Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

györgy spiró

because he was in a position to whisper or suggest anything to a community leader at any time; he could be of some use and also do a great deal of harm. Fortunatus, the previous grammateus, had been ill and forgetful when he died, but nevertheless many members of the congregation had accompanied his body to the catacomb, located on the Appian Way. Joseph and Uri too had been present at the burial ceremony at the terraced entrance to the cemetery, as if it were a tiny, semicircular amphitheater. A Jewish assembly like this was not large by Roman standards, and if one of its number should die, the five or six hundred menfolk, a small town’s worth, would be there at his burial, and it was also permitted for women and children to attend, because in Rome women were of virtually

equal rank to men, unlike in Palestine, where women were of no account. The route was a long one, not because of the distance, for there could have been no more than three or four stadia, a mile or so, between Far Side and the cemetery, which lay just beyond the city gate, but because it was necessary to stop seven times on the way, first at the Jewish bridge, the Pons Cestius, as the section on the near side of the island was officially known, or the Pons Fabricius, further away; at each stop, someone, each time a different person, seven times over, would expound at length on the virtues of the deceased. Not that the burial was notable for this, but in the congregation that day there also happened to be a priest from Jerusalem by the name

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