Furies Read online

  Furies by D.L.Johnstone

  © D.L.Johnstone 2012, All Rights Reserved

  http://www.dljohnstone.com

  http://twitter.com/DLJohnstone1

  Cover Design: Jeoren Ten Berge

  http://jeroentenberge.com/

  Map Design: Ryan Mason

  [email protected]

  http://machinesofbloodandbone.blogspot.com

  Author Photo: Martin Cho

  eBook formatting: Linda Boulanger

  http://treasurelinebooks.weebly.com/

  Proof Editor: Karen Gold

  Electronic Edition Published: December 2012

  AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Excluding historical figures, any names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Given that it’s set in 36 CE, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

  Table of Contents

  Map

  Characters

  Glossary of Terms

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chalk Valley Excerpt

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  To see an enlarged copy of the Alexandria AD Aegyptum 36 CE map and other background information on FURIES, please visit D.L. Johnstone’s blog at:

  http://dljohnstone.com/furies/alexandria_map-final/

  I shall not speak in riddles anymore.

  Be witness that I smell out swiftly

  The tracks of evil that have long been done.

  There is a choir that never leaves this roof,

  Unmusical, in concert, unholy.

  And it has grown drunken and overbold

  On human blood, it riots through this house,

  Unriddable blood-cousins, the Furies.

  Aescylus - The Oresteia - 458 BC

  Dramatis Personae

  Decimus Tarquitius Aculeo

  Luculla Titiana – Aculeo’s wife

  Atellus – Aculeo and Titiana’s son

  Sekhet – Egyptian healer/funerary attendant

  Merchants & Bankers

  Vibius Herrenius Corvinus – Aculeo’s business partner (deceased)

  Marcellus Gurculio – Roman moneylender

  Iovinus – Middleman for Corvinus and the moneylenders

  Marcus Augendus Gellius – Aculeo’s friend

  Trogus – Gellius’ partner

  Bitucus – associate of Aculeo

  Gaius Durio Pesach – friend of Iovinus, enslaved to a fullery

  Lucius Albius Ralla – prominent banker in Alexandria

  Posidippus of Cos – another middleman for Corvinus

  Marcellus Flavianus – Roman investor

  Hetairai & Pornes

  Calisto

  Neaera – porne at the Blue Bird, lover of Iovinus

  Myrrhine – hetaira, friend of Calisto

  Panthea – brothel keeper at the Blue Bird

  Tyche – porne at the Blue Bird

  Petras – cousin of Neaera

  Philomena – street porne

  Sophists at the Museion

  Zeanthes of Araethyrea – friend of Calisto’s

  Epiphaneus of Cyrene – associate of Zeanthes

  Hipparchus – guest at Ralla’s symposium

  Sostra of Nicaea – associate of Epiphaneus

  Others

  Xanthias – Aculeo’s slave

  Gnaeus, Viator & Vibius – Gurculio’s freedman and slaves

  Marcus Aquillius Capito – Junior Magistrate of Alexandria, friend of Aculeo

  Apollonios – a recluse

  Harpalus – brother of Apollonios

  Idaia – ward of Calisto

  Machon & Dryton – Public Order Officers

  Avilius Flaccus– Roman Prefect of Egypt

  Avilius Balbus – Son of the Roman Prefect

  Callixenes – a freedman

  Glossary of Terms

  Objects & Places

  Agora – the city’s marketplace

  As – a brass coin worth ¼ of a sesterce (NB. Egypt, after falling under Roman rule, operated using Roman currency)

  Emporion – a warehouse area used for storage and trade

  Heptastadion – A causeway built to connect the Island of Pharos with the mainland; it was seven stades in length, hence the name (hepta=7)

  Hermes posts – wooden or stone mile-posts carved in the shape of erect penises (don’t ask)

  Hippodrome – a horse-racing stadium on the eastern edge of the city

  Library – the forerunner to our modern libraries, the Library of Alexandria was said to house every written work known to man. Lost to fire and the actions of religious zealots.

  Mollosus dog – a now-extinct breed of dog common in the Greek and Roman times, and an ancestor of today’s Mastiffs

  Museion – home to the scholars and those who came to Alexndria for academic pursuits

  Necropolis – City of the Dead, where the remains of citizens were mummified or cremated

  Pharos – the Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world

  Sarapeion – the main temple of Sarapis

  Sesterce – (may also be spelled sestertius) currency worth 4 asses. Higher denominations include denarii, aureii and talents; for simplicity sake, and based on readings of the time, I’ve used sesterces as the common measure

  Soma – mausoleum which housed the remains of Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies and their spouses, found in the centre of the city

  Stade – a unit of measure, approximately 100 yards in length (root of the modern word stadium, which is, of course, 100 yards long)

  The Five Districts of Alexandria

  Alpha – the Palace district, which housed the Ptolemeic palaces and assorted government buildings, said to house

  Beta – known to exist but unclear what part of the city it occupied; I too poetic license and placed it just below Alpha as a wealthy but non-aristocratic area

  Gamma – as with Beta, it was known to exist but without more specific information I chose to place it beteen Beta district and the southern edge of the city on the shores of Lake Mareotis and the Canopic Canal

  Delta – the Jewish district, at the eastern section of the city. The Jews were believed to make up about 20% of the city’s population at their peak and, unlike most cities in the Roman Empire, were permitted to be citizens of Alexandria with all the rights and prviliges th
at went along with it (partly courtesy of a substantial head-tax they paid every eyar)

  Epsilon – otherwise known as Rhakotis, the original fishing village around which Alexandria was founded; home of the substantial native Egyptian population

  Gods

  Anubis – Egyptian god of the dead (the jackal-headed god)

  The Furies – Greek/Roman goddesses of the Underworld, responsible for avenging murder victims

  Hades (Pluto) – Greek (Roman) god of the Underworld

  Harpocrates – the Egyptian hawk-headed god, and child of Isis and Osiris

  Isis – the Egyptian goddess of fertility; Isis Pharia is the status of Isis on the island of Pharos

  Janus – the two-faced god, god of gateways and root of the month Januarius (looking forward to year ahead and back to prior year)

  Poseidon (Neptune) – god of the Sea

  Sarapis – Alexandria’s patron god of the city, created by the Ptolemies to centralize the citizens’ worship; very popular god at the time so it looks like it worked

  Zeus (Jupiter) – Greek (Roman) god, led the other gods; Zeus-Soter is the name of the statue of Zeus at the top of the lighthouse as it was commissioned by Ptolemy-Soter

  People

  Fellahin – the native Egyptian population; typically treated as second class citizens, somewhere between slaves and Romans; over the centuries, intermarriage made such divisions harder to distinguish

  Hetairai – high-class courtesans

  Murmillone – a type of gladiator, typically matched vs a retarius

  Negotiatore – a middle-man who would represent the business interests of investor, either locally or from elewhere in the Empire

  Porne – a prostitute; of a lower ‘rank’ than hetarii

  Praegenarii – a clown who would be used to entertain the audiences between gladiatorial contests; often they were dwarves

  The Ptolemies – the Royal dynasty that ruled Egypt, from (Alexander the Great’s general) Ptolemy-Soter in 331 BCE to Cleopatra VII Philopater in 30 BC. The last true Ptolemy would have been Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, who murdered by Augustus Caesar after Rome’s victory in Egypt, thus consolidating any would-be claims to the throne

  Thrattia – a derogatory term for a bar maid – means ‘of Thrace’

  Decimus Tarquitius Aculeo gazed bleakly about his stylish multi-level villa. It looked so desolate now with the crates and chests filled with every last stitch and stick of the family’s fine belongings, now stacked up in the vestibulum and along the main hallway like vegetables heading off to market. Most of the furniture was already gone while that which remained was covered in sheets of canvas, ready to be taken. The moneylender’s slaves walked back into the house, marching right through the front gate bold as could be, their sandals caked with dust from the street, ready to heft the next load into the wagon. Aculeo clenched his jaw as he watched them, wanting for all the world to kick them out into the street, but holding his tongue. Gnaeus, the toad-like little freedman, strutted about the villa, chest puffed out, touching everything with his grubby hands, barking out orders on what should be taken next.

  Titiana watched from the edge of the tablinum, her lovely face expressionless, a plain woollen travelling cloak wrapped tightly around her graceful shoulders. Her hair, gleaming and black, an elegant contrast to her alabaster skin, was tied back in a simple Cypriot braid beneath her veil. Her hands lay on the shoulders of little Atellus who sat at her side on a pretty couch, the one with the ivory legs and mother-of-pearl inlaid like flower petals along the arms, which they had bought only last summer. So long ago, last summer. Back when the world itself seemed to lay at their feet.

  “Titiana …” Aculeo started.

  She turned away, gazing out the window, her perfect lips pressed tight together, the very picture of decorum. Titiana would never have risked saying something that would embarrass the family, even in front of slaves. Not even now. He couldn’t help but recall the way her eyes had shined with delight the first day they’d wandered through the atrium, when? Only two years ago? Was that possible? The way she’d clutched his arm in excitement as they’d strolled for the first time through its Aswan marble halls to the garden colonnade with its fine statuary, elegant box hedges and sparkling fish ponds. Oh, and the exceptional view of the city from the rear atrium – she’d actually gasped at the sight. Truly it was the finest home in all Alexandria. Now to be auctioned off to the highest bidder like some wretched old fellahin shack. It was all too much!

  Viator, the bald slave, snatched up the Etruscan amphora set in a central nook of the wall, clearly a place of honour. Titiana flinched, her cheeks flushed, but she held her silence.

  “Put that down,” Aculeo snapped.

  “My master told us to take it all,” Viator said.

  “Your master can get buggered by a radish.” Atellus looked up at his father, his eyes wide in surprise, but remained silent as his mother. “That was never part of it.”

  Gnaeus appeared, took the amphora from Viator, smearing the splendid black and red surface of the double-handled amphora with his greasy fingerprints. “It’s not worth much anyway,” he said, pursing his lips. “Two hundred sesterces perhaps.”

  “It’s a classic piece, worth twenty times that,” Aculeo seethed.

  Gnaeus scratched at his beard - probably swarming with fleas, Aculeo thought. “Three hundred at most,” the freedman said with a shrug.

  “Just put it …”

  “Oh what does it matter?” Titiana said irritably. “I’m surprised you didn’t pawn it as well.”

  “I could never have done that,” Aculeo said. “I gave it to you on our first anniversary.”

  She sighed and turned to Gnaeus. “Five hundred.”

  “Titiana, no …”

  “Is it mine or not, Aculeo?”

  “Of course, but …”

  “It’s a long journey to Rome and we need silver more than an old amphora.” She turned her attention back to the freedman. “Five hundred. No more haggling, I’m not a fishwife in the Agora.”

  Gnaeus smirked and counted out the coins, then passed the amphora to Viator. “Box it up with the rest.”

  “Back to work, leeches,” the old slave Xanthias snapped, herding them out of the tablinum. “Leave the Master and Mistress be!”

  The moneylenders’ slaves returned to stripping the contents out of the villa, stacking the fauces with more crates, tables, chairs, tapestries unhooked from the walls, preparing to load it all into the mule wagons parked outside the gates.

  “Titiana, if you’d only just listen to me,” Aculeo whispered, kneeling on the floor at her feet, trying to take her small hand in his. She gently but firmly pulled it from his grasp.

  Little Atellus beamed at his father. “Why you on the floor, Poppa?” he asked.

  Aculeo felt his heart break at the child’s sweet beauty, his plump, rosy cheeks and lips, thick chestnut curls and oh, his mother’s golden-brown eyes. “I’m just tired,” he said, smiling at the boy.

  Atellus raised his hands, sticky from the honeyed dates he’d been eating, and chirped, “Poppa, come play!” Aculeo laughed and snatched him up, tossing him in the air. Atellus squealed in delight and Aculeo tried to kiss his cheek but the boy was too full of energy. He squirmed out of his father’s arms and ran down the marble hallway towards the atrium.

  “Ah, he’s heading to the garden again. I’ll fetch him,” Xanthias said, leaving them alone at last.

  “Titiana, it’s not the season to travel,” Aculeo pleaded. “By the Gods, we just lost two fleets! Why don’t you wait until spring at least, or summer?”

  “Perhaps you should have picked a better time to lose everything,” she said. The softness of her tone did little to reduce the words’ sting.

  “A few months at most and we’ll be back on our feet.”

  “Don’t be a fool, Aculeo.”

  “Titiana, you have to trust me …”

  “Trust you?” she
cried, tears in her dark, lovely eyes for the first time since he’d broken the news of their bankruptcy ten days ago. “Why didn’t you trust me enough to even discuss things before you threw everything away on Corvinus’ foolishness?”

  “It was an investment. An investment like any other …”

  “An investment that required you to put up our house as security? Our entire estate? Even my dowry?”

  “Titiana …”

  “My dowry, Aculeo, not yours to do with what you will. But that wasn’t enough, was it? No, you had to tangle up some of our dearest friends in your investment, ruining them as well for the sake of that stupid, stupid man!”

  “We owed our entire fortune to Corvinus.”

  “Where is that fortune now, husband? And where is the man? Both just ashes on the pyre.”

  She’s twisting it, Aculeo thought, though he held his tongue. How could I have predicted what would happen? How could anyone? Storms off Portus had sunk not just the primary but also the secondary of the company’s great fleets of grain freighters. And when Aculeo had called on Corvinus and discovered the villa empty, his patron’s pale, bloated body floating in the bath, the blood from his open veins staining the bathwater, flies already crawling across his forehead …