Domina Victrix

Chapter 29: 24 AD, Antioch, Roman Syria

Dawn broke over Antioch as General Marcus and Bolt made their way into town. Smoke smudges were visible but not large. Workers and neighbors cleared rubble from the streets. People lined up for bread distribution and to find shelter in public buildings, which were open for that purpose. A patrol from the garrison spotted him and came to attention.

"As you were," Marcus said, hoping to avoid distraction.

Others began recognizing him and Bolt, clustered around their horses, and reached up to them. They shook several hands.

"How are you?" General Marcus asked them. "Do you have food? Is any of your family injured?"

Some had family members injured, others ill, but several dead. In the poorer areas of town destruction was worse and casualty counts high. Overall, though, their needs were being met and nobody appeared to be panicking. For a city that had suffered an earthquake a week ago, things were settling into a new normal. He and Bolt got to the townhouse as the sun rose in the morning sky. Marcus took his saddlebag and let himself in at the kitchen door as Bolt led their horses to the castrum.

"I'm home!" Marcus called out.

"Father!" Fortuna and Diana cried as they ran to him.

He embraced them and picked up Diana, who was sobbing, and set her on the kitchen table. He spoke to her while she calmed down enough to stop weeping.

"Victory is working aide stations today," Fortuna said.

He noticed she had a small posey of late summer daisies in her hand, tied in ribbon.

"For Uncle Lucius to give to Sarah's family," she said.

He hugged Diana and let her go with Fortuna, then met Lucius in the colonnade. He looked haggard and gaunt, his eyes sunken. Gray was visible in his hair. Not in uniform, he stood waiting for Marcus' first move. Marcus embraced his brother.

"Lucius, I am so sorry," Marcus said.

"For Tryphaena, as well," Lucius said. "My notes and lists are on your desk. Gallinus and a new Tribune, Messala, are touring the outlying towns. Father and Tryphaena have been taken to the castrum for the cremation. I had them moved late last night. I'll be back for the ceremony."

Marcus squeezed his shoulder.

"We'll talk later," he said.

Lucius took the flowers Fortuna handed him and hugged her and Diana. He left the house and walked along the street past the castrum and the vicus and turned down a side road toward a poor area of town. The synagogue had survived the quake with minimal damage, which he had already contributed to repair. For years, this congregation had met in random buildings. Most were slaves, freedmen, laborers, soldiers' families, and subsisting poor. Lucius had contributed to the building of a proper house of meeting and worship, and solicited donations from others among the Antony family's social circles.

He braced himself and entered the building at a side door. Sarah's wrapped body lay on a bier at the front of the main room where her family was gathered. A feature Lucius had insisted on in the building was a separate room so that Gentile family members or anyone ritually unclean could still hear or view the service without disturbing or polluting others. As an illegitimate son and a soldier who had spent the last week in a house with two dead bodies, that was his place. He found a seat on a bench and waited for the services to begin. This congregation was having to share their Rabbi with another whose leader had been killed, so there would be a delay.

Julius Verus came in and sat down, as did Aeneas Burrus, young Aeneas and Eli, Aulus Verus, and Aulus, Jr. They were the usual Sabbath crowd. As Lucius watched the congregants in the main room, someone settled down beside him on the bench and squeezed his hand. He looked into Bolt's large, dark eyes and warm, conspirator's grin.