Wayward Son (61 page)

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Alexander the Great
(353 – 323 BC) studied under Aristotle and later became the king of Macedon and conquered a majority of Asia. Though he died young at the age of 32, at the time of his death he was the ruler of the largest Western empire of the ancient world.
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At the age of 15, Philip II was held hostage by the Greeks at Thebes. But while there, he was able to observe their military techniques.  Shortly after his return to his home of Macedon, his older brother, King Perdiccas III was killed and Philip took the throne at the age of 23.
King Philip
was assassinated in 336 BC as he was preparing to attack the Persian Empire. His son, Alexander the Great, was left with the task.
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A Greek grammarian and first superintendent of the Library at Alexandria (from 284 BC),
Zenodotus
edited Homer and other epic poets.  He also introduced alphabetic organization; he first assigned the library’s scrolls by subject matter into separate rooms, and then alphabetically.
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King Ptolemy I
served as one of the most trusted Macedonian generals for Alexander the Great. Ptolemy eventually rose to power to become the leader of Egypt (323 BC – 283 BC), founding the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty. He later took the title of pharaoh.
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A Greek scholar,
Eratosthenes
(276 – 195 BC) was head of the Library at Alexandria in 240 BC until his death.  He was quite versatile and renown for his work in mathematics, poetry, philosophy, astronomy and geography. He drew a map of the world and was the first to measure the circumference and tilt of the Earth.
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According to the Bible,
Adam
 was the first man created, formed out of dust by God and in the image of God (book of Genesis). He was married to Eve, the first woman, and their children were Cain, Abel, and Seth.
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The oldest person listed in the Bible (book of Genesis) and grandfather of Noah,
Methuselah
lived to be 969 years old.
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As the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty from 221 until his death in 210 BC,
Qin Shihuangdi
unified China after years of regional wars.  He undertook massive projects like the Great Wall of China and his burial place, a city-sized mausoleum with a massive army of
terracotta soldiers
and horses.
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A Chinese teacher and philosopher,
Confucius
(551 – 479 BC) emphasized benevolence, ritual and propriety.  His teachings became the basis for the Chinese ideology known as Confucianism. 
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As the influential Prime Minister to the feudal state of Qin,
Li Si
(280 – 208 BC) served under Qin Shihuangdi, King of Qin and first emperor of the Qin dynasty, and later, Qin’s son and second emperor. Li Si was key to Qin’s efficiency as a state and its successful military conquests.  In post-unified China, he helped to systemize standard measures and currency, as well as the written script. 
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One of the most famous charioteers in Roman times,
Scorpus
claimed 2048 victories and was a favorite of audiences at Circus Maximus. Scorpus lived at the end of the first century AD, and not surprisingly, died an early death at the age of 27. 
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As King of Judea during the time of Jesus’s birth (37 – 4 BC), of the most famous charioteers in Roman times,
Herod
felt threatened when he heard of a baby who had been born to be king of the Jews. When wise men sent out by Herod did not return with news of the infant’s whereabouts, Herod ordered the killing of all baby boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem and surrounding areas.
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Judas Iscariot
was one of the 12 apostles in the New Testament.  He led an armed crowd to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, planting a kiss upon his cheek to identify him.  For this he received 30 pieces of silver. After Jesus died, Judas, filled with quilt and remorse, returned the silver pieces and hung himself.
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The Twelve Apostles
were discipled by Jesus and sent out to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (book of Matthew). They were Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon, Thaddeus, and Judas Iscariot.  After Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, and then killed himself, another apostle, Matthias, was chosen to replace him.
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At the death of her husband, the leader of the British tribe of Iceni, a will stated that
Boudica
and her two daughters had joint ownership of the kingdom with the Roman Emperor.  Her part of the will was ignored and the kingdom was eventually conquered. In AD 60 or 61, Boudica led her people in a revolt that was soon squashed.
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A Roman naval and army commander, natural philosopher and author,
Pliny the Elder
(23 – 79 AD) had an insatiable quest for knowledge.  He spent his free time reading and investigating the natural world and authored 102 volumes, most notably the encyclopedic
Naturalis Historia
. He died while trying to rescue a friend by ship from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
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Although the title of our novel was not inspired by the 1976 hit classic single by Kansas, many of the lyrics of the song “Carry On Wayward Son” could relate to the life of our main protagonist, Cain. Below is an excerpt of the song lyrics: 

....“You will always remember

(Carry on)

Nothing equals the splendor

Now your life's no longer empty

Surely heaven waits for you”

Other titles considered by our reader posse included
Secret's of the Tile, The Gift of Cain
, and
Mark of the Immortal
.

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An ancient Phoenician city,
Tyre
 (depicted below) is located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea in present-day Lebanon.  By 1400 BC, this coastal city was flourishing and exceled in maritime trade, most notably for its rare, and expensive, purple Tyrian dye. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, it was later destroyed by Muslims in 1291 AD.
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The
Levant
(“rising” in French, having to do with the sun rising) is a rarely used term for the lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean, namely Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Egypt.
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An ancient city of Libya,
Leptis Magna
flourished as a port city under the reign of Septimius Severus.  Some of the most impressive Roman ruins are contained there, and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Dig a little deeper at:

whc.unesco.org/en/list/183

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Founded in 813 BC by Phoenicians, the ancient city of
Carthage
sits on the north coast of Africa in Tunisia.  At the center of trade for the Mediterranean, it was a wealthy city, known for its textiles, silver, iron and gold.  It was also the source of many conflicts with Greece, and Rome--during the Punic Wars--until the Romans eventually destroyed it in 146 BC.  It flourished as a Roman city for many years, and was destroyed by the Arabs in 697 AD.
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