Love and World Eaters (3 page)

THE SCENE: The assassination took place in the theater of Aegae—the ancient capital of Macedonia—where Philip and Olympias's daughter was in the process of being married
.
For the celebration, Philip summoned foreign representatives from many of his subject and allied territories: much of the festivities were designed to emphasize his ascendant power. The highlight of this display was a procession through the theater at sunrise of the second day. Statues of the twelve Olympian gods were paraded into the building, followed by a similarly fashioned statue of Philip, and finally by Philip himself. The king entered alone, having warned his bodyguard to stay well back so he could demonstrate his supreme confidence in the safety of his own dominion. As he approached center stage to acknowledge the cheering crowd, however, Pausanias rushed forward and killed Philip from behind
.
Chaos erupted as three other members of the king's bodyguard chased after the assassin, who almost made it to his waiting horses before tripping and being run through as he tried to stand. By the time the traitor's body was brought to the main hall, Alexander was king, and Philip's reign was over.

THE THEORIES: The conspiracy theories that arose—

Aliah stopped typing for a moment, wondering if the various claims she'd come across about who'd masterminded the killing were even worth delving into. The only thing the speculations had in common was that they suffered from the same basic lack of reliable evidence: none of the contemporary accounts still existed (aside from Aristotle's—Alexander's one-time tutor—brief reference in his larger work on politics). Which meant almost everything was drawn from Greek and Roman sources written centuries after the fact. So none of it was really verifiable... Except through what she could “see.” But from what Aliah had already glimpsed, some of the musings about Pauasanias's motives seemed true enough. And maybe more of them would bear out once she could make herself sit through another extended viewing or two... It couldn't hurt.

THE THEORIES: The conspiracy theories that arose both at the time of Philip's murder and in the two thousand plus years since fall more or less into five categories:

• Personal revenge
  
• Family infighting
  
• Dynastic infighting
  
• Greek politics
  
• Persian politics
  

PERSONAL REVENGE: If nothing else, most theories agree on Pausanias's motives for killing Philip: jilted love and a sense of injustice. The main question is whether others manipulated these motives for their own ends. But the basics are as accepted as anything gets with this subject:

Pausanias came to Philip's court to be a royal page, a position bestowed on the sons of noble families the king wanted to keep in line (by taking what amounted to an honorary hostage). At some point after his arrival, Philip took him as a lover
.
It's unclear how long this relationship lasted, but it seems to have gone on long enough for Pausanias to have been promoted to Philip's personal bodyguard (the “somatophylakes”). Eventually, however, the king grew bored with the affair, and turned his affections to an even younger soldier. Spurned, Pausanias publicly confronted the new favorite and called him a whore. The accused took this blow to his reputation extremely hard, and after hinting at his despair to his friend Attalus—one of the generals Philip would soon send into Persia—he effectively committed suicide by fighting without trying to defend himself in the king's next battle.

When news of the younger soldier's death reached the court, Attalus held Pausanias responsible. For vengeance's sake, he got the king's former lover drunk and had him sexually assaulted
.
Once he'd recovered, Pausanias went to Philip seeking justice. But Philip was reluctant to move against Attalus, who was both a valued military leader and a relation by marriage. The death of his younger lover may also have hardened the king's heart. So instead of rebuking Attalus, Philip tried to placate Pausanias by giving him a higher position in the somatophylakes.

Pausanias seems to have taken the token gesture for what it was, however. Twice spurned now, he redirected his enmity towards the king who kept rejecting him and bided his time
.

FAMILY STRIFE: The generally accepted story that Pausanias tried to run towards
two
horses, though, and the “fact” that his pursuers killed him rather than bringing him in alive for questioning, leaves open the possibility that he had help and/or encouragement in killing Philip. Was he supposed to have had assistance from someone who thought better of committing regicide at the last second? Was that help one of the three other members of the bodyguard who killed him before he could implicate his accomplices and/or patrons?
And why did a member of Philip's personal bodyguard, who attended on the king's person at all times, wait until a politically significant moment to make his move?

The easiest answer to these types of questions was/is that Alexander and/or Olympias was/were the real architects of Philip's assassination. Olympias's marriage to Philip had never been a love-match, and well before that fateful day in the Aegean theater relations had turned to out-and-out hate. Things got so bad, in fact, that Philip repudiated his marriage to Olympias and cast doubt on whether or not he considered Alexander a legitimate heir. So did an intra-family power play result? Proponents of this theory point to Alexander's messy purge of potential rivals in his pursuit of “justice” after the killing (which included the crucifixion of Pausanias's corpse)
,
and Olympias's supposed glorification of Pausanias's body and memory.

DYNASTIC STRIFE: Other potential forces behind Philip's assassination include almost any number of Macedonian factions who disapproved of the direction the kingdom was headed or simply wanted a shift in power. These possible instigators include Antipatros, Philip's chief advisor, who apparently resented the king's recent alliances with generals like Attalus. Attalus has also come under suspicion.

GREEK POLITICS: It's also been supposed that one or several of the Greek city-states Philip made a point of subjugating were involved: having been crushed militarily at Chaeronea, entities like Athens may have sought more covert means of regaining their autonomy.

PERSIAN POLITICS: Finally, some theories suggest the Persian king Darius III arranged the assassination to disrupt Macedonia's invasion of his country. Persian agents may have approached Pausanias directly and offered him sanctuary once the deed was done, or worked indirectly through other disaffected Greeks.

But if this was the case, then Persia's gambit only won it a brief respite: it took Alexander two years to stabilize the kingdom he so abruptly inherited, but once he had, he turned his eyes back east.

So which was it? Aliah let out a deep breath and pushed the keyboard tray under the desk, her (still gloved) fingers sore from typing so furiously. She wouldn't be able to figure out anything more without doing her own version of “research”... And before messing with that again, she needed a break.

There wasn't much in the fridge to help her recharge, though: just some almost spoiled Mexican leftovers and a few stale bagels. None of which looked particularly fulfilling. Aliah settled for a glass of water. She'd never been that fired up about cooking. Or housekeeping, she thought ruefully as she navigated around miscellaneous piles of junk on her way to the couch. But she was making do. And not that badly given how unexpectedly she'd left her parents' house six months ago...

Six months ago today, in fact. The 15
th
of February... As if on cue, Aliah's eyes settled on
the
bracelet: it was hanging from her ratty table lamp. Putting down the remote she'd been about to use, she reached slowly for the dangling piece of jewelry and took it into her plastic covered palms. The bracelet had been a sixteenth-birthday gift from her father, and she'd worn it religiously until... until that “fateful night.”

What would it be like to relive her own history?

Aliah didn't give herself time to debate the pros and cons: in one quick motion, she pressed the bracelet to her forehead.

A variety of scenes from her teenage and college years came flooding back all at once, but with a burst of will, she was able to control the sequence. Grimly, she focused on that night six months ago to see if her memories aligned with her past...

... Her mother sits at the kitchen table, still clothed in the traditional jilbab she hasn't bothered to take off. Her father strides back and forth behind her mother, his belly swaying in time with his shaking head.

She sits slumped on the other side of the table, fiddling with the bracelet as she avoids their eyes.

“So this wasn't the first time?” her mother eventually asks in Arabic, her voice soft but cold.

She doesn't answer for several seconds, and then finally responds with a quiet “No.”

Her father grunts and seizes what remains of his hair. “We didn't move here to... to—“

“... To leave old constraints behind?” she interrupts, looking surprised at how forceful she suddenly sounds. “But I thought we did. I thought we left Iraq to start over... and... ” She draws a deep breath and looks directly at both parents. “And things are different here. I'm sorry if it hurts you, but I'm not sorry I've done it... Or are you just surprised that anyone would want me?”

Her mother winces at the accusing tone. “Aliah... We can't have this under our roof, no matter where that roof is.”

“Then consider me no longer under your roof!” She pushes her chair back so hard that she stumbles as she stands. Turning jerkily, she runs upstairs without looking back, and the scene flees with her. When she reaches her bedroom door, she collapses against it, strips off the bracelet, and hurls it against the hallway door...

... Aliah whipped her hand from the bracelet, shaking violently as she fell into the couch. That had definitely been a bad idea; it was way too soon. And the fact that the splinter had reappeared beneath the skin of her hand again wasn't at all comforting.

But it was intriguing, she realized as she tried to redirect her aching thoughts. Was it... empathizing? Did something about her history resonate with—

And suddenly several of the bead's images she'd avoided disentangling until now started to make an awful sense. Swallowing dryly, Aliah plunged into her memories of them to be sure, cross-checking what various scholars and crackpots thought to be true as she went.

At some point after Pausanias's arrival, Philip took him as a lover.

...
An older man kisses a younger in an opulent bed while sliding a ring onto his junior's finger. The younger man stares at the object for a long moment before embracing his elder with abject devotion...

For vengeance's sake, Attalus got the king's former lover drunk and had him sexually assaulted.

... The young man yells a drunken protest as several stable-hands hold him down for a gang rape. His right hand smashes into a chair leg as the first aggressor slams into him, jamming his ringed finger at an awkward angle...

... Alone, the young man wakes amidst the wreckage of his violation. Wincing, he gingerly touches his backside, his bloody brow... And his damaged finger. The section above the ring is visibly swollen and starting to turn a dark purple. Panicking, the young man tries to slide the ring off. But even after an immense, bruising effort, he fails: the flesh is too engorged with blood...

Once he'd recovered, Pausanias went to Philip seeking justice.

... The young man gestures animatedly in front of his elder, showing off all his wounds but making a point of highlighting his now extremely dark and distended finger. The old man says nothing for a moment, and then voices something that makes his junior gawk in disbelief...

Instead of rebuking Attalus, Philip tried to placate Pausanias by giving him a higher position in the somatophylakes.

... The picture of anguish, the young man stares at his blackened finger and reaches for his knife. With methodical, sawing strokes, he cuts it off below the ring...

... Showing several days worth of new stubble, the young man picks up the decaying finger from where it lies on the floor. He slides the ring off, and with an impassive face, begins removing the remaining skin and working out the marrow from the largest joint. Once that's done, he carves a word into the now hollow bone, threads a string through its newly cleared aperture, and ties the grim pendant around his neck...

... The young man bends down before a royal looking door and slaps the ring on the floor with his bandaged hand. The necklace hanging from his chest hovers above the blood-stained piece of gold as he lingers for a moment before standing and walking away...

Twice spurned now, Pausanias redirected his enmity towards the king who kept rejecting him and bided his time.

Aliah hugged her legs to her chest, trying not to throw up. The bone bead hadn't just belonged to Pausanias... It was part of him.

And now a piece of it—of him—was inside her.

#

Aliah spent the rest of the night in a daze, trying to numb herself by watching late-night TV and infomercials. It didn't work: she kept coming back to the realization that all of the bead's memories before the... cutting... played from hand height, while those that came after had a chest-level perspective. Was this artifact so much more animated because it had once been part of a person? Was that why it almost seemed to have a mind of its own? Why did... Why...