The Temple of the Muses(77)

“Decius son of Decius,” I said. “Pleased to meet you.” My breathing grew a bit less ragged. “This is all too complicated to explain, but it’s all part of a plot to turn the Egyptians against Rome. I have to get to the Palace, but I can’t until the streets are safe.”

“I will go out now,” Simeon said. “I’ll spread the word that you were seen heading out the Canopic Gate and past the Hippodrome. We don’t want that mob in our quarter.”

“A very sensible attitude,” I told him. “Let me rest here and regain my wind. Then perhaps I can borrow some clothes from you. You will be well rewarded.”

He shrugged. “There is no sense thinking of rewards while your life is still in danger. Worry about that later.” With that he left.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I had nothing to do. So I went up the stairs and found an upper room much like the lower one. No sign of a wife or children. Another stair led to the roof, so I went up to it. I kept well back from the parapet as I listened. The sounds of the mob and the clank of arms seemed to come from all directions. In any other city, a riot of this magnitude would have featured plumes of smoke as building after building caught fire until a full-scale conflagration was in progress. Usually, the fires kill far more than the rioters.

Not in Alexandria, the fireproof city. I could follow the progress of major segments of the mob up and down the streets, just by the sounds they made. They did seem to be dwindling toward the Canopic Gate. Then I heard soldiers heading that way. After a couple of hours, the whole cacophony came back toward me, then dwindled to the west. Apparently the soldiers had lined up across all the streets shield-to-shield and were driving the rioters all the way back to the Rakhotis.

I wondered what would happen in this city if anyone ever killed two cats.

It was well past noon when the city seemed to be at peace again. This did not mean that I was out of danger. Even without rioting mobs, Achillas was out there somewhere. I heard sounds from below.

“Roman? Senator Decius? Are you up there?”

“Simeon?” I said. “Is all clear in the streets?”

He came out onto the roof. “The mob was driven back. Heavy squads of soldiers patrol the streets, but it was bloody. Once a mob turns on one sort of foreigner, it soon turns on all foreigners. We’ve been here as long as Alexandria has existed, but the Egyptians still regard us as foreigners.”

“They lack the enlightened Roman attitude toward citizenship,” I told him. “And now, I must get to the Palace. Can you lend me some clothes?”

“Easily enough, but no adult male Jew goes clean-shaven, nor do we cut our hair as short as yours. Let me see what I can find.”

We went down into his house, and he rummaged through his chests until he came up with a very coarse cloak and one of those Egyptian head-scarves that follow the shape of the wig.

“These belonged to a slave I freed after his seven years,” Simeon remarked. “Let’s see what you look like in them.”

“Seven years?” I asked as I donned the itchy cloak and the ridiculous scarf.

“My religion forbids chattel slavery,” he said. “We allow bond servitude for seven years only; then the servant must be given his freedom.”

“We could use a custom like that,” I said. “It would probably spare us no end of trouble. Never get the Senate to accept it, though.”

He lent me a bag of coarse sacking to conceal the scroll, and I felt as disguised as I could, under the circumstances. It occurred to me that the streets would be full of Achillas’s men, who would undoubtedly have orders to deliver me to the Palace in small pieces.

“What is the most direct way to get to the sea from here?” I asked.

“If you walk from here to the city wall and turn north along it, you will reach the Fishermen’s Gate.”

“I think that is my best course, rather than back through the city Farewell, Simeon. You may look for tangible evidence of my gratitude soon.”

“Just do what you can to put a stop to the anti-foreign hysteria, Senator. This used to be such a wonderful city.”

I stepped from the front door and found the alley empty. A very few steps brought me to an east-west street and I turned east. The district was all but deserted, the inhabitants huddling behind bolted doors. That suited me admirably. I reached the city wall without incident and found an especially heavy guard patrolling along its crest, their eyes scanning the city for signs of disturbance. Following the wall north brought me to a small gate. It stood open for the day, and nobody along my route had so much as a glance to spare for another slave carrying another load on his shoulder.