Chapter 9

David ben-Isaac

I was reassigned to the household of Attia so that I could monitor her actions and convey information to Aaron. I counted it rather bad luck, as none of the household had any interest in me sexually. I was too old for Servius Laellius, and the other servants in the wife’s household were as infected with the superstition of Chrestus as their mistress. I quickly learned that the Chrestoi disdained any sexual relations, and Attia had even stopped performing her duty to Servius. Naturally, this meant that his concubine was too busy for me as well.

I tried to get away and rub myself, but whenever the other servants caught me they would chastise me for being ‘enslaved to the flesh,’ and give me a lecture on ‘rebirth in the Spirit’ that rather cooled my ardor. On the other hand, they were accidentally providing me with useful intelligence. It turned out that Chrestus was actually Christos – the anointed one who was to restore the kingdom of the Jews. His real name had been Yoshua ben-Yosef, and he had been crucified by the prefect of Judaea under Tiberius. This proved that the Christoi were a threat to the peace of the Empire, and quite possibly the safety of the emperor, but we still needed more information. It appeared that Attia had caught the fever from her maidservants and it was spreading like a plague among the household servants of the senators. Aaron wanted to observe their rituals, and hopefully identify any other attendees who were in a position to cause harm.