Everywhere the Romans went, the people gaped at this unwonted apparition. Some fled, but more came to the camps in the evenings to trade. They brought provisions of
all sorts, and the soldiers had plentiful Egyptian coin to pay.
Norbanus strictly forbade any mistreatment of the natives. He could not afford ill will at this stage.
"I cannot say that I understand their religious differences," Fimbria went on. "But some seem to think that sacrifices should be carried out one way, others say another. A few like to ape Greek culture and give their god only the
most cursory observance. There is a sect that live in all-male
communities in the desert and devote their whole lives to ritual. Their god interferes in and regulates the people's lives in ways that civilized gods do not."
Norbanus shrugged. "A man is born with his gods; he doesn't pick them. I suppose this odd deity suits these people. I am more concerned with their political situation, in any case."
They were nearing the major city. It would have been en
joyable, Norbanus thought, to appear before the walls of Jerusalem as a complete surprise, as they had appeared at
Beersheba, but this was not to be. They had been spied, and
fast-riding horsemen had pounded toward the capital to give warning. Even a Roman army could not outpace a gal
loping horse. Even so, he was sure that they would arrive be
fore expected. Whoever was in charge would assume that the approaching army would be moving at the pace common to most armies.
He had learned that southern Judea, the district locally called Judah, was under the control of a prince named Jonathan. The northern region, called Israel, was under Jonathan's cousin, named Manasseh. The northern kingdom
was larger, its men more numerous and its religious practice more fanatical. The southern was more sophisticated and its
king, while militarily weaker, had possession of the holy city.
The Romans had questioned informed men in Beersheba
and along their route of march and knew that this north-south split greatly predated the current dynastic dispute. In fact, it dated from before the unification of the country
nearly a thousand years earlier, when a king named Saul had
forged a nation out of a collection of tribes.
This nation, they were told, had flourished under a succession of brilliant kings, but for barely three generations. Then it had split once more under rival claimants, and that had been the situation for much of the time since. The land had fallen to a succession of conquerors, with Egypt domi
nating briefly, then Babylon, then Persia. Like everyone else, they had been conquered by Alexander, and then his Seleucid successor had taken over. One of the Seleucids had tried
to suppress the local religion and institute the worship of
Greek gods, and the whole region had erupted in furious rebellion, led by a family called the Maccabees. The two con
tending for rule at the moment were descendants of the Maccabees.
"Why so much fighting over this little place?" Lentulus Niger wondered. "It's decent farmland but I've seen better. The natives are sullen and have an outlandish religion. I doubt they'd even make good slaves."
"It must be the location," Cato said. They rode just behind Norbanus, ahead of the standard bearers. "To the east is just more of that desert. They live on this narrow coastal strip. That means that any army that wants to get to Egypt and Libya and northern Africa has to pass through here.
Likewise, Egyptian or Carthaginian armies headed for Syria have to pass through here. There's no place else to go, except
by sea."
"It must make life interesting here every few years," Niger said.
Late that day they came within sight of the city. Once it would have impressed them, but after the splendors of Carthage and Alexandria, it looked small and shabby. The acropolis pointed out to them as Temple Mount was the
only feature that seemed comparable to. the greater cities.
An army was drawn up between them and the city.
"Battle order, Commander?" Niger said.
"I estimate their numbers at less than six thousand," Norbanus said. "This is no more than a gesture—all that the local king could scrape together on short notice." He
looked around at the countryside. Most of it was open fields,
well cultivated. Like most towns in this part of the world, it owed its location to a reliable and abundant water source. "Find the nearest spring and pitch camp. I'll parley with the locals."
"You're not going to leave the army and put yourself in
the hands of foreigners, are you?" Niger said.
"I'm not a fool. I'll take the cavalry with me and halt a good distance from them. Then they can come to me." He gestured to his mounted trumpeter and the man blew a suc
cession of notes on his
lituus:
a straight horn with its funnel bent back sharply. It was so named for its resemblance to the crook-topped augur's staff, and it was used only by the cavalry. At the signal, the small cavalry force detached from its
flanking duties and rode forward to attend the general.
Norbanus looked them over before proceeding. Romans were notoriously poor cavalrymen. These were mostly wellborn young men, mainly of Gallic descent and some of them
sons of allied chieftains who lacked Roman citizenship. Their equipment was more ornate than that of the legionar
ies but resembled it in most details except for their flat, oval
shields, their longer swords and the short mail capes reinforcing the shoulders of their armor. They carried lances instead of javelins.
"Dust yourselves off and mount your plumes," Norbanus
ordered. "We're going to call on a foreign king."
The men did as ordered, chasing the road grime from their armor and taking the fragile feathers and the horsehair crests from the boxes tied behind their saddles. They
were too delicate and valuable for everyday wear and were
reserved for parade and battle, where the display was esteemed as intimidating to the enemy. When the commander deemed their glitter to be sufficient, they rode forward, toward the native force before the city.
They halted well out of bowshot and waited. After a few minutes, a small delegation rode out from the army opposite. They were well turned out, their equipment mostly of
Greek design, which was fashionable everywhere, it seemed. They reined up a hundred paces away and a man in splendid
armor rode forward alone.
"Who are you?" he said in Greek, "and what are your in
tentions? You trespass outrageously on the domain of King Jonathan of Judea. I demand to speak with your com
mander." His accent was very different from that of the local
people when they spoke Greek. This one spoke like Greek was his native tongue. Norbanus read him for a Greek mer
cenary. He had encountered many such since arriving in the
Mediterranean world.
"I am Proconsul Titus Norbanus of Rome, and I am the
commander of the army you see before you. We intend harm
to no one here and wish only to pass through this land. However, as Proconsul of Rome, I must deal directly with your king."
"You are commander and you come to parley in person?
Most irregular."
"Romans do things differently from most people. Kindly
let your king know that I would speak with him. As you see," he waved an arm behind him without looking, "my men are not preparing for battle. They are encamping." The man could not know how incredibly swift the legions were at going from encampment to battle order, and Norbanus had no intention of informing him. Best to lull people into confidence until it was too late.
The man eyed the Roman army. Men had stacked their shields against their spears, hung their helmets from the
shafts. They had their spades and pickaxes out and were digging. Some hauled baskets of earth. They looked more like
armored farmers than soldiers.
"I will go speak to His Majesty. He may summon you to a conference."
"Roman proconsuls are not summoned by anyone. He
can ride out here to speak with me and he will. I will erect a
tent on this spot for our meeting."
The mercenary snorted. "A king does not come from his palace to meet with a foreign general."
"Your king will. He'll have heard of Rome by now. He'll
be eager to meet with me. Go tell him I await him here."
The Greek rode off. Norbanus sent orders for his praetorium to be brought out and erected. His commanders grumbled that the traditional location for the praetorium was
inside the camp, but their general was adamant. They set up
the fine tent and before it erected a raised dais and upon it
set his curule chair, draped with animal pelts. To either side
of the chair were the shrines of his four legions and behind him stood the standard bearers of those legions, their heads and shoulders draped with skins of lion, wolf and bear, the aquilifers holding the four eagles, the signifers of the lesser
formations with their animal standards. The approach to the
praetorium was flanked on both sides by an honor guard of cavalry, now polished up to their full brilliance.
On the dais to both sides of him stood his senior commanders and the tribunes and legati in charge of the indi
vidual legions and the auxilia. There had been objections to
this. Many had pointed out that it was folly to separate the
entire senior staff from the legions, leaving them vulnerable to treachery by unknown foreigners. Norbanus had asserted
that the cavalry would be adequate to extricate them from any situation likely to arise and that he anticipated not hostility, but a proposal of alliance. His subordinates were unconvinced, but they were Romans and they obeyed.
When a mounted party approached from the small host opposite them, all but Norbanus assumed that it was but another officer sent to make arrangements for the king's arrival. In the lead was a man on a splendid white horse and behind him rode a half dozen elders and an honor guard of no more than twenty horsemen in Greek gear, one of them bearing a standard tipped by a six-pointed star.
"How long are they going to keep us waiting?" Cato
said. "We are prepared to receive royalty, not some flunky."
"I think this is the king," Norbanus said. "And I must say that I like his style."
"It's effective," Niger said grudgingly. "He can't hope to overawe us with a display of military might, so he rides in looking casual and confident." Others nodded and agreed.
Every officer there was not only a military professional but a
seasoned politician and veteran of the law courts and the voting enclosures. They had been drilled in the rhetorical arts as rigorously as with the sword, and they appreciated a clever, impressive display.
Head high, as if without a care in the world, the man rode between the guardsmen, who dipped their lances in unison. He nodded graciously to either side in acknowledgment of the salute. Drawing rein before the dais, he dis
mounted immediately, not waiting for an equerry. A Roman
slave stepped forward to take charge of his horse and the man strode to the dais.
His robe was white, girded by a golden sash. His long
coat was white as well and he wore soft, red boots with up
turned, pointed toes. He was a handsome man of about thirty years, with aquiline features. His hair was cut in the fashionable Greek style but his short beard was dressed in
small, tight ringlets in the Eastern fashion. His only weapon
was a long dagger thrust through his sash. He halted before the steps and touched a hand to his breast, inclining his head very slightly.
"Judah greets Rome," the king said.
Norbanus rose and descended the steps. He took the king by the hand. "Rome greets Jonathan, king of the Jews." Behind him, he knew that his subordinates were stricken as by the lightning of Jupiter. Their commander,
with no authority from the Senate, was recognizing this for
eigner as not only king of Judah, but of Israel as well!
Jonathan smiled. Norbanus led him up the steps to a
chair beside his own. He presented his officers and proffered
the compliments of the Senate and People of Rome. He
apologized for not presenting his army for a royal review, in
forming Jonathan that regulations required every Roman
legion to fortify its camp by nightfall, wherever it was. Even a proconsul could not ignore regulations. He promised a full
review the next day.
"Word had reached us that the Romans had returned to
Italy," Jonathan said. "I had expected to receive an embassy
within the next year or so, should—"
"Should the Carthaginians not exterminate us swiftly?" Norbanus finished for him.
"Forgive me, but the whole tale of your return seemed so
outlandish and unlikely, and the great might of Carthage so well known, that I thought it unlikely that I would ever see a Roman. I certainly did not expect four legions on my doorstep!" He laughed richly and Norbanus joined him.
"And now I may say that I am not at all displeased. As long as you do not abuse my subjects, you have full freedom of my country. I anticipate no difficulty, for I am already assured of your fine discipline."
"My men will not take a grain of wheat that is not paid for, nor will they molest your women. They will not be quartered upon your civilians but will stay housed in -their camps, and they will enter your towns only in small groups
of no more than ten. My quaestors," he gestured toward four
young officers, "are the bankers for their legions and will
confer with your merchants and supply officers for all goods
we need in bulk."