Domina Victrix

Chapter 51: 27 AD, Mauretania, Caesaria, and Antioch

Victoria held three-year-old Selene close as the ship carrying them away from Caesarensis slipped out of the harbor. Earlier that morning, she had said goodbye to four-year-old Prince Ptolemy, two-year-old Juba Claudius, and month-old Alexander Julius. They were now the sons of King Ptolemy and Queen Urania. She was redundant.

King Ptolemy was gracious. Victoria would keep her title as Princess, even when she remarried. He would have allowed Victoria an estate in Caesarensis and an allowance, and to keep her midwife practice. She could offer other medical care to her regular patients and rebuild her medical practice. But she was aware that King Ptolemy, General Marcus, and even Tiberius were tossing her name around, and that a potential bridegroom was her cousin Claudius, Germanicus' own brother. She was young and fertile, an Antony with the royal blood of Pontus and Armenia. She would be married to somebody, like it or not, but Claudius was not an option. He was a good friend, an interesting correspondent, but that was as far as it went. She could never practice in Rome. Her best hope lay with her father, and in finding a husband among his officers who might support her work. She needed to go home.

Then Flavius Messala's name came up. She had known him, and treated his skin lesions. He seemed decent enough. A talented horseman, he had a young daughter. Like Victoria, he had lost so much when his wife died. Victoria, though, wanted to meet and speak with him again before saying yes. She would stop first in Alexandria, to see Lucius and Layla, then head to Caesarea to see Bolt and Eleni and meet Flavius' family. Demetrius was also going. King Ptolemy had given him his freedom and he was seeking a position in either Ephesus or Pergammom, noted for their medical colleges.

As the landmarks of Caesarensis fell below the horizon, she carried Selene below and put her to bed for a nap. Leaving her with the nursemaid, Victoria went to her cabin, and cried her eyes out.

....

Bolt opened a tablet containing his latest daily report, seeing Pilate's notes and corrections. They still had not spoken to one another, but they were coexisting for now. Bolt and Flavius opened the office each morning. Bolt dropped his report in Pilate's box, and went to his office in the stables. After lunch, he would return, pick up Pilate's notes and memos, and skim the snide remarks to find out what he needed to do.

He saw a copy of a letter from the commander of Antipas' Provincial forces, requesting an audience with Pilate. The Governor was still smarting from Tiberius' disapproval of the incident in Jerusalem and bent on his own personal pissing match with Antipas. He passed the letter to Bolt with the terse command to 'deal with it'. Bolt decided to take him at his word and picked up a stylus to reply.

....

General David bar Simon looked over a report detailing yet another tense standoff between a Provincial patrol and its Roman counterpart at a tax office in Capernaum. Both the Romans and Antipas collected taxes from the overburdened population. It was common knowledge that tax collectors fleeced the people for extra money, and they were universally loathed. Spring and summer were the time when most taxes were due and tensions were high. It was not uncommon for tax offices to be vandalized, and convoys of money to be attacked. Both the Roman and Provincial forces sent out patrols to guard these resources and collisions were inevitable.

In Caperneum, a Roman tax office was the scene of a protest and riot. The Passover fiasco was still raw, and the common people were fed up with Rome and the Herods. As Roman auxilliaries guarded the office, they were heckled by the crowd. A Provincial patrol, guarding a local tax office nearby, was getting the same treatment. The crowd grew, tempers flared, and the Decanus in charge of the Roman squad shoted an ultimatum to his Provincial counterpart.

"Deal with these people, or we will!"

Stung by the stupidity of the comment, the Provincial Commander told him where to stuff it. The two groups began exchanging words. Ringed by angry townspeople, they forgot about the revenue they were supposed to be guarding and squared off as the crowd egged them on. Local leaders managed to calm the people and the respective patrols went back to work without coming to blows. But it was one close call among many.