What to Wear

The synthesis, Greek for “something put together”, was an outfit worn at home in ancient Rome for dinner parties. It was particularly fashionable during Miriam’s time. This attire being characteristically colorful, scholars view it as a sort of conspicuously expensive robe worn over a tunic. Unlike the toga, the Roman male’s formal garment, uncomfortable for reclining at dinner, the synthesis was a colorful alternative for private leisure.

In The Deadliest Hate, the second novel in The Miriam bat Isaac Mystery Series, Miriam sails to Caesarea to trace an alchemical secret. She tells us of a dinner party she attended there at the home of Judah’s half-brother Eran:

As I scanned the perimeter, my eyes stumbled on an island in the far corner of rigidly arranged, bulky oak furniture and lit upon a man, staring like a viper into this sea of excess. Having expected Eran to resemble Judah, I couldn’t have been more surprised when, in a waft of expensive fragrance, he emerged from the shadows. An emerald green synthesis, this one studded with multicolored Alexandrine glass beads, almost masked the paunch on his otherwise solid frame, and he wore enough rings to smother the fingers of both hands. To confirm that he was indeed Eran, I looked to his forehead for that indelible port-wine stain, but the curls dangling from the crown of his wig blanketed his brow.

Don’t underestimate a man who wears a synthesis, especially if he has a port-wine stain on his forehead and keeps something venomous in an urn. I’d tell you more but the thought makes me too giddy. So, check it out yourself. Click here.