The Alexandrian Embassy Read Online Free Page B

then we can hustle them onto a ship in Ostia and be done with them. Keep Philo out of trouble until then.’
    Magnus grimaced at the thought of at least a couple of days with Philo. ‘I’ll do my best, sir. Where will I find them?’
    â€˜Ah, didn’t I tell you that? Well, the delegates are all staying at a villa in the Gardens of Lemia just outside the Esquiline Gate.’
    â€˜And Philo?’
    Gaius nodded towards the base of the Capitoline Hill. ‘He’s in there.’
    â€˜What, in the Tullianum?’
    â€˜Yes, although he’s not in the cell, he’s with the gaolers. The Urban Prefect had no option but to imprison him until he could find someone who would be able to restrain him from spitting at every statue of our gods he passes. As you’ve met him, and his family is, to a great extent, in yours and Vespasian’s debt, that someone appears to be you.’
    â€˜It’s an outrage!’ Philo was quite clear on this point; it was the fourth time he had made it to Magnus, growing more vehement on each occasion. ‘Me, the leader of the embassy from the Jewsof Alexandria to the Emperor of Rome, locked up like a common criminal as if I were from the lowest order; of no more account than you, Magnus.’ Philo’s long grey beard stuck out at a strange angle from his chin, wobbling up and down as he sucked in his lower lip, working it furiously in his disgust. His heavy brows creased and uncreased in time to the blinking of his eyes, one of which was surrounded by a purpling bruise. ‘Does the Urban Prefect not know who I am? Is he unaware of the dignity of my rank? Doesn’t he know the extent of my literary achievements? Is he not cognisant of the fact that my brother, Alexander, is the Alabarch of the Alexandrian Jews? The Alabarch, I tell you; not some vague title such as head of the Alexandrian Jews, or leader, or foremost Jewish citizen, but Alabarch.
The
Alabarch! And I, the brother of
the
Alabarch and leader of the embassy, was forced to share the company of gaolers so uncouth that I doubt that even you would find them suitable company, Magnus. Do you see just how I have been insulted when all I was trying to do was to give alms to the Jewish beggars who live amongst the tombs on the Appian Way? It’s an outrage.’ He adjusted his white turbanesque headdress to further emphasise the point.
    Magnus tutted in sympathy. ‘To be treated as if you were me; I can’t imagine anything worse for you. But I’m sure that it was all nothing more than a misunderstanding based on you just clearing your throat at the wrong time, whilst you were passing a statue of Mars. I’m positive that any phlegm you deposited on the god’s foot was due to misaiming, and the outraged citizens who attacked and beat you were overreacting to what was no more than a rogue globule of mucus.’
    Philo pulled his black and white patterned mantle tighter around his shoulders. ‘Yes, and to be set upon by common people and beaten by their unwashed hands was a shame that was almost too much to bear; not one person of the equestrian rank amongst them, let alone a senator. None of my attackers had the quality to lay a finger on me and yet here I am, cut and bruised by the lower orders.’
    â€˜Yeah, well, I’m afraid that there’s never been much thought for relative status when it comes to people taking exception tothe actions of others, even misinterpreted actions. On the other hand …’ Magnus tried to think of something with which to change the subject as they headed, with Tigran and Cassandros, towards the Esquiline Gate and the gardens just beyond, but nothing came to mind and instead he had to endure the whole diatribe again from the beginning, spiced with added outrage and pepped-up indignation. He prayed to the gods of his crossroads that the messenger that Senator Pollo had promised to send to his brethren at the tavern had