Death at Pergamum

by Albert Noyer

  "Getorius, can you help her?"

  He shook his head. "The wound is corrupted beyond saving."

  Epiphania heard and moistened fever-cracked lips. "I'll die?" At Getorius's gentle nod, she gasped, "My slave father served a Roman master. I became a bishop serving The Crucified One."

  Arcadia grasped Epiphania's hand to ease the woman's last moments with human contact. "Bishop Ignatia had faith in you."

  Epiphania murmured in a voice so faint that Arcadia bent down to hear. "Who was that man at the Serapion?"

  "Flavius came with us from Herakleia. I don't know how he found you."

  "I saw hatred in his eyes. Medica, he knew my name. I was betrayed."

  "Betrayed by whom, Bishop?" Getorius asked, bending to hear her answer. "Was it someone at the Asklepion? A Christian who knew you?"

  "Aaaaahhh." Epiphania's final syllable stretched out into a long, exhaled sigh, the last breath of the dying woman. She slumped back on the bier, her lifeless eyes fixed on eternity.

  Getorius felt her throat. "She's dead, Lydia. Your bishop wanted everyone to believe she perished in the fire, but that knife wound killed her. You can cease this obscene deception."

  The Hunnic women nearest the altar heard him. They began a frenzied screaming and slashed their faces with obsidian blades to renew ritual bleeding.

  An ominous murmur rippled through spectators who had watched the rite and Epiphania's death in silent dread. Now, disappointment displaced the crowd's fear. Angry shouts came from the men. Several of the black-robed monks pushed forward to harangue the crowd, screaming in Greek and pointing at Lydia and the Hunnic women.

  Concerned for Arcadia's safety, Getorius hurried her back to the portico. "Remember that bread riot at Constantinople? Worse could happen here since this involves religion. When the mob finds a leader."

  Brisios had stayed with Zoë, eyeing the crowd's mood. As he strained to look beyond the spectators, he recognized Tranquillus standing in the opposite colonnade. "Master! Surgeon!" he blurted out. "The presbyter is there, across the courtyard."

  "Tranquillus? Where?"

  Brisios pointed. "Near the torch at that column. The hood slipped off his head."

  "That is Tranquillus. And Herakles is standing behind him!" Getorius waved and shouted, "Presbyter! Over here!"

  Tranquillus looked toward his voice, but instead of returning the signal, he sprinted along the colonnade, down toward the stairs. Herakles stepped back and vanished in the crowd.

  "Brisios, stop the presbyter!" Getorius shouted. "I need to question him. Arcadia, stay here with Zoë."

  Getorius tramped after Brisios as rapidly as his injury allowed. Tranquillus bounded down the stairs and ran along the podium sculptures, toward the northwest corner of the terrace. Getorius caught up with Brisios there, looking down from the retaining wall.

  "He jumped, Surgeon."

  Getorius peered over the edge. "It's not that far down, but dark as the pit of Tartarus and as dangerous. That steep theater is beyond those buildings, where wet ground is too slippery to follow." He looked back at the dark shapes milling around the torch-lighted temple. "Let's go back. I'm worried about what that mob will do."

  Incited by the monks and fueled by Epiphania's perceived deception, the spectators' mood shifted from foiled hope to one ripe for revenge. Several men took up stones to smash at figures in the battle scenes.

  Inside the temple courtyard, animal sacrifices had been thrown off the smoking altar. The Egyptian was gone. Lydia's Isis crown and the Anubis mask lay broken on the paving. Some in the crowd had come down to surround the Hunnic women, yet none touched Epiphiana's corpse: the superstitious avoided her dead body as they might a malevolent daemon. Those not threatening the deaconesses had assembled in the east portico, listening to the angry haranguing of the monks.

  In pain, Getorius hobbled back to his wife and Zoë. Lydia was with them, still wearing her golden tunic. "Deaconess," he rebuked, "Epiphania wanted people to believe she was dead so she could stage a fictional resurrection that discredited Apollonios."

  Yet in shock, Lydia stammered, "The Crucified One warned the Children of Light to be more crafty than the Children of Darkness. We would have succeeded, but for that intruder."

  "Flavius Bobo? I still don't understand how he knew Epiphania was there."

  "I believe he was told by Apollonios. The physician had discovered that the Serapion was our refuge."

  Arcadia said, "Epiphania wanted the Asklepion closed, so he had the most to lose. Flavius told us that he had met physicians while first here. Could Apollonios have recruited him for her murder?"

  "It seems far-fetched that the physician would risk that." Renewed shouts from the crowd interrupted Getorius. "Lydia, what are they saying?"

  Recovered, but frightened, she replied, "Monks are inciting the mob to attack the Asklepion. They'll burn the god's temple, the library."

  "They can't," Getorius protested, "there are irreplaceable medical texts there. Destroying them would be criminal."

  Lydia wiped her eyes on a tunic sleeve. "How little you in the West understand the intolerance of the East. Medica, in the carriage I mentioned Hypatia to you."

  "Yes, who was she?"

  "A brilliant woman philosopher, living at Alexandria. Two decades ago she was murdered by a mob of Parabalanoi, Bishop Cyril's so-called 'hospital attendants.' Before that, Christian fanatics destroyed the Temple of Serapis and burned the great library's books and scrolls."

  Alarmed, Getorius indicated Lydia's tunic. "Deaconess, you're wearing a plain garment underneath, so take off the golden costume. That mob wouldn't hesitate to make another Hypatia of you."

  As Arcadia helped Lydia strip off her outer tunic, shouts of "Eis Asklepion!" sounded from men near the monks. Getorius asked her, "Did I understand correctly? They are going down to attack the Asklepion?"

  "You did, Surgeon. The mob yet has no leader other than the Sleepless Ones, but in this mood they need none to destroy the shrine."

  "We must warn Apollonios. Zoë, our best chance is to get back to the horses."

  "Surgeon, if they have not been stolen."

  "Is there a quicker way back down?"

  "The crowd will take side streets to the city, not the long way they came up."

  "We must reach the Asklepion first."

  Zoë agreed, "Akoloutho. Brisios, find a heavy branch or anything to use as a weapon. Surgeon, you also may have to defend us."

  Apprehension roiled Getorius's stomach. The mob at Constantinople had burned buildings and a grain galley over a late bread dole. Here, there would be no defense if the rioters turned on him and the others.

  CHAPTER XIX

  Led by black-robed monks, the mob surged across muddy fields toward the south end of the terrace. A few timid rioters hesitated at its edge, but most jumped and slid down the slippery incline in front of the theater's stage. Some fell, cursing as their rolling torches sent spark showers swirling along the slope. Most regrouped to follow a little-used street. The roadway circled the west side of the agora and followed an ancient wall that went toward the Sanctuary of Demeter.

  Zoë waited behind a column with the others until the last rioters left, then led the way back to the terrace stairway and down onto the main road. Descending beyond the bath to where it circled eastward, she turned right. A narrow alleyway skirted Demeter's temple and the two gymnasia.

  Brisios had wrenched a branch from a dead pine. He went ahead, using the limb in the dusky light to help feel his way along the path. Portals on most of the ruined houses were vandalized, but a closed door secured a few dwellings. Iron grilles barred small windows. The group's anxiety subsided a bit; since the mob took a different route into the city, imminent danger had lessened.

  Painfully limping to keep up, Getorius commented to Lydia, "Deaconess, it seemed that everyone living up here was at that ritual."

  "A select few were told, yet word spread and others could not be kept away."

 
"A select few such as Apollonios?"

  "The physician would have been informed of what happened."

  "I didn't see him. Who else, then?"

  Lydia said, "Epiphania thought it important that both pagan leaders and hesitant Christians experience the power of Christ over Osiris."

  "Why did she go ahead after I warned her of the danger?"

  "Our bishop wanted to act within three days to emulate the resurrection of the Crucified One."

  "But Epiphania was alive. How did she expect to deceive witnesses?"

  Lydia replied, "Surgeon, there are drugs that mimic death. The knife interfered."

  "No matter what her imagined justification, your presbytera was wrong to delude those people."

  Lydia fell silent. The five emerged at a small square, where Zoë halted to consider the next way down and let the others catch their breath. The open space gave a view of the valley below. Orange light on the horizon largely had been absorbed into an indigo sky, yet a feeble glow still reflected off the Selenos like a meandering iridescent ribbon. Bobbing points of torchlight in the distance indicated that the mob now was north of Demeter's sanctuary.

  Arcadia sat on the rim of a dry fountain clogged with leaves and beckoned to her husband. "Getorius, if Epiphania planned the ritual we saw, why would she want people to believe she was in that coffin?"

  "That's a question Britto will never answer. My guess is that the presbytera wanted word out that she had died in the fire and for her body to be treated like any other until her 'resurrection'."

  "A mistake on her part. She should have realized the embalmer would talk and I wouldn't put extortion past Britto."

  "Or Rufinus?" Getorius questioned. "That plaster would have prevented anyone from identifying Britto's corpse."

  "There's much more to this mystery." Arcadia saw Zoë coming over and stood to adjust her cape.

  "We're going on." The woman pointed to a dark street. "Surgeon, I think that leads to the lower agora and the main road."

  "You think? Can't you be sure? Time is short."

  She ignored him to indicate the river. "The Selenos flows under the Serapion where the sky reflection is blackened out. The gate and our horses are to the left. Brisios! Continue down that street."

  A few torches at the front of occupied homes barely threw enough light to see along the narrow street. Houses were black walls hemming in the walkway, yet fewer of the buildings seemed abandoned. A few dogs barked from inside courtyards, but no persons appeared. Beyond the last gymnasium, the street turned into a deserted alleyway beyond the houses. For what seemed an eternity, the group stumbled along deteriorated paving, fearful that the rioters might corner them in this desolate area of the acropolis maze. Finally, they emerged onto a paved road that flanked the lower marketplace.

  "We've reached the agora" Zoë said, relieved. "Our mounts are at the Eumenes Gate."

  "I'll run ahead," Brisios offered. "Make sure our horses are there."

  Breathing hard, exhausted from the emotion-filled day, Arcadia mouthed a silent prayer to Cosmas that they safely reach the Asklepion. Shortly after, Brisios's encouraging shout indicated that their mounts had not been stolen.

  Getorius asked, "Which road do we take into Pergamum?"

  Zoë glanced at the sky. "Black as caulking pitch, but if we follow streets that are lighted by bonfires we may reach the Asklepion before the rioters."

  With Lydia clinging to her on the horse, Zoë directed Brisios along a wide avenue that led west from the Serapion. Getorius and Arcadia followed. Looking back at the acropolis, they saw by the rioter's torches that they now had passed Demeter's temple.

  At sunset the air had turned colder. Still soaked from the rain, the riders huddled against their horses' warmth. Civic guards were nowhere in sight. The rioting mob would not be challenged, if at all, until it was too late.

  At a road leading from the hippodrome, Zoë told Brisios to guide the horses to the left, toward the north end of the Sacred Way. Getorius used his knees to urge his mount to a near gallop. At Thekla's basilica he turned the horse toward torches lighting the entrance to Apollonios's villa. He halted at the gate and slipped off to sound the bell for Aristides to answer. Brisios arrived a moment later, dismounted, and helped the two women down.

  After Getorius again jangled the bell as loudly as he could, he was surprised to see Apollonios peer through the gate's barred window.

  Equally astounded, he demanded, "Why are you here, Surgeon?"

  When Zoë spoke to the physician in Greek, Getorius caught that she told him a mob was heading for the shrine. Apollonios opened the portal to confirm her warning. "Surgeon, the freedwoman said the Asklepion will be attacked."

  "You know Zoë?"

  "I do. What has happened?"

  "We just witnessed a bizarre Egypto-Christian ritual on the acropolis. Epiphania wasn't dead."

  "Not dead? What do you mean?"

  "The presbytera wanted people to believe she had died in the fire, so she could stage a 'resurrection' that your shrine priests couldn't duplicate." Getorius grasped Lydia by the arm. "This deaconess was part of the deception and has much explaining to do."

  Lydia wrenched free and ran across the field, toward houses beyond the basilica.

  "Surgeon?" Brisios waited for permission to bring her back.

  "Let her go, she's suffered a shattering personal loss. We can find her later."

  Arcadia stepped up to the physician "Sir, that mob will be here soon. The monks want your shrine destroyed."

  Apollonios stammered, "Come to my study. Bar the gate."

  As he walked with Apollonios, Getorius glanced around. "Where are your guards?"

  "In the city. Only my night attendants stay here."

  "They would be of little help. You opened the gate yourself, so where is Aristides?"

  Apollonios shrugged ignorance of his assistant. "He has quarters in my villa, but isn't there. The Asklepion has iron gates so we should be safe."

  Getorius warned, "They won't stand up to the rioters. They'll enter, torch your house, then the other buildings. Temple. Library. Zoë told me that your brother is city prefect. Can't he call out the garrison or civic guard?"

  Apollonios opened his study door. "Asklepios will protect his sanctuary."

  "You fool!" Zoë lashed out. "That Christian mob will destroy everything here. And when they catch you."

  Shaking, the physician slumped into a chair. He glanced around at his portrait busts of physicians and philosophers, then gestured toward the bookshelves. "I must save what writings I can. Medical scrolls, my history of the Asklepion."

  "Save them to where?" Getorius jeered. "The rioters will be here in quarter of an hourglass."

  Underscoring his words, far-off shouts and the sounds of vendors' booths being smashed came from the distant end of the Sacred Way. Zoë warned the physician again in Greek, then turned to Getorius. "I told him the rioters would throw his body and his books into the Selenos. Quickly! We must get into the temple before the shrine gates are forced."

  "Why not to the Poseidon instead?" Getorius argued, "That mob will break into the temple and we'll be trapped inside."

  "I think not." The woman turned to Apollonios. "Physician, will you come with us?"

  He nodded assent and began pulling scrolls and books from the shelves. "I must

  save Alcmaeon of Croton. Theophrastus."

  Zoë asked, "Surgeon, while he collects books, do you know another way to the temple from here?"

  "Aristides walked through a back entrance that went into the shrine courtyard."

  "Kalos. Take us that way."

  Getorius led them down the hall to the outside. The temple of Asklepios loomed as a black rotunda against a now star-speckled sky. Torches burning at the top of the porch stairs gave a wavering light to the temple's massive bronze doors. After he reached them, Getorius pulled on one and found it unbarred from the inside.

  The freedwoman glanced back toward the villa. "A
pollonios is saving medical texts, but we cannot wait. Everyone go inside the temple. Brisios, you last to bar the doors."

  Getorius hesitated. "Even so, it's only a matter of time before the mob breaks inside. What possible difference could that make?"

  "Go inside!" Zoë screamed in her first loss of composure.

  As the group entered, the first rioters were heard at the barred entrance to the Gate of Charaxos, between the temple and library. Getorius, concerned about Apollonios, went to help Brisios bar the twin portals and noticed the physician half-stumbling toward the temple. "Wait! He's here."

  As Apollonios struggled up the stairs, holding an armful of scrolls and bound volumes, two of the books fell. Brisios ran down to pick them up, then helped the physician through a half-closed door. Inside, Getorius dropped an oak beam into its retaining brackets, effectively barring the portal.

  No pilgrims were in the building. The only light in the gloomy space was from votive candles and lamps burning at the base of Asklepios's statue. An animated shadow of the god on the wall mocked the impotent wooden effigy. Overhead, the circle of sky visible in the dome opening teemed with night stars.

  Zoë snatched two of the largest oil lamps off the statue's base, then returned to hand one each to Getorius and Arcadia. "We'll need these at the serpent pit."

  "Serpent pit?" Arcadia questioned. "For what?"

  The woman ignored her. "Brisios, there's a forked rod on the wall near the pit. Use it to push the reptiles aside as we climb down. Viazome! Hurry!"

  Peering into the marble-lined den from its railing, Arcadia shuddered. Getorius held his lamp out to look down. The pit was about seven feet on a side and four feet deep. Clods of regurgitated rodent fur and bones littered the floor. Their fetid odor and that of excrement fouled the den.

  Disturbed by the flickering lamps, the reptiles looped into coils. Slit-pupiled eyes angry, pink mouths wide, tongues flicking, the sacred serpents hissed threats at the night intruders.

  Zoë allowed herself a slight smile as she opened a gate in the railing. "The reptiles are harmless. Medica, hold your lamp farther over the rail. Brisios, keep the creatures away from that right wall, I'm going down to push open a marble slab. Help Apollonios and Arcadia into the pit. The surgeon will come in after them, and then you. Close the railing gate that it not betray us to the rioters."