Agrippa's Daughter by Fast Howard

Author:Fast, Howard [Fast, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2011-12-26T18:30:00+00:00

Part Five

“Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, commander: to Berenice, Queen of Chalcis:

“Greetings, and I write to you with no ease, and not to command you either, for I know full well what anguish and misery these events at Jerusalem impose upon you although I am uncertain as to how much information you have as to what goes on in the city. I also know with what distaste you receive my compliments and my assurances of regard, remembering only too well how poorly my advances went when I was at Tiberias. So be assured, dear lady, that I write to you because I feel a heavy and unavoidable obligation to do so, as you will understand if you only bear with me and read to the end of this message.

“Believe me that the events at Jerusalem have brought no joy to me. Neither duty nor obligation are necessarily pleasant. I could have reduced Jerusalem two years ago, when I first entered Judea with my army. I am not boasting, but only stating a grim fact of war. But in my eyes and considerations the lives of my soldiers come first—and when I saw that the Jews were destroying each other, I made a difficult if cold-blooded decision, (I pray you to believe that I speak of the decision, not of myself. I am not a cold-blooded man. I do not imagine all men love you, Berenice. The fact that I do, boyishly perhaps, but truly—this speaks something for my nature.) I decided then not to attack Jerusalem, but to ring it round and wait until the Jews inside the walls had destroyed each other or so weakened each other that they could offer no hard defense to my legionaries.

“I am no Jew hater. I have said this. I repeat it, and I will repeat it again and again, so many times as the occasion may require. In fact, I have always been in awe of your Temple and Yaweh, that ancient God that has no being nor substance nor definition in form. My Greek friends say that this Jewish concept of God is the most sublime that mankind ever devised, and I have no reason or desire to contradict them. And if that is so, can one escape the feeling that the frightful, almost indescribable events that have taken place in Jerusalem these past two years are in some measure Yaweh’s punishment? Can you imagine civil war inside a besieged city—two years of awful civil war? First it was war between the Zealots and the people in the Upper City who wanted to come to terms with Rome, and finally the Zealots broke into the Upper City and put to death every man, woman, and child in the families of peace. Then the Zealots split—a fanatical section of them demanding that every suspect Jew—suspect of desiring peace with Rome—be put to death. This faction opened the gates and let twelve hundred Sicarii from the Dead Sea region into the city. For five weeks, bloody war raged between these Sicarii and the ultra-Zealots against the moderate Zealots.

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