50 pages • 1-hour read
Sailing to Sarantium
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Part 2, Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Chapter 6 Summary
The Master of the Senate, Plautus Bonosus, recalls the events of the Victory Riot two years prior, when Lysippus the Calysian, Quaestor of Imperial Revenue, was taxing the people heavily. As a result, 80,000 Hippodrome spectators rioted. Safely sequestered in a palace, Emperor Valerius II considered his options: flee to relatively assured safety but risk being unable to reclaim his throne, or stay and fight for his throne, risking his death. The men in the room were silent with fear, but Empress Alixana made the choice a simple one, inviting her husband to make the bolder choice, saying, “I would sooner die clothed in porphyry in this palace than of old age in any place of exile on earth. All Jad’s children are born to die. The vestments of the Empire are seemly for a shroud, my lord. Are they not?” (222). Bonosus recalls that the looks the two exchanged were full of more intimacy, love, and admiration than any he had shared in his own life.
In the current time, five young men are drinking at a caupona near the Hippodrome, the Spina. One, Cleander, is trying to drown his sorrows after a dancer has spurned his latest gift, taking up with Leontes’ secretary, Pertennius, instead. Out of his bitterness, he insults not only the man in question, but his superior—the Supreme Strategos. Carullus takes this as an affront to the honor of Leontes, his much-admired superior officer, and offers the boy the chance to take back any dishonor by drinking to Leontes’ name. When the 17-year-old refuses with a profanity, a brawl is barely avoided through his friends insisting on drinking to Leontes and the Greens.
Later, Carullus explains that the woman in question was the favored dancer for the Greens, Shirin. Crispin notes that it is likely to be the daughter of Zoticus, with whom he was directed to meet. Crispin also likens his decision to enter the city under his own name despite what his permit stated to a “matter of honor” just like Carullus’ defense of Leontes (229).
Crispin, Carullus, and Vargos go to the Hippodrome to watch the races. Carullus bets a significant amount on Crescens, the Green driver, to win. Bonosus also attends the race, considering how the Emperor, an insomniac workaholic, is forced to attend this particular race at the cost of a day’s work. He muses on the irony of the ruler being forced to do something to please the plebs: “In a way it was perverse, but the all-powerful, godlike Emperors of Sarantium were enslaved by the Hippodrome tradition and the almost mythic force residing within it” (233).
Bonosus continues to remember the Victory Riot: Valerius asked Leontes to take his few men, fight through the crowd, take the Senator the mob crowned as emperor, and announce that Lysippus was exiled. The Emperor and Empress boldly stayed instead of fleeing, despite the 150,000 angry rioters in the streets. They sent Leontes with 30 men to take back Senator Symeonis and 2,000 Excubitors to handle the rest of the mob at the Hippodrome.
The chariot race begins in the present with Taras of the Reds being told to prevent Scortius of the Blues from passing Crescens of the Greens on pain of a beating. Scortius is amiable as always, but Crescens is determined to get his 75th win by any means necessary. Taras does his best despite being outclassed in skill and experience, but Scortius manages to pull ahead by executing a daring maneuver in which he gets to the inside of the track by sharply angling his chariot to cut behind Taras rather than passing in front of him.
Bonosus’ recollection of the Riot continues: Faustinus sent men to divide the mob back into their factions—Greens and Blues—in part through suggesting that one party might fear larger reprisals for their behavior than another due to Empress Alixana’s history with the Blues. Leontes swayed the Hippodrome Prefect’s men who were guarding the corridor with a rousing speech. His men burst through the back with the Prefect’s soldiers to find the aging senator on the Emperor’s seat. Leontes ripped the porphyry and crown from him, and he submitted publicly in view of the mob. The soldiers had the men who put him on the chair and threw their dismembered parts onto the mob below. Arrows soon rained down on the frightened, densely packaged mob. During this time, Leontes announced that Lysippus was exiled, but they likely did not hear that over the panic and chaos as the mob tried to flee. Auxilius and his troops emerged at the entrance on both sides, fully armored, and cut down everyone they could. In the end, 31,000 were dead.
When Symeonis was brought before the Emperor, he immediately bowed at the Emperor’s feet, sniveling. The Emperor announced that he believed the crowning was against Symeonis’ will. Bonosus expected the Emperor to exile the mob’s erstwhile choice of Emperor, but his Empress once again shaped history by pointing out that whether Symeonis wanted it or not, he was crowned, leaving two living Emperors. He was killed that very night and displayed naked from the City’s wall. The clerics promptly supported the Emperor, spreading the word that “Jad’s anointed Emperor” exiled Lysippus for the sake of his beloved people (250). Bonosus observes that the rebuilding of the Great Sanctuary was the cost of their vital cooperation.
In the race, Scortius manages another exceptional move. After a chariot crashes into the preexisting wreck on the inside of the track, he edges in so that Crescens, who is on the inside of the track, will be forced to either drive through the remains of the wreck or slow and get behind Scortius, losing the race. Crescens boldly pushes through it, but one of his wheels falls off. Accepting defeat, he cuts himself free from his reins and bows to the crowds and the Emperor with dignity. One of the other drivers was not so lucky. His neck was broken and he was claimed by “the Ninth Driver,” Death (257).
Chapter 7 Summary
Kasia struggles to adapt to the many, significant changes which have occurred in such a short span of time. After a year of slavery, she wonders whether she will ever be able to leave its effects behind her and questions whether she even knows how to be free anymore. While the men are at the Hippodrome, Siroes, the Mosaicist to the Imperial Court, comes looking for Crispin. He is repeatedly disrespectful to Kasia, but she cleverly manipulates his obvious fear and arrogance to gain information about his motives. He claims that he wants to prepare Crispin for the Imperial Banquet, but is clearly threatened by Crispin’s presence and is particularly concerned about his opinion on the “transfer method of setting tesserae” (264).
When Crispin arrives back at the inn, eunuchs from the Chancellor’s Offices appear to collect him before Kasia can tell him about Siroes’ visit. She tells Carullus, who states that a trap must be set for Crispin, but observes that Crispin can handle himself. The eunuchs insist on shaving off Crispin’s beard in accordance with the latest fashions at court. Because he has had it for over 10 years, he does not recognize his own reflection, leading to an identity crisis: “He’d been…altered. He wasn’t himself. Not a secure feeling, as he prepared to be presented at the most intricate, dangerous court in the world, bearing a false name and a secret message” (268).
When he arrives at the palace, Crispin tells the herald his real name. the herald refuses to announce anyone other than Martinian, so he enters under the false name. He performs the correct series of bows as directed by the eunuchs, but when he is bidden to rise, he refuses to do so unless he can do so “under [his] own name” (270). The Empress then confirms his identity, making Crispin panic internally at the realization that she knows who he truly is despite his recent arrival in the City. Gesius and Faustinus, obvious rivals, trade barbs relating to assigning blame for Crispin’s late arrival and announcement under the wrong name. Crispin hears a creak and is told to stand to look at the Emperor, but when he stands, the Emperor’s throne has been lifted up so that it appears to be floating. Rather than expressing the shock or panic the guests had hoped for, Crispin comments on the parlor trick and makes some suggestions for improvements for the effect. The Emperor surprises him by laughing.
Crispin observes his surroundings carefully, trying to make sense of the allies and enemies he has already made before stepping foot in the palace. He quickly discovers that the Empress has an arresting presence and a quick mind, considering her to be the most dangerous person alive. Meanwhile, Supreme Strategos Leontes’ wife, Styliane Daleina, insults Crispin repeatedly, though he is initially unsure as to why.
The Emperor asks about Crispin’s opinion on the “new reverse transfer method of laying tesserae in sheets” (277). Crispin speaks in support of it for walls and floors, but is outspoken in condemning the technique’s application for domes. This is because domes are the ideal setting for a mosaic as they allow for greater light play than flat surfaces. To use the transfer method on a dome would be effectively wasting the advantages that the dome offers to best catch the light. Crispin also points out the technique is not “new” as it has already been used for 500 years in Rhodias. The Emperor swiftly attacks Siroes for suggesting a subpar method and for calling a 500-year-old technique “new.” It becomes clear that Styliane had been his sponsor, explaining her animosity toward Crispin. Crispin suddenly realizes that his hasty remarks have had a large effect on court and that he cannot predict the potentially fatal consequences of his impulsive actions: “It was appallingly true, what he’d conjectured earlier: he’d arrived here with allegiances and enemies before he’d even opened his mouth—or lifted his head from the floor. I could be killed here, he thought suddenly” (283).
Despite this realization, Crispin further antagonizes Styliane by pointing out that she has committed a faux pas by wearing a necklace more opulent than the Empress’. The Emperor offers Crispin the chance to win a bet for a massive ruby ring: Whoever can determine how Scortius knew that the wreck would still be in the inner area of the track during the race would win the jewel. Crispin guesses correctly, initially frustrating the Emperor until the Emperor figures it out for himself: Scortius had noticed that the crowds were dark, meaning that their faces were turned away from him to watch something more interesting than his racing by—a violent second wreck, which would not be able to be cleared before his next turn of the track. After winning the ruby, Crispin gives it to Styliane to “make amends” for getting her mosaicist fired. She is furious, but bound by social conventions to thank him for the gift. Before Gesius leads Crispin out, Scortius warns him to be careful.
Part 2, Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Crispin finds himself in a dangerous political playground where he is unsure of who his allies and enemies are. Still, his clever mind appears to continue to get him out of the trouble that his impulsive words get him into. He soon finds that the Emperor’s mind works similarly to his own: Crispin impresses the Emperor with his ability to provide constructive criticism on a prank designed to make him look foolish and solves a riddle the Emperor had failed to understand. Crispin makes an enemy of Styliane Daleina and Siroes through his heavy-handed delivery of his opinions, learning the truth that honesty can be dangerous in an imperial court. Still, even wrong-footed, Crispin further uses his intelligence to give as good as he gets, even within the constraints of a high-stakes social setting with which he is unfamiliar.
More concerning than the anger of Leontes’ wife and a fellow artisan is the fact that the Empress is aware of Crispin’s identity before he reveals it. Crispin rightfully worries whether it means that she is aware of Gisel’s plot to marry her husband and Crispin’s role in delivering it. If so, he is unsure as to whether he will live long enough to see the Grand Sanctuary, let alone create a mosaic for it.
Bonosus’ recollection of the Victory Riot serves to provide context for the political situation two years later and demonstrates Empress Alixana’s wisdom and the respect her husband has for it. Further, both Bonosus and Crispin describe the relationship between Emperor and Empress as singularly trusting and obviously mutually loving. This bodes ill for Gisel’s hopes that the Emperor will set his wife aside and lends evidence toward Crispin’s declaration that the Empress is the most dangerous person alive. This may prove true for Crispin’s future, given how she may already know of Gisel’s scheme and has already demonstrated her willingness to die an Empress rather than lose her throne.
Meanwhile, the Chariot Race’s daring and risky strategic choices may provide foreshadowing for Crispin’s own long-shot propositions. While the opportunity for a courageous and tactically-minded person to succeed is present, so is the Ninth Driver. In his efforts, Crispin must wonder whether he will be Scortius or the dead charioteer. On a similar note, Scortius’ appearance heralds newfound intimacy with the celebrity himself and the faction he represents—the Blues, with whom Empress Alixana was once affiliated. Scortius’ warning of the dangers of the City also foreshadows his attempts to safeguard the Rhodian.
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