Free The Roman by Mika Waltari Page A

and erected a statue for him, for he believed that Simon had divine powers. His powers were tested. He plunged a young slave into the sleep of the dead and then wakened him again from the dead, although the boy had already turned cold and did not show the slightest sign of life. I saw this with my own eyes.� �I�m sure you did,� I said. �But I�ve had enough of Jews in Antioch.� �Quite,� said Aunt Laelia eagerly. �Let me go on. The other Jews, the ones who live on the other side of the river, and the ones who live here on Aventine, became bitterly envious of Simon the magician. He could make himself invisible and he could fly. So the Jews summoned another magician who was also called Simon. Both of them had to demonstrate their powers and Simon, that is my Simon, asked the spectators to look carefully at a little cloud and then he suddenly disappeared. When he showed himself again, he was flying out of the cloud above the forum, but then the other Jew called on his idol, Christ, so that Simon fell to the ground in midflight and broke his leg. He was angry about this and was carried out of the city to hide in the country while his leg healed, until the other Simon had left the city. Then Simon
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    the magician returned with his daughter and I let him live here as he had no better patron. He stayed with me as long as I had money but then moved to a house by the Moon temple and he receives clients there. He doesn�t fly anymore, and neither does he raise the dead, but his daughter earns her living as a moon priestess. Many noble people let her tell their fortunes, and Simon gets back vanished articles.� �Why are you telling me all this?� I asked suspiciously. Aunt Laelia began to wring her hands. �It�s been so sad since Simon the magician left,� she said, �but he won�t receive me any longer because I�ve no money and I�ve not dared go to his home because of your father. But I�m sure he would cure your bad dreams and calm your fears. Anyhow, with his daughter�s help he could tell your fortune and advise you on what you should eat and what doesn�t agree with you and which days are your lucky days and which are unlucky. He forbade me to eat peas, for instance, and ever since then I�ve felt quite ill as soon as I see peas, even if they�re only dried ones.� My father had given me some gold pieces to console me and spur me on to read the history of the Etruscans. I thought Aunt Laelia was a silly old lady, spending her time on superstition and magic because she did not have much fun in her life. But I didn�t grudge her her pastime, and the Samaritan magician and his daughter seemed much more exciting than the dusty library where old men sit endlessly rustling among the dry scrolls. The time had also come for me to make acquaintance with the Moon temple, because of the promise I had made to the oracle in Daphne. When I promised to go with Laelia to the magician, she was extremely pleased. She dressed herself in silks, painted and 1winked her wrinkled face, put on the red wig my father had given her and also put the necklace of jewels around her thin neck. I3arbus asked her, in the name of the gods, at least to cover her head, for otherwise people might well take her for the hostess of a brothel. Aunt Laelia was not angry, but just wagged her forefinger at Barbus and forbade him to come with us. But Barbus had promised solemnly never to let me out of his sight in Rome. finally we agreed that he should come with us to the Moon temple but would wait outside.
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    The Moon temple on Aventine is so ancient that there is no myth about it as there is about the more recent Diana temple. King Servius Tullius in his day had it built in a circular shape from magnificent Umber. Later a stone temple was built around the wooden building. The innermost part of the temple is so holy that it has no stone floor, but is just flattened earth. Apart from votive gifts, there are no other sacred objects