The Queen of Sparta (27 page)

“However,” he continued, “it was not long before Pausanias gave up the fight and retired to Byzantium. He took with him a small force and set up himself up in the city. I was left in charge of the Greek forces to continue the struggle. To his credit, Pausanias continued to send ships and supplies to support our forces. But it was not long before all sorts of stories started emerging about him.

“According to these stories, he abducted a woman and forced her to become his concubine. He later killed her. Now they say he is being driven mad by her ghost. Her spirit, they say, demands vengeance. Then there were complaints that he had abused people living in the city. His haughtiness alienated some of our other Greek allies … many have left the Hellenic League as a result. And last but not least, stories suggest that he is talking to Persians. They have offered him the hand of a Persian princess in return for his support of another Persian invasion of Greece.”

“And you believe all of that?”

“Not all of it. Not even most of it. But you know us Athenians. We like intrigue and propaganda. Now that Pausanias has replaced Xerxes as the most hated man in Athens, it’s easy to spread virtually any gossip about him.”

“But why has he become the most hated man in Athens?”

“Pausanias did something Athens cannot tolerate. He is using his tiny fleet supported by a battery of catapults on shore to block the narrow straits of the Dardenelles and intercept shipping bringing grain and other supplies to us from the northern coast of the Euxine Sea. He is choking off our food supplies. It’s tantamount to war!

“Pausanias sees us, the Athenians, as his enemies. He has not forgiven us for lying to the Spartans about our walls. We had no choice, you know. We needed to keep the construction secret as long as we could. But he sees an Athenian conspiracy everywhere. He accuses us of breaking up the Hellenic League and undermining the authority of Sparta in Greece. He says we are in league with Argos against Sparta and are poisoning relations between Spartan and other Peloponnesian states.

“Of course, Pausanias forgets that he himself did something similar against us, when he refused to punish Thebes after Plataea. Instead, he made peace with them and brought them into the Hellenic League without our consent. I suspect he thinks that by interdicting our grain at Byzantium, he can cow us into submission. Perhaps he could have, had he had the backing of Sparta. But the Spartans have forsaken him and so has practically everyone else.

“It will not be long before our forces strike at Byzantium. Leading them will be my unpleasant duty. We’ll leave within the week, as soon as the transport ships arrive from Cimon’s base in Thrace.”

After dinner, Aristeides accompanied Sherzada back to his inn and on the way gave him a guided tour of the glories of Athens. Sherzada could not help but wonder what glory his companion could see in his mind’s eyes of the burnt-out city.

The next morning, Sherzada and his delegation were taken by Aristeides to meet with the Trade Commission of Athens. There was not much negotiation; the Athenians simply agreed to almost everything that was asked. Not only was the trade agreement swiftly concluded, orders for Roman salt and grain were placed, with an advance in silver placed on the table. The Romans were delighted.

Leaving the Athenians and the Romans to work out the remaining details, Sherzada bid farewell to his colleagues. Most of the delegation would sail for home the following morning, except for Antonius who would remain behind to study the Athenian constitution, and Lucius Cincinnatus. A crew would soon arrive to take the warship he had just purchased back to Rome. Cincinnatus would be the first captain of a Roman naval ship, but he confided to Sherzada that sea-faring made him queasy. A strange confession, Sherzada thought, coming from one of Rome’s toughest military officers. Like the Spartans, the Romans were expected to be fearless.

Sherzada was soon on his way with Aristeides. This time they walked north-eastwards up towards the hills above Athens, away from the sea. It was then he noticed the true scale of the destruction. And yet, this was a city rapidly returning to its past glory. Athens was busy resurrecting itself.

They continued to walk for a long while up a steep winding path, until they reached the top of a ridge called Immitus, where a magnificent villa stood.

Noticing Sherzada’s expression, Aristeides whispered. “… Of course, the houses of the rich are repaired at a faster rate than those of the not so rich.”

They were ushered into the house by well-dressed slaves, and escorted through a marbled hall of a huge lobby to an expansive terrace that overlooked the sea. Sherzada could see the islet of Salamis at a distance, the place where the Greeks had won the greatest naval battle in history. And as he gazed north, he saw the beach of Marathon, where Datis’ gamble failed and his father lost his life.

Just at that moment, someone joined them. A tall, attractive woman, about the same age as Gorgo, whose long reddish-blonde hair matched the colour of the shawl stylishly draped around her shoulders. The amber of her eyes was matched by that of her elegant
chiton
dress made out of fine silk, imported from the East, no doubt. Revealing parts of fine her body, her dress would not have raised many eyebrows in Sparta, but here in Athens, it was the type of thing that attracted gossip, if not scandal.

Yet she was very familiar. And then Sherzada recalled that earlier in the day, he had seen a new statue of the goddess Athena, the patron of Athens, being finished in the city centre. The statue may have been Athena’s but the poise, the body and indeed the face was of this young beauty standing in front of him.

Aristeides bowed slightly to the young woman and turned to Sherzada. “May I present the lady Elpinice, daughter of Miltiades, victor of Marathon. She is Cimon’s half-sister as well as the wife of Callias, our richest citizen,” he said.

Sherzada gazed at her in admiration. He had heard of Callias’ famed ugliness. “How could he have so attractive a wife,” he thought to himself, wondering at the irony of the word
Callias
– ‘beautiful’ – fitting her so perfectly.

Aristeides announced, “I need to attend to some personal matters. You must excuse me.” Then he winked at Sherzada and whispered in his ear, “If you wish to save Pausanias, here is your chance.”

As Aristeides walked away, Sherzada turned to look back at Elpinice and noticed that she was not smiling.

“So, you are Sherzada,” she said in a sharp tone, staring into his eyes, “the Saka warrior who fought for the Persians; the man who destroyed the Temple of Athena the Protectress, that had once stood upon our sacred Acropolis.”

CHAPTER 33

THE WISDOM OF ATHENA

Villa of Callias, Mt. Immitus

Athens

The following day

Sherzada did not quite know how to respond. He hesitated, feeling a little embarrassed. Though he tried to say something, all that came out was mumbled sound.

Yet this was enough to make her burst into laughter. “I just wanted to see your expression. As far as I am concerned, you did the city of Athens a great favour by destroying that eyesore – that sorry excuse for a building that should never have been built in the first place. Now, you have given us an opportunity to construct something more appropriate in its place – something more beautiful – something that truly reflects the aspirations of the Athenians that will remain forever the symbol of our City.”

Elpinice went and sat down on a couch on the spacious balcony and invited Sherzada to sit beside her, which he did.

“I cannot blame you for burning down the buildings on the Acropolis,” she continued. “Throwing your father’s body into the sea was unforgivable. Actually, they tried to do the same to my father while he was still alive, even after he all he had done for Athens; even after he had saved her at Marathon. This democracy of ours has a fickle and ugly face. The very same people of Athens who had once adored my father, wanted to punish him at the urging of that monster, Xanthippus. They would have certainly thrown my father off the Acropolis too, had he not agreed to pay fifty talents as indemnity. Fifty talents is more than annual income of a small city-state. My father did not have that sort of money. As it happened, a leg wound he had suffered during the campaign turned gangrenous and he died shortly afterwards with his debt unpaid.

“My half-brother Cimon was asked to pay his debt. When he said he could not, he was thrown into prison, leaving me alone to find a way to raise that money. It was then that Callias, the owner of many of the silver mines at Laurium, approached me with his offer – or rather, his proposal. He would pay the entire indemnity if I agreed to marry him. I did so, in part to preserve my family’s honour, and in part also to preserve my own.”

“Your own?” Sherzada asked.

Elpinice smiled. “My lord, Cimon’s mother was a Thracian princess. Mine was a daughter of a Dardanian chief. As a child, I was raised by my mother, but when she died in an epidemic, my father had me brought to Athens. But since my step-mother refused to take me in, my father arranged for my education elsewhere in the city.

“When my father died, and my step-mother returned to Thrace, Cimon asked me to come and live in his house. But it was not long before I understood his true intentions. My brother … my half-brother … has many great qualities. But he is also a complete degenerate. He did not invite me into his home to give me, his sister, shelter; he wanted to keep me as his lover. I have no taste for incest. So, when Callias made his proposal to marry me, it was not just my father’s debt I was thinking of. I told Cimon to accept this arrangement too, if he did not want to spend the rest of his life languishing in prison.

“My lord,” said Elpinice with a sigh, “I love Athens, but I do not care much for its democracy. It has no place for a woman – and certainly none for someone like me. Did you know that the democratic Assembly passed a law which decreed that women found walking out and about in public should be considered as prostitutes? The hypocrisy of the men in Athens is that they worship Athena – the goddess of wisdom and strategy, and yet they keep their own women locked up in their homes.”

She got up and walked across the balcony to look out to sea. Her hair blew in the breeze as she continued to speak. “Because I am a woman who dabbles in politics, I am labeled a whore. But my interests are those of Athens, tempered, of course, with protecting the financial interests of my husband and promoting the political aspirations of my brother. It is I who caused the recent downfall of my enemy, Xanthippus … And then there was poor Themistocles. I was genuinely fond of him, but he too had to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Even in this Democracy of men, I can still manipulate things and there are times I am able to cast the deciding vote.

“Now tell me, my lord, what brings you to Athens? I am sure it is something a little more interesting than negotiating a trade agreement.”

“Pausanias,” he said. “Why are you after him?”

“He is a Spartan, after all,” she scoffed. “Is that not reason enough? As if the Persians weren’t enough; now we have to deal with a different type of Barbarian. Among the Greeks, only the Spartans are uncivilized. What do they know of philosophy? Do they go to the theatre? Do they have any opinion on architecture? Yes, they do make an effort at poetry, but does that really make them civilized? Civilization comes from sophistication of culture, from the refining of language, the development of literature, from the way you dress, the way you live, and the way you behave in society. The Spartans are a drab lot. All their men know about is the life of the barracks, and all their women know is how to produce sturdy babies. Their only strong point is dancing, my lord. Civilizations, however, are rarely built around choreography.”

Elpinice continued to speak as she paced about the balcony, looking almost as beautiful to Sherzada as Gorgo had done the first day she had visited him in his prison. “They do have a good army; I shall give them that. And Thermopylae was certainly impressive, if somewhat pointless. But our army is no less formidable. After all, we beat the Persians at Marathon, without any help from the Spartans. Had it not been for the Athenians, there would have been no Greek victory either at Salamis or Plataea, or even Mycale. How can the Spartans say that they are Greece’s pre-eminent military power when none of these victories could have been possible without us? So why should we humble ourselves before them? Why should we entrust our security in their hands rather than our own? What do we owe these Spartans? Greece is secure only as long as Athens remains strong.

“Athens’ strength lies not in the vineyards and olive groves of Attica, nor in the grand buildings of this City, nor in its great democratic assembly or its eloquent orators, but on the waves of the Aegean. The sea is our life blood. It brings us trade and it brings us food. And when it does not we have a problem, as we do now with Pausanias.”

Sherzada nodded and thought for a moment. Then he said, “My lady, what if there is a way out? What if I can convince Pausanias to leave Byzantium peacefully?”

“Good luck to you, my lord. A man as stubborn as young Pausanias will only leave that city in a coffin.”

“My lady,” Sherzada entreated her, “at least let me try. If you destroy Pausanias, you may further aggravate the relations between Athens and Sparta.”

“Spartans will shed no tears if he drops dead. Sparta is no longer concerned about her prodigal son.”

“You have just now told me, and eloquently so, why Athens should be free from Spartan influence,” he replied. “By the same token, there are Spartans who are suspicious of Athens and her designs. Both your states stood against Persia together and won. Now every incident brings your two cities a step closer to confrontation. I have been told that Themistocles is in the Peloponnesus, visiting the enemies of the Spartans. Is he no different, in their eyes, than Pausanias is in yours? Are these two men just a couple of mavericks spinning out of control, or do they represent the growing fears and suspicions that Athenians and Spartans now have towards each other? Do you really think that a Sparta strong on land and an Athens strong at sea will keep out of each other’s way? Sparta’s army is always poised to invade your backyard in Attica and your fleet will soon have the capability to threaten Spartan soil. Where will this end?

“You are embarking on a dangerous path that can only lead to war, and a mutually destructive one at that. Neither of your cities will recover from such a conflict.”

“Indeed,” Elpinice nodded, “it was the alliance of Athens and Sparta that saved Greece. Our patron goddess, Athena, is known for her wisdom. Its source is skilful intelligence –
Metis.
And it is Gorgo, I admit a little grudgingly, who has this. Ironic, isn’t it, that Athena would grant her wisdom to a Spartan woman rather than an Athenian? She alone held Greece together at a time when it could have easily fallen apart. It is Queen Gorgo who won the war for us. But, alas, the Persian invasion is over now; so is Gorgo’s day. It is time for us lesser mortals to shine in the sun. Gorgo grows weaker and the conspiracy against her advances by the day. Perhaps she is more in need of help than Pausanias.”

Elpinice stared again at the sea in a north-easterly direction, as if towards Byzantium, and said, “The question is how to save Pausanias from himself. Seek out a traitor, my Lord, and that individual might help you find the answer.”