Philip and Olympias: A Novel of Ancient Macedon

by Peter Messmore

  Calas entered the conversation. "Perdiccas thinks I'm his friend. We enjoy debating the obscure philosophical points his Athenian tutor teaches. If you want, I'll keep an eye on him for you."

  "Do it, Calas," Ptolemy responded. "If he's truly as weak as he acts, maybe he can live a while longer. I want to know if his behavior is genuine. If I were in his boots, I might choose the role of student to stay alive. Keep me informed."

  Ptolemy's third friend was Leosthenes. His reputation around Pella and his home province was of seducing naive, brokenhearted young women. He had married several and stolen their father's estates. Weeks ago, Ptolemy had approached him and asked him to carry out a dangerous task. "Have you thought about what I asked you, Leosthenes?" Ptolemy asked. Ptolemy's other companions knew nothing of the matter, causing him to speak vaguely.

  "I'll do it for an enticing price," he answered. "The risk is high. I won't do it for a pittance."

  "You'll be amply rewarded, Leosthenes," Ptolemy replied. "Speak to no one about this. Polemo and Calas don't ask questions. You don't want to know. Stand by me while I strengthen my regency. Protect my rear and blind sides. When I become king, each of you will be rewarded with your choice of Macedonia's finest estates. Your wealth will be second only to mine."

  The party arrived at their hunting grounds and proceeded to kill as many wild animals as they could spear on horseback. They never collected the animals nor had slaves transport them to back Pella. Hunting, for them, was just killing.

  As Ptolemy rode back to Macedon's capital at dusk, he knew that killing was something he would have to get used to.

  Eurydice sat alone on a small boat dock protruding into Lake Loudias. Her feet were dangling in the tepid water; a wistful look painted her aging face. High above her, on one of the many angled walkways that led from the palace down to the lake, was her son, Perdiccas. The young man studied his mother. He could kill her now, but his life would immediately be forfeit. So far, the studious charade he was playing was keeping him alive. He had no other weapon. He decided to join his mother.

  "Do you see Macedon's future across Loudias, mother?" he asked sarcastically.

  Eurydice jerked around, startled at Perdiccas’ silent approach. "I wish I could, son," she answered. "My life hasn't gone the way I wanted."

  Perdiccas sat on the dock, at arm’s length from the Queen of Macedon. His legs were folded under him. "Have you heard anything from Philip? Or does Epaminondas only correspond with Ptolemy?"

  His mother looked away and said nothing. She then edged closer to her son. "Ptolemy has gotten two messages from Theban agents Pelopidas sent here as merchants. Philip is well. His education is being managed by the Pythagoreans." She smiled. "Can you imagine Philip with that stuffy group? You two should have much to discuss, if he ever returns."

  Perdiccas took his mother's answer to mean that she believed his recent, mostly feigned conversion to matters intellectual. But one could never tell with Eurydice. She was guileful. He had learned never to trust or believe her. At last, he asked the question that he knew she expected. "Is Ptolemy going to have me killed? With Alexander dead and Philip held in Thebes, I'm his only obstacle to kingship."

  "That won't happen as long as I live. He knows that he would have to kill me first. That, he won't do. I've taken measures to ensure that it can't happen. He understands that he's checked, at least for now."

  Perdiccas was surprised that his mother was ahead of Ptolemy in this deadly game. He even doubted her veracity. But he had little choice in the end. She was his only real protector. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

  "Maintain your interest in philosophy and mathematics, son. They are a complete mystery to Ptolemy. His ignorance of the subjects makes you less threatening. I heard him tell Polemo the other day that you couldn't intimidate even an Athenian toad."

  Perdiccas smiled. Maybe his intellectual ruse was keeping him alive. Perhaps the gods and events would eventually favor him. He knew of several provincial barons who were planning to eliminate Ptolemy at first opportunity. That secret message had been given to him in the middle of a philosophical treatise from the writings of Socrates. He continued with Eurydice. "I'm worried about my sister, mother," he said changing the subject. "There's danger for her." Perdiccas watched his mother’s reaction as she took the bait.

  Eurydice bristled at the mere mention of Eurynoe. Perdiccas knew his mother was protecting him from Ptolemy, but he also knew that Eurynoe’s hysterical tantrums were jeopardizing everything his mother was working for. Although it was difficult for a son to consider, Perdiccas also understood how Eurynoe would soon become a sexual threat, now that the queen was beginning menopause. He awaited his mother’s tormented response.

  "I won't discuss her, Perdiccas!" she snapped.

  "You're protecting me, why not her? She's your only daughter."

  Eurydice rolled sideways from her sitting position and pushed herself up from the dock. "Don't push things, Perdiccas," she shouted. "Already, you know too much. Go debate with your tutors about how to calculate the area of a circle. You're in over your head." She turned on her heel and stomped off the wooden dock, back toward the palace.

  Perdiccas sat alone until dusk, when the water insects starting biting. Walking back to his room in the palace, he considered talking that night to his sister. He walked past her room but heard muffled crying inside. Let the matter wait a few days, he decided. His friends had invited him to hunt waterfowl in the marshy swamps beyond Lake Loudias tomorrow. He would see his sister when he returned, after she had calmed herself.

  The hunting trip of Perdiccas was delayed three days. One of his tutors took him to Pella's newest temple and pointed out how pure geometry was being used to construct the building. Perdiccas was given the assignment of recording all angles in the temple on parchment. Then he had to figure exact areas of the temple’s many triangles. He found the activity enjoyable, more enjoyable than confronting and consoling his hysterical sister. When Perdiccas finished his assignment, he arranged for the hunting trip the next day. Joining him were two of his childhood friends and a more recent acquaintance. The third man was one of Ptolemy's many spies, and Perdiccas knew it.

  They left the palace dock on two flat skiffs and poled their way across Loudias, to the far side. Reeds and cattails covered the swampy marsh that would, in mere decades, have cattle grazing on it—the result of silting. Perdiccas and his friends wanted to remain hidden in the marsh and hunt ducks with bows and arrows. But Ptolemy's spy insisted that they pole toward dry land, near an outcropping of rocks on the swamp's dry land shore. The trio relented and they made their way toward dry land.

  "I've never seen fowl on this shore," Perdiccas complained. The other men left the skiffs and began looking for a good place to hide. Suddenly, the friend that Perdiccas had known the longest started shouting.

  "Perdiccas, get over here!"

  Perdiccas and the others spotted the man's waving arms and ran to join him. He was kneeling, fingering a bright blue himation. The garment was badly torn and had what appeared to be blood on it. "Spread out," Perdiccas said.

  Before long Perdiccas found his sister. She was dead, stuffed inverted among several of the biggest boulders. Her neck had ligature marks on it, and her body was badly bruised in several places. Her thighs were ripped open and her skin was black. The decay process was well underway. She had been dead at least two days.

  Perdiccas broke down. When his friends had calmed him, they removed their cloaks and wrapped his sister. She was carried to a skiff, and Perdiccas sat beside the dead young woman. The men tied a line to the prince’s boat and began poling their way back to the palace, towing Eurynoe’s dead body and her mourning, terrified brother.

  The trip back was slow, giving Perdiccas needed time alone. He had received the deadly message. He knew what role he must play. Each day was to be a mortal challenge—those were the rules. His retreat into philosophy would have to be deeper than he had imagined. Like Philip in T
hebes, he must bide his time, maintaining his artifice. It was the only way.

  CHAPTER 4

  Philip soon earned the right to tour the Theban Cadmea and visit the lower city. His formal instruction with the Pythagoreans had started. They were an odd lot, and strange to an offspring of Macedonian royalty. He and his royal brethren were used to doing just about anything they wanted when they wanted to do it. Now there appeared in his life a group of men who advocated peculiar philosophies. The prince entered this phase of his captivity with scornful apprehension.

  The Pythagoreans first sought to improve his command of Attic Greek reading and writing. It was true that Philip's father, Amyntas, had introduced formal Greek to the royal Macedonian court years ago. He had even required that affairs of state be conducted in it. Yet as many artists, ambassadors, and scholars who had returned from prolonged visits to Pella had attested, the Macedonian bastardization of the beautiful Attic tongue continued. They described how Macedonian royal dinners and festive functions started with most everyone using a passable form of formal Greek. But as drunkenness increased, the vulgate Macedonian patois was heard. It was a dialect nearly unintelligible to Greek ears.

  Philip's lessons continued for several weeks, with instruction three times a week. His Pythagorean tutor was often seen leaving Pammenes’s house with a dour look during this time. Before long however, he related to Pammenes that Philip was a bright and quick learner. "When he wants to, he can converse in proper Greek and be understood," the old pedagogue cracked. Another Pythagorean taught Philip philosophy and religion. Pythagoreans were heavily influenced by the tenets of Orphism, a growing religious alternative to the heavy-handed Olympic gods led by Zeus. The hostage prince was taught that when a person dies, his soul descends to Hades, where his life is judged. If the life was without value, the soul was condemned to eternal punishment and damnation.

  Philip listened to these ludicrous notions about life and immortality. He was beginning to appreciate some aspects of Theban society that were of value both to him and to Macedon. But this radical premise of living a good life for eternal reward after death was folly and dangerous to a potential ruler. He kept these views to himself, resolving never to let such a religious movement begin in his land.

  His tutor challenged Philip to abstain from the passing pleasures of the body and seek the good life through cleanness of mind, body and spirit. So influential was he on Philip's early captivity that the prince's meals never featured meat. Instead, he was served a nauseating blend of tasteless vegetables. A dramatic weight loss resulted. Soon he began to look like a bearded apparition in the household of Pammenes.

  The months of Hecatombaion, Metageitnion, and Boedromion passed. Philip's captivity had settled into a routine of Pythagorean lessons and Theban political indoctrination. Pammenes had, at first, kept his word and met with Philip on alternate days. As time passed, other duties were deemed more pressing. Several weeks would pass before he met with the prince. Philip judged that Pammenes was satisfied with his progress and observed that he had even started to trust and act friendly toward him. Even the general's incessant use of the word, barbarian, was subsiding.

  Today Archlus told him that Pammenes wanted to talk with him. The slave hinted that Philip would be pleased with the meeting. After the morning meal, he was summoned to Pammenes' presence. Entering the room, he noted a genial smile on the face of his captor. Perhaps Archlus was right.

  "I met yesterday with Epaminondas and Pelopidas," Pammenes began. "They have decided what to do next with you. Most of them feel that you have made good progress. You are a different person than the ne'er-do-well who came into my home three months ago."

  Philip beamed. "I've learned much. I've not forgotten my country, but the pain of being here has lessened."

  Pammenes smiled, probably because of the marked improvement in Philip’s Greek. "It’s been decided that you should be allowed in the lower city. This will still be your home and you must return here before dusk each day. Your guard has been reduced from two Sacred Band soldiers to one hoplite. That guard and Archlus will always be with you. But you'll have more freedom. Epaminondas wants you to begin physical training. You'll even be allowed to alter your strict diet; small amounts of meat will be served with your meals. After you respond to physical training, you'll begin lessons in military tactics. Epaminondas has a mission for you, Philip. Part of that mission requires that you learn more efficient ways of men killing each other. He told me that when you finish your military training, he will speak to you about his ultimate plans.”

  “You'll continue to be tutored in Pythagorean philosophy and religion, but these lessons will diminish. Your tutors told me that you have progressed as far as you can, given the strong convictions brought with you from Macedonia."

  Philip was not aware that his tutors had fathomed his feelings. He had convinced himself that he had tricked them with insincere interest. He resolved to be more careful about letting any Theban know what he was thinking.

  "One more thing, Philip," Pammenes said. "As a young man, you probably have experienced sexual tension during your time on the Cadmea. Today you'll be taken to the lower city, where you may, if you wish, visit the House of Hetairai. The women there are learned, cultured, and clean. They share sexual pleasures only with Thebes' leaders; you should feel honored. If you don't want a hetaera, a boy will be provided. Is your sexual preference women or men?"

  "I've had both. But given my long abstinence, I feel that a woman will be more satisfying."

  "Thebans make no judgments about men’s sexual preferences. You'll learn how we feel about these matters when you begin your military training. Members of our Sacred Band are not just the best fighters in Greece. They have also formed a male love bond. Both are sworn professionally and personally to each other until death. That's the relationship between Epaminondas and Pelopidas."

  "I thought so," Philip said delicately.

  "Leave now, Philip," Pammenes commanded. "Archlus and your new guard await you in the courtyard. They'll take you to the lower city."

  "Farewell, Pammenes," Philip said as he departed.

  The teenage boy spent the morning in the House of Hetairai. He chose a beautiful woman in her early twenties whose name was Aspasia. She told him that she had been named after the famous companion of Pericles. He learned that she was from Athens and had been a hetaera from the time she had been his age. Sex with her was wonderful. When his lust was finally satiated, he was captivated with the woman's flute playing and dancing. Later, surprisingly, Aspasia asked him if he knew which sex enjoyed intercourse the most.

  "I’ve never thought about it," Philip answered. He was amazed that she had.

  "The debate is an old one between Greek men and women. Zeus and Hera, in fact, had the same discussion. Zeus said that women enjoyed sex more; Hera said men did. They decided to ask the prophet Tiresias, who had spent half his life as man and half as a woman. Tiresias considered the question and then answered that women enjoy sex nine times as much as a man. So, you see, the issue has already been decided."

  As Philip left the House of Hetairai, he could think of nothing but returning to this place, where nine times his sexual desires awaited him. Theban boys would have to wait.

  Philip and Archlus ate a marvelous meat-studded meal, and then toured the lower city. His hoplite guard followed. Lower Thebes was as Philip had imagined from his vantage point on the Cadmea. Cobblestone streets, stairs, and walkways laced through hundreds of red-tile roofed homes. Eventually, Archlus led Philip to the central agora. At midday it was filled with people from Thebes and farmers from surrounding villages. Many were there to sell produce. Others came to buy, trade, or meet someone for a business transaction. He loved the smells and sights of the agora. The farmers’ food products were colorfully arranged in open-air booths. The expansive assortment of vegetables reminded him of Pella’s agora. They can’t be as delicious as Macedonian vegetables grown in the Gardens of Midas.

  Sur
rounding the open market were impressive government buildings. Archlus told Philip that the Theban assembly was meeting today. "Citizens are gathered in the assembly hall to vote on important issues. Only Theban citizens are allowed to vote."

  During the months of his captivity, Philip had observed that Theban and Greek society was highly structured. Full citizens enjoyed the most privileges. Next in the hierarchy came metics: free men of foreign birth. Beneath the metics were former slaves who had been honored by their masters with the gift of freedom. Slaves occupied the bottom of the social order. As was true in Macedonia, and everywhere else in the ancient world, slaves provided the labor force that made society work. It was on their brutalized backs that the advantaged upper classes prospered and grew wealthy.

  Philip guessed that the market vendors awaited assembly adjournment, when sales of their produce and merchandise would be brisk. The group left the agora and headed toward the stadium. As they approached it, he saw that it was built in a small valley. The valley floor had been leveled and stone seats were cut neatly into the hills on both sides. Nearby was the gymnasium, a large rectangular building with an open space in the middle. A long, covered practice area, the dromos, was attached to the gymnasium. Archlus explained that this sports center was of great importance to Thebans. Philip learned that nearly every male citizen and his son came to the center every day.

  Archlus led Philip through a gateway and they found themselves in the earth-covered, open roofed gymnasium. Nude men and boys were engaged in a variety of athletic games. Several pairs were wrestling; others lined up to throw the javelin. A smaller group competed in discus throwing. Philip studied the ages of the men and boys and the intensity of their training. He realized why Thebes produced such fine soldiers and dominated so completely on the battlefield.