Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 36

the port of Brindisium, Julinianus I think they are called, and they negotiate the lion’s share of whatever frankincense is sold anywhere in Italy. And in any case, I heard that the bulk of their cargo doesn’t travel by sea. It’s transported by land, right across Asia Minor and then from Byzantium along the Via Egnatia through Philippi and Macedonia and over the Illyrian Mountains to Dyrrachium before the family carries it in their own ships to Brindisium. They then carry it on their own carts by road to Rome. We’d never get a look in here in Patara, even if we could find a source for it. We’re too far out of the way.”

He sighed as he thought back to his own trade that he’d built up with the cheaper local terebinth resin.

“There is a small local market for frankincense. It’s all handled by a family in Telmessos up in western Lycia. I met them once and I know they make a good living from it. But again, it’s tied up tight. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

He more or less dismissed the whole idea, before he continued, “It’s an interesting thing Eugenios that I don’t know exactly where it comes from, this frankincense. It’s somewhere very far away, from the other side of the great deserts of Arabia, so people tell me. And the very best quality comes from even further away, somewhere in Africa or even further afield, beyond the edge of the known world. I’ve never met anyone who has ever seen where it originates. Strange isn’t it? I don’t

THE JOURNEY