Steven Saylor - The judgement of Caesar

"Will the queen still need protection from assassins, even after she's dead?"

Cratipus, taking my comment for sarcasm, growled at me. Merianis lowered her voice. "Cratipus dislikes you because you're Roman. He thinks all Romans must be very impious. He can't understand why you allow yourselves to be ruled by mere mortals. I must admit, that also puzzles me."

I shrugged. "So far as I know, no god has ever campaigned to get himself elected to a Roman magistracy, probably because election campaigns are so hideously expensive."

Merianis looked at me quizzically, then laughed. "I see; you've made a joke. Anyway, Cratipus resents the queen's reliance on Roman arms, and he distrusts Caesar's judgment. It was Caesar's idea that the queen should retire here to Antirrhodus for the time being, for her own safety. I think it was a splendid idea, but Cratipus thinks it was Ptolemy who should have been removed from the palace, if one or the other of them had to withdraw."

"The location is certainly splendid enough," I said as the guards escorted us away from the landing and we ascended a marble stairway lined by palm trees. Before us loomed the facade of the palace, a curious mixture of Greek columns and Egyptian stonework. "Or does the queen grow lonely, staying here?"

"Caesar visits her daily."

"Daily-or nightly?" I said.

A low, throaty voice, speaking Greek with an elegant accent, came from the shaded portico that led into the palace. "Caesar may visit whenever he wishes. And so may Merianis; for the queen is always pleased to look upon her face."

Cleopatra stepped forth into the sunlight. The guards fell forward onto their faces. Merianis dropped to her knees and bowed her head. I followed her example.

The queen accepted these prostrations as her due. I heard the swishing of her linen gown and watched the movement of her gilded, jewel-encrusted sandals as she strode back and forth before us. Only after a long moment did she utter the words, "You may rise."

Cleopatra proffered her hand to Merianis, who kissed it. "I've brought a visitor, Your Majesty. This is Gordianus of Rome, whom men call the Finder."

Cleopatra turned her gaze to me. "We've met before, have we not?"

"I was present on the occasion when Your Majesty made herself known to the consul of the Roman people."

She nodded. "Ah, yes. My attention was given entirely to Caesar on that occasion, but I do remember seeing you there, very briefly. Meto was also there, but the two of you quickly excused yourselves and disappeared. Since then, I've seen Meto on numerous occasions; Caesar hardly goes anywhere without him. It was only in recent days, and from Merianis, not Caesar, that I learned of your relationship to Meto."

"When he was very young, I adopted him. But he is no longer my son."

"How confusing! I understand that adoption is quite common among the Romans, who put their faith in man-made laws and man-made relationships. In Rome, it seems, two men can be father and son one day, and unrelated to one another the next; such a concept is foreign to us. In Egypt, the bloodline is everything. The bloodline can never be broken."

"Except by death?" I said.

"Not even by death. Sister and brother in this world will be sister and brother in the next. The blood of the Ptolemies runs equally in my veins and in those of my brother. We are joined to one another and to our ancestors for all eternity. But in this realm we inhabit mortal flesh, and at some point death may separate us, if only for the brief span of this mortal lifetime."

"I devoutly hope not, Your Majesty."

She smiled. "If it becomes necessary for one of us to proceed to the next world prematurely, I assure you that it won't be me. Cratipus would never allow that to happen."

"Your Majesty will come to no harm, not as long as there's a single breath left in the body of any man here!" declared Cratipus.

"Your devotion pleases the queen," said Cleopatra. "Now return to the harbor and keep a lookout for other visitors."

"Is Your Majesty expecting someone?" I said.

"Perhaps. But we were speaking of the afterlife." She strolled through the lush gardens surrounding the palace, with Merianis and I following a little behind.

"Having lived in both places, I perceive that Egyptian expectations of an afterlife considerably exceed those of a Roman," I said. "For us, when this life is over, the best has passed. We become shadows who watch the living with envy as we fade into a long, gray eternity."

"Ah, but you have it exactly wrong. For those who attain immortality, this life is but a shadow of the next. The point of this life is to prepare for the life to come. I brought up this subject for a reason, Gordianus. Knowing of Meto's importance to Caesar, knowing of your importance to Meto-and because Merianis has become so fond of you-I have made it my business to know a little about you."

"I find it hard to imagine that anything about myself might interest the queen of Egypt."

"Even so, I know of your reason for coming to Egypt, Gordianus, and I know of your bereavement. Was your wife very ill?"

I sighed. "Is this subject truly of interest to Your Majesty? It causes me pain to speak of it."

"Even so, indulge me."

"Very well. My wife's illness was mysterious to me. Sometimes it seemed to me almost that she must be imagining it. At other times, I feared it would take her from me so suddenly I would have no chance to say farewell."

"She wished to bathe in the Nile, thinking that would cure her?"

"So she said. But…"

"You think she might have had another reason for coming to Egypt?"

"I think perhaps she sensed that her death was near, and it was her desire to die in Egypt. She often expressed to me her disdain for Roman funerary rites; she did not care for cremation. Where else but in Egypt could she be properly mummified and given the ancient rites of passage to the afterlife? While that may have been her intention, it was not what happened in the end."

"Your wife was lost in the Nile."

"It happened near a little temple between the road and the river, north of Naucratis."

Cleopatra nodded. "The ancient temple of Osiris, hidden among the vines; I know it well. The place is very ancient, very holy."

"I was told afterward that the temple is abandoned, and that the woman who stays there, pretending to be a priestess, is mad."

The queen raised an eyebrow. "I've met the woman of whom you speak. I found her very wise."

"It was the old crone who told Bethesda to enter the water," I said bitterly.

"But, Gordianus! Do you not understand the significance of a death in the Nile? The river is sacred to Osiris; whom the river claims, the god claims. To drown in the Nile is to be blessed in Osiris. Do you know the story of his death and resurrection? Let me tell it to you.

"It was Osiris who brought the gift of civilization to the world, at the dawn of history. Before Osiris, men were cannibals; Osiris taught them to grow crops and to harvest the fish of the sea, and he gave them much more-the first temples in which to worship the gods, the first cities and laws, even the first instruments with which to make music. The type of flute that my father loved so much to play was invented by Osiris himself.

"Osiris ruled the earth, and all men loved him. But by his very goodness Osiris incurred the jealousy of his wicked brother Set, who devised a plot to destroy him. Set made a wonderful box, and at a banquet of the gods, he promised it to the one whose body best fit the box. When Osiris lay in the box, Set covered it and sealed it with molten lead, then cast the box into the Nile.

"Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, followed the box and retrieved it. When she opened it, Osiris was dead. But by her magic, Isis made his flesh incorruptible and restored him to life. Osiris might have retaken his throne, but instead he chose to retire beyond this world to the Kingdom of the Dead, where he welcomes the souls of the just."