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Authors: Alan Scribner
Marcus Aurelius Betrayed
MARCUS AURELIUS BETRAYED
A JUDGE MARCUS FLAVIUS SEVERUS MYSTERY IN ANCIENT ROME
ALAN SCRIBNER
MARCUS AURELIUS BETRAYED
A JUDGE MARCUS FLAVIUS SEVERUS MYSTERY IN ANCIENT ROME
ALAN SCRIBNER
Torcular Press
Copyright © 2014 Alan Scribner
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1500522856
ISBN 13: 9781500522858
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014912807
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
North Charleston, South Carolina
Dedication
Ruth and Paul
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bust of Marcus Aurelius in about 163 CE at the age of 42
Marcus Flavius Severus: To Himself
I An audience with the Emperor
V The
Soma
and the Great Library of Alexandria
VI At the apartment of Philogenes
IX Questioning the
quaestionarius
and confronting Secundus
X The Prefect gives his version
XII Straton attends the temple of Isis
XIII Artemisia visits an antique shop
XIV Flaccus and Proculus ask questions at the Imperial Post
XV Severus spends the day at the Museum of Alexandria
XVI Alexander devises a plan to find the missing books
XVII Secundus is granted bail and followed
XVIII Cupid’s apartment is searched
XX Judge Severus interviews the priest of Isis
XXII Alexander and Manassah ben Jacob buy a book
XXIII The trial of Secundus begins
Marcus Flavius Severus: To Himself
Marcus Flavius Severus: To Himself
XXV Severus reports to the Emperor
XXVI The search for Claudius Celer
XXVII Artemisia takes Severus to the Saepta Julia Market
XXVIII Isarion is questioned and Claudius Celer is found
XXIX Severus prepares for an appeal to the Emperor and attends a lecture
XXX The Prefect and his entourage arrive in Rome
XXXI Alexander recounts his meeting with Philogeness
XXXII Calvus meets with the Emperor and his
consilium
XXXIII Serpentinus is hunted down
XXXIV Artemisia contrives to meet Aurora and Straton spreads some news
XXXV A trial date is set and Artemisia meets Aurora again
XXXVI The trial before the Emperor: Day 1
XXXVII The trial before the Emperor: Day 2
XXXVIII Before the Emperor: Day 3
Marcus Flavius Severus: To Himself
Historical Note and Illustrations
Personae
Marcus Flavius Severus - Judge in the Court of the Urban Prefect of Rome and special Imperial emissary
Judge Severus’
familia
and court staff
Artemisia - Severus’ wife
Aulus, Flavia and Quintus, their 12, 10, and 4-year old children
Alexander - freedman and private secretary
Quintus Proculus - court clerk
Caius Vulso - Centurion in the Urban Cohort
Publius Aelianus Straton - Tesserarius in the Urban Cohort
Gaius Sempronius Flaccus - judicial assessor
Glycon – slave
Galatea – slave
Argos – family dog
Phaon – family cat
People in Rome
Marcus Aurelius – Roman Emperor
Quintus Junius Rusticus – Prefect of the City of Rome
Publius Cornelius Naso – Tribune of the Praetorian Guard
Titus Velleius – Praetorian guardsman
Claudius Celer – formerly assistant to Titus Pudens at the Imperial Post in Alexandria
Aulus Gellius – friend of Severus from student days in Athens
Favorinus – famous scholar
People in Alexandria
Marcus Annius Calvus - Prefect of Egypt
Secundus - The Prefect’s stepson and personal aide
Titus Pudens – official at the Imperial Post in Alexandria
Philogenes - Homeric scholar and librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria
Petamon - a priest of Isis
Isarion - antique dealer from Alexandria
Serpentinus – aide to the Prefect of Egypt
Ganymede - slave of the Prefect
Rufus –
quaestionarius
Selene - proprietress of the House of Selene
Hetairai
in the House of Selene and present at the Prefect’s orgy:
Zoe, Aurora, Pulcheria, Demetria, Chloe, Eudoxia, Andromache
Cupid – friend of Secundus
Psen-Mon – acolyte-priest of Isis
Manassah ben Jacob – Jewish scholar
Archelaus – official at the Imperial Post
Others
Tiberius Valens – Trierarch of the warship
Argo
Septimus Eggius – Secundus’ lawyer
Avidius Cassius - Roman General on the Persian front
The story is set in Rome and Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt in the year 163 CE during the reign of the co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. This is two years after the events in
The Cyclops Case
and five years after the events in
Mars the Avenger
.
Times of day: The Roman day was divided into 12 day hours, starting from sunrise and 12 night hours from sunset. The length of the hour and the onset time of the hour depended on the season since there is more daylight in summer, more night in winter.
In the Spring and Fall, close to an equinox, the hours were approximately equal to ours in length and the times of day mentioned in the book are as follows:
1
st
hour of the day = 6-7 am
2
nd
hour of the day = 7-8 am
3
rd
hour of the day = 8-9 am
4
th
hour of the day = 9-10 am
5
th
hour of the day = 10-11 am
8
th
hour of the day = 1-2 pm
9
th
hour of the day = 2-3 pm
2
nd
hour of the night = 7-8 pm
4
th
hour of the night = 9-10 pm
Bust of Marcus Aurelius in about 163 CE at the age of 42
ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA
Above: Looking west along the Canopic Way toward the Moon Gate
Below: Pharos Lighthouse
ANCIENT ROME
T
he picture on the left shows part of the model of ancient Rome in the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome.
The numbers on the picture locate places mentioned in the book, according to the following key:
1. The Palatine Hill and imperial palace complex
2. The Forum of Augustus, where Severus has his courtroom and chambers
3. The Saepta Julia marketplace
4. The Caelian Hill area, where Severus lives and where he and Marcus Aurelius grew up.
5. The Subura
6. The Esquiline Hill area
SCROLL I
SEVERUS IN EGYPT
MARCUS FLAVIUS SEVERUS TO HIMSELF
O
ur Emperor Marcus Aurelius once said to me, “life is warfare and a brief sojourn in an alien land.” I think of that often because I’ve often felt its truth, that traversing life requires warring and soldiering, no matter what station you find yourself in. Regardless of appearances, emperors and slaves, and everyone in between, have to struggle in life one way or another. Not all the time, but inevitably. And Aurelius’ Stoic philosophy was as necessary for him in that struggle as it was for the crippled slave Epictetus whose Stoic teachings Aurelius admired so much. For we all find ourselves born into a strange place where we live for a very short time. “The whole Earth is but a point in the cosmos,” Aurelius says, “and our lives a point between the vast eons before us and the endless time after us.”