“Yes,” replied Eleazar, “quite a fair sample; some of the grain from Upper Egypt is better, but then some is worsethat, for instance, from the Moeris country, where the canals were not more than half filled.”
“And the price?” asked the older man.
“Well,” said the other, “the price is a very serious matter. It is pretty high now; but no one can say what it will rise to. Let me tell you what I have done. Early last month I bought a million medimni, to be delivered before the end of May, at a hundred and twenty-five sesterces the medimnus. (Footnote: An Egyptian medimnus equalled three bushels. These and other measures differed as much as our own used to do. A hundred and twenty-five sesterces may be reckoned at ?1. This would be equivalent to about fifty-four shillings the quarter, nearly double the price at which it is standing at the present moment in England. It may be remembered that silver and gold were worth more, that is, could purchase more, weight for weight, than they can do now. The penny, “denarius,” of the New Testament was a silver coin weighing about three-fifths of a shilling or a little over sevenpence; but more could be bought for it. It was a fair daily wage for a labourer.) I felt that so far [20] I could not be wrong. Well, I could have sold the wheat the day before I started at one hundred and sixty, and I haven’t the least doubt in the world that it will go much higher.”
Manasseh and his son looked very grave. They had hoped for a rise and, as has been seen, stood to win considerably by it; the supercargo’s bargain meant a gain of at least ?250,000but (Footnote: I use now, and shall use hereafter, English equivalents for quantities and prices.) there might easily be too much of a good thing. The State had a way of interfering when prices rose above all bearing, and private interest went to the walls. And nowhere was this more likely to happen than at Rome.
“You have done quite right,” said Manasseh after a pause; “and I should not have complained if you had bought five times the quantity. But I must confess that I don’t like the prospect. The Treasury is in a very poor way. This fine [21] new harbour has cost an enormous sum of money; so have the drainage works and the aqueducts and the markets. And then for every pound honestly spent another pound has been stolen. Those two scoundrels of freedmen, Pallas and Narcissus, must have at least two million apiece. These are the lions, and there are whole herds of jackals and wolves that are fed to the full. Every farthing comes out of the Treasury. Now what I want to know is thishow is the corn that is given away every week to be paid for? We are under contract to supply a hundred thousand bushels every month. We have guarded against a rise in price, but not against such a rise as this. The Treasury won’tin fact, it can’tpay the price that we ought to ask. I see trouble ahead.”
It is needless to repeat the subsequent conversation. The practical conclusion arrived at was to buy up all the wheat that could be got, before the impending scarcity became a matter of public knowledge. There would have to be large concessions in the way of prices; but this would hurt them the less, the stronger they could make their position or holding. It was arranged that Eleazar should enjoy the hospitality of his uncle’s house as long as he remained in Italy. The Twin Brothers would discharge her cargo with all possible speed, and return to Alexandria, with a [22] cargo, if this could be found at a short notice, but in any case without delay, and the supercargo would return with her. His acquaintance with the conditions of the Alexandria wheat market made his presence indispensable, especially at so critical a time.
IN THE JEWS’ QUARTER
[23] MANASSEH and Raphael had granaries, with an office and a permanent staff, at Ostia. When instructions had been given for the unlading and storing of the cargo of The Twin Brothers, the business calling for their personal attention was concluded, and they prepared to return to Rome. A pair of fast-trotting horses were scarcely an hour in traversing the twelve miles that lay between the harbour and the city. The road, lying generally along the right bank of the Tiber, though not following the windings of the river, was almost level and in admirable condition. Entering by the harbour gate, they passed through the famous Gardens which the first of the Caesars had bequeathed to the Roman people, and so reached the Jewish Quarter. Manasseh’s home lay a little to the right of the road, occupying a slight elevation, probably artificial, from which it overlooked the Gardens, [24] while a garden of its own of a size quite unusual within the city walls led down to the river. Eleazar excused himself from joining his relatives at dinnerthey dined at four, a happy compromise, as they thought, between two, the favourite hour of the fashionable and luxurious, and six, the time commonly affected by men of business.
Eleazar was bound for the other end of the Quarter, a region of shops and factories. He had no difficulty in finding the place of which he was in search. It was a factory where the hair of the goats that roamed over the hills of Rough Cilicia (Footnote: Cilicia was divided into two regions, named respectively Rough (Tracheia) and Plain (Pedias).) was worked up into tents, rugs and the like. A large building, as it appeared in those days, though it would be absolutely insignificant compared with the huge factories of modern times, it was occupied by some thirty workers, all men and boysthe Jew then, as now, does not approve of his womenkind doing any work not domesticbusy combing the hair weaving the cloth and pressing and otherwise preparing for use the manufactured material. A man of middle age, somewhat insignificant in appearance, as far as stature was concerned, but with a singularly pleasing and expressive coun- [25] tenance, was moving about among the workers and examining the results of their labour. Obviously he was the master of the place, or his representative, and Eleazar, approaching him with a respectful salutation, put into his hands a letter addressed to “Asa ben Ephraim, otherwise Caius Cilnius Aquila, at his house in the Janiculum at Rome.” The letter was written in Aramaic, which may be called the modern or popular form of Hebrew, but was arranged in Roman form. It ran thus
“Lucius Cilnius Aquila of Alexandria to his brother Caius heartily greeting.
“I commend to you and to my sister, your most honoured consort, the bearer of this epistle, Eleazar ben Nathaniel, an inhabitant of this city, a young man zealous of all good things, and filled with a most laudable desire to increase his knowledge of such matters as concern the spiritual life. I am assured that he is altogether faithful and trustworthy. Nevertheless there are certain things, which, especially in these days, it is better not to write with paper and ink, but to communicate by word of mouth. For this reason I leave the young man himself to set forth to you that which is in his mind. Farewell.”
As Aquila read the letter, the brightness of his face seemed to grow more intense.
[26] “All my brother’s friends are mine,” he cried. “And when did you see my dear brother last? Was he quite well?”
“Quite well when I saw him, and that was just a fortnight since. He gave me this the night before I sailed, and I landed this very morning at Ostia.”
“You bring good news,” said Aquila. “You are in every way welcome. But where are you lodging? Won’t you take up your quarters with us?”
Eleazar explained that he was his uncle’s guest.
“Ah,” said Aquila with a smile, “we must not meddle with what is Manasseh’s, guest, or business, or anything else. But you can give us your company at supper?”
“Yes, with pleasure,” replied Eleazar. “I excused myself from the meal at my uncle’s, because I did not know when I should be free.”
“Come, then,” said Aquila, “follow me,” and he conducted his guest along a short covered way which connected the factory with the private dwelling. Throwing aside a curtain which covered the end of the passage, he led the way into a small plainly furnished chamber. Its sole occupant was a lady who sat with bent head over a piece of embroidery.
[27] “A friend of our dear Lucius, my Priscilla,” said Aquila.
When the lady rose from her place to greet him, Eleazar thought that he had never seen a nobler looking woman. That she was not a countrywoman of his own he felt sure. At least he had never seen a Hebrew lady with so commanding a figure, with such a wealth of golden hair, and a complexion of such dazzling brightness. And, indeed, Priscilla was no countrywoman of his. He was but seldom at Rome, his business keeping him by far the greatest part of his time at Alexandria. But for this he would probably have heard of an affair which had caused no little surprise, not to say scandal, in fashionable circles in the capital, when one of the most beautiful and high born of Roman maidens had married a Jewish merchant. Priscafor that was the lady’s name, Priscilla being a half-humorous diminutive suggested by her unusual staturebelonged to the ancient house of the Fabii. This was one of the very few great patrician houses which had survived into the days of the Empire. Her father, a Fabius Maximus, who claimed direct descent from the great general who had been the first Roman to meet Hannibal in the field of battle without disaster, had enjoyed the perilous privilege of friendship with the Emperor [28] Augustus, and had been brought to his end by his inconvenient knowledge of a State secret. (Footnote: Augustus, who had virtually nominated his stepson Tiberius as his successor on the Imperial throne, was supposed to have contemplated a change before the end of his life. One of his grandsons, children of his daughter Julia, was living in enforced seclusion, on account of his savage and untractable temper, on the little island of Placentia (Pianosa, near Elba). A scheme for recalling him was set on foot. Fabius was privy to it, and it was the cause of his death.) His family were naturally out of favour with Augustus’ successor, and had suffered both in property and in social position. Still, it had the prestige of a pedigree which went back far into mythical times, and the young Fabia, who was a child of some three years at her grandfather’s death, might have made a splendid marriage, had she so willed it, when the time came. But things were otherwise ordered for her. Her most intimate friend was a married woman, Pomponia Graecina by name, some fifteen years older than herself, the wife of a Roman noble, who was afterwards to be one of the most distinguished soldiers of his time. (Footnote: Aulus Plautius, who commanded the Roman force in Britain A.D. 43-47, and reduced the southern part of the island to subjection.) The young Fabia was in her eighteenth year, when her friend’s husband was raised to the Consulship. In the course of his official duties, Plautius came into contact with [29] a young Jew. The occasion was of no particular importance, a civil suit in which the Jew was a plaintiff, seeking to recover the value of some jewellery which he had made for a customer. The articles were exhibited in Court, and the Consul was struck with the elegance of design and the delicacy of workmanship which they displayed. He gave the young man a commission, and the commission brought him in course of time to the Consul’s private residence. The jewellery was naturally submitted to the Consul’s wife. Fabia happened to be visiting her friend when the Jew with his wares was introduced. Both ladies were struck with a novel design which they saw repeated on some of the articles, familiar enough to us, but then a novelty even among Christians, and of course absolutely strange to any one outside the narrow circle of believers (Footnote: I mean the symbol known as the Fish.)