Domina Victrix

Chapter 61: 29 AD, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome

Old Severus met Antipas in his private office and the two sat down with bar Simon, who was nursing a gashed, stitched, and bandaged right arm, and a fractured left wrist. He and his men had kept Gabinius out of the innermost precinct of the Temple, and Gabinius had several cuts and scrapes of his own. Still, several dozen men, women, and children lay dead or injured in the Courtyard of the Women, many of them trampled by the men fighting around them. Judeans, Galileans, and Romans had drawn each other's blood, and the next hours and days were critical.

"Was there another squad in the outer courtyard?" Old Severus asked.

"Samaritan auxilliaries mingled in the crowd and turned on them when the fighting started," bar Simon said.

"Damn," Severus said.

Jews in Judea traced their descent from people primarily of the ancestral tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon centuries earlier. Samaritans traced theirs from the other Tribes of Israel who had formed a breakaway Kingdom of Samaria. Both peoples claimed Yahweh as their God, both wore beards, and fringes on their garments, both practiced circumcision, each hated the other and, more confusingly, could pass for the other. Pilate and Gabinius had exploited those hatreds and similarities here.

"And what I can't figure out is why," Antipas said. "The August One clearly forbade the seizure of the Temple Treasury."

"Here's what I know," Severus said. "Sejanus was a staff aide to Tiberius for years and the two became friends, possibly more. When Tiberius became Emperor, naturally, he made Sejanus the Praetorian Prefect. Their system has worked well for years but the cracks are there."

"Sejanus seems like he's getting above himself," Antipas said.

"He is," Severus said. "He has the Guard concentrated in Rome now and is sitting like a cobra ready to strike."

"I'm more worried about our two vipers here," bar Simon said. "Pilate's tightening a rope around us and doesn't think we've figured it out."

"We've talked about this, David and I," Severus said to Antipas. "Sejanus picked a General whose speciality is crushing revolts. He intends to provoke one here, crush it, get credit, and rid the Empire of a people he views as a problem."

"And Tiberius?" Antipas asked.

"He knows that a revolt here could be a fire we couldn't put out without nearly gutting ourselves in the process, so he's trying to keep a lid on it."

"Between these two, who wins?" bar Simon asked.

"Put your money on Tiberius and keep it there," Severus said. "He and Agrippa and Germanicus were the best damn generals we ever had. And he still is."

....

Artos woke as the buccina sounded midnight watch, needing the pot. He lay awake in the darkness, trying to get his bearings. As a small child, he would sleep with his mother when he was sick, so it was no surprise that his father had had him sleep in his room given that he almost died of poisoning. It felt awkward, though, and he wanted his own bed and surroundings. He stood up and a wave of dizziness forced him to sit back down on the bed. Bricius roused.

"Are you going to make it?" he asked. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit," Artos said. "Like we did when we ate the oysters in Athens on our way here. Only worse."

"That was just a batch of bad shellfish. This was poison."

"I know," Artos said.

He got up to use the pot and Bricius went to the cupboard in the main room and poured more milk and wine, mixing it in a cup. Men did not drink milk and he did not like Junior drinking undiluted wine, but the mixture was supposed to neutralize any contamination still in his system. When he came back to the bedroom, Junior was pulling his blanket off the bed.