Domitia Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  AN ILL-OMEN.

  It was even so.

  The young girl had coaxed the big Briton to take her in a boat to thegalley, so as to meet and embrace her father, before he came on shore.

  She was a peculiarly affectionate child, and jealous to boot. She knewthat, so soon as he landed, his whole attention would be engrossed by hervery exacting mother, who moreover would keep her in the background, andwould chide should the father divert his notice from herself to his child.

  She was therefore determined to be the first to salute him, and to receivehis endearments, and to lavish on him her affection, unchecked by hermother.

  As for the slave, he knew that he would get into trouble if he compliedwith the girl's request, but he was unable to resist her blandishments.

  And now Domitia reached the side of the galley, and a rope was cast to theboat, caught by Eboracus, who shipped his oars, and the little skiff wasmade fast to the side of the vessel.

  The eyes of the father had already recognized his child. Domitia stood inthe bows and extended her arms, poised on tiptoe, as if, like a bird aboutto leap into the air and fly to his embrace.

  "DOMITIA EXTENDED HER ARMS." _Page 10._]

  And now he caught her hand, looked into her dancing, twinkling eyes, asdrops of the very AEgean itself, set in her sweet face, and in anothermoment she was clinging round his neck, and sobbing as though her heartwould break, yet not with sorrow, but through excess of otherwiseinexpressible joy.

  For an hour she had him to herself--all to herself--the dear father whom shehad not seen for half a year, to tell him how she loved him, to hear abouthimself, to pour into his ear her story of pleasures and pains, greatpleasures and trifling pains.

  And yet--no, not wholly uninterrupted was the meeting and sweet converse,for the father said:

  "My darling, hast thou no word for Lucius?"

  "Lamia! He is here?"

  The father, Cnaeus Domitius Corbulo, with a smile turned and beckoned.

  Then a young man, with pleasant, frank face, came up. He had remained at adistance, when father and daughter met, but had been unable to withdrawhis eyes from the happy group.

  "Domitia, you have not forgotten your old playmate, have you?"

  With a light blush like the tint on the petal of the rose of June, thegirl extended her hand.

  "Nay, nay!" said Corbulo. "A gentler, kinder greeting, after so long aseparation."

  Then she held up her modest cheek, and the young man lightly touched itwith his lips.

  She drew herself away and said:

  "You will not be angry if I give all my thoughts and words and looks to myfather now. When we come on shore, he will be swallowed up by others."

  Lamia stepped back.

  "Do not be offended," she said with a smile, and the loveliest, mostbewitching dimples came into her cheeks. "I have not indeed been withoutthought of you, Lucius, but have spun and spun and weaved too, enough tomake you a tunic, all with my own hands, and a purple _clavus_--it nighruined me, the dyed Tyrian wool cost(1)--I will not say; but I wove littlecrossed L's into the texture."

  "What," said Corbulo. "For Lucius and Longina?"

  The girl became crimson.

  Lamia came to her succor. "That could not be," said he, "for Longina andLucius are never across, but alack! Lucius is often so with Lamia, when hehas done some stupid thing and he sees a frown on his all but father'sface, but hears no word of reproach."

  "My boy," said Corbulo, "when a man knows his own faults, then a reprimandis unnecessary, and what is unnecessary is wrong."

  Lamia bowed and retired.

  And now again father and daughter were alone together in the prowobserving the arc of the harbor in which the ship was gliding smoothly.

  And now the sailors had out their poles and hooks, and they ran the vesselbeside the wharf, and cast out ropes that were made fast to bronze ringsin the marble breasting of the quay.

  Domitia would at once have drawn her father on shore, but he restrainedher.

  "Not yet, my daughter," he said; "the goddess must precede thee."

  And now ensued a singular formality.

  From the bows of the vessel, the captain and steerer took a statuette ofArtemis, in bronze, the Ephesian goddess, with female head and numerousbreasts, but with the lower limbs swaddled, and the swaddling bandsdecorated with representations of all kinds of beasts, birds, and fishes.

  This image was now conveyed on shore, followed by the passengers and crew.

  On the quay stood an altar, upon which charcoal ever burnt, under thecharge of a priest who attended to it continuously, and whenever a shipentered the port or was about to leave, added fuel, and raked and blew upthe fire.

  Simultaneously from a small temple on the quay issued a priest with veiledhead, and his attendants came to the altar, cast some grains of incense onthe embers, and as the blue fragrant smoke arose and was dissipated by thesea breeze, he said:--

  "The Goddess Aphrodite of Corinth salutes her divine sister, theMany-Breasted Artemis of Ephesus, and welcomes her. And she further praysthat she may not smite the city or the port with fire, pestilence orearthquake."

  Then captain, steerman, pilot and the rest of the company advanced inprocession to the temple, and on reaching it offered a handful of sweetgums on an altar there, before the image of the foam-born goddess ofBeauty, and said:--

  "We who come from the sea, having safely traversed the AEgean, escapedrocks and sand-banks, whirlpools and storms, under the protection of thegreat goddess of Ephesus, salute in her name the goddess of Beauty, andreceive her welcome with thankfulness. And great Artemis beseeches hersister to suffer her and the vessel with passengers and goods and crew,that she conducts and protects, to pass across the isthmus, without letand molestation; and she for her part undertakes to pay the accustomedtoll, and the due to the temple of Aphrodite, and that neither thepassengers nor the crew shall in any way injure or disturb the inhabitantsof Corinth or of the Isthmus."

  This ceremony concluded, all were at liberty to disperse; the sailors toattend to the vessel, the slaves of Corbulo to look to and land such ofhis luggage as he was likely to want, and Corbulo to go to his wife, whohad placed herself in an attitude to receive him.

  The captain, at the same time, entered the harbor-master's office toarrange about the crossing of the isthmus, and to settle tolls.

  For the vessel was not to make more stay than a few days at the port ofCenchraea. After Longa Duilia was ready, then she and her husband andfamily were to proceed to Lechaeum, the port on the Corinthian Gulf, thereto embark for Italy. The vessel would leave the harbor and go to Diolchus,that point of the Isthmus on the east where the neck of land wasnarrowest. There the ships would be hauled out of the water, placed onrollers, and by means of oxen, assisted by gangs of slaves, would conveythe vessel over the land for six miles to the Gulf of Corinth, where againshe would be floated.

  Immediately behind the Roman general, Corbulo, the father of Domitia,walked two individuals, both wearing long beards, and draped to the feet.

  One of these had a characteristically Oriental head. His eyes were setvery close together, his nose was aquiline, his tint sallow, his eyebrowsheavy and bushy, and his general expression one of cunning and subtlety.His movements were stately.

  The other was not so tall. He was clumsy in movement, rugged in feature,with a broken nose, his features distinctly Occidental, as was his bullethead. His hair was sandy, and scant on his crown. He wore a smug,self-complacent expression on his pursed-up lips and had a certain "I amSir Oracle, let no dog bark" look in his pale eyes.

  These two men, walking side by side, eyed each other with ill-concealeddislike and disdain.

  The former was a Chaldaean, who was usually called Elymas, but affected inGreek to be named Ascletarion.

  The latter was an Italian philosopher who had received his training inGreece at a period when all syste
ms of philosophy were broken up andjostled each other in their common ruin.

  No sooner was the ceremony at an end, and Corbulo had hastened from thewharf to meet and embrace his wife, and Lamia had drawn off Domitia for afew words, than these two men left to themselves instinctively turned tolaunch their venom at each other.

  The philosopher, with a toss of his beard, and a lifting of his lighteyebrows, and the protrusion of his lower lip said:

  "And pray, what has the profundity of Ascletarion alias Elymas beheld inthe bottom of that well he terms his soul?"

  "He has been able to see what is hidden from the shallowness of ClaudiusSenecio alias Spermologos(2) over the surface of which shallowness hissoul careers like a water spider."

  "And that is, O muddiness?"

  "Ill-luck, O insipidity."

  "Why so?--not, the Gods forfend, that I lay any weight on anything you maysay. But I like to hear your vaticinations that I may laugh over them."

  "Hear, then. Because a daughter of Earth dared to set foot on the vesselconsecrated to and conducted by Artemis before that the tutelary goddesshad been welcomed by and had saluted the tutelary deity of the land."

  "I despise your prophecies of evil, thou crow."

  "Not more than do I thy platitudes, O owl!"

  "Hearken to the words of the poet," said the philosopher, and he startedquoting the OEdipus Tyrannus: "The Gods know the affairs of mortals. Butamong men, it is by no means certain that a soothsayer is of more accountthan myself!" And Senecio snapped his fingers in the face of the Magus.

  "Conclude thy quotation," retorted Elymas. "'A man's wisdom may surpassWisdom itself. Therefore never will I condemn the seer, lest his wordsprove true.' How like you that?" and he snapped his fingers under the noseof the philosopher.