SPANIA: VISIGOTHS OF SPAIN BOOK #3 by CONSTANT PAULA & Constant Paula

Author:CONSTANT, PAULA & Constant, Paula [CONSTANT, PAULA ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922666062
Publisher: Fehu Press
Published: 2022-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

20

Letter from Safia to Count Ilyan

June, AD 693

Toletum, Spania, to Septem, Mauretania

Toledo, Spain, to Ceuta, Morocco

M y honoured father,

By now, I believe you will have welcomed to your court those who have recently fled Illiberis. You are ever better informed than any other man, so I am certain the warning I am about to give is unnecessary, but I would be remiss if I did not relay it.

Oppa has left Toletum, riding for Illiberis. He has taken Wittiza with him, ostensibly to see the harvest and meet his southern lords, but in reality, I believe, to bind him more closely. Oppa has many plans, in all of which Wittiza plays a central part. Illiberis is where those plans begin.

Despite being fully cognisant of the burgeoning Jewish rebellion in Septem, Oppa allowed the Jewish merchant, Yosef, to leave Spania unharmed. We both know Oppa is not a merciful man. He made the decision consciously. Before they rode south, I heard Oppa tell Wittiza that Illiberis was important because, and I quote: “the Jews there are the greatest threat your rule will face; and already, they gather force against you.” It is a story he has impressed upon Egica also, that the Jews gather in Septem, allied with their brothers in Garnata. It is the reason he gives for taking control of Illiberis, but I suspect there is more to his tenure there than either personal vengeance or a desire for land.

Illiberis is the most powerful latifundium so close to the coast – and to you, Father. Oppa is no friend to you, nor to Septem. He craves power alone. I believe he intends still to uncover the reasons behind Yosef’s journey, and to profit from it. He intends to take any Jewish trade or wealth as his own, build a stronghold in the south, and cauterise Jewish power in Spania. The rulings of the Sixteenth Council against Jews are fertile ground upon which Oppa can sow the seeds of division, suspicion, and, ultimately, complete annihilation. He allowed the Garnata Jews who fought alongside Illiberis to flee to Septem, with Yosef. This is my warning, Father: the Jewish rebellion is as doomed to failure as was Sunifred’s. At court, it is spoken of with open contempt. Spania is pious, and there is little love for the Jews amongst the nobility. Any actual armed rebellion by a Jewish army will be abruptly, and savagely, put down. Oppa has done much to fan the flames of paranoia. It serves his own interests to have the nobility aroused in righteous anger at the thought of foreign invasion, whilst he quietly goes about consolidating his own power within Spania.

Lælia has left Toletum for Aurariola. She left in a blaze of scandal, which I relay here only to give you the backdrop to the current dynamic. Oppa thought to humiliate Lælia by flaunting an old concubine of Theo’s at court. He might have succeeded, had Theo not turned the tables by going to Oppa’s whorehouse that same

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