The Roman (4 page)

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instead and pronounced the greeting in a loud voice. I followed his example and the freedmen too sprinkled at least a drop of wine onto the floor with their fingertips, even if they said nothing aloud. My heart swelled with love when I saw them all, for all of them had done their best to spoil me and wished that I should grow up into a man with whose reputation their reputation too would grow. They expected nothing more from my father, for they had already become used to him. �When I had bought your freedman�s staves,� my father continued, �I let you drink of the wine of eternity from my late wife�s wooden goblet. But you never began to assemble your riches, save for the mundane things of this world, which can come to an end at any moment. Yet that is only as it should be, for I should be tormented by my satiety and my wealth and the many useless works which I do not value at all. I wish for nothing but to live quietly and humbly.� The freedmen hurried to assure him that they too tried to live as quietly and humbly as was possible for successful businessmen. Boasting about one�s wealth only led to increases in tax and obligatory donations to the city. And none of them wished to boast about the past when they had been slaves. �For your sake and because of the obstinacy of my son Minutus,� my father said, �I cannot go the new way, which has now been opened to the uncircumcised, both Greeks and Romans. If I admitted to being a Christian, as this way is called, as distinct from the Jewish faith, then you and all my household would be forced to follow suit, and I do not believe that any good can come of this. I cannot believe, for instance, that Barbus would participate with any spirit, no matter who laid hands on his head and blew on him. Not to speak of Minutus, who lost control of himself to the extent of screaming at the very thought of it. �Therefore,� my father went on, �the time has come to talk about my family. What I do, I do thoroughly. Minutus and I will travel to Rome and there I shall retrieve my rank of knight in conjunction with the centenary festivities. Minutus will receive the man- toga in Rome in the presence of his family. And he will receive a horse in place of the one he has lost here.� For me this was a surprise of which I had not even dared dream. At the most I had thought that sometime, thanks to my boldness

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and talents, I should be able to return to my father the honor he had lost through the Emperor�s whim. But it was not news to the freedmen. From their behavior, I realized they had long been putting pressure on my father in this direction, for they themselves had honor and benefits to gain from my father�s regaining his knighthood. They nodded now and explained that they had already been in contact with the freedmen of Emperor Claudius, who looked after important matters in the administration of the State. My father also owned property on Aventine and land in Caere, and so more than fulfilled the conditions of income demanded of the rank of knight. My father bade them be silent and explained. �All this is of less importance;� he said. �The essential thing is that I have at last succeeded in acquiring the necessary papers on Minutus� ancestors. This has demanded a great deal of judicial knowledge. At first I thought I should quite simply adopt him on the day he came of age, but my counsel persuaded me that such a measure would not be favorable. In that case his legal Roman descent would have been in doubt forever.� After unfolding a mass of papers, my father read aloud from them and explained them more thoroughly. �The most important of these is a marriage contract between Myrina and myself, certified by the Roman authority in Damascus. This is indubitably a genuine and legal certificate, for after my wife had been made pregnant by me in Damascus, I was very happy and wanted to strengthen the position of my heir-to-be.� After looking at the ceiling for a while, he went on: �Investigating into Minutus� mother�s ancestors has been much more difficult, for at the time I did not regard it as essential and so we never even talked about it together. After long investigations ft has been definitely shown that her family originally stemmed from the city of Myrina in the province of Asia, near the city of Ceare. It was my counsel who advised me to start from this city in my search, because of the similarity of name. It later turned out that her family, after losing their fortune, moved from there out to the islands, but their origins are extremely aristocratic, and to confirm this, I have had a statue of my wife placed in front of the courthouse in Myrina and also have made several donations

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in her memory. In fact my deputy had the whole of the courthouse rebuilt; it was not large and the city fathers themselves offered to trace back Myrina�s family to ancient times, yes, back to one of the river gods, but this I thought unnecessary. On the island of Cos, my deputy found a venerable old priest in the temple of Aesculapius, who remembered Myrina�s parents very well and could confirm on oath that he was the brother of Myrina�s father. At the death of their honest but impoverished parents, the children dedicated themselves to Apollo and then left the island.� �Oh, how I should like to meet that uncle of my mother�s;� I said eagerly, �if he is the one and only living relative on my mother�s side.� �That won�t be necessary,� my father hastened to say. �He is a very old man with a bad memory and I have seen to it that he has a roof over his head, food and someone to lead him until he dies. All you need remember is that on your mother�s side, you are of noble Greek descent. When you are adult, you can remember the poor city of Myrina sometime with a suitable gift, so that the matter is not completely forgotten. �I also,� he went on quickly, �belong to the Manilian family by adoption, and my name is therefore Manilianus. My foster-father, that is your legal grandfather, was the famous astronomer Manilius, who published a work on astronomy which is still studied in libraries all over the world. But you have undoubtedly wondered about your other name�Mezentius. This brings me to your real descent. The famous Maecenas, friend of the god Augustus, was a distant relative of mine and held his hand over my father�s parents, even if he did forget them in his will. He on his part was descended from the rulers of Caere, who were kings long before Aeneas fled from Troy. In this way Roman blood also runs in the former Etruscans. But legally speaking, we should count ourselves as members of the Manilianus family. In Rome it is better to keep silent about the Etruscans, for the Romans do not like to be reminded that the Etruscans once ruled over them.� My father was speaking in such a dignified way that we all listened in silence, and only Barbus remembered to fortify himself with wine occasionally. �My adoptive father, Manilius, was a poor man,� my father went on. �He squandered his fortune on books and research into

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the stars, instead of earning money by the art of divination. It was clue more to the absentmindedness of the god Tiberius than to himself that he was allowed to retain his knighthood. It would take too long to relate how I spent my hungry youth as a clerk here in Antioch. The main reason for this was that I could not have a horse because of the poverty of the Manilianus family. But when I returned to Rome, I had the good fortune to win the favor a highly placed woman whose name I shall not reveal. This experienced woman introduced me to an old and sickly but noble-minded widow. In her will, this lady left me her entire fortune so that I could confirm my right to wear the gold ring, but then I was already nearly thirty years old and was no longer interested iii official service. In addition, the widow�s family contested the will, yes, even made the appalling accusation that the old lady bud been poisoned after drawing up the will. Justice was on my side, hut owing to this wretched case and also to other matters, I left Rome and went to Alexandria to study. Even if there was such gossip in Rome at the time, �I don�t think anyone any longer remembers this dispute which malevolent people started. I am telling you this to show Minutus that there is nothing shameful about it and there is nothing to stop my returning to Rome. And I think that it is best, considering what has happened, that we go there as soon as possible, as long as the good sailing season lasts. �Then I shall have the whole of the winter in which to arrange my affairs before the centenary celebrations.� We had eaten and drunk. The torches outside our house began to smolder and go out, and the oil was low in the lamps. I myself had sat as silently as I could, trying not to scratch my arms where my wounds had already begun to irritate me. In front of the house some of the beggars in Antioch had gathered, and in accordance with good Syrian custom, my father had had the left over food shared out among them. Just as the freedmen were breaking up, two Jews made their way in. At first they were taken for beggars and were shown to the door. But my father hurried up to meet them and greeted them respectfully. No, no,� he said, �I know these men and they are messengers from the highest god. Come back in, all of you, and listen to what they have to say.�

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The more dignified of the two men was very upright and had a gray beard. It was revealed that he was a Jewish merchant from Cyprus named Barnabas. He or his family owned a house in Jerusalem, and my father had met him there long before I was born. The other was considerably younger. He was dressed in a thick cloak of black goatskin, was turning bald, his ears were prominent and his eyes had such a piercing expression that the freedmen avoided them and moved their fingers as if warding off his look. This was Saul, of whom my father had told me, but he was no longer known by his real name, for he said he had changed it to Paul. This he had done out of humility, but also because his former name had a bad reputation among the followers of Christ. Paul means the insignificant one, just as does my own name, Minutus, He was not a handsome man, but in his eyes and face there was such fire that one felt no desire to quarrel with him. I realized that whatever one said to this man, nothing would influence him. Instead, he himself desired to influence others. Compared with him, old Barnabas seemed quite a reasonable man. My father�s freedmen were troubled by the arrival of the men, but they could not leave without offending my father. At first Barnabas and Paul behaved politely, speaking in turn and relating that the elders of their assembly had had a vision, according to which they were to set out on a journey to preach the good tidings, first to the Jews and then to the heathens. They had been to Jerusalem, too, with money for the holy men there, and their supporters had sealed their authority by the striking of hands. They had since preached Cod�s word with such power that even the sick had been cured. In one of the inland cities, Barnabas had been taken for Jupiter in human form and Paul for Mercury, so that the priest of the city had sought to have garlanded oxen sacrificed to them. They had only just been able to prevent such an ungodly demonstration. After that, the Jews had taken Paul from the city and stoned him and then, out of fear of the authorities, they had fled the place in the belief that Paul was dead. But he had come to life again. �What are you possessed by, then,� the freedmen asked in wonder, �that you are not content to live like ordinary mortals, but expose yourselves to danger in order to bear witness to the son of Cod and the forgiveness of sins?�

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Barbus burst out laughing at the thought that anyone had taken these two Jews for gods. My father reproached him and, putting both his hands to his head, said to Barnabas and Paul, �I have acquainted myself with your way, and I have tried to reconcile Jew with Jew for the sake of my own position among the city fathers. I should like to believe that you speak the truth, but the spirit does not seem to reconcile you among yourselves. On the contrary, you quarrel among yourselves and one says one thing and another another. The holy ones in Jerusalem sold all their possessions and waited for your king to return. They have already wafted for more than sixteen years, the money has gone and they live on alms. What do you say to this?� Paul assured him that he for his part had never taught anyone to cease honest labor and divide his possessions among the poor. Barnabas also said that each person should do as the spirit moved him. After the holy ones in Jerusalem had begun to be persecuted and murdered, many people had fled to foreign lands, to Antioch too, setting up in business and practicing trades, and successfully, some more so and some less so. Barnabas and Paul went on speaking until finally the freedmen were annoyed. �Now that�s enough about your god,� they said. �We wish you to harm, but what is it you want of our master, pushing your way into his house late at night and disturbing him? He has enough troubles of his own.� They related that their activities had stirred up bad blood amongst the Jews in Antioch, so that even the Pharisees and Sadducees had combined against them and the Christians. The Jews were conducting a lively campaign of conversion for the temple Ill Jerusalem and had collected rich gifts from the pious. But the Christian Jewish sect was tempting the newly converted over to its side by promising them forgiveness of their sins and maintaining that they need no longer follow the Jewish laws. For this reason I lie Jews were now bringing an action against the Christians in the city court. Barnabas and Paul intended to leave Antioch before this, but they feared that the council would have them followed and brought back before the court. My father was pleased to be able to calm their fears. �By various means,� he said, �I have managed to ensure that the

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city council does not interfere with Jewish internal matters of belief. The Jews themselves should settle disputes among their sects. Legally, we regard the Christian sect as one of the many Jewish ones, despite the fact that it demands neither circumcision nor complete obedience to the law of Moses. So the police in the city are duty bound to protect the Christians if other Jews attempt violence against them. In the same way, it is our duty to protect the other Jews if the Christians make trouble for them.� Barnabas was deeply troubled. �Both of us are Jews,� he said, �but circumcision is a seal on true Judaism. So the Jews of Antioch have claimed that although uncircumcised Christians are not legally Jews, they can be tried for violation and abuse of the Jewish faith.� But my father was a stubborn man when he had something firmly in his head, and he said, �As far as I know, the only difference between Christian and Jew is that the Christians, both circumcised and uncircumcised, believe that the Jewish Messiah, or Christ, has already taken human form in Jesus of Nazareth, that he has risen from the dead, and that sooner or later he will return to found the kingdom of a thousand years. The Jews do not believe this, but are still waiting for their Messiah. But from a legal point of view, there is no difference, whether they believe that the Messiah has come or that he will come. The main thing is that they believe in a Messiah. The city of Antioch is neither willing nor even competent to decide whether the Messiah has come or not. So the Jews and the Christians must settle the matter in peace among themselves, without persecuting each other.� �So it has been and so it would still be,� said Paul passionately, �if the circumcised Christians weren�t so cowardly, like Cephas for instance, who first ate together with the uncircumcised but then withdrew from them because he was more afraid of the holy men in Jerusalem than of God. I told him straight out what I thought about his cowardice, but the damage was done and now the circumcised eat more and more frequently by themselves and the uncircumcised do the same. So the latter can no longer be called Jews, even legally. No, amongst us there are neither Jews nor Greeks, neither freedmen nor slaves, but we are all of us Christians.� My father remarked that it would be unwise to put forward