him in the crotch and that made him change his mind.
'Don't mistake me for some helpless mathematician, Ataxas,' I said to him as he writhed on the cobbles. 'It takes more than some jumped-up runaway slave to kill a Caecilius Metellus.'
'How much do you want, Roman?' he gasped. 'I will make you rich beyond your wildest ambitions. There is a whole country here to loot.'
'I just want to see what Ptolemy does to you. Or possibly your own followers when they see Ataxas is a runaway Greek slave in a wig and a false beard. The king's soldiers will go into your temple with sledgehammers and smash your trick statue and tear up the floors and walls to find the pipes you used to fake the sound of Baal- Ahriman's voice. You'll probably be pulled apart and devoured by priestesses with lacerated backs to avenge.'
'You place great faith in Ptolemy, Roman,' Ataxas said. 'His time is over, as is the ascendancy of Rome in Egypt.' He had worked his way back up to his knees.
'Not after I get back to the Palace with this,' I said, shaking the document in his face.
'That may not be as easy as you think, Roman,' he said, with no small measure of truth. I was in the Rakhotis, and these were bad times to be a Roman in that part of the city.
'Farewell, Ataxas,' I said. 'I'll come to your execution, should you live long enough to be sentenced.' I turned and walked to the mouth of the alley. Before going out, I stopped and looked out into the street. It was getting crowded, but nobody was paying me any attention. Just as I stepped out into the street, I heard a horrible squalling sound that cut off suddenly. I could only think that it was Ataxas making some inarticulate sound of rage. Then something hit me squarely between the shoulder blades and flopped to the pavement. I turned, bewildered. Something gray and furry lay at my feet, inert. It was all so unexpected that at first I didn't recognize the thing. Then Ataxas ran past me into the street, pointing at me, his eyes wide with horror.
'The Roman has killed a cat!' he shouted, then, in a hysterical shriek: 'THE ROMAN HAS MURDERED A CAT!'
The people in the street stared, mouths agape. They stared at me, then looked down at the wretched beast, as if they could not comprehend the sheer sacrilegious horror of what they saw.
'He killed a cat!' they began to murmur, in both Greek and Egyptian. 'The Roman killed a cat!' It did not take them long to get over their shock as I sidled away from the little corpse.
Then: 'KILL THE ROMAN! KILL THE CAT-MURDERER!'
I began to retrace my steps at great speed. This time I was encumbered with the heavy book, and it was my second life-and-death race of the morning. I thought of that Greek with the interminable name who had run from Marathon to Sparta and back to Marathon and then all the way to Athens, where he dropped dead, which served him right. After all, he didn't have a rampaging Alexandrian mob on his heels.
Every time I looked back over my shoulder, the mob was getting bigger. News of the enormity I had committed flew faster than I would have credited possible. They were calling not just for my death but for the death of all Romans. But they wanted to start with me.
It seemed ridiculous to me to be rent asunder by a rampaging mob for killing a cat. But to have this happen over a cat-slaying of which I was entirely innocent was beyond endurance. I had little love for the slinky beasts, but it never would have occurred to me to slaughter one.
I was out of the Rakhotis as if I wore the winged sandals of Mercury, but I was far from safe. The mob rampaged into the Greek quarter and picked up strength even there. There are Egyptians in all the quarters of
Alexandria, and there are always people in any city who will jump at any chance to join a riot. I had done it myself, when the riot was in a good cause.
I ran by the Macedonian barracks, screaming, 'Riot! Riot! Turn out the troops! The city is aflame!' The soldiers on parade looked bewildered, but officers barked orders and the drums began to beat and the trumpets to bray.
I looked behind me to see the soldiers boil out of the gates and collide with the following mob. Many got through, and they continued to pursue me. I tried to turn up a street that led northward, toward the Palace, but members of the mob had got there ahead of me and cut me off. That was more of Ataxas's doing. Why hadn't I killed the fiend when I had him at my mercy?
There was nothing for it but to continue fleeing east, all the way to the delta if need be. I was gasping heavily by this time, bringing up phlegm with every wheeze. I began to see men in long robes wearing pointed caps and their hair loose about their shoulders. That meant I was in the Jewish quarter. These were the traditional Jews, for most of the Jews of Alexandria were dressed and barbered like Greeks, and many of them spoke no language except Greek.
With a final burst of speed I got far ahead of the cat-avengers and darted down an alley. It was intersected by another alley and I took that one. This was refreshing, almost like Rome. I pounded on a door.
'Let me in!' I begged.
'What is it?' The voice came from overhead. It belonged to a man with thin features, dressed in a red-and- white robe. His eyes had a slightly fanatic gleam.
'The Egyptians are after me!' I said.
'I don't like Egyptians,' the man remarked. 'They kept my people in bondage for many generations.'
'Then you'll save me from them! They think I killed a cat!'
'The Egyptians are uncircumcised idolaters,' he said. 'They worship animals and animal-headed gods.' That was certainly true, although I had no idea what the state of their penises had to do with anything.
'The Macedonians went out to suppress the riot,' I said, 'but some got through and they're after me. Let me in!'
'I don't like the Macedonians either,' he said. 'King Antiochus Epiphanes killed our priests and befouled the Holy of Holies!'
I was growing impatient.
'Listen: I am a Senator of Rome, attached to the diplomatic mission. Rome will reward you richly if you will just let me in!'
'And I don't like Romans!' he screamed. 'Your General Pompey stormed the Temple Mount and violated our Holy of Holies and seized the Temple treasury!' I had to run into one who held a grudge. Somebody tugged at my shoulder and I turned to see a man in Greek dress.
'Come with me,' he said urgently. 'They are no more than a street away.' I followed him down the alley and through a low doorway. The room we entered was modest, with spare furnishings. 'Amos is the wrong man to ask for aid,' he said. 'He's half cracked. My name is Simeon son of Simeon.'
'Decius son of Decius,' I said. 'Pleased to meet you.' My breathing grew a bit less ragged. 'This is all too complicated to explain, but it's all part of a plot to turn the Egyptians against Rome. I have to get to the Palace, but I can't until the streets are safe.'
'I will go out now,' Simeon said. 'I'll spread the word that you were seen heading out the Canopic Gate and past the Hippodrome. We don't want that mob in our quarter.'
'A very sensible attitude,' I told him. 'Let me rest here and regain my wind. Then perhaps I can borrow some clothes from you. You will be well rewarded.'
He shrugged. 'There is no sense thinking of rewards while your life is still in danger. Worry about that later.' With that he left.
For the first time in what seemed like forever, I had nothing to do. So I went up the stairs and found an upper room much like the lower one. No sign of a wife or children. Another stair led to the roof, so I went up to it. I kept well back from the parapet as I listened. The sounds of the mob and the clank of arms seemed to come from all directions. In any other city, a riot of this magnitude would have featured plumes of smoke as building after building caught fire until a full-scale conflagration was in progress. Usually, the fires kill far more than the rioters.
Not in Alexandria, the fireproof city. I could follow the progress of major segments of the mob up and down the streets, just by the sounds they made. They did seem to be dwindling toward the Canopic Gate. Then I heard soldiers heading that way. After a couple of hours, the whole cacophony came back toward me, then dwindled to the west. Apparently the soldiers had lined up across all the streets shield-to-shield and were driving the rioters all the way back to the Rakhotis.
I wondered what would happen in this city if anyone ever killed two cats.
It was well past noon when the city seemed to be at peace again. This did not mean that I was out of danger. Even without rioting mobs, Achillas was out there somewhere. I heard sounds from below.
