Smyrna

Smyrna becomes a precarious refuge in Alatiel’s long passage between rulers: Osbech brings her there after a surprise raid, makes her his wife, and later leaves her in the city while he goes to war. With his death and the advance of the victorious King of Cappadocia, the city shifts from the seat of Osbech’s power to a place from which Alatiel and Antiochus must flee.

A City in a Contested Region

Smyrna enters the story amid the continuing war between Osbech, King of the Turks, and the Emperor. Osbech hears that Constantine is living at Chios with a woman he has stolen away. He crosses to Chios by night with light-armed ships, enters the city by stealth, captures people in their beds, kills those who take up arms, and burns the place. He then carries the captives and booty back to Smyrna. The attack makes Smyrna the return point for a raid that abruptly overturns Alatiel’s life once more.

Alatiel in Osbech’s Household

At Smyrna, Osbech recognizes Alatiel among the captives as the woman found with Constantine. Delighted to have her, he makes her his wife without delay; they celebrate their marriage and live together for some months. Her arrival in the city thus brings a change in her status, but not an end to her dependence on the fortunes of the men who hold power around her.

War and a Change of Power

The Emperor had already been negotiating with the King of Cappadocia for a joint campaign against Osbech, but the agreement had stalled over terms. After learning what happened to his son, the Emperor accepts the demands he had resisted and urges the King of Cappadocia to attack. Osbech assembles his army and marches against him, leaving Alatiel at Smyrna in the care of his trusted servant Antiochus.

Osbech is killed in battle, and his army is scattered. The King of Cappadocia advances toward Smyrna without opposition, while people along the way submit to him as conqueror. The narration places this change in military control alongside a private reversal: Antiochus, who knows Alatiel’s language, falls in love with her and becomes intimate with her while Osbech is away. Their shared speech matters to Alatiel after years in which she had understood no one and been understood by no one. When they hear that Osbech is dead and the victorious king is approaching, they decide not to wait for him. Smyrna is therefore both the setting of Alatiel’s brief marriage to Osbech and the city from which her next escape begins.