Philip and Olympias: A Novel of Ancient Macedon

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by Peter Messmore


  "I functioned in that role in Epirus" she said. "You need only ask Arybbas about my efficiency in bringing order to the Molossian court."

  "That's the first thing your uncle told me about you. I'll rely on you to do it here in Pella. I also want you to assume leadership of royal religious functions. I'll never allow a subversive group of priests to dominate my kingship. Monarchs have been toppled by these skulking excuses for men; I'm determined that it won't happen here."

  "I relish that responsibility. Know that I'm a pious person, and these matters will be controlled totally by the two of us—no one else. I received years of religious instruction in Dodona; I'm eager to set Macedon on the path of reverence to the gods."

  "We're in agreement then." He moved toward his queen and started to embrace her when she smilingly pushed him away.

  "Another matter, Philip. I had never seen such an enormous bed as the one on which we made your son three days ago. Is it possible to have your carpenters build me one for my bedchamber? I have a nightly ritual, and a large bed would make it easier."

  The request seemed harmless, and Philip quickly granted it. "Send for them today. When I return, we'll test its sturdiness. Come here! The field is harsh; I want to remember your smell and touch."

  The king and queen quickly undressed each other, fell to the pebble mosaic floor, and began ferocious intercourse. Philip rushed his passion and achieved release long before Myrtle even approached her wedding night ecstasy.

  He rose, hurriedly dressed and left for the palace courtyard where Attalus, Antipater, and his royal companion cavalry awaited him.

  Myrtle remained on the floor. Parts of her clothing still covered her bruised body. Abrasions along her backbone seeped small amounts of blood from the pebble-pounding that she had just suffered. Half-crying and shaken, she resolved that this would never happen again. If she were with child now, as she knew she was, the sexual urgency she felt would be diminished for a time. If she were not pregnant, then their next mating would be on her new bed where her religious objects would protect her.

  That night the king and queen of Macedon slept apart. Philip, slumbering on a field cot inside a tent one day's ride from Pella, dreamed that he was sealing his wife's womb with sealing wax. It was a normal dream of a man knowing that he would be gone a long time. When he looked down at the vaginal seal, he saw a stamped impression. On it was the clear image of a lion. Philip awakened, sat up on his cot, and considered the dream's meaning. When he arrived at no interpretation, he returned to his sleep, making a mental note to ask the army's soothsayer about the troubling dream.

  Myrtle also dreamed a potent dream that night. It was in color and filled with such realistic energy that she knew it was a message from Zeus himself. A thunderbolt penetrated her womb with such power that it caused curtains of fire to gush out and spread throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. The fire, although intense and widespread, lasted only briefly before it was extinguished. The queen of Macedon needed no interpretation; she knew that her life’s quest was on schedule.

  CHAPTER 12

  Philip, his two generals, and his royal companions arrived at the outskirts of Amphipolis after a two-day ride from Pella. It had been raining since their first night's encampment and the miserable road, little more than a cow path to begin with, was a hopeless quagmire of mud, rocks, and standing pools of dirty water. Winter was approaching in the northern Aegean. Thrace was known for its high winds that signaled storms of intense ferocity. Storms commonly caught men in open country and froze them to death. Philip had experienced these violent storms in the mountains of upper Macedonia during his youth. It was common for a winter afternoon to be cool, yet bright and sunny, and then have a sudden, uncompromising storm descend on the countryside before the sun set. Temperatures fell precipitously and every living thing in open country was in danger. As a young man, he had learned to smell the coming snow and its trailing blizzard. That smell was in the air as he dismounted and entered his headquarters tent, two stadia from the walls of Amphipolis.

  Awaiting the king were his field commanders and the siege engineers. The chief engineer, a well-paid Greek named Partrious, stood before a simple model of Amphipolis' walled fortifications. Philip removed his heavy cloak of Macedonian shearing wool and approached Partrious.

  "Ah," he said, looking at the model. "So this is the obstacle that has my army freezing their asses off. What progress have we made?"

  "The problem is the height and thickness of the city's walls," Partrious responded. "They're the greatest since Troy. Athens tried for sixty years to breach them with no success. Their bases are twenty cubits thick. At the top, they're still five. It will take an enormous effort to topple them."

  "Why haven't our sappers and underminers been able to tunnel beneath them as we planned? That's what you showed me at Potiad. The gold I give you is for taking down walls!"

  "We've dug several undermining tunnels. But now that we're close, the Amphipolins have us at bay. They hurl heavy rocks down and pour boiling oil on our diggers. We're halted by their tactics."

  Philip shot an angry frown at his high-priced mercenary. He had delayed his plans far too long with this troublesome city. Athens couldn't be held off much longer. Only the northern Etesian winds kept their powerful navy away from his besieging army. "If I can stop the rocks and oil, how long do our diggers need to undermine the main wall?"

  "If the barrage could be stopped for even one night,” Partrious said, “we could put hundreds of diggers to work. The main wall would surely topple. Our remaining siege engines would make short work of any structures that remain. The city would be yours within two days of the main wall coming down."

  “Let me find a way," Philip said with disgust. "All we need is to cause the main wall to be undefended. No city's impregnable if it has a postern gate large enough for an ass loaded with gold. Crenides is beginning to yield limited amounts. Before I'm done, our new mines will give us all the gold and silver we need. Leave me now. When you see me again, you'll have an uninterrupted night of digging. Make sure, Partrious, that you're right. If you fail, I'll bury you beneath the portion of the wall that we eventually reduce."

  The king left the command tent and was taken to a small stone house that the army had appropriated from a local Thracian chieftain. Its thick walls blocked the cutting wind and a small fireplace provided welcome warmth. Philip, Attalus, and Antipater removed their winter cloaks.

  Antipater, who specialized in agent running and intelligence gathering, spoke first after the three seated themselves at a rough-hewn wooden table. "We've had regular contact with a group of Amphipolin merchants since the siege began. They tell me that if you can provide enough gold, they can get a force of two hundred young men to help us to take the city. I believe them; their greed is the answer to our problems."

  Philip said nothing but pointed to Attalus for a response. Attalus rubbed his stubby beard, then his eyes, and finally spoke. "It's our best course of action with winter on us. Unless the walls can be breached, my mounted cavalries are useless. Give us a hole wide enough for our charge, and the city will fall."

  "Antipater, get word to the merchants. Find out how much gold they're talking about. Tell them that the bribe measurement will be the amount of gold one ass can carry. When you've negotiated a number, send a rider to me in Crenides. I'm leaving for the mining operations there tomorrow. Both of you stay here and prepare for the final assault. Make sure the merchants understand what we want. The youths must take the main internal section of the wall that we'll undermine. It must be held for an entire night. If they're successful, we'll make the lads officers in our army. Let them know that."

  The three leaders of Macedon's army opened wine goat-skins brought from Pella. They sang and told dirty stories, as they ate a simple field meal. The luxuries of Pella were remembered as the trio drank themselves to sleep. Outside, snow accumulated, causing the king's horses to seek shelter from the wind's fury on the leeward side of the sto
ne house. Philip heard their hoofs beating packed snow during the night and knew that his ride to Crenides would be a difficult one.

  The trip from Amphipolis to Crenides, around Mount Pangaeus, normally took only a half-day. If the king left as planned, that travel time would now have to be doubled. The blizzard ended by midmorning, but it produced roads that were nearly impassable. Philip emerged from his snowbound quarters, surveyed the scene, and considered postponing the trip. But his need for gold and lots of it was immediate, so he decided to make the journey. A hundred royal companion horsemen were sent ahead on an invisible road to pack down the snow, creating a rideable path for their monarch. Philip then followed them with his bodyguards, wrapped in layers of heavy sheepherder's wool.

  They arrived in Crenides long after dark. Everyone's extremities, including the king's, were nearing dangerous frostbite as they dismounted and greeted the Macedonian settlers and garrison commander that Philip had established in the forlorn village. They were led to several primitive, but heated houses, and put up for the night.

  The next morning, Philip rose with the sun and left his quarters for a look at the mining community. It had become warmer overnight, and the snow had become a mixture of black and brown mud. The air was damp and chilly; the sky was leaden. The king walked a short distance from his overnight billet and stood surveying the ravaged scene before him. Entire sides of the mountain were bare, especially where several small streams emerged from its base. Piles of dark brown-red mud and rocks dotted the landscape.

  Mining operations around Mount Pangaeus were now, and had been for centuries, a one-man, one-pan operation. The king saw the slave miners taking buckets of soil and gravel from the beds of the many streams. The dirty men filled circular metal pans with the earth and sloshed the material around, while water separated the silver and gold from mere earth. Heavier silver and gold were left in the pan bottoms while lighter rocks and mud were emptied into a clouded stream beneath them. Philip saw more groups of slaves beginning the process, hovered over by Thasosan guards representing Macedon. Soon his puppet Thasosan governor joined him.

  "There's much to do here, Gorgias," the king said as he shook his head. "I've brought an Athenian mining engineer with me. It will be his responsibility to teach you newer techniques of extracting silver and gold from these mines. He's already surveyed a site just east of where I intend to establish a new city. I believe it is called Asyla."

  "I know the location, King Philip," Gorgias answered. "It has potential and not just for silver and gold. My miners from Thasos tell me that there are veins of marble, iron ore, lead, and zinc to be had. It will require a vast increase in the number of slaves to run the operation, but I'm sure you know that."

  "Slaves aren't a problem. You'll have all you can use when Amphipolis falls. Arybbas of Epirus just promised me two thousand he captured in Italy. They'll be here by the end of the month."

  The chief Athenian mining engineer joined the two men that Philip had asked to meet him in Crenides. After introductions, the engineer spoke. "When you're ready, I'll take you to our new Asyla mine. We've already started to dig gold and silver, although full operations aren't underway."

  The two men, King Philip, and several members of his bodyguard detail mounted their horses and rode the short distance to Asyla. As they approached it, Philip could already see differences between the primitive techniques at Crenides and the modern operation that the Athenian engineer was constructing. Teams of slaves were carrying large baskets of ore out of the entrance to the main mine. Each basket was emptied into an enormous wooden mortar-vat, built around the base of a sheer outcropping of quartz rock. Above the mortar-vat was a large, bludgeon shaped stone that served as a pestle. It was tied securely with ropes. The ropes led upward where they were tied to one end of a huge, tree-sized arm. The arm was center-balanced and rested on a large triangular fulcrum. The arm was counterbalanced with a smaller stone at its opposite end to create an enormous support for the pestle. Slaves rhythmically moved the device up and down, crushing the raw ore into smaller pieces. When the ore had been crushed, the stone pestle was raised. More slaves removed the wooden boards that formed one side of the vat-mortar, releasing the crushed ore into a large wooden flue.

  Philip rode up to it, dismounted, and asked the Athenian what was happening.

  The engineer walked to the closed end of the flue where water from an abundant spring had been diverted and was flowing into it. He held his hand under the cold water while he explained its function. "When the crushed ore is dumped into the flue, this water separates it. Look at the slaves with the hoes above the flue. They chop the dirt and aid the breakup. Mud, soil and, lighter minerals are carried away by the water. Look in the bottom of the flue, where the wooden strips are attached to form a ribbed floor. Silver and gold ore are much heavier than all other ores, so they collect in the ribs. Slaves are never allowed to gather the gold or silver. If we find any on them, they're killed on the spot. Only trained Macedonians have that responsibility."

  Philip smiled and considered what this wood and stone contrivance meant to his dreams of conquest. After Amphipolis fell, he would open full-scale mining of Mount Pangaeus. No city-state in Greece would ever approach his gold and silver production. Only the Great King of Persia could then rival his ability to bribe and coerce nations with the wonderful treasures that tumbled through the flue.

  "Where are the silver and gold smelted?" Philip asked.

  The Athenian lowered his head. "That's the only problem that hasn't been solved. But with the help of the Thasosans, we'll soon start a smelting complex that will be as good as anything Athens has at its Laurium operation. But it won't be done until the end of winter."

  Philip grew alarmed without showing it. He needed gold, and lots of it, immediately for the traitorous merchants of Amphipolis. Late winter was out of the question. He walked away from his companions, lost in thought. Returning, he approached the Athenian engineer and clasped him about the shoulders. "You've done well here. I'm aware of the difficult conditions that you have been working under. Keep your smelting plans on schedule. There must be no delay beyond late winter. Our survival depends on that. If you need Macedonian hoplites to help you complete the construction on schedule, let me know. But there can be absolutely no delay. Is that understood?"

  "Understood, Philip. We will meet the date I gave you. I won't need any of your soldiers. The problems are related to the severity of winter here and technical metallurgical matters. A thousand hoplites wouldn't speed up construction of the smelting furnaces even one month."

  "I understand," the king said as he walked away from the flue and mounted his horse. "Your king will not forget your efforts here. Both of you will grow rich when the silver and gold supply commences. A city that I'll stake out tomorrow will be established near here. Both of you will become its wealthiest citizens. I'll name it Philippi, the first of many cities that will bear my name. Your only possible problem will be a suspicion by your king that every grain of gold and silver is not finding its way to Pella. You won't want to see me again if I ever suspect that. But let's part on a pleasant note. Give me a bag of the gold nuggets. I want to present them to my new queen. She has so much heat that merely holding them will produce the purest gold that Hellas has ever seen."

  The men laughed nervously at their king's joke. The engineer went to the flue, selected twelve walnut-size nuggets from the muddy water, and put them into a bag. Handing it to the king, he bade him farewell.

  As Philip rode back to Crenides, the two miners agreed that all plans were to be accelerated. Too much was at stake to displease Philip of Macedon.

  During the ride back to Crenides, the king called one of his bodyguards to ride with him. The young man, unlike most of his bodyguards, was literate. He was told to record a message. It was addressed to Philip's royal treasurer in Pella. The terse message commanded the treasurer to exhaust Philip's personal hoard of gold and send it to the Macedonian encampment outside Amphipol
is. One thousand royal cavalrymen were to accompany the gold, and no one in Pella was to know of its shipment. A cryptic line was added at the end. Its purpose was to calm what Philip knew would be a distraught treasurer. It read, "A limitless supply of gold and silver will replenish my coffers by early spring."

  Myrtle assumed her duties in Pella as queen and head of the Macedonian royal court with energy and enthusiasm. It took only five days to organize the inept staff and explain what was expected of them. Many attendants were dismissed, sold into slavery, or transferred to lesser court members. She was convinced, after only ten days, that all remaining attendants and slaves were devoted to her.

  She also had frequent meetings with Pella's priests. They were told that King Philip had charged her with being Macedon's religious leader and that their actions would be subject to her review and approval. Within thirty days she had directed the priests to begin construction on a new temple devoted to Orpheus. It was to be built following the queen's design.

  Myrtle also met with the court carpenters and gave them detailed plans for her personal bed. It was to be like the king's in every respect, but there were several curious additions. Bordering the bed on both sides and across the head, the queen ordered boxes built. These peripheral boxes were to have lids that opened away from the bed. The external sides of the boxes were to be made with a fine silver wire mesh net so that air could circulate. "The net must allow what's inside to be seen by anyone entering the bed chamber," she dictated. The puzzled carpenters assured the queen that the bed would be completed in ten days. Myrtle was pleased that it would be done before Philip's anticipated return.

  She also visited the concubine that Philip had taken before their marriage. The concubine, Philinna, had given birth to a boy named Aridaios. The queen first thought of ordering the young woman to come to her private chambers, but changed her mind. By going to her, she would show that she didn't fear her.

 

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