The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 58

“ My mother… something… the people…. Then there’s a negative… in other words not or no… then there’s a word… how did you pronounce that?”

The threesome were huddled in front of a 30 inch screen displaying a digital copy of the parchment. Dubois had explained that the original had been so badly water damaged that they were lucky to be able to get a clear image of the text. So instead they worked from this image on the large screen at an oak desk in a private room. Despite the Vatican’s venerable age and centuries of tradition, they had some of the most modern technology.

They sat in something that was more than a row but less than a semicircle. Daniel was in the middle with Monsignor Dubois to his left and Ted to his right. Ted had a notebook in front of him and a pen in his hand, so that he could transcribe Daniel’s phonetic transliterations and then work from them.

Staring long and hard at the text, Daniel transliterated again and then gave several alternative pronunciations. Ted scribbled hastily as Daniel spoke. When he had finished transcribing, he pondered the pronunciation for a few moments before trying again.

“My mother… something… the people… not to fear… for we had… and that word you pronounced Undressed-ah.”

“That was just a rough guess, Ted. I don’t really know how it’s pronounced. It could be Endarasheda for all I know.

“I think that’s Andraste… a local pagan goddess. The missing word could be some alternative word for told — not any of the words I know — or it could be a stronger word like urged or exhorted.”

“Can we put it all together in a sentence?” suggested Dubois.

“Yes. Then it would be: ‘My mother exhorted the people not to fear, for we had Andraste on our side.’ And I think I can translate the next sentence. Can you just remind me of the transliteration of the next bit.”

Again Daniel transliterated the Hebrew lettering, imputing vowels according to the placeholder letters and his best guesses. Ted smiled and spoke quickly.

“That ones a lot easier. ‘And they did listen to her words and their courage was strengthened.’” Ted looked up with tears in his eyes. “It’s incredible. It’s all here.”

“It is incredible,” Dubois seconded.

“And it’s clearly from the point of view of her daughter. So it ties in very neatly with the ketuba.”

“But why,” asked Dubois, “would the ketuba be in England and this document here in Rome?”

Daniel and Ted looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of them had a clue. But both realized that the answer may lie in this document itself.

They continued for several hours, to their collective amazement, translating an account that described Boudicca’s final battle and defeat. It turned out that the scale of the battle was much smaller than Tacitus and Cassius Dio had implied. And the text made clear that many of the Iceni and other tribes had returned to their lands before that, driven by hunger and a shortage of food. It also made clear that there were many surviving family members who fled the scene and were not pursued by the Romans.

At one point Ted commented that Tacitus’s first account in the Agricola might have been the more factually accurate and his later writings in the Annals an embellishment. But then the translation took a strange turn. Daniel translated a pair of sentence, and noted — without Ted’s help — that it contained the name Israel. The three of them exchanged mutual glances as they sensed that something big was coming. Ted translated with enthusiasm.

“After our defeat Simon and Aristobulos… something… my mother…”

“Killed?” asked Daniel.

“No it can’t be. Because it goes on: Aristobulos and Simon something her that Andraste was a false God and that if she worshipped only the true God of… Israel…”

There was a break in his voice and he couldn’t continue.

“How does it go on?” asked Daniel.

Dubois leaned back and shook his head at Daniel, warning him to hold back and not to pressure Ted. It was obvious that this was an emotional moment for the Cambridge professor. This was an amazing document for him, He had devoted a huge chunk of his life to finding the site of Boudicca’s final battle and now not only was it clear that he had found it at Arbury Banks, but there was another document here in Rome, apparently written by Boudicca’s daughter and referring to Simon and Aristobulos — the groom and witness respectively from the marriage ketuba that had been found at Arbury Banks by Martin Costa.

Ted forced himself to continue.

“…and that if she worshipped the true God of Israel, he would be her rock of refuge.”

“She converted to Judaism?” asked Daniel.

“It doesn’t say that,” Dubois stepped in. “In those days the God of Israel — from a pagan frame of reference — would have been the Christian God too.”

“Also, we haven’t yet got to her reply Daniel. Can you transliterate the next bit for me.”

Daniel transliterated and Ted transcribed. But as he looked at the text, a sense of awe and amazement broke out over his face. He looked at Daniel and Dubois in silence, as if unable to trust his voice.

“What is it? asked Daniel.

Ted started to speak, coughed to clear his throat and then spoke… even more slowly and deliberately than his usual cautious academic style.

“And so we… received… their God. And Simon… thought or decided or resolved… to fight the Romans in their house.”

Daniel looked at Dubois, then at Ted, then at Dubois again.

“To fight the Romans in their house?”

The Catholic scholar explained.

“Taking the fight to the enemy. Not an unusual tactic in modern warfare. But almost unprecedented in those days.”

Ted stirred uneasily at this.

“Actually, as a tactic in war, it’s not quite as modern most people think. It may not go back to the first century, but in the American revolutionary war — over two hundred years ago — John Paul Jones attacked the port of Whitehaven.”

“It was a bit of a damp squib, if I remember rightly.”

“Technically yes. He had a problem with a mutinous — or at least avaricious crew. But it did undermine British morale.”

“Does the manuscript give any indication of what they did specifically?” asked Dubois, his tone mildly impatient.

“Let’s see,” said Daniel.

Ted nodded and muttered a pale “Okay.”

Daniel transliterated another sentence or two, Ted struggling to keep up with his phonetic rendition and to distinguish between continuations and alternative pronunciations. After about half a minute, the Cambridge professor had another go at translation.

“And I was given to Simon in marriage and then we hid from the Romans. And after a time we went by the way of the sea to the heart of the enemy to cause pain in her. But Aristobulos said we must fight not with swords but with… the Holy Spirit.”

Again, Ted had to pause.

“ ‘So he went instead to Mona to tell the dru the word of one God so that they might be healed and made strong.”

“The dru?” echoed Dubois. It was for Ted to explain.

“I think that must be the druids.”

Again the three faces met.

“Preaching the Gospels!” said Dubois, excitedly.

“So what does this mean?” asked Daniel. “Putting it all together. Aristobulos, and possibly Simon also, convinced Boudicca and her daughter — or daughters — that the pagan religion of the druids had failed them.”

“The druids were a very powerful force in Romano-Britain until then,” said Ted. “But Boudicca’s defeat and the massacre of the druids at Mona may have led to a desperate reappraisal. And if some one came along offering a plausible alternative, that explained the defeats and setbacks, without giving too much credit to the victors, then the time and conditions were ripe for a religious conversion.”

Daniel had a question.

“This sentence about Aristobulos going to Mona…”

Ted let Daniel’s unfinished question hang in the air for a while before answering.

“There are several traditions associated with Aristobulos of Britannia. That he went somewhere in Wales is one of them.”

Daniel was cogitating.

“Okay, and that line ‘we resolved to fight the Romans in their house,’ I’m wondering who is ‘we’? Is it just Boudicca, her daughter and Simon or could be some small faction of survivors?”

“It probably refers to a small band of followers. It’s unlikely that the three of them alone decided to take on the might of Rome — even in the form of guerrilla warfare.”

“Let’s try the next bit,” Daniel suggested. Again he transliterated. Ted transcribed the words. But there was a change in his mood as Daniel transliterated. At first Ted’s pace was almost leisurely. But at a certain point it turned frantic.

“What is it?” asked Daniel, sensing Ted’s contagious excitement.

“What you just said… what it means.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means… ‘And we hid in the hills outside the city… and in the houses of those… who hated the emperor. And we hurt the Romans in many ways… but we did not fight them in the daylight.’”

“That’s it?”

“No Daniel, that’s not it. That’s the first sentence. But the next sentence reads: ‘And then… we made a great fire… in their city.”

Daniel’s jaw dropped. He turned to Dubois.

“The Great Fire of Rome?”