Timoleon, a Friend of Paul: Being the Romantic Adventures of a Waif of Tarsus, Together with a Setting Forth of the Great Apostle's Journeys (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Timoleon, a Friend of Paul: Being the Romantic Adventures of a Waif of Tarsus, Together With a Setting Forth of the Great Apostle's Journeys

In Timoleon's dream, before him opened the Cilician Gates, a slit in the great mountain wall, wide enough only for the little stream that roared at the foot of the precipice tower ing upward hundreds of feet. Along one side the men of Tarsus had chiseled a narrow road where, in single file, a merchandise train, such as his father's, might follow the pass. Timo leon had heard, in the camp of the night be fore, the story of the March of the Ten Thou sand along this very road, four hundred years ago. For then, as now, the Cilician Gates of fered the only passage through the mountains from the broad plateau on the north to the sea-level plains of the south. The little donkey stepped out on the narrow shelf of rock, and cautiously the camels followed. Timoleon gave little heed to the snow-capped peaks above, or to the mountain wall he could touch with his hand to the right, or to the precipice to the left in sheer descent to the stream roaring on the rocks below. Mindful of his father's admonition, he kept a firm hand on the reins, and whispered an occasional word of encouragement to his donkey.

At length the camel train stepped from the narrow path into a broad road. Below lay a fruitful plain. Among the pasture lands and fields of grain, little villages of dark mud huts stood out distinctly. Vineyards clothed the slopes of the foothills, and walls of mud and stone enclosed them, though sometimes they were protected by dense hedges of thorn trees. Thirty miles away lay Tarsus, With its half million inhabitants. Timoleon's father pointed out the line of the Cydnus, easily traced by the shrubs and trees that lined its banks. South of Tarsus the river widened into a lake, dimly seen from this distance. Here, Timoleon heard, were the great wharfs to which came the shipping of the world, though galleys carried much of the merchan dise to the very heart of Tarsus itself. On the horizon line the sky took on a deeper hue. At this point, sixteen miles south of Tarsus, lay the Mediterranean.

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