Central Asia in the 1st Century B.C.E.
Fortress of Kyrkmolla, ancient Urgench. Historical migrations of the Yuezhi.
17:06 (Central Asia Time)
Tuesday, September 20, 63 B.C.E.
Southern shore of the Oxus River (Amu Darya River)
Near ancient Urgench, Khwarzem Province (Chorasmia)
Region controlled by Yuezhi nomads
‘’I SEE URGENCH ON THE HORIZON!’’
‘’At last!’’ said in turn Hiram on hearing the shout from Gorudos. ‘’Tomorrow, we will be able to sleep in real beds and eat good meals at the caravanserai in Urgench.’’
Nauca, who was riding beside Hiram, looked at him questioningly.
‘’Is Urgench a big place, Hiram?’’
‘’Not really, Nauca. It is an old, medium-size city which exists mostly to service and shelter passing caravans like ours. The local ruler’s biggest source of income is in fact the taxes he is imposing on us traders and merchants.’’
‘’And whose king is he representing?’’
‘’He is mostly representing himself. Before, he would be answerable to the King of Greco-Bactria, but nomads from the Northeast named the Yuezhi invaded this land decades ago and loosely control it. However, those Yuezhi are formed into many tribes and have no real central leaders, so they let the various city rulers do pretty much as they wish, as long as they don’t try to rebel or impede the flow of caravans, which benefit about everybody.’’
‘’Sounds a bit like the state of affairs in my native Sarmatia.’’
Hiram nodded his head at that.
‘’You would probably find the Yuezhi quite similar to you, Nauca. Like you, they are nomads who fight on horseback and shoot bows as their main weapon. They were in turn pushed out of their original lands by other mounted nomads, the Xiongnu. Those Xiongnu are by the way considered by the Chinese as their biggest threat and they often clash with Chinese imperial armies. The tribe to which our own Timur belonged, the Mongols, is actually part of the Xiongnu Federation.’’
‘’Oh?! And why did Timur join your caravan, Hiram? He always refused to tell me about that.’’
Hiram hesitated for a moment, then answered her in a low voice, so that others could not hear him.
‘’Keep this to yourself, Nauca, as Timur wishes this to stay confidential. Timur had to flee his tribe after he killed the son of his tribal leader, who had raped and killed Timur’s sister. Normally, that tribal chief’s son should have been punished for that, according to tribal traditions and customs, but his father protected him and instead put the blame on Timur. Timur then had no choice but to flee and he eventually ended up in Samarkand, where I accepted to hire him as a caravan guard. If he is ever caught by the Mongols, then he will most certainly be killed. Now, promise me that you will not repeat that story to anyone, Nauca. I appreciate Timur very much and I wouldn’t want to see him get into trouble.’’
‘’You have my word, Hiram.’’ replied at once Nauca. She then thought about that for a while as she rode next to Hiram.
Seeing that his caravan would not be able to reach Urgench before nightfall, Hiram soon decided to stop and establish a camp near the shore of the Oxus River, which was quite shallow and narrow in this hot and dry season. Nauca’s first task once they stopped was in fact to lead the horses of the caravan to the river to let them drink, with young Timur to assist her. As their herd of horses meant to be sold in Samarkand drank, Nauca looked longingly at the water flowing past her.
‘’I would really love to be able to take a bath after supper: the countryside we passed through during those last couple of weeks was as dry as a rock.’’
‘’Then, do it, Nauca! You won’t be the only one who wants to bathe.’’
Nauca threw a critical look at the young man.
‘’Me, the sole girl in this whole caravan, bathe with the rest of our group? Those merchants may be good men, but they are still men.’’
‘’Then, go bathe at a spot away from the camp.’’
‘’And leave my things lying on the shore, at the mercy of a passing thief?’’
‘’I could stand guard over them while you swim around.’’ replied Timur, a slight smile on his lips, attracting an instant reply.
‘’So that you could watch me naked?’’
Timur sighed and lowered his eyes at her words.
‘’Nauca, I had a sister who was pretty much the same age as you. If anything, you remind me of her a lot and I would never dare to show disrespect to you. Yes, I find you very pretty, but I would never abuse you.’’
Staring into his eyes, Nauca finally decided that he was telling the truth and gently patted his right shoulder.
‘’Very well, Timur: I accept your offer to watch my things while I bathe tonight. I will do the same for your things afterward, so that you can also bathe.’’
‘’Thank you, Nauca: you are a real friend.’’
After making the horses drink, Nauca and Timur led them to a grassy area along the shoreline near the camp where they would be able to feed and used ropes tied to the few dispersed local trees to create an improvised corral. Once that was done, they were replaced by Gorudos, who had been tasked by Hiram to watch over the precious horses, and were able to go eat and mount their respective tents. Nauca waited until darkness fell to go get Timur, who then grabbed a set of fresh clothes and walked some 200 meters away with her, following the river’s shore. Stopping at a group of five small tree which provided some intimacy, Nauca then started shedding her clothes, removing first her scale armor vest and helmet. She appreciated the fact that Timur turned around to face away from her the moment she started undressing. Now fairly reassured about his intentions, Nauca finished undressing and, once naked, ran into the river. She felt pure delight as she was able to crouch into the low, lukewarm water, with only her head sticking out. Swimming around a bit and rubbing off the accumulated dirt from her body, she finally walked out of the river to return to her clothes, finding Timur still facing outward. Drying herself up and putting on a set of clean clothes took her only a few minutes, after which she called out to Timur.
‘’I AM FINISHED, TIMUR. YOU CAN COME WASH YOURSELF NOW.’’
‘’COMING!’’
With her armor back on and her weapons on her, Nauca took the place of Timur next to one of the trees and started watching around as he undressed and went into the river. His own bathing took only a couple of minutes and he was back and dressed quickly.
‘’I am ready, Nauca: we can go back to our camp.’’
‘’Do you know if we will find a place in Urgench where I will be able to have my dirty clothes washed?’’
‘’There certainly are, Nauca. In fact, there is such a laundry room at the local caravanserai, which also maintains a bathhouse, which is very popular with passing merchants. Another bathhouse in town is also frequented by local prostitutes, making it even more popular with travelers.’’
‘’I see!’’ said Nauca in a sarcastic tone. In turn, Timur gave her a cautious look.
‘’And you, Nauca? You are young and healthy. Don’t you frequent men from time to time?’’
‘’No!’’ replied Nauca at once, surprising the young man. ‘’I am presently engaged in a long sightseeing trip around the World. How far do you think I could go if I ever get pregnant during my trip? I have thus vowed to stay away from men for the time being, in order not to risk a pregnancy.’’
‘’Oh! I see! Be careful, though: some men don’t know how to accept a ‘no’.’’
‘’Don’t worry, Timur: I have a dagger ready just for such men. When I was still a young girl, a bandit tried to attack me. He ended with my dagger stuck in his balls.’’
Timur winced on hearing that.
‘’Ouch! That definitely would ruin any man’s day.’’
‘’Exactly!’’ replied Nauca, grinning.
16:25 (Central Asia Time)
Wednesday, September 21, 63 B.C.E.
Local caravanserai, old city of Urgench, Koreshmia
Old caravanserai along the Silk Road, Central Asia.
The Urgench caravanserai was actually situated just outside the limits of the town, in order to avoid large camel caravans from causing traffic jams inside the narrow streets of Urgench. As Hiram had told Nauca a day earlier, guards of the local ruler were posted outside of the gate of the fortified caravanserai and collected a tax from Hiram based on the number of horses and camels he had in his caravan. Once that was done, the caravan was allowed inside the large fortified compound, where a well sat in the middle of the wide courtyard. A bearded man with a bit of a large gut ran to Hiram as the later was stepping down from his horse, shouting in Sogdian.
‘’HIRAM, MY FRIEND! YOU ARE BACK FROM THE WEST!’’
‘’And with lots of furs, amber and horses, Amachios. How is business going at your caravanserai?’’
The said Amachios shared a happy hug with Hiram before answering him.
‘’Business is actually quite good, my friend. With the pandemonium those Romans are throwing around the normal caravan route through Persia because of their cleanup campaign against what remains of the forces of King Mithridates, many more caravans pass through Urgench these days, instead of through Susia,{18} Ecbatana{19} and Damascus. Hopefully, those Romans will keep at it for a few more years, time for me to get rich.’’
Hiram giggled at that and patted the shoulder of his friend caravanserai master.
‘’Like they say: the misfortunes of some make the fortune of others. Well, I have a total of 25 loaded camels, 37 good horses for sale and fifteen tired and hungry riders to take care of. You have enough space for us tonight, I hope?’’
‘’Of course, my friend! I will tell Touranos to prepare at once rooms for sixteen men.’’
‘’Make it fifteen men and one girl, Amachios: one of my caravan guards is a Sarmatian girl.’’
The caravanserai master gave a stunned look at Nauca, who was still on her horse nearby, before looking back at Hiram.
‘’A Sarmatian girl? One of the famed Amazons?’’
‘’Exactly, and one you don’t want to trifle with: she may be young and pretty but she is positively deadly with a bow. Her name is Nauca. I will pay for her room and meals, as lodging and food was the agreed wages for her services as a guard…and I mean that as the only services she will give.’’
Amachios, no fool, understood at once the warning in that last sentence and nodded his head.’’
‘’Then, I will make sure that the bunch of grubby Bactrians presently lodged in Touranos’ inn keep their hands to themselves. Judging from the mass of weapons she is carrying, that girl would probably cut off the hands of any man who will try his luck with her.’’
‘’You got that right, my friend.’’
‘’So, how long do you intend to stay here in Urgench, Hiram?’’
‘’Only a couple of days, time to rest our mounts and to check if there is any worthwhile exchange or business to be done here.’’
‘’Then, you are in luck, my friend. I presently am sheltering a small group of Indian merchants who came all the way from Pataliputra{20} and were on their way to the West. They however decided to change their route when they heard about the infinite greed of the Roman soldiers marching around Parthia. I believe that you would want to talk to them.’’
Hiram smiled and rubbed his hands together.
‘’Now you are really interesting me, my friend. Once we will have our rooms and will go have supper, I will definitely want to discuss with those Indian merchants.’’
‘’Then, I will tell Touranos to arrange a meeting with them. Let’s go see him while my people take care of your beasts.’’
Some forty minutes later, having checked that all his people had been given rooms and that his camels and horses were being cared for, with their precious bundles of goods stored inside a stall now guarded by Nauca, Hiram went to the main hall of the caravanserai’s inn with Touranos, the inn’s manager, in order to have supper. Touranos used that occasion to make him visit the inn’s kitchen, where he showed to Hiram the choice of meals on the menu.
‘’Tonight, we have both roast pork and a chicken and vegetable stew on the menu, along with rice and bread.’’
Hiram bent down over the big pot in which a chicken stew was simmering and sniffed its odor with delight. However, he found the large piece of pork roasting over a fire equally appetizing. Having seen that most of his caravan people had just arrived in the hall, he took a quick decision.
‘’Bring both that rack of roast pork and that pot of stew to the tables where my people are sitting, along with a small pot of rice, four loaves of bread and two pitchers of wine. I believe that this will be more than enough to cover the cost of those items.’’
Touranos quickly accepted the six silver coins Hiram produced and bowed to him.
‘’I will have that food and drinks brought to your tables at once, along with plates, bowls and cups.’’
‘’Thank you!’’ replied Hiram before walking out of the kitchen, entering the hall and going to the table where his three Sogdian associates, his Persian horse trader and his Chinese gem trader and interpreter were sitting, where he took place next to Kassim, his most trusted associate.
‘’Food will soon be brought to our table, my friends. We have roast pork, chicken stew, rice, bread and wine on the menu.’’
The eyes of Xiao, the Chinese gem trader and interpret employed by Hiram, lit up at the mention of rice.
‘’Aah, I have been wanting to taste rice again for months, Hiram. We really should stock up on rice for our travel provisions: it keeps well in most conditions, is filling and is comparatively cheap.’’
‘’I think that you are right about that, Xiao. I will go see after supper if there is any rice to be bought here.’’
Hiram then saw five inn servants come out of the kitchen, loaded down with food, plates, cups and wine pitchers.
‘’Aah, here is our food! I was starving!’’
Looking towards the two other tables occupied by his camel drivers and guards, he shouted out to young Timur.
‘’TIMUR, AS SOON AS YOU WILL HAVE EATEN, GO REPLACE NAUCA AT THE STABLES, SO THAT SHE COULD COME HERE AND EAT.’’
‘’YES, HIRAM!’’
Their tables were soon supporting a number of pans, pots and plates, with the caravan men hungrily diving into the hot food. Most of them also broke pieces of bread for themselves, while Xiao happily filled his plate with steamy rice, then poured some chicken stew on top of his rice before starting to wolf down his food. As he ate a large slice of roast pork accompanied by rice and vegetables, Hiram looked around the hall at the other persons present for supper. There were actually some 26 other travelers present, not counting Hiram’s people. Those 26 travelers were obviously from varied places, if one considered their clothes and listened to what language they spoke. In truth, that kind of kaleidoscope of dresses, languages and customs had attracted Hiram to trading as much as the prospect of making money, as he was by nature a curious man with an open mind. Many of those travelers inside the hall appeared to be Persian, but a group of five men with brown skins and black hair and beards attracted the attention of Hiram: their clothes were typical of those worn by Indian merchants he had met in the past. Discretely pointing them to Kassim, he spoke to him in a low voice.
‘’You see those five men over there? They must be the Indian merchants Amachios told me about. It could be wise to go speak with them after eating, to see if we could do some good trading with them. How is your Sanskrit?’’
‘’A bit rusty, but I believe that I could still discuss with those men.’’
‘’Excellent! Eat quickly then, so that we could go see them before they retire to their rooms.’’
Hurrying himself to eat his food, Hiram got up from his bench some fifteen minutes later and then walked to the table occupied by the Indians, Kassim in tow. Stopping near their table, he and Kassim then bowed politely to them, with Kassim speaking a few words in Sanskrit.
‘’Good evening, good men! Could we discuss trade with you?’’
The older Indian, who seemed to be the leader of the group and who bore a rather spectacular-looking spiral-shaped moustache, immediately pointed at an empty part of the bench facing him from across the table.
‘’Please, sit! It is always a good time to talk trade. My name is Sajith Sing.’’
‘’And I am Kassim. This is my associate, Hiram.’’
Kassim and Hiram then sat down, facing Sing. Sing presented first his own associates before eyeing critically his two interlocutors.
‘’So, what do you have to offer as wares?’’
‘’We have 38 good, strong horses from the plains north of the Pontus Euxinus{21}, amber, furs, weapons, gems, gold, silver and jewels. What about you?’’
‘’We mostly have items that are both valuable and easy to carry in quantity: spices, gems and a few weapons and pieces of armor.’’
Kassim exchanged a glance with Hiram before looking back at Sing.
‘’Then, we would definitely be interested in your wares. We would in exchange let you look at our own wares. When would you like that we do our mutual inspections?’’
‘’There is no time like the present time!’’ declared the graying Indian merchant, getting up on his feet. Kassim and Hiram did the same, pleased by his eagerness.
‘’Then, since your wares are more compact, how about we start by looking at them first?’’
‘’A logical suggestion. Follow me!’’
As they were following the Indian merchants out of the hall, Hiram shouted at his associates still eating.
‘’XIAO, IMAN, HERAKLYON, DEMOSTHENE, NURTAS, COME! WE HAVE BUSINESS TO CONDUCT!’’
The word ‘business’ was enough to convince the five men sitting and eating to leave their plates, although Xiao took the time to gobble up a last ball of rice before hurrying to Hiram and the Indians. However, instead of going to the stables, where their mounts were, the Indians led Hiram and his associates upstairs, to their rooms. Entering the largest of the two rooms they used, Sing spoke in Sanskrit to a young man sitting on top of a pile formed by two chests while firmly holding a curved sword.
‘’Najib, I brought prospective customers for our wares. You can get up from those chests.’’
‘’Yes, Father!’’ said the young man, who could be about twenty-years-old. Sing then smiled to Hiram and Kassim.
‘’My son Najib: I use him as a night guard for our wares, while we sleep.’’
‘’Can’t find a more dependable guard than him, I must say.’’ replied Kassim, making a malicious smile appear on Sing’s lips.
‘’Well, we have a saying in Pataliputra: you can choose your friends, but not your family.’’
‘’We have the same saying back in Sogdiana. It seems that family backstabbing is a universal problem.’’
‘’Indeed, my friend!’’ said Sing, grinning. ‘’I will show you first my precious stones and my spices before you look at my weapons and armor.’’
‘’That will be fine with us, Sajith: our associate Xiao is a gem trader who will be able to evaluate your stones at once. Xiao, get ready to show us your expertise.’’
Sajith Sing first lit two extra oil lamps sitting on the small table in the room, then extracted from under his tunic a set of keys hanging by a leather strap from his neck and unlocked the two chests on which Najib had been sitting. Opening the top chest, Sing took a good dozen small leather purses from it and put them down on the table. However, he stayed very close to them and pushed forward only one purse towards Xiao, who was taking his small weighing scale from its protective box, along with a series of small weights, lining them up on the table while sitting down on a stool. Sing then spoke in halting Sogdian, the lingua franca of the Silk Road.
‘’You will excuse me if I let you look at only one purse at a time: even one gem stolen would represent a significant loss for me. I will thus count out the gems in each purse before you start examining my stones.’’
Xiao, who was keenly aware of the high trading value and attractiveness of gems, nodded his head at that.
‘’I fully understand that, my friend. Many men had their throats cut for a single nice stone.’’
Watched by Xiao, Hiram and Kassim, Sing then emptied the first purse on the table, making seventeen big, deep red polished stones roll on the table. Xiao, like his associates, opened wide his eyes at the sight of the stones.
‘’Rubies! And what rubies! They look magnificent!’’
‘’They come from a place called Burma, across the Bay of Bengal. Burma is justly reputed to produce the nicest rubies one can find in the whole World.’’
Using a small tweezer to pick up one of the rubies, Xiao raised it close to the light from one of the oil lamps and examined it with growing emotion.
‘’By my ancestors’ spirits, this ruby must be the most perfect I ever saw.’’
Then putting the ruby down on his jeweler’s scale and measuring carefully its weight, Xiao then looked up soberly at Hiram, speaking to him in Greek, so that the Indians would not understand him.
‘’That stone alone is easily worth 3,000 drachmas, Hiram. Paying 2,000 drachmas for it would still leave you with a nice profit.’’
While he kept a poker face on hearing that, Hiram’s heart jumped in his chest: that stone alone was worth the price of three top-quality horses, or five years of wages for a skilled worker! No wonder that this Sajith Sing was guarding so closely his gems.
‘’Alright! Let’s see if the other rubies are of the same quality and value range.’’
Xiao nodded once and grabbed a second ruby after giving back the first to Sing, who immediately put it back in its purse. After a few minutes of intense concentration and close examination, Xiao was ready to give his verdict to Hiram.
‘’They are all rubies of top quality, with the smallest one still worth a good thousand drachmas. Just that one purse would be enough to buy all of our horses meant for trading.’’
‘’I’ll keep that in mind, Xiao. Let’s see what the other purses contain.’’
Xiao nodded again and pointed the next purse to Sing, who was just finishing to tie back the purse full of rubies.
‘’What is in that purse?’’
‘’Emeralds from Bactria. They are as valuables as my rubies.’’
Sing then untied the leather string closing the purse and made about twenty dark green stones roll on the table, then pushed one of them in front of Xiao, who looked at it with near veneration before picking it up and examining and weighing it.
‘’This emerald is worth about 2,600 drachmas, resale price, Hiram. The other emeralds from this purse look about of the same value.’’
A few minutes of work by Xiao was enough to confirm his initial judgment. Now firmly decided to buy as many of Sing’s gems as he possibly could, them being wares in high demand by various nobles and royalties everywhere and also being very easy to carry, Hiram made Xiao look at all of the gems offered by Sing, which included diamonds, star rubies, aquamarines and turquoises. Sing then opened his second chest, which contained small and medium-sized jute bags of various spices which, per weight, were about as valuable as silver or even gold. Once spice in particular that he tasted made his eyes open wide.
‘’By Mithra! What is this spice? I love it!’’
Sing smiled proudly on hearing that.
‘’That, my friend, is called ‘curry’. It is actually a mix of a number of specific spices and it comes in a variety of degree of hotness. What you just tasted is a mild variant.’’
‘’Can I taste your stronger variants?’’ asked eagerly Hiram, making Sing nod his head.
‘’Of course, my friend. Be careful, though: the truly hot variant could put your tongue on fire.’’
‘’We’ll see!’’
It didn’t take long for Hiram to find out that Sing had not exaggerated. The third and last curry sample made him open his mouth wide, while tears came out of his eyes.
‘’By Mithra, I’m on fire! Water! Water, please!’’
Sing, having anticipated that need, presented at once a goblet full of water to Hiram, who avidly drank it dry before looking at the Indian merchant with wide eyes.
‘’That hot curry of yours is like fire! And your people actually eat that?’’
‘’Yes, but not in pure form. Curry, parsimoniously sprinkled on a piece of meat, in a sauce or mixed with cooked rice, adds a fantastic flavor to recipes.’’
‘’Then, I will certainly want to buy some of it. Let me confer for a moment with my associates.’’
‘’Go right ahead, my friend.’’
Going to one corner of the room and speaking Sogdian in a very low voice with his associates for a couple of minutes, Hiram finally returned to face Sing.
‘’We will definitely want to buy some of your best gems, plus a few bags of your curry spice. How about you come down and inspect the horses, amber and other wares I have to offer, so that we could decide on what we will exchange between us?’’
‘’That sounds like a good idea, but I also have some pieces or armor and weapons for sale. Aren’t you interested in them?’’
Hiram’s expression was a response by itself.
‘’Well, we also have weapons and armor to sell, but maybe our caravan guards could be interested in what you have.’’
It was the turn of Sing to look skeptical.
‘’Your caravan guards would be rich enough to buy top quality pieces of armor and weapons?’’
‘’Well, let’s say that they killed quite a few bandits along the way and that they earned half of the loot from those dead bandits, including horses. Yes, they could possibly have enough money to buy things from you.’’
‘’Alright then, I will show you what I have.’’
Hiram, who had a more than fair knowledge about the value and quality of various weapons and armor, patiently waited while Sing and his associates unpacked and lined up in front of him a few dozen pieces of armor and a variety of weapons. Reviewing them quickly, Hiram was not very convinced about their worth. One item however attracted his curiosity and he pointed at a round shield of unusual aspect.
‘’What is that shield made of? That’s not metal, nor is it cow leather.’’
Picking up the shield and holding it in front of him, Sing looked soberly at Hiram.
‘’That, my friend, is a Dhal shield made of rhinoceros skin. It is the most prized kind of shield in India and is certified arrow-proof. It also is quite light for its size, lighter in fact than wooden or metal shields. I have them in three different sizes. Here, take it, so that you can see how light it is.’’
Taking the shield from Sing, Hiram was effectively surprised by its lightness, despite the fact that it was a good fifty centimeters in diameter. Rapping his knuckles against the outer surface of the shield produced a muffled sound. Hiram then looked at Sing.
‘’You said that you had other such shields in different sizes?’’
‘’Yes!’’
‘’Then at least one of my guards would probably be interested in these shields. Indian Dahl shield made of rhinoceros hide Demosthenes, could you go down to the hall and bring our three guards here? Replace temporarily the one on duty at the stables, so that he could come as well.’’
‘’Right away, Hiram!’’ replied the