The characters embark for Massilia which is Marseilles so here is an image of that city.
Before that:
"There was a clepsydra in the atrium." (p. 104)
Eodan shudders because:
"...this was trolldom, where each falling drop eked out another measure of a man's life." (ibid.)
By contrast, we think that precise measurement of time enables us to control our activities more effectively. However, the ticking of a clock is tolerable whereas:
"...drip, drip, drip..." (ibid.)
- must have been extremely irritating.
They travel in chariots along the Ostian Way to Ostia to embark for Massilia. The baggage chariots bear purses of auri. (Although maybe they are aurei?)
They board a slave freighter which will generate further plot developments but that is the end of a chapter and I must get some oxygen to the brain.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And of course means of measuring time like the sundial or clepsydra had serious drawbacks. Recall how Anderson mentioned in "Delenda Eat" how important the invention of mechanical clocks in medieval Europe was, in many ways. Originally mechanical clocks were invented by Christian monks to more accurately time hours of prayer and work. And snowballed from there.
Ad astra! Sean
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