The Sacred War

by H A CULLEY

  By now Iphitos had finished reorganising the artillery and the engineers. He decided to accompany Parmenion as his army would face the most cities and have to cross the rivers where they were widest. Lysis took charge of his artillery for the campaign and Kleandros the engineers. Chronos would take command of the engineers going with Philip and Attalus and Heirax the artillery. Lithoboloi would be a hindrance in the mountains and so he moved Attalus’ lithoboloi to Parmenion’s army, making Heirax ’ role easier for one new to it. Linos was also promoted and made Antigonus ’ head of artillery. The officer who had been responsible for both previously was, by inclination, an engineer and he remained in post, but as chief engineer only.

  This reduced the size of Iphitos’ staff as he had lost his two deputies but that was unlikely to be a problem during this campaign. Galen was proving to be a useful aide, even if he made a few mistakes at first, and he showed a real aptitude for engineering as well as an interest in the use of artillery.

  Iphitos was reasonably happy. The only clouds on his horizon was his worry about leaving Chloe so soon after the birth of his son, who they had named Scylax , and about the safety of Enyo. She had been sent to Odrysia with two Thracians whose services as guards Uzava had bought, paying half the money now and promising the other half when she was returned safely to him. Odrysia was the capital of the northern part of Thrace ruled by a king called Teres .

  The two southern kingdoms had been re-united by Cersobleptes and he now ruled the whole coastal strip from his capital at Kallipolis on the Chersonese Peninsula. In the far north, where Antigonus would be operating, there was no central authority; only individual tribes who spent most of their time fighting each other.

  By the end of 342 BC Philip had advanced as far as Syrnota and was besieging it and Parmenion was doing the same at Kallipolis . So far both campaigns had run the same course. Once a city was captured the leaders of the city were executed and governors friendly to Macedon installed. Both Philip and Parmenion had managed to recruit Thracian units as well, mainly light spearmen and peltasts but also some hoplites and light cavalrymen. Iphitos had been kept busy building bridges over rivers in the main. His artillerymen knew their job and could be left to get on with it. He was also busy analysing reports with Uzava . These came from a variety of sources, paid agents, captives, scouts and the local people who talked readily enough when given a choice of doing so or being killed with their whole family.

  By June Parmenion had captured the whole of the Chersonese Peninsula, which lay across the narrow Hellespont from Persian territory. He had been disappointed not to find that Cersobleptes wasn’t in Kallipolis . The Thracian king had escaped by sea and Iphitos was fairly sure that he had taken refuge in Byzantium, the port on the south eastern tip of Thrace. As Parmenion turned his attention to the five cities which lay between him and Byzantium, Iphitos was rejoicing at being re-united with Enyo.

  -o0o-

  Enyo had arrived at Odrysia with her two companions after a long but uneventful journey. At first she had worried that the two young Thracian men might see her as a sexual object but, once she realised that they were interested only in each other she relaxed. No doubt that was why Uzava had hired them. Once they had found lodgings she went to the acropolis and explained to the duty officer of the city watch that she was looking for her missing father, an Athenian merchant who had disappeared in this part of Thrace whilst seeking to invest in the local silver mines.

  The officer took a great deal more interest in her than her escort had done and implied delicately that he might be able to help her provided she helped him.

  ‘That’s very kind of you but I think I ought to see the commander of the army. You see, from the report I received he didn’t disappear in the city but in the surrounding countryside. Perhaps he is being held by robbers who want a ransom. The city watch wouldn’t be able to help much in that case, would they?’

  She smiled demurely at him and he nodded. She learned that there was no army commander as such; King Teres maintained a royal guard of five hundred soldiers who were a mixture of light cavalrymen, spearmen and archers. When he needed an army he called upon the chieftains of the various tribes that made up his kingdom and they came with their warriors.

  Eventually she persuaded him to take her to see the officer who commanded the royal guard, but not until she had used her hands and mouth in ways taught to her by Chloe to satisfy the young man. She was a virgin and she intended to stay that way, but she now knew that there were other ways of pleasuring a man that made them just as grateful and she had no objections to using them to the full, when necessary.

  The guard commander was an old man who, she learned later, had a shrew of a wife and no children. He became enamoured of Enyo as soon as he met her and established her in a corner of the royal palace far away from his wife where she spent hours having oral sex with him whilst she learned as much as she could from him about the defences of the city and the capabilities, or lack of them, of the Thracian tribes and their chieftains. The most valuable thing he told her, somewhat bitterly, was that Teres was losing his grip over some of the chieftains. They were unlikely to rally to the defence of Odrysia if their own lands were threatened.

  Her next problem was to escape from the city. Her elderly lover had fallen in love with her and had become insanely possessive. As he locked her in her chamber when he wasn’t there, she came to the conclusion that the only way of escaping his clutches was to kill him. That evening he came to her earlier than usual, which suited her as she knew that she and her two guards would have to get out of the city before the body was discovered. That meant before dark as the city gates were locked at dusk.

  She used a thin bladed knife for the task whilst he was recovering from his first climax. It slid in between his ribs easily and punctured his heart. She left it there and quickly changed her clothes into gear more suitable for riding and, locking the door behind her, left the palace and made for the lodgings where her two men were staying. She thought she might have had difficulty with the sentries and regretted not bringing her knife, but they accepted her story that she was running an errand for their commander.

  She and her two companions exited the city with barely five minutes or so to spare. She had no real idea where Philip’s army might be but her instructions were to head due west until she encountered them. The likelihood was that he would be besieging Syrnota but she wasn’t exactly sure where the city was. However her guides seemed to know and so she relied on them to lead. All went well until the third day. She looked back as they crested a saddle between two low mountains only to see a large group of horsemen on their trail down in the valley some six miles or so behind them.

  When the two Thracians saw their pursuers they started to jabber agitatedly to each other. Enyo strung her bow so as to have it ready and turned back to the west when, to her amazement, her supposed protectors dug their heels into the sides of their horses and started back down the trail towards the Thracian cavalrymen. Obviously they had abandoned her in an attempt to save their own skins.

  -o0o-

  Parmenion only had to think about Iphitos’ request for a second. He was encamped in front of Hereclea on the coast of the small sea known as the Propontis, which lay between the Hellespont and the Euxine Sea. They still had a number of rivers to cross and three more cities to capture before they reached the greatest prize of them all, Byzantium, where the elderly King Cersobleptes had taken refuge. Once they reached there Cersobletes’ only options were to surrender, fight or flee into Persia. The strategos had every confidence in Kleandros and Lysis and he had a sneaking suspicion that they would relish being free of Iphitos’ supervision for a while.

  ‘Very well, you may go and find Philip and see if your daughter is safe. You are quite correct when you say that he seems to be making slower progress and may need your services more than I do. As you know, the last communication from him places him at Syrnota which is proving particularly difficult to capture. I can spa
re you a tetrachium of light cavalry as an escort. They are recently recruited Thracians but I’m told that they are loyal to us now.’

  Iphitos didn’t think that was of much comfort but, as Parmenion had known the father of their tetrarch when Philip’s father had been on the throne of Macedon, he hoped that he would prove reliable. Taking Galen, Uzuva , Timandros and several of Uzava’s scribes with him, he set off the next morning to find his escort. The tetrarch introduced himself as Nearchos and he seemed both genial and capable. He was the same age as Iphitos – thirty – and the taxiarch believed that the two of them would get on well together.

  Iphitos hadn’t had much to do with light cavalry. The only thing that they had in common with the Macedonian heavy cavalry was their bronze helmets. They had exchanged them for their Thracian helmets to distinguish themselves from the enemy. Otherwise they were dressed like Thracians. Each wore brightly a coloured chiton and chlamys, and leather boots. Their circular shields were larger than Macedonian ones and each carried two spears about eight feet in length. These could either be thrown or used for stabbing. Everyone also carried a sword suspended from a leather baldric worn over the right shoulder.

  Nearchos’s rank was indicated by two black feathers worn in two cylindrical holders, one brazed onto each side of his helmet. It seemed quite understated compared to Iphitos’ helmet, which was of the type worn by hoplites but embellished with lions engraved in silver on the cheek pieces with a tall horsehair crest dyed in red and white stripes.

  As soon as they left the camp Nearchos sent out ten of his men to act as scouts and for flank protection. Another section of ten men brought up the rear after the baggage. They were travelling light, which meant without tents. Fodder for the horses and rations for the men were carried on a few pack horses led by Timandros and Nearchos ’ servant. Uzuva and his scribes rode with them and after a few hours it was evident that they were extremely saddle sore. Usually they travelled in relative comfort in one of the carts in the baggage train.

  Iphitos rode beside Nearchos with Galen on his other side. The Thracian was surprised to learn that the taxiarch was originally an Illyrian hostage and Nearchos told Iphitos about Parmenion’s exploits as a mercenary in Illyria and Egypt when his father had served under him. He had come home with enough money to buy a small farm, which was where Nearchos had been born. Nearchos had fought against the Macedonians during previous campaigns and survived, but this time he had been captured. However, when Parmenion found out who Nearchos ’ father was, he released him and gave him the task of recruiting Thracian light cavalry to join his army. As a reward for his efforts Nearchos had been promoted to tetrarch.

  One of the scouts came riding back in the middle of the afternoon to report enemy soldiers ahead but it turned out to be a Macedonian foraging party. The man had evidently forgotten whose side he was now supposed to be on and, in consequence, became very popular as he had to dig the communal latrine when they camped and then fill it in the next morning. Iphitos found this interesting. Thracians didn’t wash as often as Macedonians, but the latter just went behind a convenient bush when camping for one night. Most Thracians might smell more that the average Macedonian but at least you didn’t have to watch where you were putting your feet outside the camp perimeter.

  They reached the besiegers’ camp outside Syrnota without incident but, to Iphitos’ dismay there was no word from Enyo.

  -o0o-

  Before the two guards had gone very far Enyo had dropped off her horse and drawn and released her first arrow. It was a lucky shot. The arrow could have glanced off his helmet or lost its momentum in the flapping material of the man’s chlamys. It did neither. It found the narrow gap between the neck guard of the helmet and the top of the chlamys. It travelled right through his neck and out through his windpipe, nicking his carotid artery on the way. Blood spurted out of his neck and his mouth as he collapsed sideways off his horse.

  By then the first man was a good fifty yards away and rapidly drawing away. However, he made the mistake of pausing for a second or two when his lover was killed and that gave Enyo time to string another arrow. She knew she couldn’t hope to hit the man in a vital spot at the rapidly increasing distance between them and so she took careful aim at the horse’s broad rump.

  The arrow tore into the animal’s left buttock piercing its semitendinosus muscle. As a result the leg collapsed and the Thracian was thrown sideways off his horse, landing heavily. The horse started to thrash about, bellowing in pain, as Enyo rode up and, dismounting, she picked up the man’s own spear and thrust it through his chest as he lay there unconscious. She killed the horse to put it out of its agony and then remounted her mare, scanning the valley below for her pursuers.

  Inevitably, they had spotted her and were now making towards her at a gallop. She turned her horse and started to head for a nearby wood, reproaching herself for wasting time killing the two treacherous guards. However, she hadn’t been about to let them get away with betraying her. She calculated that she had at most a fifteen minute start on her pursuers but her mare had been an expensive present from Iphitos, bought from a Persian horse trader. It was fast and had stamina, qualities she suspected the normal Thracian cavalry mounts behind her lacked.

  She followed the narrow path through the wood, ducking repeatedly to avoid getting swept off her horse, as it dropped down the hillside. When she emerged she veered off the path and made for a nearby olive grove. Beyond it beside a stream was a small stone house with a wooden shed alongside it. At this time of year the grove was dormant and the single-roomed house was deserted. She suspected that the family was out bringing their livestock down from the hills into the winter pasture. She rode into the shed and watched through a gap in the planking as the Thracians raced past following the path. There were forty two of them in all.

  She knew that they would keep after her and now, without her guides, she had no idea where she was; all she knew was that Syrnota was somewhere to the east of her. She thought of capturing a local and forcing him or her to take her there but a Thracian peasant was likely to have less idea than she did where the city was. Perhaps one of the royal guards chasing her might well know.

  Now the hunters became the quarry. It was an hour before nightfall when Enyo decided that they hadn’t doubled back and so she started to follow their trail. Being a good hunter meant that she could follow the track of so many horses at a canter. When it got dark she continued in the same direction and, as she had expected, she saw several small fires ahead of her.

  She settled down to wait, eating some dried figs and some cheese whilst the camp settled down for the night. She had noted the position of the two sentries before the fires died down and headed for one of them first. He never knew anything until her hand clamped over his mouth and her dagger sawed across his throat. The second sentry was fast asleep and didn’t make a sound as she knocked him out with a stone she had found nearby.

  He was only young but she still found it difficult to drag him to where she had left her horse. Once she had tied up his hands and feet and gagged him she headed to where the Thracians’ horses were tethered. She selected the best stallion and saddled it before tying the unconscious Thracian across its back. She untethered the rest before leading it back to where her mare waited patiently. It was then just a matter of mounting and retracing her steps quietly to where she had left the other horses. Then she yelled and waved her arms to get them moving away from the camp.

  It would have been impossible for her to have driven the whole herd very far and that wasn’t her intention. She just wanted them scattered enough to give her a decent start before the pursuit began again. In any case there wouldn’t be much the Thracians could do until daybreak and she intended to be a long way away from there before then.

  At some stage during the night the Thracian had woken up and started to try to free himself. She stopped and hissed at him, warning him that she would knock him out again if he didn’t behave. He was quiet after that and s
hortly after dawn she stopped in a wood and pulled him roughly off his horse. She removed the gag and was surprised to see that he was a beardless boy who couldn’t be more than fourteen or fifteen. He was surly at first but a few prods from her dagger in his neck soon got him talking. He was called Theon and was the son of the captain of the men sent to catch her and bring her back for public execution. He had been brought along by his father because he thought it would be good experience for him and a bit of an adventure. Well, she thought grimly, this was going to rather more of an experience for the lad than his father had anticipated.

  She untied his hands and fed him some of her cheese and dried figs and gave him water to drink. At one point she thought he was making ready to tackle her but a warning wave from her dagger made him think better of it.

  This time she roped his feet together under the horse so he could ride more comfortably, but she kept his hands tied. She led his horse by the reins so he wasn’t tempted to try and ride away. When she asked if he knew the way to Syrnota he nodded, surprised that she wanted to go there. When she added that she would release him when they to the city he cheered up considerably.

  As the day wore on the sulky boy relaxed and started to tell her more about himself. His mother had died when he was young and so his father had bought a female slave to look after him. As time wore on she had come to spend more time in his father’s bed than she did caring for his needs so he learned to become independent from an early age. His father seemed to resent him and often told him he wouldn’t be of any use until he was old enough to be a warrior, like him. He certainly never gave any indication that he cared for his son. This could have dented his self-confidence but instead it had made him hate his father and increased his self-reliance.