The Boat of Fate Read Free Page A

levied against the countryfolk in return for Government employment. But such requests might have to pass to the office of the Praefect of the Gauls himself, where after years in limbo they were likely enough to be turned down; and my father was reduced to bending the law, with the active assistance of the local authorities, none of whom fancied existence without those public services to which a lifetime as citizens of the Empire had accustomed them. Thus miners and peasants, as experts in handling soil, might be set to digging out blocked or damaged mains, stonemasons worked on clearing birds’ nests from the air vents of aqueducts; the labour shortage was largely overcome by such evasions, though the increased paperwork and the endless need for the invention of fresh euphemisms added lines to my father’s forehead, and a cutting edge to his naturally acrid tongue.
    One of the motley labour forces thus formed travelled continuously repairing the channels of aqueducts, renewing the lining slabs where the endless rushing of water had worn them thin; another section maintained the fabric of the great arches that were built wherever the channels were forced, in their carefully-devised routes, to cross a valley; while a third gang was often to be seen in the streets of Italica itself, attending to the mains that ran beneath the pavements.
    Where they entered towns the channels flowed into massive towers within which systems of overflowing tanks distributed water for domestic and public supply. In times of drought these regulating devices ensured that the street fountains were the first to cease to work; after that the public baths ran dry and finally it was the turn of private householders, most of whom were hard put to it to get by without their constant supply of piped water. In the south of the Province severe droughts were infrequent, though once the town baths of Italica were closed for several weeks. Everybody was surly and bad-tempered till the supply was restored; my father was surlier than the rest, having been called before the duovirs and formally admonished for his part in the general inconvenience. At such times he was apt to remember his breeding, muttering that it was no part of the function of a Roman to answer to a pack of indigenous tribesmen. There was in any case always a certain amount of bad blood between Government officials, who were exempt from curial duties, and the unfortunate town senates, who since Valentinian’s confiscation of the city taxes had been forced to dig deeper and deeper into their own pockets to meet their responsibilities.
    Somewhat similar factors tended to sour my father’s relations with the Church. Members of the clergy were likewise free of the burden of the Curia; hard-pressed gentlemen in danger of civic responsibility still managed to acquire Holy Orders without divesting themselves of their estates, despite the array of legislation aimed at curbing the abuse. I remember the delight with which my father greeted Theodosius’ fulmination against such ordained curiales. He had been very much on his dignity with the local Bishop, whom he suspected of having acquired office for reasons far removed from altruism; for weeks after the injunction was published he would stop him in the street to enquire gravely after his health, and urge him to pray for the soul of an Emperor so patently in need of spiritual enlightenment.
    The row in the Curia acted indirectly in my favour; for when the water-level was finally restored, my father, to ease his smarting dignity, set out on a tour of the district under his control, which he afterwards extended to take in the domains of his associates, some of whom he had not seen for years. For once I was allowed to go with him, and saw a great deal of the Province for the first time. We travelled finally to Segovia to view the great aqueduct there, which has the finest and longest span of arches in Hispania. I still remember my first glimpse of them,