Epilog
19 BCE - Spring, Siphnos, Greece
Year of the consulship of
Quintus Lucretius Vespillo and Gaius Sentius Saturninus
Reflecting day after day upon the minutiae of one's life is a taxing business. Should you embark upon such an exhaustive audit, I suggest living a shorter life. If that cannot be arranged, be more circumspect in the selection of your memories. For myself, I have become a meticulous chronicler, examining the lives of those close by, and yes, I suppose, my own stumbling journey. The honest witness must be ruthless: every artifact of remembrance must be unearthed, brushed free of dirt and debris to be scrutinized anew, even those recollections pressed deep into the ground, long buried, thankfully, by the balm of years.
I had not realized the task would be this hard.
I sit staring at a fresh scroll of parchment, unbloodied as yet by the stabs of my pen. The path lies clear before me, yet I fear to take another step. Contemplation of all that is to come pulls me up short, an old horse come upon a pit of vipers. Loiter no longer, Alexandros; the time has come to tear down the bulwarks that have stood against memory for over thirty years, to pry open these eyes and see again what man was never meant to witness. By the gods, it gives me pause; my rebellious heart shakes in its bony cage. The slope of my narrative rises ever more steeply, and the memories - chaotic, heroic, tragic - grow as difficult to relive as they are to set down. But this is my purpose, and I will see it through.
•••
I am eighty-six years-old and a free man. Though I have lived two lives, I cannot say whether I was damned in one or blessed in the other. But this I know: choices are the dominion of free men. For almost half my adult life I had been liberated from the necessity of having to make them. Let me tell you, there is nothing so poisonous and seductive about life as a slave as the freedom from having to choose one's own path.
Marcus Crassus had no such excuse, but like a slave whose decisions are not his own, my master was carefree of the consequences of his actions. He was as close to a god as any man could hope to come. But godhood, it turns out, is a trap: the burdens and responsibilities are just as great as the privilege. Aristotle once said,
“Virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom the things leading to it.”
My master was virtuous, but he was not wise. What need has a mortal god of perspective, when a god may suit his morals to his needs? Men like Crassus see what they want, reach out for it and it is theirs. Consequences to their own wellbeing are weighed, but what of others? What of the multitude who follow him like flowers chasing the sun? What are they to a god?
Should a small man choose unwisely, though the future repercussions of his error are unknowable, the immediate ripples of causation are most often also tepid and contained. When a man like Crassus chooses his fate with clouded vision, the gods themselves may avert their eyes. My master dragged fifty thousand souls behind him on the rushing tide of his miscalculation. Only a handful of the multitude that followed him into the desert realized that they did so, not for conquest or the glory of Rome, but for one man's love, for the restoration of his honor, and for the administration of his vengeance. Marcus Licinius Crassus would have his war. And Alexandros son of Theodotos would be by his side.
###
AFTERWORD
Any book describing events taking place two millennia in the past must necessarily be a work of fiction. However, I have taken several conscious liberties interpreting the life of Crassus, based on the premise that because of his singular defeat at the battle of Carrhae, his story was rewritten by pro-Roman historians. (It isn’t as if there has been no precedent since we first began describing events that occurred before our time.) For this reason I have cherry-picked some of the details of his life. My errors, hopefully, were more of omission than commission, with the possible exception of his home on the Palatine. It is unlikely that the house was as grand as I describe, for like his father, Crassus lived modestly and without ostentation. As Mary Agnes Hamilton says in
Ancient Rome: The Lives of Great Men
, "at a time when he owned half the houses in Rome, and so many members of the Senate were in debt to him that they dared not vote against his wishes, he built for himself only one house, and that of moderate size."
Some may find glaring my omission to recount in any detail the Third Servile War (73 BCE – 71 BCE). The story of Spartacus and his ultimate defeat by Marcus Crassus has been told and retold, built upon the paltry scraps available from the actual historical record.
The Bow of Heaven
trilogy is not meant to be a complete biography of the triumvir; it is a story about the man, his family and the people who served him, primarily in the latter part of his life. For these books, what interested me most was the answer to the question, what could goad Crassus to leave everything behind - his wealth, his power, his wife of over three decades - to seek war and conquest 1,500 hundred miles from home? Historians say he greedily hungered for more gold (he was already known as “the richest man in Rome”) and that he was jealous of Caesar’s and Pompey’s military achievements. This last may be true, but how much fight can be left in you when you’re 60, two decades past the average Roman lifespan? That’s how old Crassus was when he left for Parthia. I have proposed that his motivation might very well have been something else, something much more personal. Now that you have finished the book, you know what that is. This, at least, is not conjecture. From Suetonius,
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
, speaking of Julius Caesar: “It is admitted by all that he was addicted to women, as well as very expensive in his intrigues with them, and that he debauched many ladies of the highest quality; among whom were Posthumia, the wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla, the wife of Marcus Crassus, and Mucia, the wife of Cneius Pompey.”
Thank you very much for downloading the first installment of my novel! I would love to hear from you - please visit me at
andrewlevkoff.com
. I ask those of my readers whose knowledge of ancient Rome is second only to their love of this glorious, insane time in history to be patient with one new to their ranks.
Click
here
to read a sample from
The Bow of Heaven, Book II: A Mixture of Madness
. (If the link is not working, please scroll down past the Glossary.)
GLOSSARY
Abolla
A loose, woolen cloak
Acheron
One of the five rivers leading to Hades: the river of woe
Aediles
Municipal magistrates and record keepers
Ala
Wing, of a house; also, a cavalry unit
Amphorae
Storage vessels, usually large, to contain liquids
Ampullae
Jugs or bottles, usually clay
Ampullae oleariae
Bottles of oil for bathing, sometimes perfumed
Analecta
Dining room slave
As
Roman coin worth one-quarter of one sestercius.
Atriensis
Chief slave or majordomo of a Roman household.
Aureus
Gold Roman coin worth 400 as, 100 sesterces, 25 denarii.
Caecubum
According to Theodor Mommsen, “the most prized of all” wines before the age of Augustus
Calamus
Reed pen, writing utensil
Calidarium
Roman steam bath
Caligae
Boots
Capena Gate
The gate through which the Appian Way enters the city of Rome
Cenaculum
Apartment, flat; plural: cenacula
Century
Roman army unit composed of ten contuberniums, or eighty legionaries
Clientes
Clients: those who depended upon the power and influence of their patrons
Columba
Dove
Commisatio
Drinking bout
Comitium
The center of all political activity in Rome
Compluvium
An opening in the roof of a Roman atrium which let in light and air. Rainwater would fall to be collected in a pool below called an impluvium
Consuls
Similar to co-presidents, they were joint heads of the Roman state and were elected to a one-year term
Contubernium
The basic eight-man unit of the Roman army in the first century B.C.E. Also the term used for an intimate relationship between two slaves, who were not allowed to marry
Cubiculum
Bedroom in a Roman house or villa
Culina
Latin: kitchen
Curia
Where the senate met in the
Comitium
Cursus honorum
The progression of offices each magistrate had to climb on his way up the Roman political ladder
Decuria
A group of ten slaves
Denarius
Silver Roman coin worth four sesterces
Domina
Mistress of a Roman household
Dominus
Master of a household
Domus
House
Drachm
A coin of the ancient Middle East
Familia
The family members, including servants and slaves, of a Roman household
Famula
A female slave, handmaid
Fibula
Clasp or brooch
Fortuna
Goddess of Luck
Frigidarium
The bathing pool in the Roman baths that was unheated
Furina
Goddess of thieves
Furtum
Theft
Garum
Aromatic fish sauce
Gladius
Short sword, plural: gladii
Grammaticus
Teacher
Imperatore
General who has won a great victory
Imperium
the power of magistrates to command armies and (within limits) to coerce citizens
Impluvium
A shallow pool, usually to be found in the atrium, that captured rainwater from an opening in the roof (the compluvium)
Insulae
Apartment houses
Kalends
The first day of the month in the Roman calendar
Lacerna
A cloak fastened on the right shoulder by a buckle (fibula)
Lares Domestici
Minor Roman deities whose function was to guard and oversee all that transpired in the home
Lararium
Household shrine usually found in the Atrium
Latifundium
Large Roman farming estate
Laudatio Funebris
Eulogy
Lectus
Couch, bed
Legate
Commander of a legion; one with authority delegated by a consul or magistrate
Liburna
A faster and more maneuverable warship than the trireme
Lora
A cheap wine for slaves made from grape-skins, pulp and stalks left in the vat, soaked in water and allowed to ferment; a thin, bitter brew
Lorarius
A slave whose job it was to punish other slaves by flogging; also, in the arena, a person who encouraged reluctant animals or humans with a whip
Lorica
Armor
Lorum
A leather whip
Ludi
Public games
Magus
Sorcerer, magician
Maniple
Roman army unit. Two centuries equal one maniple.
Ministratore
Servant, waiter
Nobiles
Patrician families possessing most of the power in the Republic
Optimates
Conservative, aristocratic senators who wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies in favor of the senate
Optio
Junior officer, assistant to a centurion
Orarium
A small, linen handkerchief for wiping the face
Ornator
Slave who adorned or dressed his master; f.
ornatrix
(who concentrated more on her hair
Otium
The Roman concept of leisure, ideally occupied by pursuits of philosophy, art and music in a natural setting
Paedagogus
A slave or freedman in charge of educating children of rich Roman households
Palla
Cloak
Paludamentum
The official cloak worn by a Roman commander in the field
Pater
The seventh and highest level of Mithraic initiation. Only the
pater
was allow to marry
Paterfamilias
Head of the household: the father.
Pater
Patratus
In Mithraism, the equivalent of Pope
Peculium
Money or property acquired by slaves in the course of conducting business on behalf of their master. While technically any such gains belonged to the slave’s owner, the master might allow these sums to be considered the slave’s property, and might even allow these assets to be used to purchase the slave’s freedom.
Peplos
Long sleeveless tunic worn by Roman women
Peristyle
A spacious courtyard, open to the sky, framed by a covered colonnade
Petronia
Amnis
Stream running along the Quirinal Hill
Pilum
Roman throwing spear; plural: pila
Plebeians
Free, non-citizens of Rome, also called plebs
Polykleitos
Greek sculptor, ca. 430 B.C.
Pomerium
The spiritual limits of the city of Rome, marked by cippi, small pedestals used as boundary posts
Pontifex Maximus
Supreme supervisor of all things religious, and of matters of worship both public and private. Guardian of the ancient customs. The Pontifex was not subject to any court of law or punishment. The pontifex maximus was elected for life.
Populares
Aristocrats, like the optimates, but favoring stronger representation of the people in the popular assemblies and tribunes of the plebs who wielded power to veto senate rulings.
Praefurnia
Ovens used to heat Roman homes and baths
Praetor
Chief law officer and deputy to the
consuls
Principale
Junior officer in the Roman army
Pteruges
Leather strips protruding from under the cuirass that offered some protection for the shoulders and thighs
Pugio
Dagger
Quaestor
In charge of military and civic treasury, as well as record-keeping
Quirinal
One of the seven hills of Rome
Quintilis
The seventh month of the Roman calendar, i.e. July
Quinquereme
Roman warship with five rowers to a side on three levels
Raeda
4-wheeled carriage, usually pulled by two, sometimes four horses
Rosaceum
Roman perfumed oil for bathing
Rostra
The place in the
Comitium
where consuls and other magistrates spoke to the Roman people
Sagum
Military cloak
Salve
Good Day! Good Morning! Also used in bidding farewell
Sambucus
Berries from the elder tree, used by the Romans as a cure-all
Scutum
Roman shield
Sestercius
Brass
Roman coin
worth one quarter of a silver denarius; plural: sesterces
Sixth
hour
The Roman sixth hour of the day was always noon; The sixth hour of the night was always midnight
Sol Invictus
Latin: another name for Mithra
Somnus
Roman god of sleep
Stola
Long sleeveless tunic worn by women over other tunics; a symbol of marriage
Strigil
In the Roman baths, a curved metal tool used to scrape dirt and sweat from the body
Subligatum
Underwear
Tablinum
Room usually between atrium and
peristyle
where guests were received and records kept.
Taburnae
Retail shops usually located on the ground floor of
insulae
Tali
Dice made from the knucklebones of sheep or goats, used in possibly the most popular game in ancient Rome
Tepidarium
The warm bath where Romans soaked after the steam bath, then cleaned themselves before venturing into the
frigidarium
, or cold pool.
Tetradrachm
A coin with a value equal to four drachms
Tonsore
Barber
Trierarch
Captain of a Trireme
Trireme
Originally Greek, then Roman galley
Triumph
The crowning achievement of a Roman general. City-wide celebration of a great victory awarded to the returning victor.
Tyche
Greek goddess of luck
Unctuarium
Roman anointment room, where perfume and oils were applied and sweat and dirt were scraped off.
Urbs
City
•••