by H A CULLEY
‘But?’
‘But it would a risky throw of the dice and we would need to be certain of capturing the Gates of Fire if we are to go to the aid of Boeotia. There is no other sensible route for a large army. It would be better to wait until the Phocians are no longer in a position to defend Thermopylae.’
‘Do you agree Attalus?’
‘I suppose it makes sense.’
He was still smarting from Philip’s caustic assessment of his military skills, or lack of them, against the Thracians, even though that was two years ago. He had a feeling that the king no longer trusted him, although he hadn’t removed him from command of his army.
‘Antigonus ?’
‘Yes, I agree. Thermopylae is the key to Boeotia and Attica. The narrow pass along the sea shore is not called the Gates of Fire for nothing. Phocis still holds them and they need to be taken; however, to do so we would risk horrendous casualties. Look how many men the Persians lost there a hundred and thirty years ago when Leonidas’ three hundred Spartans and a few hundred other Greeks held the pass against them.’
‘Good; we are all in agreement then. We will send a chiliarchy of hoplites by sea to assist them, but no more.’
‘What about sending the artillery as well?’ Attalus suggested.
‘A strange suggestion from you, Attalus. I thought you had no use for gastraphetes and katapeltikons? I’m tempted to think that you want to get rid of them.’
Attalus went red but said nothing further.
‘No, I’m not sending my artillery but I want you to go with them, Iphitos.’
‘Me, basileus? I’m an engineer, not an infantryman.’
‘Precisely, and you are an experienced spy as well, which makes you ideal. Whilst the hoplites go off to help the Thebans I want you to find me a route around the Gates of Fire. The Persians found one eventually with the help of a local goatherd and I want you to do the same. I can’t move on Phocis and make Athens sue for peace unless I can get past Thermopylae.’
‘I understand. Who can I take with me?’
‘It needs to be a small party as you’ll be travelling incognito. Who do you want?’
‘Kleandros and Chronos. They’ve both been my aides and so we will work together well and they are good engineers. Oh, and my present aide, Callimarcos.’
Philip nodded. ‘That makes sense, but make sure you come back in one piece. I’ll need you all in the battles to come.’
-o0o-
Timandros was restless. It had been five years since he had entered Parmenion’s service as a servant. Lycos, the strategos’ skeuphorus, used him for all the dirty jobs he didn’t like doing himself. Timandros was now eighteen and he saw his life slipping away polishing helmets and weapons, cleaning out the stables and emptying the strategos’ piss pot. Because he did most of the work, Lycos had grown idle and, as much as he wanted more from life, Timandros wanted the lazy Athenian slave to be forced to do his job properly almost as much.
It was when he overheard Parmenion and Iphitos discussing a mission to reconnoitre the Gates of Fire that an idea came to him. He knew Iphitos’ skeuphorus had an injured leg and walked with a bad limp. It was therefore unlikely that he would be going with Iphitos to look after him. Perhaps he might take him instead.
Parmenion had taken Timandros in as a temporary measure when he’d executed the slave’s former master, Sostratos. He had then forgotten about finding him other employment; he’d certainly never intended him to become a drudge for his own skeuphorus.
When Iphitos left the room Timandros followed him out and asked if he might have a word. It was impudence on his part to talk to the taxiarch without his master agreeing and he would probably be whipped, but he was desperate.
Iphitos had nearly been condemned to become a skeuphorus himself years ago and he hadn’t forgotten what the prospect felt like. He therefore bit back the brusque retort he was about to make and asked what Timandros wanted. When the youth explained Iphitos was relieved. His own servant’s crippled leg was getting worse and he was on the point of transferring him to his household staff, so he was about to look for another personal servant in any case. He liked the look of Timandros and he agreed to speak to Parmenion about it.
The young man was overjoyed but he tried to hide his pleasure. He wanted his departure to come as complete shock to Lycos. His one regret was that he wouldn’t be there to see it. Parmenion sent for him a week after he had spoken to Iphitos and told him to pack and report to the taxiarch’s house that morning. Lycos was out getting Parmenion’s sword sharpened at the time. Timandros thought that it was typical of the man to take it to a grinder. Of course, he could have got Timandros to do it, but it gave the lazy slave the chance for a gossip.
Timandros ’ rather effeminate looks as a boy had matured as he got older and he had turned into a handsome young man with the slightly swarthy complexion typical of Cretans. He was used to the admiring looks of women gave him but he had never had the opportunity to enjoy any type of relationship. None of the female slaves in Parmenion’s house were exactly young and he didn’t know any others.
Iphitos’ household was very different. He was captivated by Chloe but he had the good sense to realise that she was in love with Iphitos and wouldn’t look at another man, let alone a mere slave. The female servants were different and they flirted with the handsome young Cretan. However, they were paid servants and not slaves and, although most of them seemed to like him, even fancy him, they wouldn’t let him bed any of them. So when they left for Boeotia he was almost glad that the temptation and the frustration had been removed.
As the son of a merchant who had owed several trading ships, Timandros was used to the sea, though it was eight years since he had last been afloat. The triremes that made up Macedon’s fleet were sleeker and faster than his father’s ships had been, but they had a shallow draught so that they could be beached easily and that made them wallow somewhat in a cross or a following sea. Most of the fifty soldiers on board the ship he was on were sick on the first day and Timandros took a certain pride in the fact that he was one of the few who weren’t. One of the others was Iphitos and he seemed to relish the wind and the sea spray in his face. Another who seemed to enjoy sailing was Callimarcos and the two got to know one another quite well over the next few days as no-one else seemed very interested in making conversation. Iphitos’ aide was sixteen but the two year age difference didn’t seem to matter, nor did the fact that Timandros was a slave. He had been born free and their childhoods hadn’t been that different.
Iphitos was pleased that the two youths were getting on so well together. He treated his personal staff like friends as far as he could and found that seemed to get the best out of them. Besides, he wanted to weld the five in his reconnaissance party into a close knit team. He had the advantage that several had similar backgrounds. Kleandros had been an aide to Parmenion at one time and Chronos had been his own aide so that helped.
He had liked Timandros from the start. His initial favourable impression had been confirmed when he saw how hard he worked to look after him. To succeed in this mission they would suffer hardship and privation and that would put a strain on all of them. It was therefore important that the youth was accepted by the others.
The fleet followed the coast and beached every night so everyone could cook and sleep ashore. On the penultimate night of the voyage to Boeotia they entered the Gulf of Malis , which lay behind the long island of Euboea. This was Thessalian territory and the pass of Thermopylae lay to the south east of them. Beyond the pass lay Phocis and beyond that Boeotia. When the fleet departed the next morning Iphitos and his companions were left behind on the beach.
There was an abandoned village a little further along the coast where a stream came down to meet the sea, so they made for that and changed out of their uniforms, hiding them under an upturned fishing boat, whose hull had been staved in near the prow. As their mission was clandestine, they changed into dirty chitons so that they looked like pe
asants. To carry weapons would have given the game away so they appeared to be unarmed, apart from a dagger. However each of them had a sword wrapped in the sheepskin that they carried over their shoulder to keep them warm at night. Both Chronos and Callimarcos concealed a short hunting bow and a few arrows in the same way. They weren’t so much for defence as for killing game as they would have to be self-sufficient once the meagre rations they were able to carry with them ran out.
They were all familiar with the story about the Persians sneaking behind Leonidas and his Spartans, but they had no idea where the goat track they had used started or where it went, or even if it still existed. Goats tended to make a track which led nowhere, presumably because they were nimble enough to leap from rock to rock when the ground became impassable for humans. There were so many of these false tracks that finding the right one seemed impossible, especially as none of them knew where it started.
They began by following the stream up into the foothills of Mount Callidromos . The first day was spend in fruitless searches along various tracks which led nowhere and they camped in a hollow in the rocks above the road through the pass. On the second day they climbed up the Mount Callidromos itself following another goat track which led to another dead end, but this time they found a branch which ended in a hollow surrounded by steep cliffs which gave a good view of the Phocian defences below.
The coastal road was wide enough for two carts to pass each other but it was bounded by the sea on one side and steep cliffs on the other. The Phocians had built a fort at the narrowest part blocking the road, which ran through one set of gates and out the other. The east wall was constructed of stone with walls twenty five feet high. One end was built up to the cliffs and the other extended into the sea, culminating in a stout tower. From there the stone wall continued at right angles built on a breakwater sunk deep into the sand. It must have been a difficult operation, Iphitos thought, as the engineers would have had to keep the sea at bay during construction and then remove the temporary barrier to let the sea back in. The west wall, being on the Phocian side, was just a twelve foot palisade.
Not only was the approach narrow, making the use of artillery difficult, but parties from the fort could climb up above the besiegers using a ladder leading up from inside the fort to a ledge and roll rocks down on them. Iphitos had no doubt that the fort could be taken, but it would be difficult and Philip would suffer a lot of casualties.
On the third day they spotted a herd of goats high up on the mountain being looked after by a boy. With him were two dogs; large mastiffs who were obviously there to protect the goatherd and his flock from wolves. No doubt the boy would know the path around the fort, but the difficulty lay in catching him. The good news was that they had seen him silhouetted on the skyline and Iphitos was confident that, hidden in the shadows of the mountainside as they were, he hadn’t spotted them, nor had the dogs had picked up their scent.
‘How do we get rid of the dogs?’ Kleandros asked in a low voice once they had retreated out of sight.
Iphitos smiled. ‘We need some fresh meat and the powder in this little bag. It’ll put them into a deep sleep.’
Callimarcos and Timandros were instructed to follow the goatherd and see where he slept. They scrambled up the mountainside out of sight to make sure that they were downwind of him and the dogs, and then selected a spot from which they could watch him. He followed the goats unhurriedly all day, stopping in the late afternoon to eat some cheese and bread and then he made his way uphill towards them. They began to worry that he was going to discover them, but then he disappeared about two hundred yards below them whilst he was still hidden from sight by an outcrop.
A little later they saw another boy following a goat trail around the mountain towards where the goatherd had vanished. Whereas the boy with the goats appeared to be about fourteen, this one looked a little younger, perhaps thirteen or so. He carried a sack, which was presumably full of food for the other boy. He too disappeared under the outcrop but he didn’t reappear.
‘Perhaps he knows the tracks as well as the goat boy?’ suggested Timandros .
‘Perhaps, if we could grab both of them we might be able to get one to cooperate by threatening the other?’
‘Good idea.’
‘Come on; it’ll be dark soon. We need to get back to the others.’
An hour later, as the sun sunk towards the horizon, all five made their way back towards the spot where Callimarcos and Timandros had hidden themselves. Luckily the moon was full and the sky cloudless. Iphitos went down the mountainside on his own, taking it very slowly so as not to dislodge stones. He headed slightly to the left of the outcrop to get around it whilst keeping downwind of the dogs.
After an hour of laborious movement he cleared the outcrop and he could see the side of the small hut built into the side of the mountain. The two big dogs lay asleep near the entrance and he felt as if his heart had stopped beating when one of them moved in its sleep. He daren’t get any nearer but he wasn’t sure that he could throw the meat close enough to them. He took a deep breath and threw the two chunks. He hadn’t allowed for the extra distance that throwing downhill gave him and the meat landed just beyond one dog and hit the other one on its leg.
They awoke with a start and he heard a growl begin in the throat of one of them, but then they both sniffed at the smell of raw meat, trying to locate the source. Luckily the two pieces had fallen a few feet apart so one didn’t try to fight the other for both chunks. The meat disappeared in a second or two and the dogs sniffed around, hoping to find more, but they eventually lay down to sleep again.
The priest who had provided the drug had assured Uzava , who had obtained it, that it was quick acting and its effects would last at least ten hours. What he hadn’t said was that the quantity he had specified was for adult humans; dogs were lighter and they would either stay unconscious for considerably longer or it might even kill them. Not that it mattered. When they awoke the dogs would undoubtedly track their master, so they would have to die anyway.
Once he was satisfied that the dogs posed no threat he went back up the hillside until the others could see him and he waved them down. When he was satisfied that they had seen him he went back down and slit the dogs’ throats. He directed Kleandros and Chronos to guard one side of the door and he took the other. Timandros and Callimarcos looked at each other and swallowed nervously. They crept in through the low doorway and waited for their eyes to adjust. There wasn’t much light inside the small stone hut, just that given off by the moonlight which came in through the doorway. As their pupils dilated in response to the darkness they slowly made out the outlines of two bodies lying close together under a couple of goatskins on the bare earthen floor.
They were well aware that both boys, despite their youth, would undoubtedly be carrying daggers or knives of some sort. Callimarcos gestured towards the smaller of the two and Timandros nodded. Then he held up three fingers and slowly closed them down one by one. When he curled the last one he leaped onto the older boy and Timandros jumped onto the younger.
They tried to struggle free but the two bigger boys held them securely wrapped in the goatskins. Iphitos and Kleandros joined them and between them they managed to extract their wildly struggling captives and disarm them. As the boy he was holding down showed no signs of desisting, Iphitos drew back his fist and knocked him out. Immediately the other boy screamed and started to cry. It was only then that Timandros , who had the youngster in a strong grip around his chest became aware of something soft and malleable pressing against his own chest.
Both the goatherd and his friend slept naked. When Timandros let go of the now quiescent child, he saw that the younger boy was, in fact, a girl; and one with rather shapely breasts. He later found out that, rather than being younger than the goatherd, his sister was in fact nearly two years older.
‘What do you want?’ the girl spat at him. ‘If you rape me my brother will kill you.’
‘Feisty isn’t she?
’ Callimarcos remarked with a grin, not taking his eyes of the girl’s nubile body.
Timandros glared at him and muttered something about him being a letch whilst handing both siblings their chitons so that they could cover themselves up. The boy didn’t matter; Greek boys weren’t shy about appearing naked in public, but girls never did and it was the first time that any of the unmarried men had seen a nude female body.
The skeuphorus was surprised at how jealous he felt when Callimarcos had ogled the girl. They had become good friends, but at that moment he felt like punching the other boy. He flushed when she thanked him with a shy smile. His throat tightened and he realised that he was strongly attracted to her. During the past few days as a member of the closely knit little group he had almost forgotten that he was a slave. Even if she was the poorest of peasants, she was free and therefore out of his reach.
He got up and moved as far away from her as he could in the confined space of the hut. Her eyes followed him with a hurt expression. She had liked the look of the handsome youth and she remembered with excitement how she had felt when his body had been pressed against hers.
‘Right, let’s start with your names,’ Iphitos asked, sitting on his haunches and fixing the two captives with a grim expression.
Neither sibling answered him so he pulled out his dagger and started to clean his filthy nails with it.
‘Who are you and what do you want with us?’ the goatherd asked hesitantly.
‘Ah! Good. So you can speak. You tell me your names and where you come from and I tell you who I am. It’s alright, we won’t harm either of you if you cooperate.’
‘I’m Georgios and my sister is called Enyo.’