Çapter 1 - The Romans

Chapter 1 – The Romans

I, David ben Menahem ben Joseef Hacohen, merchant by trade, left my homeland Judea, and my ancestors, in order to find a better life elsewhere,. Since the Roman legions have conquered my country, killed and tortured my people, destroyed our temple, forced us in sin, I had decided to flee to a less hostile place and less dangerous environment.

At that time I was not anymore young, already in my 40 years, witnessing terrible happenings, like how the Roman soldiers killed my family, burned our houses and fields. Today I am homeless, and nothing will keep me to one place, except perhaps my home sickness to the prewar days of my childhood. I became a merchant when the Romans trampled my vineyard and homestead, which has been in our family for many generations. I started selling and buying merchandise, traveling with my donkey from place to place, and everywhere, people were in despair, the Roman soldier had stolen and plundered everything. This despot, puppet King Herod, is a bloody dictator and madman, killing his own sons and wife, and thousands of my countrymen, but the Romans protector does not care, they allowed him to behave as a despot.

One day, I as hereditary priest in the Cohen clan, descendants from Aaron, the brother of Moses, had finished my temple shift in the holy temple; it was the third day of Passover. I hurried home to join my family in the celebrations of the holy days.
On way home, I encountered a crowd of yelling people, surrounding by a group of Roman soldiers, they were taking three men to be executed, one of them, (this I learned much later), was a Jew from Nazareth with the name Joshua ben Joseph, a trouble maker, who preached and continued preaching even on the way to his death, carrying his cross on his back.

I tried to push through the crowd, but was obstructed on my way by the Roman soldiers. Eventually, I came face to face with this Joshua, clearly suffering under his burden. I tried to get away, but the people around pushed me back. Joshua shouted something at me, but because the noise around me, I have no idea what he shouted, something what really has haunted me in later years when his disciples gathered a large following. This movement claiming that Joshua was the Messiah, and the son of God, Christianity as it was called later on, is a mainly Jewish movement, calling themselves New Jews or Nazarene's (Joshua came from Nazareth).

During that time, Judea was ruled by puppet kings of the Romans, the Herods. The Jews revolted 30 years after this incident and as punishment; the Romans destroyed our holy Temple in Jerusalem. However, the Bar Kokba revolt of three years of bloody clashes was suppressed, Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem. The Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Therefore, he chooses the name Palestine and imposed it on all the Land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina.
The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived left the devastated country (and established Jewish communities throughout the Middle East) but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land of Israel. That is, there were always Jews and Jewish communities in Palestine, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.

In the mean time, I developed a very peculiar disease, (I will call it a disease, because I can't find another word for it), I don’t age, I look the same as I did 100 years ago, people around me die from illnesses and age, however, I keep feeling healthy.

People around me started getting suspicious and looked upon me as a freak, asking me for the secret of life, I have no idea why this happens to me, but I seem to be immortal. Often I move to new areas and locations, where nobody knows me, so they won't realize my real age. It is really a lonely life, and would I not have been a devout practicing Jew, life would have been unbearable. I travel with my donkey from Jewish communities; carefully planning my trip ahead so I won’t be caught out of Minyan (at least 10 Jewish praying men) required in order celebrating the holy Shabbat.

As merchant, traveling from place to place, I moved every time further away from my home land, from those beautiful rolling hills of Judea, from my family's vineyard, my family and neighbors, remaining alone is no fun, but my believe in God and my devotion to him is my only savvier.

I and many Jewish travelers went North, but others went West (Sepharad), or East (Kush) and South, into Africa. Of course I can not give an account what happened to my brothers who went in other directions, and in those days there was little contacts between the different Jewish groups, only later on we met again and reunited in one people.

When I lived in Tyre, I had a very short intimate relation with a lady, who (as I learned later on) was spying for the local king, near death, looking for a remedy for his illness. After a wild night with this lady, under influence of drugged drinks, I confessed to her that I am immortal. The day after, I was arrested by the king’s men and thrown in jail. I required to know my crime, but never received any answer.
I week later, I was brought to the king, where his servants tried to tap my blood from my veins, and inject it into the veins of the dying king. Something unexpected happened; the king got a seizure and died on the spot. In the excitement of this drama, I managed to flee the palace, gathered my possessions and donkey, and continued my wandering to the next Jewish colony.

I mentioned before of those followers of Joshua ben Joseph from Nazareth, who call themselves New Jews (or Nazarene's). This religion became rather popular by the Gentiles, many converted to their faith, sometimes facing torture and death by the hands of the local rulers, which served the Roman Gods. By the way, there are rumors that Joshua ben Joseph in reality did not die after his crucifixion, and that he fled with his wife towards the land of Kush, where he preached until his death.

The emperors, dictators, local Kings Men in the Roman Empire killed each other, intrigued, murdered, conquered and were defeated; however, the people in the provinces did not realize any differences. Who cares if the Caesar, far away is called Nero, Augustus, Titus, Hadrian or Vespasian, who cares if the local landlord is representing the emperor or a King or just some General, who had taken power in order to fatten his own treasury. Even though, the Roman law was still the law of the land, it protected only the very powerful and rich, the noblemen and the Roman citizens, but never the commoners, of course not the slaves, nor Jews or the Nazarene. Hoping to receive a fair deal was only for the upper class.

The common language in the Roman Empire was now Greek, that had replaced the Aramaic (a Semitic language spoken by the Mediterranean peoples).
In Rome they still used of course Roman (Latin), however in our region, only the ruling caste used that language. But we, the Jews continued using Hebrew as our holy bible, laws and prayer books are written in the ancient holy language. We also use Aramaic and Greek in order to converse with the Gentiles.

The Jews of those days, living in the Diaspora, are like me, religious people, keeping strictly to all the rites of our religion, including dietary laws, according the Jewish bible, celebrating Jewish holy days and of course Sabbath. We do not mix socially with the gentiles, we trade with them, we serve them, and advise them, but we do not integrate and keep our society apart, with our own rabbinical leaders, who will decide if we stay or move on, in order to strengthen another society, or in order to set up a new society as an independent unit in our Jewish network.

I might be cursed or blessed with immortality, but this secret I bear alone, I don't let anybody get too close to me, I keep myself apart, I have learned my lessons in Tyre.
I move on every 10 to 20 years, from the recent town and community, to a new place, where nobody knows me and will not get suspicious that I don’t age like them.

I slowly but surely wander on, leaving Asia Minor, through Aleppo, Smyrna, and finally reach Constantinople, which is the center of the civilization of those days.
As I told you before, Rulers, despots, Generals change continuously, and a history writer would know better what happened 200 years back, than somebody living in the middle of those happenings. The political changes and upheavals we hear from other travelers, spiced it with legends, sagas and half truths, and there is no way to know what really happened other than combining many stories into one flowing carpet of time.

In order to make my own story comprehensive, I started using the counting of years according the Nazarene (Christian timetable) that starts around the days of Joshua the Nazarene, indicated AD (after Christ). And if you add 43 years, you get approximately my real age.

I, David ben Menahem ben Yosef Ha Cohen, trader and traveler live now in the hub of the Roman World Byzantium; it is in the year 500 A.D.

I introduce myself with the name David Hacohen, an untraceable and very common name under the Jews, I dress and talk like the surrounding Jews, having a fine ear for local dialects and accents. I simply melt in the surroundings.
My sexual drive is normal for a middle age man, but I make sure not to get attached after what happened in Tyre. I seem to be not capable in getting a woman pregnant and thus have no offspring. I have many temporary friends, or should I say, conversation partners. I became rather useful during epidemics, as the illness does not touch me, I can provide and treat the patients; supplying them with food and water.
But never the less I am very lonely, long back to the days of my youth, working in our vineyard, doing my turn in the Temple, being surrounded by my own family.