BOOK SECOND
"There is a
fire
And motion of the
soul which will not dwell
In its own narrow
being, but aspire
Beyond the fitting
medium of desire;
And, but once
kindled, quenchless evermore,
Preys upon high
adventure, nor can tire
Of aught but
rest."
Childe
Harold.
CHAPTER I
It is necessary
now to carry the reader forward twenty-one years, to the beginning of the
administration of Valerius Gratus, the fourth imperial governor of Judea - a
period which will be remembered as rent by political agitations in Jerusalem,
if, indeed, it be not the precise time of the opening of the final quarrel
between the Jew and the Roman.
In the interval
Judea had been subjected to changes affecting her in many ways, but in nothing
so much as her political status. Herod the Great died within one year after the
birth of the Child - died so miserably that the Christian world had reason to
believe him overtaken by the Divine wrath. Like all great rulers who spend
their lives in perfecting the power they create, he dreamed of transmitting his
throne and crown - of being the founder of a dynasty. With that intent, he left
a will dividing his territories between his three sons, Antipas, Philip, and
Archelaus, of whom the last was appointed to succeed to the title. The testament
was necessarily referred to Augustus, the emperor, who ratified all its
provisions with one exception: he withheld from Archelaus the title of king
until he proved his capacity and loyalty; in lieu thereof, he created him
ethnarch, and as such permitted him to govern nine years, when, for misconduct
and inability to stay the turbulent elements that grew and strengthened around
him, he was sent into Gaul as an exile.
Caesar was not
content with deposing Archelaus; he struck the people of Jerusalem in a manner
that touched their pride, and keenly wounded the sensibilities of the haughty
habitues of the Temple. He reduced Judea to a Roman province, and annexed it to
the prefecture of Syria. So, instead of a king ruling royally from the palace
left by Herod on Mount Zion, the city fell into the hands of an officer of the
second grade, an appointee called procurator, who communicated with the court
in Rome through the Legate of Syria, residing in Antioch. To make the hurt more
painful, the procurator was not permitted to establish himself in Jerusalem;
Caesarea was his seat of government. Most humiliating, however, most
exasperating, most studied, Samaria, of all the world the most despised - Samaria
was joined to Judea as a part of the same province! What ineffable misery the
bigoted Separatists or Pharisees endured at finding themselves elbowed and
laughed at in the procurator's presence in Caesarea by the devotees of Gerizim!
In this rain of
sorrows, one consolation, and one only, remained to the fallen people: the
high-priest occupied the Herodian palace in the market-place, and kept the
semblance of a court there. What his authority really was is a matter of easy
estimate. Judgment of life and death was retained by the procurator. Justice
was administered in the name and according to the decretals of Rome. Yet more
significant, the royal house was jointly occupied by the imperial exciseman,
and all his corps of assistants, registrars, collectors, publicans, informers,
and spies. Still, to the dreamers of liberty to come, there was a certain
satisfaction in the fact that the chief ruler in the palace was a Jew. His mere
presence there day after day kept them reminded of the covenants and promises
of the prophets, and the ages when Jehovah governed the tribes through the sons
of Aaron; it was to them a certain sign that he had not abandoned them: so
their hopes lived, and served their patience, and helped them wait grimly the
son of Judah who was to rule Israel.
Judea had been a
Roman province eighty years and more - ample time for the Caesars to study the
idiosyncrasies of the people - time enough, at least, to learn that the Jew,
with all his pride, could be quietly governed if his religion were respected.
Proceeding upon that policy, the predecessors of Gratus had carefully abstained
from interfering with any of the sacred observances of their subjects. But he
chose a different course: almost his first official act was to expel Hannas
from the high-priesthood, and give the place to Ishmael, son of Fabus.
Whether the act
was directed by Augustus, or proceeded from Gratus himself, its impolicy became
speedily apparent. The reader shall be spared a chapter on Jewish politics; a
few words upon the subject, however, are essential to such as may follow the
succeeding narration critically. At this time, leaving origin out of view,
there were in Judea the party of the nobles and the Separatist or popular
party. Upon Herod's death, the two united against Archelaus; from temple to
palace, from Jerusalem to Rome, they fought him; sometimes with intrigue,
sometimes with the actual weapons of war. More than once the holy cloisters on
Moriah resounded with the cries of fighting-men. Finally, they drove him into
exile. Meantime throughout this struggle the allies had their diverse objects
in view. The nobles hated Joazar, the high-priest; the Separatists, on the
other hand, were his zealous adherents. When Herod's settlement went down with
Archelaus, Joazar shared the fall. Hannas, the son of Seth, was selected by the
nobles to fill the great office; thereupon the allies divided. The induction of
the Sethian brought them face to face in fierce hostility.
In the course of
the struggle with the unfortunate ethnarch, the nobles had found it expedient
to attach themselves to Rome. Discerning that when the existing settlement was
broken up some form of government must needs follow, they suggested the
conversion of Judea into a province. The fact furnished the Separatists an
additional cause for attack; and, when Samaria was made part of the province,
the nobles sank into a minority, with nothing to support them but the imperial
court and the prestige of their rank and wealth; yet for fifteen years - down,
indeed, to the coming of Valerius Gratus - they managed to maintain themselves
in both palace and Temple.
Hannas, the idol
of his party, had used his power faithfully in the interest of his imperial
patron. A Roman garrison held the Tower of Antonia; a Roman guard kept the
gates of the palace; a Roman judge dispensed justice civil and criminal; a
Roman system of taxation, mercilessly executed, crushed both city and country;
daily, hourly, and in a thousand ways, the people were bruised and galled, and
taught the difference between a life of independence and a life of subjection;
yet Hannas kept them in comparative quiet. Rome had no truer friend; and he
made his loss instantly felt. Delivering his vestments to Ishmael, the new
appointee, he walked from the courts of the Temple into the councils of the
Separatists, and became the head of a new combination, Bethusian and Sethian.
Gratus, the
procurator, left thus without a party, saw the fires which, in the fifteen
years, had sunk into sodden smoke begin to glow with returning life. A month
after Ishmael took the office, the Roman found it necessary to visit him in
Jerusalem. When from the walls, hooting and hissing him, the Jews beheld his
guard enter the north gate of the city and march to the Tower of Antonia, they
understood the real purpose of the visit - a full cohort of legionaries was
added to the former garrison, and the keys of their yoke could now be tightened
with impunity. If the procurator deemed it important to make an example, alas
for the first offender!
CHAPTER II
With the
foregoing explanation in mind, the reader is invited to look into one of the
gardens of the palace on Mount Zion. The time was noonday in the middle of
July, when the heat of summer was at its highest.
The garden was
bounded on every side by buildings, which in places arose two stories, with
verandas shading the doors and windows of the lower story, while retreating
galleries, guarded by strong balustrades, adorned and protected the upper. Here
and there, moreover, the structures fell into what appeared low colonnades,
permitting the passage of such winds as chanced to blow, and allowing other
parts of the house to be seen, the better to realize its magnitude and beauty.
The arrangement of the ground was equally pleasant to the eye. There were
walks, and patches of grass and shrubbery, and a few large trees, rare
specimens of the palm, grouped with the carob, apricot, and walnut. In all
directions the grade sloped gently from the centre, where there was a
reservoir, or deep marble basin, broken at intervals by little gates which,
when raised, emptied the water into sluices bordering the walks - a cunning
device for the rescue of the place from the aridity too prevalent elsewhere in
the region.
Not far from the
fountain, there was a small pool of clear water nourishing a clump of cane and
oleander, such as grow on the Jordan and down by the Dead Sea. Between the
clump and the pool, unmindful of the sun shining full upon them in the
breathless air, two boys, one about nineteen, the other seventeen, sat engaged
in earnest conversation.
They were both
handsome, and, at first glance, would have been pronounced brothers. Both had
hair and eyes black; their faces were deeply browned; and, sitting, they seemed
of a size proper for the difference in their ages.
The elder was
bareheaded. A loose tunic, dropping to the knees, was his attire complete,
except sandals and a light-blue mantle spread under him on the seat. The
costume left his arms and legs exposed, and they were brown as the face;
nevertheless, a certain grace of manner, refinement of features, and culture of
voice decided his rank. The tunic, of softest woollen, gray-tinted, at the
neck, sleeves, and edge of the skirt bordered with red, and bound to the waist
by a tasselled silken cord, certified him the Roman he was. And if in speech he
now and then gazed haughtily at his companion and addressed him as an inferior,
he might almost be excused, for he was of a family noble even in Rome - a
circumstance which in that age justified any assumption. In the terrible wars
between the first Caesar and his great enemies, a Messala had been the friend
of Brutus. After Philippi, without sacrifice of his honor, he and the conqueror
became reconciled. Yet later, when Octavius disputed for the empire, Messala
supported him. Octavius, as the Emperor Augustus, remembered the service, and
showered the family with honors. Among other things, Judea being reduced to a
province, he sent the son of his old client or retainer to Jerusalem, charged
with the receipt and management of the taxes levied in that region; and in that
service the son had since remained, sharing the palace with the high-priest.
The youth just described was his son, whose habit it was to carry about with
him all too faithfully a remembrance of the relation between his grandfather
and the great Romans of his day.
The associate of
the Messala was slighter in form, and his garments were of fine white linen and
of the prevalent style in Jerusalem; a cloth covered his head, held by a yellow
cord, and arranged so as to fall away from the forehead down low over the back of
the neck. An observer skilled in the distinctions of race, and studying his
features more than his costume, would have soon discovered him to be of Jewish
descent. The forehead of the Roman was high and narrow, his nose sharp and
aquiline, while his lips were thin and straight, and his eyes cold and close
under the brows. The front of the Israelite, on the other hand, was low and
broad; his nose long, with expanded nostrils; his upper lip, slightly shading
the lower one, short and curving to the dimpled corners, like a Cupid's bow;
points which, in connection with the round chin, full eyes, and oval cheeks
reddened with a wine-like glow, gave his face the softness, strength, and
beauty peculiar to his race. The comeliness of the Roman was severe and chaste,
that of the Jew rich and voluptuous.
"Did you not
say the new procurator is to arrive to-morrow?"
The question
proceeded from the younger of the friends, and was couched in Greek, at the
time, singularly enough, the language everywhere prevalent in the politer
circles of Judea; having passed from the palace into the camp and college;
thence, nobody knew exactly when or how, into the Temple itself, and, for that
matter, into precincts of the Temple far beyond the gates and cloisters - precincts
of a sanctity intolerable for a Gentile.
"Yes,
to-morrow," Messala answered.
"Who told
you?"
"I heard
Ishmael, the new governor in the palace - you call him high priest - tell my
father so last night. The news had been more credible, I grant you, coming from
an Egyptian, who is of a race that has forgotten what truth is, or even from an
Idumaean, whose people never knew what truth was; but, to make quite certain, I
saw a centurion from the Tower this morning, and he told me preparations were
going on for the reception; that the armorers were furbishing the helmets and
shields, and regilding the eagles and globes; and that apartments long unused
were being cleansed and aired as if for an addition to the garrison - the
body-guard, probably, of the great man."
A perfect idea of
the manner in which the answer was given cannot be conveyed, as its fine points
continually escape the power behind the pen. The reader's fancy must come to
his aid; and for that he must be reminded that reverence as a quality of the
Roman mind was fast breaking down, or, rather, it was becoming unfashionable.
The old religion had nearly ceased to be a faith; at most it was a mere habit
of thought and expression, cherished principally by the priests who found
service in the Temple profitable, and the poets who, in the turn of their
verses, could not dispense with the familiar deities: there are singers of this
age who are similarly given. As philosophy was taking the place of religion,
satire was fast substituting reverence; insomuch that in Latin opinion it was
to every speech, even to the little diatribes of conversation, as salt to
viands, and aroma to wine. The young Messala, educated in Rome, but lately
returned, had caught the habit and manner; the scarce perceptible movement of
the outer corner of the lower eyelid, the decided curl of the corresponding
nostril, and a languid utterance affected as the best vehicle to convey the
idea of general indifference, but more particularly because of the
opportunities it afforded for certain rhetorical pauses thought to be of prime
importance to enable the listener to take the happy conceit or receive the
virus of the stinging epigram. Such a stop occurred in the answer just given,
at the end of the allusion to the Egyptian and Idumaean. The color in the
Jewish lad's cheeks deepened, and he may not have heard the rest of the speech,
for he remained silent, looking absently into the depths of the pool.
"Our
farewell took place in this garden. 'The peace of the Lord go with you!' - your
last words. 'The gods keep you!' I said. Do you remember? How many years have
passed since then?"
"Five,"
answered the Jew, gazing into the water.
"Well, you
have reason to be thankful to - whom shall I say? The gods? No matter. You have
grown handsome; the Greeks would call you beautiful - happy achievement of the
years! If Jupiter would stay content with one Ganymede, what a cup-bearer you
would make for the emperor! Tell me, my Judah, how the coming of the procurator
is of such interest to you."
Judah bent his
large eyes upon the questioner; the gaze was grave and thoughtful, and caught
the Roman's, and held it while he replied, "Yes, five years. I remember
the parting; you went to Rome; I saw you start, and cried, for I love you. The
years are gone, and you have come back to me accomplished and princely - I do
not jest; and yet - yet - I do wish you were the Messala you went away."
The fine nostril
of the satirist stirred, and he put on a longer drawl as he said, "No, no;
not a Ganymede - an oracle, my Judah. A few lessons from my teacher of rhetoric
hard by the Forum - I will give you a letter to him when you become wise enough
to accept a suggestion which I am reminded to make you - a little practise of
the art of mystery, and Delphi will receive you as Apollo himself. At the sound
of your solemn voice, the Pythia will come down to you with her crown.
Seriously, O my friend, in what am I not the Messala I went away? I once heard
the greatest logician in the world. His subject was Disputation. One saying I
remember - 'Understand your antagonist before you answer him.' Let me
understand you."
The lad reddened
under the cynical look to which he was subjected; yet he replied, firmly,
"You have availed yourself, I see, of your opportunities; from your
teachers you have brought away much knowledge and many graces. You talk with
the ease of a master, yet your speech carries a sting. My Messala, when he went
away, had no poison in his nature; not for the world would he have hurt the
feelings of a friend."
The Roman smiled
as if complimented, and raised his patrician head a toss higher.
"O my solemn
Judah, we are not at Dodona or Pytho. Drop the oracular, and be plain. Wherein
have I hurt you?"
The other drew a
long breath, and said, pulling at the cord about his waist, "In the five
years, I, too, have learned somewhat. Hillel may not be the equal of the
logician you heard, and Simeon and Shammai are, no doubt, inferior to your
master hard by the Forum. Their learning goes not out into forbidden paths;
those who sit at their feet arise enriched simply with knowledge of God, the
law, and Israel; and the effect is love and reverence for everything that
pertains to them. Attendance at the Great College, and study of what I heard
there, have taught me that Judea is not as she used to be. I know the space
that lies between an independent kingdom and the petty province Judea is. I
were meaner, viler, than a Samaritan not to resent the degradation of my
country. Ishmael is not lawfully high-priest, and he cannot be while the noble
Hannas lives; yet he is a Levite; one of the devoted who for thousands of years
have acceptably served the Lord God of our faith and worship. His -"
Messala broke in
upon him with a biting laugh.
"Oh, I
understand you now. Ishmael, you say, is a usurper, yet to believe an Idumaean
sooner than Ishmael is to sting like an adder. By the drunken son of Semele,
what it is to be a Jew! All men and things, even heaven and earth, change; but
a Jew never. To him there is no backward, no forward; he is what his ancestor
was in the beginning. In this sand I draw you a circle - there! Now tell me
what more a Jew's life is? Round and round, Abraham here, Isaac and Jacob
yonder, God in the middle. And the circle - by the master of all thunders! the
circle is too large. I draw it again -”He stopped, put his thumb upon the
ground, and swept the fingers about it. "See, the thumb spot is the
Temple, the finger-lines Judea. Outside the little space is there nothing of
value? The arts! Herod was a builder; therefore he is accursed. Painting,
sculpture! to look upon them is sin. Poetry you make fast to your altars.
Except in the synagogue, who of you attempts eloquence? In war all you conquer
in the six days you lose on the seventh. Such your life and limit; who shall
say no if I laugh at you? Satisfied with the worship of such a people, what is
your God to our Roman Jove, who lends us his eagles that we may compass the
universe with our arms? Hillel, Simeon, Shammai, Abtalion - what are they to
the masters who teach that everything is worth knowing that can be known?"
The Jew arose,
his face much flushed.
"No, no;
keep your place, my Judah, keep your place," Messala cried, extending his
hand.
"You mock
me."
"Listen a
little further. Directly" - the Roman smiled derisively -”directly Jupiter
and his whole family, Greek and Latin, will come to me, as is their habit, and
make an end of serious speech. I am mindful of your goodness in walking from
the old house of your fathers to welcome me back and renew the love of our
childhood - if we can. 'Go,' said my teacher, in his last lecture - 'Go, and,
to make your lives great, remember Mars reigns and Eros has found his eyes.' He
meant love is nothing, war everything. It is so in Rome. Marriage is the first
step to divorce. Virtue is a tradesman's jewel. Cleopatra, dying, bequeathed
her arts, and is avenged; she has a successor in every Roman's house. The world
is going the same way; so, as to our future, down Eros, up Mars! I am to be a
soldier; and you, O my Judah, I pity you; what can you be?"
The Jew moved
nearer the pool; Messala's drawl deepened.
"Yes, I pity
you, my fine Judah. From the college to the synagogue; then to the Temple; then
- oh, a crowning glory! - the seat in the Sanhedrim. A life without
opportunities; the gods help you! But I -"
Judah looked at
him in time to see the flush of pride that kindled in his haughty face as he
went on.
"But I - ah,
the world is not all conquered. The sea has islands unseen. In the north there
are nations yet unvisited. The glory of completing Alexander's march to the Far
East remains to some one. See what possibilities lie before a Roman."
Next instant he
resumed his drawl.
"A campaign
into Africa; another after the Scythian; then - a legion! Most careers end
there; but not mine. I - by Jupiter! what a conception! - I will give up my
legion for a prefecture. Think of life in Rome with money - money, wine, women,
games - poets at the banquet, intrigues in the court, dice all the year round.
Such a rounding of life may be - a fat prefecture, and it is mine. O my Judah,
here is Syria! Judea is rich; Antioch a capital for the gods. I will succeed
Cyrenius, and you - shall share my fortune."
The sophists and
rhetoricians who thronged the public resorts of Rome, almost monopolizing the
business of teaching her patrician youth, might have approved these sayings of
Messala, for they were all in the popular vein; to the young Jew, however, they
were new, and unlike the solemn style of discourse and conversation to which he
was accustomed. He belonged, moreover, to a race whose laws, modes, and habits
of thought forbade satire and humor; very naturally, therefore, he listened to
his friend with varying feelings; one moment indignant, then uncertain how to
take him. The superior airs assumed had been offensive to him in the beginning;
soon they became irritating, and at last an acute smart. Anger lies close by
this point in all of us; and that the satirist evoked in another way. To the
Jew of the Herodian period patriotism was a savage passion scarcely hidden
under his common humor, and so related to his history, religion, and God that
it responded instantly to derision of them. Wherefore it is not speaking too
strongly to say that Messala's progress down to the last pause was exquisite torture
to his hearer; at that point the latter said, with a forced smile,
"There are a
few, I have heard, who can afford to make a jest of their future; you convince
me, O my Messala, that I am not one of them."
The Roman studied
him; then replied, "Why not the truth in a jest as well as a parable? The
great Fulvia went fishing the other day; she caught more than all the company
besides. They said it was because the barb of her hook was covered with
gold."
"Then you
were not merely jesting?"
"My Judah, I
see I did not offer you enough," the Roman answered, quickly, his eyes
sparkling. "When I am prefect, with Judea to enrich me, I - will make you
high-priest."
The Jew turned
off angrily.
"Do not
leave me," said Messala.
The other stopped
irresolute.
"Gods,
Judah, how hot the sun shines!" cried the patrician, observing his
perplexity. "Let us seek a shade."
Judah answered,
coldly,
"We had
better part. I wish I had not come. I sought a friend and find a -"
"Roman,"
said Messala, quickly.
The hands of the
Jew clenched, but controlling himself again, he started off. Messala arose,
and, taking the mantle from the bench, flung it over his shoulder, and followed
after; when he gained his side, he put his hand upon his shoulder and walked
with him.
"This is the
way - my hand thus - we used to walk when we were children. Let us keep it as
far as the gate."
Apparently
Messala was trying to be serious and kind, though he could not rid his
countenance of the habitual satirical expression. Judah permitted the familiarity.
"You are a
boy; I am a man; let me talk like one."
The complacency
of the Roman was superb. Mentor lecturing the young Telemachus could not have
been more at ease.
"Do you
believe in the Parcae? Ah, I forgot, you are a Sadducee: the Essenes are your
sensible people; they believe in the sisters. So do I. How everlastingly the
three are in the way of our doing what we please! I sit down scheming. I run
paths here and there. Perpol! Just when I am reaching to take the world in
hand, I hear behind me the grinding of scissors. I look, and there she is, the
accursed Atropos! But, my Judah, why did you get mad when I spoke of succeeding
old Cyrenius? You thought I meant to enrich myself plundering your Judea.
Suppose so; it is what some Roman will do. Why not I?"
Judah shortened
his step.
"There have
been strangers in mastery of Judea before the Roman," he said, with lifted
hand. "Where are they, Messala? She has outlived them all. What has been
will be again."
Messala put on
his drawl.
"The Parcae have
believers outside the Essenes. Welcome, Judah, welcome to the faith!"
"No,
Messala, count me not with them. My faith rests on the rock which was the
foundation of the faith of my fathers back further than Abraham; on the
covenants of the Lord God of Israel."
"Too much
passion, my Judah. How my master would have been shocked had I been guilty of
so much heat in his presence! There were other things I had to tell you, but I
fear to now."
When they had
gone a few yards, the Roman spoke again.
"I think you
can hear me now, especially as what I have to say concerns yourself. I would
serve you, O handsome as Ganymede; I would serve you with real good-will. I
love you - all I can. I told you I meant to be a soldier. Why not you also? Why
not you step out of the narrow circle which, as I have shown, is all of noble
life your laws and customs allow?"
Judah made no
reply.
"Who are the
wise men of our day?" Messala continued. "Not they who exhaust their
years quarrelling about dead things; about Baals, Joves, and Jehovahs; about
philosophies and religions. Give me one great name, O Judah; I care not where
you go to find it - to Rome, Egypt, the East, or here in Jerusalem - Pluto take
me if it belong not to a man who wrought his fame out of the material furnished
him by the present; holding nothing sacred that did not contribute to the end,
scorning nothing that did! How was it with Herod? How with the Maccabees? How
with the first and second Caesars? Imitate them. Begin now. At hand see - Rome,
as ready to help you as she was the Idumaean Antipater."
The Jewish lad
trembled with rage; and, as the garden gate was close by, he quickened his
steps, eager to escape.
"O Rome,
Rome!" he muttered.
"Be
wise," continued Messala. "Give up the follies of Moses and the traditions;
see the situation as it is. Dare look the Parcae in the face, and they will
tell you, Rome is the world. Ask them of Judea, and they will answer, She is
what Rome wills."
They were now at
the gate. Judah stopped, and took the hand gently from his shoulder, and
confronted Messala, tears trembling in his eyes.
"I
understand you, because you are a Roman; you cannot understand me - I am an
Israelite. You have given me suffering to-day by convincing me that we can
never be the friends we have been - never! Here we part. The peace of the God
of my fathers abide with you!"
Messala offered
him his hand; the Jew walked on through the gateway. When he was gone, the
Roman was silent awhile; then he, too, passed through, saying to himself, with
a toss of the head,
"Be it so.
Eros is dead, Mars reigns!"
