The Horse Changer (32 page)

I was not anxious to be the first to inform Antony of these matters and remarked that Antony must surely know about it. Herod’s response startled me. ‘Only if he ordered the revolt, Dellius. The news is five days old.’

Of course that was impossible, at least in so far as I understood the world. When I said so, Herod told me about his carrier pigeons. Antipater had long before established dovecotes in Italy, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and throughout the provinces of Judaea. The news he gave me had passed from bird to bird at the rate of sixty miles an hour! When I still would not believe him, he showed me one of his pigeons and then sent a message to Jerusalem. Within an hour another bird returned with an answer to his question. I suspected this was some kind of parlour trick, for I really could not comprehend such speed. Herod understood my scepticism, however, and explained how his family had come to learn about the secrets of this race of bird. He told me that centuries ago the Persians had discovered the male bird of certain types of pigeons have the power to find their nests even if they are hundreds of miles away. By creating dovecotes for these birds every two or three hundred miles, one might send messages across thousands of miles in a matter of a day or two, not weeks.

Only then did it dawn on me that the use of birds in Judaea and Syria had made it possible for the Roman prefect who had arrested me in Samaria to know my intentions to travel before I had even departed. It also explained why Herod and Phasael knew within an hour of my crossing into Judaea that I was coming with an army of four legions. So they had arrived at Ashkelon on the very evening of the day I sent my ultimatum. I had very little time to reflect on these matters at that time, though I was later much fascinated with the flight of birds. I actually bred the birds in the hope of selling the concept to Caesar, but Caesar in old age was quite as dull as Caesar in his youth. He thought I had a brilliant idea if I could only get the same bird to fly in two directions.

Though I was fairly sure Antony had incited the revolt in Italy or at least given his tacit permission, I sent the news to Alexandria. A week later Herod informed me that Caesar’s man, Marcus Agrippa, had made short work of the revolt. Fulvia and Antony’s brother had been captured.

I sent another courier to Antony with this fresh news and received his response a week later. I was to ride to the harbour town of Tyre and await his arrival. I took most of my staff with me, as well as three hundred Spartans for escort. Once there, we waited several weeks for Antony’s fleet to arrive.

During that same period the Parthians suddenly broke across the border and defeated Antony’s legions in Syria. Those cohorts managing to escape fled to Tyre in the hope of finding rescue. By the time Antony’s fleet arrived, the situation had become critical. The Parthians had begun to lay siege to the city walls. Antony soon concluded that he hadn’t enough ships to transport all of his men. Rather than abandon them, he sent to Tarsus for additional transport ships. We waited a desperate week, fighting at the city walls day and night until the ships from Tarsus arrived. When all was ready, Antony ordered his men to abandon the defence of the city and begin boarding the ships.

As Antony’s prefect of the Guard I fully expected to join Antony’s flagship. My only concern was securing passage for Hannibal, but when I attempted to arrange this, one of Antony’s legates informed me that Antony wanted to speak with me. Antony had remained onboard his ship throughout the siege and was anchored close to the mouth of the harbour. During the week we had waited for the ships from Tarsus, I fought on the city walls. I had sent Antony several reports but had not met with him since his arrival. It took nearly an hour to get through the mass of ships in that harbour and board his flagship. Once onboard I waited another hour until I was escorted into his presence.

Antony had no time for greetings. As soon as I appeared before him, he ordered me to take my cohort of Spartan auxiliaries out of the city and return to Galilee. I was stunned, for it seemed to me that Antony had no idea what he was asking of me. First, getting out of the city with only three hundred men for escort might prove impossible. Beyond that, I could not imagine what he expected me to accomplish with such a meagre force. ‘If the Imperator expects me to help to defend the Galilean border, might I request a legion?’

‘I wish I could afford it. As matters stand, I require every fighting man I have to sail with me to Italy.’

‘Herod does not have an army of sufficient size to stop the Parthians, Imperator.’

‘I know that, Dellius. I want you there to make sure Herod and Phasael do not join the Parthian alliance.’

‘If they decide to abandon Rome, I don’t see how I can stop them.’

Antony went to a small sea chest that he had set up in the corner of his room. Unlocking it, he pulled two vials from a row of a half-dozen and handed them to me. ‘If you cannot kill them by force of arms, murder them by stealth. My fear is that if the sons of Antipater join the Parthians, Egypt will fall within a matter of weeks. That simply must not happen.’

For many years I thought that Antony worried for Cleopatra’s life. Old age has let me see the matter more clearly. Antony could hope to recover Syria and the Jewish provinces as long as Egypt remained an ally of Rome, but if Egypt was lost as well, it would mean the end of his Imperium.

Antony sailed for Athens on the same evening that we spoke. Using the cover of darkness, I broke out of the city with my staff and three hundred Spartan auxiliaries. We had some fighting with the Parthian camp guarding the road to the south of the city, but after we broke through their defences we had an open road, which we followed at full gallop.

In the wake of their defeat, Fulvia and Lucius Antony were given their lives, but Caesar exiled them both from Italy. Claudius Nero, their co-conspirator, had managed to escape the city before its fall and spent the summer as a fugitive. I learned much later that Nero’s escape and subsequent survival in a hostile land was due in large part to the services of a loyal freedman and to his wife, Livia. At the time, I only knew that poor, dull Nero was the most wanted man in Italy.

As for Antony’s wife and brother, they sailed to Athens to meet Antony, who had arrived there with his fleet and was attempting without success to communicate with Caesar in Rome. Antony was still awaiting a response when his mother arrived in Athens. Publically, she claimed she had fled Rome out of fear for her life, but in fact, the old girl was not quite the timid matron she pretended. On her way to Athens she had stopped in Sicily. Sextus Pompey asked her to tell Antony that he was not only willing but anxious to form an alliance and help him in his fight against Caesar.

Fulvia and Lucius fervently backed the idea of a new alliance but Antony could see no value in it. He would still be sharing power and, to his thinking, as he admitted to me some years later, it was better to share his authority with ‘the little twit’ than with Sextus Pompey, who actually knew how to fight.

He did not rebuff Pompey at once. Rather he left the offer open as he sailed to Italy at the head of a fleet of four hundred ships.

Antony was not permitted entry at the harbour of Brindisi. Rather than risking all on a naval battle, he sailed on and found anchorage at Taranto, due west across the isthmus. This permitted him to lay siege to Brindisi from the landward side of that city. Caesar’s forces, commanded by Marcus Agrippa, soon arrived and forced Antony to lift his siege.

Over the course of several days cavalry skirmishes between Agrippa’s and Antony’s forces ensued. Then, once Caesar had arrived, the two armies faced one another. Curiously, the legions on both sides refused the order to advance into battle.

It was of course not as simple as that. Antony had informed his centurions that should any of the men call across the lines and ask for a truce there would be no disciplinary action. So up and down the line Antony’s legionaries called to Caesar’s men. This was not Philippi. There was no reason for a fight. The legions loved both Antony and Caesar; the legions ought to insist on negotiations.

Caesar’s men, tired of so many fights against Roman forces and fearing Antony’s reputation for unpredictability, soon responded. Caesar and Agrippa had no choice but to enter into talks with Antony. Hostages were the first to cross the no man’s land between the two armies; then finally the leaders met and a truce was sworn.

Once again Caesar and Antony made a pact without consulting Lepidus. This time Caesar gained the advantage, receiving all of northern Gaul to go with Gaul’s coastal province and with it the eleven legions stationed there; for his part Antony got a new wife, Octavia, the elder sister of young Caesar. Fulvia, Antony’s former wife, had remained at Athens. By a happy coincidence Fulvia became ill soon after Antony left her. Before Antony could ask for a divorce, he learned she was already dead.

Lucius Antony also died of stomach ailments that same summer. As part of the negotiations, he had been awarded a governorship in Andalusia but died while still on his journey to Spain. Most suspected Caesar, but for years after Antony always had a shifty look whenever he accused Caesar of the crime.

The Parthians that had invaded Syria were led by a proscribed Roman commander named Quintus Labienus. This Labienus was the son of Titus Labienus, second-in-command to Gnaeus Pompey in Spain, proving – if proof is required – that it is a small world for the Roman aristocracy.

Labienus, with a clear understanding of the crisis in Italy, took advantage of Antony’s predicament and, having seized Syria, turned next to Galilee. Herod sacrificed no lives in a losing struggle at the border. Instead, he retreated into Judaea where he took command of the armies of his fellow tetrarchs. As Antony had expected, Herod received friendly correspondence from Labienus. Herod might share in the riches of Asia and Egypt, if he would only join him.

Herod spurned the offer but not without informing me of it first. When he told me about it he added that his brother had been contacted too. I knew of both offers before Herod informed me, for I had men under my command bribing servants to keep watch. Whether Herod understood this or not, I cannot say, but I do know that he did not appear to be tempted by the offer.

Of course Labienus, once rebuffed by Herod and Phasael, had only to make his offer to the outcast royalty of Judaea. This faction was led by the nephew of Hyrcanus, a charismatic young prince named Antigonus. Antigonus embraced the alliance at once, and soon incited rioting in a number of Judaean cities. Herod’s forces answered these challenges admirably, but once the Parthians broke into Judaea, Herod had no choice but to find shelter with Phasael behind the high walls of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was not then as well-fortified as it would be some thirty years later. The chief deficiency was the citadel, which had no access to large reservoirs of water. The city gates were quite strong, but they were not well defended against attack from inside the city. In later years Herod would erect the magnificent Antonia Fortress to the north of the Temple Mount. This massive citadel defended much of the northern perimeter of the city on both sides of the wall.

Herod did what he could with the resources he had. He ranged most of his army along the northern walls and sent the remainder of his troops out before the gates to keep the land clear of siege machines. For a time the fight might have gone either way. When rioting broke out inside the city, however, the city’s defence grew more problematic. Late one afternoon, partisans of Prince Antigonus inside the city attacked the gates. After a brief skirmish, they were able to open them up to Antigonus’s army. Those of Herod’s men holding the ramparts along the northern perimeter of the city were cut off from retreat. Most threw down their weapons at once. Those who fought on were slaughtered where they stood.

I was tasked with keeping supply lines open to the south of the city and found myself routinely skirmishing with Parthian archers, who devoted themselves to harassing caravans bringing grain and other essential supplies along the road from Bethlehem. When I learned the Parthians had broken into the city in the north I brought my men through the southernmost gate as quickly as possible. While the fighting still raged in the northern quadrant, we readied a defence of the citadel.

Jerusalem’s citadel is now situated along the western wall of the city and fortified by great towers designed by Herod’s most trusted architect. In those days the citadel was set upon a ridge of hills at the eastern edge of the city, just south of the Temple Mount. High walls and towers guarded the palace from attack from forces inside the city. The outer walls were built over the Kidron Valley, making siege engines impractical. The citadel provided sufficient space to house a thousand or so combatants, and of course the palace was home to Antipater’s four sons as well as his daughter and her husband. On this occasion, however, there were also more distant relatives taking refuge. With my cavalry of a thousand Spartan auxiliaries, our numbers pushed the total to some two thousand fighting men in all, with another three or four hundred non-combatants, including servants and slaves. We were safe for a week or so, but at that point, assuming we could still defend the walls, we would be facing diminishing supplies and a chronic lack of water.