The God's Wife by Sarah Holz

Author:Sarah Holz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical fiction, historical, Egyptian history, Egyptian mythology, ancient world historical, mythology, historical fantasy, magic realism, family saga, literary fiction, literary, Roman history, ancient Rome
Publisher: Sarah Holz
Published: 2019-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I went out with my teacher and Quintus Fabianus to speak of our needs to the engineers. The siege had afforded them many opportunities to display their talents, but they had grown bored with copying Roman siege towers and constructing new battlements. When we described what we wished to accomplish with the canals, their faces lit up and they immediately began conferring with one another on how it best could be done.

"Would it be possible to introduce the saltwater slowly, to add to the confusion?" I asked Hieronymos, my chief engineer, whose people originally hailed from Samothrace.

I might have doubted my Greek officers' loyalty, but never the ordinary Alexandrians and never my engineers. I made sure to compensate them well, and they had developed a rapport with my Gabiniani lieutenant which had in turn given them direct access to my ear. Knowing how respected they were in our camp, they were not eager to trade that away for the privilege of being harried about by the Roman tacticians they would be working for on the other side of the palace walls.

"I'm sure it could be done, Your Majesty,” he replied. “We could start with some of the canals, and then slowly close in on the supply line until they were cut off. That would also give us a little more time to build additional wheels."

"This would be ideal. Do you have the men you need?"

He made an equivocal gesture. "We would be able to work more efficiently with an extra battalion more to handle the unskilled tasks. And we will require more timber for the wheels."

I nodded. "I shall get Tahu to send you some of the new men from Memphis, they will be fresh. And I will speak to one of the quartermasters to divert the supplies to you."

"Then we will begin at once, my lady."

"Don't fret, Your Majesty," said Tychon, one of the other engineers, with a cheeky grin. "We shall send the Romans a salty puzzle."

While my engineers worked, I redistributed my troops along our front lines. I sent Ganymedes and as many reinforcements as I dared to the Soma to replace Achillas, thinking Caesar might think us weaker there now. Tahu replaced Ganymedes in command of my men in the Jewish quarter. Leaving Quintus with my engineering corps, I still nursed a desire to send more troops against the lighthouse, yet I knew we were not in a position to challenge that stronghold after our previous attempts.

Within a day, the first water wheel was completed and set up at a far point near Lake Mareotis. There is a point where a large canal ditch from the lake splits into two branches that cut through the city in separate directions. The western branch is the one that all of the tributary canals in Rhakotis and the western Soma spring from; the eastern branch is the starting point for the canals that feed the eastern Soma, the Jewish quarter, and the palace.

I pored over maps of the city with Hieronymos and Quintus for hours while my men sawed planks and split wood.

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