provinces with appointed governors under direct Assyrian control. Resistant states were burned, looted, and subjected to mass deportations—the first ethnic cleansings.
In Assyria’s defense, Samuel once told me, “It’s who gets to write history that counts. Our image of Assyrians and Babylonians came from the Old Testament, and thus, their history, written by their enemies, cast them in a totally negative light. Only in the late nineteenth century when interpretation of cuneiform tablets began did a different picture emerge.”
Samuel revered the Assyrians but recognized that some kings were tyrants. Sennacherib laid waste to Babylon so thoroughly that only reed beds and thickets remained. On the other hand, his son Esarhaddon spent much of his reign restoring Babylon to its former splendor. Ashurbanipal was a great scholar who assembled the famous library of clay tablets found at Nineveh and helped the Persian Elamites stay alive by sending them food. But he had a dark side and took delight in vicious punishments. He had leashes of chain fixed into the lips of prisoners of war with a cruel iron ring. I could recall reading one account where he feasted under a tree hung with a particularly gruesome fruit. Ashurbanipal had beheaded an enemy, spit on and slashed the face, and then suspended the head from the tree.
I flipped through more of Samuel’s journal and saw that he’d identified kings of several obscure states: King Aza of Mannea and King Mitta of the Mushki. Why was he interested in these little-known rulers?
I picked up the copper plaque on his desk. My brother had had it inscribed with an Assyrian curse from King Ashurbanipal.
Whosoever shall carry off the engraving or shall inscribe his name on it, side by side with mine own, may Assur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land.
Samuel used to joke that this was the first copyright and said modern publishers would love to have the power of an Assyrian king. As I looked at it now, the curse took on ominous overtones, and I wondered whether it had retained some of its power through the centuries. Nahum’s engraving had indeed been “carried off.” Twice, I had learned. And Samuel and Hal were dead because of it.
Samuel’s small collection of relics consisted almost entirely of rescued objects, items he’d culled from dealers that would have ended up in private hands anyway. His career had been set in motion by his desire to restore cultural histories. “Names are important,” he’d once said, “they shape who we are. As a boy I was intrigued by my namesake, the prophet Samuel, who recovered the Ark of the Covenant. I decided then that my life’s work would be to rescue artifacts, our reference markers for history.”
A laudable goal, but one he’d taken too far this time. And who knew what repercussions lay ahead?
I found Samuel’s Bible and looked up the prophet’s book. The rare times I’d read the Bible I’d always had difficulty with its antiquated language, but I found Nahum surprisingly easy to read.
The Book of the Vision of Nahum the Elkoshite
Chapter Two
2:1 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that announceth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows; for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
2:2 A maul is come up before thy face; guard the defences, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily!—
2:3 For the Lord restoreth the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine-branches.—
2:4 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots are fire of steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are made to quiver.
2:5 The chariots rush madly in the streets, they jostle one against another in the broad places; the appearance of them is like torches, they run to and fro like lightnings.
2:6 He bethinketh himself of his worthies; they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared.
2:7 The gates of the river are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
2:8 And the queen is uncovered, she is carried away, and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.
2:9 But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water; yet they flee away; ‘Stand, stand’, but none looketh back.
2:10 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, rich with all precious vessels.
2:11 She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and convulsion is in all loins, and the faces of them all have gathered blackness.
2:12 Where is the den of lions, which was the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
2:13 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.
2:14 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Chapter Three
3:1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.
3:2 Hark! the whip, and hark! the rattling of the wheels; and prancing horses, and bounding chariots;
3:3 The horseman charging, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear; and a multitude of slain, and a heap of carcases; and there is no end of the corpses, and they stumble upon their corpses;
3:4 Because of the multitude of the harlotries of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her harlotries, and families through her witchcrafts.
3:5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.
3:6 And I will cast detestable things upon thee, and make thee vile, and will make thee as dung.
3:7 And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?’
3:8 Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and of the sea her wall?
3:9 Ethiopia and Egypt were thy strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.
3:10 Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
I put the book down, disappointed. The passages shed no light on the central question—what great secret had Samuel found in Nahum’s words?
The last time I’d checked my email was before Hal’s party—far too long. I scrolled through the messages. After deleting all the spam and saving the nonurgent stuff, I was left with two, the first from Diane:
“John, that problem you mentioned. How could you ask a friend to lie about something like that? A guy died! I told the truth.”
The second message came from Eric Nolan. A Holbein was coming up for auction this week. The last time the piece sold it had broken the million-dollar mark. Eric wanted me to represent him; the commission would be mouthwatering. His last message, posted this morning, gave me until this afternoon to reply. It was 1:40 now. How could I take the time to research the work’s provenance and show up at an auction with this threat hanging over my head? I punched in a message to Eric giving my regrets and cursed my bad luck.
Twelve
Continuing to work on Hal’s mindbender was top priority, but I still felt sluggish from the drug and needed to find some space to think, breathe some decent air. I wanted to get away from the rumble of the city and the
