No, three’s a crowd.
You’ll put her off.
Then
We’re for the dog races.
Man
That costs money.
Not if they know you.
I’ll come along.
Attention! Break ranks!
March.
4
IN THE SCHOOLBOOKS
A VOICE:
From then on teachers would show the schoolchildren
The great conqueror’s tomb.
CHILDREN’S CHORUS:
In the schoolbooks
Are written the names of great conquerors.
Whoever wants to emulate them
Learns their battles by heart
Studies their wonderful lives.
To emulate them
To rise above the crowd
Is our task. Our city
Is eager to write our names some day
On the tablets of immortality.
THE TEACHER:
Sextus conquers Pontus.
And you, Flaccus, conquer the three regions of Gaul.
But you, Quintilian
Cross over the Alps.
5
THE RECEPTION
CHORUS:
Ever since the newcomer has entered
He has stood near the door, motionless, his helmet under his arm
Like his own statue.
The other dead who are newly arrived
Crouch on the bench and wait as they have often waited
For good fortune and for death
Waited in the tavern until they got their wine
Waited at the well until the lover came
Waited in the wood, in battle, for the word of command.
But the newcomer
Does not seem to have learned how to wait.
LUCULLUS:
By Jupiter
What does this mean? I stand and wait here.
The greatest city on the globe still rings
With lamentations for me, and here
There is no one to receive me. Outside my war tent
Seven kings once waited for me.
Is there no order here?
Where, at least, can Lasus my cook be?
A man always able to whip up a little titbit
Out of nothing at all!
If, for example, they had sent him to meet me –
For he is down here too –
I should feel more at home. Oh, Lasus!
Your lamb with the bayleaves and dill!
Cappadocian roast game! Your lobsters from Pontus!
And your Phrygian cakes with bitter berries!
And the endless variety of your flavourings
Sage and olives
Thyme, nutmeg and pressed cinnamon.
Such sauces, such salads, O Lasus!
Pause.
I demand to be conducted from this place.
Pause.
Must I stand here among these people?
Pause.
I object. Two hundred armoured ships, five legions
Used to advance at the crook of my little finger.
I object.
Pause.
TERTULLIA:
Sit down, newcomer.
All that metal you haul, the heavy helmet
And the breastplate must be tiring.
So sit down.
Lucullus is silent.
Don’t be arrogant. You can’t stand the whole time
You must wait here. My turn comes before yours.
No one can say how long the hearing inside will last.
There’s no doubt that each one will be strictly examined
To determined whether he shall be sentenced to go
Down into dark Hades
Or into the Elysian Fields. Sometimes
The trial is quite short. One glance is enough for the judges.
This one here, they say
Has led a blameless life and he was able
To be of use to his fellow men.
With them a person’s usefulness counts the most.
They say to him go take your rest.
Of course with others
The hearing may last for whole days, especially
With those who have sent someone down here to the Realm of the Shadows
Before the appointed span of his life was over.
It won’t take long with the one who went in just now.
He’s a harmless little baker. As for my affair
I’m a little anxious, but put my faith in this –
Among the jury within, they tell me
There are little people who know well enough
How hard life is for those of us in times of war.
My advice to you, newcomer …
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
Tertullia!
TERTULLIA:
They are calling me.
You must see how it goes
Newcomer – Sit down!
CHORUS:
The newcomer stands stubbornly on the sill
His own roaring
And the friendly words of the old woman have changed him.
He looks around to see if he is really alone.
Now he goes to the bench after all. But before he can sit down
He’ll be called. A glance at the old woman
Was enough for the judge.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
Lakalles!
LUCULLUS:
My name is Lucullus! Isn’t my name known here?
I come from a distinguished family
Of statesmen and generals. Only in the slums
In the docks and soldiers’ taverns, in the unwashed
Jaws of the vulgar, the scum
Is my name Lakalles.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
Lakalles!
CHORUS:
And so yet again called
In the despised language of the slums
Lucullus, the general
Who conquered the East
Who overthrew seven kings
And filled the city of Rome with riches.
At nightfall, when Rome sits down to the funeral feast
Lucullus presents himself before the highest tribunal of the Realm of the Shadows.
6
CHOICE OF A SPONSOR
THE COURT CRIER:
Before the highest tribunal of the Realm of the Shadows appears
General Lakalles, who calls himself Lucullus.
Presided over by the Judge of the Dead
Five jurors pursue the examination:
One, formerly a farmer
One, formerly a slave who was a teacher
One, formerly a fishwife
One, formerly a baker
And one, formerly a courtesan.
They sit upon a high bench
Without hands to take and without mouths to eat
Insensible to magnificence, these long-extinguished eyes
Incorruptible, these ancestors of the world-to-come.
The Judge of the Dead begins the hearing.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Shadow, you shall be heard.
You must account for your life among men.
Whether you have served them or harmed them
Whether we wish to see your face
In the Elysian Fields.
You need a sponsor.
Have you a sponsor in the Elysian Fields?
LUCULLUS:
I propose the great Alexander of Macedon be called.
Let him speak to you as an expert
On deeds like mine.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS call out in the Elysian
Fields:
Alexander of Macedon!
Silence.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
In the Elysian Fields
There is no Alexander of Macedon.
&nbs
p; THE COURT CRIER:
The person called does not answer.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Shadow, your expert is unknown
In the Fields of the Blessed.
LUCULLUS:
What? He who conquered from Asia to India
The never-to-be-forgotten one
Who so indelibly pressed his footprint in the globe of the earth
The mighty Alexander …
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Is unknown here.
Unhappy man! Great names
No longer arouse terror down here.
Here
They can threaten no more. Their utterances
Are counted as lies. Their deeds
Are not recorded. And their fame
To us is like smoke showing
That a fire has once raged.
Shadow, your attitude reveals
That mighty enterprises
Are connected with your name.
The enterprises
Are unknown here.
LUCULLUS:
Then I propose
That the frieze from my memorial
On which my triumphal procession is set forth, be fetched.
But how can it be fetched? Slaves haul it. Surely
Entrance is forbidden here
To the living.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Not to slaves. So little divides them
From the dead that one can say
They scarcely live. The step from the world above
Down to the Realm of the Shadows
Is to them a short one.
The frieze shall be brought.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
The frieze shall be brought.
7
THE FRIEZE IS PRODUCED
CHORUS OF SLAVES:
Out of life into death
Without protest, we haul the burden.
Long ago our time ceased to be ours
And the goal of our journey unknown.
And so we follow the new voice
Like the old. Why question it?
We leave nothing behind; we expect nothing.
LUCULLUS:
You jurymen of the dead, look upon my frieze:
A captured king, Tigranes of Pontus
His strange-eyed queen with provocative thighs
A man with a cherry tree, eating a cherry
Two girls with a tablet, upon it the names of fifty-three cities
A dying legionary, greeting his general
My cook with a fish.
CHORUS:
O see, this is how they build themselves monuments
With stony figures of vain sacrifice
To speak or keep silence above.
Lifeless witnesses, those who have been conquered
Robbed of breath, silenced, forgotten
Must face the daylight for their conqueror’s sake
Willing to keep silent and willing to speak.
THE COURT CRIER:
Shadow, the jury take
Note of your triumphal frieze.
They wish to know more about your
Triumphs than your frieze can tell.
They suggest that all those should
Be called who have been portrayed by you
On your frieze.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Let them be called.
Always
The victor writes the history of the vanquished.
He who beats
Distorts the faces of the beaten. The weaker
Depart from this world and
The lies remain. Down here we
Have no need of your stones. So many
Of those who crossed your path, General, are with us
Down here – Instead of the portrayal
We call those portrayed. We reject the stones
For the shadows themselves.
LUCULLUS:
I object.
I wish not to see them.
VOICES OF THE THREE WOMEN HERALDS:
The victims of General Lucullus And his Asiatic campaigns!
The shadows of those portrayed on the triumphal frieze emerge from the background and stand opposite the frieze.
8
THE HEARING
THE COURT CRIER:
Bow, shadow
These are your witnesses.
LUCULLUS:
I object.
THE COURT CRIER:
These are your witnesses.
LUCULLUS:
But they are enemies!
Here you see one whom I vanquished.
In these few days between new and full moon
I defeated his army with all its
Battle waggons and armoured cavalry.
In these few days
His empire crumbled like a hut struck by lightning.
He began to fly when I appeared on his frontier
And the first few days of the war
Were scarcely enough for us both
To reach the other frontier of his realm.
So short was the campaign that a ham
My cook had hung up to smoke
Was not yet thoroughly cured when I returned.
And of seven I struck down he was but one.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Is that true, O King?
THE KING:
It is true.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Your questions, jurors.
THE COURT CRIER:
At which the shadow
Who was once a teacher puts a question.
THE TEACHER:
How did it happen?
THE KING:
As he says. We were attacked
As the farmer loading hay
Stood with raised fork
His half-filled waggon was taken from him
And strange hands seized the baker’s breadloaf
Before it was fully baked. All that he says
Concerning the lightning that strikes a hut is true. The hut is destroyed. Here
Is the lightning.
THE TEACHER:
And of seven you were …
THE KING:
But one.
THE COURT CRIER:
Jurymen of the dead
Consider the testimony of the king.
Silence.
And the shadow who was once a courtesan
Puts a question.
THE COURTESAN:
You there, O Queen
How did you get here?
THE QUEEN:
One day by the Taurion I
Went to bathe there early
From among the olive trees
Down came fifty strangers.
Those men were my conquerors.
Had no weapon but a sponge
In the limpid water.
And their armour shielded me
Only for a moment.
Quickly I was conquered.
Fearfully I looked around
Shrieking for my maidens
While the maidens fearfully
Shrieked from out the bushes.
We were all assaulted.
THE COURTESAN:
And why do you walk here in the procession?
THE QUEEN:
Oh, as a proof of the victory.
THE COURTESAN:
What victory, the one over you?
THE QUEEN:
And the lovely Taurion.
THE COURTESAN:
And what does he call a triumph?
THE QUEEN:
That the king, my husband
Could not with his whole army
Protect his property
From prodigious Rome.
THE COURTESAN:
Sister, then our fates are the same.
For I too
Found prodigious Rome
No shield against prodigious Rome.
When I was on the love market –
Which I was from six
teen on –
I got curses and beatings daily
All for a drop of oil and lousy pasta.
Makes me know how you’ll have suffered
On that frightful day
And I feel with you, poor lady.
THE COURT CRIER:
Jurymen of the dead
Consider the testimony of the queen.
Pause.
THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD:
Shadow, do you wish to proceed?
LUCULLUS:
Yes, I mark well how the conquered
Have a sweet voice. However
Once it was rougher. This king here
Who captures your sympathy, when he was in power
Was especially ruthless. In taxes and tribute
He took no less than I.
The silver whose production he favoured
Did not pass through him to the people.
THE TEACHER to the king:
Why then
Are you here amongst us, King?
THE KING:
Because I built cities
Because I defended them when you
Romans demanded them from us.
THE TEACHER:
Not we, him!
THE KING:
Because, to defend my country, I summoned
Man, wife and child
In hedgerow and waterhole
With axe, billhook and ploughshare
By day, by night
By their speech, by their silence
Free or captive
In face of the enemy
In face of death.
THE TEACHER:
I propose that we all
Rise to our feet before this witness
And in honour of those
Who defended their cities.
The jurors rise.
LUCULLUS:
What sort of Romans are you?
Your enemy gets your plaudits!
I did not act for myself
I acted on orders
I was sent by
Rome.
THE TEACHER:
Rome! Rome! Rome!
Who is Rome?
Were you sent by the masons who built her?
Were you sent by the bakers and fishermen
And the peasants and the carters
And the gardeners who feed her?
Was it the tailors and the furriers
And the weavers and the sheepshearers who clothe her?
Were you sent by the marble-polishers
And the wool-dyers who beautify her?
Or were you sent by the tax-farmers
And the silver merchants and the slave dealers
And the bankers of the Forum who plunder her?
Silence.
LUCULLUS:
Whoever sent me:
Rome won
Fifty-three cities, thanks to me.
THE TEACHER:
And where are they?
Jurors, let us question the cities.
TWO CHILDREN WITH A TABLET:
With streets and people and houses
Temples and waterworks
They stood in the landscape.
Today only their names remain on this tablet.
THE BAKER:
Why so?
TWO CHILDREN:
One day at noon an uproar broke loose.