BooksBarbecue
Back The City Save as PDF
Contents ( 111)
  1. BY ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY
  2. CONTENTS
  3. MAP
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. I
  6. In the hill country
  7. Nearer the Euphrates
  8. The same night
  9. II
  10. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana, Fifty-five miles east of Cyrrhus
  11. Fifteen days before the Kalends of March
  12. III
  13. On the training grounds outside Zeugma
  14. Fifth day before the Nones of March
  15. In the house of Simon the merchant, Nicopolis
  16. The next day
  17. IV
  18. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana
  19. V
  20. Outside Nicopolis
  21. Eleventh day before the Kalends of April
  22. Nicopolis
  23. The same day
  24. VI
  25. On the road to the crossing at Zeugma
  26. Tenth day before the Kalends of April
  27. VII
  28. Zeugma
  29. Seventh day before the Kalends of April
  30. VIII
  31. The camp of VIIII Hispana
  32. One day before the Nones of April
  33. Nicopolis
  34. The same day, late afternoon
  35. IX
  36. Outside Nicopolis
  37. Eighth Day before the Ides of April
  38. X
  39. Near Nicopolis
  40. A little later
  41. XI
  42. In the plain in front of Nicopolis
  43. The Ides of April
  44. Nicopolis
  45. The same night
  46. XII
  47. In front of Nicopolis
  48. Eighteenth day before the Kalends of May First day of the siege
  49. XIII
  50. Outside Nicopolis
  51. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of May Second day of the siege
  52. XIV
  53. Outside Nicopolis
  54. Fifteenth day before the Kalends of May The fourth day of the siege
  55. Nicopolis
  56. The sixth day of the siege
  57. XV
  58. Up country
  59. Thirteenth day before the Kalends of May The eighth day of the siege
  60. XVI
  61. Zeugma
  62. That same night
  63. XVII
  64. The siege lines outside Nicopolis
  65. Eleventh day before the Kalends of May The tenth day of the siege
  66. XVIII
  67. The large camp to the east of Nicopolis
  68. Tenth day before the Kalends of May The eleventh day of the siege
  69. Nicopolis
  70. Late on the fourteenth night of the siege
  71. XIX
  72. Before Nicopolis
  73. Fifth day before the Kalends of April Sixteenth day of the siege
  74. XX
  75. Outside Nicopolis
  76. The Kalends of May The twenty-first day of the siege
  77. XXI
  78. Before Nicopolis
  79. The day before the Nones of May The twenty-sixth day of the siege
  80. Nicopolis
  81. The next day The twenty-seventh day of the siege
  82. XXII
  83. North west of Nicopolis, some miles from the road
  84. Fifth day before the Ides of May The thirty-second day of the siege
  85. XXIII
  86. In front of Nicopolis
  87. The day before the Ides of May The thirty-fifth day of the siege
  88. XXIV
  89. Outside Nicopolis
  90. The Ides of May
  91. The thirty-sixth day of the siege
  92. XXV
  93. The breach in the western wall
  94. XXVI
  95. Outside Nicopolis
  96. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of June The thirty-seventh day of the siege
  97. The prison at Nicopolis
  98. Three days later
  99. The forty-first day of the siege
  100. XXVII
  101. The citadel at Nicopolis
  102. The last hours of the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June
  103. The forty-first day of the siege
  104. XXVIII
  105. Nicopolis
  106. The same night
  107. EPILOGUE
  108. The next morning
  109. HISTORICAL NOTE
  110. GLOSSARY
  111. CAST OF CHARACTERS

‘We’ll see tomorrow,’ Crispinus told his officers that evening.

Nicopolis

The same night

DOMITIUS SAT IN the darkness. There was no window to the cell, no light at all apart from the thin line of torchlight under the locked door. He did not know how many days he had been there, his legs in shackles, an iron collar around his neck with a chain attached to a ring on the wall. There were two others in the cell, both chained, and they spoke little and in words he did not understand. Now and then, probably at morning and in the evening, or at least so he had thought in the beginning, a guard opened the door and they brought a cup of cheap, highly watered wine, and a bowl of thin gruel.

His guards had taken him directly to the prison, where others put on the shackles and took him to the cell. He never saw the Strategos, or anyone else for that matter, and no one asked him any questions about why he was in the city or anything at all. Apart from the ones who brought the food, everyone else seemed to have forgotten his existence. The other two prisoners said less and less, and one was breathing with difficulty. The chain was just long enough to allow him to lie down on the filthy straw so long as he did not move. The inhabitants of the straw did enough moving for everyone, and he could feel the lice crawling across his skin and fleas biting. Sleep did not come easily, but after a while the heavy breathing grew softer and then there was silence. The next time the guard came with a meal he prodded the one prisoner, before giving a short laugh.

‘We’ve got a dead ’un!’ he called. ‘You hear that, Aristonicus? That’s three drachma you owe me!’

Another guard appeared. ‘Next week, when we get paid,’ he yelled.

‘Tight-fisted bastard. Come on, get the key and we’ll drag him out.’

Domitius felt himself tensing, wondering whether there was some chance to surprise them, unlock his bonds and escape. There was not, so he watched, blinking in the flood of torchlight through the open door, as they pulled the corpse out by its feet.

‘You two still alive?’ Aristonicus joked before he slammed the door shut. Domitius could hear their muffled conversation for a while before it faded. There was a glow in his eyes from the torchlight, and that took even longer to fade. He felt for his meal, cursed as he spilled some of the wine, and ate the gruel.

Time passed and it could have been day or night. The other man began muttering, the same phrase over and over again, and Domitius wondered whether it was a prayer or a curse. After a while, it took on the form of a conversation, as the man seemed to argue with himself, at times becoming heated and even yelling. Domitius was not sure who was winning.