For an instant, dizzied, Ludovico felt he had never gone there; be also that he had never left.
A long night’s sleep dissipated his obscure anxieties.
THE PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN
This is the city-palace; this is the palace-city; its name is Spalato, space of a palace, city within a palace, a palace converted into a city upon the steep coasts of the Adriatic Sea, the last dwelling of the Emperor Diocletian, plazas that had been courtyards, cathedrals that had been mausoleums, baptistries of Christ formerly temples of Jupiter, churches that had been chapels, streets that had been passageways, gardens that had been orchards, lodgings that had been bedchambers, inns that had been great halls, merchants’ stalls that had been anterooms, public dining halls that had been private, wine cellars that had been taverns that had been dungeons, an imperial palace partitioned by time, consumed by usury, blackened by kitchen smoke, cracked by repeated cries, meeting of two worlds, the East and the West, Dalmatia, high cliffs and flat beaches, dirty sands, slippery seaweed and rotted timber, shivering octopuses and sealed bottles, enduring ash and decayed excrement, tunnels, subterranean passages, rusty iron rings, damaged marble, stone worn and polished like antique coins, scratched paintings, waves of conquerors, Byzantine, Croatians, Normans, Venetians, Hungarians, a beehive of dark stone devastated by hordes of Avars who had with greater fury desolated neighboring cities, all of whose refugees came to live in this abandoned palace, this labyrinth of thick walls, soaring on the side of landfall, forest of masts, sky of sails, the palace of Diocletian, its sixteen towers, four gates, waves of fugitives, crossroads, they all came here, from here they scattered across Christian Europe, from the precinct where Diocletian had launched his edict against Christians for having offended the gods of Rome with the sign of the cross, from here they went out, here they came in, through the Porta Aenea, the guardians of the Egyptian secrets of the two brothers and a sister: Osiris, who founded everything upon the word; Set, who was the first murderer; Isis, the sister-and-wife who returned life through her mouth; through the Porta Ferrea the ragged disciples of Simon Magus, forever seeking the lost goddess in temples and brothels, the guardian of secret wisdom, the damned, the expelled, Eve, Helen, the Hetaera of Babylon, she who had been condemned by the Priapic angels of the vengeful God, the demiurge of evil, wise female, feminine sage, lost woman, the piece lacking to complete total knowledge; through the Porta Aurea the bearers of Gnostic and Manichaean heresy, dissatisfied with the work of creation, desirous of a second truth, higher, more perfect, more secret, more total than that consecrated by the Councils of the Church, the incarnate enemies of St. Augustine who saw in the Roman and apostolic Holy See the full realization of the promise initiated with the birth of Christ, while they, disciples of Basilides of Alexandria, of Valentinus, and Nestorius and Marcion, saw a world foundering in pomp, corruption, and surrender to the works of the second God, He who had created evil while the first God created good, and they anticipated the solution of this conflict in a second millennium, a second coming of Christ to earth to purge the world and prepare it for the final judgment; and through the Porta Argentea the zealous guardians of Orphic secrets, recipients of the Pistis Sophia, revealers of the prophecies of the pythonesses, the Sibyls who announce the appearance of a last Emperor, King of peace and abundance, the triumph of true Christianity, which is the religion of selflessness, charity, poverty, and love, the last monarch, annihilator of Gog and Magog:
“His purifying task completed, he will go to Jerusalem, he will deposit his crown and mantle upon Golgotha and will abdicate in favor of God…”
“And does history end there?” Ludovico asked of a one-eyed itinerant Greek with hair like black serpents and wearing a black toga as they sat eating fried hake served on lead plates. “Does your story end there?” he asked of this man who disseminated the auguries of the Tiburtine Sibyl beside the busy Porta Argentea, gate in the walls of Spalato.
THE PROPHECY OF THE THIRD AGE
“No,” mumbled the magus. “Three are the ages of man. The first age of the world passed beneath a reign of faith, when the elect, still weak and enslaved, were not yet capable of freeing themselves. Their law was the law of Moses; that age was continued until the One came who said: ‘If the Son free you, then shall you be truly free.’ The second age was initiated by Christ and continues unto the present hour; it frees us in respect to the past, but in no way affects the future. St. Paul spoke wisely: ‘We know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face.’”
The magus cleaned his teeth with a fishbone. “The third age will be initiated in these days we are living. It is imminent. For have we not seen everywhere the fulfillment of the prophecies Matthew put in the mouth of Jesus, that nation shall rise against nation, that there shall be earthquakes and famines and pestilences and all manner of tribulations, and false prophets shall rise, iniquity abound, and the love of many wax cold: the world is growing old and deteriorating. Are we not governed by a false Pope and a King of unchaste countenance? It is time now for the last Emperor to appear and unite all nations into a single flock, for the Sibyl has said: ‘Rex novus adveniet totum ruiturus in orbem…’”
“And does history end then?” Ludovico insisted.
The magus asked for something to drink. He gulped grossly. He wiped his lips on a black sleeve. “Good does not belong to the age of men. Its triumph is partial. Absolute evil must come so that absolute good may triumph. Absolute good is divine. It is not of the world of men, as is absolute evil. But once the third epoch is begun in peace and abundance — man’s precarious blessings — the Antichrist will appear to destroy them in all his fury.”
He looked at Ludovico with his cat eyes and continued: “He is absolute evil. Only if he incarnates in the future will history know its apotheosis: the future ends there. Absolute evil will provoke absolute good. The Son of Man will descend upon clouds from Heaven, bearing power and great majesty. And He will send forth His angels with resounding trumpets and gather His elect from the four winds. He will sit upon His throne of glory and to the just He will give possession of the kingdom prepared for them since the creation, saying unto them: For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; naked, and ye clothed me. And to the damned He will say: Depart from me, and will cast them into the everlasting fire, saying: I was a stranger and ye took me not in, sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. And both the elect and the damned will ask: When did we or did we not all these things? and the Son of Man will say unto them: Inasmuch as ye have done it even unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me; but inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. Each shall occupy his place in Eternity. And there will be no further human history.”
Exalted by his own words, the magus had risen to his feet.
Ludovico looked up to ask: “How will you recognize the Antichrist?”
The magus embraced one of the three boys, who always accompanied Ludovico, listening to his every word; he said only: “Bird of prey; black penis. Where the cadaver is, there will the vultures gather.”
“But first, the good King of whom you spoke, how…?”
The magus kissed the cheek of Ludovico’s second son. “A cross upon the back. Six toes upon each foot. He will conquer. He will be conquered.”
“Where?”
“In the house of the scorpions.”