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captivity
along with. But on the other
hand, a grammateus was
well paid, twice as much as
a teacher and four times as
much as a limeburner. True, a
glassblower was much better
paid, and the more shrewd
merchants made even more,
but a grammateus was a good
prospect and could take his
pick of the girls. By the time
he was twenty, virtually every
Jewish young man in Rome
was married, so Uri still had
a year. As a grammateus he
would have free choice of
single girls older than twelve,
and there were lots of those,
and every father dreaded that
his daughter would remain
a spinster. Uri loathed the
thought of marriage, but he
conceded that it was a fate he
could not escape. For days he
was thrilled to have his choice
among potential brides; he
would cast a leisurely eye over
girls, sizing up their charms,
and at nights he would have
such terrible dreams that he
would have to quickly rinse
out his tunic in the morning.
Neither Sarah nor Joseph
made any remark about the
tunic that was left out to dry
on the line, as if they had not
noticed.
One even i ng Joseph
announced furiously that
Honoratus wanted to put up
his idiot son of sixteen for the
post of grammateus, even
though he could barely write
and knew no other language
but Greek and could not count
either. Honoratus was a rich
and influential man, the owner
of three tenement buildings
in the Syrian quarter, and
his wife was a cousin of the
banker Tullius Basileus. The
only sort of person who might
knock Honoratus’s son off his
perch was someone like Uri.
Uri said nothing, just nodded.