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contempt, but I will try to deserve your forgiveness."
Seeing Darius look back, he hastened towards him, grasped his hand and
said: "I have loved you like a son; take care of my children when I am no
more, and use your pinions, winged Darius." Then, with the same proud
demeanor he ascended the tower.
Many thousands of the citizens of Nisaea were within reach of his voice,
as he cried aloud: "Ye all know that the kings who have, up to the
present time, loaded you with honor and glory, belonged to the house of
the Achaemenidae. Cyrus governed you like a real father, Cambyses was a
stern master, and Bartja would have guided you like a bridegroom, if I,
with this right hand which I now show you, had not slain him on the
shores of the Red Sea. By Mithras, it was with a bleeding heart that I
committed this wicked deed, but I did it as a faithful servant in
obedience to the king's command. Nevertheless, it has haunted me by day
and night; for four long years I have been pursued and tormented by the
spirits of darkness, who scare sleep from the murderer's couch. I have
now resolved to end this painful, despairing existence by a worthy deed,
and though even this may procure me no mercy at the bridge of Chinvat,
in the mouths of men, at least, I shall have redeemed my honorable name
from the stain with which I defiled it. Know then, that the man who
gives himself out for the son of Cyrus, sent me hither; he promised me
rich rewards if I would deceive you by declaring him to be Bartja, the
son of the Achaemenidae. But I scorn his promises and swear by Mithras
and the Feruers of the kings, the most solemn oaths I am acquainted with,
that the man who is now ruling you is none other than the Magian Gaumata,
he who was deprived of his ears, the brother of the king's vicegerent and
high-priest, Oropastes, whom ye all know. If it be your will to forget
all the glory ye owe to the Achaemenidae, if to this ingratitude ye
choose to add your own degradation, then acknowledge these creatures and
call them your kings; but if ye despise a lie and are ashamed to obey
worthless impostors, drive the Magi from the throne before Mithras has
left the heavens, and proclaim the noblest of the Achaemenidae, Darius,
the exalted son of Hystaspes, who promises to become a second Cyrus, as
your king. And now, in order that ye may believe my words and not
suspect that Darius sent me hither to win you over to his side, I will
commit a deed, which must destroy every doubt and prove that the truth
and glory of the Achaemenidae are clearer to me, than life itself.
Blessed be ye if ye follow my counsels, but curses rest upon you, if ye
neglect to reconquer the throne from the Magi and revenge yourselves upon
them.--Behold, I die a true and honorable man!"
With these words he ascended the highest pinnacle of the tower and cast
himself down head foremost, thus expiating the one crime of his life by
an honorable death.
The dead silence with which the people in the court below had listened to
him, was now broken by shrieks of rage and cries for vengeance. They
burst open the gates of the palace and were pressing in with cries of
"Death to the Magi," when the seven princes of the Persians appeared in
front of the raging crowd to resist their entrance.
At sight of the Achaemenidae the citizens broke into shouts of joy, and
cried more impetuously than ever, "Down with the Magi! Victory to King
Darius!"
The son of Hystaspes was then carried by the crowd to a rising ground,
from which he told the people that the Magi had been slain by the
Achaemenidae, as liars and usurpers. Fresh cries of joy arose in answer
to these words, and when at last the bleeding heads of Oropastes and
Gaumata were shown to the crowd, they rushed with horrid yells through
the streets of the city, murdering every Magian they could lay hold of.
The darkness of night alone was able to stop this awful massacre.
Four days later, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, was chosen as king by the
heads of the Achaemenidae, in consideration of his high birth and noble
character, and received by the Persian nation with enthusiasm. Darius
had killed Gaumata with his own hand, and the highpriest had received his
death-thrust from the hand of Megabyzus, the father of Zopyrus. While
Prexaspes was haranguing the people, the seven conspiring Persian
princes, Otanes, Intaphernes, Gobryas, Megabyzus, Aspatines, Hydarnes and
Darius, (as representative of his aged father Hystaspes), had entered the
palace by a carelessly-guarded gate, sought out the part of the building
occupied by the Magi, and then, assisted by their own knowledge of the
palace, and the fact that most of the guards had been sent to keep watch
over the crowd assembled to hear Prexaspes easily penetrated to the
apartments in which at that moment they were to be found. Here they were
resisted by a few eunuchs, headed by Boges, but these were overpowered
and killed to a man. Darius became furious on seeing Boges, and killed
him at once. Hearing the dying cries of these eunuchs, the Magi rushed
to the spot and prepared to defend themselves. Oropastes snatched a
lance from the fallen Boges, thrust out one of Intaphernes' eyes and
wounded Aspatines in the thigh, but was stabbed by Megabyzus. Gaumata
fled into another apartment and tried to bar the door, but was followed
too soon by Darius and Gobryas; the latter seized, threw him, and kept
him down by the weight of his own body, crying to Darius, who was afraid
of making a false stroke in the half-light, and so wounding his companion
instead of Gaumata, "Strike boldly, even if you should stab us both."
Darius obeyed, and fortunately only hit the Magian.
Thus died Oropastes, the high-priest, and his brother Gaumata, better
known under the name of the "pseudo" or "pretended Smerdis."
A few weeks after Darius' election to the throne, which the people said
had been marvellously influenced by divine miracles and the clever
cunning of a groom, he celebrated his coronation brilliantly at
Pasargadae, and with still more splendor, his marriage with his beloved
Atossa. The trials of her life had ripened her character, and she proved
a faithful, beloved and respected companion to her husband through the
whole of that active and glorious life, which, as Prexaspes had foretold,
made him worthy of the names by which he was afterwards known--Darius the
Great, and a second Cyrus.
[Atossa is constantly mentioned as the favorite wife of Darius, and
be appointed her son Xerxes to be his successor, though he had three
elder sons by the daughter of Gobryas. Herodotus (VII. 3.) speaks
with emphasis of the respect and consideration in which Atossa was
held, and Aeschylus, in his Persians, mentions her in her old age,
as the much-revered and noble matron.]
As a general he was circumspect and brave, and at the same time
understood so thoroughly how to divide his enormous realm, and to
administer its affairs, that he must be classed with the greatest
organizers of all times and countries. That his feeble successors were
able to keep this Asiatic Colossus of different countries together for
two hundred years after his death, was entirely owing to Darius. He was
liberal of his own, but sparing of his subjects' treasures, and made
truly royal gifts without demanding more than was his due. He introduced
a regular system of taxation, in place of the arbitrary exactions
practised under Cyrus and Cambyses, and never allowed himself to be led
astray in the carrying out of what seemed to him right, either by
difficulties or by the ridicule of the Achaemenidae, who nicknamed him
the "shopkeeper," on account of what seemed, to their exclusively
military tastes, his petty financial measures. It is by no means one of
his smallest merits, that he introduced one system of coinage through his
entire empire, and consequently through half the then known world.
Darius respected the religions and customs of other nations. When the
writing of Cyrus, of the existence of which Cambyses had known nothing,
was found in the archives of Ecbatana, he allowed the Jews to carry on
the building of their temple to Jehovah; he also left the Ionian cities
free to govern their own communities independently. Indeed, he would
hardly have sent his army against Greece, if the Athenians had not
insulted him.
In Egypt he had learnt much; among other things, the art of managing the
exchequer of his kingdom wisely; for this reason he held the Egyptians in
high esteem, and granted them many privileges, amongst others a canal to
connect the Nile with the Red Sea, which was greatly to the advantage of
their commerce.
[Traces of this canal can be found as early as the days of Setos I;
his son Rameses II. caused the works to be continued. Under Necho
they were recommenced, and possibly finished by Darius. In the time
of the Ptolemies, at all events, the canal was already completed.
Herod. II. 158. Diod. I. 33. The French, in undertaking to
reconstruct the Suez canal, have had much to encounter from the
unfriendly commercial policy of the English and their influence over
the internal affairs of Egypt, but the unwearied energy and great
talent of Monsr. de Lesseps and the patriotism of the French nation
have at last succeeded in bringing their great work to a successful
close. Whether it will pay is another question. See G. Ebers, Der
Kanal von Suez. Nordische Revue, October 1864. The maritime canal
connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea has also been
completed since 1869. We were among those, who attended the
brilliant inauguration ceremonies, and now willingly recall many of
the doubts expressed in our work 'Durch Gosen zum Sinai'. The
number of ships passing through the canal is constantly increasing.]
During the whole of his reign, Darius endeavored to make amends for the
severity with which Cambyses had treated the Egyptians; even in the later
years of his life he delighted to study the treasures of their wisdom,
and no one was allowed to attack either their religion or customs, as
long as he lived. The old high-priest Neithotep enjoyed the king's favor
to the last, and Darius often made use of his wise old master's
astrological knowledge.
The goodness and clemency of their new ruler was fully acknowledged by
the Egyptians; they called him a deity, as they had called their own
kings, and yet, in the last years of his reign, their desire for
independence led them to forget gratitude and to try to shake off his
gentle yoke, which was only oppressive because it had originally been
forced on them.
[The name of Darius occurs very often on the monuments as Ntariusch.
It is most frequently found in the inscriptions on the temple in the
Oasis el-Khargah, recently photographed by G. Rohlfs. The Egypto-
Persian memorial fragments, bearing inscriptions in the hieroglyphic
and cuneiform characters are very interesting. Darius' name in
Egyptian was generally "Ra, the beloved of Ammon." On a porcelain
vessel in Florence, and in some papyri in Paris and Florence he is
called by the divine titles of honor given to the Pharaohs.]
Their generous ruler and protector did not live to see the end of this
struggle.
[The first rebellion in Egypt, which broke out under Aryandes, the
satrap appointed by Cambyses, was put down by Darius in person. He
visited Egypt, and promised 100 talents (L22,500.) to any one who
would find a new Apis. Polyaen. VII. ii. 7. No second outbreak
took place until 486 B.C. about 4 years before the death of Darius.
Herod. VI i. Xerxes conquered the rebels two years after his
accession, and appointed his brother Achaemenes satrap of Egypt.]
It was reserved for Xerxes, the successor and son of Darius and Atossa,
to bring back the inhabitants of the Nile valley to a forced and
therefore insecure obedience.
Darius left a worthy monument of his greatness in the glorious palace
which he built on Mount Rachmed, the ruins of which are the wonder and
admiration of travellers to this day. Six thousand Egyptian workmen,
who had been sent to Asia by Cambyses, took part in the work and also
assisted in building a tomb for Darius and his successors, the rocky and
almost inaccessible chambers of which have defied the ravages of time,
and are now the resort of innumerable wild pigeons.
He caused the history of his deeds to be cut, (in the cuneiform character
and in the Persian, Median and Assyrian languages), on the polished side
of the rock of Bisitun or Behistan, not far from the spot where he saved
Atossa's life. The Persian part of this inscription can still be
deciphered with certainty, and contains an account of the events related
in the last few chapters, very nearly agreeing with our own and that of
Herodotus. The following sentences occur amongst others: "Thus saith
Darius the King: That which I have done, was done by the grace of
Auramazda in every way. I fought nineteen battles after the rebellion of
the kings. By the mercy of Auramazda I conquered them. I took nine
kings captive. One was a Median, Gaumata by name. He lied and said:
'I am Bardiya (Bartja), the son of Cyrus.' He caused Persia to rebel."
Some distance lower down, he names the chiefs who helped him to dethrone
the Magi, and in another place the inscription has these words: "Thus
saith the King Darius: That which I have done was done in every way by
the grace of Auramazda. Auramazda helped me, and such other gods as
there be. Auramazda and the other gods gave me help, because I was not
swift to anger, nor a liar, nor a violent ruler, neither I nor my
kinsmen. I have shown favor unto him who helped my brethren, and I have
punished severely him who was my enemy. Thou who shalt be king after me,
be not merciful unto him who is a liar or a rebel, but punish him with a
severe punishment. Thus saith Darius the King: Thou who shalt hereafter
behold this tablet which I have written, or these pictures, destroy them
not, but so long as thou shalt live preserve them, &c."
It now only remains to be told that Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus,
continued to the last the king's most faithful friend.
A courtier once showed the king a pomegranate, and asked him of what one
gift of fortune he would like so many repetitions, as there were seeds in
that fruit. Without a moment's hesitation Darius answered, "Of my
Zopyrus."--[Plutarch]
The following story will prove that Zopyrus, on his part, well understood
how to return his royal friend's kindness. After the death of Cambyses,
Babylon revolted from the Persian empire. Darius besieged the city nine
months in vain, and was about to raise the siege, when one day Zopyrus
appeared before him bleeding, and deprived of his ears and nose, and
explained that he had mutilated himself thus in order to cheat the
Babylonians, who knew him well, as he had formerly been on intimate terms
with their daughters. He said he wished to tell the haughty citizens,
that Darius had thus disfigured him, and that he had come to them for
help in revenging himself. He thought they would then place troops at
his disposal, with which he intended to impose upon them by making a few
successful sallies at first. His ultimate intention was to get
possession of the keys, and open the Semiramis gate to his friends.
These words, which were spoken in a joking tone, contrasted so sadly with
the mutilated features of his once handsome friend, that Darius wept, and
when at last the almost impregnable fortress was really won by Zopyrus'
stratagem, he exclaimed: "I would give a hundred Babylons, if my Zopyrus
had not thus mutilated himself."
He then appointed his friend lord of the giant city, gave him its entire
revenues, and honored him every year with the rarest presents. In later
days he used to say that, with the exception of Cyrus, who had no equal,
no man had ever performed so generous a deed as Zopyrus.
[Herod. III. 160. Among other presents Zopyrus received a gold
hand-mill weighing six talents, the most honorable and distinguished
gift a Persian monarch could bestow upon a subject. According to
Ktesias, Megabaezus received this gift from Xerxes.]
Few rulers possessed so many self-sacrificing friends as Darius, because
few understood so well how to be grateful.
When Syloson, the brother of the murdered Polykrates, came to Susa and
reminded the king of his former services, Darius received him as a
friend, placed ships and troops at his service, and helped him to recover
Samos.
The Samians made a desperate resistance, and said, when at last they were
obliged to yield: "Through Syloson we have much room in our land."
Rhodopis lived to hear of the murder of Hipparchus, the tyrant of Athens,
by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and died at last in the arms of her best
friends, Theopompus the Milesian and Kallias the Athenian, firm in her
belief of the high calling of her countrymen.
All Naukratis mourned for her, and Kallias sent a messenger to Susa, to
inform the king and Sappho of her death.
A few months later the satrap of Egypt received the following letter from
the hand of the king:
"Inasmuch as we ourselves knew and honored Rhodopis, the Greek, who
has lately died in Naukratis,--inasmuch as her granddaughter, as
widow of the lawful heir to the Persian throne, enjoys to this day
the rank and honors of a queen,--and lastly, inasmuch as I have
lately taken the great-grandchild of the same Rhodopis, Parmys, the
daughter of Bartja and Sappho, to be my third lawful wife, it seems
to me just to grant royal honors to the ancestress of two queens. I
therefore command thee to cause the ashes of Rhodopis, whom we have
always esteemed as the greatest and rarest among women, to be buried
in the greatest and rarest of all monuments, namely, in one of the
Pyramids. The costly urn, which thou wilt receive herewith, is sent
by Sappho to preserve the ashes of the deceased."
Given in the new imperial palace at Persepolis.
DARIUS, son of Hystaspes.
King.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
A noble mind can never swim with the stream
Age is inquisitive
Apis the progeny of a virgin cow and a moonbeam
Be not merciful unto him who is a liar or a rebel
Canal to connect the Nile with the Red Sea
I was not swift to anger, nor a liar, nor a violent ruler
Introduced a regular system of taxation-Darius
Numbers are the only certain things
Resistance always brings out a man's best powers
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, COMPLETE:
A kind word hath far more power than an angry one
A first impression is often a final one
A noble mind can never swim with the stream
Abuse not those who have outwitted thee
Age is inquisitive
Apis the progeny of a virgin cow and a moonbeam
Assigned sixty years as the limit of a happy life
At my age every year must be accepted as an undeserved gift
Avoid excessive joy as well as complaining grief
Be not merciful unto him who is a liar or a rebel
Between two stools a man falls to the ground
Blessings go as quickly as they come
Call everything that is beyond your comprehension a miracle
Cambyses had been spoiled from his earliest infancy
Canal to connect the Nile with the Red Sea
Cannot understand how trifles can make me so happy
Cast off all care; be mindful only of pleasure
Confess I would rather provoke a lioness than a woman
Corpse to be torn in pieces by dogs and vultures
Creed which views life as a short pilgrimage to the grave
Curiosity is a woman's vice
Death is so long and life so short
Devoid of occupation, envy easily becomes hatred
Did the ancients know anything of love
Does happiness consist then in possession
Easy to understand what we like to hear
Eros mocks all human efforts to resist or confine him
Eyes are much more eloquent than all the tongues in the world
Folly to fret over what cannot be undone
For the errors of the wise the remedy is reparation, not regret
Go down into the grave before us (Our children)
Greeks have not the same reverence for truth
Happiness has nothing to do with our outward circumstances
Hast thou a wounded heart? touch it seldom
He who kills a cat is punished (for murder)
He is the best host, who allows his guests the most freedom
He who is to govern well must begin by learning to obey
Human beings hate the man who shows kindness to their enemies
I cannot . . . Say rather: I will not
I was not swift to anger, nor a liar, nor a violent ruler
In war the fathers live to mourn for their slain sons
In our country it needs more courage to be a coward
In this immense temple man seemed a dwarf in his own eyes
In those days men wept, as well as women
Inn, was to be found about every eighteen miles
Introduced a regular system of taxation-Darius
Know how to honor beauty; and prove it by taking many wives
Lovers delighted in nature then as now
Lovers are the most unteachable of pupils
Misfortune too great for tears
Mosquito-tower with which nearly every house was provided
Multitude who, like the gnats, fly towards every thing brilliant
Natural impulse which moves all old women to favor lovers
Never so clever as when we have to find excuses for our own sins
No man was allowed to ask anything of the gods for himself
Nothing is more dangerous to love, than a comfortable assurance
Nothing is perfectly certain in this world
Numbers are the only certain things
Observe a due proportion in all things
Olympics--The first was fixed 776 B.C.
One must enjoy the time while it is here
Only two remedies for heart-sickness:--hope and patience
Ordered his feet to be washed and his head anointed
Papyrus Ebers
Pilgrimage to the grave, and death as the only true life
Pious axioms to be repeated by the physician, while compounding
Remember, a lie and your death are one and the same
Resistance always brings out a man's best powers
Robes cut as to leave the right breast uncovered
Romantic love, as we know it, a result of Christianity
Rules of life given by one man to another are useless
Scarcely be able to use so large a sum--Then abuse it
Sent for a second interpreter
Sing their libels on women (Greek Philosophers)
So long as we are able to hope and wish
Take heed lest pride degenerate into vainglory
The past belongs to the dead; only fools count upon the future
The priests are my opponents, my masters
The gods cast envious glances at the happiness of mortals
The beautiful past is all he has to live upon
They praise their butchers more than their benefactors
Those are not my real friends who tell me I am beautiful
Time is clever in the healing art
True host puts an end to the banquet
Unwise to try to make a man happy by force
War is a perversion of nature
We live for life, not for death
We've talked a good deal of love with our eyes already
Whatever a man would do himself, he thinks others are capable of
When love has once taken firm hold of a man in riper years
Whether the historical romance is ever justifiable
Wise men hold fast by the ever young present
Ye play with eternity as if it were but a passing moment
Young Greek girls pass their sad childhood in close rooms
Zeus pays no heed to lovers' oaths
THE SISTERS, Complete
By Georg Ebers
Translated from the German by Clara Bell
DEDICATION TO HERR EDUARD von HALLBERGER
Allow me, my dear friend, to dedicate these pages to you. I present them
to you at the close of a period of twenty years during which a warm and
fast friendship has subsisted between us, unbroken by any disagreement.
Four of my works have first seen the light under your care and have
wandered all over the world under the protection of your name. This, my
fifth book, I desire to make especially your own; it was partly written
in your beautiful home at Tutzing, under your hospitable roof, and I
desire to prove to you by some visible token that I know how to value
your affection and friendship and the many happy hours we have passed
together, refreshing and encouraging each other by a full and perfect
interchange of thought and sentiment.
PREFACE.
By a marvellous combination of circumstances a number of fragments of the
Royal Archives of Memphis have been preserved from destruction with the
rest, containing petitions written on papyrus in the Greek language;
these were composed by a recluse of Macedonian birth, living in the
Serapeum, in behalf of two sisters, twins, who served the god as "Pourers
out of the libations."
At a first glance these petitions seem scarcely worthy of serious
consideration; but a closer study of their contents shows us that we
possess in them documents of the greatest value in the history of
manners. They prove that the great Monastic Idea--which under the
influence of Christianity grew to be of such vast moral and historical
significance--first struck root in one of the centres of heathen
religious practices; besides affording us a quite unexpected insight into
the internal life of the temple of Serapis, whose ruined walls have, in
our own day, been recovered from the sand of the desert by the
indefatigable industry of the French Egyptologist Monsieur Mariette.
I have been so fortunate as to visit this spot and to search through
every part of it, and the petitions I speak of have been familiar to me
for years. When, however, quite recently, one of my pupils undertook to
study more particularly one of these documents--preserved in the Royal
Library at Dresden--I myself reinvestigated it also, and this study
impressed on my fancy a vivid picture of the Serapeum under Ptolemy
Philometor; the outlines became clear and firm, and acquired color, and
it is this picture which I have endeavored to set before the reader, so
far as words admit, in the following pages.
I did not indeed select for my hero the recluse, nor for my heroines the
twins who are spoken of in the petitions, but others who might have lived
at a somewhat earlier date under similar conditions; for it is proved by
the papyrus that it was not once only and by accident that twins were
engaged in serving in the temple of Serapis, but that, on the contrary,
pair after pair of sisters succeeded each other in the office of pouring
out libations.
I have not invested Klea and Irene with this function, but have simply
placed them as wards of the Serapeum and growing up within its precincts.
I selected this alternative partly because the existing sources of
knowledge give us very insufficient information as to the duties that
might have been required of the twins, partly for other reasons arising
out of the plan of my narrative.
Klea and Irene are purely imaginary personages, but on the other hand I
have endeavored, by working from tolerably ample sources, to give a
faithful picture of the historical physiognomy of the period in which
they live and move, and portraits of the two hostile brothers Ptolemy
Philometor and Euergetes II., the latter of whom bore the nickname of
Physkon: the Stout. The Eunuch Eulaeus and the Roman Publius Cornelius
Scipio Nasica, are also historical personages.
I chose the latter from among the many young patricians living at the
time, partly on account of the strong aristocratic feeling which he
displayed, particularly in his later life, and partly because his
nickname of Serapion struck me. This name I account for in my own way,
although I am aware that he owed it to his resemblance to a person of
inferior rank.
For the further enlightenment of the reader who is not familiar with this
period of Egyptian history I may suggest that Cleopatra, the wife of
Ptolemy Philometor--whom I propose to introduce to the reader--must not
be confounded with her famous namesake, the beloved of Julius Caesar and
Mark Antony. The name Cleopatra was a very favorite one among the
Lagides, and of the queens who bore it she who has become famous through
Shakespeare (and more lately through Makart) was the seventh, the sister
and wife of Ptolemy XIV. Her tragical death from the bite of a viper or
asp did not occur until 134 years later than the date of my narrative,
which I have placed 164 years B.C.
At that time Egypt had already been for 169 years subject to the rule of
a Greek (Macedonian) dynasty, which owed its name as that of the
Ptolemies or Lagides to its founder Ptolemy Soter, the son of Lagus.
This energetic man, a general under Alexander the Great, when his
sovereign--333 B.C.--had conquered the whole Nile Valley, was appointed
governor of the new Satrapy; after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., Ptolemy
mounted the throne of the Pharaohs, and he and his descendants ruled over
Egypt until after the death of the last and most famous of the
Cleopatras, when it was annexed as a province to the Roman Empire.
This is not the place for giving a history of the successive Ptolemies,
but I may remark that the assimilating faculty exercised by the Greeks
over other nations was potent in Egypt; particularly as the result of the
powerful influence of Alexandria, the capital founded by Alexander, which
developed with wonderful rapidity to be one of the most splendid centres
of Hellenic culture and of Hellenic art and science.
Long before the united rule of the hostile brothers Ptolemy Philometor
and Euergetes--whose violent end will be narrated to the reader of this
story--Greek influence was marked in every event and detail of Egyptian
life, which had remained almost unaffected by the characteristics of
former conquerors--the Hyksos, the Assyrians and the Persians; and, under
the Ptolemies, the most inhospitable and exclusive nation of early
antiquity threw open her gates to foreigners of every race.
Alexandria was a metropolis even in the modern sense; not merely an
emporium of commerce, but a focus where the intellectual and religious
treasures of various countries were concentrated and worked up, and
transmitted to all the nations that desired them. I have resisted the
temptation to lay the scene of my story there, because in Alexandria the
Egyptian element was too much overlaid by the Greek, and the too splendid
and important scenery and decorations might easily have distracted the
reader's attention from the dramatic interest of the persons acting.
At that period of the Hellenic dominion which I have described, the kings
of Egypt were free to command in all that concerned the internal affairs
of their kingdom, but the rapidly-growing power of the Roman Empire
enabled her to check the extension of their dominion, just as she chose.
Philometor himself had heartily promoted the immigration of Israelites
from Palestine, and under him the important Jewish community in
Alexandria acquired an influence almost greater than the Greek; and this
not only in the city but in the kingdom and over their royal protector,
who allowed them to build a temple to Jehovah on the shores of the Nile,
and in his own person assisted at the dogmatic discussions of the
Israelites educated in the Greek schools of the city. Euergetes II., a
highly gifted but vicious and violent man, was, on the contrary, just as
inimical to them; he persecuted them cruelly as soon as his brother's
death left him sole ruler over Egypt. His hand fell heavily even on
the members of the Great Academy--the Museum, as it was called--
of Alexandria, though he himself had been devoted to the grave labors
of science, and he compelled them to seek a new home. The exiled sons
of learning settled in various cities on the shores of the Mediterranean,
and thus contributed not a little to the diffusion of the intellectual
results of the labors in the Museum.
Aristarchus, the greatest of Philometor's learned contemporaries, has
reported for us a conversation in the king's palace at Memphis. The
verses about "the puny child of man," recited by Cleopatra in chapter X.,
are not genuinely antique; but Friedrich Ritschl--the Aristarchus of our
own days, now dead--thought very highly of them and gave them to me, some
years ago, with several variations which had been added by an anonymous
hand, then still in the land of the living. I have added to the first
verse two of these, which, as I learned at the eleventh hour, were
composed by Herr H. L. von Held, who is now dead, and of whom further
particulars may be learned from Varnhagen's 'Biographisclaen Denkmalen'.
Vol. VII. I think the reader will thank me for directing his attention
to these charming lines and to the genius displayed in the moral
application of the main idea. Verses such as these might very well have
been written by Callimachus or some other poet of the circle of the early
members of the Museum of Alexandria.
I was also obliged in this narrative to concentrate, in one limited
canvas as it were, all the features which were at once the conditions and
the characteristics of a great epoch of civilization, and to give them
form and movement by setting the history of some of the men then living
before the reader, with its complications and its denouement. All the
personages of my story grew up in my imagination from a study of the
times in which they lived, but when once I saw them clearly in outline
they soon stood before my mind in a more distinct form, like people in a
dream; I felt the poet's pleasure in creation, and as I painted them
their blood grew warm, their pulses began to beat and their spirit to
take wings and stir, each in its appropriate nature. I gave history her
due, but the historic figures retired into the background beside the
human beings as such; the representatives of an epoch became vehicles for
a Human Ideal, holding good for all time; and thus it is that I venture
to offer this transcript of a period as really a dramatic romance.
Leipzig November 13, 1879.
GEORG EBERS.
THE SISTERS.
CHAPTER I.
On the wide, desert plain of the Necropolis of Memphis stands the
extensive and stately pile of masonry which constitutes the Greek temple
of Serapis; by its side are the smaller sanctuaries of Asclepios, of
Anubis and of Astarte, and a row of long, low houses, built of unburnt
bricks, stretches away behind them as a troop of beggar children might
follow in the train of some splendidly attired king.
The more dazzlingly brilliant the smooth, yellow sandstone walls of the
temple appear in the light of the morning sun, the more squalid and mean
do the dingy houses look as they crouch in the outskirts. When the winds
blow round them and the hot sunbeams fall upon them, the dust rises from
them in clouds as from a dry path swept by the gale. Even the rooms
inside are never plastered, and as the bricks are of dried Nile-mud mixed
with chopped straw, of which the sharp little ends stick out from the
wall in every direction, the surface is as disagreeable to touch as it is
unpleasing to look at. When they were first built on the ground between
the temple itself and the wall which encloses the precincts, and which,
on the eastern side, divides the acacia-grove of Serapis in half, they
were concealed from the votaries visiting the temple by the back wall of
a colonnade on the eastern side of the great forecourt; but a portion of
this colonnade has now fallen down, and through the breach, part of these
modest structures are plainly visible with their doors and windows
opening towards the sanctuary--or, to speak more accurately, certain
rudely constructed openings for looking out of or for entering by. Where
there is a door there is no window, and where a gap in the wall serves
for a window, a door is dispensed with; none of the chambers, however, of
this long row of low one-storied buildings communicate with each other.
A narrow and well-trodden path leads through the breach in the wall; the
pebbles are thickly strewn with brown dust, and the footway leads past
quantities of blocks of stone and portions of columns destined for the
construction of a new building which seems only to have been intermitted
the night before, for mallets and levers lie on and near the various
materials. This path leads directly to the little brick houses, and ends
at a small closed wooden door so roughly joined and so ill-hung that
between it and the threshold, which is only raised a few inches above the
ground, a fine gray cat contrives to squeeze herself through by putting
down her head and rubbing through the dust. As soon as she finds herself
once more erect on her four legs she proceeds to clean and smooth her
ruffled fur, putting up her back, and glancing with gleaming eyes at the
house she has just left, behind which at this moment the sun is rising;
blinded by its bright rays she turns away and goes on with cautious and
silent tread into the court of the temple.
The hovel out of which pussy has crept is small and barely furnished; it
would be perfectly dark too, but that the holes in the roof and the rift
in the door admit light into this most squalid room. There is nothing
standing against its rough gray walls but a wooden chest, near this a few
earthen bowls stand on the ground with a wooden cup and a gracefully
wrought jug of pure and shining gold, which looks strangely out of place
among such humble accessories. Quite in the background lie two mats of
woven bast, each covered with a sheepskin. These are the beds of the two
girls who inhabit the room, one of whom is now sitting on a low stool
made of palm-branches, and she yawns as she begins to arrange her long
and shining brown hair. She is not particularly skilful and even less
patient over this not very easy task, and presently, when a fresh tangle
checks the horn comb with which she is dressing it, she tosses the comb
on to the couch. She has not pulled it through her hair with any haste
nor with much force, but she shuts her eyes so tightly and sets her white
teeth so firmly in her red dewy lip that it might be supposed that she
had hurt herself very much.
A shuffling step is now audible outside the door; she opens wide her
tawny-hazel eyes, that have a look of gazing on the world in surprise,
a smile parts her lips and her whole aspect is as completely changed as
that of a butterfly which escapes from the shade into the sunshine where
the bright beams are reflected in the metallic lustre of its wings.
A hasty hand knocks at the ill-hung door, so roughly that it trembles on
its hinges, and the instant after a wooden trencher is shoved in through
the wide chink by which the cat made her escape; on it are a thin round
cake of bread and a shallow earthen saucer containing a little olive-oil;
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