The Accused: Beginning

Court Bailiff: FOREMEN BE UPSTANDING! 

(the entire room gets up) 

HIS GRACE RABBAN MENACHEM THE ESSENE, SANHEDRIN HOLY FATHER EMERITUS! AND HIS LORDSHIP THE RIGHT HONORABLE NICOLAS OF DAMASCUS, EARL-MARSHAL OF JUDEA! 

(music plays, the entire room bows) 

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF JUDEA, HEROD THE GREAT. HAIL HEROD! ROME'S PROTECTOR IN THE EAST! HAIL HEROD! VANQUISHER OF THE HASMONEANS! HAIL HEROD! REDEDICATOR OF JERUSALEM! HAIL HEROD! BUILDER OF GOD! 

(A boy page rolls Herod in on a wheelchair)

Menachem the Essene: Call the prisoner. 

Bailiff: BRENGEN THE PRISONER!

(everyone sits, Mariamne is led in by a jailer by the elbow and made to sit on a rock chair in the center of the room) 

 Nicolas of Damascus whispers to Herod: Your Majesty, I repeat one last time, letting Mariamne defend herself is so dangerous. She will tell everything you're alleged to have done to your people, the world and the historical record. 

Herod (struggling to make himself understood): Good.

Menachem the Essene: Queen Mariamne, you have been called before us here in the central courtyard of the Beis HaMikdash to answer charge of High Treason. And though you have grievously offended your husband's splendor, we hope now that you will confess, repent, pray, and do charitable penance, so that you may still taste His compassionate indulgence.

Mariamne: My lords I give masterful thanks. 

Menachem the Essene: But you do not confess?

Mariamne: Have I something to confess?

Nicolas of Damascus: Yes. 

Mariamne: And it i...

Nicolas: That with Herod's uncle Joseph you did conspire, consort and collude to murder His Majesty and sit upon his throne as Hasmonean restorer and liberatrix. Have you nothing to say with regard to it?

Mariamne: As I have said many times I am not guilt... 

Nicolas: She has nothing to say. And that you did further conspire, consort and collude to murder Her Royal Highness the Princess Salome, governess of Idumea, Queen Regnant of the Toparchy Yavne, Ashdod and Phasaelis? 

Mariamne: As I have said many time...

Nicolas: She has nothing to say. And do you further deny that you did not invite connubial relations with Salome's faithless husband that caused him to try to push himself upon you? 

 Mariamne: My Lord I hav...

Nicolas: Nothing to say. The scion of the Hasmomneans is simply that. Another royal sieve which international makers pass through on their way to making Judea a mere colony to more powerful thrones. It is only through Herod that Judea gained her independence from the Roman yoke, and only through Herod that Judea maintains its place at the center of the world's discourse, commerce, spiritus and sensus. 

Mariamne: I have never ruled this lan...

Nicolas: Nor could you, as though our land has ever profited 

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Menachem the Essene: Have you something to say before sentencing?

Mariamne: Yes. 

Menachem: The defendant may proceed. 

For seventeen years I have held my tongue from the historical record.