Authors: Christian Cameron
Tyrant (19 page)
Niceas was waiting with two hefty leather sacks and a scroll. Diodorus looked through the closing door at all the gold and whistled. ‘Well?’
‘We’re hired.’ Free of the room, Kineas began to think of the many things he should have said, and several he had not said. He picked up a sack of coins and thrust the scroll through his sword belt, then recovered his sword from the guard. The guard summoned a guide who led them back through the citadel and out to their quarters.
Diodorus waited until their guide had left and asked, ‘Tyrant?’
‘Oh, yes.’ Kineas wanted to wash.
‘You smell like a Persian girl. We staying?’ Diodorus indicated the coins. Niceas started to say something and was lost in coughing.
Kineas opened a bag and began counting out coins. ‘Yes. First, because the pay is excellent. Second, because we have nowhere else to go.’
Diodorus laughed. ‘Got that right.’
Kineas put a hand on Niceas’s shoulder. ‘How sick are you?’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Good, then go round up the men. Let’s get some things straight.’
When they reached the hippodrome, almost clear across the town from the citadel, Diodorus poured them both wine. Kineas called for Arni and put him to mulling wine with spices for Niceas. By the time the room, the largest in the barracks, was full of the aroma, all of the men were gathered. Diodorus remained by Kineas and Niceas joined him, wiping his nose on a rag. The others brought stools. Lykeles sat in front with Laertes and Coenus. Andronicus and Antigonus stood by the door. Crax hovered at the edge of the hearth. Ataelus sat on the floor and Ajax stood with Philokles against the window.
Kineas raised an eyebrow at Philokles, who smiled in return. Kineas didn’t have time just then to discover where the Spartan had been. He rose to his feet and addressed them all.
‘Gentlemen. Our first payday since we left Alexander. And time for some rules.’ Kineas held out a hand for silence as the word ‘payday’ was greeted with happy murmurs. ‘First - we serve a tyrant. I will say nothing beyond this - every man here must swear before leaving this room to be loyal first to his messmates and his friends, before any other loyalty. I ask this of you because I already suspect that we will be spied on, that our words may be relayed, and that our position here could become very difficult. Instead of living in fear, I propose that we agree to speak freely among ourselves, whatever silence we choose to keep outside the walls of the hippodrome.’ He sipped his wine. They were stone silent, now.
‘We will be training the Hippeis of this city - provincial gentlemen with large sums of money, large estates, and no experience of taking orders from anyone. I will speak frankly. Those of you who were men of property in your cities - Lykeles, Diodorus, Laertes, Coenus, Agis, and Ajax,’ at his name, Ajax’s head came up as if he were surprised to be included in any way, ‘will have the greatest duties as trainers. You will understand best the manners and the motivations of our noble soldiers, and while being firm on matters of discipline, you will exercise judgement as to how to apply them.’
Lykeles nodded. ‘Don’t antagonize the rich?’
‘Lead through example. That’s why I brought you. We will offer prizes for accomplishment from the first. We will not stint with genuine praise, but we will not flatter. We will strive to always be better men than our pupils without embarrassing them. If possible, we will meet them socially and bury them under the weight of our accumulated war stories.’
Most of them laughed, even Ajax.
Antigonus raised his hand. ‘Are the rest of us to curry horses?’
‘No.’ Kineas looked around. ‘We are a company of equals. I command, yes. Diodorus will be my second and Niceas my hyperetes, as always. After them, every man will take his turn at every duty. First, however, I intend to accustom our recruits to the idea that we
are
their social equals. After we have them broken to the saddle, then we will use the rest of you to train them on squadron work, skirmishing, all the things at which you excel.’ Kineas had piled the Olbian drachmae on the table while he waited for Niceas to bring the men. ‘Pay will be at the rate of four drachma per day. Each month is paid in advance. This is your first month’s pay. Diodorus and Niceas get double pay. Is that acceptable to everyone?’
are
their social equals. After we have them broken to the saddle, then we will use the rest of you to train them on squadron work, skirmishing, all the things at which you excel.’ Kineas had piled the Olbian drachmae on the table while he waited for Niceas to bring the men. ‘Pay will be at the rate of four drachma per day. Each month is paid in advance. This is your first month’s pay. Diodorus and Niceas get double pay. Is that acceptable to everyone?’
It was better than acceptable to everyone except Ataelus, who began counting on his fingers, and Ajax and Coenus, who shrugged.
‘Very well,’ said Kineas. ‘Agis the Megaran - one hundred and twenty drachmae. Make your mark. One hundred and twenty drachmae to Andronicus, plus fifty drachmae for the loss of your horse to the amazon. No deductions. One hundred and seventy drachmae. Make your mark, you are a rich man. One hundred and twenty drachmae to Antigonus, no additions, no deductions. Make your mark. Coenus . . .’ And so he went through them, leaving Crax beaming at the pile of silver in his hands and Ajax bemused at what to do with so much pocket change. He paid them all while Niceas made marks on a scroll and Diodorus watched.
‘Tomorrow we have our first parade. I want every one of you up and sparkling for this and every other parade we have. Remind them by your bearing that you are a professional soldier and they are hopeless amateurs. Once your tack is clean and your armour shined, you may go spend your money any way you like. Fill the barracks with whores - gamble it all away. Be warned, though - we are under discipline now. Discipline with us means don’t make an ass of yourself outside the barracks. ’ They were laughing, the poorer men unable to take their eyes off the small piles of heavy silver coins. ‘But first,’ Kineas’s voice snapped like a banner in the wind, ‘you will all swear.’
They stood in a circle - all twelve, and raised their hands, putting them over Kineas’s in turn, so that he could feel the weight of their arms on his. ‘By Zeus who hears all oaths, by Athena and Apollo and all the gods, we swear that we will remain loyal to each other and the company until it is dissolved by us all in council.’ Kineas spoke the words and they repeated them with gusto, no voice lacking. Ajax surprised Kineas with his eager voice rising above the others. At that moment he loved them. He tried not to show it.
‘Clean your armour. Then let’s get some wine.’ He wriggled his toes by the warmth of the fire, glad to be off the cold plains and sitting in a decent chair.
But he wished he had learned the name of the Sakje woman.
In the morning, if there were any long heads from drinking, they were hidden well. First, Kineas read off to all of them his intended course of inspection and instruction. They laid out butts for throwing javelins, set aside space for the practice of mounting and dismounting, and built fences to simulate riding over rough country. After the field of the hippodrome was ready, Kineas inspected his dozen veterans. All of them had spent money the day before on tunics and buckles and they looked the better for it. They wore blue tunics under their armour, the colour of the city, and every man had a silver buckle on his sword belt. Their horses shone. Kineas gave them a smile to show that he appreciated their efforts. He himself wore a new cloak of deep blue, and had a blue horsehair crest on his plain bronze helmet. He had shaved his beard from the shaggy mass of hair it had become to a neat brush in the new style.
They exercised for an hour in the sharp air, their manoeuvers easily accommodated by the field of the hippodrome. Kineas turned to Niceas after the first run with javelins. ‘We shall need more room for three hundred gentlemen. Have Ataelus scout the ground around the city and find us a decent field.’
‘I’ll go with him,’ said Niceas, and coughed. He wiped his nose with a rag and coughed more.
‘I want you to go to bed. You look terrible.’
Niceas shrugged. ‘I’m fine,’ he said, and began to cough again.
The exercises were quite competent. Kineas kept them at it until the horses had all been worked to a lather and the men had brushed the cobwebs off their skills. Ajax could throw one spear at the gallop but couldn’t yet manage to get his second javelin transferred to his throwing hand before he passed the target. He tended to drop the second in his haste. Philokles could throw far and accurately, but he couldn’t throw quickly and he could just manage his horse. His riding had improved, but not to the standard of the other men.
Kineas chose not to single Philokles out - the Spartan was perfectly aware of the shortcomings of his riding. But when the exercises were done, he summoned them all.
‘I want you to think that we are now in a land of horsemen. The Sakje are not the only men here who ride. Our Hippeis are likely to be better riders than most Greeks, as good as Thracians or Thessalians. That was good work today. Get those horses stabled and warm. When that’s done, I’d like Philokles, Diodorus, Lykeles, Laertes and Coenus to accompany me to the gymnasium. The rest of you should wander the city. Accustom yourselves to the streets. Learn where the gates are and the posterns - not just the wine shops.’
The Getae slave, Sitalkes, took Kineas’s horse and began to curry it, which earned him a glare from Niceas. Kineas ignored the glare and went to change for the gymnasium.
Their barracks was small, but it had amenities. The central hall off the porch was lined in pegs for cloaks and equipment and gave on to the kitchen where two city slaves cooked, as well as a meeting room and Kineas’s own pair of large rooms and a hearth at the back of the building. Stairs on the outside of the building gave on to a passage with doors that led to six small rooms with sleeping racks for soldiers. The rooms were unheated, but better than any tent and the men had taken the two rooms directly over the kitchen. Kineas entered through the portico and stripped in his own chamber, wiped the cold sweat from his breastplate, cleaned his helmet and set them on a stand by his bed. He hung the baldric of his sword belt over the breastplate. Clothed in a decent but unmilitary tunic and sandals, he met Diodorus in the central hall.
‘Now we show ourselves to be gentlemen,’ Kineas said.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ said Diodorus.
Coenus gave a sneer. ‘I’d rather the locals proved
themselves
to be gentlemen. So far, they look like hicks.’
themselves
to be gentlemen. So far, they look like hicks.’
While waiting for the others, Kineas sent a slave to the gymnasium to request permission to use it with his men. As mercenaries, they had some status, but they were not citizens. It was best to be sure.
Lykeles came in rubbing his head. ‘I have a good mind to buy a slave to curry my horse,’ he said. ‘The stink!’
The town slave returned with a handful of clay discs. ‘These are for your honours’ use. They mark you as guests.’
Kineas gave the boy an obol. ‘Shall we take some exercise?’ he said to his gentleman troopers.
Olbia’s gymnasium was a finer building than that in Tomis, if gaudier. Bronze dolphins adorned the stone steps and the façade was stone as well. The building had heated floors and warm baths, and a heavy gilt-bronze plaque in the portico declared that Archon Leucon son of Satyrus had built it as a gift to the city.
Kineas read the plaque, amused to see that here, at least, the archon used his name.
Town slaves took their cloaks and sandals. They walked through a short passageway to the changing room and stripped in the chill air, leaving their tunics in wooden cubbyholes. Two other men stopped their conversation and watched them strip, silently. They began a hushed exchange as soon as the five soldiers left the changing room for the exercise floor.
The silence was repeated there. At least a dozen citizens stood about the sanded floor, a few exercising with weights, one man using his strigil on another, but their conversation died when Kineas entered.
Other books
The Trainmasters by Jesse Taylor Croft
Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon
A Touch Morbid by Leah Clifford
Indecent Encounters by Delilah Hunt, Erin O'Riordan, Pepper Anthony, Ashlynn Monroe, Melissa Hosack, Angelina Rain
Plague by Graham Masterton
People of the Inner Sea (The Age of Bronze) by Diana Gainer
Things that Can and Cannot Be Said by Roy, Arundhati; Cusack, John;
Under Attack by Hannah Jayne
Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key by Derek Benz, Jon S. Lewis
