‘It will just be your word against mine,’ Megakles snarled.
‘No, it will not,’ Aristarchos assured him. ‘I can call a witness to the plotting you allowed to flourish under your very own roof.’
That was my cue. I walked through the archway to the outer courtyard. Lydis followed, carrying my stool and retreating as soon as he’d set it down. I took my seat.
Still standing, Megakles stared at me, dumbfounded. He didn’t have the faintest idea who I was.
‘This is Philocles,’ Aristarchos said helpfully. ‘He was with the musicians you hired for that symposium you invited me to. He heard everything that was said.’
‘One of those Aitolians?’ scoffed Megakles. ‘His word is no good in Athens. You might just as well put forward the slave who carried your torch.’
‘Hardly. I value my slaves. In any case, you are mistaken. Philocles is an Athenian citizen who can call any number of men from his district to vouch for him and his family. Though I’m surprised you don’t recognise him,’ Aristarchos remarked. ‘He wrote the comedy I sponsored for the festival.’
I was pleased to see a flicker of uncertainty on Megakles’s face. Nevertheless, he half turned and took a pace as though he was about to leave.
‘And of course, your son tried to have him killed,’ Aristarchos continued in that same measured tone. ‘To add to the first murder we can lay at his door.’
‘What?’ Megakles turned back. Apprehension coloured his protest. ‘Nikandros would do no such thing.’
‘You don’t know your son very well.’ Aristarchos was politely contemptuous. ‘Do you know how he was financing his attempt to beggar the city’s leather workers so that your tanneries and workshops would profit?’
I followed his prompt. ‘He told me he had raised loans against the produce and the property of the farms and the vineyards you own.’
‘He did what?’ Megakles was aghast.
‘Without your knowledge or consent?’ Aristarchos pursed his lips. ‘That disgraces you both. Or it would, if it were true. In fact, Nikandros was conspiring with a wrestler who claimed the protection of your patronage. We have yet to establish where they got the silver that funded their treason.’
I made sure my face was as calm and assured as my patron’s. In fact, we had yet to establish if Nikandros had raised loans using Kerykes land. It would take twenty or thirty days for Aristarchos’s men to ride out into Attica and return with any proof either way. But when I’d said I didn’t believe it and cited Iktinos’s threats to Nikandros, Aristarchos had been convinced.
He was still speaking. ‘Philocles was attacked outside the house which you own in Limnai, where Gorgias has been living whenever he returns to Athens. That’s where he takes a break from his travels masquerading as a scroll seller called Archilochos. He has gone the length and breadth of Ionia assiduously stirring up resentment and doubt as to the Athenian people’s good faith. Do you seriously expect the city’s great and good to believe that your son did all this without your knowledge?’
Looking at Megakles’s slack jaw and hollow eyes, I was convinced he hadn’t known a thing about it, but that wasn’t the point.
Voice shaking, he still tried to strike back. ‘Accuse my son and you accuse your own, and others besides. You’ll make more enemies than me if you drag any of this into court.’
‘You think his friends’ fathers will rally to you?’ Aristarchos raised his voice. ‘Lydis!’
The slave reappeared with two letters. He handed them to Megakles. I never did discover what they said, but Megakles paled as he read them.
‘It’s Nikandros who has made powerful enemies for your family,’ Aristarchos said softly. ‘Seeking to take advantage of foolish boys easily led.’
‘We’ll see about that.’ Megakles turned the papyrus sideways as though he was going to tear both sheets in two.
Lydis was too quick, plucking the letters from his hands.
‘You honestly think that I’d hand you the originals?’ mocked Aristarchos. ‘Even if I were so foolish, a letter can always be rewritten.’
Megakles threw up his hands in extravagant fury. ‘I cannot believe that you’d condemn your own son. Such cruelty to your family! Such disloyalty to your bloodline!’
‘I have three sons still living.’ Aristarchos looked at him, as cold and unyielding as marble. ‘You have only one.’
I found myself wishing I wrote tragedy. The theatre sees so many Cleons and Agamemnons condemning their nieces and nephews and sons and daughters with foot-stamping denunciations. If I could pen such a brutal judgement delivered with composure as ominous as this, I’d have an entire audience holding their breath.
Megakles looked at the paving, histrionics abandoned. Aristarchos continued serenely.
‘Not that I intend to bring such treason to court. I have more than enough evidence to accuse Nikandros of corrupting temple officials, and extorting compliance from others with threats of violence. That’s how he secured all the hides from this year Dionysia’s sacrifices.’
Lydis had been busy while I’d been trying to trap Iktinos. Aristarchos had always intended to secure a fallback position.
‘Tell me,’ he invited, ‘is he looking to put every other tannery and leather worker out of business or merely to make sure they’re obligated to your family? Though I don’t suppose it matters. Any jury of honest tradesmen and craftsmen will see a rich man greedy for still more coin, who is willing to ruin men like themselves by destroying their humble livelihoods.’
‘There are no laws against securing commercial advantage,’ blustered Megakles.
‘There are laws against bribery,’ Aristarchos pointed out.
‘Go ahead then,’ Megakles spat. ‘Call us before the courts and we’ll see who wins. I’ll have Glaukias compose my son’s defence. Who will you have at your side? This—’ he gestured at me, struggling to find some insult bad enough ‘—comedian?’
Aristarchos’s grin reminded me of the crocodile Zosime had drawn for me once. Those lethal creatures were one of the few things she remembered from her childhood in Egypt.
‘Strato and Pheidestratos were stupid enough to underestimate Philocles, and
