a cushion at the king’s feet.
“What business do we have to discuss today?”
“Actually, if it pleases Your Highness, I have
been here for a week and I think enough business has been discussed,” said
Crispina, “and going abroad is a good opportunity for some leisure time”
And killing some time here will help to prevent
suspicion, she thought.
The king laughed, “Quite right. And I welcome
the opportunity to converse with a Roman, since so few come here”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, Your Highness, where
did you learn Latin?”
“Before my father died, I spent some time in Cyrenaica.
A good place to learn about the nectar business, of course, but before I went I
would never have believed how rich that province was – all those skyscrapers,
all those people scrabbling to get their share of the gold. A marvelous place!
Everybody wants their hands on some nectar. Speaking of which, what’s the
latest word on the Viking and Saxon Wars?”
“They’re coming to a close,” said Crispina,
“they won’t be troubling the Britannian nectar wells anymore”
“I’m glad to hear it. I understand that the wars
around the Oceanus Germanicus are the first successful conquests by Rome for almost
a thousand years”
“It’s all thanks to Rutilus, Caepio and Galeria.
We call them the heroes of the Renascentia. Now, we truly are a new
empire”
“And let’s not forget your current Emperor. Few men would
have had the vision to use the power of steam to bind his domains together”
“It certainly makes the merchants happy,” said Crispina,
“and with Rome only being a few days’ travel away, the governors of far-flung
provinces have started to behave themselves for the first time in history”
“I’m sure it also allows your armies to move around more
easily,” said the king quietly, “now tell me, I hear that there’s a new
invention in Rome? Slaves pulling a large piece of metal around in a circle
which somehow makes light?”
“Your Highness, you know I’m not at liberty to discuss Roman
technologies with you”, said Crispina sternly
“Ah, surely we’re all friends here!”
A man with a worried face rushed into the room and whispered
in the king’s ear. The king’s face slowly contorted with anger until he
exploded in an outburst of quick Arabic. The messenger scurried away. The king
rose from his cushion and towered over Crispina.
“So, Rome dares to attack us”, he said gravely
“We could have remained friends,” said Crispina, “but it was
you who gave up on our friendship”
“I’ve ordered my men to go as west as they can and dismantle
the railway. Your army will have to walk across the desert, and I can assure
you that we know how to fight in our lands better than you do”
Another messenger ran into the room and whispered in the king’s
ear. His reaction was bafflement more than shock. He waved the messenger away
without saying a word.
“Was that a report of gigantic, metal ships sighted from
your ports?” asked Crispina, “Yes, they’re new. And I hear almost
indestructible”
The king’s face turned red. He marched over to one of his
guards, took his ceremonial curved sword and stormed back to Crispina. He held
the sword a hair’s breadth from her neck.
“But you’re not indestructible, I assume,” he said, “Since
we’re now enemies of Rome, why should I keep you?”
“Well, that depends,” said Crispina, “do you really think
you can win this war?”
A strange noise came from the balcony – a buzzing which grew
louder and louder until it was a roar. The king went out onto the balcony, and
Crispina followed. In the sky there were a dozen contraptions which looked like
oversized metallic insects, painted blood red. They were circling the city like
vultures.
“Roman sorcery…” said the king, dropping the sword without
even realising, “does it know any limits?”
Crispina grinned and her eyes grew wild, “The Roman Empire
has been reborn. The Age of Torpor is behind us. The world shall be ours again”
If you liked this, you might like the previous chapters
