Regarding.Tiberius.for.Kindle._2.2.10_02032018 by Kleopatra Helena Mithridates & Boge Bartholomew

Author:Kleopatra, Helena Mithridates & Boge, Bartholomew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wellington Cinematic Media, LLC
Published: 2015-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

– • –

Mauropyrois can hold

no more cargo,

let alone either of us.

Do we walk to Syria?

– • –

“We’ll travel mostly by water. On barges and merchant ships. We’ll make progress day and night, even as we sleep. Securely, and without the toil of constant marching.”

He withdrew a piece of parchment. On it he had sketched a makeshift map and jotted notations regarding our intended route. “Have a look. We’ll take a large barge on the Halys upstream. We’ll get off near Cæsarea Cappadocia. We’ll have to march fifty miles overland to find another transport on the Karmalas River, heading south. From there, the Karmalas flows into the Sarus, and out to the Mediterranean port city of Tarsus. We’ll then find a seagoing transport to Phoenicia, just north of Tyre, where we’ll board another barge on the Leontes River heading east. We’ll get off here, before the river turns north, and we’ll have one more march of thirty miles or so until we come to the Jordan River. We’ll take that south, through the Sea of Galilee, to the Hieromyax River, which will bring us further east. Raphana is just a few miles from the Hieromyax.”

He handed the parchment to me and looked to the horizon. “The legion went by land. Marching at twenty miles per day, that gives them about a three-hundred mile head start. If we can make our waterway journey in four weeks, we’ll arrive before they do, and better rested for all that travel.”

I stared at the document, my eyes tracing the paths of each river, gathering the details from his copious notations. While I had travelled on many occasions with my family—north to Sinope on the Black Sea, south to Cappadocia, as far east as Nicopolis in Armenia Minor and as far west as Smyrna on Lydia’s Ægean coast—our journeys had never taken us outside Asia Minor nor had we ever sailed on any sea. We crossed many rivers, but seldom used them as a means of transportation.

I lifted my eyes from the parchment and looked at the gentle hills on the horizon and drew a deep breath. I could smell the pines nearby, and the hint of the urban smells that followed us from Germanicopolis: game roasting, bread baking, and livestock. I could faintly hear the din of the merchants in the forum, hawking their wares in Greek and Latin—even one peddler calling out to buyers in the Armenian tongue. These were familiar sites, sounds and aromas to me, and I took a moment to take them in one last time. Even then, I suspected that I would never again return to my homeland, and as of this writing, I never have. In silence I bid it all a final goodbye.

My look of introspection must have been easy to read. Tiberius recovered the itinerary from my grasp and took my hand in his.

“Any questions?”

I shook my head.

“We’re only a mile from a tributary to the Halys River. Pilate told me that barges travel upstream from there on a daily basis.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.