The beginning of a story

– Everyone in his family is to be crucified. I will not have disobedient slaves on my estate. And take my wailing son away. The boy needs toughening up.
– What shall we do with the infant?
He laughed.
– Kill it. Why raise their last hope? No, wait. Find a wet nurse. It is not good to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. Call him Tertius. Perhaps the third time we will be lucky.

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About
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My name is Secundus. I grew up in Judea, Libya, and the Achaean peninsula, the child of a colonial Latin household in Corinth. Born in Jerusalem eight years before the destruction of the Temple, I am of the seed of Tertius the scribe, also named for his sequence. He was the only surviving son in the third generation of slaves at our estate. I follow the third and I follow the firstborn, my sister, Prima.

This is my second book. Prima helped in the flesh with my first. Together, we recounted the lives of my parents and their colleagues. It is in memory that she will help me today. I gave her body to the ground four years ago. She was my ears. From her, I learned to see words and form sounds. Having seen words formed, I strove to master every written language I found.

I inherited the estate and its business from my father who had it himself from Gaius whose only son was a victim of a Corinthian brawl. I began writing twenty years ago, a decade after my father’s death. Many words weary, I read in the book by the preacher. But still I write, emptiness expressing ecstasy.

I also inherited the scriptorium with all its letters, scrolls, and parchments. Included among these are four records of recitations under the names titles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. KATA MATTHEON, KATA MARKON, KATA LOUKAN and KATA IWANNHN. If you want to see them, you can find written copies here at the estate in Corinth and in many other places. I am not the only one to have studied these things so you will not find it difficult to get further information if you need it.

Updated June 28: Next episode