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györgy spiró
was still in effect. Uri had
tried to persuade his father
to apply for citizenship, on
account of his children; he
would no doubt be granted it
with his patron’s intervention,
which would mean that he too
could have a tessera.
Joseph, however, was
unwilling to do that.
Things are fine the way they
are, Joseph said. Uri kept
nagging until his father finally
said he would rather work for
themoney, because some very
big issue might come up one
day, some really important
business, and he would call for
Gaius Lucius’s assistance on
that, but until that happened
he did not want to pester him,
lest they resent him for asking
unnecessary favors.
Uri saw that it was no use
arguing and never brought the
matter up again. He wondered
what the very big business
might be. Did his father fear
another expulsion?
Often Uri would take a stroll
on his own over to the far
bank of the Tiber to Rome,
the “true Rome,” and gaze
around. He made his way
there from beyond the river.
For some strange reason, the
Jews always lived beyond
some river or other; their
very names, the Hebrew, one
from beyond the river, said
as much. In Babylon they had
also lived on the far bank of
the Euphrates, before they
were allowed to head home,
to the West.
He sauntered around and
stared out with nothing to do,
being unfit for physical labor.
People finally gave up on
him when the congregation’s
members persuaded Joseph
to try him out as a roofer:
that was easy work. Uri was
acrophobic, though, with no