Due to the very public location of the site, and the disruption of Capri's tourist trade cause by our excavations, the Antiquities Bureau has decided to remove all the artifacts from the chamber as quickly as possible and transport them to the mainland for study. After I arrived at lunch today, we took the small writing table and the objects on it out of the chamber and into the mobile lab, where Dr. MacDonald spent the afternoon cleaning centuries of grime off of the letter that was on top of the table so we could read it. As I noted earlier, the letter was left lying flat on top of the heavily lacquered table top, and the weight of centuries' worth of stone dust had caused the papyrus to bond to the table top. Separating it from the table was out of the question, so Father MacDonald and I sat on either side of the ancient table in our lab and transcribed, then translated, its contents. It's a fairly short note from the Emperor Tiberius to his steward. Here is what it said - I'll record both the Latin and my translation of it:
Tiberius Caesar ad Mencius
Marcellus, senescallus Villa Jovis
Ego sum Romam - aliquid iuravi numquam, sed
politica relinquere me paulo electio. Occasio est nolle redire mihi -
septuaginta octo sum tamen, et insolentia itineris. In procinctu reditus villam
custodiendam et dimittere extra culinam virgam redde choros mittere domo mea ob
parentum. Tu suscipe verba non revertar - videlicet quod mortuus fuit itineris
mei - conscripsi cubiculum velit signa sua. Non opus puer serpens Gaius ad
pawing per privatas litteras! Ut scilicet ponat in cubiculo Capsula - Proin
transtulit ad annos funere imaginum, sed etiam usu congregem correspondentia
nolo aliis legi. Illud in latere et caemento, ut omne tempus quieta foret! Tibi
serviet mihi etiam amicum. Hoc mihi operae pretium et loculos a mensa. Deos ora
pro nobis - redeo ad nidum serpentium!
Tiberius Julius Caesar
Augustus
As near as I can translate it, that means:
Tiberius Caesar to Mencius
Marcellus, Steward of Villa Jovis
I am returning to Rome
- something I swore never to do, but politics leave me little choice. There is a good chance that I will not return
- I am seventy-eight, after all, and unaccustomed to travel. Keep the villa in
readiness for my return, but dismiss the extra kitchen staff, and pay off the
dancers and send them home, with my thanks to their parents. Should you receive word that I will not
return - in other words, that I have died on my journey - please seal up my
writing chamber and its contents. No
need for that young serpent Gaius to go pawing through my private letters! Be sure to place the reliquary in the chamber
as well - I transferred the funerary masks to a new cabinet years ago, but I
still use it to store correspondence that I don't want others reading, and
mementos that are mine alone. Brick it
up and mortar it in, that it may be undisturbed for all time! You have served me well, old friend. Do me this last service, and take the purse
from the table as payment. Entreat the gods on my behalf - I return to a nest
of serpents!
Tiberius Julius Caesar
Augustus
So simple, so routine, yet it leaves us wondering so much! Tiberius is an enigmatic figure, condemned by later Roman historians as a tyrant and a pedophile - yet none of that comes through in this short missive. We do know that he left Capri for Rome in 37 AD, and died on that journey - some say he was smothered by the Legate Macro of his own Praetorian Guards! So this chamber has been sealed for almost two thousand years. I will admit that I am absolutely aflame with curiosity to see what is in that sealed cabinet. What was so important to the old emperor that he would seal it under lock and key, then order the chamber walled up forever?
While Duncan and I were studying the papyrus on top of the table, Dr. Sforza (I guess I should start calling her Isabella, but it still feels awkward!) noticed that there appeared to be a hidden drawer underneath the table. We found the catch that releases it, and inside there were several (we think) blank sheets of papyrus, with a leather drawstring purse resting on top of them. We haven't moved it yet - that will be tomorrow's task - but I can see a tiny porcelain horse's head peeking out the top of the bag. A toy? A religious token? I don't know, but it appears remarkably life-like!
Last of all, I did get to talk with Dr. Rossini this evening and found out why he was eyeing me suspiciously earlier. Apparently he is something of a mentor and father figure to Isabella, and he suspects that I might be some sort of American Casanova out to take advantage of her loneliness (her husband died about five years ago). I assured him that was not my intention! (I can hear my grad school classmates in my mind, collapsing in hysterical laughter at the thought of me ever seducing anyone. Shut up, guys!) But he did say one thing that got my attention - apparently, Isabella is looking at me in a way she hasn't looked at anyone since she lost her husband. At least, that is what Giuseppe seems to think. Why on earth would someone that beautiful ever give me a second glance, though?
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