children.'
Barca smiled. 'A good dream …' A shadow crossed his face. 'I'm sorry, Jauharah. I–I s-should have t-taken you away from here.'
'Hush, Hasdrabal,' Jauharah sobbed. 'Please. Save your strength.'
'No!' the Phoenician said, rising on his elbows. 'Listen. T-There's something I haven't told you. Something I s-should have said long ago. I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you, Jauharah. You s-saved my soul. You t- taught me what it was like to live again. For that, I–I can never r-repay you.'
Jauharah smiled gently, her hand going to his cheek to brush away the tears. 'There's nothing to repay, Hasdrabal. Nothing. I love you more than you'll ever know. I love you for your strength, your compassion, your humanity. You she choked.
'I m-must go s-soon,' he said, sinking back down. 'S-So cold. L–Lay beside me and t-tell me about our children.'
Jauharah stretched out beside him, their bodies woven together as she whispered to him of the laughter of dark-haired little girls, and of the shrieks of young boys with wooden swords. Outside, the sun slipped over the rim of the world, leaving a cold, starless night in its wake …
Ankhkaenre Psammetichus, last pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth dynasty, died not long after the Persian Invasion. In his final hours, it is said he found the will to fight he so lacked at Pelusium.
Cambyses II of Persia, too, did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his conquest. In 522 BC, while returning to the Persian homeland to quell a rebellion of the priestly Magi, Cambyses died of an apparently self-inflicted wound. His short reign would be remembered by his enemies for its brutality and madness.
Prexaspes, who commanded the Persian left at Pelusium, died in the political upheaval surrounding the rebellion of the Magi.
Young Darius, son of Hystapes, arshtibara to the King, commander of the vanguard at Gaza and the Persian right at Pelusium, seized the throne from the rebellious Magi. He would achieve lasting fame as Darius I, called the Great, most noble and civilized of all the Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty. The tale of his early years, the trilingual Behistun Inscription, is noticeably silent about his doings in Egypt.
The Persians captured Ladice, the Lady of Cyrene. When Cambyses learned of her identity, he returned her to her family in Cyrene as a gesture of goodwill.
The priest Ujahorresnet was rewarded for his perfidy with such diverse titles as Chief Physician, Companion to the King, and Controller of the Palace. His funerary stela, now in the Vatican Museum, provides the best source for what followed during the Persian Invasion. In AD 1980, Czech archaeologists uncovered his tomb in the sands of Abusir.
History does not say what became of the Arabian slavewoman who dared to love a Phoenician general, nor have archaeologists uncovered a ruined chapel in the desert outside Pelusium (modern Tell Farama). It is as if they never existed …
Glossary
Ahuramazda
Persian god who, with Anahita and Mithra, led the forces of Light against that of Darkness (called 'the Lie'). To the Persians, Ahuramazda was the Creator, responsible for the earth, the sky, and man. In his Histories, Herodotus notes the essentials of Persian religion, that they had no statues or temples, that they sacrificed to their trio of gods on mountain tops and high places, and that they held fire, earth, and running water sacred. The Greeks likened Ahuramazda to their own Zeus.
Alilat
A goddess of the Arabians often identified with Greek Athena. She was a divinity of the night sky.
Amemait
The Devourer. With the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, the foreparts of a lion and the head of a crocodile, this creature haunted the Egyptian underworld, ready to consume those souls whose hearts could not balance the Scales of Justice (q.v.). Such utter destruction of the soul was a real fear to many Egyptians.
Amon
An Egyptian god of the district of Thebes (q.v.) who rose to preeminence during the New Kingdom (1550– 1069 BCE). Amon co-opted the attributes of the sun god, Ra, and as Amon-Ra became the center of a vast state cult whose temporal power often rivaled that of Pharaoh, himself. Artists normally depicted Amon as a handsome young man wearing a headdress with two plumes, or as a horned ram (a symbol of power and fertility).
Amphorae
(sing. amphora.) A large, two-handled pottery vessel used to store and transport liquids such as wine and olive oil, or dry goods like wheat. They were ubiquitous in the Greco-Egyptian world.
Anat
An Asiatic fertility goddess.
Anshan
A city in the province of Persis, near Shiraz in modern Iran. From Anshan, Cyrus led the Persians in the conquest of Media to the northeast, Lydia and the kingdoms of Asia Minor, and the failing juggernaut of Babylon in Mesopotamia. Though they ruled from the great cities to the east, the kings of Persia always honored Anshan as the heart of their empire.
Anubis
(Egyptian Anpu.) The jackal-headed Egyptian god of mortuary rituals. It was Anubis who guided the dead through the underworld to the Halls of Judgement (q.v.).
Apadana
A Persian audience hall, and often the focal point of court life at the palace of the King of Kings.
Apophis
A serpent of Egyptian myth, personifying the evil that lurked just outside the confines of well-ordered society. Apophis was the enemy of the sun god, Ra, who attacked the god's solar barque every night as it traveled through the underworld to the Place of the Dawn. On days bereft of sun, either through storms or eclipse, the Egyptians believed Apophis had triumphed over Ra. The serpent's victories, though, were always short-lived.
Aramaic
A Semitic language developed by the nomadic Aramaeans during the 11th through the 8th centuries BCE. Its use spread through Syria and Mesopotamia until it became the lingua franca of the Near East. So widespread was it that the Persians adopted Aramaic as the official language of their empire.
Arshtibara
A title (Persian 'spear-bearer') used to denote an individual who is in high regard, either through birth or deed, with the King. Scholars are unsure if the title meant literally that the recipient carried the King's spear. I have adopted it here as an honorific indicative of high standing.
Ba'al
Chief god of the Phoenicians.
Bitter Lakes
Series of shallow, salty lakes on the eastern border of Egypt, following the general course of the modern Suez Canal. The area of the Bitter Lakes was a favorite entry point into Egypt for the Bedouin of Sinai; Egypt's response was to build the fortress system known as the Walls of the Ruler (q.v.). Around 610 BCE, Pharaoh Nekau began construction of a canal that would link the Nile with the Red Sea via the Vale of Tumilat (q.v.) and the Bitter Lakes. The project remained unfinished. According to Herodotus, an oracle warned Pharaoh that his labor would be 'to the foreigners advantage'. He ceased, turning his attentions to war, instead. Years later, the oracle's predictions came true. King Darius of Persia finished the canal in a fraction of the time it would have normally taken.
Book of the Dead
A collection of spells and incantations designed to aid the deceased on how best to navigate the pitfalls of the afterlife. Once available only to aristocrats, inscribed on the walls of their tombs, by the Late Period copies of the Book of the Dead were universally available to rich and poor, alike. Scribes wrote them on papyrus, in hieratic (q.v.), including illustrations of the journey through the underworld, passwords to avoid the guardian creatures, protestations of innocence, and magical formulae to provide comfort and security in the afterlife.
