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Zenobia

W >> William Ware >> Zenobia




'But the princess,'--I again urged.

'That is scarcely a question,' she rejoined. 'She may be a sacrifice; but
it will be upon her country's altar. How many of our brave soldiers, how
many of our great officers, with devoted patriotism throw away their lives
for their country. You will not say that this is done for the paltry
recompense, which at best scarce shields the body from the icy winds of
winter, or the scorching rays of summer. And shall not a daughter of the
royal house stand ready to encounter the hardships of a throne, the
dangers of a Persian court, and the terrors of a royal husband, especially
when by doing so, fierce and bloody wars may be staid, and nations brought
into closer unity? I know but little of Hormisdas; report speaks well of
him. But were it much less that I know, and were report yet less
favorable, it were not enough to turn me from my purpose. Palmyra married
to Persia, through Julia married to Hormisdas, is that upon which I and my
people dwell.'

'Better a thousand times,' I then said, 'to be born to the lot of the
humblest peasant--a slave's is no worse.'

'Upon love's calendar,' said the Queen, 'so it is. But have I not freely
admitted, Roman, the dependency, nay slavery, of a royal house? It would
grieve my mother's heart, I need scarce assure thee, were Julia unhappy.
But grief to me might bring joy to two kingdoms.'

I then could not but urge the claims of my own family, and that by a
more powerful and honored one she could not ally herself to Rome; and
might not national interest be as well promoted by such a bond, as by one
with the remoter East? I was the friend too of Aurelian, much in his
confidence and regard.

Zenobia paused, and was for a few moments buried in thought. A faint
smile for the first time played over her features as she said in reply,
'I wish for your sake and Julia's it could be so. But it is too late.
Rome is resolved upon the ruin of Palmyra--she cannot be turned aside.
Aurelian for worlds would not lose the glory of subduing the East. The
greater need of haste in seeking a union with Persia. Were Sapor dead
to-day, to-morrow an embassy should start for Ecbatana. But think not,
Piso, I harbor ill will toward you, or hold your offer in contempt. A
Queen of the East might not disdain to join herself to a family, whose
ancestors were like yours. That Piso who was once the rival, and in
power--not indeed in virtue--the equal of the great Germanicus, and
looked, not without show of reason, to the seat of Tiberius; and he who
so many years and with such honor reigned over the city its unequalled
governor; and thou the descendant and companion of princes--an alliance
with such might well be an object of ambition with even crowned heads.
And it may well be, seeing the steps by which many an emperor of Rome has
climbed upon his precarious seat, that the coming years may behold thee
in the place which Aurelian fills, and, were I to pleasure thee in thy
request, Julia empress of the world! The vision dazzles! But it cannot
be. It would be sad recreancy to my most sacred duty were I, falling in
love with a dream, to forsake a great reality.'

'I may not then--' I began.

'No, Piso, you may not even hope. I have reasoned with you because I honor
you. But think not that I hesitate or waver. Julia can never be yours. She
is the daughter of the state, and to a state must be espoused. Seek not
therefore any more to deepen the place which you hold in her affections.
Canst thou not be a friend, and leave the lover out? Friendship is a
sentiment worthy godlike natures, and is the true sweetener of the cup of
life. Love is at best but a bitter sweet; and when sweetest, it is the
friendship mingled with it that makes it so. Love, too, wastes away with
years. Friendship is eternal. It rests upon qualities that are a part of
the soul. The witchery of the outward image helps not to make it, nor
being lost as it is with age, can dissolve it. Friendship agrees too with
ambition, while love is its most dreaded rival. Need I point to Antony?
If, Piso, thou wouldst live the worthy heir of thy great name; if thou
wouldst build for thyself a throne in the esteem of mankind, admit
friendship, but bar out love. And I trust to hear that thou art great in
Rome, greater even than thine ancestor Galba's adopted son. Aim at even
the highest, and the arrow, if it reach it not, will hit the nearer. When
thou art Cæsar, send me an embassy. Then perhaps--'

She closed with that radiant smile that subdues all to her will, her
manner at the same time giving me to understand that the conversation was
ended, her own sentence being left playfully unfinished.

I urged not many things which you may well suppose it came into my mind to
do, for I neither wished, nor did I feel as if I had a right, at an hour
of so much public inquietude, to say aught to add to the burden already
weighing upon her. Besides, it occurred to me, that when within so short a
time great public changes may take place, and the relations of parties be
so essentially altered, it was not worth while to give utterance to
sentiments, which the lapse of a brief period might show to have been
unnecessary and unwise. I may also add that the presence of this great
woman is so imposing; she seems, in the very nature and form the gods have
given her, to move so far above the rest of her kind, that I found it
impossible both to say much of what I had intended to say, and to express
what I did say with the ease and propriety which are common to me on
ordinary or other extraordinary occasions. They are few, I believe, who
possess themselves fully in her presence. Even Longinus confesses a
constraint.

'It is even as I apprehended,' said Fausta, as I communicated to her the
result of my interview with the Queen. 'I know her heart to have been set
upon a foreign alliance by marriage with Julia, and that she has been
looking forward with impatience to the time when her daughters should be
of an age to add in this way new strength to the kingdom. I rather hoped
than had faith, that she would listen to your proposals. I thought that
perhaps the earnestness of the princess, with the Queen's strong
affection for her, together with the weight of your family and name,
might prevail. But then I have asked myself, if it were reasonable to
indulge such a hope. The Queen is right in stating as she did her
dependence, in some sort, upon the people. It is they, as well as she,
who are looking forward to this Persian marriage. I know not what
discontents would break out were Hormisdas postponed to Piso--Persia to
Rome. My position, Lucius, I think a sadder one than Zenobia's. I love
Julia as dearly as Zenobia, and you a great deal more than Zenobia does,
and would fain see you happy; and yet I love Palmyra I dare not say how
much--nor that, if by such an act good might come to my country, I could
almost wish that Julia should live in Persia.'

I have within me a better ground of hope than is guessed either by the
Queen or Fausta, but yet can name it not. I mention this to you, and pass
to other things.

* * * * *

The city has to-day been greatly moved, owing to the expected audience of
our ambassadors before the council, and their final answer. The streets
are thronged with multitudes not engaged in the active affairs of traffic,
but standing in larger or smaller crowds talking, and hearing or telling
news, as it arrives from the palace or from abroad.

* * * * *

The die is cast The ambassadors are dismissed. The decision of the council
has been confirmed by the senate, and Varro and Petronius have with their
train departed from the city. War therefore is begun. For it was the
distinct language of the embassy, that no other terms need be proposed,
nor would be accepted, beside those offered by them. None others have been
offered on the part of Palmyra. And the ambassadors have been delayed
rather to avoid the charge of unreasonable precipitancy, than in the
belief that the public mind would incline to or permit any reply more
moderate than that which they have borne back to the emperor.

It is understood that Aurelian, with an army perfectly equipped, stands
waiting, ready to start for Asia on the arrival of the ambassadors or
their couriers. From your last letters I gather as much. How, again I
ask--as I have often asked both myself and the principal persons here--how
is it possible there should be but one issue to this contest? Yet from
language which I heard in the senate, as well as in the private apartments
of the Queen, there is a mad confidence, that after a battle or two on the
outskirts of the kingdom, in which they shall conquer as always
heretofore, an advantageous peace will end the contest. In the senate,
scarce a voice was raised for concession; its mere mention was enough to
bring down the most bitter charges of a want of patriotism, a Roman
leaning, a sordid regard to the interests of commerce over those of honor,
a poor and low-minded spirit. Such as had courage to lift up a warning
voice were soon silenced by the universal clamor of the opposite party;
and although the war was opposed by some of the ablest men in the kingdom,
men inferior to none of those who have come more especially within my
notice, and whom I have named to you, yet it is termed a unanimous
decision, and so will be reported at Rome.

The simple truth is however that, with the exception of these very few,
there is no independent judgment in Palmyra, on great national
questions. The Queen is all in all. She is queen, council and senate.
Here are the forms of a republican deliberation, with the reality of a
despotic will. Not that Zenobia is a despotic prince, in any bad sense
of the term, but being of so exalted a character, ruling with such
equity and wisdom; moreover having created the kingdom by her own
unrivalled energies and genius, it has become the habit of the people to
defer to her in all things; their confidence and love are so deep and
fervent, that they have no will nor power now, I believe, to oppose her
in any measure she might propose. The city and country of Palmyra proper
are her property in as real a sense as my five hundred slaves, on my
Tiburtine farm, are mine. Nor is it very much otherwise with many of the
nearer allied provinces. The same enthusiasm pervades them. Her
watchfulness over their interests, her impartiality, her personal
oversight of them by means of the frequent passages she makes among
them, have all contributed to knit them to her by the closest ties. With
the more remote portions of the empire it is very different, and it
would require the operation of but slight causes to divide from their
allegiance Egypt, Armenia, and the provinces of Asia Minor.

How is not this rashness, this folly, to be deplored! Could the early
counsels of Longinus have been but heeded, all had been well. But he is
now as much devoted to the will and interests of Zenobia as any in the
kingdom, and lends all the energies of his great mind to the promotion of
her cause. He said truly, that he like others is but a slave yoked to her
car. His opinion now is, that no concessions would avail to preserve the
independent existence of Palmyra. The question lies between war and a
voluntary descent to the condition of a Roman province. Nothing less than
that will satisfy the ambition and the pride of Rome. The first step may
be such as that proposed by Varro--the lopping off of the late conquered
provinces, leaving Zenobia the city, the circumjacent territory, and
Syria. But a second step would soon follow the first, and the foot of
Aurelian would plant itself upon the neck of Zenobia herself. This he felt
assured of, both from observation upon the Roman character and history,
upon the personal character of Aurelian, and from private advices from
Rome. He is now accordingly the moving spirit of the enterprise, going
with all his heart and mind into every measure of the Queen.

I am just returned from a singular adventure. My hand trembles as I write.
I had laid down my pen and gone forth upon my Arab, accompanied by Milo,
to refresh and invigorate my frame after our late carousal--shall I term
it?--at the palace. I took my way, as I often do, to the Long Portico,
that I might again look upon its faultless beauty and watch the changing
crowds. Turning from that, I then amused my vacant mind by posting myself
where I could overlook, as if I were indeed the builder or superintendent,
the laborers upon the column of Aurelian. I became at length particularly
interested in the efforts of a huge elephant, who was employed in dragging
up to the foundations of the column, so that they might he fastened to
machines to be then hoisted to their place, enormous blocks of marble. He
was a noble animal, and, as it seemed to me, of far more than common size
and strength. Yet did not his utmost endeavors appear to satisfy the
demands of those who drove him, and who plied without mercy the barbed
scourges which they bore. His temper at length gave way. He was chained to
a mass of rock, which it was evidently beyond his power to move. It
required the united strength of two at least. But this was nothing to his
inhuman masters. They ceased not to urge him with cries and blows. One of
them at length, transported by that insane fury which seizes the vulgar
when their will is not done by the brute creation, laid hold upon a long
lance, terminated with a sharp iron goad, long as my sword, and rushing
upon the beast, drove it into his hinder part. At that very moment the
chariot of the Queen, containing Zenobia herself, Julia, and the other
princesses, came suddenly against the column, on its way to the palace. I
made every possible sign to the charioteer to turn and fly. But it was too
late. The infuriated monster snapped the chains that held him to the
stone, at a single bound, as the iron entered him, and trampling to death
one of his drivers, dashed forward to wreak his vengeance upon the first
object that should come in his way. That, to the universal terror and
distraction of the now scattered and flying crowds, was the chariot of the
Queen. Her mounted guards, at the first onset of the maddened animal,
putting their horses to their speed, by quick leaps escaped. The horses
attached to the chariot, springing forward to do the same, urged by the
lash of the charioteer, were met by the elephant with straightened trunk
and tail, who, in the twinkling of an eye, wreathed his proboscis round
the neck of the first he encountered, and wrenching him from his harness,
whirled him aloft and dashed him to the ground. This I saw was the moment
to save the life of the Queen, if it was indeed to be saved. Snatching
from a flying soldier his long spear, and knowing well the temper of my
horse, I ran upon the monster as he disengaged his trunk from the crushed
and dying Arabian for a new assault, and drove it with unerring aim into
his eye, and through that opening on into the brain. He fell as if a bolt
from heaven had struck him. The terrified and struggling horses of the
chariot were secured by the now returning crowds, and the Queen and the
princesses relieved from the peril which was so imminent, and had blanched
with terror every cheek but Zenobia's. She had stood the while, I was
told--there being no exertion which she could make--watching with eager
and intense gaze my movements, upon which she felt that their safety,
perhaps their lives, depended.

It all passed in a moment. Soon as I drew out my spear from the dying
animal, the air was rent with the shouts of the surrounding populace.
Surely, at that moment I was the greatest, at least the most fortunate,
man in Palmyra. These approving shouts, but still more the few words
uttered by Zenobia and Julia, were more than recompense enough for the
small service I had performed; especially, however, the invitation of
the Queen:

'But come, noble Piso, leave not the work half done; we need now a
protector for the remainder of the way. Ascend, if you will do us such
pleasure, and join us to the palace.'

I needed no repeated urging, but taking the offered seat--whereupon new
acclamations went up from the now augmented throngs--I was driven, as I
conceived, in a sort of triumph to the palace, where passing an hour,
which it seems to me held more than all the rest of my life, I have now
returned to my apartment, and relate what has happened for your
entertainment. You will not wonder that for many reasons my hand trembles,
and my letters are not formed with their accustomed exactness.

Again I am interrupted. What can be the meaning of the noise and running
to and fro which I hear? Some one with a quick, light foot approaches.

It is now night. The palace is asleep, but I take again my pen to tell you
of the accomplishment of the dear object for which I have wandered to this
distant spot. Calpurnius is arrived!

The quick, light foot by which I was disturbed was Fausta's. I knew it,
and sprang to the door. She met me with her bright and glowing countenance
bursting with expression. 'Calpurnius!' said she, 'your brother! is
here'--and seizing my hand drew me to the apartment where he sat by the
side of Gracchus; Isaac, with his inseparable pack, standing near.

I need not, as I cannot, describe our meeting. It was the meeting of
brothers--yet of strangers--and a confusion of wonder, curiosity, vague
expectation, and doubt, possessed the soul of each. I trust and believe,
that notwithstanding the different political bias which sways each, the
ancient ties which bound us together as brothers will again unite us. The
countenance of Calpurnius, though dark and almost stern in its general
expression, yet unbends and relaxes frequently and suddenly, in a manner
that impresses you forcibly with an inward humanity as the presiding
though often concealed quality of his nature. I can trace faintly the
features which have been stamped upon my memory--and the form too--chiefly
by the recollected scene of that bright morning, when he with our elder
brother and venerable parent gave me each a last embrace, as they started
for the tents of Valerian. A warmer climate has deepened the olive of his
complexion, and at the same time added brilliancy to an eye by nature soft
as a woman's. His Persian dress increases greatly the effect of his rare
beauty, yet I heartily wish it off, as it contributes more I believe than
the lapse of so many years to separate us. He will not seem and feel as a
brother till he returns to the costume of his native land. How great this
power of mere dress is upon our affections and our regard, you can
yourself bear witness, when those who parted from you to travel in foreign
countries have returned metamorphosed into Greeks, Egyptians, or Persians,
according to the fashions that have struck their foolish fancies. The
assumed and foreign air chills the untravelled heart as it greets them.
They are no longer the same. However the reason may strive to overcome
what seems the mere prejudice of a wayward nature, we strive in
vain--nature will be uppermost--and many, many times have I seen the
former friend-ships break away and perish.

I could not but be alive to the general justness of the comparison
instituted by Isaac, between Calpurnius and Julia. There are many points
of resemblance. The very same likeness in kind that we so often observe
between a brother and sister--such as we have often remarked in our
nephew and niece, Drusus and Lavinia--whose dress being changed, and they
are changed.

No sooner had I greeted and welcomed my brother, than I turned to Isaac
and saluted him, I am persuaded, with scarcely less cordiality.

'I sincerely bless the gods,' said I, 'that you have escaped the perils of
two such passages through the desert, and are safe in Palmyra. May every
wish of your heart, concerning your beloved Jerusalem, be accomplished. In
the keeping of Demetrius will you find not only the single talent agreed
upon in case you returned, but the two which were to be paid had you
perished. One such tempest upon the desert, escaped, is more and worse
than death itself met softly upon one's bed.'

'Now, Jehovah be praised,' ejaculated Isaac, 'who himself has moved thy
heart to this grace! Israel will feel this bounty through every limb, it
will be to her as the oil of life.'

'And my debt,' said Calpurnius, 'is greater yet, and should in reason be
more largely paid. Through the hands of Demetrius I will discharge it.'

'We are all bound to you,' said Fausta, 'more than words can tell or
money pay.'

'You owe more than you are perhaps aware of to the rhetoric of Isaac,'
added Calpurnius. 'Had it not been for the faithful zeal and cunning of
your messenger in his arguments not less than his contrivances, I had
hardly now been sitting within the walls of Palmyra.'

'But then again, noble Roman,' said Isaac, 'to be honest, I ought to say
what I said not--for it had not then occurred--in my letter to thy
brother, how by my indiscretion I had nearly brought upon myself the
wrath, even unto death, of a foul Persian mob, and so sealed thy fate
together with my own. Ye have heard doubtless of Manes the Persian, who
deems himself some great one, and sent of God? It was noised abroad ere I
left Palmyra, that for failing in a much boasted attempt to work a cure by
miracle upon the Prince Hormisdas, he had been strangled by order of
Sapor. Had he done so, his love of death-doing had at length fallen upon a
proper object, a true child of Satan. But as I can testify, his end was
not such, and is not yet. He still walks the earth, poisoning the air he
breathes, and deluding the souls of men. Him I encountered one day, the
very day I had despatched thy letter, in the streets of Ecbatana, dogged
at the heels by his twelve ragged apostles, dragging along their thin and
bloodless limbs, that seemed each step ready to give way beneath the
weight, little as it was, they had to bear. Their master, puffed up with
the pride of a reformer, as forsooth he holds himself, stalked by at their
head, drawing the admiration of the besotted people by his great show of
sanctity, and the wise saws which every now and then he let drop for the
edification of such as heard. Some of these sayings fell upon my ear, and
who was I, to hear them and not speak? Ye may know that this false prophet
has made it his aim to bring into one the Magian and Christian
superstitions, so that by such incongruous and deadly mixture he might
feed the disciples of those two widely sundered religions, retaining, as
he foolishly hoped, enough of the faith of each to satisfy all who should
receive the compound. In doing this he hath cast dirt upon the religion of
the Jew, blasphemously teaching that our sacred books are the work of the
author of evil, while those of Christ are by the author of good. With more
zeal, it must be confessed, than wisdom, seeing where I was and why I was
there, I resisted this father of lies, and withstood him to his face. 'Who
art thou, bold blasphemer,' I said, 'that takest away the Godhead,
breaking into twain that which is infinite and indivisible? Who art thou
to tread into the dust the faith of Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets,
imputing their words, uttered by the spirit of Jehovah, to the great enemy
of mankind? I wonder, people of Ecbatana, that the thunders of God sleep,
and strike him not to the earth as a rebel--nay, that the earth cleaveth
not beneath him and swalloweth him not up, as once before the rebels
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram;' and much more in the same mad way, till while
I was yet speaking, those lean and hungry followers of his set upon me
with violence, crying out against me as a Jew, and stirring up the people,
who were nothing unwilling, but fell upon me, and throwing me down,
dragged me to a gate of the city, and casting me out as I had been a dead
dog, returned themselves like dogs to their vomit--that accursed dish of
Manichean garbage. I believed myself for a long while surely dead; and in
my half conscious state took shame to myself, as I was bound to do, for
meddling in the affairs of Pagan misbelievers--putting thy safety at risk.
Through the compassion of an Arab woman dwelling without the walls, I was
restored and healed--for whose sake I shall ever bless the Ishmaelite. I
doubt not, Roman, while I lay at the hut of that good woman, thou
thoughtest me a false man?'

'I could not but think so,' said Calpurnius, 'and after the strong desire
of escape which you had at length kindled, I assure you I heaped curses
upon you in no stinted measure.'

'But all has ended well and so all is well,' said Fausta, 'and it was
perhaps too much to expect, Isaac, that you should stand quietly by and
hear the religion of your fathers traduced. You are well rewarded for what
you did and suffered, by the light in which your tribe will now regard
you, as an almost-martyr, and owing to no want of will, or endeavor on
your part, that almost did not end in quite. Hannibal, good Isaac, will
now see to your entertainment.'

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