The Alexandrian Embassy Read Online Free PDF Page A

completed his errand and that there would be four other brothers awaiting them at the gardens and he could delegate the unpleasant duty to Tigran and them.
    â€˜Don’t allow them to leave the garden complex, Tigran,’ Magnus ordered as Philo was reunited with the other members of his embassy, each one a greybeard and each one looking very much like the next, dressed as they all were in white, ankle-length robes, black and white mantles and wound cotton headdresses. He took the list of Jewish requirements that Gaius had supplied him with and handed it to Tigran. ‘And this is a list of what they won’t eat and when they won’t do stuff – it’s quite long. You can read, can’t you?’
    Tigran smiled as he looked at the scroll. ‘Yes, Magnus, Servius taught me. He’s a good teacher,’ he added pointedly. ‘No shellfish! Why ever not?’
    â€˜Who knows and who cares? And don’t try and eat with them as they don’t share the table with people not of their religion, apparently. Not that I suppose you were planning on making friends with them.’ He looked over at Philo who had seated himself beneath a pergola in front of the villa, at the garden’s centre, and was greeting each of his companions in turn and telling each one, at length, of his ordeal. ‘Have the lads guard the gate to the gardens. I’ve explained to Philo that they should stay here for their own safety and warned him that the common people are still angry with him and he faces fresh humiliation at the unwashed hands of the hoi polloi until I can talk to their leaders and clear up the misunderstanding that sparked it all off.’
    â€˜Are you really going to do that?’
    â€˜Bollocks I am. No, I’ve got business with Sempronius to pursue and a patronising middle-man to pull down from his perch.’
    â€˜Postumus disappeared a couple of hours before they found the body soon after dawn,’ Marius informed Magnus when he arrived back at the tavern at midday. ‘They pulled the poker out and took it back to Sempronius who was sacrificing at their lares altar. He left as soon as he’d finished the ritual and arrived back at his headquarters looking as if he wouldn’t mind heating up the poker and using it on someone himself.’
    Magnus took a deep draught of the warm, spiced wine that he was cradling in both hands and reflected for a few moments. Servius shuffled his accounts scrolls on the table next to him. ‘So, what happened to Postumus?’
    Marius shrugged. ‘We smelt fresh-baked bread, so I gave him some money to go and get a couple of loaves and some hot wine but he never came back. I reckon he spent my money in a brothel on the Vicus Patricius; he was very aroused after the poker episode.’
    Magnus nodded in agreement. ‘He’ll turn up and you can shake him for the money. As for Sempronius, I reckon that we can expect a revenge attack. We should double the lads watching our border with the West Viminal and give them some speedy small boys to run messages. Meanwhile, I need Sempronius to come into possession of a piece of information that will, I hope, be too much for him to resist.’
    â€˜What’s that, brother?’
    â€˜I want him to find out that I’m doing business with Tatianus and that I owe him an outstanding thousand denarii for a delivery that is due to arrive tomorrow, but since the theft of that money I’m struggling to raise the cash in time. Tatianus has said that he will sell the item to the first comer with the correct coinage even though I’ve already put down the deposit of a thousand.’
    Servius rubbed his clouded eyes. ‘Tatianus has been known to do that before. He always says that the deposit only guarantees that he will keep the consignment for a few hours and after thathe’ll sell to the first person with the right money so that he doesn’t compromise himself by