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Zenobia; or, The Fall of Palmyra

By

William Ware

Letter I.

It is with difficulty that I persuade myself, that it is I who am sittingand writing to you from this great city of the East. Whether I look uponthe face of nature, or the works of man, I see every thing different fromwhat the West presents; so widely different, that it seems to me, attimes, as if I were subject to the power of a dream. But I rouse myself,and find that I am awake, and that it is really I, your old friend andneighbor, Piso, late a dweller upon the Coelian hill, who am now baskingin the warm skies of Palmyra, and, notwithstanding all the splendor andluxury by which I am surrounded, longing to be once more in Rome, by theside of my Curtius, and with him discoursing, as we have been wont to do,of the acts and policy of the magnificent Aurelian.

But to the purpose of this letter, which is, in agreement with mypromise, to tell you of my fortunes since I parted from you, and of mygood or ill success, as it may be, in the prosecution of that affair whichhas driven me so far from my beloved Rome. O, Humanity! why art thou soafflicted? Why have the immortal gods made the cup of life so bitter? Andwhy am I singled out to partake of one that seems all bitter? My feelingssometimes overmaster my philosophy. You can forgive this, who know mysorrows. Still I am delaying to inform you concerning my journey and myarrival. Now I will begin.

As soon as I had lost sight of you weeping on the quay, holding in yourhand the little Gallus, and of the dear Lucilia leaning on your arm, andcould no longer, even by mounting upon the highest part of the vessel,discern the waving of your hands, nor cause you to see the fervor withwhich I returned the sign of friendship, I at once left off thinking ofyou, as far as I could, and to divert my thoughts, began to examine, as ifI had never seen them before, the banks of the yellow Tiber. At first thecrowds of shipping, of every form and from every part of the world,distracted the sight, and compelled me to observe what was immediatelyaround me. The cries of the sailors, as they were engaged in managingdifferent parts of their vessels, or as they called out in violent andabusive terms to those who passed them, or as their several galleys struckagainst each other in their attempts to go up or down the river, togetherwith the frequent roarings and bellowings of whole cargoes of wild beastsfrom the deserts of Asia and Africa destined to the amphitheatre,intermingled with the jargon of an hundred different barbarian languagesfrom the thousands who thronged the decks of this fleet of allnations,--these sights and sounds at first wholly absorbed me, and for amoment shut all the world besides--even you--out of my mind. It was astrange yet inspiring scene, and gave me greater thoughts than ever of thepower and majesty of Rome. Here were men and ships that had traversedoceans and continents to bring the offerings of their toil, and lay themat the feet of the mistress of the world. And over all this bustle,created by the busy spirit of commerce, a splendor and gayety were thrownby numerous triremes and boats of pleasure, which, glittering under thelight of a summer's morning sun, were just setting out upon some excursionof pleasure, with streamers floating from the slender masts, musicswelling up from innumerable performers, and shouts of merry laughter fromcrowds of the rich and noble youths of the city, who reclined upon thedecks, beneath canopies of the richest dyes. As these Cleopatra bargesfloated along with their soft burden, torrents of vituperative epithetwere poured upon them by the rough children of Neptune, which was receivedwith an easy indifference, or returned with no lack of ability in thatsort of warfare, according to the temper or breeding of the parties.

When the novelty of this scene was worn out, for though often seen it isever new, and we had fallen a few miles below the city, to where the eyefirst meets the smiling face of the country, I looked eagerly around,first upon one, and then upon the other bank of the river, in search ofthe villas of our fortunate citizens, waiting impatiently till thewell-known turn of the stream should bring me before yours, where, withour mutual friends, we have passed so many happy days. It was not longbefore I was gratified. Our vessel gracefully doubled the projectingpoint, blackened with that thick grove of pine, and your hospitabledwelling greeted my eyes; now, alas! again, by that loved and familiarobject, made to overflow with tears. I was obliged, by one manly effort,to leap clear of the power of all-subduing love, for my sensibilities weredrawing upon me the observation of my fellow-passengers. I thereforewithdrew from the side of the vessel where I had been standing, and movingto that part of it which would best protect me from what, but now, I hadso eagerly sought, sat down and occupied myself in watching the movementsand the figures of the persons whom chance had thrown into my company, andwith whom I was now, for so many days, to be shut up in the narrow compassof our merchant-barque. I had sat but a little while, when the master ofthe ship, passing by me, stopped, and asked if it was I who was to land atUtica--for that one, or more than one, he believed, had spoken for a