Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (167 page)

JOVIAN.
[With a glance at the crowd.]
Sire, shall I tell all?

JULIAN.
All, all — from first to last!

JOVIAN.
I arrived at Jerusalem with the architects and soldiers, and the two thousand workmen. We went to work at once to clear the ground. Mighty remnants of the walls remained. They fell before our pickaxes and crowbars so easily that it seemed as though some unseen power were helping us to efface them —

JULIAN.
You see! What did I tell you!

JOVIAN.
In the meantime immense heaps of mortar were being brought together for the new building. Then, without any warning, there arose a whirlwind, which spread the lime like a cloud over the whole region.

JULIAN.
Go on; go on!

JOVIAN.
The same night the earth shook repeatedly.

VOICES IN THE CROWD.
Hear that! The earth shook.

JULIAN.
Go on, I say!

JOVIAN.
We were nothing daunted by this strange event. But when we had dug so deep into the ground as to open the subterranean vaults, and the stone hewers went down to work by torchlight —

JULIAN.
Jovian, — what then?

JOVIAN.
Sire, a terrible, a monstrous stream of fire burst out of the caverns. A thundering noise shook the whole city. The vaults burst asunder; hundreds of workmen were killed in them, and the few who escaped fled with lacerated limbs.

WHISPERING VOICES.
The Galileans’ God!

JULIAN.
Can I believe all this? Did you see it?

JOVIAN.
With my own eyes. We began anew. Sire, in the presence of many thousands — awestruck, kneeling, exulting, praying — the same Wonder was twice repeated.

JULIAN.
[Pale and trembling
] And then — ? In
one word, — what has the Emperor achieved in Jerusalem?

JOVIAN.
The Emperor has fulfilled the Galilean’s prophecy.

JULIAN.
Fulfilled — ?

JOVIAN.
Through you is the saying accomplished: “Not one stone shall remain upon another.”

MEN AND WOMEN.
The Galilean has overcome the Emperor! The Galilean is greater than Julian!

JULIAN.
[
To the priest of Cybele
.] You may go home, old man! And take your goose with yon. We will have no sacrifice this evening.
[He turns to the crowd.
I heard some say the Galilean had conquered. It may appear so; but I tell you it is a delusion. Oh senseless clods; oh contemptible dolts, — believe me, it will not be long before the tables are turned! I will — ; I will — ! Ah, only wait! I am already collecting material for a treatise against the Galilean. It is to be in seven chapters; and when his followers have read that, — and when
“
The Beard-Hater,” too — Give me your arm, Fromentinus! This defiance has wearied me.
[To the guard, as he passes the fountain.
Set Cyrillus free!
[He returns with his retinue to the city,

THE CROWD AT THE FOUNTAIN.
[Shouting after him with scornful laughter]
There goes the altar-butcher! — There goes the ragged bear! — There goes the ape with the long arms!

SCENE FOURT
H

Moonlight. Among the ruins of the temple of Apollo. The
Emperor Julian
and
Maximus the Mystic,
both in robes, appear among the overthrown columns.

MAMMUS.
Whither, my brother?

JULIAN.
Where it is loneliest.

MAXIMUS.
But here — in this desolation? Among these rubbish-heaps — ?

JULIAN.
Is not the whole earth a rubbish-heap?

MAXIMUS.
Yet you have shown that what has fallen can be restored.

JULIAN.
Mocker! In Athens I saw how a cobbler had made himself a little workshop in the temple of Theseus. In Rome, I hear, a corner of the Basilica Julia is used for a bullock-stable. Call you that restoration?

MAXIMUS.
Why not? Does not everything happen little by little? What is a whole but the sum of all the parts?

JULIAN.
Foolish wisdom!
[He points to the overturned, statue of Apollo.
See this noseless face. See this splintered elbow, — these shattered loins. Does the sum of all these deformities restore to us the divine perfection of bygone beauty?

MAXIMUS.
How know you that that bygone beauty was beautiful — in itself — apart from the spectator’s idea?

JULIAN.
Ah, Maximus, that is just the question. What exists in itself? After to-day I know of nothing.
[He kicks the head of Apollo.
Have you ever been mightier, in yourself? Strange, Maximus, that there should dwell such strength in delusion. Look at those Galileans. And look at me in the old days, when I thought it possible to build up again the fallen world of beauty.

MAXIMUS.
Friend — if delusion be a necessity to you, return to the Galileans. They will receive you with open arms.

JULIAN.
You know well that that is impossible. Emperor and Galilean! How reconcile that contradiction? Yes, this Jesus Christ is the greatest rebel that ever lived. What was Brutus — what was Cassius, compared with him? They murdered only the man Julius Caesar; but he murders all that is called Caesar or Augustus. Is peace conceivable between the Galilean and the Emperor? Is there room for the two of them together upon the earth? For he lives on the earth, Maximus, — the Galilean lives, I say, however thoroughly both Jews and Romans imagined that they had killed him; he lives in the rebellious minds of men; he lives in their scorn and defiance of all visible authority. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, — and to God the things that are God’s!” Never has mouth of man uttered a craftier saying than that. What lies behind it? What, and how much, belongs to the Emperor? That saying is nothing but a bludgeon wherewith to strike the crown from off the Emperor’s head.

MAXIMUS.
Yet the great Constantine knew how to compound matters with the Galilean — and your predecessor too.

JULIAN.
Yes, could one only be as easily satisfied as they! But call you that ruling the empire of the world? Constantine widened the boundaries of his dominion, but did he not fix narrow boundaries to his spirit and his will? You rate that man too high when you call him “the great.” Of my predecessor I will not speak; he was more slave than Emperor, and I cannot be contented with the name alone. No, no, a truce is not to be thought of in this contest. And yet — to have to give way! Oh, Maximus, after these defeats I cannot retain the crown — yet neither can I renounce it. You, Maximus, who can interpret omens whose mystic meaning is hidden from all others — you who can read the volume of the eternal stars, — can you foretell the issue of this struggle?

MAXIMUS.
Yes, my brother, I can foretell the issue.

JULIAN.
Can you? Then tell me — ! Who shall conquer? The Emperor or the Galilean?

MAXIMUS.
Both the Emperor and the Galilean shall succumb.

JULIAN.
Succumb — ? Both — ?

MAXIMUS.
Both. Whether in our times or in hundreds of years, I know not; but so it shall be when the right man comes.

JULIAN.
And who is the right man?

MAXIMUS.
He who shall swallow up both Emperor and Galilean.

JULIAN.
You solve the riddle by a still darker riddle.

MAXIMUS.
Hear me, brother and friend of truth! I say you shall both succumb — but not that you shall perish. Does not the child succumb in the youth, and the youth in the man? Yet neither child nor youth perishes. Oh, my best-loved pupil — have you forgotten all our discourse in Ephesus about the three empires?

JULIAN.
Ah Maximus, years have passed since then. Speak!

MAXIMUS.
You know I have never approved the course you have taken as Emperor. You have striven to make the youth a child again. The empire of the flesh is swallowed up in the empire of the spirit. But the empire of the spirit is not final, any more than the youth is. You have striven to hinder the growth of the youth, — to hinder him from becoming a man. Oh fool, who have drawn your sword against that which is to be — against the third empire, in which the twin-natured shall reign!

JULIAN.
And he — ?

MAXIMUS.
The Jews have a name for him. They call him Messiah, and they await him.

JULIAN.
[Slowly and thoughtfully
.] Messiah? — Neither Emperor nor Redeemer?

MAXIMUS.
Both in one, and one in both.

JULIAN.
Emperor-God — God-Emperor. Emperor in the kingdom of the spirit, — and God in that of the flesh.

MAXIMUS.
That is the third empire, Julian!

JULIAN.
Yes, Maximus, that is the third empire.

MAXIMUS.
In that empire shall the present watchword of revolt be realised.

JULIAN.
“
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, — and to God the things that are God’s.” Yes, yes, then the Emperor is in God, and God in the Emperor. — Ah, dreams, dreams, — who shall break the Galilean’s power?

MAXIMUS.
Wherein lies the Galilean’s power?

JULIAN.
I have brooded over that question in vain.

MAXIMUS.
Is it not somewhere written:
“
Thou shalt have none other gods but me”?

JULIAN.
Yes — yes — yes!

MAXIMUS.
The Seer of Nazareth did not preach this god or that; he said:
“
God is I; — I am God.”

JULIAN.
Ay, this thing without me — ! ‘Tis that which makes the Emperor powerless. The third empire? The Messiah? Not the Jews’ Messiah, but the Messiah of the two empires, the spirit and the world — ?

MAXIMUS.
The God-Emperor.

JULIAN.
The Emperor-God.

MAXIMUS.
Logos in Pan — Pan in Logos.

JULIAN.
Maximus, — how comes he into being?

MAXIMUS.
He comes into being in the man who wills himself.

JULIAN.
My beloved teacher, — I must leave you.

MAXIMUS.
Whither are you going?

JULIAN.
To the city. The Persian king has made overtures of peace, which I too hastily accepted. My envoys are already on the way. They must be overtaken and recalled.

MAXIMUS.
You will reopen the war against King Sapor? Julian. I will do what Cyrus dreamed of, and Alexander attempted —

MAXIMUS.
Julian!

JULIAN.
I will possess the world. — Good-night, my Maximus!
[He makes a gesture of farewell, and goes hastily away.
Maximus
looks thoughtfully after him.

THE CHORUS OF THE PSALM-SINGERS.
[Far away, beside the grave’s of the martyrs.
Ye gods of the nations, of silver and gold,
Ye shall crumble to mould!

ACT FOURT
H

SCENE FIRST.

The eastern frontier of the empire. A wild mountain landscape. A deep valley separates the high foreground from the mountains behind. The
Emperor Julian, in
military dress, stands on the edge of a rocky promontory, and looks into the depths. A little way from him, to the left
,
stand
Nevitta,
the Persian prince
Hormisdas, Jovian,
and several other generals. To the right, beside a roughly-built stone altar, crouch the soothsayer,
Numa,
and two other Etruscan soothsayers, examining the entrails of the sacrifices for omens. Further forward sits
Maximus the Mystic
on a stone, surrounded by
Priscus, Kytron,
and other philosophers. Small detachments of light-armed men now and then pass over the height from left to right.

JULIAN.
[Pointing downwards
] See, see — the legions wind like a scaly serpent through the ravine.

NEVITA.
Those just below us, in sheepskin doublets, are the Scythians.

JULIAN.
What piercing howls — !

NEVITA.
That is the Scythians’ customary song, sire!

JULIAN.
More howl than song.

NEVITA.
Now come the Armenians. Arsaces himself is leading them.

JULIAN.
The Roman legions must already be out on the plains. All the neighbouring tribes are hastening to make their submission.
[He turns to the officers.
The twelve hundred ships, containing all our stores and munitions, lie assembled on the Euphrates. I am now fully assured that the fleet can cross over to the Tigris by the ancient canal. The whole army will pass the river by means of the ships. Then we will advance along by the eastern bank as rapidly as the current will suffer the ships to follow us. Tell me, Hormisdas, what think you of this plan?

HORMISDAS.
Invincible general, I know that under your victorious protection it will be vouchsafed me to tread once more the soil of my fatherland.

JULIAN.
What a relief to be rid of those narrow-breasted citizens! What terror was in their eyes when they pressed round my chariot as I left the city! “Come again quickly,” they cried, “and be more gracious to us than now.” I will never revisit Antioch. I will never again set eyes on that ungrateful city! When I have conquered I will return by way of Tarsus.
[He goes up to the soothsayers.
Numa, — what omens for our campaign do you find this morning?

NUMA.
The omens warn you not to pass the frontier of your empire this year.

JULIAN.
H’m! How read you this omen, Maximus?

MAXIMUS.
I read it thus: the omen counsels you to subdue all the regions you traverse; thus you will never pass the frontier of your empire.

JULIAN.
So is it. We must look closely into such supernatural signs; for there is wont to be a double meaning in them. It even seems at times as if mysterious powers took a delight in leading men astray, especially in great undertakings. Were there not some who held it an evil omen that the colonnade in Hierapolis fell in and buried half a hundred soldiers, just as we marched through the city? But I say that that is a presage of a twofold good. In the first place it foreshows the downfall of Persia, and in the second place the doom of the unhappy Galileans. For what soldiers were they who were killed? Why, Galilean convict-Soldiers, who went most unwillingly to the war; and therefore fate decreed them that sudden and inglorious end.

JOVIAN.
Most gracious Emperor, here comes a captain from the vanguard.

AMMIAN.
[Entering from, the right.]
Sire, you commanded me to inform you should anything strange befall during our advance.

JULIAN.
Well? Has anything happened this morning?

AMMIAN.
Yes, sire, two portents.

JULIAN.
Quick, Ammian, — speak on!

AMMIAN.
First, sire, it happened that when we had gone a little way beyond the village of Zaita, a lion of monstrous size burst from a thicket and rushed straight at our soldiers, who killed it with many arrows.

JULIAN.
Ah!

THE PHILOSOPHERS.
What a fortunate omen!

HORMISDAS.
King Sapor calls himself the lion of the nations.

NUMA.
[Busied at the altar.]
Turn back; turn back, Emperor Julian!

MAXIMUS.
Go fearlessly forward, chosen son of victory!

JULIAN.
Turn back after this? As the lion fell at Zaita, so shall the lion of the nations fall before our arrows. Does not history warrant me in interpreting this omen to our advantage? Need I remind such learned men that when the Emperor Maximian conquered the Persian king, Narses, a lion, and a huge wild boar besides, were, in like manner, slain in front of the Roman ranks?
[To
Ammian. But now the other — ? You spoke of two signs.

AMMIAN.
The other is more doubtful, sire! Your charger, Babylonius, was led forth, as you commanded, fully equipped, to await your descent on the other side of the mountain. But just at that time a detachment of Galilean convict-soldiers happened to pass. Heavily laden as they were, and by no means over willing, they had to be driven with scourges. Nevertheless they lifted up their arms as in rejoicing, and burst forth into a loud hymn in praise of their deity. Babylonius was startled by the sudden noise, reared in his fright, and fell backwards; and as he sprawled upon the ground, all his golden trappings were soiled and bespattered with mud.

NUMA.
[At the altar.]
Emperor Julian, — turn back, turn back!

JULIAN.
The Galileans must have done this out of malice, — and yet, in spite of themselves, they have brought to pass a portent which I hail with delight. Yes, as Babylonius fell, so shall Babylon fall, stripped of all the splendour of its adornments.

PRISCUS.
What wisdom in interpretation!

KYTRON.
By the gods, it must be so!

THE OTHER PHILOSOPHERS.
So, and not otherwise!

JULIAN.
[To
Nevita.] The army shall continue to advance. Nevertheless, for still greater security, I will sacrifice this evening and see what the omens indicate. As for you Etruscan jugglers, whom I have brought hither at so great a cost, I will no longer suffer you in the camp, where you serve only to damp the soldiers’ spirits. You know nothing of the difficult calling you profess. What effrontery! What measureless presumption! Away with them! I will not set eyes on them again.
[Some of the guards drive the Soothsayers out to the left.
Babylonius fell. The lion succumbed before my soldiers. Yet these things do not tell us what invisible help we have to depend upon. The gods, whose essence is as yet by no means duly ascertained, seem sometimes — if I may say so — to slumber, or, on the whole, to concern themselves very little with human affairs. We, my dear friends, are so unfortunate as to live in such an age. We have even seen how certain divinities have neglected to support well-meant endeavours, tending to their own honour and glory. Yet must we not judge rashly in this matter. It is conceivable that the immortals, who guide and uphold the universe, may sometimes depute their power to mortal hands, — not thereby, assuredly, lessening their own glory; for is it not thanks to them that so highly-favoured a mortal — if he exist — has been born into this world?

PRISCUS.
Oh matchless Emperor, do not your own achievements afford proof of this?

JULIAN.
I know not, Priscus, whether I dare rate my own achievements so highly. I say nothing of the fact that the Galileans believe the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, to have been thus elected; for these men err — as I shall conclusively establish in my treatise against them. But I will remind you of Prometheus in ancient days. Did not that preeminent hero procure for mankind still greater blessings than the gods seemed to vouchsafe — wherefore he had to suffer much, both pain and despiteful usage, till he was at last exalted to the communion of the gods — to which, in truth, he had all the while belonged? And may not the same be said both of Herakles and of Achilles, and, finally, of the Macedonian Alexander, with whom some have compared me, partly on account of what I achieved in Gaul, partly, and especially, on account of my designs in the present campaign?

NEVITA.
My Emperor — the rear-guard is now beneath us — it is perhaps time —

JULIAN.
Presently, Nevita! First I must tell you of a strange dream I had last night. I dreamed that I saw a child pursued by a rich man who owned countless flocks, but despised the worship of the gods. This wicked man exterminated all the child’s kindred. But Zeus took pity on the child itself, and held his hand over it. Then I saw this child grow up into a youth, under the care of Minerva and Apollo. Further, I dreamed that the youth fell asleep upon a stone beneath the open sky. Then Hermes descended to him, in the likeness of a young man, and said:
“
Come; I will show thee the way to the abode of the highest god!” So he led the youth to the foot of a very steep mountain. There he left him. Then the youth burst out into tears and lamentations, and called with a loud voice upon Zeus. Lo, then, Minerva and the Sun-King who rules the earth descended to his side, bore him aloft to the peak of the mountain, and showed him the whole inheritance of his race. But this inheritance was the orb of the earth from ocean to ocean, and beyond the ocean. Then they told the youth that all this should belong to him. And therewith they gave him three warnings: he should not sleep, as his race had done; he should not hearken to the counsel of hypocrites; and, lastly, he should honour as gods those who resemble the gods.
“
Forget not,” they said, on leaving him,
“
that thou hast an immortal soul, and that this thy soul is of divine origin. And if thou follow our counsel thou shalt see our father and become a god, even as we.”

PRISCUS.
What are signs and omens to this!

KYTRON.
It can scarcely be rash to anticipate that the Fates will think twice ere they suffer their counsels to clash with yours.

JULIAN.
We dare not build with certainty on such an exception. But assuredly I cannot but find this dream significant, although my brother Maximus, by his silence — against all reasonable expectation — seems to approve neither of the dream itself, nor of my relation of it. — But that we must bear with!
[He takes out a roll of paper.
See, Jovian; before I arose this morning, I noted down what I had dreamt. Take this paper, let numerous copies of it be made, and read to the various divisions of the army. I hold it of the utmost moment, on so hazardous an expedition, that, amid all dangers and difficulties, the soldiers may leave their fate securely in their leader’s hands, considering him infallible in all that concerns the issue of the war.

JOVIAN.
I pray you, my Emperor, let me be excused from this.

JULIAN.
What do you mean?

JOVIAN.
That I cannot lend my aid to anything that is against the truth. — Oh, hear me, my august Emperor and master! Is there a single one of your soldiers who doubts that he is safe in your hands? Have you not, on the Gallic frontier, in spite of overwhelming numbers and difficulties of all kinds, gained greater victories than any other living commander can boast of?

JULIAN.
Well, well! What startling news!

JOVIAN.
All know how marvellously fortune has hitherto followed you. In learning you excel all other mortals, and in the glorious art of eloquence you bear the palm among the greatest.

JULIAN.
And yet — ? In spite of all this — ?

JOVIAN.
In spite of all this, my Emperor, you are but mortal. By publishing this dream through the army you would seek to make men deem you a god, — and in that I dare not assist you.

JULIAN.
What say you, my friends, to this speech?

KYTRON.
It assuredly shows no less effrontery than ignorance.

JULIAN.
You seem to forget, oh truth-loving Jovian, that the Emperor Antoninus, surnamed the Pious, has been worshipped in a special temple on the Roman forum as an immortal god. And not he alone, but also his wife, Faustina, and other Emperors before and after him.

JOVIAN.
I know it, sire, — but it was not given to our forefathers to live in the light of truth.

JULIAN.
[
With a long look at him.]
Ah, Jovian! — Tell me, — last evening, when I was taking the omens for the coming night, you brought me a message just as I was laving the blood from my hands in the water of purification —

JOVIAN.
Yes, my Emperor!

JULIAN. — In my haste, I chanced to sprinkle a few drops of the water on your cloak. You shrank sharply backward and shook the water off, as if your cloak had been defiled.