.Norbanus rode up the steps to the terrace and drew rein as servants rushed to take charge of his horse. He dismounted and surveyed the city. On higher ground stood the Temple. He still found it difficult to understand a nation that had but a single temple to house its solitary god.
The Temple was magnificently adorned, but like the palace it was of no great size. The successor kings who had followed Alexander had set the style for grandiose building projects, and like them the Jewish kings had longed to build an ostentatiously huge temple to aggrandize themselves and their city, but Jonathan had explained that ritual law thwarted them. Their holy scriptures specified the dimensions of the Temple down to the last cubit, and it could be built no larger. So the kings had contented themselves with adorning the Temple and building a vast terrace of interlocking courtyards to surround it. Much of the hilltop was surrounded by a great retaining wall to support the foundations of the spectacular terrace.
Norbanus turned from the view and strode into the palace, past the Greek mercenary guardsmen who saluted with their spears, into the cool interior. Here the walls were frescoed and the floors inset with colorful mosaics, the designs drawn from Greek mythology, in violation of the local cult's strictures against representations of living things.
The rooms of the palace were not large, for they saw little use. In this part of the world, most social life was carried on in gardens and under rooftop bowers. Even dinners and banquets were often held outdoors. He knew from Jonathan that the Judeans had once been desert wanderers and pastoralists, and they had not strayed far from their nomadic roots. They preferred a fine garden to the finest house.
He went to the great formal garden on the eastern end of the palace, where the royal family usually congregated after the sun had passed its zenith. Up the garden walls climbed ivy and along their base grew myrtle. Huge jars were planted with silphium, hyssop and other medicinal herbs. There were date palms and fig trees and grape arbors, but the greater part of the garden was in the Persian style. This meant that the many raised beds were planted with flowers, cultivated for their color and beauty alone.
In the center, near the largest of the garden's many fountains, Norbanus found the Lady Tamar, attended by her women. There were other men and women of the household lounging about the garden, but Tamar had seized this particularly attractive spot as her own and she held it against the other women. Norbanus suspected that a variety of Forum politics prevailed within the palace, with alliances, power blocs, and perhaps the occasional judicious assassination to determine rank and preeminence.
Tamar's clothing left little visible save her face and hands. Even her hair was covered by a veil. The voluminous gown that draped her body fell in graceful folds that revealed little of the shape beneath, yet she possessed the art of making even this over-modest attire subtly provocative.
"Good afternoon, General." At her gesture, servants brought a chair for Norbanus. With studied art he sat, sweeping his cloak to drape over the chair's arms in graceful folds. He opened a hand without looking and a slave placed a fine goblet in his grasp.
"Will you be marching against Manasseh soon?" she asked.
"I would prefer more time to organize and train," he told her. "Otherwise, your nephew's army and mine cannot act with cohesion."
"My nephew's army," she said, "had better cohere, and quickly, because my other nephew's army is on its way."
Norbanus cut a calculating look at her. "You've had word?"
"I have my sources." She favored him with a bland smile.
"What else have your sources told you?"
"That Manasseh has been assembling his army near Megiddo. That he has requested help from Parthia."
"Has such help arrived?" This was astounding. Unless the woman was weaving her story from whole cloth, she had spies within Manasseh's court, and couriers to keep her in contact with them.
She smiled again. "There has hardly been time for that. Manasseh is headstrong and has already begun moving his army south. But I think you had better move rather quickly now. Parthians ride much faster than our own soldiers march, so he could have his reinforcements by the time he joins battle with you."
"Roman soldiers march faster than most ride," he assured her, but inwardly he was not so sanguine. This Manasseh was clearly a man of quick decision. "It's a risky thing, asking for Parthian assistance. Once the king has his soldiers inside Manasseh's land, he may want to keep them there."
"This is something we needn't fear from you Romans?" She smiled as she said it but he felt the sting, as was intended.
"We are most meticulous in observing our treaty obligations," he said.