Lords of the World: A story of the fall of Carthage and Corinth

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XXII.

  A PLEASURE TRIP.

  The year drew to its close with a period of inaction on both sides. TheCarthaginians, greatly disheartened by the defeat of the native tribes,made no further attempt to assume the offensive. They still held FortNepheris, the Romans not being able to spare enough men to invest it.The besiegers, on the other hand, were content to let things alone forthe present. Time was on their side. They added daily to the strength oftheir siege-works, and their troops, most of them at their first landingraw recruits, were now becoming well-seasoned soldiers. A few daysbefore the end of the year Scipio left for Rome in order to be presentat the elections. Nothing was done during his absence, but it wasunderstood that on his return active operations would be commencedwithout delay.

  On the day after the departure of the commander-in-chief, Cleanorreceived a visit from his physician. Latterly these visits had been rareand brief, not going beyond a few questions and a short gossip on thenews of the camp. Now, however, the patient was subjected to a closeexamination. When this was completed, the physician shook his head.

  "My young friend," he said, "you are not making quite the progress I hadhoped and expected to see. The pulse is weak, I find. You haveheadaches, you tell me, now and then, and little appetite. This last isnot a good sign. A young man like you, when he is really getting well,ought to be as hungry as a wolf. On the whole, I think you would be thebetter for a change, and we must consider how it can be managed."

  At this point of the conversation Polybius entered the tent. "I am notsatisfied," said the physician, addressing the new-comer. "I don't findmy young patient making as good a recovery as I had hoped, and I havebeen suggesting a change. These are excellent quarters, and every careis taken, I know, of our friend, but a camp is not a good place for acomplete recovery. Somehow the presence of a number of men seems to makethe air somewhat stale."

  "I am particularly glad to see you," said Polybius, "for this is exactlythe business about which I have come. Scipio, who thinks of everybody,and forgets nothing, was talking to me about Cleanor here the day beforeyesterday, and the very last thing he said to me yesterday when I badehim good-bye on board his galley was, 'Don't forget the invalid.' Heleft the matter, as a whole, to my discretion, but his idea was a shorttrip to Egypt. I was to ask your opinion, and if that was favourable, Iwas to arrange the details. Scipio will be away for nearly or quite amonth, for there are many things to settle in Rome, and of coursenothing of importance will be done during his absence. That gives usplenty of time. What do you say, doctor?"

  "Nothing could be better," replied the physician. "We will say a month.That won't give you much time on shore. But I don't care about that. Infact it is the sea voyage that I count upon for putting our young friendright. Still, there is plenty to see in Alexandria, even if you can'tget any further."[46]

  "That is exactly what I expected to hear," said Polybius. "In fact, I somuch took it for granted that I have given orders for a galley to beready this evening. So if you don't object, Cleanor, we will start atonce. There is a nice westerly breeze blowing, which we ought not tolose."

  Cleanor had no objection to make. He was, on the contrary, much pleasedwith the idea. He had certainly been feeling somewhat languid, and thetime was beginning to hang heavy on his hands. Besides, what could bemore delightful than to see Alexandria?

  A start accordingly was made at sunset. Everything favoured thevoyagers. The wind never veered from the west, and though towardsevening it commonly lulled, it never ceased; during the day it alwaysblew briskly, but never was so strong as to cause inconvenience. Inconsequence the galley's voyage was almost a record, for she reached thequay in what was called the Eunostos or Haven of Happy Return in ninedays. The travellers paid the customary visit of thanksgiving for a safevoyage to the Temple of Poseidon, and dropped a half-stater[47] apieceinto the chest for offerings. This done, they presented a letter ofintroduction, with which Scipio had furnished them, to the official whorepresented Rome in Alexandria, were received by him with effusion, andpressed to accept his hospitality, but preferred the independence oflodgings of their own.

  Their first visit was, of course, to the great Library. This had not atthat time reached the enormous proportions which it attained about acentury later, when it received, in addition to its own wealth, the vastcollections of Pergamum,[48] but the volumes on its shelves alreadynumbered more than a quarter of a million. The two friends could havespent months, had months been at their disposal, in this wilderness oflearning. It was not only the multitude of its treasures that astonishedthem, it was the extraordinary value of many of the particular volumes.Here the student was permitted to inspect, under due safeguards, ofcourse, the actual autographs of some of the most famous authors of theworld. One of the Ptolemies, ironically called the Well-doer, hadfraudulently possessed himself of the originals of Æschylus, Sophocles,and Euripides, presenting the Athenian people which owned them withcopies and a money compensation. His successors had followed the sameunscrupulous policy. Indeed, no valuable manuscript that once found itsway into Alexandria was ever permitted to leave it.

  Adjoining the Library was the Museum, with its theatre or greatlecture-hall, its smaller lecture-rooms, its dining-hall, and collegiatebuildings, cloisters, gardens, and park. The two friends wandered fromroom to room, where all comers were welcome--the munificent endowmentsof learning rendered all fees unnecessary--and listened to discourses onall the subjects of knowledge under the sun.

  There did not happen to be any commanding or famous personality amongthe professors of the time, but there was plenty of learning andabundance of rhetoric if not of eloquence. A successor of Aristarchusdiscoursed on the criticism of Homer, denouncing, for such happened tobe the subject of the day, the pernicious heresy of the _Chorizontes_,the critics who maintained a diverse authorship of the Iliad and theOdyssey. The chair of Euclid was occupied by a geometrician who had madesome additions to the science of trigonometry. In the lecture-roomdevoted to astronomy they had the good fortune to hear a reallydistinguished man of science, Hipparchus of Bithynia, who had beeninvited by the authorities of the Museum to give a course of lectures.He had chosen for his subject his own great discovery of the precessionof the equinoxes, made, as he explained, by a comparison of his ownobservations with those of earlier astronomers.[49]

  As they left the room they were invited by an attendant, who observedthat they were strangers, to read an inscription written in letters ofgold over the principal door. It was the epigram of Apollonius of Rhodeson the reception of the Hair of Berenice among the Constellations.Polybius was recognized by one of the professors, who had been glad toleave the thankless politics of Greece for a quiet competence in thisabode of learning, and was invited by the professor to take dinner inthe great banqueting-hall. Cleanor was, of course, included in theinvitation. The intervening time was spent pleasantly enough ininspecting the garden, in which the collection of tropical plants,afterwards so famous, had been already begun, and in examining, whatwas then a sight peculiar to Alexandria, a menagerie.

  Both Polybius and his friend were inclined to think that all time notspent in the Library or the lecture-room was more or less wasted. Still,there were sights which it was impossible for a visitor to Alexandria toneglect. Such was the mausoleum of the Ptolemies, with the coffin ofgold in which reposed the remains of the great Alexander; theobservatory; the palace of justice; and the market, thronged with thecommerce of the whole of the civilized world. There were hours, too,when the Library was shut, and these were spent in a way both amusingand instructive. The two wandered through the different regions of thegreat city, the streets inhabited by the Jews, with squalid exteriors,often concealing palaces fit for kings, and the native quarter, crowdedwith figures and faces that might have belonged to long-dead subjects ofthe Pharaohs. Not less interesting than the city were the docks andquays. Egypt was already one of the great granaries of the world.Loading the wheat ships was an employment that provided thousands oflabourer
s with sustenance, and at this time, thanks to the war, whichhad thrown out of cultivation the fertile territory of Carthage, thetrade was particularly brisk.

  Anyhow, the time did not hang heavily on the visitors' hands, andCleanor could hardly believe that ten days had passed when Polybiusintroduced the subject of departure. There was a certain hesitation inthe old man's manner, and Cleanor, who had all the quick observation andalert intelligence of his race, did not fail to perceive it.

  "This is a delightful place, Cleanor," he said, "and I hope to see itagain. Indeed, there are books in the Library which I must go throughcarefully before I give my _magnum opus_ to the world. But that must befor the future. Now I have no choice but to go. We must not allow lessthan twelve days for the return voyage, though, if this wind holds, weshall not take so long."

  "Yes," replied Cleanor, "I am ready to start at any time."

  Polybius hesitated a second before he spoke. "Well," he said, "I don'tthink that there is any necessity for your coming with me. It is a pitythat you should not see something more of Egypt now you are here. Andthen there is the question of health. It would be a thousand pities thatyou should have anything like a relapse. As for me, I must go. Nextmonth, or, at furthest, the month after, is likely to see one of thegreatest events in the history of the West, and it would be folly in me,who pretend to be an historian, if, having the chance of seeing it withmy own eyes, I should fail to be present."

  Cleanor saw in a moment that the whole thing had been planned, and thathis companion was speaking by instruction. But he thought it prudent toconceal his knowledge.

  "Yes," he said, "I understand; but I think that I would sooner go backwith you."

  This was put out as a feeler, and it did not fail in its object.

  "I think it must be as I said," replied Polybius with some hesitation."To tell you the truth, it was Scipio's wish that you should remainhere, and I should not like to go against his wish. The master oflegions," he added with a smile, "must have his own way."

  "Exactly so," said the young man, "and I have no wish to oppose him."

  "Good!" replied Polybius with evident relief; "I was sure that you wouldbe reasonable, so sure, in fact, that I have made arrangements for youto start to-morrow on a journey up the Nile. All expenses have beenpaid, and you will have nothing to do but enjoy the most wonderful sightin the world. There need be no hurry. Take your time and see everythingat your leisure. The chance may never come again. The boat and its crewhave been hired for three months. When you return you shall find, allbeing well, a letter with instructions awaiting you here."

  "Well," said Cleanor, "I can't help being sorry that you are not comingwith me, but the plan is a most delightful one. You could not havedevised anything better."

  The young man's real thoughts were quite of another kind, though heconcealed them with an adroitness which would have done credit to aveteran diplomatist. The fact was that he had been haunted for some timepast by anxieties with which was mingled a certain feeling ofself-reproach. They had scarcely presented themselves, or had beenreadily banished, during the period of his weakness and forced inaction.But when health was fully restored, and he again felt himself capable ofaction, he could no longer ignore them.

  What had happened, what was likely to happen, to his foster-mother andher daughter? To Theoxena he was bound by one of the most natural andtender of ties. To let her perish, or suffer a fate worse than death,would be a shameful failure of duty, only less disgraceful than if shehad been his mother indeed. And her daughter--? He had scarcely thoughtof the girl at the time, so engrossing had been the anxieties of themoment. But her image had been impressed deeply on his memory, and evenon his heart. He seemed to see her still, as she told, with all thesimplicity of a child, the pitiful story of her kidnapped brother. Thelarge pathetic eyes, brimmed with tears, haunted him night and day.

  And there came with the thought the memory of another face, his sisterin blood, lost to him for ever. Was Fate about to deal him another bloweven worse than the first? Cleoné was dead. Was the time coming when thebest thing that he could wish for Daphne would be that she should bedead also? And was he to be sight-seeing on the Nile, curiouslyspeculating on the history of long-past generations, while this awfultragedy of the present was working itself out at Carthage? The thoughtwas maddening. "No!" he said to himself; "I may not be able to doanything to help, but at least I will not be taking my pleasure whilethey are suffering torture or death!"

  It was, however, necessary to dissimulate. It was plain that Scipio wasdetermined to have him out of the way when Carthage fell. Nor couldanything, he acknowledged to himself, be more reasonable or more kind.Though he could not be supposed to feel any sense of duty to a statefrom which he had received such treatment, still he might well wish notto witness its final catastrophe. Of his private feelings the Romangeneral could have no knowledge.

  His only course was to appear to acquiesce in the plan. Scipio mustundoubtedly have provided for the contingency of his resistance.Polybius, he remembered, had introduced the subject with a certainhesitation, as if an objection was not impossible. He was now, Cleanortrusted, off his guard. A too prompt consent might have seemedsuspicious. As it was, he reflected with satisfaction, he had shownexactly the right kind of reluctance. He had expressed regret atlosing his friend's company, without giving a hint of any personalunwillingness to accept the plan.

  That evening Polybius started on his return voyage. Cleanor was with himto the last moment, talking with an admirably simulated gaiety andinterest of the pleasure which lay before him in exploring the Egypt ofthe Pharaohs.

  FOOTNOTES:

  46: A ship of war, with a first-rate crew of rowers, making a very long day, say of fifteen hours, could travel 150 miles. From Carthage to Alexandria, by sea, is about 1100 miles. We must allow not less than ten days each way.

  47: A gold piece equal to twelve shillings.

  48: The Attali of Pergamum, and the Ptolemies of Alexandria, were rivals in amassing literary treasures. The house of the Attali became extinct in 133 B.C., and soon afterwards their kingdom became a Roman province. Their library remained at Pergamum till Antony presented it to Cleopatra. The word "parchment" (_pergamena_) remains as a reminder of its existence. Skins, of course, had long been used for writing purposes, but the manufacture was greatly improved under the patronage of the kings of Pergamum. The jealousy of the Ptolemies forbade, it is said, the export of paper (_papyrus_) from Alexandria, and parchment had to be used as a substitute.

  49: The backward movement of the equinoctial points along the elliptic. A constellation which Hesiod describes as rising sixty days after the spring equinox, now rises one hundred days after. The equinox therefore has receded by a space equivalent to forty days.