DEATH
For thousands of years, the Egyptians buried their dead in the desert. The dry sands perfectly mummified the bodies—assuming jackals and hyenas didn't get them first. The Egyptians believed that the body must remain intact after death, or else the ka would be condemned to roam the desert for eternity.
Embalming the body preserved it for the ka in the otherworld. Burial preparations were customarily made in the Beautiful House, the equivalent of our present-day funeral home. The procedure could be as simple as stuffing the corpse with sawdust and wrapping it in linen, or as elaborate as crafting a gem-encrusted, solid-gold sarcophagus in the likeness of the deceased.
The most detailed primary source describing the process was written by Herodotus, a Greek historian, four hundred years before this story takes place. Embalmers first removed all the internal organs except the heart. The brain, considered worthless, was picked out through the nostrils and discarded; the other organs were wrapped in packages to be stored in Canopic jars. The body cavity was then cleansed and packed with natron to dry. When dry, the shriveled carcass was stuffed with sawdust and herbs and wrapped in linen soaked in glue. Amulets were often wrapped with the mummy to protect it on its journey.
Despite the Egyptians' belief that the otherworld was a place of enchantment, they didn't like to use the word death. The Valley of the Kings, where the Pharaohs were buried, was located on the other side of the Nile from where the Egyptians lived. When they wanted to communicate that someone had died, they would say that the deceased had "crossed to the other bank."
Although the tide sounds gloomy, the Book of the Dead was actually an instruction book for the joyful survival of the soul. In it there were chants and spells to guide the dead through the underworld and equip them with all that was needed to obtain eternal happiness in the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian heaven. The family of the deceased would commission a scribe to write on scrolls of papyrus specific spells chosen from the nearly two hundred available. The scroll would then be wrapped in the bandages of the mummy along with amulets for guidance and protection.
There were spells for every imaginable purpose. One spell was designed to empower the figurines known as shabti. The Egyptians viewed the otherworld as agricultural, like their own, with fields needing to be plowed, sowed, and harvested. The shabti acted as substitute workers, relieving the dead of hard labor.
MEDICINE
Medicine in ancient times was a combination of science and superstition. The Egyptians were advanced in their understanding of how the body worked and in their use of medicinal herbs, and yet they still clung to many old beliefs. A physician might adroitly set a broken bone—and then chant to the gods of healing to mend the break Some of the medicines of old are being reconsidered and are finding a place in modern medical practice. Maggots are still used today to remove dead tissue. They are efficient at their task and would probably be more widely used if people didn't find them repugnant.
Medicine often advances in the fields where physicians have opportunity to practice. Egypt, having been in relative peace in the years following Alexander's conquest, did not have physicians as experienced in caring for battle wounds as Rome did. It was not uncommon for Egyptian physicians to travel to Rome to learn methods for treating injuries suffered in war.
TRAVEL
Traveling in the ancient world was challenging. There were no commercial passenger ships as there are today. Travelers hitched a ride aboard whatever vessel was heading where they wanted to go. They brought everything they needed for the voyage, including bedding, cooking pots, and food. Although storms were always a concern, pirates had been cleared away by Pompey years before, so travel had become much safer.
The Greeks were known for wonderful seaworthy vessels, whereas the Romans were more comfortable on land than on water. The ships one might see in Alexandria's harbor ranged in size from the enormous cargo vessel used for transporting grain to Rome, to papyrus boats, so small they were more like floats that an Egyptian boy might use for pleasure or fishing. Ships were equipped with large square sails made of linen. The type of galley that Damon and Artemas traveled on had three levels: the upper deck, where passengers were expected to sleep and cook (in the open); the first level, where the gubernator and the captain had cabins; and the belly, where the oarsmen lived, shoulder to shoulder. The conditions below were so foul that disease was common, and rare was the voyage that didn't cost many oarsmen their lives.
Ships did not travel in the winter, not because of inclement weather, but because winter skies were often overcast, making navigation by the stars difficult.
Sailors were superstitious. Everything was seen as an omen. Sometimes ships did not leave port on the designated day because of a "sign." To sneeze on the gangplank meant dangerous seas, owls meant pirate attacks, and goats meant a storm—the darker the goat, the bigger the storm.
Travel by road in the Roman Empire was common and relatively comfortable. Rome's roads were among the finest feats of engineering in the ancient world. They were built by and for the Roman army and were designed to withstand all weather conditions. First the ground was carefully prepared for stability and to prevent erosion. Then huge polygonal paving stones were fit tightly together like a jigsaw puzzle, with the center of the road raised slightly so that rainwater would flow off to the sides. Then any cracks were packed with sand. Although the Romans tried to make the most of the natural terrain, if necessary they would cut into hillsides or dig tunnels rather than deviate too far from the most direct route.
Every Roman mile (one thousand five-foot paces), a marker indicating distances to different towns was placed along the road. The golden milestone, located in the Forum in Rome, was so named because the mileage to key cities was gilded on the stone.
In addition to the milestones along the road, there were also small shrines to Mercury, the patron of traveler. Passersby would toss a stone onto the pile to pay homage to the god. These mounds of stones came to be known as Mercury heaps.
CLEOPATRA, CAESAR, AND CICERO
The portrayal of Cleopatra in this story is based on the descriptions left by her own physician and the historian Plutarch. According to these accounts, she was not particularly beautiful. She was intelligent and ambitious and had a wonderful sense of humor. Her voice must have been melodic, for those who heard it never failed to mention its hypnotic tenor. Cleopatra had an affinity for languages and spoke at least a dozen; she was the only Pharaoh in the Ptolemy line the (Greek line of Pharaohs that followed Alexander's conquest in 552 B.C.) to learn Egyptian. She was known to be deeply inquisitive; nothing was too inconsequential to capture her full attention. Although Cleopatra did not have a drop of Egyptian blood in her, she adopted the Egyptian goddess Isis as her patron. This embracing of the Egyptian way of life, in the end, endeared her to her people.
The Romans viewed the Egyptians as ostentatious. To them Cleopatra represented the excessiveness of her country. They accused her of seducing Caesar and polluting his thoughts. It is hard to believe there is any truth to the idea that Cleopatra could corrupt the philandering Caesar, who was years her senior and hardly an innocent. Much of the surviving information about Cleopatra was written by her enemies, the Romans, coloring our impressions of her.
In the early months of 45 B.C., Caesar fought the battle of Munda, the end of a brutal campaign in Spain. At that time, Caesar was the most powerful man in the known world. His formidable leadership abilities had earned him a brilliant political and military career. He was said to be the greatest general since Alexander. He earned the loyalty of the men he vanquished as well as those he commanded. In the battlefield, Caesar lived like his men, without special privileges. He knew their names, their families, their histories, and in return he was loved by them. One of Caesars most admirable traits was his ability to forgive his enemies and be gracious in victory. His one insecurity was about his receding hairline, which he masked by wearing a laurel wreath.
Cicero was without dou
bt the finest orator of Roman times. His talent led him to law, and he was at his best when arguing cases before a jury. He was quoted as saying that a trial lawyer's skill lies in his ability to "throw dust in a juryman's eyes."
In Rome, greedy landlords were building the tinderbox that would burn under Nero. Using inferior materials and unsafe designs, builders threw tenements together to house the growing population. Cicero's conviction that it was the duty of the upper class to protect the rights of all makes it plausible that he might have argued a case against the landlords.
Cicero's disapproval of Cleopatra was public knowledge. Since Cleopatra held men of learning in high esteem, she must have been particularly hurt by this cultured man's snubbing.
Although Cicero's political support of Caesar was fickle at best, Caesar was generous to enemies he respected. He expressed his admiration for Cicero's work by saying that Cicero's pushing back the frontiers of the mind was more important to the Republic than his own conquests of land.
WARFARE
The Roman army was highly organized and efficient. It was made up of units called legions, each consisting of five thousand to six thousand men. The legions were subdivided into centuries, each consisting of about eighty men. Each century was commanded by a centurion, who was commanded by a tribune, who was commanded by a legate. Leadership posts were filled by the wealthier class.
Centurion instructors subjected new recruits to a grueling four-month basic training, where soldiers learned to run carrying sixty pounds of gear for as far as thirty miles. Mobility was essential to an army's ability to surprise the enemy and engage them unprepared.
Roman soldiers provided their own weapons and armor, making equipment far from standard. The wealthier the soldier, the better his gear. Although enlistment at this time was no longer dependent on financial status, Roman citizenship was required. Career military men were given generous pensions, often in the form of farms.
Egypt's army was not as discriminating as Rome's. It recruited debtors and criminals in an attempt to bolster numbers. Cleopatra was also trying to build a navy, but the endeavor took years. Lumber was scarce, and all the large Umbers used to build ships had to be brought via the Mediterranean from Byblos (near Beirut).
THE CIRCES MAXIMUS
At the Circus Maximus in Rome, games always ended in death—death for the animals, death for the gladiators, death for the entertainers. That such depravity was considered entertaining must have sickened outsiders like Damon and Artemas. Many historians now attribute the Romans' lust for these excessively violent spectacles to insanity caused by lead poisoning. The Romans drank from goblets made of a metal alloy that contained lead.
The games at the Circus Maximus usually were held in the daytime before crowds numbering as many as a quarter million. The most popular event was the chariot race, but as the population developed an increasing delight in gladiator combat, the Romans eventually built the Coliseum. The opening performances there continued nonstop for one hundred days, costing hundreds of gladiators and thousands of animals their lives.
While the Greek games honored the body and the Egyptians abhorred killing for sport, the Romans sought entertainment in bloodlust, accentuating basic cultural differences, deepening mutual distrust, and straining already brittle relationships. Nowhere was the clash of cultures more evident than in the inhuman brutality at the Circus Maximus.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
The very first bibliographies were created to catalog the Library of Alexandria's 700,000 scrolls.
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