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Zenobia

W >> William Ware >> Zenobia




Upon learning the terms prescribed by the conqueror, many were for further
resistance. 'The language of Aurelian,' they said, 'is ambiguous. He will
spare the city, walls, and common people. Are our senators and counsellors
to be sacrificed? Are they, who have borne the burden of the day, now to
be selected, as the only ones who are to suffer? It shall not be so.'

Generous sentiments like these were heard on all sides. But they were
answered and overcome, by Gracchus especially, and others. Said Gracchus
to the people, 'Doubtless punishment will be inflicted by Rome upon some.
Our resistance is termed by her, rebellion, revolt, conspiracy; the
leaders will be sought and punished. It is ever her course. But this is a
light evil compared with a wide-spread massacre of this whole population,
the destruction of these famous temples, the levelling of these proud
walls. Aurelian has said that these shall he spared. His word, though an
unwritten and informal one, may he trusted. My counsel is, that it be at
once accepted. What if a few grey heads among us are taken off? That will
not touch the existence or prosperity of Palmyra. You can spare them. Your
children will soon grow up to take our places, and fill them, I hope, with
a better wisdom.'

But such words only served at first the more to strengthen the people in
their resolution, that their rulers should not be the only sacrifice.
None were loved throughout the city more than Gracchus and Otho, none
revered like Longinus. It was a long and painful struggle between
affection and the convictions of reason before it ended, and the consent
of the people was obtained to deliver up the city to the mercy of
Aurelian. But it was obtained.

I was sitting with Fausta and Calpurnius, speaking of the things that had
happened, and of the conduct of the Queen, when Gracchus entered and
joined us, informing us that 'ambassadors were now gone to the camp of
Aurelian, clothed with authority to deliver up the city into his hands. So
that now the end has drawn on, and Palmyra ceases to exist.'

Fausta, although knowing that this must happen, and might at any
moment, could not hear the fatal words, announcing the death of her
country, as she deemed it, and quenching forever in darkness the bright
dreams upon which she had fed so long, without renewed grief. We were a
long time silent.

'Something yet remains,' at length Gracchus resumed, 'for us to resolve
upon and do. Before many hours have elapsed, a Roman army will fill the
streets of the city, perhaps our houses also, and a general plunder may
be commenced of all the valuables we possess. It will be useless to
conceal what it will be well enough known, from the manner in which we
live, must be beneath our roof. It will but expose our lives. Yet,
Fausta, your jewels, valued by you as gifts, and other things precious
for the same or a like reason, may easily be secreted, nor yet be missed
by the licensed robbers. See to this, my child; but except this there is
now naught to do concerning such affairs, but to sit still and observe
the general wreck. But there are other and weightier matters to be
decided upon, and that at once.'

'Concerning the care of ourselves, you mean?' said Fausta.

'I do,' replied Gracchus.

'I,' said Fausta, 'would remain here, where I am.'

'It is that which I wish,' replied her father. 'I commit you to the care
of Lucius. For Calpurnius, he must leave you, and as he would live, fly if
that yet be possible beyond the walls, or conceal himself within them.'

'Never!' said Calpurnius; 'I can do neither. I have never shunned a
danger--and I cannot.'

'Let pride and passion now,' said Gracchus, 'go fast asleep. We have no
occasion for them; they are out of place, dealing as we now do with stern
necessities. Your life will be especially sought by Aurelian; it is a life
that cannot be spared. Fausta needs you. In you she must find, or nowhere,
father, husband, friend. Lucius, when these troubles are over, will return
to Rome, and I shall be in the keeping of Aurelian. You must live; for
her sake, if not for your own.'

'For mine too, surely, if for hers,' replied Calpurnius.

'Father,' said Fausta, throwing her arms around him, 'why, why must you
fall into the hands of Aurelian? Why not, with Calpurnius, fly from these
now hated walls?'

'My daughter!' replied Gracchus, 'let not your love of me make you
forgetful of what I owe my own name and our country's. Am I not bound by
the words of Aurelian?--"He will spare the city and the common
people"--reserving for himself their rulers and advisers. Were they all to
fly or shrink into concealment, can we doubt that then the fury of the
fierce Roman would discharge itself upon the helpless people, and men,
women and children suffer in our stead? And shall I fly while the rest are
true to their trust?'

'The gods forbid!' sobbed Fausta.

'Now you are yourself again. Life is of little account with me. For you I
would willingly hold on upon it, though in any event my grasp would be
rapidly growing weaker and weaker; age would come and weaken and dissolve
it. But for myself, I can truly say, I survey the prospect of death with
indifference. Life is one step; death is another. I have taken the first,
I am as ready to take the second. But to preserve life, agreeable as I
have found it, by any sacrifice--'

'O, that were dying twice!' said Fausta; 'I know it.'

'Be thankful then that I shall die but once, and so dry your tears. Of
nothing am I more clear, than that if the loss of my head will bring
security to the city and the people, I can offer it to the executioner
with scarce a single regret. But let us leave this. But few hours remain
to do what is yet to be done.'

It was so indeed. Already the commotion in the streets indicated that the
entrance of the Roman army was each moment expected.

It was determined that Calpurnius should avail himself of the old conduit,
and fly beyond the walls. To this he consented, though with pain; and
bidding us farewell, departed. Fausta retired to fulfil the injunctions of
her father, while Gracchus employed himself in arranging a few papers, to
be entrusted to my keeping.

In the course of a few hours the gates of the city were thrown open, and
the army of the conqueror made its unobstructed entrance. Soon as the
walls were secured, the towers of the gates, and the arms of the Queen's
remaining forces, Aurelian himself approached, and by the Roman gate
passed into a city that had cost him so dear to gain. He rode through its
principal streets and squares, gazing with admiration at the magnificence
which every where met his view. As he arrived at the far-famed Temple of
the Sun, and was told to what deity it was dedicated, he bared his head,
flung himself from his horse, and on foot, followed by an innumerable
company of Romans, ascended its long flight of steps, and there within its
walls returned solemn thanks to the great God of Light, the protecting
deity of his house, for the success that had crowned his arms.

When this act of worship had been performed, and votive offerings had been
hung upon the columns of the temple, the Emperor came forth, and after
visiting and inspecting all that was beautiful and rare, made
proclamation of his will concerning the city and its inhabitants. This
was, that all gold and silver, precious stones, all pictures, statues, and
other works of art, were to be placed in the hands of the Romans, and that
all the members of the Queen's senate and council, with the nobility, were
to be delivered up as prisoners of war, together with certain specified
portions of the army. Beyond these requisitions, the persons and property
of the citizens were to be respected. No violence of any kind on the part
of the soldiers would be allowed, or pardoned if committed.

Immediately upon this, the Roman army was converted into a body of
laborers and artisans, employed in the construction of wains of every form
and size, for the transportation across the desert to the sea-coast, of
whatever would adorn the triumph of Aurelian, or add to the riches of the
great capital of the world. Vast numbers of elephants and camels were
collected from the city, and from all the neighboring territory, with
which to drag the huge and heavy loaded wagons through the deep sands and
over the rough and rocky plains of Syria. The palaces of the nobles and
the wealthy merchants have been stripped of every embellishment of art and
taste. The private and public gardens, the fountains, the porticos, have
each and all been robbed of every work, in either marble or brass, which
had the misfortune or the merit to have been wrought by artists of
distinguished names. The palaces of the Queen and of Longinus were objects
of especial curiosity and desire, and, as it were, their entire contents,
after being secured with utmost art from possibility of injury, have been
piled upon carriages prepared for them, ready for their journey toward
Rome. It was pitiful to look on and see this wide desolation of scenes,
that so little while ago had offered to the eye all that the most
cultivated taste could have required for its gratification. The citizens
stood around in groups, silent witnesses of the departing glories of their
city and nation.

But the sight saddest of all to behold, was that of the senators and
counsellors of Palmyra, led guarded from the city to the camp of Aurelian.
All along the streets through which they passed, the people stood in dumb
and motionless array, to testify in that expressive manner their affection
and their grief. Voices were indeed occasionally heard invoking the
blessings of the gods upon them, or imprecating curses upon the head of
the scourge Aurelian. Whenever Longinus and Gracchus appeared, their names
were uttered in the tones with which children would cry out to venerated
parents, whom they beheld for the last time; beheld borne away from them
by a power they could not resist to captivity or death. No fear of the
legion that surrounded them availed to repress or silence such testimonies
of regard. And if confidence was reposed in the Roman soldiery, that they
would not, because conquerors and the power was theirs, churlishly deny
them the freedom to relieve in that manner their over-burdened hearts, it
was not--happy was I, as a Roman, to witness it--misplaced. They resented
it not either by word or look or act, but moved on like so many statues in
mail, turning neither to the one hand nor the other, nor apparently so
much as hearing the reproaches which were by some lavished upon them and
their Emperor.

Livia, Faustula, and the other inmates of the palace have joined
Zenobia and Julia, by order of Aurelian, at the house of Seleucus. The
Cæsars, Herennianus and Timolaus, have fled or concealed themselves;
Vabalathus has surrendered himself, and has accompanied the princesses
to the Roman camp.

How desolate is the house of Gracchus, deprived of its princely
head!--especially as the mind cannot help running forward and conjecturing
the fate which awaits him. Fausta surrenders herself to her grief--loss of
country and of parent, at one and the same moment, is loss too great for
her to bear with fortitude. Her spirit, so alive to affection and every
generous sentiment, is almost broken by these sorrows and disappointments.
I did not witness the parting between her and Gracchus, and happy am I
that I did not. Her agony was in proportion to her love and her
sensibility. I have not met her since. She remains within her own
apartments, seen only by her favorite slaves. A double darkness spreads
around while Fausta too is withdrawn.

It appeared to me now, my Curtius, as if something might be done on my
part in behalf of Gracchus. According to the usages of Rome, the chief
persons among the prisoners, and who might be considered as the leaders of
the rebellion, I knew would die either at once, or at farthest, when
Aurelian should re-enter Rome as the conqueror of the East. I considered
that by reason of the growing severity of the Emperor toward all, friends
as well as foes--amounting, as many now deem, to cruelty--the danger to
Gracchus was extreme, beyond any power perhaps to avert. Yet I remembered,
at the same time, the generous traits in Aurelian's character; his
attachment toward old friends; his gratitude for services rendered him in
the early part of his life, while making his way up through the lower
posts of the army. It seemed to me that he was open to solicitation; that
he would not refuse to hear me--a friend--the son of Cneius Piso--with
what object soever I might present myself before him: and that,
consequently, there was from this quarter a ray of hope, however small,
for the father of our beloved Fausta.

Accordingly, so soon as the affairs at first calling for the entire
devotion of Aurelian were through, and I knew that his leisure would allow
of an interruption, I sought the Roman camp, and asked an audience of the
Emperor. It was immediately granted.

As I entered his tent, Aurelian was seated at a table holding in his hand
a parchment scroll, which he seemed intently considering. His stern
countenance lowered over it like a thunder-cloud. I stood there where I
had entered a few moments before he seemed aware of the presence of any
one. His eye then falling almost accidentally upon me, he suddenly rose,
and with the manner of his ancient friendship warmly greeted me.

'I am glad,' said he, 'to meet so true a Roman in these distant parts.'

'I am still a true Roman,' I replied, 'notwithstanding I have been, during
this siege, upon the side of the enemy.'

'I doubt it not. I am not ignorant of the causes that led you to
Palmyra, and have detained you there. Henceforward your Roman blood must
be held of the purest, for as I learn, and since I have seen can believe,
they are few who have come within the magic circle of the late Queen, who
have not lost their name and freedom--themselves fastening on the chains
of her service.'

'You have heard truly. Her court and camp are filled with those who at
first perhaps sought her capital, as visiters of curiosity or traffic, but
being once within the marvellous influence of her presence, have remained
there her friends or servants. She is irresistible.'

'And well nigh so in war too. In Rome they make themselves merry at my
expense, inasmuch as I have been warring thus with a woman--not a poet in
the garrets of the Via Coeli, but has entertained the city with his
couplets upon the invincible Aurelian, beset here in the East by an army
of women, who seem likely to subdue him by their needles or their charms.
Nay, the Senate looks on and laughs. By the immortal gods! they know not
of what they speak. Julius Cæsar himself, Piso, never displayed a better
genius than this woman. Twice have I saved my army but by stratagem. I
give the honor of those days to Zenobia. It belongs to her rather than to
me. Palmyra may well boast of Antioch and Emesa. Your brother did her good
service there. I trust, for your sake and for mine, he will not fall into
my hands.'

That dark and cruel frown, which marks Aurelian, grew above and
around his eyes.

'I never,' he continued, 'forgive a traitor to his country.'

'Yet,' I ventured to say, 'surely the circumstances of his captivity, and
long abandonment, may plead somewhat in extenuation of his fault.'

'Never. His crime is beyond the reach of pardon.'

Aurelian had evidently supposed that I came to seek favor for Calpurnius.
But this I had not intended to do, as Calpurnius had long ago resolved
never again to dwell within the walls of Rome, I then opened the subject
of my visit.

'I have come,' I said, 'not to seek the pardon of Calpurnius Piso. Such,
to my grief, is his hostility toward Rome, that he would neither seek nor
accept mercy at her hands. He has forsworn his country, and never
willingly will set foot within her borders. He dwells henceforward in
Asia. But there is another--'

'You would speak of Gracchus. It cannot be. Longinus excepted, he is the
first citizen of Palmyra. If the Queen be spared, these must suffer. It
is due to the army, and to justice, and to vengeance. The soldiers have
clamored for the blood of Zenobia, and it has been at no small cost that
her and her daughter's life have been redeemed. But I have sworn it,
they shall live; my blood shall flow before theirs. Zenobia has done
more for Rome than many an Emperor. Besides, I would that Rome should
see with her own eyes who it is has held even battle with Roman legions
so long, that they may judge me to have had a worthy antagonist. She
must grace my triumph.'

'I truly thank the gods,' I said, 'that it is so resolved! Fortune has
placed me, while in her dominions, near the Queen, and though a Roman,
I have come to love and revere her even like a Palmyrene. Would that
the like clemency might be shown toward Gracchus! There is no greatness
like mercy.'

'I may not, noble Piso, win glory to myself at the cost of Rome. On the
field of battle I and Rome win together. In pardoning her enemies fallen
into my power, I may indeed crown myself with the praise of magnanimity in
the eye of the world, while by the same act I wound my country. No
rebellion is quelled, till the heads that moved and guided it are
off--off. Who is ignorant that Longinus, that subtle Greek, has been the
master-spring in this great revolt? and hand and hand with him Gracchus?
Well should I deserve the gibes and sneers of the Roman mob, if I turned
my back upon the great work I have achieved, leaving behind me spirits
like these to brew fresh trouble. Nor, holding to this as it may seem to
you harsh decision, am I forgetful, Piso, of our former friendship; nor of
the helping hand often stretched out to do me service of Cneius Piso, your
great parent. I must trust in this to your generosity or justice, to
construe me aright. Fidelity to Rome must come before private friendship,
or even gratitude. Am I understood?'

'I think so.'

'Neither must you speak to me of Longinus the learned Greek--the
accomplished scholar--the great philosopher. He has thrown aside the
scholar and the philosopher in putting on the minister. He is to me known
only as the Queen's chief adviser; Palmyra's strength; the enemy of Rome.
As such he has been arrayed against me; as such he has fallen a prisoner
into my hands; as such he must feel the sword of the Roman executioner.
Gracchus--I would willingly for thy sake, Piso, spare him--the more, as I
hear thou art betrothed to his far-famed daughter, she who upon the fields
of Antioch and Emesa filled with amazement even Roman soldiers.'

To say that instead of me it was Calpurnius to whom she was betrothed,
would seem to have sealed the fate of Gracchus at the moment there was a
gleam of hope. I only said,

'She was the life of the Queen's army. She falls but little below her
great mistress.'

'I believe it. These women of Palmyra are the true wonder of the age.
When for the first time I found myself before Zenobia and her daughter,
it is no shame for me to confess that it was hard for the moment to
believe myself Aurelian and conqueror. I was ready to play the subject; I
scarce kept myself from an oriental prostration. Never, Piso, was such
beauty seen in Rome. Rome now has an Empress worthy of her--unless a
Roman Emperor may sue in vain. Think you not with me? You have seen the
Princess Julia?'

You can pity me, Curtius and Lucilia. I said only,

'I have. Her beauty is rare indeed, but by many, nay by most, her sister,
the Princess Livia, is esteemed before her.'

'Hah! Nay, but that cannot be. The world itself holds not another like the
elder Princess, much less the same household. He seemed as if he would
have added more, but his eye fell upon the scroll before him, and it
changed the current of his thoughts and the expression of his countenance,
which again grew dark as when I first entered the tent. He muttered over
as to himself the names of 'Gracchus,' 'Fausta,' 'the very life of their
cause,' 'the people's chief trust,' and other broken sentences of the same
kind. He then suddenly recommenced:

'Piso, I know not that even I have power to grant thy suit. I have saved,
with some hazard, the life of the Queen and her daughter; in doing it I
promised to the soldiers, in their place, the best blood of Palmyra, and
theirs it is by right. It will not be easy to wrest Gracchus from their
hands. It will bring danger to myself, to the Queen, and to the empire. It
may breed a fatal revolt. But, Piso, for the noble Portia's sake, the
living representative of Cneius Piso my early friend, for thine, and
chiefly for the reason that thou art affianced to the warlike daughter of
the princely Palmyrene--'

'Great Prince,' said I--for it was now my turn to speak,--'pardon me that
I break in upon your speech, but I cannot by a deception, however slight
and unintentional, purchase the life even of a friend.'

'To what does this tend?'

'It is not I who am affianced to the daughter of Gracchus, but Calpurnius
Piso my brother and the enemy of Rome. If my hope for Gracchus rests but
where you have placed it, it must be renounced. Rumor has dealt falsely
with you.'

'I am sorry for it. You know me, Piso, well enough to believe me--I am
sorry for it. That plea would have availed me more than any. Yet it is
right that he should die, It is the custom of war. The legions clamor for
his death--it has been promised--it is due to justice and revenge. Piso,
he must die!'

I however did not cease to importune. As Aurelian had spoken of Portia, I
too spoke of her, and refrained not from bringing freshly before his
memory the characters of both my parents, and especially the services of
my father. The Emperor was noways displeased, but on the contrary, as I
recurred to the early periods of his career, when he was a Centurion in
Germany, under tutelage to the experienced Cneius Piso, he himself took up
the story, and detained me long with the history of his life and actions,
while serving with and under my father--and then afterward when in Gaul,
in Africa, and in the East. Much curious narrative, the proper source of
history, I heard from the great actor himself, during this long interview.
It was terminated by the entrance of Sandarion, upon pressing business
with the Emperor, whereupon I withdrew, Gracchus not being again named,
but leaving his fate in the hands of the master of the world, and yet--how
often has it been so with our Emperors--the slave of his own soldiers. I
returned to the city.

The following day I again saw Fausta--now pale, melancholy and silent. I
told her of my interview with Aurelian, and of its doubtful issue. She
listened to me with a painful interest, as if wishing a favorable result,
yet not daring to hope. When I had ended, she said,

'You have done all, Lucius, that can be done, yet it avails little or
nothing. Would that Aurelian had thought women worthy his regard so much
as to have made me a prisoner too. I can now feel how little one may fear
death, dying in a certain cause. Palmyra is now dead, and I care no more
for life. And if Gracchus is to die too, how much rather would I die with
him, than live without him. And this is not as it may seem, infidelity to
Calpurnius. I love him better than I ever thought to have loved anything
beside Palmyra and Gracchus. But my love for these is from my infancy, and
is in reason stronger than the other. The gods make it so, not I. I love
Calpurnius with all that is left. When does the army depart?'

'To-morrow, as I learn. I shall follow it to Emesa, for it is there, so it
is reported, that the fate of the prisoners will be decided.'

'Do so, Lucius, and by bribery, cunning, or force, find your way to the
presence of Gracchus. Be not denied. Tell him--but no, you know what I
would say; I cannot--' and a passionate flood of tears came to her relief.

The preparations of the army are now completed. The city has been drained
of its wealth and its embellishments. Scarce anything is left but the
walls and buildings, which are uninjured, the lives and the industry of
the inhabitants. Sandarion is made Governor of the city and province,
with, as it seems to me, a very incompetent force to support his
authority. Yet the citizens are, as they have been since the day the
contest was decided, perfectly peaceable--nay, I rather should say, stupid
and lethargic. There appear to be on the part of Aurelian no apprehensions
of future disturbance.

I have stood upon the walls and watched till the last of the Romans has
disappeared beyond the horizon, Two days have been spent in getting into
motion and beyond the precincts of the city and suburbs, the army with its
innumerable wagons--its long trains of elephants, and camels, and horses.
Not only Palmyra, but the whole East, seems to have taken its departure
for the Mediterranean. For the carriages were hardly to be numbered which
have borne away for the Roman amphitheatres wild animals of every kind,
collected from every part of Asia, together with innumerable objects of
curiosity and works of art.

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