Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (169 page)

SCENE THIRD.

Beyond the Euphrates and Tigris. A wide plain, with the imperial camp. Copses, to the left and in the background, hide the windings of the Tigris. Masts of ships rise over the thickets in long rows, stretching into the far distance. A cloudy evening. Soldiers and men-at-arms of all sorts are busy pitching their tents on the plain. All kinds of stores are being brought from the ships. Watchfires far away.
Nevita, Jovian,
and other officers come from the fleet.

NEVITA.
See, now, how rightly the Emperor has chosen! Here we stand, without a stroke, on the enemy’s territory; no one has opposed our passage of the river; not even a single Persian horseman is to be seen.

JOVIAN.
NO, sir, by this route, the enemy certainly did not expect us.

NEVITA.
You speak as if you still thought this route unwisely chosen.

JOVIAN.
Yes, sir, it is still ray opinion that we should rather have taken a more northerly direction. Then our left wing would have rested on Armenia, which is friendly towards us, and all our supplies might have come from that fruitful province. But here? Hampered in our progress by the heavy freight-ships, surrounded by a barren plain, almost a desert — Ah! the Emperor is coming. I will go; I am not in his good graces at present.
He goes out to the right. At the same time
Julian
enters with his retinue from, the ships.
Oribases,
the physician, the philosophers
Priscus
and
Kytron,
with several others
,
appear from, among the tents on the right, and advance to meet the Emperor.

JULIAN.
Thus does the empire grow. Every step I take towards the east shifts the frontier of my dominion.
[He stamps on the earth.
This earth is mine! I am in the empire, not beyond it. — Well, Priscus — ?

PRISCUS.
Incomparable Emperor, your command has been executed. Your marvellous dream has been read to every division of the army.

JULIAN.
Good, good. And how did my dream seem to affect the soldiers?

KYTRON.
Some praised you with joyful voices, and hailed you as divine; others on the contrary —

PRISCUS.
Those others were Galileans, Kytron!

KYTRON.
Yes, yes, most of them were Galileans; and these smote upon their breasts and uttered loud lamentations.

JULIAN.
I will not let the matter rest here. The busts of myself, which I have provided for erection in the towns I am to conquer, shall be set up round the camp, over all the paymasters’ tables. Lamps shall be lighted beside the busts; braziers, with sweet-smelling incense, shall burn before them; and every soldier, as he comes forward to receive his pay, shall cast some grains of incense on the fire.

ORIBASES.
Most gracious Emperor, forgive me, but — is that expedient?

JULIAN.
Why not? I marvel at you, my Oribases!

PRISCUS.
Ah, sire, you may well marvel? Not expedient to — ?

KYTRON.
Should not a Julian dare what less god-like men have dared?

JULIAN.
I, too, think that the more daring course would now be to disguise the counsels of the mystic powers. If it be the case that the divinities have deputed their sovereignty into earthly hands — as many signs justify us in concluding — it would indeed be most ungrateful to conceal the fact. In such hazardous circumstances as these, ‘tis no trifling matter that the soldiers should pay their devotions in a quite different quarter from that in which they are due. I tell you, Oribases, and all of you, — if, indeed, there be present any one else who would set limits to the Emperor’s power, — that this would be the very essence of impiety, and that I should therefore be forced to take strong measures against it. Has not Plato long ago enunciated the truth that only a god can rule over men? What meant he by that saying? Answer me — what did he mean? Far be it from me to assert that Plato — incomparable sage though he was — had any individual, even the greatest, in his prophetic eye. But I think we have all seen what disorders result from the parcelling out, as it were, of the supreme power into several hands. Enough of that. I have already commanded that the imperial busts shall be displayed about the camp. Ah! what seek you in such haste, Eutherius?

The Chamberlain Eutherius comes from the ships, accompanied by a man in girt-up garments.

EUTHERIUS.
Exalted Emperor, — this man of Antioch is sent by the governor, Alexander, and brings you a letter which, he says, is of great importance.

JULIAN.
Ah, let me see! Light here!
[A torch is brought; the Emperor opens and reads the letter.

JULIAN.
Can this be possible! More light! Yes, here it is written — and here — ; what next? — Truly this exceeds all I could have conceived!

NEVITA.
Bad news from the west, sire?

JULIAN.
Nevita, tell me, how long will it take us to reach Ctesiphon?

NEVITA.
It cannot be done in less than thirty days.

JULIAN.
It must be done in less! Thirty days! A whole month! And while we are creeping forward here, I must let those madmen —

NEVITA.
You know yourself, sire, that, on account of the ships, we must follow all the windings of the river. The current is rapid, and the bed, too, shallow and stony. I hold it impossible to proceed more quickly.

JULIAN.
Thirty clays! And then there is the city to be taken, — the Persian army to be routed, — peace to be concluded. What a time all this will take! Yet there were some among you foolish enough to urge upon me an even more roundabout route. Ha-ha; they would compass my ruin!

NEVITA.
Never fear, sire; the expedition shall advance with all possible speed.

JULIAN.
It must indeed. Can you imagine what Alexander tells me? The frenzy of the Galileans has passed all bounds since my departure. And it increases day by day. They understand that my victory in Persia will bring their extirpation in its train; and with that shameless Gregory as their leader, they now stand like a hostile army in my rear; in the Phrygian regions secret things are preparing, no one knows to what end —

NEVITA.
What does this mean, sire? What are they doing?

JULIAN.
What are they doing? Praying, preaching, singing, prophesying the end of the world. And would that that were all! — but they carry our adherents away, and entice them into their rebellious conspiracies. In Caesarea the congregation has chosen the judge Eusebius to be their bishop, — Eusebius, an unbaptised man — and he has been so misguided as to accept their call, which, moreover, the canon of their own church declares invalid. But that is far from being the worst; worse, worse, ten times worse is it, that Athanasius has returned to Alexandria.

NEVITA.
Athanasius!

PRISCUS.
That mysterious bishop who, six years ago, vanished into the desert.

JULIAN.
A council of the church expelled him on account of his unseemly zeal. The Galileans were tractable under my predecessor. Yes, just think of it — this raging fanatic has returned to Alexandria. His entrance was like a king’s; the road was strewn with carpets and green palm-branches. And what followed? What do you think? The same night a riot broke out among the Galileans. George, their lawful bishop, that right-minded and well-disposed man, whom they accused of lukewarmness in the faith, was murdered — torn to pieces in the streets of the city.

NEVITA.
But, sire, how were things suffered to go so far? Where was the governor, Artemius?

JULIAN.
You may well ask where Artemius was. I will tell you. Artemius has gone over to the Galileans! Artemius himself has broken by force of arms into the Serapeion, that most glorious of earthly temples, — has shattered the statues — has plundered the altars, and destroyed that vast treasury of books, which was of such inestimable value precisely in this age of error and ignorance. I could weep for them as for a friend bereft me by death, were not my wrath too great for tears.

KYTRON.
Truly, this surpasses belief!

JULIAN.
And not to be within reach of these miserable beings to punish them! To be doomed to look idly on while such atrocities spread wider and wider around! — Thirty days, you say! Why are we loitering? Why are we pitching our tents? Why should we sleep? Do my generals not know what is at stake? We must hold a council of war. When I remember what the Macedonian Alexander achieved in thirty days — Jovian
, accompanied by a man in Persian garb, unarmed, enters from the camp.

JOVIAN.
Forgive me, sire, for appearing before you: but this stranger —

JULIAN.
A Persian warrior!

THE PERSIAN.
[Prostrating himself to the earth.]
No warrior, oh mighty Emperor!

JOVIAN.
He came riding over the plains unarmed, and surrendered at the outposts —

JULIAN.
Then your countrymen are at hand?

THE PERSIAN.
No, no!

JULIAN.
Whence come you then?

THE PERSIAN.
Throws open his garments.]
Look at these arms, oh ruler of the world, — bleeding from rusty fetters. Feel this flayed back, — sore upon sore. I come from the torture chamber, sire!

JULIAN.
Ah — a fugitive from King Sapor?

THE PERSIAN.
Yes, mighty Emperor, to whom all things are known! I stood high in King Sapor’s favour until, impelled by the terror of your approach, I dared to prophesy that this war would end in his destruction. Would you know, sire, how he has rewarded me? My wife he gave as a prey to his archers from the mountains; my children he sold as slaves; all my possessions he divided among his servants; myself he tortured for nine days. Then he bade me ride forth and die like a beast in the desert.

JULIAN.
And what would you with me?

THE PERSIAN.
What would I after such treatment? I would help you to destroy my persecutor.

JULIAN.
Ah, poor tortured wretch, — how can you help?

THE PERSIAN.
I can lend wings to your soldiers’ feet.

JULIAN.
What mean you by that? Rise and explain yourself.

THE PERSIAN.
[Rising.] No one in Ctesiphon expected you to choose this route —

JULIAN.
I know that.

THE PERSIAN.
Now ‘tis no longer a secret.

JULIAN.
You lie, fellow! You Persians know nought of my designs.

THE PERSIAN.
You, sire, whose wisdom is born of the sun and of fire, know well that my countrymen are now acquainted with your designs. You have crossed the rivers by means of your ships; these ships, more than a thousand in number, and laden with all the supplies of the army, are to be towed up the Tigris, and the troops are to advance abreast of the ships.

JULIAN.
Incredible — !

THE PERSIAN.
When the ships have approached as near Ctesiphon as possible — that is to say, within two days’ march — you will make straight for the city, beleaguer it, and compel King Sapor to surrender.

JULIAN.
[Looking round.]
Who has betrayed us?

THE PERSIAN.
This plan is now no longer practicable. My countrymen have hastily constructed stone dams in the bed of the river, on which your ships will run aground.

JULIAN.
Man, do you know what it will cost you if you deceive me?

THE PERSIAN.
My body is in your power, mighty Emperor! If I speak not the truth, you are free to burn me alive.

JULIAN.
[To
Nevita.] The river dammed! It will take weeks to make it navigable again.

NEVITA.
If it can be done at all, sire! We have not the implements —

JULIAN.
And that this should come upon us now — just when so much depends on a speedy victory.

THE PERSIAN.
Oh ruler of the world, I have said that I can lend your army wings.

JULIAN.
Speak! Do you know of a shorter way?

THE PERSIAN.
If you will promise me that after your victory you will restore the possessions of which I have been robbed, and give me a new wife of noble birth, I will —

JULIAN.
I promise everything; only speak, — speak!

THE PERSIAN.
Strike straight across the plains, and in four days you will be under the walls of Ctesiphon.