Chapter 07
Ten minutes later Publius leaned back against the side of the pool and kicked his legs so that the warm water swirled comfortingly around him.
"This is most unexpected!" he exclaimed to his companion. "Fancy finding baths like this in an out of the way place like Nazareth."
"Yes, it's not bad." Marcus looked pleased. "There was nothing here when I arrived but I've had the men working on it for over a year now. It's been a right old job - not just the building, which my chaps could do in their sleep as any soldier could, but finding reliable supplies of wood for the furnace. Fortunately there's a decent fountain up the hill a bit and I was able to tap into that for the water."
He paused as a naked woman wandered into the room and lowered herself into the water. She smiled at them and said something to Marcus in a language Publius didn't recognise. Marcus replied in the same language and then turned to Publius.
"This is Sarah. She's willing to oblige us for a drachma each. Interested?"
"No thanks," Publius shook his head and without waiting for Marcus to translate the woman turned away and climbed out of the bath. "I've been walking all day," Publius said as she left the room, "I don't think I've got the energy for anything more." He stopped and frowned. "A drachma? That's a bit expensive, isn't it?"
Marcus laughed. "Sure, but it's cheap round here. You see, although this is the back end of nowhere, we're on the highest hill for miles around, so they send soldiers here to recuperate after they get a fever down by the lake, which is a dreadful place for ague. It's amazing how eager some of those chaps get when they're on the mend - and there's not that many available women round here."
"Really?" Publius raised his eyebrows. "Soldiers' camps tend to attract women."
"Not here," Marcus said. "It's like this. At the top of the hill you've got the real holy die-hards, pharisees and whatnots, all looking down their long noses at us. Down the bottom there's us, unclean Gentiles as they reckon. In the middle there's the rest of the people who all make a good living out of us - food, drink, expensive souvenirs and the rest of it. The trouble is that they're Jews as well and while they're happy enough to take our money they wouldn't even touch our hands if they could help it. Anything of a more intimate nature - well - it just doesn't happen."
"Apart from Sarah," Publius pointed out.
"Sarah and a few more like her - half a dozen or so. Come Saturnalia and they are all kept very busy, very busy indeed. Nazareth is nothing like Maiumas or some of those other places on the coast. You get Syrians there and Egyptians and all sorts." He laughed suddenly. "Mind you, we may have our own claim to fame before long. You've only just arrived here, haven't you? I don't suppose you've heard of this Jewish holy man that's making such a stir these days? Rabbi Joshua?"
"Actually, I have heard of him," Publius said. "These horses, I got them from a dealer in Caesarea who charged me a fair price, a chap called Ephraim. He said that he'd become honest because of something this Rabbi Joshua said."
"Really?" Marcus sounded incredulous. "Ephraim's got religion, has he? The old rogue's been swindling soldiers all his life. I'll bet he just said that so you wouldn't notice that the horses were decrepit." He winked at Publius. "Anyway, the point is that this Rabbi Joshua comes from here."
"Really?" Publius was beginning to feel drowsy in the warmth of the bath house but he tried to sound interested. "You mean, he was born here?"
"Actually, no, he wasn't. There was some scandal about his birth - I never bothered to try and get to the bottom of it but I'll bet there was a soldier involved somehow - and he was born somewhere down south, but after the birth his parents came back as bold as brass and brought him up right here. The old man died a few years back, not long before I came."
"And the mother?" Publius asked.
"Oh, she's still around. I gather that she was a good bit younger than her husband. Anyway, as I say, this Rabbi Joshua's making a bit of a name for himself and you never know, Nazareth might be famous yet." Marcus chuckled. "Mind you, even he got out of here as soon as he could. He spends most of his time down by the lake, hangs out with a bunch of fishermen and Zealots and so on."
"Zealots?" Publius exclaimed.
"Yes. According to a report on him that I saw, at least two of his followers are Zealots and there's another one who goes by the nickname of 'Iscariot'. The report claimed that there's a town called that but I'm dubious. I think he's one of these sicarii. Anyway, I wouldn't want to meet any of them on a lonely road. Tough looking characters, the lot of them."
"You've seen them?" Publius tried to sound surprised.
"Oh yes," Marcus stood up and climbed out of the bath. "Joshua came back here for a visit a couple of months ago and managed to stir up a riot in the town. I tell you, I had the gates barred double quick, partly because I thought that he had finally started his rebellion and partly because no matter what starts them off, these riots always end up with an attack on us, but that time we were lucky. The mob went stravaging off towards a bit of a cliff down there a way, yelling and screaming in their hideous lingo, but something must have gone wrong when they got there because a short while later they came creeping back as quiet as mice. Odd."
"Did you make enquiries?" Publius asked, climbing out of the bath and following Marcus over to the doorway where a jar of oil stood on a shelf.
"Of course," Marcus dipped his fingers into the oil and began to rub it into his skin. "Incredibly it seems they had hold of this Joshua and were going to chuck him over the cliff by way of teaching him a lesson, only when they got down there they found that they didn't have hold of him after all and after a bit of 'You had him', 'No, you did', they gave it up and came home again."
"You mean, he just slipped through their fingers?" Publius laughed and started to anoint his own body.
"Something like that," Marcus grinned. "Mind you, they do say that he is a bit of a miracle worker - healing the sick, casting out demons and all that sort of thing. I'd cast him out if I had any say in the matter: I don't trust these Jewish holy men, particularly when they surround themselves with a bodyguard of Galileean fishermen instead of a gang of anaemic scholars. Next thing you know he'll be telling them all that he is their precious Messiah or something and leading an attack on the nearest garrison. I just hope the government's keeping a close eye on him, but you know what these politicians are like - never take action until it's too late and then you know who has to clear up the mess."
"The poor ruddy legionary," they both chorused and then laughed.
"Come on," Marcus said, reaching for his clothes. "Let's go see what the cook has got. Legionary rations, I'm afraid, but he does do a decent gravy that makes them half edible."
