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“What really happened here, Antipater?”
He sighed. “According to our friend Tullius, the Corinthians brought about their own destruction. Typical Roman reasoning: blame the victims!
“When the Corinthians and their allies in the Achaean League revolted, they lashed out against the Spartans, who remained loyal to Rome. The Romans used that incident as a pretext to mount a full-scale invasion of the Pelopo
“Men were rounded up and slaughtered. Women were raped; if they survived, they were sold into slavery. The same thing was done to the children. Houses and temples were looted, then burned. The soldiers were allowed to stuff their pockets with all the jewelry and gold they could carry, but the choicest works of art were claimed by Mummius and sent back to the Senate. Rome was enriched beyond measure. Look inside any temple in Rome; all the best paintings and statues came from Corinth. And half of them are mislabeled, because the ignorant Mummius couldn’t tell a statue of Zeus from one of Poseidon!”
Antipater paused for a long moment, lost in thought. “There’s a painting by an artist named Aristeides, a stu
Antipater stepped to the very edge of the precipice. I held my breath, fearful that a gust of wind might push him over, but I didn’t dare interrupt him. The words that had sounded pompous and hollow coming from Tullius sounded very different as they poured from Antipater.
“Where, O Corinth, is your fabled beauty now?
Where the battlements and ramparts, temples and towers?
Where the multitudes that lived within your walls?
Where the matrons holding vigil in your sacred bowers?
City of Sisyphus, not a trace is left of you.
War seizes and devours, takes some and then takes more.
Ocean’s daughters alone remain to mourn for you.
The salt tears of the Nereids lash the lonely shore.”
I stepped beside Antipater. Together we gazed down at vanished Corinth with the moaning of the wind in our ears.
A movement amid the ruins caught my eye. It was the party of Tullius—or so I presumed. The tiny figures were too distant to be clearly discerned, but among them I thought I recognized Tullius by his red hair and bristling beard. They were no longer standing in a group, listening to Tullius, or following him from place to place. They seemed to be poking amid the rubble and moving bits of it about, but toward what purpose I couldn’t imagine. I thought of asking Antipater’s opinion, but his gaze was elsewhere, and I didn’t wish to agitate him by returning his attention to Tullius.
The wind continued to rise. Antipater at last stepped back from the precipice and we headed down the slope.
On the way down, a little off the path I noticed some ruins that had escaped my attention on the way up. Antipater saw them, too, and we left the path to take a closer look.
The largest of the ruins had once been a small temple or sanctuary. Drums from a fallen column lay amid the tumbled stones, and in a much-worn painting on a fragment of a wall Antipater claimed to recognize the image of Persephone, wife of Hades and queen of the underworld.
“Can you not see her regal headband, Gordianus, and the wi
“What happens at these rituals?”
“No man knows, since the acolytes are all women. Presumably they call upon the powers of the underworld.”
“But that’s witchcraft, not worship.”
Antipater shrugged. “Who’s to say where one ends and the other begins?”
The remains of several other small buildings were nearby. Antipater speculated that these might have been used as dining halls and meeting rooms by the women who worshipped at the sanctuary of Persephone. The buildings had all collapsed except one. It was half-buried in rubble but the roof remained intact. It was hardly more than a shack with a door and a window. Antipater pushed open the door and we stepped inside.
It was normal that the air in the room should be cool, but to me it felt u
“Put that down!” said Antipater.
His tone was so urgent that I did so at once. “What is it?”
“A sheet of lead, for writing on. Don’t you realize where we are? We’ve stumbled into a witch’s den!”
I looked about the room. “Are you sure? We’re in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone—”
“The Romans demolished her sanctuary, but this spot is still sacred to Persephone. The women of Corinth must have practiced magic here for centuries. Ever since Jason brought the witch Medea back from Colchis and made her his queen, there have been witches in Corinth.”
“But Corinth no longer exists.”
“Yet the witches do. These things have been used recently. See the ash in the incense burners? See the dark spots on the ceiling made by the smoke of the lamps? They meet here at night. Someone is casting spells. While chanting incantations to the forces of darkness, they use the point of a blade to scratch curses on lead tablets, which are then placed near the person whom they wish to destroy.”
“But all these tablets are blank—except for this one.”
I picked up a tablet that was lying apart from the others. The crabbed letters were difficult to read, especially by the dim light, but the Greek was simple. “‘I call upon Ananke. I call upon Moira. I call upon Egyptian Ufer of the Mighty Name. Destroy my enemy Eudocia! Destroy her utterly, from the hair on her head to the nails of her toes. Fill her mouth with sawdust. Fill her womb with sand. Fill her veins with black puss and vinegar. Make her—’ And then it ends, just like that.”
“Put that thing down, Gordianus!”
“But why is it still here?”
“Who knows? Perhaps the curse was interrupted, or the spell went awry, or the person cursing Eudocia changed her mind. Now put it back where you found it, and let’s get out of here at once.”
I would have stayed longer, curious to see if there was yet more evidence of magic to be found, but Antipater insisted I follow him. Emerging from the chill and darkness, I was dazzled by the harsh sunlight. Stifling waves of heat rose from the rock-strewn hillside.
“When is the driver returning for us?” said Antipater. “I’ve seen enough of Corinth.”