conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first three paragraphs for a book with the title 'Last Act in Palmyra'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Last Act in Palmyra
  He flashed her an astonishing grin; it split his face apart. 'I thought you and Falco were going to be quarrelling about the play.' It was Musa's first joke: one aimed at me.
  The priest smiled too, more wickedly than we were used to, but immediately grew intense as he told his story. 'Walking was difficult. We were stumbling, our heads low. People were grumbling, but nobody wanted to suggest turning back. When we were on the cistern's raised embankment, I felt somebody push me, like this –' He suddenly aimed a hard blow with the flat of his palm against the lower middle of my back. I braced my calves to avoid falling into the fire; he had quite a shove. 'I fell down over the wall –'
  Unable to swim myself, I viewed his predicament with horror. However, Musa's dark eyes looked amused. 'Why do you say that?'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He kicked at his baggage roll impatiently. 'They look down on you. There's nothing so special about telling a few jokes. They don't make them up, you know. All they do is say what some other old clown thought up and wrote down a hundred years ago. I could do it if I had a script.'
  It seemed to me it would take him a long time to put together enough funny stories to be a stand-up comic of Grumio's calibre. Besides, I couldn't see him managing the right timing and tone. 'Where are you going to get the collection, Congrio?' I tried not to sound patronising – without much success.
  I changed the subject to avoid an argument. 'Tell me, did the clowns come together to look at your property?' The billposter nodded. 'Any idea what they were looking for?'
  He was right. The two clowns were clever. It would take more than a bland expression and a quick change of subject to trip them up. I was aware before I started that the minute they had any idea I was trying to squeeze particular information from them, fending me off would become a joyous game. They were seditious. I would need to watch for exactly the right opportunity to tackle them. And when I did, I would need all my skill.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Then we all paused, and turned back for a moment. Awestruck, we had reacted to an extraordinary sound. From the place we had left sounded a resonance unlike anything any of us had ever heard. Sophrona was playing. The effect astonished us. If she was Phrygia's true daughter I could see exactly why Thalia wanted to keep the information to herself. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with such a remarkable talent. The public deserves to be entertained.
  Around Palmyra, even the beasts in the merchants' caravans had ceased their cacophonous calls. Like us, they stood stock-still listening. The reverberating chords of the water organ rose above the desert, so all the camels were stilled by a wild music that was even more powerful, even louder, and (I fear) even more ridiculous than their own.
  The First Century is a patchy period in our knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean. The Emperors Trajan and Hadrian took a keen interest in the region, visited it, and initiated much new town planning. Many spectacular Roman remains in Jordan and Syria, therefore, including existing theatres, date from the Second Century. Information about what may have existed in AD 72 is so sparse that the writer of fiction must use intelligent invention. The location of some Decapolis towns has yet to be conclusively established. I have used the most widely accepted list, choosing the most convenient of several sites for Dium, and assuming that Raphana and Capitolias are the same place.
  Nabataea was peacefully annexed by Trajan and became the Roman province of Arabia Petraia in AD 106. Bostra became its chief city and the trade routes were shifted east, away from Petra. This may have been a suggestion from an imperial agent, possibly one made under a previous emperor and which Trajan found filed in the Palatine archives.
  Cover illustration © The Pantheon and other Monuments, 1735 (oil on canvas), Pannini or Panini, Giovanni Paolo (1691/2-1765) / Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA / Gift of Lila Allison Lilly in memory of her husband / Josiah Kirby Lilly / Bridgeman Images