me, thankfully.
Antinous stumbled out his words. He was quaking with emotion.
'When next we meet, and with my Father's endorsement, I hope to be able to say to you 'Yes Caesar, I am yours', if this remains your desire,' he said softly but clearly.
Hadrian smiled.
'Prepare yourself well, Antinous of Bithynia. Your true life is about to begin. You will fulfill your destiny to your heart's desire. Until Athens, farewell.'
Caesar rewound himself in his cloak and swept back into the Marquee's dark interior. Once again Antinous was standing alone in the moonlight, disheveled, cold, while fumbling to adjust his loincloth and re-furl his cloak.
But then I perceived how, besides myself beneath the pale gray moon, another concealed observer had seen these events. Both of us had witnessed the inauguration of something which proved to be momentous for our generation.'
'An observer, you say?' Suetonius interjected.
'Yes. I began to back away from my place of concealment. I withdrew into the shadows to return to the lanes leading back to our sleeping quarters. I moved quickly to ensure I returned ahead of Antinous. I knew Antinous would feel his honor had been impugned if he realized I had observed the exchange with Caesar.
As I moved into the shadows I noticed another figure flit through the darkness ahead of me, someone who too had been concealed. Startled but evasive, I caught the image of this figure from the corner of my eye silently emerging through the moonlight and again disappearing into darkness. It happened momentarily. This figure must surely have seen me too concealed up ahead. He too had probably been a witness to the transaction between Hadrian and Ant. I perceived the shadowy figure's height, breadth, and body type to have been similar to someone like Arrian.
It dawned on me how the absence of Horse Guards or Praetorian protectors at the site of the rendezvous was intentional to permit the night's events to proceed unhindered. The emperor's assignation with my friend was arranged to be entirely private and personal.
I then moved swiftly through the tent city's lanes to be ahead of my school friend's return.'
The four listeners heard out Lysias's reminiscence with fascination. The graphic details of Caesar's adventure with his Bithynian subject concentrated their minds wonderfully. Lysias returned to silence while sipping at his wine.
CHAPTER 11
'So? What happened next?' Suetonius asked.
Lysias sat upright to begin his testimony again.
'On returning to our sleeping quarters I was confronted with another surprise. Our staff was standing around staring in dismay at the places where Antinous and I were supposed to be asleep. Squatted atop Antinous's bed of piled straw a pace from my own stack was a human figure reclining in a nonchalant manner.
She was a young woman of striking pertness, delicacy, and shining with a copper-colored complexion. Her dark hair was bound high on her head in the fashionable style of gentlewomen of quality at Rome, pinned with needles of ivory. She was dressed in the fine, sheer raiment and silken mantle of a member of the Imperial Court adorned with drop earrings and a necklet of filigree gold. Her eyes were outlined in thin black lines of kohl, a striking fashion affected at the eastern half of the Empire.
She had a travelling sack bulging with possessions lying beside her, and as I approached I realized she also had a sheathed gladius short-sword lying on the blanket before her. The weapon's matching hip dagger and its finely-crafted belt-strap were immediately-recognizable. It was the knife which had brought down the boar earlier in the day. Hadrian's knife. It was accompanied by an Imperial scroll tied in scarlet silk and sealed with a clay bulla.
'Antinous of Bithynia?' she asked brightly as I came near.
'No, I am Lysias, his friend,' I responded. 'Who are you? What do you want with Antinous, young lady?'
'Oh,' she said firmly, 'I am instructed to speak only with Antinous of Bithynia.'
At that moment Antinous entered the marquee, only to be surprised to find everyone awake and standing forlornly around his bedding place. It was occupied by the dark eyed interloper seated between her various possessions. He glanced around the motley group facing him.
'What the…?' he gasped.
The lithe young beauty arose from her seat with a supple dexterity and a delicate feminine grace I have rarely seen expressed so effectively in a single human bodily movement. I realized the delightful creature in the resplendent attire with her supple elegance was perhaps one of the dancers from the evening's entertainments, or some other nubile attendant to the Imperial Household.
She met eye-to-eye with Antinous and immediately understood how this blond haired, tall-statured youth with the gilded suntan was her mission's objective. Someone had told her Antinous would be the very good looking fellow of our group.
'Antinous of Bithynia, victor of the Hunt, greetings!' she proclaimed gaily. 'I am instructed by my master to deliver these gifts to you and ensure their purpose is understood.'
With a nod of the head gesturing to the sword and dagger at her feet while proffering the official scroll, she continued trippingly.
'These are awards from Great Caesar to be delivered directly into the hands of Antinous of Bithynia. I am also instructed to deliver myself into your household's service as well,' she said with a teasing flash of the eyes. She rose to her full height barely up to Antinous's chest and offered the gladius, dagger, belt, and scroll, accompanied by a small kidskin pouch knobbled with bulges. It suggested many coins within.
'Yes, I am Antinous of Bithynia, young lady,' he confirmed with formality before the eyes of all. 'So who are you?'
Antinous scanned his grooms and steward for an explanatory response.
'The young lady was escorted to our tent by two of Caesar's soldiers,' his steward said. 'They departed just before you arrived. She is unaccompanied.'
Antinous glanced at me questioningly but then took the sword belt with its attached scabbard and dagger in his hands and unsheathed the well-wrought polished blade. The gleam of quality metal and fine craftsmanship shone beneath the lamp-light while the white enameled inlays and silver decoration announced its costliness. Antinous looked to me as we both immediately recognized its origin and owner.
'It's the blade which killed the boar today. It's Caesar's.'
Antinous developed a growing blush as its implication dawned on both of us at the same time. 'A small hunting kill, a fine weapon, or a drinking vessel', the classic definition of admissible suitor's gifts to an eromenos which did not imply bribery, let alone prostitution.
'My master has instructed me to say you will understand what this gift represents,' the petite birdlike woman confirmed in wide-eyed innocence.
The nutty russet of her skin, her straight line of white teeth shining from a beaming face, her whiter-than- white eyeballs with their piercingly dark pupils, the painted kohl around her eyes, and the slenderness of her figure told us this pretty creature was a foreigner of neither Hellene nor Asia Minor origin. Yet her spoken Greek was without accent.
Antinous nodded acknowledgement and took the scroll and sack of coins in curiosity. He broke the scroll's clay seal and unwound the papyrus. Glancing to me and the others from time to time, he began to softly enunciate the message within.
'Antinous of Bithynia, son of Telemachus of Claudiopolis, greetings! I, Imperator Caesar Publius Aelius Hadrianus, as a token of my friendship, regard, and affection, bestow your person with this gift of a finely wrought sword of best Syracuse workmanship. This sword was once the property of King Nikomedes IV of Bithynia, being a part of the treasure endowed by his estate to the SPQR at the time of Caesar Augustus. You will recall this sword's efficacy in our Imperial Hunt this day, and comprehend its intended message as a gesture of my regard. Respect
