David Epperson - The Third Day

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“You begin your bath here,” he said.

We saw no water. Instead, to our great surprise, rows of dumbbells lined both sides of the room, with two racks of heavy barbells mounted on the opposite wall. A dozen Romans, stripped down to loincloths, puffed away at the weights, while in the far corner, other soldiers took turns punching a heavy leather bag.

“I wonder if they sell monthly memberships?” Markowitz joked.

Bergfeld picked up a nearby dumbbell without thinking. She raised it over her head and did two quick sets of tricep extensions, one for each arm. It was only as she replaced the weight on its rack that she noticed the room had gone silent. Every man stared at her; a few gaped in open astonishment.

“It’s the Amazon,” one finally said, as his compatriots burst out in laughter.

She blushed as Lavon translated and quickly ducked behind the rest of us.

Not one to miss a workout, I stepped forward to grab a few quick sets with the dumbbells, and the others followed. A few minutes later, Sharon got over her embarrassment and came back to join the fun.

After we finished, we stepped back into the corridor and followed the servant down the hall, wondering what other surprises were in store.

“It’s called the Palaestra ,” Lavon explained. “The Romans believed that it was best to work up a sweat before bathing.”

“Fascinating,” said Bryson.

“Did they really call me an Amazon?” asked Sharon.

The Amazon, if I heard him right,” said the archaeologist.

“Did such women really exist?”

“Supposedly their lands were to the north of the Black Sea — today’s Ukraine,” answered Lavon, “but it’s hard to say how much credence the Greeks or the Romans gave to the tales. Some of the stories were pretty bizarre.”

“Isn’t that where you told them we came through on the way here?” I asked.

He frowned. “I never considered the link,” he admitted.

“Link to what?” said Bergfeld.

“Since the Amazons didn’t allow men to live in their country, the legend was that they’d venture out once or twice a year to have sex, in order to keep their line going. In that case, it’s plausible that a few of them might journey this far, for variety’s sake, I suppose.”

Considering the other myths about the Amazons, that sounded reasonable enough.

***

The servant stepped through another passage and directed us into the apodyterium , or changing room. Numbered shelves lined the walls, though most were empty at this time of the morning.

“Here’s the drill,” said Lavon. You can leave your clothes here. Once you’ve done that, you have a couple of choices. The Romans didn’t use soap like we do. Instead, bathers would cover their bodies with oil to loosen the dirt. Then, servants would take a curved metal tool and scrape it all off.”

“What’s the other choice?” I asked. The first option sounded distinctly unappealing.

“You can go straight to the caldarium , which is a hot water bath. It’s heated by a fire directly under the pool. The tiles are pretty hot, too, so, they’ll give you wooden clogs to keep from burning your feet.”

“I think I’ll go with Plan B,” I said.

The others laughed.

“I figured you would,” Lavon replied. “After you’ve spent however long you want in the hot water, you go to the next room and dunk yourself in the cold water pool, to close your pores. That’ll wake you up, I can assure you.”

“And after that?”

“In places like Pompeii, they’d have food and wine, and probably some musicians or other entertainment. There, the baths were a social occasion, and Roman writers often complained about people who stayed too long and became drunk and obnoxious.”

“But this is an army base,” said Bryson.

“Right,” said Lavon. “I’d expect it to be rather functional, without the decorative touches we’ve found in the resort towns. Once you’re out of the cold water, come back to the changing room and retrieve your clothes, and you’ll be done.”

“What about me?” Sharon asked.

He quizzed the servant again. Once again, the man flashed a sycophantic smile before beckoning her to sit. The rest of us would go first; she could follow once we had finished.

That made sense, though something at the back of my mind didn’t feel right. Although he was a servant and thus accustomed to deferring to others, his demeanor seemed just a bit too obsequious — like a sleazy stockbroker trying to convince his intended victims of his honest nature.

“I’ll stay with her,” I decided.

“But you must — ”

I rose. “Tell him I’ll stay here. Someone needs to watch over our stuff, anyway. I will bathe later.”

The servant shrugged and then led the other three toward the warm water.

Chapter 27

An hour later, a beaming Lavon strode back into the changing room.

“Incredible,” he said. “The chow is good, too: baskets of fresh bread, fruit, and dates are set up on the sides of both pools. Eat all you want.”

“I’m hungry,” Sharon chirped. “Let’s go.”

I was, too, but something wasn’t right. I peered behind Lavon into the corridor leading to the apodyterium .

“Where are the others?”

Lavon hesitated.

“They have a change of clothes waiting for us after we get out of the cold water pool,” he finally said. “The servants will wash the ones we left here and bring them up to our room later this afternoon after they’ve dried.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Lavon shook his head. “I can’t stop them, Bill. You know that. They’re likely to need someone to translate.”

I was afraid of something like this.

“Where are they now?”

Lavon reached up to a shelf and grabbed his bag, along with the two others’.

“They’re waiting for me by the fort’s eastern gate. The road from there continues on to the northeast, to the Mount of Olives. We’ll circle around there, come back in through the City of David and work our way up to the Temple. You have to enter the Temple complex from the south, anyway. Going this way should help us avoid the worst of the crowds.”

“I thought only Jews could enter the Temple.”

“Foreigners were allowed in the outer courtyard, just not the Temple building itself.”

“You’ve seen how Ray has been acting,” I replied. “He’ll try to get in somehow. Bryson will too, with that camera. God help them if they’re caught.”

“Ray is Jewish,” said Lavon.

“I know that, but he doesn’t look like any of the locals I’ve seen around here.”

“That won’t matter. The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple roughly six hundred years before Christ and deported Judah’s upper classes to Babylon and beyond. By Roman times, Jews had scattered all over the world. The Passover was the big festival; they could be coming from anywhere.”

I cast him a dubious glance.

“I’m serious. Some of the exiles even wandered as far as China. Over time, they began to assimilate with the local populations. After several centuries, their physical appearances would have begun to vary.”

“If they don’t buy it, you’re screwed.”

“No, it’s plausible,” Lavon insisted. “And don’t forget, the Assyrians wiped out the northern Kingdom of Israel even earlier — about 150 years before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. They followed the same policy: transport the people of a conquered region somewhere else, so they’d have no homeland of their own to defend, no reason to rebel. By the first century, those people could have gone anywhere. If worst comes to worst, I’ll tell them he’s from one of the Lost Tribes, coming home.”

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