Melitta shook her head. ‘A chair, I fear, host. I lack the experience to control my garments at a feast, and I would not stain Kallista’s dress for anything.’ She smiled at the slave girl.
‘Yours, now, mistress,’ Kinon said. ‘I would not lend a guest a garment. ’
Melitta blushed. The linen and the pins were worth more than everything she currently owned. ‘Thanks,’ she stammered.
Kinon arranged her chair himself and pulled Kallista by the hand. ‘Will you wait on the young mistress, my beauty?’ he asked, as if she were a member of the family. Raising his eyes to his guests, he said, ‘I do not treat her as a slave in the privacy of my garden.’
Theron shrugged. ‘I could rest my eyes on her for ever,’ he said.
Satyrus would have liked to have said that. He settled for a nod.
Philokles laughed. ‘This is the effect of Leon!’ he said, a little too loudly. He had been drinking for an hour.
Kinon settled on to the couch opposite the Spartan. ‘You understand? ’
Philokles smiled. ‘I am a Spartan bastard,’ he said. ‘I understand all too well.’
Theron took wine from a slave and leaned on his elbow. ‘I would like to understand,’ he said.
Kinon nodded. ‘Leon began as a free man and was made a slave. When he became free, he determined to free more men. And women. We call them our “families”.’ He grinned self-consciously. ‘I am not likely to have any other kind of family,’ he said. ‘I was a slave.’
‘Theban?’ Philokles asked.
‘Ahh. The Boeotian accent.’
Philokles nodded. ‘And your respect for Sappho.’
‘Yes, I knew her – before.’ Kinon shrugged. ‘Slavery is neither the beginning nor the end of life. But Leon made me free, and put me in a position to become as rich as I am.’ He shrugged. ‘I will give the same gift to Kallista, when she is old enough to find a husband and not a brothel.’
Philokles spilled a libation on the gravel. ‘To freedom!’ he said, and slipped the krater on to the back of his hand. He drank the bowl dry and flipped the leavings across the garden with a practised flick of the wrist, so that the drops of wine rang as they struck the bronze slops urn.
‘To freedom,’ echoed all the other diners. More drops of wine crossed the roses, but no one else hit the urn.
‘You’re good,’ Kinon said.
‘I spend a lot of time practising,’ Philokles said, his voice light.
Melitta leaned across her brother and whispered in his ear. ‘Kinon is flirting with Philokles,’ she said.
‘Hush,’ Satyrus said, shocked. He saw the slight smile on Kallista’s face, and he blushed – and she blushed. Their eyes were locked, and he had to make himself look away.
His sister glanced back and forth between her brother and the slave girl. She shook her head. ‘Brother,’ she hissed.
He hung his head. Their mother had strict rules about servant girls – and boys.
Theron and Philokles talked with Kinon long into the night. At some point, between wine and shared anecdotes, Philokles stopped hiding their situation, and Kinon expressed immediate sympathy. They began to map out how the twins could travel, either to Athens, where Satyrus owned property that was untouchable by Eumeles of Pantecapaeum, or to Diodorus, who was, it appeared, in the field with the army of Eumenes the Cardian.
Philokles was sober enough when it came to politics, but Theron, who had drunk less, finally shook his head.
‘I think I need to hear all that again,’ he said, pleasantly enough.
Kinon looked at Theron as if he was a fool. Satyrus sat forward. ‘Please,’ he said. ‘I, too, would like to understand.’
‘It’s all been the same since the Conqueror died,’ Kinon said bitterly. ‘Alexander conquered, well, damn near everything!’ He took a drink, tried to hit the bronze urn with his dregs and failed. Theron took the bowl.
Kinon shrugged at his own failure. ‘When Alexander died, he left chaos. In Macedon, Antipater was regent – for Alexander, yes? And throughout the old Persian empire – Darius’s empire – Alexander had left satraps. Petty kings who ruled over wide areas. Some were the old Persian satraps. Some were Greeks, or Macedonians. The system depended on a strong hand on the reins, and Alexander’s hand was very strong.’
Theron took the bowl and drank the whole of it, rolled it on his wrist and his flick caught Kallista on the top of her hair. She leaped from her couch and tossed water back at him, and they all laughed. It took time to settle down again. Satyrus couldn’t help but notice how transparent her linen was when wet.
‘Shall I go on?’ Kinon asked.
‘Please,’ Satyrus said. It was his turn with the bowl. He sipped carefully.
‘So the army met in council – all the spearmen, and all the cavalry, and all the officers – and none of the Persians or auxiliaries. Trust me, that will make trouble in time. At any rate, Alexander left no heir – no one who could run his empire. He has two children – one by Roxane, and another by-blow by a Persian noblewoman – some say she’s a common harlot, others that she is a princess.’ Kinon looked around, because Philokles was smiling. ‘You know her?’
‘Nothing common about her,’ Philokles said with a smile. ‘She’s – remarkable.’
‘At any rate, the army vote to hand the empire to Alexander’s brother, the halfwit. But he can’t rule himself, much less the world. And there are rumours – still – that Antipater was about to revolt anyway, that Eumenes and Seleucus were about to divide up the world – anyway, there are ten thousand rumours. The fact is, Alexander died and there was no one in charge. So all of his generals decided to fight over the empire. Perdikkas had the army – he had been Alexander’s top soldier at the moment of the conqueror’s death. But Antipater had the Macedonian army, the army that had been kept home.’ ‘The army that defeated the Spartans,’ Philokles said. ‘Only needed odds of five to one. Useless fucks.’
Satyrus was done drinking. He’d been careful, and consumed the whole cup without spilling a drop. He laid the cup along his arm as Philokles did, and he snapped it forward – and the handle broke. The cup smashed on the marble floor. His sister gave him the look reserved for siblings who behave like idiots, and Kallista burst out laughing.
Slaves hurried to clean up the mess.
Philokles roared. ‘Good shot, boy! Only, next time, hold the rim, not the handle.’
Kinon laughed like a good host. ‘Another cup, Pais!’ he called to the slave nearest the door.
‘Bring a metal one,’ Theron added.
Satyrus squirmed. Melitta decided to rescue him. ‘So Antipater had an army, and Perdikkas had an army.’
Kinon nodded. ‘A sober young lady. Antipater had Macedon, and Perdikkas had the rest – so it appeared. But one of Alexander’s generals-’
‘The best of them,’ Philokles put in.
‘I must agree,’ Kinon said with a civil inclination of his head. A new cup appeared and was handed to Philokles. ‘Ptolemy had taken Aegypt as his satrapy. He had a large Macedonian garrison and he began to recruit mercenaries.’›
‘Like Uncle Diodorus!’ Satyrus said.
‘Just like.’ Philokles nodded and sipped wine.
‘So Perdikkas decided to defeat Ptolemy first and take Aegypt to provide money and grain for his army. Which had been Alexander’s army.’ Kinon looked at Satyrus. ‘Still with me?’
‘Of course,’ Satyrus said. ‘And Perdikkas failed, got beaten and was murdered by his officers.’
‘No one ever called Macedonians civilized,’ Philokles said.
‘Now Antigonus has the army that used to belong to Perdikkas – except for the part that Eumenes the Cardian has. Antigonus means to unseat Ptolemy. Ptolemy! The least harmful of the lot! And a good friend to Heraklea!’
‘Perhaps Antigonus will lose?’ Philokles said. ‘I know Ptolemy. He’s a subtle man.’
‘You know him?’ Kinon laughed again. He was drunk now. ‘I am in the company of the great.’
Philokles finished the cup, flicked his wrist and his wine drop scored on the bronze rim of the urn like a bell tolling. ‘I know him pretty well,’ he said. ‘I took him prisoner once.’ He laughed, and Kinon looked shocked.
