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Zenobia; or, the Fall of Palmyra

by William Ware · English · Gutenberg #8938 · 898,741 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Zenobia; or, the Fall of Palmyra

Author: William Ware


        
Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8938]
                Most recently updated: October 17, 2012

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8938

Credits: Produced by Distributed Proofreaders


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Zenobia; or, The Fall of Palmyra

By

William Ware




Letter I.



It is with difficulty that I persuade myself, that it is I who am sitting
and writing to you from this great city of the East. Whether I look upon
the face of nature, or the works of man, I see every thing different from
what the West presents; so widely different, that it seems to me, at
times, as if I were subject to the power of a dream. But I rouse myself,
and find that I am awake, and that it is really I, your old friend and
neighbor, Piso, late a dweller upon the Coelian hill, who am now basking
in the warm skies of Palmyra, and, notwithstanding all the splendor and
luxury by which I am surrounded, longing to be once more in Rome, by the
side of my Curtius, and with him discoursing, as we have been wont to do,
of the acts and policy of the magnificent Aurelian.

But to the purpose of this letter, which is, in agreement with my
promise, to tell you of my fortunes since I parted from you, and of my
good or ill success, as it may be, in the prosecution of that affair which
has driven me so far from my beloved Rome. O, Humanity! why art thou so
afflicted? Why have the immortal gods made the cup of life so bitter? And
why am I singled out to partake of one that seems all bitter? My feelings
sometimes overmaster my philosophy. You can forgive this, who know my
sorrows. Still I am delaying to inform you concerning my journey and my
arrival. Now I will begin.

As soon as I had lost sight of you weeping on the quay, holding in your
hand the little Gallus, and of the dear Lucilia leaning on your arm, and
could no longer, even by mounting upon the highest part of the vessel,
discern the waving of your hands, nor cause you to see the fervor with
which I returned the sign of friendship, I at once left off thinking of
you, as far as I could, and to divert my thoughts, began to examine, as if
I had never seen them before, the banks of the yellow Tiber. At first the
crowds of shipping, of every form and from every part of the world,
distracted the sight, and compelled me to observe what was immediately
around me. The cries of the sailors, as they were engaged in managing
different parts of their vessels, or as they called out in violent and
abusive terms to those who passed them, or as their several galleys struck
against each other in their attempts to go up or down the river, together
with the frequent roarings and bellowings of whole cargoes of wild beasts
from the deserts of Asia and Africa destined to the amphitheatre,
intermingled with the jargon of an hundred different barbarian languages
from the thousands who thronged the decks of this fleet of all
nations,--these sights and sounds at first wholly absorbed me, and for a
moment shut all the world besides--even you--out of my mind. It was a
strange yet inspiring scene, and gave me greater thoughts than ever of the
power and majesty of Rome. Here were men and ships that had traversed
oceans and continents to bring the offerings of their toil, and lay them
at the feet of the mistress of the world. And over all this bustle,
created by the busy spirit of commerce, a splendor and gayety were thrown
by numerous triremes and boats of pleasure, which, glittering under the
light of a summer's morning sun, were just setting out upon some excursion
of pleasure, with streamers floating from the slender masts, music
swelling up from innumerable performers, and shouts of merry laughter from
crowds of the rich and noble youths of the city, who reclined upon the
decks, beneath canopies of the richest dyes. As these Cleopatra barges
floated along with their soft burden, torrents of vituperative epithet
were poured upon them by the rough children of Neptune, which was received
with an easy indifference, or returned with no lack of ability in that
sort of warfare, according to the temper or breeding of the parties.

When the novelty of this scene was worn out, for though often seen it is
ever new, and we had fallen a few miles below the city, to where the eye
first meets the smiling face of the country, I looked eagerly around,
first upon one, and then upon the other bank of the river, in search of
the villas of our fortunate citizens, waiting impatiently till the
well-known turn of the stream should bring me before yours, where, with
our mutual friends, we have passed so many happy days. It was not long
before I was gratified. Our vessel gracefully doubled the projecting
point, blackened with that thick grove of pine, and your hospitable
dwelling greeted my eyes; now, alas! again, by that loved and familiar
object, made to overflow with tears. I was obliged, by one manly effort,
to leap clear of the power of all-subduing love, for my sensibilities were
drawing upon me the observation of my fellow-passengers. I therefore
withdrew from the side of the vessel where I had been standing, and moving
to that part of it which would best protect me from what, but now, I had
so eagerly sought, sat down and occupied myself in watching the movements
and the figures of the persons whom chance had thrown into my company, and
with whom I was now, for so many days, to be shut up in the narrow compass
of our merchant-barque. I had sat but a little while, when the master of
the ship, passing by me, stopped, and asked if it was I who was to land at
Utica--for that one, or more than one, he believed, had spoken for a
passage only to that port.

'No, truly,' I replied; and added: 'Do you, then, cross over to
Utica?--that seems to me far from a direct course for those bound
to Syria.'

'Better round-about,' rejoined he, in his rough way, 'than risk Scylla and
Charybdis; and so would you judge, were the bowels of my good ship stored
with your wealth, as they are, it may be, with that of some of your
friends. The Roman merchant likes not that narrow strait, fatal to so
many, but prefers the open sea, though the voyage be longer. But with this
wind--once out of this foul Tiber--and we shall soon see the white shores
of Africa. Truly, what a medley we seem to have on board! Jews, Romans,
Syrians, Greeks, soldiers, adventurers, merchants, pedlers, and, if I miss
not, Christians too; and you, if I miss not again, the only patrician. I
marvel at your taking ship with so spotted a company, when there are these
gay passenger-boats, sacred to the trim persons of the capital, admitting
even not so much as a case of jewels besides.'

'Doubtless it would have been better on some accounts,' I replied, 'but my
business was urgent, and I could not wait for the sailing of the
packet-boats; and besides, I am not unwilling to adventure where I shall
mix with a greater variety of my own species, and gain a better knowledge
of myself by the study of others. In this object I am not likely to be
disappointed, for you furnish me with diverse samples, which I can
contemplate at my leisure.'

'If one studied so as to know well the properties of fishes or animals,'
rejoined he, in a sneering tone, 'it would be profitable, for fishes can
be eaten, and animals can be used: but man! I know little that he is good
for, but to bury, and so fatten the soil. Emperors, as being highest,
should be best, and yet, what are they? Whether they have been fools or
madmen, the Tiber has still run blood, and the air been poisoned by the
rotting carcasses of their victims. Claudius was a good man, I grant; but
the gods, I believe, envied us our felicity, and so took him.'

'I trust,' said I, 'that the present auspices will not deceive us, and
that the happiness begun under that almost divine ruler, will be
completed under him whom he designated as most worthy of the sceptre of
the world, and whose reign--certainly we may say it--has commenced so
prosperously. I think better of man than you do, and I cannot but believe
that there will yet rise up among us those who shall feel what power,
almost of a god, is lodged in the will of a Roman emperor, and will use it
like a god to bless, not curse mankind. Why may not Nature repeat the
virtuous Antonines! Her power is not spent. For myself, I have faith that
Aurelian will restore not so much the greatness, as the peace and
happiness of the empire.'

'So have not I,' cried the master of the ship: 'is he not sprung from the
loins of a peasant? Has not the camp been his home? Was not a shield his
cradle? Such power as his will craze him. Born to it, and the chance were
better. Mark a sailor's word: he will sooner play the part of Maximin,
than that of Antonine or Severus, or of our late good Claudius. When he
feels easy in the saddle, we shall see what he will do. So far, the blood
of barbarians, slain in battle, has satisfied him: when once in Rome, that
of citizens will be sweeter. But may the gods befriend us!'

At this point of our discourse, we were interrupted by loud vociferations
from the forward part of the vessel, where I had long observed a crowd of
the passengers, who seemed engaged in some earnest conversation. The tones
now became sharp and angry, and the group suddenly dispersed, separating
this way and that, as the hoarse and commanding voice of the master of the
ship reached them, calling upon them to observe the rules of the vessel,
which allowed of no riot or quarrelling. Toward me there moved one whom I
hardly know how to describe, and yet feel that I must. You will here
doubtless exclaim, 'Why obliged to describe? Why say so much of accidental
companions?' But you will answer yourself, I feel persuaded, my Curtius,
by supposing that I should not particularly notice a mere companion of the
voyage, unless he had connected himself in some manner with my fortunes.
Such has been the case with this person, and one other whom I will shortly
introduce to you. As I was saying, then, when that group dispersed, one of
its number moved toward me, and seated himself at my side. He was
evidently a Roman and a citizen. His features were of no other nation. But
with all the dignity that characterized him as a Roman, there were mixed a
sweetness and a mildness, such as I do not remember to have seen in
another. And in the eye there was a melancholy and a deepness, if I may
say so, more remarkable still. It was the eye of one who was all sorrow,
all love, and all purity; in whom the soul had undisputed sway over the
passions and the senses. I have seen an expression which has approached
it, in some of our priests, but far below it in power and beauty. My first
impulse was to address him, but his pallid and thoughtful countenance,
together with that eye, restrained me, and I know not how I should have
overcome this strange diffidence, had not the difficulty been removed by
the intervention of a third party. This was no other than one of those
travelling Jews, who infest all cities, towns and regions, and dwell among
all people, yet mix with none. He was bent almost double by the weight of
large packages of goods, of all descriptions, which he carried, part
before and part behind him, and which he had not laid aside, in the hope,
I suppose, of effecting some sales among the passengers.

'Here's old Isaac the Jew,' cried he, as he approached toward where I sat,
and then stood before me resting his pannier of articles upon a pile of
merchandise, which lay there--'here's old Isaac the Jew, last from Rome,
but a citizen of the world, now on his way to Carthage and Syria, with all
sorts of jewelry and ornaments: nothing that a lady wants that's not
here--or gentleman either. Most noble Sir, let me press upon you this
steel mirror, of the most perfect polish: see the setting too; could the
fancy of it be better? No? You would prefer a ring: look then at this
assortment--iron and gold rings--marriage, seal, and fancy rings--buckles
too: have you seen finer? Here too are soaps, perfumes, and salves for the
toilet--hair-pins and essences. Perhaps you would prefer somewhat a little
more useful. I shall show you then these sandals and slippers; see what a
charming variety--both in form and color: pretty feet alone should press
these--think you not so? But, alas! I cannot tempt you.'

'How is it possible,' said I, 'for another to speak when thy tongue wags
so fast? Those rings I would gladly have examined, and now that thou hast
discharged that volley of hoarse sounds, I pray thee open again that case.
I thank thee for giving me an occupation.'

'Take care!' replied the voluble Jew, throwing a quick and mischievous
glance toward the Roman whom I have already mentioned--'take care how my
friend here of the new faith hears thee or sees the, an' thou wouldst
escape a rebuke. He holds my beauties here and my calling in high
contempt, and as for occupation, he thinks one never need be idle who has
himself to converse with.'

'What you have last uttered is true,' replied the person whom he
addressed: 'he need never want for employment, who possesses the power of
thought. But as to thy trade, I object not to that, nor to what thou
sellest: only to being myself a buyer.'

'Ha! thou wilt not buy? Trust Isaac for that. I keep that which shall suit
all, and enslave all. I would have made thee buy of me before, but for the
uproar of those soldiers.'

While uttering these words, he had placed the case of rings in my hands to
examine them, and was engaged himself in exploring the depths of a large
package, from which he at length triumphantly drew forth a parchment roll.

'Now open all thine eyes, Nazarene,' cried the Jew, 'and thou shalt see
what thou shalt. Look!'

And so saying, he unfolded the first portion of the roll, upon which the
eye of the Roman had no sooner fallen, than his face suddenly glowed as if
a god shone through him, and reverently seizing the book, he exclaimed:

'I thank thee, Jew; thou hast conquered: I am a customer too. Here is my
purse--take what thou wilt.'

'Hold, hold!' interrupted the Jew, laughing, 'I have not done with thee
yet; what thou hast bought in Greek, I would now sell thee again in Latin.
Thy half convert, the soldier Macer, would greet this as a cordial to his
famishing soul. Take both, and thou hast them cheaper.'

'Your cunning hardly deserves such a reward,' said the Christian, as I now
perceived him to be, 'but you have said well, and I not unwillingly obey
your suggestions. Pay yourself now for both, and give them to me carefully
rolled up.'

'No better sale than this shall I make to-day, and that too to a
Jew-hating Nazarene. But what matters it whom I tax for the upholding of
Jerusalem? Surely it is sweeter, when the cruel Roman or the heretic
Christian is made unconsciously to build at her walls.'

Thus muttered the Jew to himself, as he skilfully bound into a parcel the
Christian's books.

'And now, most excellent Sir,' said he, turning toward me, 'what do you
find worthy your own or your lady's finger? Here is another case--perhaps
these may strike you as rarer for their devices, or their workmanship. But
they are rather better suited to the tastes of the rich Palmyrenes, to
whom I am bearing them.'

'Ah!' I exclaimed, 'these are what I want. This seal ring, with the head
of Zenobia, for which I sought in vain in Rome, I will buy, nor care for
its cost, if thou canst assure me of its resemblance to the great Queen.
Who was the artist?'

'As I stand here, a true son of Abraham,' he replied, 'it was worked by a
Greek jeweller, who lives hard by the Temple of Fortune, and who has
engraved it after a drawing made by a brother, an inhabitant of Palmyra.
Two such artists in their way are not to be found. I myself, moreover,
bore the original drawing from Demetrius to his brother in Rome, and that
it is like the great Queen, I can well testify, for I have often seen
her. Her marvellous beauty is here well expressed, or as well as that
which partakes so much more of heaven than of earth can be. But look at
these, too! Here I have what I look to do well with. See! heads of
Odenatus! Think you not they will take well? These also are done with the
same care as the others, and by the same workmen. Nothing of the kind has
as yet been seen in Palmyra, nor indeed in Rome. Happy Isaac!--thy
fortune is made! Come, put them on thy finger, and observe their beauty.
King and Queen--how lovingly they sit there together! 'Twas just so when
Odenatus was alive. They were a noble and a loving pair. The Queen yet
weeps for him.'

'Jew,' said I, 'on thy word I purchase these. Although thy name is in no
good repute, yet thy face is honest, and I will trust thee so far.'

'The name of the unfortunate and the weak is never in repute,' said Isaac,
as he took my money and folded up the rings, his whole manner suddenly
changing. 'The Jew is now but a worm, writhing under the heel of the proud
Roman. Many a time has he, however, as thou well knowest, turned upon his
destroyer, and tasted the sweetness of a brief revenge. Why should I speak
of the massacres of Egypt, Cyrene, and Syria in the days of Trajan? Let
Rome beware! Small though we seem, the day will yet arrive when the glory
of Zion shall fill the whole earth--and He shall come, before whom the
mighty Emperor of Rome shall tremble in his palaces.--This is what I say.
Thanks to the great Aurelian, that even a poor son of Abraham may speak
his mind and not lose his head. Here's old Isaac: who'll buy of old
Isaac--rings--pins--and razors,--who'll buy?'

And so singing, he turned away, and mixed with the passengers in the other
parts of the vessel. The wild glare of his eye, and deep, suppressed tone
of his voice, as he spoke of the condition and hopes of his tribe,
startled and moved me, and I would willingly have prolonged a conversation
with one of that singular people, about whom I really know nothing, and
with none of whom had I ever before come in contact. When I see you again,
I shall have much to tell you of him; for during the rest of the voyage we
were often thrown together, and, as you will learn, he has become of
essential service to me in the prosecution of my objects.

No sooner had Isaac withdrawn from our company, than I embraced the
opportunity to address myself to the remarkable-looking person whom I have
already in part described.

'It is a great testimony,' I said, turning toward him, 'which these Jews
bear to their national religion. I much doubt if Romans, under similar
circumstances of oppression, would exhibit a constancy like theirs. Their
attachment too is to an invisible religion, as one may say, which makes it
the more remarkable. They have neither temples, altars, victims, nor
statues, nor any form of god or goddess, to which they pay real or feigned
adoration. Toward us they bear deep and inextinguishable hate, for our
religion not less than for our oppressions. I never see a Jew threading
our streets with busy steps, and his dark, piercing eye, but I seem to see
an assassin, who, with Caligula, wishes the Roman people had but one
neck, that he might exterminate the whole race with a single blow. Toward
you, however, who are so nearly of his own faith, I suppose his sentiments
are more kindly. The Christian Roman, perhaps, he would spare.'

'Not so, I greatly fear,' replied the Christian. 'Nay, the Jew bears a
deeper hatred toward us than toward you, and would sooner sacrifice us;
for the reason, doubtless, that we are nearer him in faith than you; just
as our successful emperors have no sooner found themselves securely
seated, than they have first turned upon the members of their own family,
that from this, the most dangerous quarter, there should be no fear of
rival or usurper. The Jew holds the Christian--though in some sort
believing with him--as a rival--a usurper--a rebel; as one who would
substitute a novelty for the ancient creed of his people, and, in a word,
bring ruin upon the very existence of his tribe. His suspicions, truly,
are not without foundation; but they do not excuse the temper with which
he regards us. I cast no imputation upon the virtues of friend Isaac, in
what I say. The very spirit of universal love, I believe, reigns in his
soul. Would that all of his race were like him.'

'What you say is new and strange,' I replied. 'I may possibly bring shame
upon myself, by saying so, but it is true. I have been accustomed to
regard Christians and Jews as in effect one people; one, I mean, in
opinion and feeling. But in truth I know nothing. You are not ignorant of
the prejudice which exists toward both these races, on the part of the
Romans. I have yielded, with multitudes around me, to prevailing ideas,
taking no steps to learn their truth or error. Our writers, from Tacitus
to the base tools--for such they must have been--who lent themselves to
the purposes of the bigot Macrianus, and who filled the city with their
accounts of the Christians, have all agreed in representing your faith as
a dark and mischievous superstition. I have, indeed, been struck with the
circumstance, that while the Jews make no converts from among us, great
numbers are reported to have joined the Christians; and of those, not a
few of the higher orders. The late Emperor Philip, I think it clear, was a
Christian. This might have taught me that there is a wide difference
between the Christian and the Jew. But the general hatred toward both the
one and the other, together with the persecutions to which they have been
exposed, have made me more than indifferent to their merits,'

'I trust the time will come,' replied the Christian, 'when our cause will
be examined on the ground of its merits. Why may we not believe that it
has now come? The Roman world is at peace. A strong and generous prince
is upon the throne. Mild and just laws restrain the furious bigotry of an
ignorant and sanguinary priesthood. Men of intelligence and virtue adorn
our profession, from whom those who are anxious to know the truth can
hear it; and copies of our sacred books both in Greek and Latin abound,
whence may easily be learned the true principles of our faith, and the
light of whose holy pages would instantly dispel the darkness by which
the minds of many, even of the virtuous and well-disposed, are oppressed.
It is hardly likely that a fitter opportunity will soon offer for an
examination of the claims of Christianity. We have nothing to dread but
the deadness and indifference of the public mind. It is not credible that
polytheism should stand a day upon any fair comparison of it with the
religion of Christ. You yourself are not a believer (pardon my boldness)
in the ineffable stupidities of the common religion. To suppose you
were--I see by the expression of your countenance--would be the
unpardonable offence. I sincerely believe, that nothing more is wanting
to change you, and every intelligent Roman, from professed supporters of
the common religion, (but real infidels,) into warm believers and
advocates of the doctrine of Christ--but simply this--to read his
sayings, and the delineation of his character, as they have been written
down by some of his followers. You are, I see, incredulous, but not more
so than I was myself only a year ago; yet you behold me a Christian. I
had to contend against, perhaps, far more adverse influences than would
oppose you. You start with surprise that I should give evidence that I
know you; but I have many a time seen you at the shop of Publius, and
have heard you in your addresses to the people.

'I am the son of a priest of the Temple of Jupiter--of a man, who, to a
mildness and gentleness of soul that would do honor to the Christian,
added a faith in the religion of his fathers, deep-struck and firm-rooted
as the rocks of ocean. I was his assistant in the duties of his office. My
childish faith was all he could wish it; I reverenced a religion which had
nurtured virtues like his. In process of time, I became myself a father.
Four children, more beautiful than ever visited the dreams of Phidias,
made my dwelling a portion of Elysium, as I then thought. Their
mother--but why should I speak of her? It is enough to say, she was a
Roman mother. At home, it was my supreme happiness to sport with my little
ones, or initiate them into the elements of useful knowledge. And often,
when at the temple preparing for the days of ceremony, my children were
with me; and my labors were nothing, cheered by the music of their feet
running upon the marble pavements, and of their merry voices echoing among
the columns and arches of the vast interior. O days thrice happy! They
were too happy to last. Within the space of one year--one cruel
year--these four living idols were ravished from my arms by a prevailing
disease. My wife, broken-hearted, soon followed them, and I was left
alone. I need not describe my grief: I will only say, that with bitter
imprecations I cursed the gods. 'Who are ye,' I cried, 'who sit above in
your secure seats, and make your sport of human wo? Ye are less than men.
Man though I am, I would not inflict upon the meanest slave the misery ye
have poured upon my defenceless head. Where are your mercies?' I was
frantic. How long this lasted I cannot tell, for I took no note of time. I
was awakened, may I not say saved, by a kind neighbor whom I had long
known to be a Christian. He was a witness of my sufferings, and with deep
compassion ministered to my necessities. 'Probus,' said he, 'I know your
sorrows, and I know your wants. I have perceived that neither your own
thoughts, nor all the philosophy of your venerable father, have brought
you peace. It's not surprising: ye are but men, and ye have but the power
and the wisdom of men. It is aid from the Divinity that you want. I will
not discourse with you; but I leave with you this book, which I simply ask
you to read.' I read it--and read it--again and again; and I am a
Christian. As the Christian grew up within me, my pains were soothed, and
days, once days of tears and unavailing complaints, are now days of calm
and cheerful duty: I am a new man.'

I cannot describe to you, my Curtius, the effect of this little narrative
upon myself, or upon those who, as he spoke, had gathered round,
especially those hard-featured soldiers. Tears flowed down their
weather-beaten faces, and one of them--Macer, as I afterward
learned--cried out: 'Where now are the gods of Rome?' Probus started from
his seat, apparently for the first time conscious of any other listener
beside myself, and joined the master of the vessel at the helm. I resigned
myself to meditation; and that night fell asleep, thinking of the
Christian and his book.

Leaving now Ostia and its fleet, greater even than that of the Tiber, five
days brought us in sight of the African shore, but quite to the west of
Utica. So, coasting along, we presently came off against Hippo, and then
doubling a promontory, both Utica and Carthage were at once visible--Utica
nearer, Carthage just discernible in the distance. All was now noise and
bustle, as we rapidly drew near the port. Many of our passengers were to
land here, and they were busily employed, with the aid of the sailors, in
collecting their merchandise or their baggage. The soldiers destined to
the African service here left us, together with the Jew Isaac and the
Christian Probus. I was sorry to lose them, as beside them there was not
one on board, except the governor of the ship, from whose company or
conversation I could derive either pleasure or knowledge. They are both,
however, destined to Palmyra, and I shall soon expect them to join me
here. You smile at my speaking thus of a travelling Jew and a despised
Christian, but in the issue you will acknowledge your as well as my
obligations to them both. I confess myself attached to them. As the Jew
turned to bid me farewell, before he sprang on shore, he said:

'Most noble Piso, if thou forsakest the gods of Rome, let it be for the
synagogue of the children of Abraham, whose faith is not of yesterday. Be
not beguiled by the specious tongue of that heretic Probus. I can tell
thee a better story than his.'

'Fear not, honest Isaac,' I cried; 'I am not yet so weary of the faith of
my ancestors. That cannot be altogether despicable, which has had power to
bind in one mass the whole Roman people for so many ages I shall be no
easy convert to either you or Probus. Farewell, to meet in Tadmor.'

Probus now passed me, and said: 'If I should not see you in the Eastern
capital, according to my purpose, I trust I shall in Rome. My dwelling is
in the Livian way not far from the Pantheon, opposite the well-known house
of Vitruvius, still so called; or, at the shop of the learned Publius, I
may be seen every morning, and may there be always heard of.'

I assured him, that no affairs could be so pressing, after I should
return to Rome, as not to allow me to seek him, but that I hoped the
fates would not interpose to deprive me of the pleasure of first seeing
him in Palmyra.

So we parted. And very soon after, the merchandise and passengers being
all landed, we set sail again, and stood out to sea. I regretted that we
were not to touch at Carthage, as my desire had always been strong to see
that famous place. An adverse wind, however, setting in from the North,
drove us farther toward the city than the pilot intended to have gone, and
I thus obtained quite a satisfactory glimpse of the African capital. I was
surprised at the indications of its vastness and grandeur. Since its
attempted restoration by Augustus, it has advanced steadily to almost its
former populousness and magnificence. Nothing could be more imposing and
beautiful, than its long lines of buildings, its towers, walls, palaces,
and columns, seen through the warm and rosy mist of an African sky. I
could hardly believe that I was looking but upon a provincial city, a
dependant upon almighty Rome. It soon sank below the horizon, as its glory
had sunk once before.

I will not detain you long with our voyage, but will only mark out its
course. Leaving the African shore, we struck across to Sicily, and
coasting along its eastern border, beheld with pleasure the towering form
of Aetna, sending up into the heavens a dull and sluggish cloud of vapors.
We then ran between the Peloponnesus and Crete, and so held our course
till the Island of Cyprus rose like her own fair goddess from the ocean,
and filled our eyes with a beautiful vision of hill and valley, wooded
promontory, and glittering towns and villas. A fair wind soon withdrew us
from these charming prospects, and after driving us swiftly and roughly
over the remainder of our way, rewarded us with a brighter and more
welcome vision still--the coast of Syria and our destined port, Berytus.

As far as the eye could reach, both toward the North and the South, we
beheld a luxuriant region, crowded with villages, and giving every
indication of comfort and wealth. The city itself, which we rapidly
approached, was of inferior size, but presented an agreeable prospect of
warehouses, public and private edifices, overtopped here and there by the
lofty palm, and other trees of a new and peculiar foliage. Four days were
consumed here in the purchase of slaves, camels, and horses, and in other
preparations for the journey across the Desert. Two routes presented
themselves, one more, the other less direct; the last, though more
circuitous, appeared to me the more desirable, as it would take me within
sight of the modern glories and ancient remains of Heliopolis. This,
therefore, was determined upon; and on the morning of the fifth day we set
forward upon our long march. Four slaves, two camels, and three horses,
with an Arab conductor, constituted our little caravan; but for greater
safety we attached ourselves to a much larger one than our own, in which
we were swallowed up and lost, consisting of travellers and traders, from
all parts of the world, and who were also on their way to Palmyra, as a
point whence to separate to various parts of the vast East. It would
delight me to lay before you with the distinctness and minuteness of a
picture, the whole of this novel, and to me most interesting route; but I
must content myself with a slight sketch, and reserve fuller
communications to the time when, once more seated with you upon the
Coelian, we enjoy the freedom of social converse.

Our way through the valleys of Libanus, was like one long wandering among
the pleasure grounds of opulent citizens. The land was every where richly
cultivated, and a happier peasantry, as far as the eye of the traveller
could judge, nowhere exists. The most luxuriant valleys of our own Italy
are not more crowded with the evidences of plenty and contentment. Upon
drawing near to the ancient Baalbec, I found on inquiry of our guide, that
we were not to pass through it, as I had hoped, nor even very near it, not
nearer than between two and three miles. So that in this I had been
clearly deceived by those of whom I had made the most exact inquiries at
Berytus. I thought I discovered great command of myself, in that I did not
break the head of my Arab, who doubtless, to answer purposes of his own,
had brought me thus out of my way for nothing. The event proved, however,
that it was not for nothing; for soon after we had started on our journey,
on the morning of the second day, turning suddenly round the projecting
rock of a mountain ridge, we all at once beheld, as if a veil had been
lifted up, Heliopolis and its suburbs, spread out before us in all their
various beauty. The city lay about three miles distant. I could only,
therefore, identify its principal structure, the Temple of the Sun, as
built by the first Antonine. This towered above the walls, and over all
the other buildings, and gave vast ideas of the greatness of the place,
leading the mind to crowd it with other edifices that should bear some
proportion to this noble monument of imperial magnificence. As suddenly as
the view of this imposing scene had been revealed, so suddenly was it
again eclipsed, by another short turn in the road, which took us once more
into the mountain valleys. But the overhanging and impenetrable foliage
of a Syrian forest, shielding me from the fierce rays of a burning sun,
soon reconciled me to my loss--more especially as I knew that in a short
time we were to enter upon the sandy desert, which stretches from the
Anti-Libanus almost to the very walls of Palmyra.

Upon this boundless desert we now soon entered. The scene which it
presented was more dismal than I can describe. A red moving sand--or hard
and baked by the heat of a sun such as Rome never knows--low gray rocks
just rising here and there above the level of the plain, with now and then
the dead and glittering trunk of a vast cedar, whose roots seemed as if
they had outlasted centuries--the bones of camels and elephants, scattered
on either hand, dazzling the sight by reason of their excessive
whiteness--at a distance occasionally an Arab of the desert, for a moment
surveying our long line, and then darting off to his fastnesses--these
were the objects which, with scarce any variation, met our eyes during the
four wearisome days that we dragged ourselves over this wild and
inhospitable region. A little after the noon of the fourth day, as we
started on our way, having refreshed ourselves and our exhausted animals
at a spring which here poured out its warm but still grateful waters to
the traveller, my ears received the agreeable news that toward the east
there could now be discerned the dark line, which indicated our approach
to the verdant tract that encompasses the great city. Our own excited
spirits were quickly imparted to our beasts, and a more rapid movement
soon revealed into distinctness the high land and waving groves of palm
trees which mark the site of Palmyra.

It was several miles before we reached the city, that we suddenly found
ourselves--landing as it were from a sea upon an island or continent--in a
rich and thickly peopled country. The roads indicated an approach to a
great capital, in the increasing numbers of those who thronged them,
meeting and passing us, overtaking us, or crossing our way. Elephants,
camels, and the dromedary, which I had before seen only in the
amphitheatres, I here beheld as the native inhabitants of the soil.
Frequent villas of the rich and luxurious Palmyrenes, to which they
retreat from the greater heats of the city, now threw a lovely charm over
the scene. Nothing can exceed the splendor of these sumptuous palaces.
Italy itself has nothing which surpasses them. The new and brilliant
costumes of the persons whom we met, together with the rich housings of
the animals they rode, served greatly to add to all this beauty. I was
still entranced, as it were, by the objects around me, and buried in
reflection, when I was roused by the shout of those who led the caravan,
and who had attained the summit of a little rising ground, saying,
'Palmyra! Palmyra!' I urged forward my steed, and in a moment the most
wonderful prospect I ever beheld--no, I cannot except even Rome--burst
upon my sight. Flanked by hills of considerable elevation on the East, the
city filled the whole plain below as far as the eye could reach, both
toward the North and toward the South. This immense plain was all one vast
and boundless city. It seemed to me to be larger than Rome. Yet I knew
very well that it could not be--that it was not. And it was some time
before I understood the true character of the scene before me, so as to
separate the city from the country, and the country from the city, which
here wonderfully interpenetrate each other and so confound and deceive the
observer. For the city proper is so studded with groups of lofty palm
trees, shooting up among its temples and palaces, and on the other hand,
the plain in its immediate vicinity is so thickly adorned with magnificent
structures of the purest marble, that it is not easy, nay it is impossible
at the distance at which I contemplated the whole, to distinguish the line
which divided the one from the other. It was all city and all country, all
country and all city. Those which lay before me I was ready to believe
were the Elysian Fields. I imagined that I saw under my feet the dwellings
of purified men and of gods. Certainly they were too glorious for the mere
earth-born. There was a central point, however, which chiefly fixed my
attention, where the vast Temple of the Sun stretched upward its thousand
columns of polished marble to the heavens, in its matchless beauty casting
into the shade every other work of art of which the world can boast. I
have stood before the Parthenon, and have almost worshipped that divine
achievement of the immortal Phidias. But it is a toy by the side of this
bright crown of the Eastern capital. I have been at Milan, at Ephesus, at
Alexandria, at Antioch; but in neither of those renowned cities have I
beheld any thing that I can allow to approach in united extent, grandeur,
and most consummate beauty, this almost more than work of man. On each
side of this, the central point, there rose upward slender
pyramids--pointed obelisks--domes of the most graceful proportions,
columns, arches and lofty towers, for number and for form, beyond my
power to describe. These buildings, as well as the walls of the city,
being all either of white marble, or of some stone as white, and being
every where in their whole extent interspersed, as I have already said,
with multitudes of overshadowing palm trees, perfectly filled and
satisfied my sense of beauty, and made me feel for the moment, as if in
such a scene I should love to dwell, and there end my days. Nor was I
alone in these transports of delight. All my fellow-travellers seemed
equally affected: and from the native Palmyrenes, of whom there were many
among us, the most impassioned and boastful exclamations broke forth.
'What is Rome to this?' they cried: 'Fortune is not constant. Why may not
Palmyra be what Rome has been--mistress of the world? Who more fit to rule
than the great Zenobia? A few years may see great changes. Who can tell
what shall come to pass?' These, and many such sayings, were uttered by
those around me, accompanied by many significant gestures and glances of
the eye. I thought of them afterward. We now descended the hill, and the
long line of caravan moved on toward the city.




Letter II.



I fear lest the length of my first letter may have fatigued you, my
Curtius, knowing as I so well do, how you esteem brevity. I hope at this
time not to try your patience. But, however I may weary or vex you by my
garrulity, I am sure of a patient and indulgent reader in the dear
Lucilia, to whom I would now first of all commend myself. I salute her,
and with her the little Gallus. My writing to you is a sufficient proof
that I myself am well.

By reason of our delaying so long on that little hill, and at other
points, for the sake of drinking in full draughts of the unrivalled beauty
which lay spread over all the scenery within the scope of our vision, we
did not approach the walls of the city till the last rays of the sun were
lingering upon the higher buildings of the capital. This rendered every
object so much the more beautiful; for a flood of golden light, of a
richer hue, it seemed to me, than our sun ever sheds upon Rome, rolled
over the city, and plain, and distant mountains, giving to the whole a
gorgeousness altogether beyond any thing I ever saw before, and agreeing
well with all my impressions of oriental magnificence. It was soon under
the right aspect. Not one expectation was disappointed but rather exceeded
as we came in sight of the vast walls of the city, and of the 'Roman
Gate'--so it is called--through which we were to make our entrance. It was
all upon the grandest scale. The walls were higher, and more frequently
defended by square massy towers springing out of them, than those of
Rome. The towers, which on either side flanked the gateway, and which were
connected by an immense arch flung from one to the other, were
particularly magnificent. No sooner had we passed through, than we found
ourselves in a street lined as it were with palaces. It was of great
width---we have no street like it in this respect--of an exact level, and
stretched onward farther than the eye could distinctly reach, being
terminated by another gate similar to that by which we had entered. The
buildings on either side were altogether of marble, of Grecian design--the
city is filled with Greek artists of every description--frequently adorned
with porticos of the most rich and costly construction and by long ranges
of private dwellings, interrupted here and there by temples of religion,
edifices of vast extent belonging to the state, or by gardens attached to
the residences of the luxurious Palmyrene nobility.

'It is well for Palmyra,' here muttered my slave Milo, 'that the Emperor
has never, like us, travelled this way.'

'Why so, Milo?' said I.

'I simply think,' rejoined he, 'that he would burn it down; and it were a
pity so many fine buildings should be destroyed. Was there not once a
place called Carthage? I have heard it said that it was as large as Rome,
and as well garnished with temples, and that for that reason the Romans
'blotted it out.' The people here may thank the desert which we have
crossed, that they are not as Carthage. Aurelian, I trow, little dreams
what glory is to be won here in the East, or else he would not waste his
time upon the savage Goths,'

'The Romans are no longer barbarians,' I replied, 'as they were once. They
build up now, instead of demolishing. Remember that Augustus rebuilt
Carthage, and that the first Antonine founded that huge and beautiful
temple which rose out of the midst of Baalbec; and besides--if I am not
mistaken--many of the noblest monuments of art in this very city are the
fruit of his munificence.'

'Gods, what a throng is here!' ejaculated Milo, little heeding,
apparently, what I had said; 'how are we to get our beasts along? They pay
no more regard to us, either, than if we were not Romans. Could any one
have believed that a people existed of such strange customs and
appearance? What carriages!--what wagons!--what animals!--what fantastical
attire!--and from every corner of the earth, too, as it would seem! But it
is a pretty sight. Pity though but they could move as quick, as they look
well. Fellow, there! you will gratify us if you will start your camels a
little out of our way. We wish to make toward the house of Gracchus, and
we cannot pass you.'

The rider of the camel turned round his turbaned head, and fixing upon
Milo a pair of fierce eyes, bade him hold his peace:

'Did he not see the street was crowded?'

'I see it is filled with a set of dull idlers,' replied Milo, 'who want
nothing but Roman rods to teach them a quick and wholesome movement.
Friend, lend me thy cudgel; and I will engage to set thy beasts and thee
too in motion. If not, consider that we are new comers, and Romans
withal, and that we deserve some regard.'

'Romans!' screamed he: 'may curses light on you You swarm here like
locusts, and like them you come but to devour. Take my counsel: turn your
faces the other way, and off to the desert again! I give you no welcome,
for one. Now pass on--if on you still will go--and take the curse of
Hassan the Arab along with you.'

'Milo,' said I, 'have a care how you provoke these Orientals. Bethink
yourself that we are not now in the streets of Rome. Bridle your tongue
betimes, or your head may roll off your shoulders before you can have time
to eat your words to save it'

'I am a slave indeed,' answered Milo, with some dignity for him, 'but I
eat other food than my own words. In that there hangs something of the
Roman about me.'

We were now opposite what I discovered, from the statues and emblems upon
it and surrounding it, to be the Temple of Justice, and I knew therefore
that the palace on the other side of the street, adorned with porticos,
and partly hidden among embowering trees and shrubs, must be the dwelling
of Gracchus.

We turned down into a narrower street, and after proceeding a little way,
passed under a massy arched gateway, and found ourselves in the spacious
court-yard of this princely mansion. Slaves soon surrounded us, and by
their alacrity in assisting me to dismount, and in performing every office
of a hospitable reception, showed that we were expected guests, and that
my letters announcing my intended visit had been received. Leaving my
slaves and effects to the care of the servants of the house, I followed
one who seemed to be a sort of head among them, through walks bordered
with the choicest trees, flowers and shrubs, opening here and there in the
most graceful manner to reveal a statue of some sylvan god reclining under
the shade, and soon reached the rear of the house, which I entered by a
flight of marble steps. Through a lofty hall I passed into a saloon which
seemed the reception-room of the palace, where I had hardly arrived, and
obtained one glance at my soiled dress and sun-burnt visage in the mirror,
than my ear caught the quick sound of a female foot hastening over the
pavement of the hall, and turning suddenly I caught in my arms the
beautiful Fausta. It was well for me that I was so taken by surprise, for
I acted naturally, which I fear I should not have done if I had had a
moment to deliberate before I met her; for she is no longer a girl, as in
Rome, running and jumping after her slave to school, but a nearly
full-grown woman, and of a beauty so imposing as might well cause
embarrassment in a youth of even more pretensions than myself.

'Are you indeed,' said I, retaining each hand in mine, but feeling that in
spite of all my assumed courage I was covered with blushes, 'are you
indeed the little Fausta? Truly there must be marvellous virtues in the
air of Palmyra. It is but six years since you left Rome, and then, as I
remember---shall I mention such a thing?--you were but twelve, and now
though but'--

'O,' cried she, 'never begin such a speech! it will only trouble you
before you can end it. How glad I am to see you! Welcome, dear Lucius, to
Palmyra! If open hearts can make you happy here, you will not fail to be
so. But how did you leave all in Rome? First, your friend Marcus? and
Lucilia? and the noble, good Portia? Ah! how happy were those days in
Rome! Come sit on these cushions by this open window. But more than all,
how does the dear pedagogue and dialectician, the learned Solon? Is he as
wise yet as his great namesake? O what days of merriment have his vanity
and simplicity afforded me! But he was a good soul. Would he could have
accompanied you. You are not so far out of leading-strings that you could
not have taken him with you as a travelling Mentor. In truth, nothing
could have given me more pleasure.'

'I came away in great haste, dear Fausta,' said I, 'with scarce a moment
for preparation of any kind. You have but this morning received my letter,
which was but part of a day in advance of me. If I could have done it, I
should have given you more timely notice. I could not therefore look out
for companions for the way. It would however have been a kindness to
Solon, and a pleasure to me. But why have I not before asked for your
father? is not Gracchus at home?--and is he well?'

'He is at home, or rather he is in the city,' replied Fausta, 'and why he
makes it so late before returning, I cannot tell: but you will soon see
him. In the mean time, let my slaves show you where to find your rooms,
that you may rest and prepare for supper.'

So saying, she clapped her hands, and a tall Ethiopian, with a turban as
white as his face was black, quickly made his appearance and took me in
his charge.

'Look well after your toilet,' cried Fausta, laughing as I left the room;
'we think more of costume here than they do in Rome.'

I followed my dark conductor through many passages to a distant part of
the building, where I found apartments furnished with every luxury, and
already prepared for my use.

'Here I have carefully placed your baggage,' said the slave as I entered
the room, 'and whatever else I thought you might need. Call Hannibal when
you wish for my services; I am now yours. This door leads to a small room
where will lodge your own slave Milo; the others are in the stables.' Thus
delivering himself, he departed.

The windows of my apartment opened upon the wide street by which we had
entered the city, not immediately, but first upon a border of trees and
flowers, then upon a low wall, here and there crowned with a statue or a
vase, which separated the house from the street, and last upon the street
itself, its busy throngs and noble structures. I stood for a moment
enjoying the scene, rendered more impressive by the dim but still glowing
light of the declining day. Sounds of languages which I knew not fell
upon my ear, sent forth by those who urged along through the crowds their
cattle, or by those who would draw attention to the articles which they
had to sell. All was new and strange, and tended, together with my
reflections upon the business which had borne me so far from my home and
you, to fill me with melancholy. I was roused from my reverie by the
voice of Milo.

'If,' said he, 'the people of these eastern regions understand better than
we of Rome the art of taking off heads, they certainly understand better,
as in reason they should, the art of making them comfortable while they
are on: already I have taken a longer draught at a wine skin than I have
been blessed with since I was in the service of the most noble Gallienus.
Ah, that was life! He was your true philosopher who thought life, made for
living. These Palmyrenes seem of his school.'

'Leave philosophy, good Milo, and come help me dress; that is the matter
now in hand. Unclasp these trunks and find something that shall not
deform me.'

So desirous was I, you perceive, to appear well in the eyes of the
fair Fausta.

It was now the appointed hour to descend to the supper room, and as I was
about to leave my apartment, hardly knowing which way to move, the
Ethiopian, Hannibal, made his appearance, to serve as my conductor.

I was ushered into an apartment, not large, but of exquisite
proportions--circular, and of the most perfect architecture, on the Greek
principles. The walls, thrown into panels between the windows and doors,
were covered with paintings, admirable both for their design and color;
and running all around the room, and attached to the walls, was a low and
broad seat, covered with cushions of the richest workmanship and material.
A lofty and arched ceiling, lighted by invisible lamps, represented a
banquet of the gods, offering to those seated at the tables below a high
example of the manner in which the divine gifts should be enjoyed. This
evening, at least, we did not use the privileges which that high example
sanctioned. Fausta was already in the room, and rose with affectionate
haste to greet me again.

'I fear my toilet has not been very successful, Fausta,' said I, 'for my
slave Milo was too much elated by the generous wines with which his
companions had plied him, as a cordial after the fatigues of the journey,
to give me any of the benefit of his taste or assistance. I have been my
own artificer on this occasion, and you must therefore be gentle in your
judgments.'

'I cannot say that your fashions are equally tasteful with those of our
Palmyrenes, I must confess. The love of the beautiful, the magnificent,
and the luxurious, is our national fault, Lucius; it betrays itself in
every department of civil and social life, and not unfrequently declines
into a degrading effeminacy. If any thing ruin us, it will be this vice. I
assure you I was rather jesting than in earnest, when I bade you look to
your toilet. When you shall have seen some of our young nobles, you will
find reason to be proud of your comparative simplicity. I hear, however,
that you are not now far behind us in Rome--nay, in many excesses, you go
greatly beyond us. We have never yet had a Vitellius, a Pollio, or a
Gallienus. And may the sands of the desert bury us a thousand fathoms
deep, ere such monsters shall be bred and endured in Palmyra!'

'I perceive,' said I, 'that your sometime residence in Rome has not taught
you to love your native country less. If but a small portion of the fire
which I see burning in your eye warm the hearts of the people, it will be
no easy matter for any external foe to subdue you, however vice and luxury
may do it.'

'There are not many, I believe,' replied Fausta, 'of your or my sex in
Palmyra, who would with more alacrity lay down their lives for their
country and our sweet and noble Queen, than I. But believe me, Lucius,
there are multitudes who would do it as soon. Zenobia will lead the way to
no battle-field where Fausta, girl though she be, will not follow.
Remember what I say, I pray you, if difficulty should ever again grow
up--which the gods forefend!--between us and Rome. But, truth to say, we
are in more danger from ourselves than from Rome.'

We were now suddenly interrupted by the loud and cheerful voice of
Gracchus, exclaiming, as he approached us from the great hall of the
palace, 'How now!--How now!--whom have we here? Are my eyes and ears true
to their report--Lucius Piso? It is he indeed. Thrice welcome to Palmyra!
May a visit from so good and great a house be an augury of good. You are
quick indeed upon the track of your letter. How have you sped by the way?
I need not ask after your own welfare, for I see it, but I am impatient to
learn all that you can tell me of friends and enemies in Rome. I dare say,
all this has been once told to Fausta, but, as a penalty for arriving
while I was absent, it must be repeated for my special pleasure. But come,
that can be done while we sit at table; I see the supper waits.'

In this pleasant mood did the father of Fausta, and now, as you know, one
of the chief pillars of the province or kingdom--whichever it must be
called--receive me. I was struck with the fine union in his appearance
and manner of courtly ease, and a noble Roman frankness. His head,
slightly bald, but cast in the truest mould of manly beauty, would have
done honor to any of his illustrious ancestors; and his figure was
entirely worthy of that faultless crown. I confess I experienced a pang
of regret that one so fitted to sustain and adorn the greatness of his
parent country had chosen to cast his fortunes so far from the great
centre and heart of the Empire. After the first duties of the table had
been gone through with, and my hunger--real hunger--had been appeased by
the various delicacies which my kind hostess urged upon me noways
unwilling to receive such tokens of regard, I took up the questions of
Gracchus, and gave him a full account of our social and political state
in Rome, to all which Fausta too lent a greedy ear, her fine face
sparkling with the intelligence which beamed out from every feature. It
was easy to see how deep an interest she takes in matters to which her
sex are usually so insensible. It is indescribable, the imperial pride
and lofty spirit of independence which at times sat upon her brow and
curled her lip. She seems to me made to command. She is indeed courteous
and kind, but you not with difficulty see that she is bold, aspiring and
proud, beyond the common measure of woman. Her beauty is of this
character. It is severe, rather than in any sense soft or feminine. Her
features are those of her father, truly Roman in their outline, and their
combined expression goes to impress every beholder with the truth that
Roman blood alone, and that too of all the Gracchi, runs in her veins.
Her form harmonizes perfectly with the air and character of the face. It
is indicative of great vigor and decision in every movement; yet it is
graceful, and of such proportions as would suit the most fastidious
Greek. I am thus minute in telling you how Fausta struck me, because I
know the interest you and Lucilia both take in her, and how you will
desire to have from me as exact a picture as I can draw. Be relieved, my
dear friends, as to the state of my heart, nor indulge in either hopes or
suspicions in this direction. I assure you I am not yet a captive at the
fair feet of Fausta, nor do I think I shall be. But if such a thing
should happen, depend upon my friendship to give you the earliest
intelligence of the event. Whoever shall obtain the heart of Fausta, will
win one of which a Cæsar might be proud. But to return to our present
interview and its event.

No sooner had I ended my account of the state of affairs at Rome, than
Gracchus expressed, in the strongest terms, his joy that we were so
prosperous. 'It agrees,' said he, 'with all that we have lately heard.
Aurelian is in truth entitled to the praise which belongs to a reformer of
the state. The army has not been under such discipline since the days of
Vespasian. He has now, as we learn by the last arrival of news from the
North, by the way of Antioch, nearly completed the subjection of the Goths
and Alemanni, and rumors are afloat of an unpleasant nature, of an Eastern
expedition. For this no ground occurs to me except, possibly, an attempt
upon Persia, for the rescue of Valerian, if yet he be living, or for the
general vindication of the honor of Rome against the disgraceful successes
of the Great King. I cannot for one moment believe that toward Palmyra any
other policy will be adopted than that which has been pursued for the last
century and a half, and emphatically sanctioned, as you well know, by
both Gallienus and Claudius. Standing on the honorable footing, as
nominally a part of the empire of Rome, but in fact a sovereign and
independent power, we enjoy all that we can desire in the form of
political privileges. Then for our commerce, it could not be more
flourishing, or conducted on more advantageous terms even to Rome itself.
In one word, we are contented, prosperous, and happy, and the crime of
that man would be great indeed, who, from any motive of personal ambition,
or any policy of state, would disturb our existing relations of peace and
friendship with all the world.'

To this I replied: 'I most sincerely trust that no design, such as you
hint at, exists in the mind of Aurelian. I know him, and know him to be
ambitious and imperious, as he is great in resources and unequalled in
military science, but withal he is a man of wisdom, and in the main, of
justice too. That he is a true lover of his country, I am sure; and that
the glory of that country is dearer to him than all other objects--that it
rises in him almost to a species of madness--this I know too; and it is
from this quarter, if from any, that danger is to be apprehended. He will
have Rome to be all in all. His desire is that it should once more possess
the unity that it did under the Antonines. This idea, dwelt upon, may lead
him into enterprises from which, however defended on the ground of the
empire's glory, will result in nothing but discredit to himself and injury
to the state. I too have heard the rumors of which you speak, but I cannot
give them one moment's credence; and I pray most fervently that,
springing as they do no one knows whence nor on what authority resting,
they will not be permitted to have the least effect upon the mind of the
Queen, nor upon any of her advisers. She is now in reality an independent
sovereign, reigning over an immense empire, stretching from Egypt to the
shores of the Euxine, from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and she
still stands upon the records of the senate as a colleague--even as when
Odenatus shared the throne with her--of the Emperor. This is a great and a
fortunate position. The gods forbid that any intemperance on the part of
the Palmyrenes should rouse the anger or the jealousy of the fierce
Aurelian!'

Could I have said less than this? But I saw in the countenances of both,
while I was speaking, especially in the honest, expressive one of Fausta,
that they could brook no hint of inferiority or of dependence on the part
of their country; so deep a place has the great Zenobia secured for
herself in the pride and most sacred affections of this people.

'I will not, with you, Piso,' said Gracchus, 'believe that the Emperor
will do aught to break up the present harmony. I will have faith in him;
and I shall use all the influence that I may possess in the affairs of the
state to infuse a spirit of moderation into our acts, and above all into
our language; for one hasty word uttered in certain quarters may lead to
the ruin of kingdoms that have taken centuries to attain their growth. But
this I say: let there only come over here from the West the faintest
whisper of any purpose on the part of Aurelian to consider Zenobia as
holding the same position in regard to Rome as Tetricus in Gaul, and that
moment a flame is kindled throughout Palmyra that nothing but blood can
quench. This people, as you well know, has been a free people from the
earliest records of history, and they will sink under the ruins of their
capital and their country, ere they will bend to a foreign power.'

'That will they!--that will they, indeed!' cried Fausta; 'there is not a
Palmyrene who, had he two lives, would not give one for liberty, and the
other for his good Queen. You do not know Zenobia, Lucius, nor can you
tell, therefore, how reasonable the affection is which binds every heart
to her as to a mother or a sister.'

'But enough of this for the present,' said Gracchus; 'let us leave the
affairs of nations, and ascend to those of private individuals--for I
suppose your philosophy teaches you, as it does me, that individual
happiness is the object for which governments are instituted, and that
they are therefore less than this. Let us ascend, I say, from the policy
of Rome and of Aurelian, to the private affairs of our friend Lucius Piso;
for your letter gives me the privilege of asking you to tell us, in all
frankness and love, what, beside the pleasure of seeing us, brings you so
far from Rome. It is, you hint, a business of a painful nature. Use me and
Fausta, as you would in Rome Portia and the good Lucilia, with the same
freedom and the same assurance of our friendship.'

'Do so, indeed,' added Fausta, with affectionate warmth, 'and feel that,
in addressing us, you are entrusting your thoughts to true and
long-tried friends.'

'I have,' replied I, 'but little to communicate, but that little is great
in its interest, and demands immediate action; and touching what shall be
most expedient to be done, I shall want and shall ask your deliberate
counsel. You are well aware, alas! too well aware, of the cruel fate of my
parent, the truly great Cneius Piso, whom to name is always a spring of
strength to my virtues. With the unhappy Valerian, to whom he clung to the
last, resolved to die with him, or suffer with him whatever the fates
should decree, he passed into captivity; but of too proud a spirit to
endure the indignities which were heaped upon the Emperor, and which were
threatened him, he--so we have learned--destroyed himself. He found an
opportunity, however, before he thus nobly used his power, to exhort my
poor brothers not at once, at least, to follow his example, 'You are
young,' said he, 'and have more strength than I, and the gods may
interpose and deliver you. Hope dwells with youth, as it dies with age. Do
not despair. I feel that you will one day return to Rome. For myself, I am
a decayed trunk, at best, and it matters little when I fall, or where I
lie. One thing, at least, I cannot bear; it would destroy me if I did not
destroy myself. I am a Roman and a Piso, and the foot of a Persian shall
never plant itself upon my neck. I die.' My elder brother, thinking
example a more powerful kind of precept than words, no sooner was assured
of the death of his father, than he too opened his veins, and perished.
And so we learned had Calpurnius done, and we were comparatively happy in
the thought that they had escaped by a voluntary death the shame of being
used as footstools by the haughty Sapor, and the princes of his court. But
a rumor reached us a few days before I left Rome, that Calpurnius is yet
living. We learn, obscurely, that being favorably distinguished and
secretly favored by the son of Sapor, he was persuaded to live, and wait
for the times to open a way for his escape. You may imagine both my grief
and my joy on this intelligence. The thought that he should so long have
lain in captivity and imprisonment, and no step have been taken toward his
rescue, has weighed upon me with a mountain weight of sorrow. Yet at the
same time, I have been supported by the hope that his deliverance may be
effected, and that he may return to Rome once more, to glad the eyes of
the aged Portia. It is this hope which has brought me to Palmyra, as
perhaps the best point whence to set in motion the measures which it shall
be thought wisest to adopt. I shall rely much upon your counsel.' No
sooner had I spoken thus, than Fausta quickly exclaimed:

'O father, how easily, were the Queen now in Palmyra, might we obtain
through her the means of approaching the Persian King with some hope of a
successful appeal to his compassion!--and yet'--She hesitated and paused.

'I perceive,' said Gracchus, 'what it is that checks your speech. You feel
that in this matter Zenobia would have no power with the Persian monarch
or court. The two nations are now, it is true, upon friendly terms; but a
deep hatred exists in the heart of Sapor toward Zenobia. The successive
defeats which he suffered, when Odenatus and his Queen took it upon them
to vindicate the honor of Rome, and revenge the foul indignities cast upon
the unfortunate Valerian, will never be forgotten; and policy only, not
love or regard, keeps the peace between Persia and Palmyra. Sapor fears
the power of Zenobia, supported, as he knows she would be in case of
rupture, by the strength of Rome; and moreover, he is well aware that
Palmyra serves as a protecting wall between him and Rome, and that her
existence as an independent power is vital to the best interests of his
kingdom. For these reasons harmony prevails, and in the event of war
between us and Rome, we might with certainty calculate upon Persia as an
ally. Still Sapor is an enemy at heart. His pride, humbled as it was by
that disastrous rout, when his whole camp and even his wives fell into the
hands of the Royal Odenatus, will never recover from the wound, and will
prompt to acts of retaliation and revenge, rather than to any deed of
kindness. While his public policy is, and doubtless will continue to be,
pacific, his private feelings are, and ever will be, bitter. I see not how
in this business we can rely with any hope of advantage upon the
interposition of the Queen. If your brother is ever rescued, it must, I
think, be achieved by private enterprise.'

'Your words,' said I, 'have pierced me through with grief, and dispelled
in a moment the brightest visions. All the way from Rome have I been
cheered by the hope of what the Queen, at your solicitation, would be able
to attempt and accomplish in my behalf. But it is all over. I feel the
truth of what you have urged. I see it--I now see it--private enterprise
can alone effect his deliverance, and from this moment I devote myself to
that work. If Rome leave her Emperor to die in captivity, so will not I my
brother. I will go myself to the den of this worse than barbarian king,
and bring thence the loved Calpurnius, or leave my own body there for that
beast to batten on. It is now indeed thirteen years since Calpurnius left
me, a child in Rome, to join the Emperor in that ill-fated expedition. But
it is with the distinctness of a yesterday's vision that he now stands
before my eyes, as he then stood that day he parted from us, glittering in
his brilliant armor, and his face just as brilliant with the light of a
great and trusting spirit. As he turned from the last embraces of the
weeping Portia, he seized me in his arms, who stood jingling his sword
against his iron greaves, and imprinting upon my cheek a kiss, bade me
grow a man at once, to take care of the household, while they were gone
with the good Emperor to fight the enemies of Rome in Asia. He was, as I
remember him, of a quick and fiery temper, but he was always gentle toward
me, and has bound me to him forever,'

'The gods prosper you!' cried Fausta, 'as surely they will. It is a pious
work to which you put your hand, and you will succeed.'

'Do not, Fausta,' said Gracchus, 'lend the weight of your voice to urge
our friend to measures which may be rather rash than wise, and may end
only in causing a greater evil than what already exists. Prudence must
govern us as well as affection. By venturing yourself at once into the
dominion of Persia, upon such an errand, it is scarcely less than certain
that you would perish, and without effecting your object. We ought to
consider, too, I think, what the condition and treatment of Calpurnius
are, before too great a risk is incurred for his rescue. He has now, we
are to remember, been at the capital of the great king thirteen years. You
have hinted that he had been kindly regarded by the son of Sapor. Possibly
his captivity amounts to no more than a foreign residence--a sort of
exile. Possibly he may, in this long series of years, have become changed
into a Persian. I understand your little lip, Fausta, and your indignant
frown, Lucius; but what I suggest is among things possible, it cannot be
denied; and can you deny it?--not so very unlikely, when you think what
the feelings of one must have been to be so wholly forgotten and abandoned
by his native country, and that country, Rome, the mistress of the world,
who needed but to have stretched forth the half of her power to have
broken for ever the chains of his slavery, as well as of the thousands who
with him have been left to linger out their lives in bondage. If
Calpurnius has been distinguished by the son of Sapor, his lot, doubtless,
has been greatly lightened, and he may now be living as a Persian prince.
My counsel is, therefore, that the truth in this regard be first obtained,
before the life of another son, and the only inheritor of so great a name,
be put in jeopardy. But what is the exact sum of what you have learned,
and upon which we may rely, and from which reason and act?'

'Our knowledge,' I replied, 'is derived from a soldier, who, by a great
and happy fortune, escaped and reached his native Rome. He only knew what
he saw when he was first a captive, and afterward, by chance, had heard
from others. He was, he said, taken to serve as a slave about the palace
of the King, and it was there that for a space he was an eye-witness to
the cruel and insulting usage of both Valerian and Calpurnius. That was
but too true, he said, which had been reported to us, that whenever the
proud Sapor went forth to mount his horse, the Emperor was brought, in the
face of the whole court, and of the populace who crowded round, to serve
as his footstool. Clothed in the imperial purple, the unfortunate Valerian
received upon his neck the foot of Sapor, and bore him to his saddle. It
was the same purpose that Calpurnius was made to serve for the young
prince Hormisdas. But, said the soldier, the prince pitied the young and
noble Roman, and would gladly, at the beginning, have spared him the
indignity put upon him by the stern command of his haughty and cruel
father. He often found occasion at these times, while standing with his
foot upon his neck, to speak with Calpurnius, and to express his regrets
and his grief for his misfortunes, and promise redress, and more, if he
ever came to the throne. But the soldier was soon removed from the
vicinity of the Royal palace, and saw no more of either Valerian or
Calpurnius. What came to his ears was, generally, that while Valerian was
retained exclusively for the use of Sapor, Calpurnius was after a time
relinquished as entirely into the hands of Hormisdas, in whose own palace
he dwelt, but with what portion of freedom, he knew not. That he was
living at the time he escaped, he was certain. This, Gracchus, is the sum
of what we have heard; in addition only, that the Emperor sank under his
misfortunes, and that his skin, fashioned over some substance so as
exactly to resemble the living man, is preserved by Sapor, as a monument
of his triumph over the legions of Rome.'

'It is a pitiful story,' said Fausta, as I ended: 'for a brave man it has
been a fate worse than death; but having survived the first shame, I fear
me my father's thought will prove a too true one, and that long absence,
and indignation at neglect, and perhaps gratitude and attachment to the
prince, who seems to have protected him, will have weaned him from Rome.
So that we cannot suffer you, Lucius, to undertake so long and dangerous a
journey upon so doubtful an errand. But those can be found, bold and
faithful, who for that ample reward with which you could so easily enrich
them, would venture even into the heart of Ecbatana itself, and bring you
back your brother alive, or advertise you of his apostasy or death.'

'What Fausta says is just,' observed Gracchus, 'and in few words
prescribes your course. It will not be a difficult thing, out of the
multitudes of bold spirits who crowd the capital, Greek, Roman, Syrian,
and Arab, to find one who will do all that you could do, and I may add,
both more and better. You may find those who are familiar with the route,
who know the customs of Persia, who can speak its language, and are even
at home in her capitals, and who would be infinitely more capable than
either you or I, or even Fausta, to manage to a happy issue an enterprise
like this. Let this then be our decision; and be it now our united care to
find the individual to whom we may commit this dear but perilous service.
And now enough of this. The city sleeps, and it were better that we slept
with it. But first, my child, bring harmony into our spirits by one of
those wild, sad airs which you are accustomed to sing to me upon the harp
of the Jews. It will dispose Lucius to pleasant dreams.'

I added my importunities, and Fausta rising, moved to an open window,
through which the moon was now pouring a flood of silver light, and
seating herself before the instrument which stood there, first swept its
strings with an easy and graceful hand.

'I wish,' said she, 'I could give you the song which I am going to sing in
the language of the Hebrews, for it agrees better, I think, with the
sentiment and the character of the music, than the softer accents of the
Greek. But every thing is Greek now.'

So saying, she commenced with a prelude more sweetly and profoundly
melancholy than even the wailing of the night wind among the leafless
trees of the forest. This was followed by--an ode shall I call it?--or a
hymn?--for it was not what we mean by a song. Nor was the music like any
other music I had ever heard, but much more full of passion; broken, wild,
plaintive, triumphant by turns, it stirred all the deepest feelings of the
heart. It seemed to be the language of one in captivity, who, refusing to
sing one of the songs of his country for the gratification of his
conquerors, broke out into passionate strains of patriotism, in which he
exalted his desolated home to the Heavens, and prophesied in the boldest
terms her ultimate restoration to power and glory. The sentiment lost
nothing coming to the ear clothed in the rich music of Fausta's voice,
which rose and sank, swelled and died away, or was full of tears or joy,
as agreed with the theme of the poet. She was herself the poet, and the
captive, and the Jew, so wholly did she abandon herself to the sway of the
thoughts which she was expressing. One idea alone, however, had possessed
me while she sang--to which, the moment she paused, I first gave
utterance. 'And think you, Fausta,' said I, 'that while the captive Jew
remembers his country, the captive Roman will forget his? Never!
Calpurnius, if he lives, lives a Roman. For this I thank your song.
Melancholy and sad in itself, it has bred joy in my soul. I shall now
sleep well.' So saying, we separated.

Thus was passed my first evening in Palmyra.




Letter III.



With what pleasure do I again sit down, dear Curtius and Lucilia, to tell
you how I have passed my time, and what I have been able to accomplish,
since I last wrote; thrice happy that I have to report of success rather
than of defeat in that matter which I have undertaken. But first, let me
thank you for all the city gossip, with which you so greatly entertained
me in your joint epistle. Although I pass my hours and days in this
beautiful capital as happily as I could any where out of Rome, still my
letters from home are a great addition to my enjoyment. After rising from
perusal of yours and my mother's, I was a new man. Let me beg you--which
indeed I need hardly do--to send each letter of mine, as you receive it,
to Portia, and in return receive and read those which I have written and
shall continue to write to her. To you I shall give a narrative of events;
to her, I shall pour out sentiment and philosophy, as in our conversation
we are wont to do. I shall hope soon to have somewhat of interest to say
of the state of letters here, and of my interviews with distinguished men.
So soon as the Queen shall return from her excursion through some of her
distant provinces, I shall call upon Gracchus to fulfil his promise, and
make me known to the great Longinus, now with the Queen absent. From my
intercourse with him I shall look to draw up long and full reports of much
that shall afford both entertainment and instruction to you all.

I have now passed several days in Palmyra, and have a mass of things to
say. But instead of giving you a confused report, I shall separate one
thing from another, and set down each according to the time and manner
in which it happened. This is what I know you desire, and this is what
I shall do.

I cannot easily tell you how delicious was my slumber after that last day
of fatiguing travel, and that evening of to me the most exciting converse.
I dreamed that night of Calpurnius rescued and returned; and ever as he
was present to my sleeping fancy, the music of Fausta's harp and voice was
floating near.

Hannibal was early at my door to warn me of the hour of the morning meal,
Milo being still under the influences of the evening's potation. I was
shown to a different apartment from that in which we had supped, but
opening into it. It was a portico rather than a room, being on two sides
open to the shrubbery, with slender Ionic pillars of marble supporting the
ceiling, all joined together by the light interlacings of the most
gorgeous creeping plants. Their odors filled the air. A fountain threw up
in the most graceful forms its clear water, and spread all around an
agreeable coolness. Standing at those points where flights of steps led
down to the walks and plots of grass and flowers, which wound about the
palace, the eye wandered over the rich scene of verdure and blossom which
they presented, and then rested where it can never rest too often or too
long, upon the glittering shafts of the Temple of the Sun. This morning
prospect, from this single point, I thought was reward enough for my long
voyage and hot journey over the desert. It inspired more cheerful thoughts
than the same scene as I had seen it the evening before from the windows
of my chamber. I could not but draw omens of good from the universal smile
that beamed upon me from the earth and the heavens. Fausta's little hand
suddenly placed within mine, and the cheerful greeting of her voice, awoke
me from my dreamy state.

'Your countenance shows that you have slept well, Lucius,' said she; 'it
is bright as the morning itself. Your dreams must have been favorable. Or
else is it the wonder-working power of a Palmyrene air that has wrought so
with you since the last evening? Tell me, have you not slept as you never
slept in Rome?'

'I have slept well, indeed,' I replied, 'but I believe it was owing
rather to your harp and Jewish ode, than to any mysterious qualities of
the air. Your music haunted the chambers of my brain all night, and
peopled them with the forms of those whom I love, and whose memory it last
evening recalled so vividly. Mostly I dreamed of Calpurnius, and of his
return to Rome, and with him came ever your image dimly seen hovering
round, and the strains of your voice and harp. These are to me auguries of
good, even as if the voice of a god had spoken. I shall once more embrace
a brother--and what is even more, a Roman.'

'The gods grant it may be so!' replied Fausta: 'A prayer which I repeat,'
cried Gracchus, as he approached us from the hall, through which I had
just passed. 'I have thought much of your affair since I parted from you
last evening, and am more than ever persuaded that we came to a true
decision touching the steps best to be taken. To-day I shall be much
abroad, and shall not forget to search in every direction for one who may
be intrusted with this nice, and difficult, and withal dangerous business.
I can now think of no messenger who bids so fair to combine all the
qualities we most desire, as the Jew. I know but few of that tribe, and
those are among the rich. But then those rich are connected in various
ways with the poor--for to a marvellous extent they are one people---it
is the same you know in Rome--and through them I think I may succeed.'

'Now have you,' I quickly added, 'again poured light into my mind. Half
our labor is over. I know a Jew whose capacities could not be more fitting
for this enterprise. I saw much of him on board the vessel which took us
first to the African coast, where, at Utica, it set him on shore, bringing
me farther on to Berytus. He is a true citizen of the world--knows all
languages, and all people, and all places. He has all the shrewdness of
his race---their intelligence, their enthusiasm, and, I may add, their
courage. He is a traveller by profession, and a vender of such things as
any will buy, and will go wherever he may hope to make large gains
wherewith to do his share toward "building again the walls of Jerusalem,"
as he calls it. He has a home in every city of the East. It was toward
Palmyra that he was bending his way: and, as I now remember, promised that
he would see me here not many days after I should arrive, and have the
pleasure, as he trusted, to sell me more of his goods; for you must be
told that I did indeed traffic with him, however little it became a
patrician of Rome. And here I have about me, in a little casket, some
rings which I purchased of him, having upon them heads of Zenobia and
Odenatus, resembling the originals to the life, as he assured me with much
asseveration. See, Fausta, here they are. Look now, and tell me if he has
spoken in this instance the truth; if so, it will be a ground for trusting
him farther.'

'Beautiful!' exclaimed both Gracchus and Fausta. 'He has indeed dealt
honestly with you. Nothing can be more exact than these resemblances, and
the workmanship is worthy the hand of Demetrius the Greek.'

'Provincials,' said I, 'ever know the capital and its fashions better than
citizens. Now never till Isaac, my Jew friend, rehearsed to me the praises
of Demetrius the jeweller, had I ever heard his name, or aught concerning
his skill, and here in the heart of Asia he seems a household word.'

'It is so, indeed,' said Gracchus. 'I do not doubt that the fashionable
artists of every kind in Rome are better known to the followers of fashion
in Palmyra than they are to the patricians themselves. Wanting the real
greatness of Rome, we try to surpass her in the trappings of greatness. We
are well represented by the frog of Æsop; happy, if our swelling pride do
not destroy us. But these rings--they are indeed of exquisite art. The
head of Odenatus is truer to life, methinks, than that of the Queen.'

'And how can poor stone and gold set out the divine beauty and grace of
Zenobia!' cried Fausta. 'This is beautiful to you now, Lucius, but it will
be so no longer when you shall have seen her. Would that she were here! It
seems as if the sun were gone from the heavens, when she is absent from us
on these long excursions among her distant subjects.'

'Till then, dear Fausta,' said I, 'deign to wear on that only finger which
I see ungraced by a ring, this head of your so much vaunted Queen;
afterward wear it, if you will, not for her sake, but mine.'

So saying, upon her finger which she held out to me--and which how
beautiful it was I shall not say--I attempted to pass the ring, but
alas! it was too small, and would not, with all the gentle force I dared
to use, go on.

'Here is an omen, Fausta,' said I; 'the Queen cannot be forced upon your
hand. I fear your friendship is threatened.'

'Oh! never entertain any such apprehension,' interrupted Fausta. 'It is
quite needless. Here is plenty of room on this neighbor finger. It is
quite right that Aurelian, you know, should give way to Zenobia: so, away
with the Emperor!' and she snapped the ring across the pavement of the
Portico--'and now, Lucius, invest me with that burning beauty.'

'And now do you think you deserve it? I marvel, Gracchus, at the boldness
of these little girls. Verily, they bid fair to mount up over our heads.
But come, your finger: there--one cannot but say it becomes you better
than the fierce Aurelian. As for the deposed Emperor, he is henceforward
mine. Thus I re-instate him.' In saying which, I pursued and picked up the
discarded ring, and gave to it the most honored place upon my right hand.

Fausta now, first laughingly bidding me welcome to the ring, called us to
the table, where the breakfast, consisting of fruits in greater proportion
than with us, awaited us. Much talk now ensued concerning the city, its
growth and numbers, power and probable destiny. I was satisfied from what
fell from each, that the most ambitious designs are entertained by both
the court and people, and that their wonderful successes have bred in them
a real belief that they should have nothing to fear from the valor or
power of Rome, under any circumstances of collision. When this was
through, Gracchus, rising from his seat and pacing slowly up and down the
portico, spoke of my private affairs, and with great kindness went over
again the whole ground. The result was the same.

'Our way, then,' he said, 'is clear. Wait a few days for your fellow
traveller, Isaac. If he appears, well,--if not, we must then search the
quarter of the Jews for one who may do as good service perhaps. I now
leave you, with a suggestion to Fausta that she should take it upon her to
drive you round the city, and into the suburbs. No one can perform the
office of a guide better than she.'

'If Fausta will take that trouble upon her,' I replied, 'it will
give me----'

'A great deal of pleasure, you were going to say; so it will me. I am sure
we shall enjoy it. If I love any thing, it is to reveal to a proud Roman
the glories of Palmyra. Take away from a Roman that ineffable air which
says "Behold embodied in me the majesty of Rome!" and there remains a very
agreeable person. But for those qualities of mind and manners which fit
men and women for society, the Roman men and women must yield to the
Palmyrenes. So I think, who have seen somewhat of both--and so
think--gainsay my authorities if you have the courage--Longinus and the
Bishop of Antioch. I see that you are disturbed. No wonder. Longinus,
though a philosopher, is a man of the world, who sees through its ways as
clearly as he does through the mysticism of Plato, and that asks for good
eyes; and for the bishop--there is not so finished a gentleman in all the
East. His appointments are not less exquisite than those of the highest
noble either of Antioch or Palmyra. If an umpire in any question of
manners were to be chosen, it would be he.'

'As for the Greek,' I rejoined, 'I am predisposed to admit his superior
claims. I will surrender to him with alacrity my doubts both in manners
and philosophy. For I hold there is a philosophy in manners, nay, even in
clothes, and that the highest bred intellect will on that very account
best perceive the nice distinctions and relations, in the exact
perception and observance of which the highest manners consist. Such an
one may offend against the last device in costume--and the last
refinement in the recondite art of a bow--but he will eternally excel in
all that we mean by breeding. Your bishop I know nothing of, but your
account of him strikes me not very agreeably. These Christian bishops,
methinks, are taking upon themselves too much. And besides, if what I
gathered of the theory of their religion from a passenger on board the
Mediterranean trader, be correct, they depart greatly from the severity
of their principles, when they so addict themselves to the practices of
courts and of the rich. I received from this Christian a beautiful idea
of his faith, and only lamented that our companionship was broken off
before I had had time fully to comprehend all he had to say. The
character of this man, and his very countenance, seemed as arguments to
support the strict opinions which he advanced. This bishop, I think, can
scarcely do his faith the same service.'

'I know him not much,' said Fausta, 'and of his faith, nothing. He has
great power over the Princess Julia, and it would not much amaze me if, by
and by, she declared herself a Christian. It is incredible how that
superstition spreads. But here is our carriage. Come, let us forth.'

So, breaking off our talk, we betook ourselves to the carriage. How shall
I find language, my Curtius, to set before you with the vividness of the
reality, or with any approach to it, the pictures which this drive through
and around Palmyra caused to pass successively before me? You know indeed,
generally, what the city is, from the reports of former travellers,
especially from the late book of Spurius, about which and its speculations
much was said a little while since. But let me tell you, a more one-sided,
one-eyed, malignant observer never thrust himself upon the hospitalities
of a free, open-hearted people, than that same Spurius, poet and
bibliopole. His very name is an offence to the Palmyrenes, who, whatever
national faults they may have, do not deserve the deep disgrace of being
brought before the world in the pages of so poor a thing as the said
Ventidius Spurius. Though it will not be my province to treat as an author
of the condition, policy, and prospects of Palmyra, yet to you and my
friends I shall lay myself open with the utmost freedom, and shall refrain
from no statement or opinion that shall possess, or seem to do so, truth
or importance.

The horses springing from under the whip of the charioteer, soon bore us
from the great entrance of the palace into the midst of the throng that
crowded the streets. The streets, seen now under the advantages of a warm
morning sun adding a beauty of its own to whatever it glanced upon, showed
much more brilliantly than ours of Rome. There is, in the first place, a
more general sumptuousness in equipage and dress, very striking to the eye
of a Roman. Not perhaps that more wealth is displayed, but the forms and
the colors, through which it displays itself, are more various, more
tasteful, more gorgeous. Nothing can exceed, nothing equals, it is said,
any where in the world, the state of the Queen and her court; and this
infects, if I may use so harsh a word, the whole city. So that, though
with far less of real substantial riches than we have, their extravagance
and luxury are equal, and their taste far before us. Then every thing
wears a newer, fresher look than in Rome. The buildings of the republic,
which many are so desirous to preserve, and whole streets even of
ante-Augustan architecture, tend to spread around here and there in Rome a
gloom--to me full of beauty and poetry--but still gloom. Here all is
bright and gay. The buildings of marble--the streets paved and
clean--frequent fountains of water throwing up their foaming jets, and
shedding around a delicious coolness--temples, and palaces of the nobles,
or of wealthy Palmyrene merchants--altogether present a more brilliant
assemblage of objects than I suppose any other city can boast. Then
conceive, poured through these long lines of beautiful edifices, among
these temples and fountains, a population drawn from every country of the
far East, arrayed in every variety of the most showy and fanciful costume;
with the singular animals, rarely seen in our streets, but here met at
every turn--elephants, camels, and dromedaries, to say nothing of the
Arabian horses, with their jewelled housings, with every now and then a
troop of the Queen's cavalry, moving along, to the sound of their clanging
trumpets--conceive, I say, this ceaseless tide of various animal life
poured along among the proud piles, and choking the ways, and you will
have some faint glimpse of the strange and imposing reality.

Fausta was in raptures at my transports, and in her pleasant but
deep-meaning way, boasted much over the great capital of the world. So we
rode along, slowly, because of the crowded state of the streets, and on
account of my desire to observe the manners and ways of the people--their
shops, which glittered with every rare work of art--and the devices, so
similar in all places of trade, by which the seller attracts the buyer. I
was engrossed by objects of this sort, when Fausta's voice drew my
attention another way.

'Now,' said she, 'prepare yourself for the glory of Palmyra; look when we
shall suddenly turn round the next corner, on the left, and see what you
shall see.'

The chariot soon whirled round the indicated corner, and we found
ourselves in full view of the Temple of the Sun, so famous throughout the
world. Upon a vast platform of marble, itself decorated with endless lines
of columns--elsewhere of beauty and size sufficient for the principal
building, but here a mere appendage--stood in solitary magnificence this
peerless work of art. All I could do was, and the act was involuntary, to
call upon the charioteer to rein up his horses and let me quietly gaze. In
this Fausta, nothing unwilling, indulged me. Then, when satisfied with
this the first point of view, we wound slowly round the spacious square
upon which it stands, observing it well in all directions, and taking my
fill of that exalted but nameless pleasure which flows in upon the soul
from the contemplation of perfect excellence.

'This is, if I err not, Fausta, the work of a Greek artist.'

'It is,' said she: 'here both Romans and Palmyrenes must acknowledge
their inferiority, and indeed all other people. In every city of the
world, I believe, all the great works of art are the offspring of Grecian
genius and Grecian taste. Truly, a wonderful people! In this very city,
our artists--our men of letters--even the first ministers of state--all
are Greeks. But come, let us move on to the Long Portico, an edifice
which will astonish you yet more than even the Temple of the Sun, through
your having heard of it so much less. We shall reach it in about half a
Roman mile.'

This space was soon passed, and the Portico stood revealed with its
interminable ranges of Corinthian columns, and the busy multitudes winding
among them, and, pursuing their various avocations, for which this
building offers a common and convenient ground. Here the merchants
assemble and meet each other. Here various articles of more than common
rarity are brought and exhibited for sale. Here the mountebanks resort,
and entertain the idle and lovers of amusement with their fantastic
tricks. And here strangers from all parts of the world may be seen walking
to and fro, observing the customs of the place, and regaling themselves at
the brilliant rooms, furnished with every luxury, which are opened for
their use, or else at the public baths which are found in the immediate
neighborhood. The Portico does not, like the Temple, stand upon an
elevated platform, but more upon a level with the streets. Its greatness
is derived from its extreme length, and its exquisitely-perfect designs
and workmanship, as seen in the graceful fluted columns and the rich
entablature running round the whole. The life and achievements of
Alexander are sculptured upon the frieze; the artist--a Greek also--having
been allowed to choose his own theme.

'Fausta,' said I, 'my soul is steeped in beauty. It will be to no purpose
to show me more now. I am like one who has eaten too much--forgive the
figure--delicacies are lost upon him.'

'I cannot release you yet,' cried Fausta; 'a little farther on, and you
may see the palace of our great Queen; give me your patience to that
point, and I will then relieve you by a little excursion through the
suburbs, where your eye may repose upon a rural beauty as satisfying as
this of the city. You must see the palace. There!--we are already in
sight of it.'

It rose upon us, so vast is it, and of so many parts, like a city within a
city. A fit dwelling for so great, so good, and so beautiful a woman. Of
this you will find a careful and true account, with drawings, which
greatly help the imagination, in the otherwise vile book of the traducer
Spurius. To that I refer you, and so refrain from all description.

We now left the city, and wound at our leisure among the shady avenues,
the noble country retreats, the public gardens, the groves and woods which
encompass the walls, and stretch away far beyond the sight, into the
interior. Returning, we passed through the arches of the vast aqueduct
which pours into the city a river of the purest water. This is the most
striking object, and noblest work of art, without the walls.

When we had passed in this way nearly the whole day, we at length
re-entered the city by the Persian Gate, on the eastern side,

'Now, Fausta,' said I, 'having given so much of the day to pleasure, I
must give the rest, not to pain, but to duty. I will seek out and find, if
I can, Demetrius, brother to Demetrius of Rome. From him I can learn, it
seems probable, concerning the movements of Isaac.'

'You will find the shop of Demetrius in the very heart of the city, midway
between the Persian and Roman gates. Farewell, for a time, and may the
gods prosper you!'

I was not long in making my way to the shop of the Greek. I found the
skilful Demetrius busily engaged in putting the last polish upon a small
silver statue of a flying Mercury. He looked up as I entered, and saluting
me in Greek, invited me to look at his works. I could not for a long time
take off my eyes from the figure upon which he was working, and expressed
my admiration.

'Ah, it is very well, I think, said he, 'but it is nothing compared with
the work of my brother at Rome. You know him doubtless?'

'Indeed I do not, I am obliged to say.'

'What!--a Roman, as I perceive, and a patrician also, and not know
Demetrius the goldsmith?--he who was the favorite of Valerian, and
Gallienus, and Claudius, and now of Aurelian? There is no hand like that
of Demetrius the elder. These, sir, are mere scratches, to his divine
touch. These are dolls, compared with the living and breathing gold as it
leaves his chisel. Sir, it is saying nothing beyond belief, when I say,
that many a statue like this, of his, is worth more than many a living
form that we see in and out of the shop. Forgive me, but I must say I
would rather possess one of his images of Venus or Apollo, than a live
Roman--though he be a patrician too.'

'You are complimentary,' I said: 'but I can believe you. When I return to
Rome, I shall seek out your brother, and make myself acquainted with his
genius. I have heretofore heard of him chiefly through a travelling Jew,
whom I fell in with on the way hither--Isaac, as he is called.'

'Ah ha!--Isaac of Rome. I know him well,' he replied. 'He is a good
man--that is, he is good for one of that tribe. I look for him every day.
A letter from Rome informs me that he is on his way. It is a pleasant
thing to see Isaac. I wonder what curiosities he brings from the hand of
my brother. He will be welcome. I trust he brings some heads of our late
king and present queen, from drawings which I made and transmitted. I am
impatient to see them. Saw you anything of this sort about him?'

'Truly I did, and if by some ill chance I have not left them behind me, in
my preparations for a morning excursion, I can show you what you will like
to see. Ah! here it is: in this small casket I have, I presume, unless
Isaac shall have deceived me--but of which you will be a perfect
judge--some of your brother's art. Look, here are rings with heads of your
king and queen, such as you have just spoken of. Are they genuine?'

'No instrument but that which is guided by the hand of the elder
Demetrius ever did this work,' said he, slowly drawing out his words, as
he closely scrutinized the ring. 'The gold embossment might indeed have
been done by another, but not these heads, so true to the life, and of an
art so far beyond any ability of mine, that I am tempted sometimes to
think that he is in league with Vulcan. Gods! how that mouth of the Queen
speaks! Do we not hear it? Ah, Roman, give me the skill of Demetrius the
elder, and I would spit upon all the power of Aurelian.'

'You Greeks are a singular people. I believe that the idea of beauty is to
you food and clothing, and shelter and drink, more than all riches and all
power: dying on a desert island, a fragment of Phidias would be dearer to
you than a cargo of food.'

'That's a pretty conceit enough,' said he, 'and something near the truth,
as must be confessed.'

As we were thus idly discoursing, we became suddenly conscious of an
unusual commotion in the street. The populace began to move quickly by in
crowds, and vehicles of all sorts came pouring along as if in expectation
of something they were eager to see.

'What's all this?--what's all this?' said Demetrius, leaving his work,
which he had resumed, and running to the door of his shop: 'what's the
matter, friend?' addressing a citizen hurrying by: 'Is Aurelian at the
gates, that you are posting along in such confusion?'

'Not Aurelian,' replied the other, 'but Aurelian's mistress. The Queen is
coming. Clouds of dust on the skirts of the plain show that she is
advancing toward the city.'

'Now, Roman, if thou wouldst see a sight, be advised and follow me. We
will mount the roof of yonder market, whence we shall win a prospect such
as no eye can have seen that has not gazed from the same point. It is
where I go to refresh my dulled senses, after the day's hard toil.'

So saying, and pausing a moment only to give some necessary directions to
the pupils, who were stationed at their tasks throughout the long
apartment, telling them to wait for the show till it should pass by the
shop, and not think to imitate their master in all his ways--saying these
things in a half earnest and half playful manner--we crossed the street,
and soon reached the level roof, well protected by a marble breastwork, of
the building he had pointed out.

'We are here just at the right moment,' said he: 'come quickly to this
corner and secure a seat, for you see the people are already thronging
after us. There! can Elysium offer a more perfect scene? And look, how
inspiring is the view of these two multitudes moving toward each
other, in the spirit of friendship! How the city opens her arms to
embrace her Queen!'

At the distance of about a mile from the walls, we now saw the party of
the Queen, escorted by a large body of horse: and, approaching them from
the city, apparently its whole population, some on foot, some on horse,
some in carriages of every description. The plain was filled with life.
The sun shooting his beams over the whole, and reflected from the spears
and corslets of the cavalry, and the gilding and polished work of chariots
and harness, caused the scene to sparkle as if strewed with diamonds. It
was a fair sight. But fairer than all was it to witness, as I did, the
hearty enthusiasm of the people, and even of the children, toward their
lovely Queen. Tears of joy even I could see falling from many eyes, that
she was returning to them again. As soon as the near approach of Zenobia
to the walls began to conceal her and her escort, then we again changed
our position, and returned to the steps of the shop of Demetrius, as the
Queen would pass directly by them, on her way to the palace.

We had been here not many minutes, before the shouts of the people, and
the braying of martial music, and the confused sound of an approaching
multitude, showed that the Queen was near. Troops of horse, variously
caparisoned, each more brilliantly as it seemed than another, preceded a
train of sumptuary elephants and camels, these too richly dressed, but
heavily loaded. Then came the body-guard of the Queen, in armor of
complete steel--and then the chariot of Zenobia, drawn by milk-white
Arabians. So soon as she appeared, the air resounded with the acclamations
of the countless multitudes. Every cry of loyalty and affection was heard
from ten thousand mouths, making a music such as filled the heart almost
to breaking.

'Long live the great Zenobia!' went up to the heavens. 'The blessing of
all the gods on our good Queen!'--'Health and happiness to the mother of
her people!'--'Death and destruction to her enemies!'--these, and cries of
the same kind, came from the people, not as a mere lip-service, but
evidently, from the tone in which they were uttered, prompted by real
sentiments of love, such as it seems to me never before can have existed
toward a supreme and absolute prince.

It was to me a moment inexpressibly interesting. I could not have asked
for more, than for the first time to see this great woman just as I now
saw her. I cannot, at this time, even speak of her beauty, and the
imposing yet sweet dignity of her manner; for it was with me, as I suppose
it was with all--the diviner beauty of the emotions and sentiments which
were working at her heart and shone out in the expressive language of her
countenance, took away all power of narrowly scanning complexion, feature
and form. Her look was full of love for her people. She regarded them as
if they were her children. She bent herself fondly toward them, as if
nothing but the restraints of form withheld her from throwing herself into
their arms. This was the beauty which filled and agitated me. I was more
than satisfied.

'And who,' said I to Demetrius, 'is that beautiful being, but of a sad and
thoughtful countenance, who sits at the side of the Queen?'

'That,' he replied, 'is the Princess Julia; a true descendant of her great
mother; and the gods grant that she, rather than either of her brothers,
may succeed to the sovereign power.'

'She looks indeed,' said I, 'worthy to reign--over hearts at least, if not
over nations. Those in the next chariot are, I suppose, the young Cæsars,
as I hear they are called--about as promising, to judge by the form and
face, as some of our Roman brood of the same name. I need not ask whose
head that is in the carriage next succeeding; it can belong to no other
in Palmyra than the great Longinus. What a divine repose breathes over
that noble countenance! What a clear and far-sighted spirit looks out of
those eyes! But--gods of Rome and of the world!--who sits beside him?
Whose dark soul is lodged in that fearful tenement?--fearful and yet
beautiful, as would be a statue of ebony!'

'Know you not him? Know you not the Egyptian Zabdas?--the mirror of
accomplished knighthood--the pillar of the state--the Aurelian of the
East? Ah! far may you go to find two such men as those--of gifts so
diverse, and power so great--sitting together like brothers. It all shows
the greater power of Zenobia, who can tame the roughest and most ambitious
spirits to her uses. Who is like Zenobia?'

'So ends, it seems to me,' I replied,' every sentence of every
Palmyrene--"Who is like Zenobia?"'

'Well, Roman,' said he, 'it is a good ending; may there never be a worse.
Happy were it for mankind, if kings and queens were all like her. She
rules to make others happy--not to rule. She conceives herself to be an
instrument of government, not its end. Many is the time, that, standing in
her private closet, with my cases of rare jewels, or with some pretty
fancy of mine in the way of statue or vase, I have heard the wisdom of
Aristotle dropping in the honey of Plato's Greek from her divine lips.'

'You are all going mad with love,' said I; 'I begin to tremble for
myself as a Roman. I must depart while I am yet safe. But see! the crowd
and the show are vanished. Let me hear of the earliest return of Isaac,
and the gods prosper you! I am at the house of Gracchus, opposite the
Temple of Justice.'

I found, on reaching the palace, Fausta and Gracchus, overjoyed at the
safe and happy return of the Queen. Fausta, too, as the Queen was passing
by, she standing by one of the pillars of the great entrance, had obtained
a smile of recognition, and a wave of the hand from her great friend, as I
may justly term her, and nothing could exceed the spirits she was in.

'How glad I am, Lucius,' said she, 'that you have seen her so soon, and
more than all, that you saw her just as you did, in the very heart of the
people. I do not believe you ever saw Aurelian so received in
Rome--Claudius perhaps--but not again Galliemis, or his severe but weak
father. But what have you done--which is to all of us a more immediately
interesting subject--what have you done for Calpurnius? Do you learn any
thing of Isaac?'

'I have the best news,' I replied, 'possible in the case. Isaac will be in
Palmyra--perhaps this very night; but certainly within a few days, if the
gods spare his life. Demetrius is to give me the earliest intelligence of
his arrival.'

'Now then let us,' said Fausta, 'to the table, which need not offer the
delicacies of Vitellius, to insure a favorable reception from appetites
sharpened as ours have been by the day's motion and excitement.'

Gracchus, throwing down a manuscript he had been attentively perusing, now
joined us.

Leaving untold all the good things which were said, especially by
Gracchus, while I and Fausta, more terrestrially given, applied ourselves
to the agreeable task set before us, I hasten to tell you of my interview
with the Jew, and of its issue. For no sooner had evening set in, and
Fausta, seated at her harp, was again soothing the soul with her sweet and
wild strains, than a messenger was announced from the Greek Demetrius,
desiring to have communication with me. Divining at once his errand, I
sought him in the ante-room, where, learning from him that Isaac was
arrived, and that if I would see him I must seek him on the moment, as he
was but for one night in the city, intending in the morning to start for
Ctesiphon, I bade him lead on, and I would follow, first calling Milo to
accompany me.

'To what part of the city do we go?' said I, addressing the messenger of
Demetrius.

'To the quarter of the Jews, near the Gate of the Desert,' he replied. 'Be
not apprehensive of danger,' he added; 'the city is as safe by night as by
day. This we owe to the great Queen.'

'Take me where thou wilt, I fear nothing,' said I.

'But methinks, master mine,' said Milo, 'seeing that we know not the ways
of this outlandish capital, nor even who this doubtless respectable person
is who invites us to this enterprise, it were more discreet to add
Hannibal to our numbers. Permit me, and I will invoke the presence of the
Ethiopian.'

'No, Milo,' I replied, 'in thy valor I am ready to put my trust. Thy
courage is tried courage, and if need be, I doubt not thou wilt not
hesitate to die sword in hand.'

'Such sort of confidence I do by no means covet: I would rather that thou
shouldst place it somewhere else. It is true that when I was in the
service of the most noble Gallienus--'

'Well, we will spare thee the trouble of that story. I believe I do thy
virtues no injustice. Moreover, the less talk, the more speed.'

Saying this, in order that I might be left to my own thoughts for a
space, before I should meet the Jew, we then pressed on, threading our
way through a maze of streets, where recollection of place and of
direction was soon and altogether lost. The streets now became narrow,
filthy, darker and darker, crooked and involved. They were still noisy
with the loud voices of the inhabitants of the dwellings, calling to
each other, quarrelling or laughing, with the rattling of vehicles
returning home after the labors of the day, and with all that variety of
deafening sounds which fall upon the ear where great numbers of a poor
and degraded population are crowded together into confined quarters.
Suddenly leaving what seemed to be a sort of principal street, our guide
turned down into an obscure lane, which, though extremely narrow and
crooked, was better built than the streets we had just left. Stopping
now before what seemed a long and low white wall, our guide, descending
a few steps, brought us to the principal entrance of the dwelling, for
such we found it to be. Applying a stone to the door, to arouse those
who might be within, we were immediately answered in a voice which I at
once recognised as that of Isaac:

'Break not in the door,' shouted he, 'with your unmannerly blows. Who are
you, that one must live standing with his hand on the latch of the door?
Wait say, till I can have time to walk the length of the room. What can
the Gentiles of Palmyra want of Isaac of Rome at this time of night?' So
muttering, he unbarred and opened the door.

'Come in, come in: the house of Isaac is but a poor house of a poor Jew,
but it has a welcome for all. Come in--come--. But, father Abraham! whom
have we here? The most noble Piso! A patrician of Rome in the hovel of a
poverty-pinched Jew! That would sound well upon the exchange. It may be
of account. But what am I saying? Welcome to Palmyra, most noble Piso,
for Palmyra is one of my homes; at Rome, and at Antioch, and Alexandria,
and Ctesiphon, and Carthage--it is the same to Isaac. Pray seat
yourselves; upon this chair thou wilt find a secure seat, though it
promises not so much, and here upon my dromedary's furniture is another.
So, now we are well. Would that I had that flask of soft Palmyrene, which
but now I sent--'

'Take no trouble for our sakes,' I exclaimed, cordially saluting him; 'I
am just now come from the table of Gracchus. I have matters of more moment
to discuss than either meats or wines.'

'But, noble master, hast thou ever brought to thy lips this same soft
Palmyrene? The name indicates some delicious juice.'

'Peace, Milo, or thou goest home alone, as thou best canst.'

'Roman,' began Isaac,' I can think only of two reasons that can have
brought thee to my poor abode so soon; the one is to furnish thyself with
more of that jewelry which gave thee so much delight, and the other to
discourse with me concerning the faith of Moses. Much as I love a bargain,
I hope it is for the last that thou art come; for I would fain see thee in
a better way than thou art, or than thou wouldst be if that smooth Probus
should gain thy ear. Heed not the wily Nazarene! I cannot deny him a good
heart, after what I saw of him in Carthage. But who is he, to take it upon
him to sit in judgment upon the faith of two thousand years? Would that I
could once see him in the grasp of Simon Ben Gorah! How would his heresy
wither and die before the learning of that son of God. Roman, heed him
not! Let me take thee to Simon, that thou mayst once in thy life hear the
words of wisdom.'

'Not now, not now, good Isaac. Whenever I apostatize from the faith of the
founders of my nation, and deny the gods who for more than a thousand
years have stood guardians over Rome, I will not refuse to weigh whatever
the Jew has to offer in behalf of his ancient creed. But I come to thee
now neither to buy of thee, nor to learn truth of thee, but to seek aid in
a matter that lies near my heart.'

'Ha! thy heathen god Cupid has ensnared thee! Well, well, the young must
be humored, and men must marry. It was the counsel of my father, whose
beard came lower than his girdle, and than whom the son of Sirach had not
more wisdom, "Meddle not nor make in the loves of others. God only knoweth
the heart. And how knowest thou that, in contriving happiness, thou shalt
not engender sorrow?" Howbeit, in many things have I departed from the
counsel of that venerable man. Alas for it! Had my feet taken hold, in all
their goings, of his steps, I had not now for my only companion my
fleet-footed dromedary, and for my only wealth this load of gilded toys,'

'Neither is it,' I rejoined, 'for any love-sickness that I am come,
seeking some healing or inflaming drug, but upon a matter of somewhat more
moment. Listen to me, while I unfold.'

So saying, I told all that you already so well know in as few words as I
could, but leaving out no argument by which I could hope to work upon
either the cupidity, the benevolence, or the patriotism of the Jew. He,
with his hands folded under his beard, listened without once interrupting
me, but with an expression of countenance so stolid, that when I had ended
I could guess no better than when I began as to the part he would act.

After a pause of some length, he slowly began, discoursing rather with
himself than with me: 'A large enterprise--and to be largely considered.
The way is long--seven hundred Roman miles at the least--and among
little other than savage tribes, save here and there a desert, where the
sands, as is reported, rise and fall like the sea. How can an old man
like me encounter such labor and peril? These unbelieving heathen think
not so much of the life of a Jew as of a dog. Gentile, why goest thou
not thyself?'

'Thy skill, Isaac, and knowledge of men and countries, are more than
mine, and will stand thee in good stead. Death were the certain issue,
were I to venture upon this expedition, and then my brother's fate were
sealed forever.'

'I seem to thee, Roman Piso, to be a lone man in a wide world, who may
live or die, and there be none to know or care how it is. It is verily
much so. Yet I was not always alone. Children once leaped at the sound of
my voice, and clung in sport to my garment. They are in Abraham's
bosom,--better than here. Yet, Roman, I am not alone. The God of Israel is
with me, and while it is him I serve, life is not without value. I trust
in the coming restoration of Jerusalem: for that I toil, and for that I am
ready to die. But why should my bones whiten the desert, or my mangled
carcass swing upon a Persian gibbet? Will that be to die for my country?'

'I can enrich thee for thy services, Jew, and thou sayest that it is for
wealth, that it may be poured into the general coffers of thy tribe, that
thou traversest the globe. Name thy sum, and so it be not beyond reason, I
will be bound to pay thee in good Roman coin.'

'This is to be thought of. Doubtless thou wouldst reward me well. But
consider how large this sum must be. I fear me thou wilt shrink from the
payment of it, for a Roman noble loves not money less than a poor Jew. My
trade in Ctesiphon I lose. That must be made up. My faithful dromedary
will be worn out by the long journey: that too must be made good. My plan
will require an attendant slave and camel: then there, are the dangers of
the way--the risk of life in the city of the Great King--and, if it be not
cut off, the expenses of it. These, to Isaac, are not great, but I may be
kept there long.'

'But thou wilt abate somewhat of the sum thou hast determined upon, out of
love to thy kind. Is the pleasure of doing a good deed nothing to thee?'

'Not a jot will I abate from a just sum--not a jot.' And why should I?
And thou art not in earnest to ask the abatement of a feather's weight.
What doth the Jew owe the Roman? What hath the Roman done to the Jew? He
hath laid waste his country with fire and sword. Her towns and villages he
hath levelled with the ground. The holy Jerusalem he hath spoiled and
defiled, and then driven the plough over its ruins. My people are
scattered abroad among all nations--subject every where to persecution and
death. This thou knowest is what the Roman hath done. And what then owe I,
a Jew--a Jew--to the Roman? I bear thee, Piso, no ill will; nay, I love
thee; but wert thou Rome, and this wheaten straw a dagger, it should find
thy heart! Nay, start not; I would not hurt a hair of thy head. But tell
me now if thou agreest to my terms: one gold talent of Jerusalem if I
return alive with or without thy brother, and if I perish, two, to be paid
as I shall direct.'

'Most heartily, Isaac, do I agree to them, and bless thee more than words
can tell, besides. Bring back my brother alive, and whatsoever thou shalt
desire more, shall be freely thine.'

'I am content. To-morrow then I turn my back upon Ctesiphon and Palmyra,
and make for Ecbatana. Of my progress thou shalt learn. Of success I am
sure--that is, if thy brother hearken to the invitation.

Then giving such instructions as might be necessary on my part, we
separated.




Letter IV.



If the gods, dear Marcus and Lucilia, came down to dwell upon earth, they
could not but choose Palmyra for their seat, both on account of the
general beauty of the city and its surrounding plains, and the exceeding
sweetness and serenity of its climate. It is a joy here only to sit still
and live. The air, always loaded with perfume, seems to convey essential
nutriment to those who breathe it; and its hue, especially when a morning
or evening sun shines through it, is of that golden cast, which, as poets
feign, bathes the tops of Olympus. Never do we tremble here before blasts
like those which from the Appenines sweep along the plains and cities of
the Italian coast. No extremes of either heat or cold are experienced in
this happy spot. In winter, airs, which in other places equally far to the
north would come bearing with them an icy coldness, are here tempered by
the vast deserts of sand which stretch away in every direction, and which
it is said never wholly lose the heat treasured up during the fierce reign
of the summer sun. And in summer, the winds which as they pass over the
deserts are indeed like the breath of a furnace, long before they reach
the city change to a cool and refreshing breeze by traversing as they do
the vast tracts of cultivated ground, which, as I have already told you,
surround the capital to a very great extent on every side. Palmyra is the
very heaven of the body. Every sense is fed to the full with that which it
chiefly covets.

But when I add to this, that its unrivalled position, in respect to a
great inland traffic, has poured into the lap of its inhabitants a sudden
and boundless flood of wealth, making every merchant a prince, you will
truly suppose, that however heartily I extol it for its outward beauties,
and all the appliances of luxury, I do not conceive it very favorable in
its influences upon the character of its population. Palmyrenes, charming
as they are, are not Romans. They are enervated by riches, and the
luxurious sensual indulgences which they bring along by necessity in their
train--all their evil power being here increased by the voluptuous
softness of the climate. I do not say that all are so. All Rome cannot
furnish a woman more truly Roman than Fausta, nor a man more worthy that
name than Gracchus. It is of the younger portion of the inhabitants I now
speak. These are without exception effeminate. They love their country,
and their great queen, but they are not a defence upon which in time of
need to rely. Neither do I deny them courage. They want something more
vital still--bodily strength and martial training. Were it not for this, I
should almost fear for the issue of any encounter between Rome and
Palmyra. But as it is, notwithstanding the great achievements of Odenatus
and Zenobia, I cannot but deem the glory of this state to have risen to
its highest point, and even to have passed it. You may think me to be
hasty in forming this opinion, but I am persuaded you will agree with me
when you shall have seen more at length the grounds upon which I rest it,
as they are laid down in my last letter to Portia.

But I did not mean to say these things when I sat down to my tablets, but
rather to tell you of myself, and what I have seen and done since I last
wrote. I have experienced and enjoyed much. How indeed could it be
otherwise, in the house of Gracchus, and with Gracchus and Fausta for my
companions? Many are the excursions we have together taken into the
country, to the neighboring hills whence the city derives its ample supply
of water, and even to the very borders of the desert. I have thus seen
much of this people, of their pursuits, and modes of life, and I have
found that whether they have been of the original Palmyrene
population--Persian or Parthian emigrants--Jews, Arabians, or even
Romans--they agree in one thing, love of their queen, and in a
determination to defend her and her capital to the last extremity, whether
against the encroachments of Persia or Rome, Independence is their
watchword. They have already shown, in a manner the most unequivocal, and
to themselves eternally honorable, that they will not be the slaves of
Sapor, nor dependents upon his power. And in that they have given at the
same time the clearest proof of their kindly feeling toward us, and of
their earnest desire to live at peace with us. I truly hope that no
extravagances on the part of the Queen, or her too-ambitious advisers,
will endanger the existing tranquillity; yet from a late occurrence of
which I was myself a witness among other excited thousands, I am filled
with apprehensions.

That to which I allude, happened at the great amphitheatre, during an
exhibition of games given by Zenobia on the occasion of her return, in
which the Palmyrenes, especially those of Roman descent, take great
delight. I care, as you know, nothing for them, nor only that, abhor them
for their power to imbrute the people accustomed to their spectacles more
and more. In this instance I was persuaded by Fausta and Gracchus to
attend, as I should see both the Queen and her subjects under favorable
circumstances to obtain new knowledge of their characters; and I am not
sorry to have been there.

The show could boast all the magnificence of Rome. Nothing could exceed
the excitement and tumult of the city. Its whole population was abroad to
partake of the general joy. Early in the day the streets began to be
thronged with the multitudes who were either pouring along toward the
theatre, to secure in season the best seats, or with eager curiosity
pressing after the cages of wild animals drawn by elephants or camels
toward the place of combat and slaughter. As a part of this throng, I
found myself, seated between Gracchus and Fausta, in their most sumptuous
chariot, themselves arrayed in their most sumptuous attire. Our horses
could scarcely do more than walk, and were frequently obliged to stand
still, owing to the crowds of men on horse, on foot, and in vehicles of
every sort, which filled the streets. The roaring of the imprisoned
animals, the loud voices of their keepers, and of the drivers of the
cumbrous wagons which held them, the neighing, or screaming I might say,
of the affrighted horses every now and then brought into immediate contact
with the wild beasts of the forests, lions, tigers or leopards, made a
scene of confusion, the very counterpart of what we have so often
witnessed in Rome, which always pains more than it pleases me, and which
I now describe at all, only that you may believe what Romans are so slow
to believe, that there are other cities in the world where great actions
are done as well as in their own. The inhabitants of Palmyra are as quick
as you could desire them to be, in catching the vices and fashions of the
great metropolis.

'Scipio, Scipio,' cried Gracchus suddenly to his charioteer, 'be not in
too great haste. It is in vain to attempt to pass that wagon, nay, unless
you shall be a little more reserved in your approaches, the paw of that
tawny Numidian will find its way to the neck of our favorite Arab. The
bars of his cage are over far apart.'

'I almost wish they were yet farther apart,' said I, 'and that he might
fairly find his way into the thickest of this foolish crowd, and take a
short revenge upon his civilized tormentors. What a spectacle is
this--more strange and savage, I think, looked upon aright, than that
which we are going to enjoy--of you, Gracchus, a pillar of a great
kingdom; of me, a pillar--a lesser one, indeed, but still a pillar--of a
greater kingdom; and of you, Fausta, a woman, all on our way to see wild
beasts let loose to lacerate and destroy each other, and what is worse,
gladiators, that is, educated murderers, set upon one another, to die for
our entertainment. The best thing I have heard of the Christian
superstition is, that it utterly denounces and prohibits to its disciples
the frequenting of these shows. Nothing to me is plainer than that we may
trace the cruelties of Marius, Sylla, and their worthy imitators through
the long line of our Emperors, to these schools where they had their
early training. Why were Domitian and his fly worse than Gracchus, or
Piso, or Fausta, and their gored elephant, or dying gladiator?'

'You take this custom too seriously,' replied Gracchus. 'I see in it, so
far as the beasts are concerned, but a lawful source of pleasure. If they
tore not one another in pieces for our entertainment, they would still do
it for their own, in their native forests; and if it must be done, it were
a pity none enjoyed it. Then for the effects upon the beholding crowd, I
am inclined to think they are rather necessary and wholesome than
otherwise. They help to render men insensible to danger, suffering, and
death; and as we are so often called upon to fight each other, and die in
defence of our liberties, or of our tyrants and oppressors, whichever it
may be, it seems to me we are in need of some such initiatory process in
the art of seeing blood shed unmoved, and of some lessons which shall
diminish our love and regard for life. As for the gladiators, they are
wretches who are better dead than alive; and to die in the excitement of a
combat is not worse, perhaps, than to expire through the slow and
lingering assaults of a painful disease. Besides, with us there is never,
as with you, cool and deliberate murder perpetrated on the part of the
assembly. There is here no turning up of the thumb. It is all honorable
fighting, and honorable killing. What, moreover, shall be done to
entertain the people? We must feed them with some such spectacles, or I
verily think they would turn upon each other for amusement, in civil broil
and slaughter.'

'Your Epicurean philosophy teaches you, I am aware,' said I in reply, 'to
draw happiness as you best can from all the various institutions of
Providence and of man--not to contend but to receive, and submit, and be
thankful. It is a philosophy well enough for man's enjoyment of the
passing hour, but it fatally obstructs, it appears to me, the way of
improvement. For my own part, though I am no philosopher, yet I hold to
this, that whatever our reason proves to be wrong or defective, it at the
same time enforces the duty of change and reform--that no palpable evil,
either in life or government, is to be passively submitted to as
incurable. In these spectacles I behold an enormous wrong, a terrific
evil; and though I see not how the wrong is to be redressed, nor the evil
to be removed, I none the less, but so much the more, conceive it to be my
part, as a man and a citizen, to think and converse, as now, upon the
subject, in the hope that some new light may dawn upon its darkness. What
think you, Fausta? I hope you agree with me--nay, as to that, I think
Gracchus, from his tone, was but half in earnest.'

'It has struck me chiefly,' said Fausta, 'as a foolish custom; not so much
in itself very wrong, as childish. It is to me indeed attended with pain,
but that I suppose is a weakness of my own--it seems not to be so in the
case of others. I have thought it a poor, barren entertainment, fit but
for children, and those grown children whose minds, uninstructed in higher
things, must seek their happiness in some spring of mere sensual joy.
Women frequent the amphitheatre, I am sure, rather to make a show of their
beauty, their dress, and equipage, than for any thing else; and they
would, I believe, easily give in to any change, so it should leave them
an equally fair occasion of display. But so far as attending the
spectacles tends to make better soldiers, and stouter defenders of our
Queen, I confess, Lucius, I look upon them with some favor. But come, our
talk is getting to be a little too grave. Look, Lucius, if this be not a
brave sight? See what a mass of life encompasses the circus! And its vast
walls, from the lowest entrances to its very summit, swarm as it were with
the whole population of Palmyra. It is not so large a building as your
Flavian, but it is not wholly unworthy to be compared with it.'

It is not, indeed,' said I; 'although not so large, its architecture is
equally in accordance with the best principles, both of science and taste,
and the stone is of a purer white, and more finely worked.'

We now descended from our carriage, and made our way through the narrow
passages and up the narrow stairways to the interior of the theatre, which
was already much more than half filled. The seats to which we were
conducted were not far from those which were to be occupied by the Queen
and her train. I need not tell you how the time was passed which
intervened between taking our seats, the filling of the theatre, and the
commencement of the games--how we all were amused by the fierce smugglings
of those who most wished to exhibit themselves, for the best places; by
the efforts of many to cause themselves to be recognised by those who were
of higher rank than themselves, and to avoid the neighborhood and escape
the notice of others whose acquaintance would bring them no credit; how we
laughed at the awkward movements and labors of the servants of the
circus, who were busying themselves in giving its final smoothness to the
saw-dust and hurrying through the last little offices of so vast a
preparation, urged on continually by the voices or lashes of the managers
of the games; nor how our ears were deafened by the fearful yellings of
the maddened beasts confined in the vivaria, the grated doors of which
opened, as in the Roman buildings of the same kind, immediately on the
arena. Neither will I inflict weariness upon myself or you, by a detailed
account of the kind and order of the games at this time exhibited for the
entertainment of the people. The whole show was an exact copy from the
usages of Rome. I could hardly believe myself in the heart of Asia.
Touching only on these things so familiar to you, I will relate what I was
able to observe of the Queen and her demeanor, about which I know you will
feel chiefly desirous of information.

It was not till after the games had been some time in progress, and the
wrestlers and mock-fighters having finished their foolish feats, the
combats of wild animals with each other had commenced, that a herald
announced by sound of trumpet the approach of the Queen. The moment that
sound, and the loud clang of martial music which followed it, was heard,
every eye of the vast multitude was turned to the part of the circus where
we were sitting, and near which was the passage by which Zenobia would
enter the theatre. The animals now tore each other piecemeal, unnoticed by
the impatient throng. A greater care possessed them. And no sooner did the
object of this universal expectation reveal herself to their sight, led to
her seat by the dark Zabdas, followed by the Princess Julia and Longinus,
and accompanied by a crowd of the rank and beauty of Palmyra, than one
enthusiastic cry of loyalty and affection rent the air, drowning all other
sounds, and causing the silken canopy of the amphitheatre to sway to and
fro as if shaken by a tempest. The very foundations of the huge structure
seemed to tremble in their places. With what queenly dignity, yet with
what enchanting sweetness, did the great Zenobia acknowledge the greetings
of her people! The color of her cheek mounted and fell again, even as it
would have done in a young girl, and glances full of sensibility and love
went from her to every part of the boundless interior, and seemed to seek
out every individual and to each make a separate return for the hearty
welcome with which she had been received. These mutual courtesies being
quickly ended, the games again went on, and every eye was soon riveted on
the arena where animals were contending with each other or with men.

The multitude being thus intently engaged, those who chose to employ their
time differently were left at full liberty to amuse themselves with
conversation or otherwise, as it pleased them. Many a fat and unwieldy
citizen we saw soundly sleeping in spite of the roarings of the beasts and
the shouts of the spectators. Others, gathering together in little
societies of their own, passed all the intervals between the games, as
well as the time taken up by games which gave them no pleasure, in
discussing with one another the fashions, the news, or the politics of the
day. Of these parties we were one; for neither Gracchus, nor Fausta, nor
I, cared much for the sports of the day, and there were few foolish or
wise things that were not uttered by one of as during the continuance of
those tedious, never-ending games.

'Well, Lucius,' said Fausta, 'and what think you now of our great Queen?
For the last half hour your eyes having scarcely wandered from her, you
must by this time be prepared with an opinion.'

'There can be little interest,' said I, 'in hearing an opinion on a
subject about which all the world is agreed. I can only say, what all
say. I confess I have never before seen a woman. I am already prepared to
love and worship her with you, for I am sure that such pre-eminent beauty
exists in company with a goodness that corresponds to it. Her intellect
too we know is not surpassed in strength by that of any philosopher of
the East. These things being so, where in the world can we believe there
is a woman to be compared with her? As for Cleopatra, she is not worthy
to be named.'

As I uttered these things with animation and vehemence, showing I suppose
in my manner how deeply I felt all that I said, I perceived Fausta's fine
countenance glowing with emotion, and tears of gratified affection
standing in her eyes.

Gracchus spoke. 'Piso,' said he,' I do not wonder at the enthusiastic
warmth of your language. Chilled as my blood is by the approaches of age,
I feel even as you do: nay, I suppose I feel much more; for to all your
admiration, as a mere philosophical observer, there is added in my case
the fervid attachment which springs from long and intimate knowledge, and
from an intercourse, which not the coolness of a single hour has ever
interrupted. It would be strange indeed if there were not one single flaw
in so bright an emanation from the very soul of the divinity, wearing as
it does the form of humanity. I allude to her ambition. It is boundless,
almost insane. Cæsar himself was not more ambitious. But in her even this
is partly a virtue, even in its wildest extravagance; for it is never for
herself alone that she reaches so far and so high, but as much or more for
her people. She never separates herself from them, even in thought, and
all her aspirings are, that she herself may be great indeed, but that her
country may with and through her be great also, and her people happy. When
I see her as now surrounded by her subjects, and lodged in their very
heart of hearts, I wish--and fervently would I pray, were there gods to
implore--that her restless spirit may be at peace, and that she may seek
no higher good either for herself or her people than that which we now
enjoy. But I confess myself to be full of apprehension. I tremble for my
country. And yet here is my little rebel, Fausta, who will not hearken to
this, but adds the fuel of her own fiery spirit to feed that of her great
mistress. It were beyond a doubt a good law which should exclude women
from any part in public affairs.'

'Dear father, how do you remind me of the elder Cato, in the matter of the
Oppian Law: while women interfered in public affairs, only to promote the
interests of their worthy husbands, the lords of the world, the great Cato
had never thought but to commend them; but no sooner did they seek to
secure some privileges very dear to them as women, and clamor a little in
order to obtain them, than straightway they were nuisances in the body
politic, and ought to be restrained by enactments from having any voice in
the business of the state. Truly I think this is far from generous
treatment. And happy am I, for one, that at length the gods in their good
providence have permitted that one woman should arise to vindicate her sex
against the tyranny of their ancient oppressors and traducers. If I might
appoint to the spirits of the departed their offices, I could wish nothing
merrier than that that same Cato should be made the news-carrier from the
kingdom of Zenobia to the council of the gods. How he would enjoy his
occupation! But seriously, dear father, I see not that our Queen has any
more of this same ambition than men are in a similar position permitted to
have, and accounted all the greater for it. Is that a vice in Zenobia
which is a glory in Aurelian? Longinus would not decide so. Observe how
intent the Queen is upon the games.

'I would rather,' said I, 'that she should not gaze upon so cruel a sight.
But see! the Princess Julia has hidden her head in the folds of her veil.'

'Julia's heart,' said Fausta, 'is even tenderer than a woman's. Besides,
if I mistake not, she has on this point at least adopted some of the
notions of the Christians. Paul of Antioch has not been without his power
over her. And truly his genius is well nigh irresistible. A stronger
intellect than hers might without shame yield to his. Look, look!--the
elephant will surely conquer after all. The gods grant he may! He is a
noble creature; but how cruelly beset! Three such foes are too much for a
fair battle. How he has wreathed his trunk round that tiger, and now
whirls him in the air! But the rhinoceros sees his advantage:
quick--quick!'

Fausta, too, could not endure the savage sight, but turned her head away;
for the huge rhinoceros, as the elephant lifted the tiger from the ground,
in the act to dash him again to the earth, seized the moment, and before
the noble animal could recover himself, buried his enormous tusk deep in
his vitals. It was fatal to both, for the assailant, unable to extricate
his horn, was crushed through every bone in his body, by the weight of the
falling elephant. A single tiger remained master of the field, who now
testified his joy by coursing round and round the arena.

'Well, well,' said Gracchus, 'they would have died in the forest; what
signifies it? But why is this blast of trumpets? It is the royal flourish!
Ah! I see how it is; the sons of Zenobia, whom none miss not being
present, are about to enter the theatre. They make amends by the noise of
their approach for their temporary absence. Yet these distant shouts are
more than usual. The gods grant that none of my fears may turn true!'

No sooner had Gracchus ended these words, while his face grew pale with
anxious expectation, than suddenly the three sons of the Queen made their
appearance, and--how shall I say it?--arrayed in imperial purple, and
habited in all respects as Cæsars. It seemed to me as if at that very
moment the pillars of this flourishing empire crumbled to their
foundation. And now while I write, and the heat of that moment is passed,
I cannot but predict disaster and ruin, at least fierce and desolating
wars, as the consequence of the rash act. I know the soul of Aurelian, and
that it will never brook what it shall so much as dream to be an
indignity--never endure so much as the thought of rivalry in another,
whether Roman or foreigner, man or woman. To think it is treason with
him--a crime for which blood only can atone.

Having entered thus the amphitheatre, assuming a high and haughty bearing,
as if they were already masters of the world, they advanced to the front
railing, and there received the tumultuous acclamations of the people. A
thousand different cries filled the air. Each uttered the sentiment which
possessed him, regardless of all but testifying loyalty and devotion to
the reigning house. Much of the language was directed against Rome, which,
since the circulation of the rumors of which I have already spoken, has
become the object of their most jealous regard. Aurelian's name was
coupled with every term of reproach. 'Is Aurelian to possess the, whole
earth?' cried one. 'Who are Romans?' cried another; 'the story of Valerian
shows that they are not invincible.' 'We will put Zabdas and Zenobia
against the world!' shouted others.' 'The conqueror of Egypt
forever!--long live the great Zabdas!' rose from every quarter. It were in
vain to attempt to remember or write down half the violent things which in
this hour of madness were uttered. The games were for a long time
necessarily suspended, and the whole amphitheatre was converted into an
arena of political discussion, from which arose the confused din of
unnumbered voices, like the roar of the angry ocean. I looked at Zenobia;
she was calm--satisfied. Pride was upon her lip and brow. So like a god
was the expression of her whole form, that for a moment I almost wished
her mistress of the world. She seemed worthy to reign. Julia was
evidently sad, and almost distressed; Longinus, impenetrable as marble;
Zabdas, black and lowering as night.

Quiet was at length restored, and the games went on.

A messenger came now from the Queen to our seat, with the request that
Fausta should join her, not being satisfied with the distant intercourse
of looks and signs, So, accompanied by Gracchus, she was soon placed by
the side of Zenobia, whose happiness seemed doubled by the society of, I
believe, her choicest friend. Left now to myself, I had leisure to think
and to observe. A more gorgeous show than this vast assembly presented, I
think I never before beheld--no, not even in the Flavian. Although in Rome
we seem to draw together people of all regions and all climes, yet after
all the North and West preponderate, and we lack the gayer costumes which
a larger proportion of these Orientals would add to our spectacles. Not to
say too, that here in the East the beauty of woman is more transcendent,
and the forms of the men cast in a finer mould. Every variety of
complexion is here also to be seen, from the jet black of the slender
Ethiopian, to the more than white of the women of the Danube. Here I saw
before me, in one promiscuous throng, arrayed in their national dresses,
Persians, dark-skinned Indians, swarthy Egyptians, the languishing,
soft-eyed Syrian, nymphs from the borders of the Caspian, women of the
Jews from the shores of the Mediterranean, Greeks from Asia Minor, the
Islands, and Attica, with their classic costume and statue-like forms and
faces, Romans, and, abounding over all and more beautiful than all, the
richly-habited nobles and gentry of Palmyra itself. I enjoyed the scene as
a man and a philosopher; nay, as a Roman too: and could not but desire
earnestly, that the state, of whose prosperity it was so clear a token,
might last even with Rome itself. I wished you and Lucilia at my side--not
to mention the little Gallus--not, as you may believe, to witness the
games, but to behold in this remote centre of Asia so fair a show of our
common race.

It was not till the sun was already about to sink in the west, that the
games ended, and the crowds dispersed, and I once more found myself in the
peaceful precincts of home; for so already do I call the hospitable
dwelling of Gracchus.

'So, Fausta,' said I, 'you forsook your old friend Lucius for the
companionship of a queen? Truly I cannot blame you, for most gladly would
I too have gone and made one of your circle. How irksome are the forms and
restraints of station, and even of society! how little freedom do they
allow in the expression of our real sentiments! Could I have sat with you
by Zenobia, can I doubt that by a frank disclosure of my feelings and
opinions, I could have corrected some errors, softened some prejudices,
and at the same time gained her esteem--her esteem for me, I mean, as a
sincere well-wisher to her kingdom, although none the less a Roman? It
would have been a fortunate moment for such communication as I desire. I
trust yet, seeing such a promise has gone forth from you, to see her in
her own palace.'

'Indeed you shall,' said Fausta; 'it has only been owing to fatigue, after
her long excursion, and to this show of games, that you have not seen her
long before this. She is well aware of your rank and footing of intimacy
with Aurelian, and of the object for which you make this visit to her
capital, and has expressed frequent and earnest desires of an interview
with you. And now have I a great mind not to tell you of the speedy
pleasure and honor that await you. What will you give to know the tenor of
what I have to say?'

'I will confer the greatest honor in my power,' said I: 'I will dislodge
the Emperor from my own finger and replace him upon yours. Here I offer
you the head of Aurelian--cut, not indeed by the cunning tool of Demetrius
of Rome, but doubtless by some competent artist. Is it not a fair offer,
Gracchus?'

'I fear unless you make a different and a better one, you will scarce open
the lips of our fierce patriot,' answered Gracchus.

'That will he not,' said Fausta; 'were he to engage by to-morrow to make
himself over into a veritable, sound-hearted, queen-loving Palmyrene, it
would not be more than he ought to do. I am sure, old Solon toiled hard to
make a Roman out of me, and how do I know but it was at your instance? And
it having been so, as I must believe, what less can you do in atonement
than to plant yourself here upon the soil of Palmyra? A Roman, trust me,
takes quick root in this rich earthy and soon shoots up and spreads out
into a perfectly proportioned Palmyrene, tall and beautiful as a date
tree. Father, how can we bribe him? You shake your head as if without
hope. Well, let us wait till Calpurnius returns; when you find him an
Oriental, perhaps you may be induced to emigrate too. Surely it is no
such great matter to remove from Rome to Palmyra. We do not ask you to
love Rome any the less, but only Palmyra more. I still trust we shall ever
dwell in friendship with each other. We certainly must desire it, who are
half Roman. But why do I keep you in such painful suspense? Hear, then, my
message, which is, that you will appear at the palace of Zenobia
to-morrow. The Queen desires a private interview with you, and for that
purpose will receive no other visiters. Her messenger will in the morning
apprize you of the hour, and conduct you to the palace! Ah! I see by your
countenance how delighted you are. It is no wonder.'

'I am delighted, indeed,' said I; 'that is a part of my feeling, but not
the whole of it. I cannot, accustomed even as I have been to associate
with the high in rank and intellect in various countries, without some
inward perturbation, think of meeting for the first time so remarkable a
person; one whose name is known not only throughout Asia, but the world;
and whose genius and virtues are the theme of universal wonder and praise.
Then, Fausta, Zenobia is a woman, and a woman inspires an awe which man
never does; and what is more yet, she is of a marvellous beauty, and
before that most perfect work of the gods, a beautiful woman, I am apt to
be awkward and dumb; at the least--which perhaps is it---made to think
too much of myself to acquit myself well. You may think that I exaggerate
these feelings. Possibly I do. Certainly they are not of such strength
that I do not gladly seize upon the favor thus extended, and count myself
honored and happy.'

'Where, Lucius, tell me where you learned this new dialect, which runs
so sweetly when woman is the theme. Sure am I, it is not Roman, Ovid has
it not. Nor yet is it Palmyrene. Do we owe it to a rich invention of
your own?'

'Fausta, I am in earnest in what I have said. It is my own native
dialect--instinctive. Therefore laugh not, but give me a lesson how I
shall deport myself. Remember the lessons I have so many times given you
in Rome, and now that you have risen into the seat of power, return them
as you are bound to do.'

'Now are you both little more than two foolish children, but just escaped
from the nursery,' cried Gracchus, who had been pacing up and down the
portico, little heeding, to all appearance, what was going on. 'Lucius,
ask no advice of that wild school-girl. Listen to me, who am a counsellor,
and of age, and ought, if I do not, to speak the words of wisdom. Take
along with thee nothing but thy common sense, and an honest purpose, and
then Venus herself would not daunt thee, nor Rhadamanthus and the Furies
terrify. Forget not too, that beneath this exterior covering, first of
clothes, and then of flesh, there lies enshrined in the breast of Zenobia,
as of you and me, a human heart, and that this is ever and in all the
same, eternally responsive to the same notes, by whomsoever struck. This
is a great secret. Believe too, that in our good Queen this heart is pure
as a child's; or, if I may use another similitude, and you can understand
it, pure as a Christian's--rather, perhaps, as a Christian's ought to be.
Take this also, that the high tremble to meet the low, as often as the low
to meet the high. Now ask no more counsel of Fausta, but digest what the
oracle has given out, and which now for the night is silent,'

In this sportive mood we separated.

At the appointed hour on the following day, the expected messenger
appeared, and announcing the Queen's pleasure that I should attend her at
the palace, conducted me there with as much of state as if I had been
Aurelian's ambassador.

On arriving at the palace, I was ushered into an apartment, not large, but
of exquisite architecture, finished and furnished in the Persian taste,
where sat Zenobia and Julia. At the feet of the Queen, and supporting them
upon an embroidered cushion of silk, there lay crouched a beautiful Indian
slave. If it was her office to bear that light and pretty burden, it
seemed to be her pleasure too; for she was ever weaving round it in
playful manner her jewelled ringers; casting upwards to her mistress
frequent glances of most affectionate regard.

'Noble Piso,' said the Queen, after I had approached and saluted her in
the appointed manner, 'it gives me pleasure to greet one of your ancient
name in Palmyra, I seem already acquainted with you through my fast
friends Gracchus and his bright daughter. You have lost nothing, I am
sure, in coming to us first through their lips; and if any lips are honest
and true, it is theirs. We welcome you to the city of the desert.'

'Great Queen,' I replied, 'it is both a pleasure and a pain to find myself
in your brilliant capital. I left Rome upon a melancholy errand, which I
have as yet but half accomplished. Till success shall crown it, I can but
half enjoy the novel scenes, full of interest and beauty, which your
kingdom and city present. It was to rescue a brother--if I may speak for
one moment of myself--held in captivity since the disaster of Valerian,
that I set sail from Italy, and am now a dweller in Palmyra, From this
point, I persuaded myself I could best operate for his deliverance. My
first impulse was to throw myself at your feet, and ask of you both
counsel and aid,'

'They should have been gladly yours, very heartily yours. It was a
foul deed of Sapor--and a sad fate, that of the great Censor, and of
your father the good Oneius Piso. And yet I see not much that I could
have done.'

'Refuse not my thanks,' said I, 'for the expression of so generous
sentiments. I am sure I should have shared a goodness of which all seem to
partake, had I thought it right and necessary to appeal to you. But I was
soon convinced, by the arguments of both Gracchus and Fausta, that my
chance of success was greater through private than through public
enterprise. And happy am I to be able to say, that I have found and
employed an emissary, who, if the business be capable of accomplishment by
human endeavors, will with more likelihood than any other that could
easily be named, accomplish it. Aurelian himself could not here do as much
nor as well as Isaac of Rome.'

'I believe,' said Zenobia, 'you will readily agree with me in the
opinion, that Rome has never respected herself so little as in her
neglect of Valerian and his fellow-sufferers. But for the scathing got
from our arm, the proud Persian had come out of that encounter with
nothing but laurels. We, thanks to the bravery and accomplished art of
Odenatus, tore off some of those laurels, and left upon the body of the
Great King the marks of blows which smart yet. This Indian girl at my
feet was of the household of Sapor--a slave of one of those women of whom
we took a tent full. The shame of this loss yet rankles deep in the heart
of the king. But should Rome have dealt so by her good Emperor and her
brave soldiers? Ought she to have left it to a then new and small power
to take vengeance on her mean, base-minded, yet powerful foe? It is not
even yet too late, methinks, for her to stir herself, were it only to
rescue one of the noble house of Piso. Perhaps it may be with some intent
of this kind that we hear rumors of an Asiatic expedition. Aurelian, we
learn, having weaned himself with victory in Gaul and Germany, turns his
thoughts towards the East. What can his aim be, if not Persia? But I
truly rejoice that through efforts of your own you have so good prospect
of seeing again your captive brother.'

'I have no knowledge of the purposes of the Roman Emperor,' I replied,
'but such as is common to all. Though honored with the friendship of
Aurelian, I am not a political confidant. I can only conjecture touching
his designs, from my acquaintance with his character, and the features of
the policy he has adopted and avowed as that which is to govern his
administration. And this policy is that which has been acted upon by so
many of those who before him have been raised to the head of our nation,
namely this, that, west of the Euphrates to the farthest limits of Spain
and Gaul, embracing all the shores of the Mediterranean, with their
thickly scattered nations, there shall be but one empire, and of that one
empire but one head. It is the fixed purpose of Aurelian to restore to
the empire, the unity by which it was distinguished and blessed under the
two Antonines. And already his movements in Gaul show that his practice
is to conform to his theory. I feel that you will pardon, nay, that you
will commend me for the plainness with which I impart such knowledge as I
may possess. It will be to me the dearest happiness, if I can subserve in
any way, consistently with my duty to Rome, the interests of Palmyra and
her Queen.'

'Roman,' said Zenobia in reply, 'I honor your frankness, and thank you for
your faith in my generosity. It is not, I assure you, misplaced. I am glad
to know from so authentic a source the policy of Aurelian. I surmised as
much before. All that I have thought, will come true. The rumors which are
afloat are not without foundation. Your emperor understands that I have a
policy as well as he, and a fixed purpose as well as he. I will never fall
from what I have been, but into ruin final and complete. I have lived a
sovereign Queen, and so I will die. The son of Valerian received Odenatus
and Zenobia as partners in empire. We were representatives of Rome in the
East. Our dignities and our titles were those of Gallienus. It were small
boasting to say that they were worn not less worthily here than in Rome.
And this association with Rome--I sought it not. It was offered as a
tribute to our greatness. Shall it be dissolved at the will of
Aurelian?--and Palmyra, no longer needed as a scourge for the Great King,
be broken down into a tributary province, an obscure appendage of your
greatness? May the gods forsake me that moment I am false to my country! I
too am ambitious, as well as Aurelian. And let him be told, that I
stipulate for a full partnership of the Roman power--my sons to bear the
name and rank of Cæsar--or the tie which unites Palmyra to Rome is at
once and forever sundered, and she stands before the world an independent
kingdom, to make good as she may, by feats of arms, her claim to that high
dignity; and the arms which have prevailed from the Nile to the shores of
the Caspian, from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and have triumphed
more than once over the pride and power of Persia, may be trusted in any
encounter, if the fates should so ordain, with even Rome herself. The
conqueror of Egypt would, I believe, run a not ignoble tilt with the
conqueror of a Gallic province.'

'Dearest mother,' said the Princess Julia, in a voice full of earnest
entreaty, 'do not, do not give way to such thoughts. Heed not these lying
rumors. Trust in the magnanimity of Aurelian. We make the virtue we
believe in. Let it not reach his ears that you have doubted him. I can see
no reason why he should desire to disturb the harmony that has so long
reigned--and Aurelian is no madman. What could he gain by a warlike
expedition, which a few words could not gain? Noble Piso, if your great
emperor would but speak before he acts--if indeed any purpose like that
which is attributed to him has entered his mind--a world of evil, and
suffering, and crime, might possibly be saved. Zenobia, though ambitious,
is reasonable and patient, and will listen as becomes a philosopher, and
a lover of her people, to any thing he should say. It were a great act of
friendship to press upon him the policy, as well as the virtue of
moderation.'

Zenobia gave a mother's smile of love to her daughter, whose countenance,
while she uttered these few words, was brilliant with the beauty of
strong emotion.

'No act of friendship like this, lady,' said I, 'shall be wanting on my
part. If I have any influence over the mind of Aurelian, it shall be
exerted to serve the cause of peace. I have dear friends in Palmyra, and
this short residence among her people has bound me to them very closely.
It would grieve me sorely to feel that as a Roman and a lover of my
country, I must needs break these so lately knitted bonds of affection.
But, I am obliged to say it, I am now full of apprehension, lest no
efforts of mine, or of any, may have power to avert the calamities which
impend. The scene I was witness of but so few hours ago, seems to me now
to cut off all hope of an amicable adjustment,'

Julia's countenance fell. The air of pride in Zenobia mounted higher
and higher.

'And what was it I did?' said Zenobia. 'Do I not stand upon the records of
the Senate, Augusta of the Roman empire! Was not the late renowned
Odenatus, Augustus by the decree of that same Senate? And was I not then
right to call my own sons by their rightful title of Cæsar?--and invest
them with the appropriate robe, and even show them to the people as their
destined rulers? I am yet to learn that in aught I have offended against
any fair construction of the Roman law. And unless I may thus stand in
equal honor with other partners of this empire, asking and receiving
nothing as favor, I sever myself and my kingdom from it.'

'But,' said Julia, in her persuasive voice, whose very tones were enough
to change the harshest sentiment to music, 'why put at hazard the certain
good we now enjoy, the peace and prosperity of this fair realm, for what
at best is but a shadow--a name? What is it to you or me that Timolaus,
Herennianus, and Vabalathus be hailed by the pretty style of Cæsar? For
me at least, and so I think for all who love you, it is enough that they
are the sons of Zenobia. Who shall heap more upon that honor?'

'Julia,' replied the Queen, 'as the world deems--and we are in the world
and of it--honor and greatness lie not in those things which are truly
honorable and great; not in learning or genius, else were Longinus upon
this throne, and I his waiting woman; not in action--else were the great
Zabdas king; not in merit, else were many a dame of Palmyra where I am,
and I a patient household drudge. Birth, and station, and power, are
before these. Men bow before names, and sceptres, and robes of office,
lower than before the gods themselves. Nay, here in the East, power itself
were a shadow without its tinsel trappings. 'Tis vain to stand against the
world. I am one of the general herd. What they honor, I crave. This
coronet of pearl, this gorgeous robe, this golden chair, this human
footstool, in the eye of a severe judgment, may signify but little. Zeno
or Diogenes might smile upon them with contempt. But so thinks not the
world. It is no secret that in Timolaus, Herennianus and Vabalathus dwells
not the wisdom of Longinus, nor the virtue of Valerian. What then so
crazed the assembled people of Palmyra, but the purple-colored mantle of
the Roman Cæsar? I am for that fathoms deeper in the great heart of my
people. These are poor opinions, so thou judgest, Roman, for the pupil of
the chief philosopher of our age, and through him skilled in all the
learning of the Greeks. But forget not that I am an Oriental and--a woman.
This double nature works at my heart with more than all the power of the
schools. Who and what so strong as the divinity within?'

This is a poor record, my Curtius, of what fell from this extraordinary
woman. Would that I could set down the noble sentiments which, in the
midst of so much that I could not approve, came from her lips in a
language worthy of her great teacher! Would that I could transfer to my
pages the touching eloquence of the divine Julia, whose mind, I know not
how it is, moves in a higher world than ours. Sometimes, nay, many times,
her thoughts, strangely enough, raised up before me the image of the
Christian Probus, of whom I had till then scarcely thought since our
parting. For a long time was this interview continued--an interview to me
more stirring than any other of my life, and, owing to the part I was
obliged to take, almost painfully so. Much that I said could not but have
grated harshly upon the proud and ambitious spirit of Zenobia. But I
shrunk from nothing that in the least degree might tend to shake her in
the designs which now possess and agitate her, and which, as it seems to
me, cannot be carried out without great danger to the safety or existence
of her kingdom; though I cannot but say, that if a rupture should occur
between Palmyra and Rome, imprudence might indeed be charged upon
Zenobia, but guilt, deep guilt, would lie at the door of Aurelian. It was
a great aid that Julia, in all I said, was my ally. Her assent gave double
force to every argument I used; for Zenobia trusts her as a sister, I had
almost said, reveres her as a divinity. Beautiful it was to witness their
freedom and their love. The gods avert every calamity from their heads!

When we had in this manner, as I have said, a long time discoursed,
Zenobia, at length, rising from her seat, said to me, 'Now do we owe you
some fair return, noble Piso, for the patience with which you have
listened to our treasonable words. If it please you, accompany us now to
some other part of our palace, and it will be strange if we cannot find
something worthy of your regard.'

So saying, we bent our way in company, idly talking of such things as
offered, to a remote part of the vast building, passing through and
lingering here and there in many a richly-wrought hall and room, till,
turning suddenly into a saloon of Egyptian device, where we heard the
sound of voices, I found myself in the presence of Gracchus and Fausta,
Longinus and Zabdas, with a few others of the chief citizens of Palmyra. I
need not say how delighted I was. It was a meeting never to be forgotten.
But it was in the evening of this day, walking in the gardens of the
palace between Julia and Fausta, that I banqueted upon the purest pleasure
of my life.




Letter V.



You could not but suppose, my Curtius, when you came to the end of my last
letter, that I should soon write again, and not leave you ignorant of the
manner in which I passed the evening at the palace of Zenobia.
Accordingly, knowing that you would desire this, I had no sooner tied and
sealed my epistle, than I sat down to give you those minute recollections
of incident and of conversation in which you and Lucilia both so much
delight, and which indeed, in the present instance, are not unimportant in
their bearing upon my future lot. But this I shall leave to your own
conjectures. A tempest of rain makes me a necessary prisoner to the house,
but the pleasant duty of writing to you spreads sunshine on all within my
room. I trust in the gods that you are all well.

Of the banquet in that Egyptian hall, and its immediate attendant
circumstances, I need not tell you. It was like other feasts of ceremony,
where the niceties of form constantly obtrude themselves, and check too
much the flow of conversation. Then too one's mind is necessarily
distracted, where the feast is sumptuous, by the rarity of the dishes, the
richness of the service, and the pomp and stir of the attendance. Never
was it my fortune in Rome to recline at a table of more imperial splendor.
For Lucilia's sake I will just say, that the service was of solid gold,
most elaborately carved, and covered with designs illustrative of points
of the Egyptian annals. Our wine cups were also of gold, enriched with
precious stones; and for each kind of wine, a different cup, set with
jewels, typical of the character of the wine for which it was intended.
These were by the hand of Demetrius. It was in all respects a Roman meal,
in its fashions and conduct, though the table was spread with many
delicacies peculiar to the Orientals. The walls and ceiling of the room,
and the carpets, represented, in the colors of the most eminent Greek and
Persian artists, scenes of the life and reign of the great Queen of Egypt,
of whom Zenobia reckons herself a descendant. Cleopatra was all around,
above, and beneath. Music at intervals, as the repast drew toward a close,
streamed in from invisible performers, and added a last and crowning
charm. The conversation was light and sportful, taking once or twice only,
and accidentally, as it were, a political turn. These graceful Palmyrenes
act a winning part in all the high courtesies of life; and nothing could
be more perfect than their demeanor, free and frank, yet never forgetful
of the presence of Zenobia, nor even of me, a representative in some
manner of the majesty of Rome.

The moon, nearly at her full, was already shining bright in the heavens,
when we left the tables, and walking first for a time upon the cool
pavements of the porticos of the palace, then descended to the gardens,
and separating in groups, moved away at will among their endless windings.
Zenobia, as if desiring some private conference with her great teacher,
left us in company with Longinus. It was my good and happy fortune to find
myself in the society of Julia and Fausta, with whom I directed my steps
toward the remoter and more quiet parts of the garden--for nearer the
palace there were still to be heard the sounds of merriment, and of the
instruments furnishing a soft and delicious entertainment for such as
chose to remain longer in the palace. Of the rest of the company, some
like ourselves wandered among the labyrinthian walks of this vast
pleasure-ground, while others, already weary, or satisfied with enjoyment,
returned early to their homes.

The evening, shall I say it, was worthy of the company now, abroad to
enjoy it. A gentle breeze just swayed the huge leaves of the--to
me--strange plants which overhung the paths, and came, as it here always
seems to come, laden with a sweetness which in Rome it never has, unless
added by the hand of art. Dian's face shone never before so fair and
bright, and her light, coming to us at frequent turns in our walk, through
the spray of numerous fountains, caused them to show like falling
diamonds. A divine repose breathed over the whole scene, I am sure our
souls were in harmony with it.

'Princess,' said I, 'the gardens of Nero can have presented no scenes more
beautiful than these. He who designed these avenues, and groups of flowers
and trees, these frequent statues and fountains, bowers and mimic temples,
and made them bear to each other these perfect proportions and relations,
had no less knowledge, methinks, of the true principles of taste, and of
the very secrets of beauty, than the great Longinus himself. The beauty is
so rare, that it affects the mind almost like greatness itself. In truth,
in perfect beauty there is always that which overawes.'

'I cannot say,' replied Julia, 'that the learned Greek was the architect
and designer of these various forms of beauty. The credit, I believe, is
rather due to Periander, a native Athenian, a man, it is universally
conceded, of the highest genius. Yet it is at the same time to be said,
that the mind of Longinus presided over the whole. And he took not less
delight in ordering the arrangements of these gardens, than he did in
composing that great treatise, not long published, and which you must have
seen before you left Rome. He is a man of universal powers. You have not
failed to observe his grace, not less than his abilities, while we were at
the tables. You have seen that he can play the part of one who would win
the regards of two foolish girls, as well as that of first minister of a
great kingdom, or that of the chief living representative and teacher of
the philosophy of the immortal Plato.'

'For myself,' I replied, 'I could hardly withdraw myself from the simple
admiration of his noble head and form, to attend, so as to judge of it, to
what fell from his lips. It seems to me that if a sculptor of his own
Greece sought for a model of the human figure, he could hope to find none
so perfect as that of Longinus.'

'That makes it the foolisher and stranger,' said Fausta, 'that he should
toil at his toilet as he so manifestly does. Why can he not rely, for his
power over both men and women, upon his genius, and his natural graces. It
might be well enough for the Stagyrite to deck his little person in fine
clothes, and to cover his fingers with rings--for I believe there must be
something in the outward appearance to strike the mere sensual eye, and
please it, either natural or assumed, or else even philosophers might go
unheeded. I doubt if upon my fingers there be more or more glowing rings
than upon those of Longinus. To be sure, one must admit that his taste is
exquisite.'

'In the manners and dress of Longinus,' said I, 'as well as in those of
Aristotle, we behold, I think, simply the power of custom. They were both,
in respect to such things, in a state of indifference--the true
philosophical state. But what happened? Both became instructors and
companions of princes, and the inmates of royal palaces. Their manners and
costume were left, without a thought, I will dare to say, on their part,
to conform themselves to what was around them. Would it not have been a
more glaring piece of vanity, if in the palace of Philip, Aristotle had
clothed himself in the garb of Diogenes--or if Longinus, in the presence
of the great Zenobia, had appeared in the sordid attire of Timon?'

'I think so,' said Julia.

'Your explanation is a very probable one,' added Fausta, 'and had not
occurred to me. It is true, the courts may have dressed them and not
themselves, But never, I still must think, did a rich dress fall upon more
willing shoulders than upon those of the Greek, always excepting, Julia,
Paul of Antioch.'

'Ah, Fausta,' said Julia, 'you cannot, do what you will, shake my faith in
Paul. If I allow him vain, and luxurious, and haughty, I can still
separate the advocate from the cause. You would not condemn the doctrine
of Aristotle, on the ground that he wore rings. Nor can I altogether, nor
in part, that of Paul, because he rolls through the city in a gilded
chariot, with the attendance of a prince. I may blame or despise him--but
not therefore reject his teaching. That has a defence independent of him.
Policy, and necessity of time and place, have compelled him to much which
his reason disapproves. This he has given me to believe, and has conjured
me on this, as on all subjects, to yield my mind only to evidence, apart
from all personal considerations. But I did not mean to turn our
conversation in this direction. Here, Piso, have we now arrived in our
walk at my favorite retreat. This is my bower for meditation, and
frequently for reading too. Let us take this seat. Observe how through
these openings we catch some of the prominent points of the city. There is
the obelisk of Cleopatra; there the tower of Antonine', there the Egyptian
Pyramid; and there a column going up in honor of Aurelian; and in this
direction, the whole outline of the palace.'

'Yet are we at the same time shut out from all the world,' said I. 'Your
hours must fly swiftly here. But are your musings always solitary ones?'

'O no--I am not so craving as that of my own society: sometimes I am
joined by my mother, and not seldom by my sweet Fausta here,' said she, at
the same time affectionately drawing Fausta's arm within her own, and
clasping her hand; 'we do not agree, indeed, upon all the subjects which
we discuss, but we still agree in our love.'

'Indeed we do, and may the gods make it perpetual; may death only divide
us!' said Fausta with fervor.

'And may the divinity who sits supreme above,' said Julia, 'grant that
over that, not even death shall have power. If any thing makes existence
valuable, it is love. If I should define my happiness, I should say it in
one word, Love. Without Zenobia, what should I be? I cannot conceive of
existence, deprived of her, or of her regard. Loving her, and Fausta, and
Longinus, as I do--not to forget Livia and the dear Faustula--and beloved
of all in return--and my happiness scarcely seems to admit of addition.'

'With what pain,' said I, 'does one contemplate the mere possibility that
affections such as these are to last only for the few years which make up
the sum of human life. Must I believe, must you believe, that all this
fair scene is to end forever at death? That you, bound to each other by so
many ties, are to be separated, and both of you to be divided from
Zenobia, and all of us to fall into nothingness, silence, and darkness?
Rather than that, would that the life we now enjoy might be immortal! Here
are beautiful objects, among which one might be willing to live forever. I
am never weary of the moon and her soft light, nor of the balmy air, nor
of the bright greens of the herbage, nor of the forms of plain and
mountain, nor of the human beings, infinite in the varieties of their
character, who surround me wherever I go. Here now have I wandered far
from my home, yet in what society and in what scenes do I find myself! The
same heaven is above me, the same forms of vegetable life around me? and
what is more, friends already dear as those I have left behind. In this
very spot, were it but as an humble attendant upon the greatness of the
Queen, could I be content to dwell.'

'Truly, I think you might,' cried Fausta; 'having chosen for yourself so
elysian a spot, and filled it with such inhabitants, it is no great proof
of a contented spirit that you should love to inhabit it. But how many
such spots does the world present?--and how many such inhabitants? The
question I think is, would you be ready to accept the common lot of man as
an immortal one? I can easily believe that many, were they seated in these
gardens, and waited on by attendant slaves, and their whole being made
soft and tranquil, and exempt from care and fear, would say, 'Ensure me
this, and I ask no more.' For myself, indeed, I must say it would not be
so. I think not even the lot of Zenobia, enthroned as she is in the hearts
of millions, nor yet thine, Julia, beloved not less than Zenobia, would
satisfy me. I have now all that my utmost desires crave. Yet is there a
part of me, I know not what it is, nor where it is, that is not full. I
confess myself restless and unsatisfied. No object, no study, no pursuit,
no friendship--forgive me, Julia,'--and she kissed her hand,--'no
friendship even, satisfies and fills me.'

'I do not wonder,' said Julia.

'But how much unhappiness is there spread over the earth,' continued
Fausta: 'I, and you, and Piso perhaps too, are in a state of
dissatisfaction. And yet we are perched, as it were, upon the loftiest
heights of existence. How must it be with those who are so far inferior to
us as multitudes are in their means of happiness? From how many ills are
we shielded, which rain down sharp-pointed, like the hail storms of
winter, upon the undefended heads of the poor and low? They, Piso, would
not, I think, pray that their lot might be immortal.'

'Indeed I think not,' said I. 'Yet, perhaps, their lot is not so much
more miserable than yours, as the difference in outward condition might
lead one to think. Remember, the slave and the poor do not feel as you
would, suddenly reduced to their state. The Arab enjoys his sleep upon
his tent floor as well as you, Princess, beneath a canopy of woven gold,
and his frugal meal of date or pulse tastes as sweet, as to you do
dainties fetched from Rome, or fished from the Indian seas: and eating
and sleeping make up much of life. Then the hearts of the great are
corroded by cares and solicitudes which never visit the humble. Still, I
do not deny that their condition is not far less enviable than ours. The
slave who may be lashed, and tormented, and killed at his master's
pleasure, drinks from a cup of which we never so much as taste. But over
the whole of life, and throughout every condition of it, there are
scattered evils and sorrows which pierce every heart with pain. I look
upon all conditions as in part evil. It is only by selecting
circumstances, and excluding ills which are the lot of all, that I could
ask to live forever, even in the gardens of Zenobia.'

'I do not think we differ much then,' said Fausta, 'in what we think of
human life. I hold the highest lot to be unsatisfying. You admit all are
so, but have shown me that there is a nearer approach to an equality of
happiness than I had supposed, though evil weighs upon all. How the mind
longs and struggles to penetrate the mysteries of its being! How imperfect
and without aim does life seem! Every thing beside man seems to reach its
utmost perfection. Man alone appears a thing incomplete and faulty.'

'And what,' said I, 'would make him appear to you a thing perfect and
complete' What change should you suggest?'

'That which rather may be called an addition,' replied Fausta, 'and which,
if I err not, all wise and good men desire, the assurance of immortality.
Nothing is sweet; every cup is bitter; that which we are this moment
drinking from, bitterest of all, without this. Of this I incessantly think
and dream, and am still tossed in a sea of doubt.'

'You have read Plato?' said I.

'Yes, truly,' she replied; 'but I found little there to satisfy me, I have
enjoyed too the frequent conversation of Longinus, and yet it is the same.
Would that he were now here! The hour is serene, and the air which comes
in so gently from the West, such as he loves.'

As Fausta uttered these words, our eyes at the same moment caught the
forms of Zenobia and Longinus, as they emerged from a walk very near, but
made dark by overhanging and embowering roses. We immediately advanced
toward them, and begged them to join us.

'We are conversing,' said Julia, 'upon such things as you both love.
Come and sit now with us, and let us know what you can say upon the
same themes.'

'We will sit with you gladly,' said the Queen; 'at least for myself I may
say it, for I am sure that with you I shall find some other subjects
discussed beside perplexing affairs of state. When alone with
Longinus--as but now--our topic is ever the same.'

'If the subject of our discourse, however, be ever the same,' said the
Greek, 'we have this satisfaction in reflecting upon it, that it is one
that in its nature is real and tangible. The well-being of a nation is
not an undefined and shadowy topic, like so many of those which occupy
the time and thoughts of even the wise. I too, however, shall gladly
bear a part in whatever theme may engross the thoughts of Julia, Fausta,
and Piso.'

With these words, we returned to the seats we had left, which were not
within the arbor of Julia, but were the marble steps which led to it.
There we placed ourselves, one above and one beside another, as
happened--Zenobia sitting between Fausta and Julia, I at the feet of Julia,
and Longinus on the same step with myself, and next to Fausta. I could
hardly believe that Zenobia was now the same person before whom I had in
the morning, with no little agitation, prostrated myself, after the manner
of the Persian ceremonial. She seemed rather like a friend whom I both
loved and revered. The majesty of the Queen was gone; there remained only
the native dignity of beauty, and goodness, and intellect, which, though
it inspires reverence, yet is there nothing slavish in the feeling. It
differs in degree only from that sentiment which we entertain toward the
gods; it raises rather than depresses.

'We were speaking,' said Julia, resuming the subject which had engaged us,
'of life and of man--how unsatisfactory life is, and how imperfect and
unfinished, as it were, man; and we agreed, I believe, in the opinion,
that there can be no true happiness, without a certain assurance of
immortality, and this we are without.'

'I agree with you,' said Longinus, 'in all that you can have expressed
concerning the unsatisfactoriness of life, regarded as a finite existence,
and concerning the want of harmony there is between man and the other
works of God, if he is mortal; and in this also, that without the
assurance of immortality, there can, to the thinking mind, be no true
felicity. I only wonder that on the last point there should exist in the
mind of any one of you doubts so serious as to give you much disturbance.
I cannot, indeed, feel so secure of a future and then unending existence,
as I am sure that I live now. What I am now I know; concerning the future,
I can only believe, and belief can never possess the certainty of
knowledge. Still, of a future life I entertain no doubts that distress me.
My belief in it is as clear and strong as I can well conceive belief in
things invisible and unexperienced to be. It is such as makes me happy in
any thought or prospect of death. Without it, and life would appear to me
like nothing more to be esteemed than a short, and often troubled or
terrific dream.'

'So I confess it seems to me,' said Fausta. 'How should I bless the gods,
if upon my mind there could rest a conviction of immortality strong like
yours! The very certainty with which you speak, seems, through the power
of sympathy, to have scattered some of my doubts. But, alas! they will
soon return.'

'In what you have now said,' replied Longinus, 'and in the feeling you
have expressed on this point, do I found one of the strongest arguments
for the immortality of the soul.'

'I do not comprehend you,' said Fausta.

'Do you not, Fausta,' asked Longinus, 'intensely desire a life
after death?'

'I do indeed. I have just expressed it.'

'And do not you too, Zenobia, and Piso, and Julia?'

'Surely, and with intensity,' we answered; 'the question need scarce
be asked.'

'I believe you,' resumed Longinus. 'You all earnestly desire an immortal
life--you perpetually dwell upon the thought of it, and long for it. Is
it not so with all who reflect at all upon themselves? Are there any
such, have there ever been any, who have not been possessed by the same
thoughts and desires, and who, having been greatly comforted and
supported by them during life, have not at death relied upon them, and
looked with some degree of confidence toward a coming forth again from
death? Now I think it is far more reasonable to believe in another life,
than in the delusiveness of these expectations. For I cannot suppose
that this universal expectation will be disappointed, without believing
in the wickedness, nay, the infinite malignity, of the Supreme Ruler,
which my whole nature utterly refuses to do. For what more cruel, than
to create this earnest and universal longing, and not gratify it? Does
it not seem so?'

We all admitted it.

'This instinctive desire,' continued Longinus, 'I cannot but regard as
being implanted by the Being who created us. It can proceed from no other.
It is an instinct, that is, a suggestion or inspiration of God. If it
could be shown to be a consequence of education, we might refer it for its
origin to ingenious philosophers. But it exists where the light of
philosophy has never shone. There have been none, of whom history has
preserved even obscurest traditions, who have wanted this instinct. It is
then the very inspiration of the Divinity, and will not be disappointed. I
trust much to these tendencies of our nature. This is the best ground for
our belief of a God. The arguments of the schools have never succeeded in
establishing the truth, even to the conviction of a philosophic mind, much
less a common one. Yet the truth is universally admitted. God, I think,
has provided for so important an article of faith in the structure of our
minds. He has not left it to chance or special Revelation. So, too, the
determinations of the mind concerning virtue and vice, right and wrong,
being for the most part so accordant throughout the whole race--these also
I hold to be instinctive.'

'I can think of nothing,' said Fausta, 'to urge against your argument. It
adds some strength, I cannot but confess, to what belief I had before. I
trust you have yet more that you can impart. Do not fear that we shall be
dull listeners.'

'I sit here a willing and patient learner,' said Zenobia, 'of any one who
will pour new light into my mind. Go on, Longinus.'

'To such a school,' said he, 'how can I refuse to speak? Let me ask you
then, if you have never been perplexed by the evils of life, such as
either you have yourselves experienced, or such as you have witnessed?'

'I have, indeed,' said Fausta, 'and have deeply deplored them. But how
are they connected with a future existence?'

'Thus,' replied Longinus. 'As in the last case, the benevolence of the
Supreme God cannot be sustained without the admission of the reality of a
future life. Nor only that, but it seems to me direct proof may be adduced
from the existence and universality of these evils to establish the
blackest malignity. So that to me, belief in a future existence is in
proportion to the difficulty of admitting the idea of divine malignity,
and it cannot therefore be much stronger than it is.'

'How can you make that clear to us?' said Fausta; 'I should truly rejoice
if out of the evils which so darken the earth, any thing good or beautiful
could be drawn.'

'As this dark mould,' rejoined the philosopher, 'sends upwards, and out of
its very heart, this rare Persian rose, so does hope grow out of evil, and
the darker the evil the brighter the hope, as from a richer and fouler
soil comes the more vigorous plant and larger flower. Take a particular
evil, and consider it. You remember the sad tale concerning the Christian
Probus, which Piso, in recounting the incidents of his journey from Rome
to Palmyra, related to us while seated at the tables?'

'Indeed, I did not hear it,' said Zenobia; 'so that Piso must, if he will,
repeat it.'

'We shall willingly hear it again,' said Julia and Fausta.

And I then related it again.

'Now do you wonder,' resumed Longinus, when I had finished, 'that Probus,
when, one after another, four children were ravished from his arms by
death, and then, as if to crown his lot with evil, his wife followed them,
and he was left alone in the world, bereaved of every object to which his
heart was most fondly attached, do you wonder, I say, that he turned to
the heavens and cursed the gods? And can you justify the gods so that they
shall not be chargeable with blackest malignity, if there be no future and
immortal state? What is it to bind so the heart of a parent to a child, to
give that affection a force and a tenderness which belong to no other tie,
so that anxieties for its life and welfare, and cares and sacrifices for
its good, constitute the very existence of the parent, what is it to
foster by so many contrivances this love, and then forever disappoint and
blast it, but malignity? Yet this work is done every hour, and in almost
every heart; if for children we lament not, yet we do for others as dear.'

Tears to the memory of Odenatus fell fast from the eyes of Zenobia.

'Are we not then,'--continued Longinus, without pausing--'are we not then
presented with this alternative, either the Supreme God is a malignant
being, whose pleasure it is to torment, or, there is an immortal state,
where we shall meet again with those, who, for inscrutable purposes, have
been torn from our arms here below? And who can hesitate in which to rest?
The belief, therefore, in a future life ought to be in proportion to the
difficulty of admitting the idea of divine malignity. And this idea is so
repulsive--so impossible to be entertained for one moment--that the other
cannot, it seems to me, rest upon a firmer foundation.'

'Every word you speak,' said Zenobia, 'yields pleasure and instruction. It
delights me, even when thickest beset by the cares of state, to pause and
contemplate for a moment the prospects of futurity. It diffuses a divine
calm throughout the soul. You have given me new food for my thoughts.'

'I will add,' said Longinus, 'only one thing to what I have said, and
that is, concerning the incompleteness of man, as a divine work, and
which has been mentioned by Fausta. Is not this an argument for a future
life? Other things and beings are finished and complete--man only is
left, as it were, half made up. A tree grows and bears fruit, and the end
of its creation is answered. A complete circle is run. It is the same
with the animals. No one expects more from a lion or a horse than is
found in both. But with man it is not so. In no period of history, and
among no people, has it been satisfactorily determined what man is, or
what are the limits of his capacity and being. He is full of
contradictions, and of incomprehensible organization, if he is considered
only in relation to this world. For while every other affection finds and
rests in its appropriate object, which fully satisfies and fills it, the
desire of unlimited improvement and of endless life--the strongest and
best defined of any of the desires--this alone is answered by no
corresponding object: which is not different from what it would be, if
the gods should create a race like ours, having the same craving and
necessity for food and drink, yet never provide for them the one nor the
other, but leave them all to die of hunger. Unless there is a future
life, we all die of a worse hunger. Unless there is a future life, man is
a monster in creation--compared with other things, an abortion--and in
himself, and compared with himself, an enigma--a riddle--which no human
wit has ever solved, nor can ever hope to solve.'

'This seems unanswerable,' said Fausta; 'yet is it no objection to all
such arguments, which we ourselves construct, that the thing they
establish is too great and good almost to be believed, without some divine
warrant? It does to me appear almost or quite presumptuous to think, that
for me there is by the gods prepared a world of never-fading light, and a
never-ending joy.'

'When,' replied the Greek, 'we look at the lower forms of man which fall
under our observation, I confess that the objection which you urge strikes
me with some force. But when I think that it is for beings like you to
whom I speak, for whom another and fairer world is to be prepared, it
loses again much of its force. And when I think of the great and good of
other times, of Homer and Hesiod, of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Socrates
and Plato, and of what the mind of man has in them, and in others as great
and good, accomplished, the obj

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