Baudolino

by Umberto Eco

  Afterwards, the emperor affirmed that now, truly, it was necessary to set out. An expedition of conquest had to be prepared carefully. In the following year Frederick sent ambassadors to Saladin, and sought encounters with envoys of Stephen Nemanya, prince of the Serbs, to arrange passage through their territories.

  While the kings of England and France were deciding to leave by sea, in May of 1189, Frederick had gone overland from Ratisbon with fifteen thousand horsemen and fifteen thousand squires; some were saying that in the plains of Hungary he passed in review sixty thousand horsemen and a hundred thousand foot soldiers. Others were even to speak of six hundred thousand pilgrims. Perhaps all were exaggerating, even Baudolino was in no position to say how many they really were; perhaps in all they came to twenty thousand men, but in any case it was a great army. Without anyone's going out and counting them one by one, from a distance they were a tented horde whose beginning you could see but not their end.

  To avoid the massacres and lootings of the previous expeditions, the emperor would not have them followed by those swarms of outcasts who, a hundred years earlier, had shed so much blood in Jerusalem. This was something to be done properly, by men who knew how a war is waged, not by wretches who set off with the excuse of winning Paradise and came home with the spoils of some Jew whose throat they had cut along the way. Frederick accepted only those who could support themselves for two years, and the poor soldiers received three silver marks for food during the journey. If you want to liberate Jerusalem, you have to spend what it takes.

  Many Italians had joined the venture. There were the Cremonese with Bishop Sicardo, the men of Brescia, of Verona with Cardinal Adelardo, and even some Alessandrians, including old friends of Baudolino like Boidi, Cuttica of Quargnento, Porcelli, Aleramo Scaccabarozzi known as Bonehead, Colandrino the brother of Colandrina, who was therefore a brother-in-law, and also one of the Trotti men, Pozzi, Ghilini, Lanzavecchia, Peri, Inviziati, Gambarini, and Cermelli, all at their own expense or supported by their city.

  Theirs was a sumptuous departure along the Danube to Vienna; at Breslava, in June, they met the king of Hungary. Then they entered the Bulgarian forest. In July they met the prince of the Serbs, who sought an alliance against Byzantium.

  "I believe that this meeting," Baudolino said, "worried your basileus Isaac. He feared that the army wanted to conquer Constantinople."

  "He wasn't mistaken."

  "He was mistaken by fifteen years. At that time, Frederick really did want to reach Jerusalem."

  "But we were uneasy."

  "I understand. An immense foreign army was about to cross your territory, and you were concerned. But you certainly made our life difficult. We arrived at Serdica and we didn't find the promised supplies. Around Philippopolis we were confronted by your troops, and then they retreated in full flight, as happened in every conflict during those months."

  "You know that, at that time, I was governor of Philippopolis. We received conflicting news from the court. At one point the basileus ordered us to construct a girdle of walls and to dig a moat, to oppose your arrival, then immediately after we had done that, an order came that we were to destroy everything, so the city wouldn't serve as a haven for your people."

  "You blocked the mountain passes, having trees chopped down. You attacked our men singly if they went off to look for food."

  "You were sacking our lands."

  "Because you weren't providing the promised rations. Your people lowered food from the walls in baskets, but they mixed lime and other poisonous substances in the bread. During that journey the emperor received a letter from Sybille, former queen of Jerusalem, who informed him that Saladin, to halt the advance of the Christians, had sent to the emperor of Byzantium bushels of poisoned grain, and a pot of wine so heavily poisoned that a slave of Isaac's, forced to sniff it, died on the spot."

  "Fairy tales."

  "When Frederick sent ambassadors to Constantinople, your basileus made them remain standing, then imprisoned them."

  "Afterwards they were sent back to Frederick."

  "When we entered Philippopolis, we found it empty, because all had slipped away. You weren't there either."

  "It was my duty to evade capture."

  "That may be. But it was after our entry into Philippopolis that your emperor changed his tone. That is where we encountered the Armenian community."

  "The Armenians considered you brothers. They are schismatics like you, they don't venerate the holy images, they use unleavened bread."

  "They are good Christians. Some of them spoke at once in the name of their prince, Leo, guaranteeing passage and assistance through their country. But things weren't that simple, as we learned at Adrianopolis, when ambassadors arrived from the Seleucian sultan of Iconium, Kilidj Arslan, who proclaimed himself lord of the Turks and the Syrians, and also of the Armenians. Who was in command? And where?"

  "Kilidj was trying to halt the supremacy of Saladin, and wanted to conquer the Christian kingdom of Armenia, so he was hoping that Frederick could help him. The Armenians were confident that Frederick could contain Kilidj's demands. Our Isaac, still smarting from the defeat suffered at the hands of the Seljuks at Miriokephalon, hoped that Frederick would clash with Kilidj, but he wouldn't have been displeased if there had also been conflict with the Armenians, who were causing our empire no little trouble. That's why, when he learned that both the Seljuks and the Armenians were guaranteeing Frederick passage through their lands, he realized he should not halt that march but encourage it, allowing him to cross the Propontis. He was sending him against our enemies and away from us."

  "My poor father. I don't know if he suspected he was a weapon in the hands of a tangle of interwoven enemies. Or perhaps he did understand, but hoped he could defeat them all. What I do know is that, glimpsing the possibility of an alliance with a Christian kingdom, the Armenian, beyond Byzantium, Frederick was eagerly thinking of his final goal. He dreamed (and I, with him) that the Armenians would be able to open the road for him towards the kingdom of Prester John.... In any case, it's as you said: after the envoys from the Seljuks and the Armenians, your Isaac gave us the ships. And it was, in fact, at Gallipolis, which you people call Kallioupolis, that I saw you, when in the name of your basileus, you offered us the vessels."

  "It was not an easy decision on our part," Niketas said. "The basileus risked turning Saladin against him. He had to send messengers to him to explain the reasons for our concessions. A great lord, Saladin, he understood at once, and bore us no ill will. I repeat, from the Turks we have nothing to fear: our problem is with your schismatics, always."

  Niketas and Baudolino agreed that there was no point in exchanging recriminations or explanations of that bygone episode. Perhaps Isaac was right: every Christian pilgrim who passed through Byzantium was always tempted to stop there, where there were so many beautiful things to conquer, without going and risking too much before the walls of Jerusalem. But Frederick truly wanted to go on.

  They arrived at Gallipolis and, while it wasn't Constantinople, the army was seduced by that festive place, the port full of galleys and dromons, ready to take on board horses, horsemen, and victuals. It was not the work of a day, and meanwhile our friends had time on their hands. From the beginning of the journey Baudolino had decided to employ Zosimos for something useful, and forced him to teach Greek to the group. "In the place where we are going," he said, "nobody knows Latin, to say nothing of German, Provençal, or my language. With Greek, there's always some hope of making yourself understood." And so, between visits to the bordello and the reading of some texts of the fathers of the Eastern church, the waiting was not burdensome.

  In the port there was a vast market, and they decided to venture into it, conquered by the distant gleaming and the odor of spices. Zosimos, whom they had freed so that he could be their guide (but under the vigilant surveillance of Boron, who didn't take his eyes off him for a second), now warned them: "You Latin and Alaman barbarians are ignorant of t
he civilization of us Romans. You should know that in our markets, at first glance, you wouldn't want to buy anything because they ask too much, and if you immediately pay what they ask, it's not that they take you for fools, because they already know you are fools, but they are offended because the merchant's joy is bargaining. So offer two coins when they ask ten, they'll come down to seven, you offer three and they come down to five, you stick to three, until they give in, weeping and swearing they'll end up homeless with all their family. At that point, go ahead and buy, but you should know that the object was worth one coin."

  "Then why should we buy?" the Poet asked.

  "Because they also have a right to live, and three coins for what is worth one represents an honest trade. But I must give you another warning: not only do merchants have a right to live, but so do thieves, and since they can't rob one another, they'll try to rob you. If you prevent them, that's your right; but if they succeed, you mustn't complain. So I advise you to carry little money in your purse, just the amount you've decided to spend, and no more."

  Instructed by a guide so wise in local ways, our friends ventured into a tide of people stinking of garlic, like all Greeklings. Baudolino bought himself two Arab daggers, well made, to keep at either side of his belt, to be extracted rapidly, as he crossed his arms. Abdul found a little transparent box that contained a lock of hair (God knows whose, but it was clear whom he had in mind). Solomon called the others in a loud voice when he discovered the tent of a Persian selling miraculous potions. The vendor of elixirs displayed a phial that, according to him, contained a very potent drug that, taken in small doses, stimulated the vital spirits, but if drained quickly could cause death. Then he held up a similar phial, which, however, contained the most powerful of antidotes, capable of canceling the action of any poison. Solomon, who dabbled also in the art of medicine, like all Jews, bought the antidote. Belonging to a race more clever than the Romei, he managed to pay one coin instead of the ten asked, and he was tormented by the fear of having paid at least double the value.

  Leaving the apothecary's tent, Kyot found an elegant scarf, and Boron, after considering all the merchandise at length, shook his head, murmuring that, for one in the service of an emperor who possessed the Grasal, all the treasures of the world were filth, and these things worst of all.

  They came upon Boidi, the Alessandrian, who by now had become one of their group. He was enchanted by a ring, perhaps of gold (the vendor wept at selling it because it had belonged to his mother), which contained in its mount a wondrous cordial, a single sip of which could heal a wounded man and, in certain cases, resuscitate a dead one. He bought it, he said, because if they really had to risk their necks before the walls of Jerusalem, it was best to take some precaution.

  Zosimos was ecstatically contemplating a seal bearing the initial Z, his own, which was being sold with a little stick of sealing wax. The Z was so worn that perhaps it would leave no mark on the wax, but this fact testified to the distinct antiquity of the object. Naturally, as a prisoner, he had no money, but Solomon, touched, bought the seal for him.

  At a certain point, driven by the crowd, they realized they had lost the Poet, but they found him again as he was pulling down the price of a sword that, according to the merchant, dated back to the conquest of Jerusalem. But when he reached for his purse, he realized that Zosimos was right: with his pale-blue pensive Alaman eyes, he attracted thieves like flies. Baudolino was moved and made him a present of the sword.

  The next day a richly dressed man turned up at the encampment, with exaggerated obsequious manners, accompanied by two servants. He asked to see Zosimos. The monk conferred with him for a while, then came to tell Baudolino that this was Makhitar Ardzrouni, a noble Armenian dignitary, who had been charged with a secret mission by Prince Leo.

  "Ardzrouni?" Niketas said. "I know about him. He came several times to Constantinople, in the days of Andronicus and afterwards. I understand why he sought out Zosimos, because he had the reputation of an amateur of magical sciences. One of my friends in Selymbria—but God knows if we will find him still there—was also a guest in his castle at Dadjig...."

  "So were we, as I will tell you, and for our misfortune. The fact that he was Zosimos's friend was for me a very unfortunate sign, but I informed Frederick, who wanted to see him. This Ardzrouni was very reticent about his credentials. He had been sent, or not sent, by Leo, or he had been sent but he wasn't to say so. He was there to guide the imperial army through the territory of the Turks into Armenia. Ardzrouni expressed himself with the emperor in acceptable Latin, but when he wanted to remain vague he pretended he was unable to find the right word. Frederick said he was treacherous, like all Armenians, but a man familiar with the locality was convenient and he decided to add him to the army, asking me merely to keep an eye on him. I must say that during the journey, he behaved impeccably, always giving information that proved correct."

  24. Baudolino in the castle of Ardzrouni

  In March 1190 the army entered Asia and reached Laodicea, then headed for the territories of the Seljuk Turks. The old sultan of Iconium called himself an ally of Frederick, but his sons deposed him and attacked the Christian army. Or perhaps Kilidj had also changed his mind: we never really found out. Clashes, skirmishes, outright battles: Frederick advanced as victor, but his army had been decimated by the cold, by hunger, and by the attacks of the Turkomans, who arrived suddenly, struck the flanks of his army and fled, knowing well the passes and the hiding places.

  Struggling through sun-baked desert territories, the soldiers had been forced to drink their own urine, or the blood of the horses. When they arrived at Iconium, the pilgrims' army was reduced to no more than a thousand horsemen.

  And yet it was a fine siege, and young Frederick of Swabia, sickly though he was, fought well, taking the city himself.

  "You speak coldly of young Frederick."

  "He didn't love me. He mistrusted everyone; he was jealous of his younger brother, who was stealing the imperial crown from him, and surely he was jealous of me, who was not of his blood, jealous of his father's affection for me. Perhaps as a child he had been troubled by the way I looked at his mother, or she looked at me. He was jealous of the authority I had gained by giving the Grasal to his father, and on this matter he always displayed some skepticism. When there was talk of an expedition to the Indias, I heard him murmur that it could be discussed at the proper time. He felt dethroned by all. That's why at Iconium he behaved with valor, even though he had a fever that day. Only when his father praised him for that fine achievement, and in front of all his barons, did I see a light of joy gleam in his eyes. The one time in his life, I believe. I went to pay him homage, and I was truly happy for him, but he thanked me absently."

  "Like me, Baudolino. I too wrote and am writing the chronicles of my empire, emphasizing more the petty jealousies, the hatred, the envy that jeopardized both poweful families and great public undertakings. Even emperors are human beings, and history is also the story of their weaknesses. But do go on."

  "Once Iconium was conquered, Frederick immediately sent ambassadors to Leo of Armenia, asking his help in proceeding across his territories. A pact existed; they had been the ones to promise this. And yet Leo hadn't yet sent anyone to receive us. Perhaps he was seized by the fear of meeting the same end as the sultan of Iconium. So we went ahead, not knowing if we would receive aid; and Ardzrouni guided us, saying that surely the ambassadors of his prince would arrive. One June day, turning southwards, having passed Laranda, we ventured into the Taurus Mountains, and finally we saw some cemeteries with crosses. We were in Cilicia, in Christian country. We were immediately received by the Armenian lord of Sibilia, and, farther on, near a cursed river whose name I have chosen to forget, we encountered a deputation that arrived in Leo's name. The moment it was sighted, Ardzrouni warned us that it was best for him to keep out of sight, and he vanished. We met two dignitaries, Constant and Baudouin de Camardeis, and I have never seen ambassadors of
more uncertain intentions. One announced as imminent the arrival in great pomp of Leo and Gregory the Catholicos; the other hemmed and hawed, pointing out that, while most eager to help the emperor, the Armenian prince couldn't show Saladin that he was opening the way to his enemies, and therefore he had to act with great prudence."

  When the delegation had left, Ardzrouni reappeared and took Zosimos aside, who then went to Baudolino and, with him, to Frederick.

  "Ardzrouni says that, far be it from him to have any wish to betray his lord, but he suspects that for Leo it would be a stroke of luck if you went no farther."

  "In what sense?" Frederick asked. "Does he want to offer me wine and maidens so I'll forget I must go on to Jerusalem?"

  "Wine perhaps. Poisoned wine. He says you should remember the letter of Queen Sybille," Zosimos said.

  "How does he know about that letter?"

  "Rumors spread. If Leo were to arrest your march, he would do something very pleasing to Saladin, and Saladin could help him achieve his dream of becoming sultan of Iconium, since Kilidj and his sons have been shamefully defeated."

  "And why is Ardzrouni so concerned about my life—even to the point of betraying his master?"

  "Only Our Lord gave his life for love of humanity. The seed of men, born in sin, is like the seed of animals: even the cow gives you milk only if you give her hay. What does this holy maxim teach us? That Ardzrouni would not object one day to taking the place of Leo. Ardzrouni is respected by many of the Armenians; Leo isn't. And so, winning the gratitude of the holy and Roman emperor, he could one day rely on the most powerful of friends. So for this reason he suggests proceeding to his castle at Dadjig, on the banks of this same river, to encamp your men in the vicinity. While waiting till we can understand what Leo is really guaranteeing, you could stay with him, safe from any trap. And he urges you, above all, to be careful, especially about the food and the drink that any compatriot of his might offer you."