Darling Julia,
I send you and the kids my love and affection. I miss you. I yearn for your tender touch. And I long for the laughter and smiles of the children. All these are the most important things in my life. Your letters to me are a breath of spring, no matter what the season.. Reading them is almost like getting to hold you. They are like a treasure and I am carefully storing them away to keep for all my life. When the time comes that we are old and gray, we can read them and remember how the fire in our hearts burned for each other.
Another day has passed and it was boring as always. And yet it seems that some event of interest, however small, happens here quite often. There was a disturbance in the Jews temple the other day. I was not a witness to this but do you remember the stranger I told you about that convinced the fishermen to go out again? Well, apparently, he was in the temple when a young man came in raving and screaming, running into walls, banging his head, and generally just trying to do himself harm. From what I have learned this young man has been afflicted with this terrible malady for many years.
This stranger allegedly approached the young man and rebuked him severely. At his words, the young man fell to the ground, unconscious, and laid there for several minutes. When he awoke, there was no sign of the terrible affliction that had tormented him for so long. He awoke and smiled. He and his Father embraced and both gave thanks to their God for healing the boy. And in the days since, there has been no recurrence of his former behavior. The locals say the stranger had cast out a demon from the boy. Now, I don't know anything about that sort of thing, but this stranger is beginning to become quite popular here in Capernaum.
Do you remember Metellus Lucius? He was my Centurion when we were in Gaul. Well, I saw him the other day. He was passing through on his way to the coast. He is catching a boat back to Rome. We had a drink together and just talked over old times. He told me there is no other country like this in the world and he is glad to be leaving it. He says weird things happen here and the people are all mad in one form or another. He told me a story of a wild man they had just arrested who lived out in the wilds and only ate locusts and honey. This wild man harmed no one, but he went around dunking people in water, telling them to repent. The reason he got arrested was for talking about a new kingdom that was to come, but also because he apparently called out Herod and his wife by name, telling them they were sinners. Bad politics for a common man to jab the King's conscience, although from what I hear, I am not sure Herod has a conscience.
Strange . . . I remember my Dad and Uncle Claudius talking about the first Herod when they served here thirty years ago. Dad thought the first Herod was the scum of the earth. During his time there was some sort of star that the stargazers said meant the birth of a new King. Apparently, that star was also visible in daytime for several days and Herod was worried about it. The star was centered over some little village to the south of Jerusalem so Herod sent his soldiers there to kill all the newborn babies, thus making sure there would be no new Kings. Dad said that any man who would kill babies was not a man, much less a King. He despised Herod from that moment on.
I will say that the people are strange, unlike any people I have net anywhere else. Religion seems to be the driving force here among these people. That is all right. They can believe whatever they want to as long as they realize that we are in charge. The problem is that we seem to be no more than an annoyance to their thinking that their God is in charge.
Anyway, I must close now. The Commander is coming for an inspection tomorrow and there is still much to do. As always, you are ever in my thoughts. Tell my children their Daddy says good night.
Much Love, Marcus
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