The Scribes from Alexandria :: The Roman Mysteries

The Scribes from Alexandria
excerpt from the fifteenth Roman Mystery
(a work in progress)

Out of the mist emerged two figures, moving unsteadily towards Flavia.

When the couple saw her, they smiled and waved.

Flavia stopped, and stared in disbelief. The woman wore a golden shift and gilded sandals, and held a silver flute in her hand. She had straight black hair – cut Egyptian-style – and a golden snake-head diadem. Her eyes were lined with black kohl to make them look dramatically exotic, and despite her large nose and strong chin, she was captivating. The man was dressed as a Roman officer, but his leather cuirass was of the old-fashioned Republican kind. Resting on his curly greying hair was a garland of gold ivy leaves, like that worn by the god Dionysus.

They were not survivors from the shipwreck. She had never seen them before. And so it was impossible that Flavia should recognize the couple standing before her.

But she did.

‘Cleopatra?’ breathed Flavia. ‘And Marcus Antonius?’

The woman laughed with delight and turned to her handsome companion and said in Greek: ‘Isn’t she clever! She recognized us.’

‘But it can’t be!’ whispered Flavia. ‘You died more than a hundred years ago.’

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