CHAPTER I
The city of Misenum gave name to the promontory which it crowned,a few miles southwest of Naples. An account of ruins is all thatremains of it now; yet in the year of our Lord 24--to which it isdesirable to advance the reader--the place was one of the mostimportant on the western coast of Italy.[1]
[1] The Roman government, it will be remembered, had two harbors in which great fleets were constantly kept--Ravenna and Misenum.
In the year mentioned, a traveller coming to the promontory toregale himself with the view there offered, would have mounteda wall, and, with the city at his back, looked over the bay ofNeapolis, as charming then as now; and then, as now, he wouldhave seen the matchless shore, the smoking cone, the sky andwaves so softly, deeply blue, Ischia here and Capri yonder;from one to the other and back again, through the purpled air,his gaze would have sported; at last--for the eyes do weary of thebeautiful as the palate with sweets--at last it would have droppedupon a spectacle which the modern tourist cannot see--half thereserve navy of Rome astir or at anchor below him. Thus regarded,Misenum was a very proper place for three masters to meet, and atleisure parcel the world among them.
In the old time, moreover, there was a gateway in the wall at acertain point fronting the sea--an empty gateway forming the outletof a street which, after the exit, stretched itself, in the form ofa broad mole, out many stadia into the waves.
The watchman on the wall above the gateway was disturbed, one coolSeptember morning, by a party coming down the street in noisyconversation. He gave one look, then settled into his drowseagain.
There were twenty or thirty persons in the party, of whom thegreater number were slaves with torches, which flamed littleand smoked much, leaving on the air the perfume of the Indiannard. The masters walked in advance arm-in-arm. One of them,apparently fifty years old, slightly bald, and wearing over hisscant locks a crown of laurel, seemed, from the attentions paidhim, the central object of some affectionate ceremony. They allsported ample togas of white wool broadly bordered with purple.A glance had sufficed the watchman. He knew, without question,they were of high rank, and escorting a friend to ship after anight of festivity. Further explanation will be found in theconversation they carried on.
"No, my Quintus," said one, speaking to him with the crown, "it isill of Fortune to take thee from us so soon. Only yesterday thoudidst return from the seas beyond the Pillars. Why, thou hast noteven got back thy land legs."
"By Castor! if a man may swear a woman's oath," said another,somewhat worse of wine, "let us not lament. Our Quintus is butgoing to find what he lost last night. Dice on a rolling ship isnot dice on shore--eh, Quintus?"
"Abuse not Fortune!" exclaimed a third. "She is not blind orfickle. At Antium, where our Arrius questions her, she answershim with nods, and at sea she abides with him holding the rudder.She takes him from us, but does she not always give him back witha new victory?"
"The Greeks are taking him away," another broke in. "Let us abusethem, not the gods. In learning to trade they forgot how to fight."
With these words, the party passed the gateway, and came upon themole, with the bay before them beautiful in the morning light.To the veteran sailor the plash of the waves was like a greeting.He drew a long breath, as if the perfume of the water were sweeterthan that of the nard, and held his hand aloft.
"My gifts were at Praeneste, not Antium--and see! Wind fromthe west. Thanks, O Fortune, my mother!" he said, earnestly.
The friends all repeated the exclamation, and the slaves wavedtheir torches.
"She comes--yonder!" he continued, pointing to a galley outsidethe mole. "What need has a sailor for other mistress? Is yourLucrece more graceful, my Caius?"
He gazed at the coming ship, and justified his pride. A whitesail was bent to the low mast, and the oars dipped, arose,poised a moment, then dipped again, with wing-like action,and in perfect time.
"Yes, spare the gods," he said, soberly, his eyes fixed upon thevessel. "They send us opportunities. Ours the fault if we fail.And as for the Greeks, you forget, O my Lentulus, the pirates Iam going to punish are Greeks. One victory over them is of moreaccount than a hundred over the Africans."
"Then thy way is to the Aegean?"
The sailor's eyes were full of his ship.
"What grace, what freedom! A bird hath not less care for thefretting of the waves. See!" he said, but almost immediatelyadded, "Thy pardon, my Lentulus. I am going to the Aegean;and as my departure is so near, I will tell the occasion--onlykeep it under the rose. I would not that you abuse the duumvirwhen next you meet him. He is my friend. The trade between Greeceand Alexandria, as ye may have heard, is hardly inferior to thatbetween Alexandria and Rome. The people in that part of the worldforgot to celebrate the Cerealia, and Triptolemus paid them witha harvest not worth the gathering. At all events, the trade is sogrown that it will not brook interruption a day. Ye may also haveheard of the Chersonesan pirates, nested up in the Euxine; nonebolder, by the Bacchae! Yesterday word came to Rome that, with afleet, they had rowed down the Bosphorus, sunk the galleys offByzantium and Chalcedon, swept the Propontis, and, still unsated,burst through into the Aegean. The corn-merchants who have shipsin the East Mediterranean are frightened. They had audience withthe Emperor himself, and from Ravenna there go to-day a hundredgalleys, and from Misenum"--he paused as if to pique the curiosityof his friends, and ended with an emphatic--"one."
"Happy Quintus! We congratulate thee!"
"The preferment forerunneth promotion. We salute thee duumvir;nothing less."
"Quintus Arrius, the duumvir, hath a better sound than QuintusArrius, the tribune."
In such manner they showered him with congratulations.
"I am glad with the rest," said the bibulous friend, "very glad;but I must be practical, O my duumvir; and not until I know ifpromotion will help thee to knowledge of the tesserae will I havean opinion as to whether the gods mean thee ill or good inthis--this business."
"Thanks, many thanks!" Arrius replied, speaking to them collectively."Had ye but lanterns, I would say ye were augurs. Perpol! I willgo further, and show what master diviners ye are! See--and read."
From the folds of his toga he drew a roll of paper, and passed itto them, saying, "Received while at table last night from--Sejanus."
The name was already a great one in the Roman world; great, and notso infamous as it afterwards became.
"Sejanus!" they exclaimed, with one voice, closing in to read whatthe minister had written.
"Sejanus to C. Caecilius Rufus, Duumvir.
"ROME, XIX. Kal. Sept.
"Caesar hath good report of Quintus Arrius, the tribune. In particularhe hath heard of his valor, manifested in the western seas, insomuch thatit is his will that the said Quintus be transferred instantly to the East.
"It is our Caesar's will, further, that you cause a hundred triremes,of the first class, and full appointment, to be despatched withoutdelay against the pirates who have appeared in the Aegean, and thatQuintus be sent to command the fleet so despatched.
"Details are thine, my Caecilius.
"The necessity is urgent, as thou will be advised by the reportsenclosed for thy perusal and the information of the said Quintus.
"SEJANUS."
Arrius gave little heed to the reading. As the ship drew more plainlyout of the perspective, she became more and more an attraction to him.The look with which he watched her was that of an enthusiast. At lengthhe tossed the loosened folds of his toga in the air; in reply tothe signal, over the aplustre, or fan-like fixture at the sternof the vessel, a scarlet flag was displayed; while several sailorsappeared upon the bulwarks, and swung themselves hand over hand upthe ropes to the antenna, or yard, and furled the sail. The bow wasput round, and the time of the oars increased one half; so that atracing speed she bore down directly towards him and his friends.He observed the manoeuvring with a perceptible brightening of theeyes. Her instant answer to the rudder, and the steadiness withwhich she kept her cours
e, were especially noticeable as virtuesto be relied upon in action.
"By the Nymphae!" said one of the friends, giving back the roll,"we may not longer say our friend will be great; he is already great.Our love will now have famous things to feed upon. What more hast thoufor us?"
"Nothing more," Arrius replied. "What ye have of the affair isby this time old news in Rome, especially between the palace andthe Forum. The duumvir is discreet; what I am to do, where go tofind my fleet, he will tell on the ship, where a sealed packageis waiting me. If, however, ye have offerings for any of thealtars to-day, pray the gods for a friend plying oar and sailsomewhere in the direction of Sicily. But she is here, and willcome to," he said, reverting to the vessel. "I have interest inher masters; they will sail and fight with me. It is not an easything to lay ship side on a shore like this; so let us judge theirtraining and skill."
"What, is she new to thee?"
"I never saw her before; and, as yet, I know not if she will bringme one acquaintance."
"Is that well?"
"It matters but little. We of the sea come to know each otherquickly; our loves, like our hates, are born of sudden dangers."
The vessel was of the class called naves liburnicae--long, narrow,low in the water, and modelled for speed and quick manoeuvre. The bowwas beautiful. A jet of water spun from its foot as she came on,sprinkling all the prow, which rose in graceful curvature twicea man's stature above the plane of the deck. Upon the bending ofthe sides were figures of Triton blowing shells. Below the bow,fixed to the keel, and projecting forward under the water-line,was the rostrum, or beak, a device of solid wood, reinforced andarmed with iron, in action used as a ram. A stout molding extendedfrom the bow the full length of the ship's sides, defining thebulwarks, which were tastefully crenelated; below the molding,in three rows, each covered with a cap or shield of bull-hide,were the holes in which the oars were worked--sixty on the right,sixty on the left. In further ornamentation, caducei leaned againstthe lofty prow. Two immense ropes passing across the bow marked thenumber of anchors stowed on the foredeck.
The simplicity of the upper works declared the oars the chiefdependence of the crew. A mast, set a little forward of midship,was held by fore and back stays and shrouds fixed to rings on theinner side of the bulwarks. The tackle was that required for themanagement of one great square sail and the yard to which it washung. Above the bulwarks the deck was visible.
Save the sailors who had reefed the sail, and yet lingered on theyard, but one man was to be seen by the party on the mole, and hestood by the prow helmeted and with a shield.
The hundred and twenty oaken blades, kept white and shining bypumice and the constant wash of the waves, rose and fell as ifoperated by the same hand, and drove the galley forward with aspeed rivalling that of a modern steamer.
So rapidly, and apparently, so rashly, did she come that the landsmenof the tribune's party were alarmed. Suddenly the man by the prowraised his hand with a peculiar gesture; whereupon all the oarsflew up, poised a moment in air, then fell straight down. The waterboiled and bubbled about them; the galley shook in every timber,and stopped as if scared. Another gesture of the hand, and againthe oars arose, feathered, and fell; but this time those on theright, dropping towards the stern, pushed forward; while those onthe left, dropping towards the bow, pulled backwards. Three timesthe oars thus pushed and pulled against each other. Round to theright the ship swung as upon a pivot; then, caught by the wind,she settled gently broadside to the mole.
The movement brought the stern to view, with all its garniture--Tritonslike those at the bow; name in large raised letters;the rudder at the side; the elevated platform upon which thehelmsman sat, a stately figure in full armor, his hand upon therudder-rope; and the aplustre, high, gilt, carved, and bent overthe helmsman like a great runcinate leaf.
In the midst of the rounding-to, a trumpet was blown brief andshrill, and from the hatchways out poured the marines, all insuperb equipment, brazen helms, burnished shields and javelins.While the fighting-men thus went to quarters as for action, thesailors proper climbed the shrouds and perched themselves alongthe yard. The officers and musicians took their posts. There wasno shouting or needless noise. When the oars touched the mole,a bridge was sent out from the helmsman's deck. Then the tribuneturned to his party and said, with a gravity he had not beforeshown:
"Duty now, O my friends."
He took the chaplet from his head and gave it to the dice-player.
"Take thou the myrtle, O favorite of the tesserae!" he said. "If Ireturn, I will seek my sestertii again; if I am not victor, I willnot return. Hang the crown in thy atrium."
To the company he opened his arms, and they came one by one andreceived his parting embrace.
"The gods go with thee, O Quintus!" they said.
"Farewell," he replied.
To the slaves waving their torches he waved his hand; then heturned to the waiting ship, beautiful with ordered ranks andcrested helms, and shields and javelins. As he stepped uponthe bridge, the trumpets sounded, and over the aplustre rosethe vexillum purpureum, or pennant of a commander of a fleet.