The Roman Saga. Volume I. The City of Temptation

Gold of Etruscans

Two horse riders appeared out of the mist. A man by the campfire jumped to his feet and ran toward them. Not noticing his shield, he hit his toe in his open sandals.

'So what? Did you get the horses?' he said, grimacing in pain.

'You see, Gaius Cinna was nervous here without us,' said the first rider and smiled wearily.

'Publius, I'll strangle you with my own hands! Don't keep silent, tell me! What's up there?' Gaius was obviously nervous and constantly looking around.

'They gave us the horses, they did! Well, before we had the chance of getting them, we had had to get this medallion from the priests and if we wanted to get the locket, it was necessary to bring them the horses. The vicious cycle was shorter,' Publius Scipio slid down from the horse onto the earth and leaned back against the stone. Then he held his hands over his face. 'Have you got some water?'

'Yes, I have! Here it is! How did you do that?' Gaius could not tone it down. Impatience and excitement were written on his narrow and painful face. 'Can you say anything? Even a little bit... I was waiting for you here for so long…'

'Mark helped me. Without him I would never have guessed how to handle it,' he nodded to the third friend who was tethering his horse to a post.

'Well, how did you do that? Do not torture me! I've run around all the guards a hundred times. You can't imagine what popped into my head...

'Don't worry so much,' rumbled the third man, a broad-shouldered fellow named Mark Scaevola and patted him on the shoulder. Mark was older, calmer and clumsier. He had an obvious belly, which was difficult to hide under the old breastplate. Gaius Cinna could barely restrain his excitement, and Mark enjoyed it. 'We promised the priests we'd save them from death and bring them horses and they said they would give us the medallion if we found a barbarian with a tattoo on his shoulder. He had such a strange name...'

'Hogo,' Publius prompted and smiled.

'Yes, Hogo. We got to the Cimbri[1], gave them a few gifts, brought a lot of wine and found this Hogo. He was their leader. He had such a sign on his shoulder,' Mark lifted up the sleeve of his tunic and showed a tattoo of three snails on his shoulder. 'We decided that I was very much like a barbarian. Especially, if I changed my clothes into their fur skins. So I did that. Then I made the tattoo, and, as you can see, it worked out. Publius also made one on his shoulder just in case. You know, if something wrong would have happened to me... In short, we went to the priests, showed them my shoulder and they thought that I was the barbarian who would protect them, so they gave us the medallion. We took the medallion to the barbarians, they danced with it a little, then gave us horses in return, and we returned to save the priests. That's it.'

'Really? Are you kidding? It was like that – so easy? You exchanged the medallion for the horses, and it worked? I can't believe it. Did you find the gold? Did you?' Gaius was jerking and wringing his hands like a woman.

'Yes, we did. Don't yell!' the broad-shouldered Mark shouted at him without a smile.

'Glory to the gods, my brother Lucius did not lie to me! I thought he'd thought it up before he died. He repeated all the time that he was afraid of the dictator. He said, 'if only Sulla[2] did not know!' Just not to let him know that the gold exists...'

'Don't panic! Take it easy! Your brother did not lie to you. Wish he was here to enjoy it too but he had very many innocent people on his conscience as well. Maria[3] and he cut out almost the entire Senate in Rome. Do you remember that?' Publius Cornelius made an instructive note.

'What does that have to do with it?'

'A lot! The gods to you that indicate you should not follow in your brother's footsteps. Be calm, do not be nervous, do not cry and you will live the longest,' Mark said seriously.

'Hush!' Gaius soared with fear. 'They can hear us! What are we going to do next? Publius, why are you silent?' he nervously asked the second friend, who was lying on a rock looking thoughtfully at his palm.

'There is a lot of gold there. The Etruscans did not lie. But it is not in the temple.'

'I knew it!' Gaius banged himself on the knees and grinned.

'Be quiet! You are in hysterics. Listen and keep silent,' Mark roughly cut him off.

'In short, we didn't kill the priests... 'Publius Cornelius breathed out and looked up at Gaius, who was frozen with fright. In the light of the full Moon, his already narrow face stretched out even more and he opened his mouth to rebel, but then exhaled and fell limply to the ground. Publius patted him on the shoulder. 'Do not worry! Yes, it happens... so it turned out this way... We were unable to do that. It was impossible. Just believe me. That's all I can say. I know that your brother warned you and told you not to believe the priests and Sulla ordered us to kill them all but we couldn't. They knew that we had come for the gold and had to kill them. They knew. Can you understand?

'How come?' Gaius babbled. 'My brother said that no one but him and Sulla knew this... Who might have told them?'

'I do not know' said Publius Cornelius in a quiet voice. 'But now it does not matter. When I took the medallion from the priest, I did not immediately take it to the Cimbri. Mark and I stayed in the city, and I made a copy in the forge. I'll tell you why later. We brought the barbarians a fake medallion. They gave us horses and we took them to the priests. The priests loaded them and took out their sacred plates from the temple. But their supreme pontiff said that we had deceived him and had not given the talisman to the leader of the Cimbri. It remains a mystery to me how he guessed it. He said that whoever wore this talisman would inevitably perish. There is no doubt. You can see, though, that I came back alive. Of course, I do not believe in it but on the way back I felt quite uncomfortable. Well, then we took the priests out of the temple and showed them the way to escape. But they tricked us. It turned out that it was not the priests who came with us but their servants. To tell you the truth, as they learnt that we really wanted to save them instead of killing them, they brought out their priests and left. That's all.

'Is that it? Where is the gold? Did you find it?

'Publius found it,' Mark said. 'The high priest even embraced him. That's how it was! The old man was deeply touched,' he groaned and nodded to his friend. 'Tell him! Otherwise, he will surely die of curiosity.'

'Yes, the priest embraced me... He said that I had everything in my hands,' Publius continued slowly. 'And there was only the locket in my hands. So I thought that we had to look for a place where there were three circles,' he said continuing to look at the dark spot on his palm.

'And where did you find it?'

'Right there, in the garden of the temple. There were three trees, and there were paths of stones around them, like three circles. There turned out to be an entrance to a long basement under them. That was where everything lay. It's clever, they hid it very cleverly. Without the priest, we would not have found it.

'Oh, gods are all-merciful! I've waited for so long for this hour! When, when will we go after it?

'Uh, you know, it's not so simple,' Mark said slowly and scratched his head. 'We let the priests go and the medallion was not given to the barbarians... So now they are searching for us on all roads.'

'Wait, it's not the end yet,' Publius said seeing the unfortunate Gaius's eyes startled. 'Listen, we will not go to the Etruscans' temple now. The Cimbri are certainly waiting for us there, believe me. Your legion could cover us but what should we say to the hastats? Guys, be careful, you are carrying our gold, aren't you?

'No way!' exclaimed Gaius Cinna, hotly.

'You see ...' Publius Cornelius shook his head thoughtfully. 'Etruria surrendered. That's the end! Now Sulla will attack Mithridates of Pontus. You know that. There is a war over Bithynia and the Senate is going to send me to Sicily to restore order. There is nobody there now. Sulla removed all his enemies on the island but no friends remained either. I was with him in Sicily and now the senators want to entrust me with the supply of bread, olives and butter for Rome. They suggested sending you and Mark to Asia. So for this year I will be able to appoint my people in Sicily and come back here to take out our gold. That's what Mark and I offer you.'

'And where will it be stored then?' Gaius asked incredulously.

'In my place. My cousin is just about to buy land for his house next to the Palatine. Maybe I'll join him. He understands this matter. I'll build a house, make the same basement and I will plant a garden above it with three trees in the center, like the priests had. Just to keep it in mind. Or I'll think of something else, so that no one would guess.'

'Hey, it's better than you can imagine! Then we are going to come back, aren't we? Two cities left to be captured and it's over. Then we'll either go to Asia along with Sulla or come to you in your garden, Publius!' Gaius concluded hilariously.

'I agree' Publius said. The three friends got up, untied their horses and wearily headed towards the camp. 'Hey, Mark, take it for yourself!' he added, suddenly holding the medallion out to his friend.

'Why that? It's your talisman now! You can present it to little Lacius or your daughter Cornelia. Why don't you want it?'

'They're far away. By the time I get to them, I'm afraid I'll lose it. You'd better keep it until our meeting, for luck.'

'Okay. I'll give it to my little daughter Licinia. She loves these kinds of things. She still runs to the temple of Vesta. She might like it. Or my sister will. Valeria also likes such strange things.

'Give it to whomever you want. It is no good to us now,' Publius said approvingly, nodding his head and feeling relieved because he parted with the strange medallion. Publius's friends did not know that the old priest embracing him said some very strange words: 'You will find what you are looking for because you survived. But the locket will not save you anymore. It will leave you for another person after your death. This person will guard it much longer than you, and the medallion will guard him too. Good bye…'

And now Publius was repeating these words to himself not knowing how to interpret them. He did not want to die. Of course, he did not believe the words of the old priest. However, having got rid of the medallion he felt relieved in his heart and decided that the best way to forget about everything was to focus on Sicily and the house in Rome and then it would all be forgotten by itself.

[1] The Cimbri were an ancient tribe. They are generally believed to have been a Germanic tribe originating in Jutland, but Celtic influences have also been suggested.

[2] Lucius Cornelius Sulla - 138-78 BC - Roman commander and statesman. He defeated Guy Maria in the 1st civil war and declared his supporters enemies. Lists of Sulla's enemies were hung out on the squares and were called proscriptions. People mentioned in them were considered the enemies of Rome and were subject to destruction.

[3] Guy Maria - approx. 157 BC '86 BC a Roman commander and politician. He was elected to the consuls seven times including five times in a row in 104-100 BC. He conducted the reorganization of the Roman army. He defended Rome from Yugurta.