"Gene Wolfe - The Soldier 01. Soldier of the Mist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

second meal was eaten in the evening. In peacetime even children drank diluted wine; in wartime soldiers
complained bitterly because they had only water, and often fell ill.
Athens ("Thought") was more crime-ridden than New York. Its law against women's leaving their
homes alone was meant to prevent attacks on them. (Another woman or even a child was a satisfactory
escort.) First-floor rooms were windowless, and burglars were called "wallbreakers." Despite the
modern myth, exclusive homosexuality was rare and generally condemned, although bisexuality was
common and accepted. The Athenian police were barbarian mercenaries, employed because they were
more difficult to corrupt than Greeks. Their skill with the bow was often valuable in apprehending
suspects.
Although the Greek city-states were more diverse in law and custom than most scholars are willing to
admit, a brisk trade in goods had effected some standardization in money and units of measure. An obol,
vulgarly called a spit, bought a light meal. The oarsmen on warships were paid two or three obols a day,
but of course they were fed from their ship's stores, six obols made a drachma (a handful), and a
drachma bought a day's service from a skilled mercenary (who supplied his own equipment) or a night's
service from one of Kalleos's women. A gold stator was worth two silver drachmas. The most widely
circulated ten-drachma coin was called an owl, from the image on its reverse. A hundred drachmas made
a mina; sixty minas a talent--about fifty-seven pounds of gold or eight hundred pounds of silver.
The talent was also a unit of weight: about fifty-seven pounds. The most commonly used measure of
distance was the stade, from which comes our stadium. A stade was about two hundred yards, or a little
over one-tenth of a mile.
Humanitarians accepted the institution of slavery, realizing that the alternative was massacre; we who
have seen the holocaust of the European Jews should be sparing in our reproaches. Prisoners of war
were a principal source of supply. A really first-class slave might cost as much as ten minas, the
equivalent of thirty-six thousand dollars. Most were much more reasonable.
If the average well-read American were asked to name five famous Greeks, he would probably
answer, "Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Pericles." Critics of Latro's account would do well to
recall that Homer had been dead for four hundred years at the time Latro wrote, and that no one had
heard of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, or Pericles. The word philosopher was not yet in use.
In ancient Greece, skeptics were those who thought, not those who scoffed. Modern skeptics should
note that Latro reports Greece as it was reported by the Greeks themselves. The runner sent from
Athens to ask Spartan help before the battle of Marathon met the god Pan on the road and
conscientiously recounted their conversation to the Athenian Assembly when he returned. (The Spartans,
who well knew who ruled their land, refused to march before the full of the moon.)
--G.W.


PART I

CHAPTER I--Read This Each Day
I write of what has just occurred. The healer came into this tent at dawn and asked whether I recalled
him. When I said I did not, he explained. He gave me this scroll, with this stylus of the slingstone metal,
which marks it as though it were wax.
My name is Latro. I must not forget. The healer said I forget very quickly, and that is because of a
wound I suffered in a battle. He named it as though it were a man, but I do not remember the name. He
said I must learn to write down as much as I can, so I can read it when I have forgotten. Thus he has
given me this scroll and this stylus of heavy slingstone metal.
I wrote something for him in the dust first. He seemed pleased I could write, saying most soldiers
cannot. He said also that my letters are well formed, though some are of shapes he does not know. I held
the lamp, and he showed me his writing. It seemed very strange to me. He is of Riverland.
He asked me my name, but I could not bring it to my lips. He asked if I remembered speaking to him