Pueros

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Part ε΄ - ‘Ττάσίς’
(Part 5 - Insurrection)

– first part –

(Royal park, Persepolis, Persia, late spring, 499 BC)

Dios was on the excellent grey pony given to him in Ephesus in the previous year by Aspamites. The boy was riding alongside Darius I and Theanos, amidst the King of Kings’ big hunting party and within the beautifully maintained large forested royal park that dominated the Marv Dasht plain in front of the resplendent elevated palace at Persepolis. The spring weather was sunny and warm but not too hot for their pastime.

Darius had cancelled the hunt proposed for the day when the news of the start of what was to become known to posterity as the ‘Ionian Revolt’ had reached Persepolis by rapid relay despatch riders sent down the royal road from distant Sardis. However, having now instructed his generals as to how to react, as well as having accepted an offer of attempted mediation from a certain exile imprisoned in luxury in Susa, the King of Kings had returned to his second favourite pastime.

Heavy bejewelled gauntlets of thick leather protected Darius’ hands. Sitting on top of one of these gloves was a magnificent and well-trained peregrine falcon, with dark red plumage, powerful beak and razor-sharp talons. The bird’s feet were adorned with leather jesses, to which tiny bells had been affixed. The King of Kings had now decided to indulge in some falconry on the edge of the marshes that fringed parts of the royal park.

Darius’ reward was several water-birds, upon which his falcon had expertly swooped from high above, as the victims unwisely attempted to fly from the protection of the marsh reeds. "I think we know," the King of Kings then happily loudly commented to his various companions, "what will form part of the dinner menu tonight!" He received laughter from all those accompanying him, except for the now 12 year-old Dios, who was looking rather morose, with his mind clearly focused elsewhere.

Darius believed that he knew what was disturbing his gorgeous but still sexually untouched beloved young page, whose great beauty and splendid character really did remind him of the younger Aspamites. The King of Kings therefore decided that, for the sake of the nature of their future relationship, if there was now still to be one, he had to resolve the issues that were obviously troubling the boy.

Darius pursued his aim when his hunting party eventually stopped for a picnic luncheon in one of the special groves maintained for such an event within the forested park. The particular clearing chosen was alongside a small pond, where colourful water lilies flourished.

Having handed his falcon and gauntlets to the care of another servant, Darius took Dios aside, and the pair sat well away from the other members of the royal hunting party, near the side of the pond and under the cooling shadow of a tall cypress tree. As if by magic, a large tray was already present at the grassy spot. On top were a pair of golden goblets, appropriately embossed with hunting scenes, a similarly decorated jug, which contained watered wine, and two circular silver platters with suitable, given the setting, water lily motifs. The latter utensils were covered with exotically sumptuous snacks.

Theanos watched as Darius separated Dios from him and the others. However, the young Lesbian experienced no jealousy, as he then sat alone to enjoy his own luncheon. His similarly aged best friend was still in sight nearby. He could also not begrudge the King of Kings, who had exhibited much kindness to the two boys since they had formally entered his service, time alone with the young Chian, whom it was obvious to all the man loved intensely, albeit so far only platonically.

Darius first ate some duck, marinated in a delicious sauce, but the still clearly distracted Dios appeared not to be hungry. Consequently, the King of Kings decided to face the likely problem head-on in order to resolve matters one away or another as quickly as possible. As he did so, he suspected that he and the boy would later leave the grove estranged forever, which was a prospect that he deeply disliked because he did now truly love the young Chian.

"I suppose that you’ve already heard about the major insurrection in the west, Dios," the King of Kings suggested to the 12 year-old, "including on your home island of Chios." "News of such matters spreads fast within your palaces, Dârayavau�," the young eunuch confirmed, whilst informally and affectionately addressing his royal master by his name in ancient Persian, which he had been encouraged to do whenever they were alone together. No other servant, other than a certain Aspamites, had ever been allowed such a privilege, which was therefore a testament to the man’s feelings for his latest favourite boy.

"The surprising leader of the revolt, Dios," Darius advised, "is the Greek whom I appointed as tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras. I say ‘surprising’ because I considered him to be not only an ally but also a friend."

"Aristagoras recently persuaded me to try to increase my empire further by expanding into the Cyclades of the Aegean, Dios," Darius informed, "and he personally led the first expedition, which proved very costly to my treasury. The initial offensive was against the archipelago’s largest island, Naxos, but the ensuing siege was not successful and, after four months, he was compelled to withdraw. Spies now belatedly tell me that he needlessly feared retribution from me for his expensive failure and, presumably believing that attack was the best form of defence, he decided to stir up existing grievances amongst his fellow Greeks and cause revolt. I understand that he is currently marching his Milesian army, reinforced by Athenian, Eretrian and Ionian allies, against the Lydian satrap, Artaphernes, in his capital at Sardis."

"I now understand, Dios," Darius announced, "that Aristagoras had previously travelled to Greece to try to gain support. The Spartans refused but both Athens on the mainland and Eretria on the offshore island of Euboea agreed to assist. He then went on to persuade your fellow Ionians also to provide help."

"I had entertained Aristagoras’ father-in-law and predecessor as tyrant of Miletus, Histiaeus, in great comfort in Susa for many years, Dios," Darius declared, "because he had become dangerously over-mighty after providing me with important help in my Thracian campaign of over a decade ago. However, I’ve now accepted his offer to try to intercede and persuade his son-in-law to back down before matters run out of control, and so I’ve released him from his enforced luxurious exile. You see, if the insurrection continues, I’ll have to re-establish control firmly and punish the rebel leaders harshly or my authority might suffer and ultimately my throne might be threatened."

"I suspect Histiaeus’ real intentions, though, Dios," Darius next expounded, "and wouldn’t be surprised if, instead of interceding with his son-in-law, he simply joined him in revolt. He might even have somehow instigated the whole insurrection himself from enforced exile in Susa. However, despite these suspicions, I’ve chosen to accept his word because I consider the prospect of restored peace, never mind how remote, is worth the risk of letting him go."

On hearing these disclosures, Dios began to wonder when and where he had previously heard the names ‘Histiaeus’ and ‘Aristagoras’. The boy then recalled an anecdote that Aspamites had once related to him, whilst they were both riding along the royal road from Ephesus to Ecbatana.

"Dârayavau�," a worried Dios therefore interrupted to comment, being one of the few people who could ignore normal court protocol and disturb even the private conversation of the king in such a way and live afterwards, "Aspamites once told me that Histiaeus sent secret messages from Susa to Aristagoras. They were pricked onto the shaven head of a slave, who left for Miletus once his hair had re-grown. I thought the story funny at the time."

"Yes, Dios," Darius replied, "I too was aware from informers about Histiaeus’ supposedly secret method of conveying messages to his son-in-law. I also thought the system to be very amusing and let the practice continue because I saw no harm in the arrangement. After all, I originally considered Aristagoras to be a friend and ally and I therefore did not want to disturb private communications, which I believed probably only concerned family matters."

"But Dârayavau�," Dios retorted, "what if Histiaeus used the method to encourage Aristagoras to rise in revolt by falsely suggesting that you were very angry with and seeking revenge against him for his expensive failure at Naxos? His father-in-law might have considered the ploy an excellent way of ending his exile, and possibly returning to his previous powerful status, by subsequently offering to intercede with his rebellious son-in-law to restore imperial harmony."

"Yes, Dios," Darius responded, "I do now sadly accept that a pernicious message might have been sent on a slave’s head, which consequently rather deflates our original amusement at the adoption of the method. I should therefore have ensured an early end to the system but I didn’t and it’s now too late, with any damage already done. For the sake of my subjects in the west, I can only now pray to Ahuramazda that Histiaeus and his son-in-law see sense and stop matters running out of control."

"You see, Dios, if I do eventually need to suppress the revolt firmly, many Greek rebels, including Chians, will undoubtedly be killed," the King of Kings continued, "with much destruction occurring and, as in every conflict, many innocents also unfortunately suffering. I could give orders to my generals to be generous to most of the defeated insurgents but undoubtedly such commands will more often than not be forgotten amidst the heat of war. My forces will also need to set brutal examples in order to encourage others to surrender without resistance."

"I know, Dârayavau�," Dios sighed rather fatalistically.

"Do you therefore want to leave the service of the king who might soon be seeking to inflict disaster on your fellow countrymen, Dios?" Darius then tentatively asked.

Darius’ heart subsequently skipped a beat, in fear that his beloved Dios would answer positively.

(Satrapy of Gandara [modern north Punjab, now split between India and Pakistan], same time)

Aspamites watched, as the local satrap, who had been one of Darius I’s officially appointed boyhood companions, was publicly nailed naked to a cross. The spasaka did not consider himself to be cruel but he could not find any pity for the screaming governor, who had betrayed the trust of the King of Kings by corruptly and greedily skimming off for himself far more of the annual tribute than his entitlement.

Aspamites had reported his findings in a message to his beloved Darius I. The King of Kings had to set an example and therefore responded with orders to the local military commander, who was sensibly independent of the satrap, to arrest and execute the governor. The spasaka had also been advised at the same about the revolt amongst the Greeks of the west and he was summoned back to Persepolis so that he could play a part in the suppression of the major insurrection, which threatened his royal master’s empire.

(Royal park, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Dios’ lovely sensuous blue eyes looked up at the King of Kings’ bearded face, whilst the boy’s rosy lips declared "I shall never seek to leave your service, Dârayavau�, for two reasons. First, I gave my word to Aspamites that I would accept my fate whatever it was to be."

"In the event, Dârayavau�," Dios continued, "my fate was to be one of your pages and I would be dishonouring my word and myself if I sought to end such service because some unwise people amongst my countrymen have sought to rebel against you!" "I can understand," the boy then bluntly but sagaciously advised, "that they may have been unhappy about some aspects of your administration, especially the imposition of tyrants and increased annual tribute. However, they have also gained much from Persian rule to compensate and any disputes should have been resolved by negotiation not war."

Any other servant effectively suggesting that Darius I had been mistaken in some aspects of his governance of his Lydian satrapy might have found himself being nailed for insolence to a cross, just as was happening to the governor of Gandara for corruption at that very moment. However, the relieved King of Kings did not issue such a command in respect of his beloved young page, whose loyalty and wisdom despite his tender years impressed him greatly.

Darius, trying to hide how joyous he was to learn that the young Chian was determined to remain in his service, therefore instead simply commented "I suppose that, in retrospect, Dios, such policies may indeed have been imprudent." The King of Kings then added "However, what’s done is done. Now, what was the second reason you mentioned for never seeking to leave my service?"

"I�.I," Dios stuttered, whilst his beautiful face blushed slightly, "l�.l�.l�.l�.like you a lot, Dârayavau�." The King of Kings could have sworn that the boy was going to say ‘love’ rather than ‘like’ but something, perhaps abashment, had obviously caused the young eunuch to change his mind.

Alternatively, Darius realised that he himself might just be experiencing a hopeful adult fantasy. Consequently, he simply thanked the boy politely and gratefully, and with secret immense relief, for his commitment to his word and confession about liking his royal master. The King of Kings then changed the subject to enquire next "What can I now do, Dios, to help cheer you up?"

Dios, having committed himself to continuing to honour his word to Aspamites, realised that, in such circumstances, there was no point in still moping about his own people’s foolishness in violently rebelling against the suzerainty of the King of Kings. The boy, whose nightmares about his castration had mysteriously ended shortly after formally entering Darius’ service, therefore decided that he should carry on with his life, as if the revolt in the west against the surely ultimately overpowering Persians was not happening. However, he did privately undertake to pray regularly to his Greek gods that Chios, and his family and friends on the island, would somehow survive the undoubted bloody retribution that would befall the insurgents.

In answer to the King of Kings’ last question, Dios therefore replied, whilst a hopeful smile returned to his perfect face, "I’ve been taking some secret lessons, Dârayavau�, from one of your best palace dance-masters, who trains performers for your banquets. Theanos also already knows how to play the flute."

"In return for the kindness that you’ve shown to us and the other new recruits to your service, Dârayavau�," Dios next informed the increasingly ecstatic King of Kings, "we’d therefore like to perform privately for you tonight. I propose that you let me dance to Theanos’ musical accompaniment."

Dios then added "I have taken the liberty, Dârayavau�, to commission a special loincloth from a palace seamstress for the occasion. I hoped that you might also lend me some jewellery so that I can look my best for you!"

Darius immediately decided to give rather than lend Dios the requested jewellery. The King of Kings also began to believe that, despite the trouble in the Lydian satrapy, Ahuramazda must truly be blessing him.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, evening of the same day)

Dios and Theanos were unusually not involved in Darius I’s bathing and other preparations for sleep. The pair of boys was also not present when the King of Kings eventually lay on his huge canopied bed in his rich night attire and surprisingly indicated to his attendant entourage of young pages, by discreet hand signal, that he needed none of them to be his companion for the night.

Most of Darius’ pages did not mind not being chosen to be the King of Kings’ bed companion. Being eunuchs, their sex-drives were low, although those now accustomed to pleasuring regularly their royal master’s large manly cock did admit to gaining enjoyment when the regal penis was used to tickle their prostates. However, the now 14 year-old Babylonian eunuch, Staspes, was an exception to the pervading nonchalance.

Staspes was very disappointed at not being selected again to be Darius’ bumboy for the evening. Until the advent of Dios, the pretty Babylonian had been the King of Kings’ favourite catamite but he had not spent a night alongside his royal master since the young Chian had formally entered royal service.

Staspes was currently an easily jealous person, who had been proud of the favouritism shown by Darius, as well as ambitious as to where such regard might someday take him. Aspamites was an example as to how highly considered catamites could attain very important positions and the younger Babylonian had no intention of being thwarted in his aspirations by the Chian eunuch.

Staspes had earlier hoped that Dios’ unusual absence from the entourage of pages preparing Darius for his nightly repose might be an indication that the young Chian had fallen from favour, possibly somehow as a result of the rebellion that had just erupted amongst the Greeks in the west of the empire. However, if that was the case, royal displeasure had obviously not yet extended to the reappointment of the Babylonian as the King of Kings’ favourite, given his current disappointing banishment with the others from the royal bedchamber.

If Dios still retained his status, Spaspes, who was unaware that so far the relationship between Darius and the newer eunuch had just been platonic, decided, as he was leaving the royal bedchamber, that he would plot to usurp the new favourite. He did not know that overnight stays in the King of Kings’ bedchamber by the young Chian had up to now remained innocently connected only to storytelling duties, although this situation was about to change.

On this night, Darius was not alone in his bedchamber for long, after his entourage of pages, including the disappointed and jealous Staspes had departed. Theanos, attired in his usual colourful uniform, first entered the large room, which was illuminated only by a couple of night oil lamps, located on top of a pair of ornate metal stands in two corners.

Theanos, with his flute already in hand, performed the ritual prostration in front of Darius’ bed and then discretely retired to disappear into the shadows pervading much of the chamber, from where melodic tones subsequently emerged. Such music was the signal for Dios then to enter gracefully and for the King of Kings’ hidden manly cock to grow instantly to full erection.

Dios, sporting Darius’ branded seal on his smooth chest, was dressed only in a minuscule loincloth of sparkling golden thread. The boy’s long and mainly straight silky fair hair had been carefully combed by his own slave, Atrios, to curl at the ends in cute tendrils, before being adorned further by a fillet bejewelled with precious rubies. A similar gem dangled from a gold chain round his slim neck, whilst ornate thin bracelets and anklets of the same valuable metal decorated his lithe limbs.

After Dios very quickly and artistically performed his prostration, the boy began his highly erotic dance act. The young eunuch’s very skilled performance was a testament to his own quick proficiency at the art, as well as of the worthiness of his instructor, who would later be sent much gold by his grateful king.

The fascinated and increasingly more aroused Darius then began to gain frequent glances of what the small square flaps of Dios’ minuscule loincloth were failing to hide completely as a result of the boy’s energetic movements. The young eunuch’s vivacious dancing caused these golden covers to rise regularly, thereby providing repeated delightful glimpses of the delicious sights underneath.

Darius saw that Dios’ gelded genitals were confined beneath the front flap of his loincloth only under a tiny translucent thong, through which the lovely outline of the boy’s own pleasant penis could be readily recognised. Meanwhile, whenever the young eunuch’s lively movements caused him to turn and his rear cover to rise, the full splendour of his lustrously curvaceous bare bottom came into view.

51 year-old Darius could never recall anything so wonderfully erotic in all of his life. As the King of Kings lay watching the splendid spectacle, he quietly thanked Ahuramazda for granting him such a magnificent gift.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, next morning)

"Lie still," Atrios commanded firmly of his slightly younger master, Dios, "whilst I attempt repairs!" The 13 year-old Macedonian slave was trying with as much care as possible to apply some herbal salve to the 12 year-old Chian’s sore sphincter and anus, after his previously virginal and tight rectum had been deflowered through invasion by a certain regal erection during the course of the past night.

Atrios had already carefully wiped away the copious evidence of extraneous dried cum, whilst gently bathing his young master. Watching was a fascinated Theanos, who had discreetly left the royal bedchamber overnight when a breathless Dios, concluding his dance naked, had been summoned to join Darius on top of the King of Kings’ bed.

It had been obvious to both Dios and Theanos, from Darius’ expression, including the glazed look in the man’s eyes, that, on this occasion, the summons was not just for more storytelling duties. However, the young Chian had advanced happily to his fate, as he had, after all, previously indicated to his friends his intent to seduce the King of Kings, like Aspamites had once done and for similar reasons.

"What was it like?" the still virginal Theanos asked of Dios, whilst referring to subjection to sodomy by Darius. "Very unpleasant," was the answer received, followed by an unhappy sigh of dissatisfaction, "but I’m determined to allow the king to have me whenever he wants. Not only is sex the only gift I can really provide in return for his kindness that I know he’d want but also I’m determined to see if Aspamites’ prediction, that I’ll eventually enormously enjoy the act, will come true." The young Chian was then reduced to a low moan instead of speech when Atrios applied some salve to a particularly sore part of the boy’s anal entrance.

Darius had proved correct with his astute guess that Dios would sometime attempt a seduction, in order to reward the King of Kings for his kindness, as well as simply to experience an act that should someday lead to the only sexual pleasure allowed to a eunuch. However, as on the majority of such initial occasions, given the substantial size of the man’s cock, the boy had endured excruciation rather than any enjoyment, despite the adult’s attempt to curb his intense passion somewhat in order to try to be careful and considerate during intercourse.

Nevertheless, Dios had endured the pain bravely and with few tears, helped by the fact that Darius’ passion was so intense that the King of Kings quickly impregnated the boy’s ravished rectum with copious manly ejaculate. The young eunuch had later even, despite the constant discomfort subsequently afflicting his bottom, managed to relate a short Greek legend to his royal master, before they had finally fallen asleep in each other’s arms.

For Dios, slumber was fitful, not being helped by his painful bottom. However, as his reawakened eyes occasionally glanced at Darius’ somnolent face, he somehow felt no shame or regret that he had now lost his virginity to the King of Kings. Nor did the boy feel treacherous towards his unwisely rebellious homeland.

Dios, like Aspamites beforehand, instead strangely only felt another overwhelming emotion for the man who had been ultimately responsible for his castration and exile and who had just painfully deflowered him. The young eunuch’s rather incongruous attitude was also unaffected by the fact that the King of Kings was about to make ruthless war against the boy’s own people.

Dios’ emotions, like those of Aspamites before him and just as the spasaka believed and Darius hoped would happen in reflection to his own passion, were instead now truly overwhelmed by love for the King of Kings.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, several weeks later, early summer 499 BC)

"What was it like this time?" the still virginal Theanos asked of Dios, whilst referring again to subjection to sodomy by Darius and as Atrios was once more tendering to the young Chian’s delectable bottom. "Very pleasant," was the answer received, followed by a happy sigh of satisfaction, "as Aspamites’ prediction, that I’ll eventually enormously enjoy the act, has indeed come true!"

(Royal park, Persepolis, Persia, shortly afterwards)

A bathed and redressed Dios was walking alone along a tree-lined path, which went through part of the royal park to some of the nearby palatial residences of senior bureaucrats, military officers and other important imperial personages. Staspes had earlier told the younger page that Aspamites had just returned from Gandara and would like to meet the young Chian in the house the spasaka kept in Persepolis.

Staspes provided Dios with the relevant directions and then watched as the younger page descended the tall wide steps leading from the palace to the forested park below. "Good riddance," the Babylonian eunuch subsequently quietly muttered to himself, as he observed the king’s new favourite disappear along the path into the trees.

"I let the stupid Immortal enjoy me," Staspes then also quietly commented to himself, "so it’s now time for the idiot with a cock bigger than his brain to repay me for my acquiescence!"

Staspes was quietly commenting about a member of the precisely 10,000-strong elite royal archer guard corps called the ‘Immortals’. These were exotically dressed and superbly equipped and drilled soldiers.

For ceremonial duties, the bareheaded Immortals, sporting short tightly curled beards, were attired in ornate and colourfully flowing calf-length tunics of light purple and yellow, decorated with brown stars or squares. Corselets of scale armour were underneath, although they wore more practical breeches when campaigning. Their buttoned or laced leather shoes were blue or primrose, whilst green braid tied back their hair and earrings and bracelets completed their ostentatious physical ornamentation.

The Immortals carried bows, with quivers of arrows hanging from their shoulders, and silver-bladed cornelwood spears, which could actually have done with less ostentation in war. The ornate gold or silver pomegranates that decorated the butts made impossible the ramming of the weapons into the ground in order to create a defensive shield in battle.

The Immortals were exclusively manned by Persians, Medes and Elamites, and they derived their name from the fact that their number was always kept at precisely 10,000. A careful selection system ensured that trained reserves were constantly ready to compensate for all losses.

Within the Immortals were a pair of particularly elite units, namely the two household regiments, one of 1,000 infantry and the other of the same number of cavalry, which formed the royal bodyguard. They often sparkled through the effect of light on their gilded scale armour and the gold pomegranates on their spears.

Shortly after Stapses commented quietly to himself about an allegedly intellectually inferior but genitally impressive member of the royal Immortal bodyguard at Persepolis, Dios collapsed onto the forested pathway along which he was walking, with an arrow protruding from his back.

(Military barracks, Persepolis, Persia, shortly afterwards)

Staspes only had to look at the many instruments of torture that were contained in one of the buildings in the military barracks, located on a cleared part of the Marv Dasht plain, in order to stop lying and confess the truth about his perfidy. The 14 year-old page also cursed the Immortal who had shot Dios with an arrow but had not checked on the efficiency of his handiwork because a small contingent of Assyrian cavalrymen had coincidentally appeared, riding along the pathway towards the badly injured young Chian.

The cavalrymen had immediately recognised the grievously wounded Dios because they formed part of Aspamites’ bodyguard. They had also witnessed the young Chian being whipped and castrated on his home island before helping to escort him and similar tribute, along with the spasaka, all the way to Ecbatana and then Susa.

"Please let me see the Great King," a tearful Staspes then begged of the enraged Aspamites, who had shown his fellow Babylonian the instruments of torture, "so that I can beg for mercy!" The spasaka, just returned from the satrapy of Gandara, had, of course, not summoned Dios to his residence in Persepolis but had instead intended to visit the boy in the palace.

Consequently, when the wounded Dios, before he had lapsed into coma, had told the summoned and now appalled and distressed Aspamites his story, suspicion for the attempted murder had immediately fallen on Staspes. The young Babylonian eunuch had an undeniable alibi for where he was at the time of the attack. However, the involvement of the 14 year-old page in the attempted murder also appeared clear from the false message he had given to the victim and the acutely aggrieved spasaka believed that subjection to torture would quickly elicit the true facts.

"I don’t think so," Aspamites answered in reply to Staspes’ plea to be allowed to meet Darius, "as the King of Kings has given me instructions to have you crucified if you confessed to involvement in the attack on Dios. Execution will be carried out immediately in the main square of these barracks!"

Now ignoring Staspes’ screams for mercy, the exceedingly bitter Aspamites subsequently turned to two of his Assyrian guards, who were tightly holding the boy. The spasaka commanded "Have him stripped and tied to one of the punishment stakes in the barracks square and have his accomplice amongst the Immortals arrested and similarly restrained. They are then to be flogged, although not so much that their crucifixion will not be felt or prolonged. Any soldier who beforehand wants to enjoy the bodies of either prisoner can also do so."

"Have the two crosses prepared," Aspamites mercilessly confirmed, "but do not nail the criminals to them until the King of Kings arrives. He personally wants to watch the beginning of their public crucifixion, which he intends should be a message to all that none of his loyal servants should ever be harmed!"

Aspamites then continued to ignore the screamed entreaties from young Staspes, whose pretty face was now spoilt by many tears and an expression denoting extreme terror, as the embittered spasaka turned away to return to the palace.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Dios was lying, still unconscious, on Darius’ own bed. On hearing the dreadful news of the attack on his favourite, the King of Kings would not consider allowing his beautiful beloved to be placed anywhere else whilst the best royal physicians attended to the young Chian.

By now, the barbed arrow had been carefully removed from Dios’ back and the horrible wound dressed. However, the boy had lapsed into unconsciousness during the process and the heat currently emanating from his young sweat-covered brow also indicated a fevered state. The royal physicians confessed to their king that they feared the worst.

Darius was currently at the bedside of the comatose and feverish Dios, holding one of the boy’s strangely contrasting chilly hands. Theanos and Atrios had also been granted their wish to be in attendance and they spent their time gently mopping their friend’s fiery brow.

(Military barracks, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

In the army barracks on the Marv Dasht plain near to the royal palace at Persepolis, the first of many military cocks to rape the very pretty but currently sobbing Staspes had harshly and painfully penetrated the 14 year-old Babylonian. The boy had been immovably bound to a sturdy post. The young eunuch’s tearful face rested against the wood, whilst his hands were fastened to a metal ring embedded high above him and his ankles were fixed to widely separated pegs resolutely rammed into the ground.

Staspes’ older accomplice, a bearded Immortal, who was now similarly bound naked to an adjacent post, whilst military carpenters constructed large crosses nearby, proved to be far less popular for raping by soldierly cocks than the highly attractive young body of the Babylonian boy eunuch.

(Sardis, Lydia, same time)

The Athenians, who considered the Ionians to be colonists from their city and therefore kinsmen, supported Aristagoras’ insurgency enterprise with a squadron of twenty triremes, whilst five similar warships were sent from allied Eretria on the island of Euboea. The troops on board these vessels eventually landed at Ephesus.

The Athenians and Eretrians were reinforced in Ephesus by a strong body of Ionians, which included Dios’ vengeful father, and, after joining up with Aristagoras’ Milesians, they marched upon the capital of the Lydian satrapy, Sardis. The local governor, Artaphernes, who had earlier correctly accused Histiaeus of duplicity, did not have sufficient troops to man the walls and so he was forced to retire into the local citadel, leaving the splendid and prosperous city at the mercy of the insurgents.

(Military barracks, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

The first cruel lash of the heavy scourge hit Staspes’ back to accompanying shrieks from the 14 year-old Babylonian, whose whipping on the orders of the furious and vengeful Darius I would not cease at just the three strokes that Dios had once suffered. The young eunuch, whose bottom and inside legs were besmirched by semen and whose anal excruciation was now being overwhelmed by different agonies, would instead emerge from his punishment with many more bloodied marks on his rear.

(Island of Chios, Ionia, Eastern Aegean Sea, same time)

The summer day was glorious, and was in fact virtually identical to the one on which Dios and Capros had played happily on this same beach exactly one year previously before seeing the fateful approach of a small flotilla of Phoenician biremes and merchant ships. The sky was virtually cloudless, with its colour so matching that of the shimmering blue sea that the horizon was barely discernible. However, a gentle but nevertheless cooling landward breeze again thankfully lessened the heat.

The temperature might otherwise have driven the exceptionally beautiful 12 year-old fair-haired and blue-eyed Capros and his similarly featured new best friend, Danos, who was a couple of years younger, to seek some cooler surrounds, instead of frolicking together naked. Their activity, on the quiet beach of golden sand on the eastern side of their island, was also very reminiscent of that involving the older boy and Dios exactly one year previously. However, on this present occasion, play ended prematurely in tears.

Capros had appreciated the anniversary significance of the day and the sudden appearance on the eastern seaward horizon of tiny black forms, which gradually grew larger, gaining shape and colour in the process to reveal themselves eventually as ships, caused him to stop frolicking. The boy’s shoulders instead both slumped and began to vibrate, as he broke down in tears.

Capros was not afraid of the approaching triremes, as they were clearly part of the Chian fleet. However, sudden recall of Dios, with whom he had last played on this beach exactly a year previously, and about whom he had heard nothing since the Persians had castrated the boy and taken him away, caused him deep distress.

The play of Capros and Danos, on the beach under the hot summer sun, therefore ended and the two young naked friends, both pairs of sensuous blue eyes damp, sat instead on the golden sand. Their lovely heads rested against the shoulder of their companion, whilst an arm apiece was wrapped round each other’s waist.

Capros and Danos sat like this, trying to comfort each other, whilst quietly thinking and talking about the lost Dios, until the sun eventually began to set.

(Military barracks, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

The petrified and agonised Staspes had initially been firmly tied with rope to his cross, which was currently positioned flat on the ground. The agonies now being experienced by the rear of his body had been exacerbated by the action, particularly as his ravished rectum had been filled by a rod protruding at a vertical angle from the main shaft of the crucifix. However, the tearful boy’s thoughts currently mainly concentrated on the massive nail that rested against his left wrist, whilst a soldier prepared to use his hammer to pin the outstretched limb even more firmly to the wood.

A nod from the now watching King of Kings, who was on horseback, having temporarily abandoned his vigil over Dios, and, like Aspamites previously, was ignoring Staspes’ desperate renewed pleas for mercy, then brought the hammer crashing down several times onto the broad head of the nail. This action excruciatingly thrust the sharp metal spike through the shrieking boy’s left wrist to fix his arm firmly to the wooden crossbar of the large crucifix. The soldier perpetrating the cruel deed then moved his attention to the young eunuch’s other limb.

(Sardis, Lydia, same time)

Aristagoras’ army entered Sardis unopposed and, whilst engaged in extensive pillage, one of the soldiers set fire to a house, built, like most of those pertaining to the ordinary people, of wickerwork, thatched with straw. The flames then rapidly spread and soon the whole city was ablaze.

Meanwhile, as the Ionian Revolt spread all over Asia Minor, many Persian-appointed local tyrants were being simultaneously overthrown and replaced by supposed democracies, although the replacement governments were actually often more akin to oligarchies.

(Military barracks, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Atrios, who had been charged by Darius to report any change in the condition of Dios, came running towards the mounted King of Kings, just as the second nail was hammered through the right wrist of the shrieking Staspes and another was readied for the naked boy’s left ankle. The young Macedonian slave then risked his own crucifixion when, in an act that was unprecedented in such circumstances because it blatantly defied court protocol, he bravely shouted at the most powerful man in the world to request that the executions be stopped.

"Why, boy?" a very annoyed Darius shouted in response. "Because, O great king," Atrios replied, "the reawakened Dios begs you for this favour!"

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, 1 week later)

The efficient royal courier system ensured that Darius I was aware of the sacking and burning of Sardis within a week of the event happening. The King of Kings was enraged by the news, and especially at hearing of the involvement of independent Greeks in the destruction of one of his most important satrapal capitals, with his fury mainly directed at the Athenians, about whom he actually originally knew little.

In his fury, Darius took his bow into the royal park at Persepolis. The King of Kings subsequently shot a symbolic arrow high into the air and begged Ahuramazda to "Grant me vengeance against the Athenians!" His anger only intensified when he later learnt that the insurrection had spread to the Greek cities of Cyprus, as well as to those on the Hellespont and the Propontis [respectively modern Dardanelles and Sea of Marmara].

Darius then charged Theanos to remind him three times every day at mealtimes to "Remember the Athenians!"

(Royal quarry, Persepolis, Persia, a few weeks later)

Staspes’ posterior, despite being badly flogged, had not been so comprehensively whipped that permanent damage had been caused. The young Babylonian eunuch’s rear had been saved from scarring by Darius’ wish that he felt the full lengthy excruciation of his subsequent crucifixion. Consequently, the marks indicating the relevant injuries were already healing and disappearing, as were those that revealed where nails had penetrated his wrists.

Staspes, attired just in a simple skimpy loincloth, was therefore now able to begin his harsh labours under the unrelenting overhead summer sun in the royal quarry, to where the boy had been sent from the military barracks on command of the King of Kings. The amenity provided limestone blocks for the continuing building works on the nearby palace.

Staspes would be taught to use iron picks, punches and sledgehammers to create grooves in the limestone, isolating the necessary blocks. The large cubes would subsequently be detached by the insertion of wetted wooden wedges, which would swell and force the stone free.

Staspes would then be required to help smooth the blocks and haul the enormous and very weighty cubes of limestone to the palatial building site. When the boy first did so, with his previously pleasant but now dirty body covered in sweat and with his 14 year-old muscles straining so that any lack of effort would not be rewarded by a blow from a supervisor’s whip, he began to wonder.

Staspes began to wonder whether crucifixion would have been better than spending the rest of his existence performing penal labours in quarries and, initially at least, being the sexual plaything of other prisoners and guards. Darius had commuted his death sentence because of Dios’ plea, which centred on the Babylonian boy’s tender age. However, his companion in crime, the adult Immortal, had not received similar treatment but had instead died on the cross, as an example to any other member of the elite corps who might be considering betraying their king.

Staspes’ only consolation, as he pondered his appalling future in the grim conditions of the limestone quarry, was that surely life for him would now be short.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Theanos and some other pages were smearing Darius’ recently massaged, bathed and groomed naked body with an ointment made from ground sunflower seeds mixed with saffron, palm wine and leonine fat, which was supposed to keep the skin of their royal master looking young. The boys then attached the king’s jewellery and dressed him in a purple robe, with a broad white stripe in the centre and embroidered with golden depictions of lions. A cloak, bearing a gilded motif portraying falcons attacking each other with their beaks, was then affixed to the manly form.

The boys finished off their dressing of Darius by attaching the royal sword, sheathed in a gilt-covered scabbard encrusted with precious stones, to his gilded belt, and a diadem, encircled by white-flecked blue ribbon, to his carefully coiffured head. Theanos then stood back to admire the completed work and advise proudly "I believe, O great king, that you are ready for your visit!"

"Good," Darius replied, "as you all know that I like to look my very best when visiting Dios!"

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, shortly afterwards)

Darius proceeded to walk to his own bedchamber, which he had vacated to allow the recovering Dios to recuperate fully from his thankfully not finally fatal arrow-wound. The King of Kings’ face then lit up in delight when he saw his beloved boy sitting up in bed, reading a scroll and looking almost completely restored to full health, as was evidenced by the wonderful rosy complexion on his sublime young face.

Nevertheless, Darius still sought confirmation that everything was well from the attendant Greek physician, who had saved Dios’ life and whom the king proposed seriously to enrich for his efforts as soon as the boy had been discharged from his care. After subsequently politely dismissing the skilled doctor, the very grateful monarch then turned his full attention to his beloved young eunuch.

"What are you reading, Dios?" the King of Kings asked to open the conversation. "It’s a letter from Aspamites, Dârayavau�," the boy answered, whilst referring to the spasaka, who was currently riding west with the vast Persian army that had been sent to avenge the sacking of Sardis and squash the Ionian Revolt.

Dios’ face then became rather stern and he commented, whilst referring to something that he had read in Aspamites’ letter, "You didn’t tell me, Dârayavau�, that you had reprieved Staspes from crucifixion only to send him to serve penal labour for life in the royal quarries." The King of Kings, by now fully appreciating his beloved boy’s compassionate disposition, immediately believed that a guileful plea for further mercy was likely to emerge next from the 12 year-old’s rosy lips and his assumption was to be proved correct.

"Did you know, Dârayavau�," Dios subsequently asked, having personally become acquainted about the fact after requesting Theanos to make enquiries about Staspes amongst their fellow eunuch pages, "that, judging from doodles and the like, the boy who is now slaving away in a quarry is a very good artist?" The King of Kings replied by confirming his ignorance of such an attribute.

"Well, Dârayavau�," Dios then advised, "I have a suggestion to make about a much better future career for Staspes." The beautiful boy accompanied his statement with the return of his disarming smile, which both he and his royal master knew would now completely dissolve away all royal resistance on the part of the King of Kings to the forthcoming proposal.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, a few weeks later, mid-summer, 499 BC)

"I shan’t forget your very generous mercy," Staspes gratefully announced, "which I find remarkable, given that I tried to have you killed." "I know from the likes of Homer," the now fully recovered Dios replied, "that jealousy can make anyone mad. I can understand your motive and I’ve forgiven you."

"Unfortunately, I can’t persuade the King of Kings to forgive you fully too and let you return as a page," Dios continued, "but I hope that, given your artistic talent, this job might prove to be a decent second option." "I think you’re right," Staspes responded, "because I’ve always loved and been good at drawing and carving." As the boy said these words, he continued carefully to chip away more limestone.

Staspes was using a light chisel to incise the outline of a standardised figure onto a limestone block, which formed part of the tall stone platforms supporting one of the new buildings within the Persepolis palace complex. The boy would later utilise slightly heavier tools to carve fully in low relief the depiction of an official, soldier or tribute-bearer. The young Babylonian would then smooth the finished portrait with an abrasive paste before polishing with lead or shark-skin and painting in bright colours.

Staspes would eventually significantly contribute to many of the 3,000 or so uniform figures reproduced on the palace’s supporting limestone platforms. He would also, in a long and industrious life, go on to gain many swift promotions to become the best and most admired and senior of the King of Kings’ sculptors and stonemasons.

Much of Staspes’ excellent work is, thanks to both him and the merciful Dios, who became a lifelong friend, still viewable today, 2½ millennia later.

(Pedasa, Caria, Asia Minor, same time)

At its peak, the Persian army comprised about 360,000 men, made up of six corps of 60,000, divided into six divisions of 10,000, sub-divided into battalions of 1,000, companies of 100 and squads of 10, grouped as lancers, archers and cavalry depending on their function. Each ethnic contingent retained traditional weaponry and appearance, which was frequently exotic. For example, the Nubians smeared their bodies with chalk and vermilion and were draped in leopard and lion skins.

Helmets within the army could be of bronze, fur, leather, wicker or wood. Dress could include cloaks, jackets, robes or skins. Weapons comprised bows and arrows, javelins, spears, some tipped with metal and others with sharpened antelope horns, and even clubs and lassoes, with daggers and swords as side-arms. Iranian cavalry rode horses, whilst Egyptians used chariots and Arabs were mounted on camels.

Stirrups would not be introduced into the region from China by Mongols for about 1½ millennia and iron horseshoes would not be invented for another few hundred years. In the interim, the cavalry of the Persian army had to manage without such aids, protecting their horses’ hooves with coverings of copper, leather or hair.

The Persian standing army was centrally controlled and the kings were generous in ensuring the welfare of the leading generals and in rewarding loyal service. The most senior officers campaigned with large pavilion tents containing expensive furniture and dinner services of gold and silver. Following Assyrian precedent, soldiers were awarded distinguished ranks and titles for conspicuous bravery and duty. Robes and jewellery of honour, special daggers and grants of conquered provincial land were general marks of merit. Settling loyal veterans on acquired foreign terrain had the additional benefit of aiding the subjugation of such territory.

The huge polyglot standing Persian army was to be the extreme military remedy used to cure the extreme disease of insurrection in the west against the King of Kings’ rule. The relevant forces were assembled from all over the empire and sent into Asia Minor to crush the regional revolt, where they rapidly achieved success. Rebel forces were engaged in battle and, amidst much slaughter, defeated.

Athenian, Eretrian and Ionian survivors, including Dios’ father, afterwards hastened to the coast and aboard their ships to sail swiftly home. The Milesians retreated to their own city. However, the first major rebel metropolis to suffer the wrath of the Persians after the battle was nearby Pedasa.

Despite fierce resistance from the resident Leleges people, Pedasa’s defences were quickly overcome and partial revenge for the destruction of Sardis extracted on the city. After more slaughter and the usual damaging pillage, many of the surviving population were enslaved.

Amongst the new slaves was the now orphaned Hermotimus, whose father had been killed defending the city walls and whose mother had had her throat slit after being gang raped by enemy soldiers. However, the beautiful and in the circumstances helpless 11 year-old boy captive was spared both sexual molestation and death, as the Persian warriors could recognise exceptionally valuable booty when they saw it.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, a few days later)

A naked Dios was resting in the arms of a similarly nude Darius on the royal bed, after making love on this warm summer evening. Neither of them was tired and so the King of Kings asked his beloved catamite to tell him another Greek myth and the boy happily complied.

The boy began by handing Darius a small flower with white petals and a yellow centre, which he had found in the royal park next to the palace in Persepolis and had earlier hidden under the bed in readiness for this expected moment. "What’s this, Dios?" a mystified King of Kings then asked of his beloved eunuch catamite.

"A beautiful youth, Dârayavau�," Dios replied mysteriously, to the King of Kings’ further puzzlement until the young eunuch subsequently began to relate the legend of Narcissus, son of Liriope and the river Cephissus. "When just a boy," the young Chian started by advising, "the seer, Teiresias, had said of the child that he would live to a great age if he never knew himself, which was a prophecy that no-one understood."

Dios then proceeded to provide a fascinated Darius with a long version of the myth, made even more interesting by the 12 year-old boy’s skilled eloquence. Essentially, the myth told about how Narcissus grew up to be a youth so beautiful that he was adored by everyone who saw him. However, he was himself rather proud and aloof, so much so that a spurned young male suitor cursed him to love that which could not be attained.

Narcissus later sat by a pool and, looking into the water, saw his own reflection, endowed with all the beauty that anyone could desire. The youth then unawares began to know and fall in love with his own image, which could not reciprocate his passion.

"Narcissus," Dios concluded, "was eventually worn out with the futility of his adoration and was changed into the flower with white petals and a yellow centre that is named after him, an example of which is now in your hand, Dârayavau�. He thereby effectively fulfilled Teiresias’ prophecy, as, by coming to know and love himself, he failed to live as a mortal to a great age."

"What a lovely myth, Dios," Darius declared in response, whilst holding the boy’s little floral gift between the fingers of his free hand. "However," the King of Kings added, "I’m very glad that the beautiful young narrator has proved not to be as cold and aloof, or as emotionally distracted, as the youthful subject of the legend."

"I also much prefer making love to my Dios’ mortal form," Darius advised, whilst reinforcing his caring hold on his young beloved, "than to a flower!" In response, the boy both blushed and giggled.

"I shall have this flower preserved," Darius next announced, "as a memento of our love and our time in this world together. It shall be buried with me when Ahuramazda eventually calls me to his realm!"

This announcement immediately induced some obvious melancholy in the boy, causing him to express the view that "I hope you’ll live forever, Dârayavau�." "I would only want to do so in your company, Dios!" the King of Kings responded.

Detecting that he had unwittingly caused the sensitive boy some sadness, Darius then decided to change the subject of their conversation. "Despite the fact that I know that I’ll never be as able a storyteller as you, Dios," the King of Kings therefore asked, "would you like me to narrate a hopefully interesting tale in return for all those you’ve told me?"

"I’d love you to, Dârayavau�," Dios answered truthfully before enquiring, with clear interest, "and what’ll be the topic?"

Darius replied "My Lord High Chamberlain, Daniel!"

(Pedasa, Caria, Asia Minor, same time)

In the ancient world, marauding armies were commonly closely followed by an array of merchants, ready to buy in bulk at hopefully cheap prices goods looted by successful soldiers. As usual amongst such entrepreneurs, there were those who traded in human beings.

The slave market in Pedasa had been destroyed in the recent successful and bloody Persian assault and so the next poor people to be sold into servitude were retailed in a makeshift amenity. This facility was previously a small temple, although of which god was difficult to discern for a newcomer to the devastated city, given the recent comprehensive sacrilegious pillaging of the sacred place.

Rather perversely, the people who had most knowledge of the temple’s prior religious dedication comprised those now being sold as slaves, as they consisted of some of Pedasa’s surviving population. Amongst them was beautiful 11 year-old Hermotimus, who was now standing shamefully naked on the auction block.

Fatefully, amongst the prospective buyers was Panionius, fresh from happily helping to geld another five hundred 11 year-old boys in Babylon. The Chian castrater welcomed war, as he knew that big profits could be made from the spoils and he had rushed from Mesopotamia to Asia Minor in the wake of the Persian army to ensure that he gained his own fair share of the windfalls. As usual, he was interested not only in further enriching himself but also in satisfying his inherent sadism.

Panionius’ natural speciality in current circumstances was to buy as many beautiful boys as he could afford, castrate them in the slow painfully sadistic manner that he most enjoyed and then sell them on to rich Persian residents in Asia Minor and elsewhere in the empire. Amongst such people, there was always a fashionable and lucrative desire to emulate the imperial elite’s possession of attractive young eunuch servants.

Given the buoyant market, a joyous Panionius would also now be commissioned by fellow slave traders to perform castrations, as many of the prettier boy captives in Pedasa were destined to lose their balls. Young Hermotimus obviously hoped to be an exception.

Many of the traders in the market for fresh young male slaves and eunuchs intimately inspected every aspect of Hermotimus’ gorgeous form, with much focus afforded to his uncut and completely smooth genitals. The boy’s nicely low-hanging scrotum was especially given copious attention, with plenty of hands feeling and weighing his seriously endangered testicles.

Besides Hermotimus’ acute shame, exemplified by his constantly blushing face, another consequence of being at the centre of such humiliation was the inexorable early rapid rise to fulsome erection of the boy’s cock, which subsequently stood out horizontally from his naked body throughout the remainder of his ordeal. The 11 year-old’s concerns about his worrying predicament were then enhanced by some similar comments from several of the traders fondling him, which could be summarised by the remark made by Panionius.

Whilst feeling Hermotimus’ testicles, Panionius suggested to the deeply abashed 11 year-old that "Your hard cock indicates that you’re maturing fast, boy. To protect the womenfolk of your future master, whoever he might turn out to be, it’d therefore obviously be advisable to castrate you as quickly as possible, and I assure you that, if I buy you, that’ll happen!"

During the subsequent bidding process, Hermotimus was rather naturally praying to the gods that neither Panionius nor anyone with similar castration intentions bought him.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

"Nebuchadnezzar II was a highly successful Chaldean king of Babylon, Dios," Darius I advised, "who restored the grandeur of Mesopotamia’s ancient cities. Municipal glories for which he was responsible included splendid terraced hanging gardens in his capital and a great ziggurat to the god, Marduk, at Babel. He also drove the Egyptians out of Asia, annexed Syria and crushed Judaea, in the process capturing and enslaving many Jews."

"Daniel was originally a Jewish slave, Dios," Darius I informed, "forced to live a life of servitude in exile in Babylon. He was also castrated as a young boy in order to serve Nebuchadnezzar as a eunuch, including in the king’s bed!"

"The ambitious Daniel subsequently and very cleverly quickly made himself indispensable to the highly superstitious Nebuchadnezzar, Dios, by often being able to provide lucid interpretations of many of the disturbing dreams of the king, who always fretted about his own position. By such guileful means, the highly intelligent young Jew gradually worked his way up the ranks of royal bureaucrats until he became, about forty years ago, one of the principal advisers to Belshazzar."

"Belshazzar had then been regent of Babylon on behalf of his father, Nabonidus, who was a usurper successor to Nebuchadnezzar. However, the prince fatefully ignored Daniel’s wise warnings about the dangers presented by Cyrus the Great’s besieging Persian armies, boasting that the city’s walls were too strong to be successfully assailed."

"‘But Majesty,’ Daniel had objected in desperation, whilst using a common metaphor of the time, which related to signs for shops and similar establishments, and also referred to his supposed interpretative powers, ‘I can see writing on the walls, which proclaims the dangers!’ ‘Nonsense!’ Belshazzar had retorted, only to be rapidly proved wrong later, during extravagant feasting indulged by him and his people to celebrate a religious festival."

"Cyrus made use of low water levels on the Euphrates, exacerbated by damming, to ford the river and enter the city via now revealed tunnels that fed the city with its water supplies. Babylon therefore rather bloodlessly became, and remains, part of the Persian Empire."

"Daniel was captured but, in line with his usual post-conquest policies, Cyrus was happy to allow competent local administrators to return to their posts. The highly capable Jew subsequently continued to gain promotion until one day, during the troublesome early part of my own reign, he was shocked to discover the enormous extent of the corruption and potential treachery of the new governor I had appointed to rule Babylon."

"Daniel immediately sent a secret message, revealing the extent of the governor’s perfidy, to me elsewhere in Mesopotamia, where I was campaigning against rebels. However, the communication was intercepted and the viceroy ordered the arrest of the Jewish nuisance, whom, given his dutiful adherence to the customs of his Judaic faith, he then falsely accused of religious blasphemy, which was a capital offence, punishable by being thrown into a den of hungry lions."

"Two very fortunate occurrences then saved Daniel after the farce of his show trial. Firstly, although the lions were supposedly ravenous, the beasts miraculously initially ignored him when he scurried to cower in a distant corner after being thrown inside their den, although how long this stand-off might have endured is unknown because of what next happened. You see, Dios, secondly, I then arrived."

"Daniel had been clever enough not to trust the despatch of one secret letter to me and had instead sent two by different couriers and routes. The lions’ eventual appetite was subsequently sated by feeding on the governor’s flesh, whilst I gained a new Jewish personal adviser."

"Despite opposition from traditionalists, who believe that only Persians, Medes and Elamites should hold the post, I finally rewarded Daniel’s loyal and efficient service for and my two predecessors by, undoubtedly belatedly, appointing him as my Lord High Chamberlain a couple of years ago. He may be in his eighties now but both his advice and administrative skills remain excellent!"

By surviving the lion’s den to become Darius the Great’s Lord High Chancellor, and therefore the second most powerful person in the Persian Empire, Daniel became a great Jewish hero, especially as he exhibited much benevolence towards his own people. His story, passed originally from generation to generation in oral form, thereby becoming subject in the process to inaccuracy and exaggeration, was eventually written down and forms the eponymous Biblical Book, with its supposed prophetic visions.

Most neutral scholars now accept that the eponymous Biblical Book was written by someone else centuries after Daniel’s death. The inherent ‘future predictions’ actually naughtily related to past history by the time of composition.

On hearing the King of Kings short narrative about Daniel’s long and impressive life, Dios commented in amazement "What an interesting true story, Dârayavau�. For a start, fancy surviving being cast into a den of hungry lions!"

Dios also realised that he would now have to view Daniel in future in an entirely different light.

(Pedasa, Caria, Asia Minor, shortly afterwards)

Hermotimus had at first been rather hysterical when Panionius attempted to lead his latest purchase towards his immediate destiny. The latter happened first to be the man’s castration table, currently accommodated in a badly damaged house, vacated by the previous residents and now requisitioned for his own temporary purposes.

The screaming and sobbing Hermotimus eventually had to be quietened by Panionius through a vicious kick to the boy’s gravely endangered genitals. This act caused the 11 year-old not only to collapse breathlessly and therefore relatively quietly to the ground, grasping his assaulted sexual organs, but also to be subsequently much more compliant. Consequently, the child soon found himself resolutely fastened, in a face-up spreadeagled pose, to the waiting castration table and being the subject of the man’s slower and consequently more painfully sadistic gelding technique.

As many others had done before him, whilst having their balls extracted on this very table, Hermotimus silently prayed to the gods to be someday allowed to secure terrible vengeance against the man who was depriving him of his true masculinity. Fatefully for Panionius, on this occasion, the deities must have been listening to the castrater’s young boy victim.

(Slave market, Sardis, Lydia, 2 months later)

Hermotimus again found himself standing humiliatingly naked and being closely examined on a slave auction block, this time in the relevant quickly rebuilt market in Sardis, where Panionius was currently offering the new young eunuch for resale. Much attention was given by prospective purchasers to the boy’s expertly castrated genitalia, which were now completely healed. Naturally, given his freshly gelded state and unlike when being sold in Pedasa, the 11 year-old’s cock did not on this occasion become erect in response to the intimate inspections of his gorgeous form.

The only compensation gained by Hermotimus for the shameful circumstances of his resale came when Panionius was unexpectedly denied a lucrative profit, as well as lost the original cost of the boy. An exotically dressed very important Persian official had interrupted the young eunuch’s auction in order to requisition the freshly gelded child without recompense.

Part of the official’s current responsibilities was the compulsory acquisition for his master of fresh young eunuchs to compensate for those previously gifted to him from this part of the Persian Empire. The 22 year-old man was happier with this task than he had once been when forced also to choose the boys to be castrated. He was now spared such a distasteful task, as he was selecting male children who had already been gelded amongst the maelstrom of war by commercial entrepreneurs, who could afford to lose the cost of and profit on the odd slave.

In making his choices, the official was always on the lookout for character as well as beauty. He now correctly judged, simply by the brave defiant look in Hermotimus’ blue eyes, as the boy stood on the auction block in Sardis, that the new young eunuch might prove worthy for the household of his master. He was also partly influenced by his dislike of Panionius, whom he was happy to deprive of original investment and lucrative profit.

Panionius dared not protest about the uncompensated compulsory requisition of the highly valuable Hermotimus. The castrater reluctantly appreciated that such informal taxes were commonplace in war zones and he fully recognised the hidden threat inherent in the official’s words, uttered when he had interrupted the boy’s resale.

"I’m sure that you won’t mind gifting this boy to the King of Kings, Panionius, or would you prefer to be sent to Persepolis to explain to my royal master why you would rather not honour him so?" the smiling Aspamites had said.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, 7 months later, early spring, 498 BC)

Xerxes, 23 year-old oldest son, and therefore heir to the throne, of Darius I, as well as grandson, via his mother, Atossa, of Cyrus the Great, had just deprived one of his own exceptionally beautiful young eunuchs of his virginity. The agonised and ashamed boy had recently graduated from the royal school of pages in Susa, as Dios and Theanos had done a year previously. However, the 12 year-old had subsequently been gifted by the King of Kings to the crown prince because of the latter’s expressed interest in the new harem arrival.

The naked boy was now sobbing next to the similarly nude Xerxes on the royal bed. However, the child considerately did so as trained, with his gorgeous face buried in a pillow to quieten the noise and soak up the tears.

"Don’t worry, boy," the bearded Xerxes happily commented, as he gently slapped his young eunuch’s curvaceous but hurting bottom, which was currently rather despoiled by extraneous semen flowing from his no longer virginal anus, "you’ll become used to it!"

Like Dios and many others before him, the deeply distressed and humiliated Heromtimus did not believe that such a development, as suggested by Xerxes, was possible.

(Calchedon, Bithynia, Asia Minor, same time)

The Persian generals now carried through their threat when they captured Calchedon on the southern Asian side of the Bosporus Thracius [modern Bosphorus], a city that had unwisely allied itself to the rebel cause and subsequently declined to change sides. All of the substantial surviving population was enslaved, with the prettier boys being castrated, many by a happily very busy Panionius.

One of the youngest of the new geldings was only 6 years old and Panionius had placed him naked in a tub of very hot water. Having ensured that, as a result of the heat, the boy’s balls were subsequently suitably pliable, the castrater had then stood the child up and encased one of the youngster’s tiny testicles between the strong manly fingers of his right hand, causing an involuntary hardening of the little penis above.

Panionius then smiled at the innocent bemused boy before squeezing the child’s ball with all of his manly might. The warmed tiny testicle concerned was no match for the force now exerted on it and was soon crushed into pulp, whilst the young owner was too agonised and traumatised even to scream. However, the 6 year-old did crash back down into the water of the tub in excruciation when his damaged scrotum was finally released.

Panionius subsequently had to summon assistance to haul the extremely anguished and shocked boy back onto his feet and firmly hold him so that the 6 year-old’s other testicle could also be excruciatingly crushed. The youngster was to be another ‘thlibias’ eunuch because his scrotum had been judged to be too immature for cutting. Natural bodily fluids would now eventually dissolve the residual testicular mush within his ball sacs.

The boy was later sent with all of the pretty fresh young eunuchs from Calchedon as war tribute to Darius I in Persia.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

A naked Dios was standing as still as possible, whilst a fully clothed Staspes drew the 13 year-old’s gorgeous nude form from many angles. "I can now see," the artistically very talented older eunuch commented in praise, whilst rapidly applying ink to papyrus, "why Darius likes you so much. Your body obviously really does match your character in perfection!"

Dios blushed but also smiled warmly on hearing the kind remark before relating a polite "Thank you!" The boy then modestly added "But I’m far from perfect!"

Staspes subsequently rewarded Dios for the genuine affectionate warmth of his smile and his politeness by proving that the boy’s modesty was actually misplaced. The mould that the older eunuch later produced from his drawings would eventually enable him to create, on the command of the King of Kings, a very accurate statuette of the naked young Chian in solid gold.

The boy’s impeccable beauty remains evident 2½ millennia later to all those, like the author of this 5-part story, Pueros, who have been lucky enough to view the still extant gold statuette.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, a few weeks later)

Unlike Aspamites, who rarely spent a night away from the bearded Darius I’s bed when he had been his royal master’s favourite catamite, Dios did not enjoy a monopoly in respect of the man’s sex-life. The King of Kings had learnt from Staspes’ dangerous envy and so, with one exception, he occasionally entertained his cock with the invariably exceptionally attractive bodies of his other intimate pages, which elicited no jealousy from his beloved young Chian.

The one exception was Theanos because Darius had appreciated from his very first meeting with Dios that the young Chian was very protective in respect of the wellbeing of the boy from Lesbos. The King of Kings therefore considerately decided to leave virginal the gorgeous child with the dark hair and eyes. However, on this day, the man was to discover that his consideration was no longer required.

The first inkling that the King of Kings acquired about Dios now being happy for his best friend to share his royal master’s bed was when the young Chian approached him to make a request, after the end of one of the many formal court banquets. The Achaemenians, aided by their taste for good food and wine, were always ready to entertain guests by giving lavish feasts, which were also held to celebrate festivals and anniversaries, with birthdays held in particular esteem. Whole oxen, horses, camels and asses would be consumed along with many other dishes, although various exotic desserts were most favoured.

On this occasion, Darius had eaten from a silver dish with gold figures embossed on the underside, depicting a winged lion with the head of the Egyptian dwarf god, Bes, complete with feather crown. Nearby hemispherical bowls, of similar precious metals and holding fruit and delicacies, displayed crenellated battlements around the top with two rows of crowned figures below, armed with bows and with quivers on their backs.

Darius invariably drank from an ornate silver horizontally ribbed conical curved rhyton, gilded in parts of the exterior with gold. The rim was decorated with depictions of wheat and other crops, whilst the front of an elaborately horned bull formed the foot of the cup, enabling the vessel to stand on a table without support.

"I always," Darius had once announced to Dios, after the boy had diplomatically expressed worry that his royal master had made some important decisions at a banquet after consuming much alcohol, "review when sober any decisions taken under the influence of wine. However, as there is sometimes some truth in inebriated thoughts, I also practise the reverse!" The young Chian could not help but find the king’s statement as amusing as it was wise, as was evidenced by some subsequent giggling.

For this banquet, Darius was dressed resplendently in a long colourful pleated robe of the finest material, to which was pinned a gold plaque, depicting a fabulous creature with the body of a winged goat and the head of a horned lion. The metal handle and the leather scabbard of the king’s short Persian sword, or ‘akinakes’, were on this night covered in gilt and embossed with designs depicting winged human figures gathered round a sacred tree, recumbent stags and flying monsters. The latter combined the features of such creatures as birds, bulls, lions and fishes. The similar weaponry of the adjacent crown prince, Xerxes, more simply portrayed a royal lion hunt.

Meanwhile, Dios, standing quietly and obediently in attendance close to Darius, sported the usual uniform of a royal page, comprising the typical Median candys costume of knee-length belted tunic above tight-fitting trousers and slippers. If the boy had been outdoors, he might also have been wearing a long-sleeved overcoat slung over his shoulders and a cap with earflaps and neck-guard.

Dios no longer considered his uniform effeminate, or the jewellery and make-up he now displayed. Like Aspamites, the boy currently wore circular openwork gold earrings of intricate workmanship and bracelets and amulets of similar metal, which were inlaid with precious coloured glass and stones and terminated in the shape of winged griffins rather than the more usual heads of goats or other real animals. The young eunuch’s signet rings possessed bezels with ornate engravings.

Dios’ eyelids now bore a discreet covering of mascara and his sweet lips and cheeks had been made even rosier by delicate application of rouge. Atrios always thoroughly enjoyed applying such make-up to help highlight the natural exceptional beauty of his young master’s face.

Dios’ revised attitude to his appearance did not just stem from being now being accustomed and acclimatised to the ways of the Persian court. The boy was actually proud of wearing the uniform, as well as bearing the brandmark, of one of the King of Kings’ royal pages. The young eunuch was especially contented with his enormously precious jewellery, which were court gifts of honour.

"I’ve lent Theanos my loincloth, Dârayavau�," Dios first informed the King of Kings after the end of the banquet. They had both retired to the royal bedchamber, where, standing proudly in the corner of the room, was Staspes’ golden replica of the beautiful boy who was currently speaking.

As was common after a banquet, Darius was currently tipsy, although such a state rarely had a detrimental effect on his lovemaking but instead usually enhanced his vigour. The amazed king was also sufficiently lucid to appreciate the full implications of what was now to be proposed by Dios.

"In our spare time, Dârayavau�, I’ve been showing Theanos how to dance," the smiling Dios continued, "whilst he’s been teaching me how to play the flute. I believe that we’ve both now mastered the respective arts."

Dios then made his pre-planned request. "Can Theanos therefore please dance for you tonight, Dârayavau�?" The additional implication involved in this solicitation was immediately obvious to the King of Kings.

Darius was to bed Theanos that night and not Dios, at the conspiratorial behest of both gorgeous boys. The king was later to learn that the young Lesbian, although fully expecting initial anguish, now wanted to experience, like his best friend regularly did, the immense pleasure that could eventually be gained from being the subject of sodomy by a skilled practitioner. Such activity offered eunuchs the only realistic opportunity to enjoy personal sexual bliss.

Darius was not to disappoint Theanos.

(Ecbatana, Media, 6 months later, early autumn, 498 BC)

The aged Daniel found examining naked fresh eunuchs of various ages rather unusual, being accustomed mainly to inspecting geldings who were precisely 11 years old. Nevertheless, the octogenarian Lord High Chamberlain only needed one look at the exceptionally gorgeous young boy from Calchedon to realise that the infant could be a realistic possibility for royal service.

After speaking to the boy and despite the child’s very tender age, Daniel did indeed decide that the young eunuch should be amongst the dozen or so candidates from whom Darius I would choose his next annual intake of pages. The Lord High Chamberlain appreciated that his royal master occasionally welcomed beautiful and intelligent infants in his service, not for his bed but for the entertainment to be gained from such variety.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, 6 months later, early spring, 497 BC)

The latest annual intake of pages, as usual freshly branded as a result of their successful graduation from the relevant royal school, was being introduced to their new colleagues. All except one were 12 years old. "Hello," said Dios to the infant amongst the newcomers before informing the boy of his own name.

"Hello," the now 7 year-old boy from Calchedon replied, "I’m called�." The infant was on the verge of mistakenly disclosing his original Greek appellation but he then remembered that he had been afforded a fresh Persian one in honour of a favourite but sadly recently deceased aged eunuch of the current King of Kings and his two predecessors. The boy therefore corrected himself to reveal that his new name was ‘Bagapates’.

The now 14 year-old Dios, and his slave Atrios, plus Theanos and young Bagapates, were subsequently to become very close friends. They were also to be intimately close to Heromtimus, who served the crown prince, Xerxes.

One of Heromtimus’ main daytime jobs, when Xerxes and Darius were living in the same palace, was to convey messages from son to father. Consequently, he came into regular contact with the king’s pages, especially the royal favourite, Dios, and, given similar backgrounds and personalities, friendship rather naturally resulted.

The main difference between the boys from Chios and Pedasa related to their contrasting attitudes to Panionius, with the latter’s perspective shared by Atrios. The pair still harboured a desire for revenge against the castrater because of the particularly slow and sadistic manner in which he had privately gelded them. Such emasculation had been in contrast to the forcibly far faster and more public, almost production-line, creation of eunuchs like Dios and Theanos, who were consequently more forgiving of a man whom they considered, in their case, had only been fulfilling Persian commissions.

Dios was the natural leader amongst the group of young royal eunuch friends, some of whom, with the help of the young Chian’s brother and original best friend, the testicled, or ‘enorchiôn’, Danos and Capros, would eventually go on to change the history of the ancient world.

(Babylon, Mesopotamia, 3 years later, 494 BC)

Darius I had chosen not to go on campaign to suppress the Ionian Revolt himself. Having been at war during much of his early life, both before and after becoming king, he had become sick of the horrors inherent in such conflict, which was one reason why he had presided over a largely peaceful empire for the last decade or so.

Darius much preferred the company of his beautiful boy eunuchs amidst the luxury of his royal palaces and parks to that of soldiers at war. The King of Kings anyway believed that he possessed competent generals who could fulfil the bloody chore of crushing the insurrection in the western empire, as was exemplified by the fact that slowly but surely the rebellious states were being retaken.

Darius’ only regret was the copious slaughter that suppression of the revolt inevitably entailed, in battles, sieges, deliberate acts of retribution as warning to others and unplanned collateral damage. Despite the king’s desire to show some mercy to the ordinary people amongst his rebellious subjects, especially those who surrendered peacefully, he was often proved correct in his worst fears, expressed earlier to Dios. The heat of war caused many innocents to suffer at the hands of angry and vengeful soldiers, whose bloodlust had been roused.

The only rushes of blood that Darius, however, now tended to experience were largely confined to just two pastimes. They were encountered whilst indulging in his second favourite pursuit of hunting in a royal park, or during his most preferred activity, namely playing with the beautiful naked form of one of his young eunuchs.

In the case of the latter entertainment, blood would invariably rush into the King of Kings’ regal cock to stiffen the organ in readiness for further pleasure. In fact, such a happening had recently occurred and the evidence was inside Dios’ rectum, which contained much royal ejaculate, as the now 17 year-old but still diminutive and gorgeous boy indulged in post-sex pillow talk with Darius.

The occasion was Darius’ first visit to Babylon since Dios had entered his life. The trip had been triggered by the boy’s expressed desire to see the city, especially the famed walls and the 6 metre-high golden statue of the god, Marduk, in one of the local temples.

"About 130 years ago," Darius advised in answer to one of the permanently curious boy’s numerous questions, "Nabopolassar expelled the Assyrians from Babylon and established himself as an independent monarch." Dios’ intense inquisitiveness meant that he always exhibited an unwavering desire to learn about the world around him. Aspamites had once discovered, during the journey from Chios to Susa via Ecbatana, that the younger eunuch’s questions were very common and numerous and the King of Kings now followed his spasaka in rejoicing in trying to satisfy his favourite’s copious thirst for knowledge.

"Within twenty years, Dios," Darius continued, "Nabopolassar’s empire had expanded considerably and his son and successor, Nebuchadnezzar, set about transforming Babylon into a worthy imperial capital. He did so with the considerable assistance of millions of sun-dried mud-bricks because stone is scarce in Mesopotamia."

"I understand, Dios," Darius informed his beloved eunuch, whose dazzling head, crowned by long straight silky golden hair, was resting on the shoulder of the king’s outstretched right arm, "that the bricks were made on the spot in moulds. They were formed from local fine-textured alluvial soil dug from Babylon’s moats and then mixed with chaff. Dried dung, reeds and scrub were used to fuel the kilns and the finished products were laid using mud mortar, although bitumen was utilised instead in areas vulnerable to water. As you have seen, the results were marvellous!"

Dios had indeed finally recently seen the splendid evidence of Nebuchadnezzar’s industry. There were two sets of walls in Babylon. The outer was square, with each side over 15 kilometres [9¼ miles] long, with a height and width of about 25 metres [82 feet].

The wall possessed at regular intervals tall towers and gates, covered in bronze, and was fronted by a deep moat filled from the River Euphrates. On top was a roadway wide enough to allow four-horse chariots to turn around.

The inner wall, which was of similar height and width to the outer and enclosed the old residential heart of Babylon, was rectangular and about 8 kilometres [5 miles] in total length. Its main entrance was the Ishtar Gate, named after the local goddess of love and built of glazed brick, mainly brilliant blue in colour and embossed with gigantic bronze figures representing bulls and dragons.

"However, the walls," Darius next happily commented to Dios, whilst they lay naked, with the boy resting in the king’s loving embrace, "failed to prevent Cyrus from capturing Babylon 45 years ago. After cleverly further lowering the level of the already seasonally shallow Euphrates and whilst being assisted by the complacency of the inhabitants, he and his army simply passed underneath them, through the channels that fed water into the city."

As Darius said these words, Dios was, of course, not to know that Babylon would someday gain revenge for Cyrus’ conquest against one of that great king’s equally worthy successors. Nor did the boy appreciate that, at that very moment, the future of both his father and his home island of Chios was been decided faraway, amidst the blue waves of the Aegean Sea.

(Off Lade Island, eastern Aegean Sea, near Miletus, Ionian mainland of Asia Minor, same time)

Miletus, ruled by Aristagoras, was considered to be the capital of Ionia. The city was situated on the mainland of Asia Minor, 65 kilometres [40 miles] south of Ephesus, near the mouth of the River Maeander. Lade was a nearby small offshore island.

By now, Miletus had been besieged by land and sea for about a year by the Persians, led by the Lydian satrap, Artaphernes. A large fleet of Greek ships was currently attempting to relieve the siege and were engaged in a naval battle near Lade, which was finally to decide the fate of the Ionian Revolt.

As mentioned previously, the Persians were not natural sailors. Their fleet at Lade, over 600-strong, therefore primarily consisted of relatively loyal subject peoples, especially Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cilicians and recently re-subdued Cypriots.

The opposing Ionian fleet comprised, in order from the western wing to the eastern, 80 Milesian ships, 12 Prienians, 3 Myusians, 17 Teians, 100 Chians, 8 Erythraeans, 3 Phocaeans, 70 Lesbians and 60 Samians, totalling 353 triremes. Unfortunately for their cause, all but 11 of the 60-strong naval contingent from the island of Samos treacherously deserted at the commencement of the battle, having heeded what the Persians had threatened to inflict on their home island if they remained, including castration of all boys.

The 100-strong fleet of ships from Chios fought most valiantly in the ensuing fierce naval battle but ultimately to no avail because of the overwhelming odds against them, the Persians now being over twice as strong in terms of the number of vessels. Amongst the many brave Chians fighting heroically on this very bloody day was a man wearing the heavy ancient armour of a marine hoplite.

(Near Ephesus, Ionian mainland of Asia Minor, a few days later)

Damaged Chian ships, being pursued by the enemy and whose captains realised that they could not successfully return to their own island before being overtaken, instead made straight for the nearby promontory of Mycale on the coast of Asia Minor. The crews, including the man wearing the armour of a marine hoplite, then ran their triremes ashore, abandoning them in favour of fleeing overland, north away from the besieged Miletus, to some place from where they could acquire fresh vessels to sail home.

Unfortunately, these Chian survivors eventually strayed into Ephesian territory, where local women were celebrating the feminine festival of Thesmophoria. News of the Ionian disaster at Lade had not yet reached Ephesus. Consequently, after false rumour arrived in the city apparently reporting that their lands had been invaded by an armed band intent on mischief against the local females, a large military force was quickly assembled and despatched to kill all of the intruders. This bloody aim was subsequently successfully achieved.

Dios’ father would not now be bequeathing his family armour to his younger son, Danos, because he had been amongst the Chian survivors of the naval battle of Lade who was later accidentally slaughtered by fellow Greeks in the form of the careless Ephesians. His dead body was later looted and the ancient and revered heirloom, previously successful protector of many ancestors in battle, was subsequently sold in Ephesus and lost to the rightful owners forever.

The armour, however, would someday be replaced by the last person Danos’ family could ever currently conceive perpetrating such a benevolent act.

(Miletus, Ionian mainland of Asia Minor, a few weeks later)

The naval victory of the Persians at Lade enabled them to capture Miletus with brutal savagery soon afterwards, aided by use of the latest siege technology, including mines to damage the city walls. Most of the adult males, who in contrast to the enemy generally sported short hair, were slain and the few who escaped the sword were taken with the women and children into captivity, with many of the prettier boys being castrated in the process by a very contented Panionius. The famous temple to Apollo at nearby Didmya was also plundered and burnt.

Aristagoras had already cowardly fled Miletus with a large military force, leaving the city and the citizens to the dreadful fate he had caused to befall them. However, the former tyrant did not live long, being killed whilst besieging a Thracian town he had taken a fancy to capturing.

The pursuing Persian fleet later sailed up the Hellespont, Propontis and Bosporus Thracius, carrying fire and sword. The aim was to inflict the same cruelty as suffered by Miletus on other still resisting Greek cities in Asia Minor and the neighbouring islands, with principal targets being the homelands of Dios and Theanos, respectively Chios and Lesbos.

(Island of Chios, Eastern Aegean Sea, 1 year later, summer 493 BC)

Chios had already received two dreadful warnings from the gods about the disaster about to befall Dios’ now highly vulnerable homeland. First, the islanders had sent a choir of 100 youths to Delphi, hoping for an optimistic prophecy from the local oracle, but sadly only two of these had returned, with the remaining ninety-eight having died of a sudden pestilence. Second and at about the same time, the roof of a school had collapsed onto about 120 boy pupils attending lessons and only one had survived the calamity.

After winning another naval battle just off Chios against the small and overwhelmed remnants of the local fleet, the Persians literally swept the island to capture the inhabitants amidst much destruction. Executions then took place of many prominent rebels, with all children within their extended families being subjected to enslavement.

As elsewhere, most of the prettier captive boys lost their balls for the Persian market. In what was probably his most shameful act since he had castrated the Chian tribute, including Dios, seven years previously, Panionius was again a prominent performer of mass geldings, despite being a native of the island.

Fortunately, the captured Danos and Capros, sons of prominent rebels and now respectively 16 and 18 years old, kept their balls despite their maintained good looks. They were considered too old for castration but not for slavery.

Danos and Capros soon found themselves following in the wake of Dios along the royal road to Persia. However, unlike their young Chian predecessor, they were walking in chains and heading for lives of low menial servitude.

(Royal park, Persepolis, Persia, a few months later, autumn 493 BC)

A discreet burial ceremony was taking place in a secluded grove of the large royal park at Persepolis. However, only a decapitated head was being honourably interred.

The head was that of Histiaeus, the real instigator of the Ionian Revolt. Finding himself unsafe at Sardis because of the suspicions of the Lydian satrap, Artaphernes, about his true furtive role in the insurrection, the former tyrant of Miletus had first escaped to Dios’ home island of Chios. However, he found there that he was regarded with serious misgivings by all Ionians because of his long exile in Persia and the worry that he might still be secretly working for Darius I.

Histiaeus therefore crossed the Aegean to Mytilene, which was the capital of Theanos’ home island of Lesbos. He eventually obtained eight galleys from the Lesbians and he sailed in them towards Byzantium [modern Istanbul], from where for a while he committed lucrative piracy against both Greek and Persian vessels passing between the Mediterranean and Black Seas along the Hellespont, Propontis and Bosporus Thracius. However, the now rather unprincipled adventurer was finally captured alive on the coast of Mysia, where he was surprised by soldiers of the King of Kings, led by a general called ‘Harpagus’.

After subsequently being taken to Sardis, where Artaphernes had survived the earlier rebel sacking of the city by retreating into his virtually impregnable local citadel, Histiaeus was immediately crucified by the satrap. The governor then sent his embalmed head to Darius I at Persepolis, whilst publicly impaling the naked remains of the rest of the body. However, the King of Kings condemned the ignominious death of the man who had once served him very well on campaign in Thrace, to the extent of probably saving his life, and he ordered that the ghastly severed object should receive honourable burial.

Darius’ action pleased the now 18 year-old Dios, whose maintained diminutive stature, boyish appearance, loyal pleasantness of character and continued royal favour had enabled him to break Aspamites’ record of being the oldest male with whom the king had enjoyed sex. However, both lovers sadly realised that this happy situation was unlikely to continue for much longer.

Dios had, of course, earlier been very distressed at the news of the calamity that had befallen Chios. However, he could not really blame Darius, whose instructions about showing the islanders some clemency, mainly issued out of consideration for his beloved young eunuch, had not been followed by his generals in the field. The disregard for royal orders was also understandable in the heat of war, given the casualties the undoubtedly angrily vengeful Persians had themselves suffered over the six years that the long and bloody insurrection had so far lasted.

Darius had subsequently kindly despatched a small cavalry unit of his Immortal royal guards to try to ascertain what had happened to Dios’ family and friends on Chios. However, they proved unable to trace any of them, given the chaos and confusion on the island and the unwillingness of most of the surviving population to co-operate with the Persians. The young eunuch could therefore only pray to his Greek gods that his relatives and former close companions were safe.

Dios had later been the King of Kings’ solitary servant when the courier from Sardis had arrived in Persepolis with the head of Histiaeus. The young eunuch had then made clear his dislike of the gift from Artaphernes when he had immediately retched and vomited at the sight of the gruesome present emerging from the messenger’s leather despatch bag.

(Susa, Susiana, Iran, same time)

Aspamites was aware of the distress caused to his close friend, Dios, as a result of the bloody re-conquest of Chios. However, unlike the younger eunuch, the agnostic spasaka did not believe in praying to the gods for the safety of family and friends, especially when he believed that there were more practical actions he could undertake whilst he found himself in Susa.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, a few weeks later)

As the re-subjugation of Ionia was now proceeding to a successful conclusion, Darius I consulted with some of his most senior officials and military advisers in his private audience chamber. The king wanted to ascertain how he could best revenge himself against the Athenians, who had been amongst the prime instigators of the long and bloody Ionian Revolt. As a result of the talks, during which Dios had been considerately excused attending to the king because the monarch thought that the nature of the subject matter might upset his beloved eunuch, planning began for an attack against the independent city and island states of Greece.

Dios was summoned after the conclusion of the meeting when the only participants now left in the audience chamber were Darius and Aspamites, attended by the now 11 year-old Bagapates, whose immense beauty had truly blossomed of late. The King of Kings was sitting on his elevated throne and so, given the apparent formality of the occasion and the presence of others, the 18 year-old Chian performed a ceremonial prostration before his royal master.

Dios was rewarded by an instruction from the cherubic voice of Bagapates, who was standing on the top step of the throne platform adjacent to Darius, advising that he could stand and gaze upon the King of Kings. The young Chian immediately complied and then instantly wondered why the three other people, who were present in the audience chamber, sported broad smiles, as if sharing an amusing secret.

As usual in such formal situations, Dios had to wait for Darius to address him before he too could speak. The king then broke the impasse by informing the young Chian that he had acquired two new slaves to serve his beloved eunuch.

With maintained formality and great diplomacy, Dios replied "I thank you, O great king, for your kind generosity. However, I am not in want of any further servants, as Atrios provides me with all of the assistance I need. You perhaps might therefore wish to re-allocate the slaves to someone who is much more worthy of such help than your humble page!"

"I don’t think I shall," Darius retorted, whilst still grinning, "and I’ll now show you why!" A discreet glance to Bagapates then resulted in the younger eunuch scurrying off out of the audience chamber, only to return moments later with two Greek slaves, who were 16 and 18 years of age and dressed in simple but clean tunics of the richest material. Each was carefully guarded and had an arm held by a formidably tall and strong Immortal. Without orders to the contrary, the soldiers were not yet prepared to risk the potential danger of letting these particular captured and enslaved enemies have freedom of movement in the presence of the King of Kings.

Soon afterwards, both slaves, who had been carefully groomed for the occasion, including being provided with healing attention to the wounds that had resulted from recently walking very many miles in chains, were surprised to observe an exotically attired Persian eunuch rushing towards them. The status of the approaching servant appeared to be confirmed by his completely smooth chin, whilst that of the older Greek now proudly sported a neatly trimmed fair beard and that of the younger hinted that manly stubble might soon appear.

The initial surprise of the two young Greeks then quickly dissipated and replaced instead by immense joy. Despite the gap of seven years since they last met, both Danos and Capros suddenly realised the identity of the approaching eunuch.

(Island of Chios, Ionia, eastern Aegean Sea, 6 months later, spring 492 BC)

Darius I had learnt his lesson, not least from Dios’ criticism, about his mistake in substituting autocratic tyrants for previous, often democratic, local government institutions in the ethnically Greek parts of his empire. The King of Kings also wanted to undermine the complaints on the subject of any still potentially rebellious subjects, as well as of his enemies in the independent Hellenic states.

Darius therefore began to replace, under Persian aegis, tyranny with democracy in his Hellenic fiefdoms. The king also instructed his general, Mardonius, who was currently leading an attack against the independent states of Greece, to nurture nascent local democrats during his invasion.

Chios, gradually recovering from the devastation of the previous year, was to be no exception to Darius I’s revised attitude and Aspamites’ second trip to the now ravaged island, made at the beginning of the sailing season in spring, was undertaken to implement the new policy. The spasaka was therefore much better received than during his previous visit eight years earlier.

Aspamites’ reception by the locals was improved still further by his restoration to their homes of many of those enslaved and taken to Persia during the previous year. Such an act of compassionate reconciliation had actually been largely attributable to Dios’ influence over Darius I.

The new young eunuchs created during the previous year, plus the pretty girls taken, both of whom were much needed as fresh tribute in Persia, were the main exceptions to this reversal of fortune, which had also been similarly extended to many other enslaved Greek survivors of the Ionian Revolt. However, the captured citizens of Miletus, which was the city mainly blamed for causing the insurrection, were not allowed to return to their devastated homeland but were instead permitted to establish a new colony in Mesopotamia, near to the mouth of the River Tigris.

Fortunately, the testicled, or ‘enorchiôn’, Danos and Capros were amongst those personally returned by Aspamites to their families on their home island. They had travelled in far greater comfort from Persia along the royal road compared to when they had gone the other way.

When in Susa during the previous year, Aspamites had heard that the large number of captives from Chios, who had survived the long harsh march in chains along the royal road, had arrived in the city. The fresh boy eunuchs and girls amongst their number were to be presented as war tribute to the King of Kings, whilst the rest would be sold on the open market as slaves, with the proceeds going to the royal treasury.

Aspamites immediately wondered whether Dios’ original best friend, Capros, might be amongst the captives and so decided to check. Despite the time lag of seven years since he had released the then 11 year-old Chian, the spasaka hoped that he would still recognise him.

Aspamites’ aspiration was thankfully subsequently met, along with a bonus. Although the spasaka had never seen Danos before, he immediately recognised the exceptionally beautiful family features the boy, who was sitting in squalor next to Capros in a slave holding-pen in Susa, shared with his older brother.

Amongst the goods Danos happily returned with to Chios was a magnificent set of Chian marine hoplite armour, made at great cost by some of the best Greek armourers in the Persian Empire. The helmet, which covered the entire head, apart from the eyes, nose, mouth and middle chin, was crowned by a splendid plumed crest in the island’s colours. The chest cuirass and leg greaves were made even shinier by being embossed with gold, whilst the pleated kilt was made of the strongest fine material. The front of the large oval shield was adorned with the national emblem and the accompanying spear possessed a silver blade.

The equipment was a gift from Darius I. Danos’ family armour had been replaced by the king of Chios’ erstwhile enemy.

The immense joy gained by Danos’ impoverished widowed mother at unexpectedly seeing her younger son again on Chios was subsequently greatly boosted by the presence in the company of Aspamites of a very handsome 19 year-old. The Greek was unusually clean-shaven and wore exotic Persian clothing and jewellery, just like the spasaka, who happened to be instructing him in his new official role. Such an appearance caused the woman to fail initially to realise the identity of the young man until finally recognition suddenly dawned.

Danos’ mother then ran to the young man, with arms extended and whilst crying in joy and repeatedly shouting his name of "Dios!"

(Thrace, Greece, same time)

Darius I had appointed Mardonius, who was both his nephew and son-in-law, to succeed Artaphernes as the satrap of Lydia and placed under his command a large army to invade Greece. He also gave the general instructions to return to Susa with those Athenians and Eretrians who had insulted the authority of the King of Kings.

After crossing the Hellespont, Mardonius’ forces marched through Thrace and Macedonia, subduing as they went any local peoples who had not yet submitted to Persian power. The general also ordered his supporting fleet, which was essential for providing the army with supplies, to proceed round the promontory of Mount Athos and join the land forces at the head of the Gulf of Therma. However, one of the seasonal storms that frequently blew off this dangerous coast overtook the ships, destroying about 300 vessels and drowning or dashing fatally upon rocks approximately 20,000 men.

Meanwhile, Mardonius’ land army suffered so much from an attack by a Thracian tribe that he decided that, with his fleet badly crippled, he could proceed no further. The humiliated general therefore led his forces back across the Hellespont and eventually returned to Persia in shame.

(Eretria, Euboea, Greece, 2 years later, September 490 BC)

The failure of Mardonius’ expedition against the independent states of mainland Greece did not shake Darius I’s resolve. The King of Kings instead made preparations for another attempt on a still larger scale.

In order to ascertain the identity of his real enemies, Darius I also sent heralds to most of the Hellenic city and island states of the eastern Mediterranean, including those in Greece itself, to demand from each earth and water as the symbol of submission. Given the terror that the Persians had previously inflicted during their recent re-conquest of Ionia and other parts of Asia Minor, many of these relatively small nations complied with the demand. However, the Athenians defiantly cast the emissary arriving there into a deep pit, whilst the Spartans threw theirs into a well, bidding him take earth and water from it.

Such actions on the part of the Athenians and Spartans only further angered Darius I and made him even more determined to conquer these independent states. The King of Kings therefore assembled another large army and fleet in Cilicia, under the commands of Datis, a Median, and Artaphernes, eponymous son of the former satrap of Lydia. Eager not to repeat the mistakes of Mardonius by avoiding Thrace, these generals sailed in a fleet of 600 war triremes and transport ships straight across the Aegean to Greece, with half of their forces heading for the island of Euboea whilst the rest made for mainland Attica.

On the way, Datis and Artaphernes subdued the Cyclades archipelago, where most of the peoples readily yielded to Persian might. However, resistance by Naxos and a few other local Athenian allies caused those islands to be thoroughly sacked.

In Euboea, the Persians first successfully besieged Carystos on the island’s southern tip before arriving at the formidable walls of Eretria. They then encountered fierce resistance from the defenders, who fought gallantly for their city for six days until, on the seventh, two treacherous leading citizens opened the gates.

Eretria was subsequently razed to the ground, with the surviving inhabitants enslaved. Panionius again enjoyed himself enormously, castrating the prettier of the city’s boy captives.

Meanwhile, the other half of the Persian forces had landed in Attica, fatefully on the plain of Marathon.

(Plain of Marathon, Attica, Greece, same time)

The 10,000-strong Athenian forces, supported by 1,000 Plataeans and led by the supreme commander, or ‘polemarch’, Callimachus, was already marching north to try to help the Eretrians when they discovered that 15,000 Persian infantry and 800 cavalry had landed on the plain of Marathon. Each army was expecting reinforcements and so there was initially a stand-off, during which they simply eyed each other warily for eight days until news of the fall of Eretria arrived in both camps.

By now, the Greeks had taken up a very strong defensive stance, blocking the road that ventured inland across the plain of Marathon to their city. From this position, they could also easily attack the flank of the Persians if the enemy decided to attempt to march in column along the alternative coastal route.

The Athenians had tried to summon Spartan reinforcements, having according to legend despatched their champion Olympic athlete, Pheidippides, to run the required 320 kilometres [200 miles] with the message requesting help. However, he returned empty-handed.

The Spartans delayed because they declined to come until they had celebrated one of their elaborate religious festivals, scheduled for the next full moon in another five days. Meanwhile, the Athenians now knew that the Persians would soon be strengthened by forces arriving from the successful siege of Eretria.

The ten generals commanding the Athenian army, each elected in line with the municipal constitution from each of the city’s tribes, were deeply divided as to whether to attack the Persians before the enemy’s reinforcements arrived from Eretria. Such strengthening of the opposition forces could provide them with overwhelming might.

The decision of the Athenian generals was then basically made for them by a major mistake on the part of the opposition commanders, Datis and Artaphernes. In order to avoid having to attack the enemy in their strong defensive position, the Persians instead fatefully chose to re-embark their own forces onto ships in order to bypass them and strike direct for Athens by sea.

The Persians first moved their infantry towards the enemy camp in order to attempt to screen the tactical seaward retreat and subsequently initially re-embarked their cavalry onto the waiting transport ships. The foot soldiers were then progressively withdrawn to the beachhead for similar embarkation. However, even the most hesitant Athenian general could not now fail to be tempted by the sight of the remaining opposition being steadily weakened and isolated.

Miltiades, the Athenian general who had been the biggest proponent of immediately assaulting the Persians, now had his way in the army war council, having successfully used forceful oratory to tell Callimarchus that the polemarch’s moment of destiny had arrived. Knowing that the initial danger would come from the enemy foot-archers and that speed was the best solution to restrict the damage from their arrows, the Greek hoplites then attacked with great speed. They emerged from their camp in two dense columns, which eventually peeled into line and charged.

Each hoplite carried two spears, both of which they threw as they charged and quickly came within range, causing a deadly rain of over 20,000 missiles to fall upon the Persians within the first two minutes of the attack. The second flight of projectiles had only just landed when the Greek infantry, helped by their effective armour to survive enemy arrows, subsequently crashed into the opposition front line.

The Persian heavy infantry in the centre of the front line remarkably not only held their position during this furious assault but also began to drive the hoplites back. However, the provincial troops on either flank proved far less redoubtable and they were quickly routed, on their left by Athenians and on their right by Plataeans.

The success of the advancing Persian heavy infantry in the centre was now negated by the danger of encirclement and lack of cavalry, which had been the first units to embark onto ships. They therefore had no choice but to halt, turn round and fight their way out of the enclosing trap and run for the beachhead and their triremes, which were the next foci of the Greek attack.

Desperate fighting, during which Callimarchus was killed, eventually saved most of the shaken Persian survivors of the land battle. The bulk of their fleet, apart from seven vessels, successfully managed to sail to safety.

Total Persian casualties amounted to 6,400 killed, whilst the Greeks lost no more than 192. When archaeologists excavated the relevant Plataean burial mound in the spring of 1970, they found only eleven skeletons, all belonging to young men aged between 18 and 25.

In the aftermath of the battle of Marathon, the Athenians despatched Pheidippides to run the 42 kilometres [26 miles] back to their city to report the news of victory. According to further legend, the exhausted champion runner achieved his latest mission and then dropped dead.

The rest of the victorious Athenian army wisely wasted no time in celebrations but instead immediately marched back to their city, finally meeting the delayed Spartans coming the other way. Consequently, when the reunited Persian fleet arrived offshore of the Bay of Phaleron, they found the reinforced Greeks already waiting for them. Rather than then attempt an opposed landing, Datis and Artaphernes wisely withdrew all of their forces back to home waters.

Darius I subsequently received the news of the latest setback for his Persian armies against the independent Greeks rather philosophically. After all, the expedition had begun well and the reasons for failure were easy to pinpoint. Instead of becoming angry, the King of Kings instead again intended to learn the relevant lessons and to try once more, next time with even bigger and better forces.

Darius I proposed that, with the next attack, nothing would be left to chance and the invasion would be conducted with irresistible force and be led by the Persian’s greatest general. However, when the event eventually began, this most able of military commanders, namely the present King of Kings himself, was sadly no longer available.

(Memphis, Egypt, 4 years later, October 486 BC)

The governor of the often troublesome province of Egypt, who resided in the provincial capital at Memphis, was a relieved man. Such satraps, or ‘protectors of the kingdom’, were generally men of high origin and often members of the royal family through birth or marriage. The viceroys were appointed for indefinite periods, sometimes for life and on a hereditary basis.

Satraps were responsible for the administration of their provinces, and were also heads of the judiciary, although command of the usually locally raised military forces was wisely delegated to independent generals. The governors were helped either by subordinate tyrants or more traditional forms of government left untouched, such as was allowed the Jews in Palestine and the Phoenicians in their Levantine homeland.

Cyrus the Great once commanded his satraps "to imitate me" and most happily complied, living as minor monarchs amidst much luxurious pomp and splendour. However, they were subject to reports to the King of Kings from a centrally appointed imperial secretary, who attended to royal correspondence and formed an informal part of the local governing satrapal council.

Satraps were also subjected to occasional surprise visits from the ‘eyes’ of the king, who were actually based on a Egyptian pharaohic model. The spasakas travelled widely, safeguarded by their own military guards and their unexpected periodic visits to provinces to check on local affairs were much admired by other ancient monarchs and were adopted by many, including the much later Charlemagne.

‘Eyes’ often performed their surprise inspections in response to information provided by secret royal spies, who were termed the ‘ears’ of the king. However, the latter could not always be trusted to be accurate or not to have their own agendas and so good spasakas always arrived in satrapies with open minds about local governance.

Although the satrap of Egypt was not corrupt, he could not be sure of the honesty of many of his administrators, for whose perfidy he might take some of the blame. The governor was therefore relieved when the visit of the very handsome 25 year-old spasaka, who had just arrived in Egypt, was cut short by urgently conveyed and very disturbing news from Babylon.

(Royal palace, Babylon, Mesopotamia, 1 month later, late November 486 BC)

At the same time that the Athenians were celebrating their victory at Marathon by laying the foundations for the Parthenon on their acropolis, the satrap of Babylon himself was sitting on a horse at his own city’s Ishtar gate. The governor was awaiting the appearance of one of the empire’s most important and therefore exceedingly influential spasakas. Couriers had already advised the governor that the imperial servant’s arrival was imminent.

The very handsome 25 year-old year spasaka did not keep the satrap waiting for too long. Protected by his usual personal escort of Assyrian cavalry, the imperial servant had been travelling in a rush for a month since receiving the worrying news whilst on his mission to Egypt.

"Welcome To Babylon," the satrap said in greeting to the similarly mounted spasaka, who was normally very polite to everyone but on this occasion did not return the governor’s salutation. He instead simply asked "How is he, Sir?"

"Still alive," the suddenly sombre satrap answered, "but grievously ill. His fever shows no sign of relenting, despite the efforts of his best physicians. I fear that his end is close!" "I must see him at once, Sir," the now tearful spasaka responded.

"Of course," the satrap replied, "you can see him immediately. He has been constantly pleading for you and Aspamites to come during his rare conscious moments."

"Is Aspamites here, Sir?" the spasaka next enquired. "Yes," the satrap answered, "he arrived from Sardis yesterday and is already at the bedside." "Then, Sir," the imperial servant commented, "your patient will have his plea finally fulfilled when I arrive there too!"

Dios was just in time to hold one of Darius’ hands, the other being grasped by Aspamites, before the King of Kings, who had been very happy to see the two loves of his life one final time, after momentarily regaining consciousness, spoke his last words and breathed his ultimate breath.

(Naqsh-i-Rustan, near Persepolis, Persia, a few months later, early spring, 485 BC)

"You’ve done very well," Dios commented to the now 19 year-old Bagapates. After the former had become too old for the role, shortly after being reunited with Danos and Capros, the latter had succeeded the young Chian as Darius’ favourite bed companion.

Bagapates had also, at virtually the same time, taken upon himself the responsibility of keeping a protective watchful eye on his royal master’s recently completed tomb, ensuring that it was immaculately maintained in readiness for this solemn day. He had voluntarily accepted the obligation at the age of 12 because Darius had told him, during post-sex pillow talk, that he was very proud of the place Staspes had skilfully created for him, and where he would someday be resting for eternity.

Bagapates, like Apamites and Dios before him, had come to love Darius. The boy had thereafter decided that he had to ensure that his royal master would not be disappointed by the state of the tomb when the king was eventually laid inside.

Under Staspes’ skilled supervision, the tomb had cut deep into a cliff-face at Naqsh-i-Rustan. This place was situated at the northwestern fringe of the large park at Persepolis, overlooking the royal road and about six kilometres [3.7 miles] north of the regal palace.

The tomb possessed an elaborate cross-shaped façade, the central part of which represented the portico of the nearby palace. At the top, two rows of bearers, representing the various peoples of the empire, were depicted supporting a dais on which the king was worshipping before a fire-altar. Above was a carving symbolising the god, Ahuramazda, which was of a human within a winged disc. The similar eternal resting places of Darius I’s three immediate successors would someday appear alongside.

On this day, the body of Darius the Great was being laid to rest amongst much solemn ceremonial, with the event being watched by some of the mightiest people within the empire, plus a large honour guard of Immortals. The important personages included his oldest son, 35 year-old Xerxes, who was the new King of Kings, and the late monarch’s other eleven male offspring and six daughters.

Given that Darius the Great had much preferred young eunuchs to his wives and women concubines and indulged his sex life accordingly, his eighteen children were proof of the potency of his sperm when on rare occasions he impregnated female vaginas instead of young male rectums. The fact that Xerxes succeeded his father unopposed and whilst peace was maintained throughout the empire, apart from minor and quickly suppressed unrest in Babylon and Egypt, was also testament to his strong and sound rule.

Even the Greeks had come to respect Darius the Great. Thirteen years after his death, the Hellenic tragic poet, Aeschylus, would evoke, in his ‘Persians’ [709-712], the days of the late king’s reign as the golden age of Persia. Even when the Achaemenid empire was ended almost two centuries later by Alexander the Great, it survived in another form, for the subsequent Seleucid dynasty, founded by a Macedonian general, controlled, with the notable exception of Egypt, similar territory with almost identical administrative organisation.

As the tearful Dios, alongside the other eunuchs who had been special to Darius the Great, including Aspamites, Theanos and Bagapates, watched his royal master being entombed, with a carefully preserved narcissus in the grip of the man’s embalmed right hand, he wondered what he should now do with his own life. In his will, the late King of Kings had given all of his most intimate servants the opportunity if they wanted to leave royal service and return seriously enriched to their homelands. However, Xerxes had wisely indicated that he would welcome such loyal and efficient retainers remaining in the imperial administration, especially as he planned to wage war against the Greeks to revenge his father’s defeat at Marathon.

Darius’ will had effectively released Dios from the oath given to Aspamites fifteen years previously. He was no longer ‘tribute’.

As Dios therefore contemplated his options, particularly how he could now best serve both Persia and Chios, he again looked at the inscription on Darius’ tomb above him. When he read the words "The spear of a Persian man has gone forth far", he immediately realised what his decision would be.

(Babylon, Mesopotamia, 4 years later, 482 BC)

Xerxes, who had once spent 12 years as the local regent when crown prince, watched as the vengeful dismantling of much of Babylon started. After a local revolt, the King of Kings had ordered the destruction of the city’s great fortifications and of many temples. The famous 6 metre-high golden statue of the god, Marduk, was melted down for bullion and, as the ultimate insult, the province was also merged with the Assyrian satrapy.

Dios was now a member of the king’s council and, despite the sad death of the previously vigorous Darius in Babylon after catching a fatal fever, the now 29 year-old eunuch liked the city. He had therefore advised against the vengeful destruction, which, for two other reasons, he knew the sagacious previous king would never have ordered.

Dios argued that Xerxes was simply damaging his own property, whilst simultaneously creating further dangerous resentment amongst the local people. However, he was overruled, not for the first time in respect of such important matters in the present king’s council and consequently, given the regular ignoring of his wise advice, he diplomatically asked for a move to a less frustrating post.

Xerxes liked and admired Dios, which was why he had promoted him to his council. The king also respected the Chian’s advice but unwisely often arrogantly believed his own instincts to be better. Such mistaken thoughts were eventually to cost him dear.

Given his continued liking for Dios, Xerxes considerately appointed him as the royal representative to re-subjugated Chios, which was now largely recovered from its forcible restoration to the empire over a decade previously. The king had allowed the island to retain the democratic form of local government belatedly re-instituted by his father, Darius, and so the eunuch’s role was effectively that of a permanent spasaka, vigilantly protecting Persian interests.

By agreeing to this appointment, however, Xerxes had allowed to leave his court someone whose sage advice, if followed, would probably have saved his royal master from several disasters. The move back to his home island, in the company of his two assistants, Theanos and, freed of slavery, Atrios, was also fatefully to reinvigorate the Chian’s nationalist sentiments.

(Thermopylae, Phocis, Greece, 2 years later, August 480 BC)

Xerxes inherited the careful and lengthy preparations for another attack on the independent states of Greece from his father and he was as determined to gain revenge for the earlier failures. The situation was not helped by the fact that the bellicose anti-Persian faction, led by Themistocles, had gained political ascendancy in Athens, which therefore made no attempt at reconciliation. The city instead spent the large fortune, acquired from a rich vein of silver fortuitously discovered at Laurium, to strengthen its battle fleet.

The Persian preparations for the next attack against Greece were continuously hampered. The death of Darius caused its own disruption, as did provincial revolts, especially one in Egypt. Consequently, it was not until seven years after the battle of Marathon that Xerxes could pay full attention to the proposed invasion.

Xerxes’ subsequent preparations were extensive and meticulous. Two huge pontoon bridges were built across the Hellespont. To avoid the Persian fleet encountering disastrous storms in the seas off Mount Athos, the peninsula was pierced by a new canal. Massive supply dumps were created in Thrace, whose peoples, along with the Macedonians, quickly allied themselves to the new King of Kings, effectively now making the frontline the border with Thessaly at the River Pineios.

Like his father had once done, Xerxes despatched heralds, seeking earth and water as a token of submission from the Hellenic states. In Athens, Themistocles reacted by executing the poor interpreter who was attending to the Persian envoys and who "had dared to make use of the Greek language to transmit the commands of a barbarian".

Consequently, Xerxes’ enormous 120,000-strong polyglot army, accompanied by the king, eventually marched to war from its base at Sardis in the spring of 480 BC, with much thought having been given to the composition. Given the initial success of the heavy infantry at Marathon, such contingents were considered to be the most important units, with the renowned Immortals reinforced by similar Persian and Median forces, as well as Hyrkanians and Kashites.

Greek spies were subsequently caught assessing the Persian strength. However, instead of having them executed, the highly confident Xerxes provided them with a guided tour of his army and then sent them home to report on the irresistible power they had seen. The King of Kings hoped that the resultant propaganda effect might induce quick surrender and his aspiration was met in respect of the sudden declared neutrality of the northern Greek states of Boetia, Doris, Phocis and Thessaly.

Athens gathered an army of 8,000 hoplites, supported by small volunteer contingents from Phocis, Thebes and Thespis. The city’s fleet was also reinforced to over 300 ships by modest squadrons provided by southern Greek states, which would be next in danger of Persian attack if the Athenians were defeated.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the splendid 10,000-strong Spartan army remained watchfully at home, apart from an elite unit of 300 hoplites, hand-picked by the joint king, Leonidas. They headed for Thermopylae, where the coast road from the north to Athens squeezed through a natural bottleneck, which was under 200 metres wide between mountains and sea and possessed some half-ruined defensive gates and walls.

The Athenians had retreated from the north to the pass of Thermopylae in the face of the gradual advance of the Persian host. Xerxes was then thwarted in his attempt to outflank the Greeks by using ships to land troops at the enemy’s rear by a naval defeat, against vessels inferior in number but obviously not seamanship, in the narrow straits off the northern tip of Euboea at Artemision. This crucial setback also disrupted the provision of vital supplies for the King of Kings’ forces.

Leonidas, given command of the situation at Thermopylae, placed his main force behind a half-ruined wall and allocated 1,000 local Phocians, who knew the territory best, to the winding inland mountain path, which skirted the pass. The king then assumed the vanguard position with his own tiny Spartan unit to await the Persians.

When Xerxes arrived at Thermopylae, he immediately recognised that the defensive position adopted by the Spartans in such narrow terrain would be difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, given the supply problems resulting from the fact that his fleet was held up at Artemision, he decided on a frontal assault with heavy infantry. However, the resultant attacks were easily repulsed and so archers were instead used.

Unfortunately for the Persians, the terrain disabled their archers from being able to deploy properly in order to bring their full firepower to bear, and anyway the flat trajectory of their composite bows was of little use against well-armoured opponents skilled in using their shields. Consequently, the first two days of the battle at Thermopylae was most noted for the sound of arrow ricochets, interspersed with death-cries during the occasional fierce Greek counterattacks launched against the nearest bowmen.

Xerxes therefore brought his resplendent Immortals into the battle in exasperation on the third day, sending them against the Phocians on the mountain path. Unfortunately for the Spartans below, their supposed allies meekly retreated to higher ground instead of fighting the Persians.

After seeing the outflanking Immortals on the heights of the pass above, Leonidas immediately ordered the tactical withdrawal of the bulk of his forces, namely the 2,800-strong mixed Peloponnese contingents, leaving his 300 Spartans and 1,100 Boeotians and Thespians to face the 120,000 Persians. The brave king, now encircled by the enemy, was quickly killed in the subsequent ferocious battle, during which there was then a tremendous but eventually successful struggle by his own soldiers to recover his body.

The Spartans were later finally surrounded on a mound, upon which they had taken position to make their last stand. Not one of the original 300 survived the battle.

(Sound of Salamis, off Attica, Greece, 23^rd September 480 BC)

The heroic defeat at Thermopylae left the road to Athens open for the Persians. The city appeared doomed and panic ensued throughout southern Greece.

The Peloponneseans abandoned the Athenians to their fate and began to build a defensive wall across the Isthmus of Cornith, which was the land link to their peninsula. Meanwhile, also agreeing that Athens was lost, Themistocles persuaded his fellow citizens to evacuate their city en masse and retreat to the nearby offshore island of Salamis, where they could be protected by their now 310-strong fleet, which was stationed in the adjacent eponymous narrow sound.

The small but valiant token garrison left behind on the Acropolis was eventually subsequently overcome and the Persians occupied and destroyed much of the ancient but now empty city. Xerxes subsequently prepared to attack the Peloponnese but he then heard news that the Athenians were going to attempt to escape from Salamis by sailing through the western entrance to the sound. The King of Kings fatefully did not believe that he could miss the opportunity to inflict serious harm on his worst enemy.

Xerxes therefore ordered the Egyptian third of his own remaining fleet, now just 350-strong after the problems at Artemision, to guard the western entrance of the Sound of Salamis, whilst his Phoenician and Ionian naval contingents sailed into the strait to destroy the trapped Greeks. However, the King of Kings did not appreciate that the news he had heard about Athenian intentions was false and was instead actually a ploy by Themistocles, who was a military genius, to lure the Persian ships into battle.

After Artemision, Themistocles was confident that the Athenian fleet, although smaller, would prove superior to that of the Persians if arrayed to its strengths. Consequently, at dawn, two days after the fall of the Acropolis, the Greek ships performed a manoeuvre in the sound, which suggested that they were nervous of the enemy and which succeeded in drawing Xerxes’ over-confident sea-captains into a trap.

As the Roman historian, Plutarch, commented over half a millennium later, "Themistocles had chosen the time for battle as judiciously as he had the place". The Athenian had waited until the wind created a heavy swell in the narrows, which affected the smaller and lower-lying Greek triremes much less than the bigger and higher ships of the Persian fleet.

The resultant greater mobility of the Athenian triremes within the tight confines of the choppy sound subsequently brought them a great and enormously significant naval victory, having in the process only 40 ships sunk compared to the 200 Persian losses. The success gave the Greeks vital command of the seas.

Xerxes, who had watched the battle unfold in horror, whilst sitting on a golden throne on heights overlooking the sound, subsequently had no choice but to withdraw from Greece most of his forces, which he could no longer adequately supply because of the destruction of his fleet. The King of Kings was spurred on his way by a cheeky message from Themistocles, which warned that the Athenian navy could now destroy the pontoon bridges over the Hellespont and so the Persians should flee to Asia whilst they still could.

(Near Plataea, Boeotian plain, Greece, almost 1 year later, 25^th to the 27^th August 479 BC)

Xerxes did not entirely abandon his dream of conquering Greece by withdrawing two-thirds of his army back across the Hellespont into Asia Minor. The King of Kings left the remainder to winter in Thessaly, under the command of his brother-in-law, Mardonius, whose own campaign against the independent Hellenes had ended in ignominy twelve years previously. The general was charged with carrying on the war, as best he could, at the start of the next campaigning season in the following spring.

In the renewed campaign of 479 BC, the remaining Persian army, numbering about 35,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, with 15,000 unreliable allies from northern Greece, eventually encountered a larger enemy force on the Boeotian plain, near Plataea. The total of 90,000 Athenians, Corinthians, Spartans, Plataeans, Tegeans and other more minor national contingents, led by the Spartan, Pausanias, consisted of 40,000 hoplites and 50,000 assorted peltasts and archers.

The subsequent battle lasted three days and the result was initially uncertain. However, the constricted local topography prevented the Persians from making their usual sweeping manoeuvres. The horses of their potentially overwhelming numbers of cavalry were also hampered by the presence all over the surrounding plain of wickedly sharp stones, and the conflict eventually culminated in a ferocious hoplite charge, which finally proved the superiority of Greek infantry in hand-to-hand fighting.

The Greek hoplites in their well-drilled phalanxes wore protective helmets, cuirasses and greaves, carried short spears and swords and fought shoulder-to-shoulder, with their shields interlocking. However, the Persians in contrast sported much less body armour, with many soldiers just dressed in flowing gowns with cloth caps, and were less co-ordinated. They were also less accustomed to hand-to-hand infantry fighting, as a result of their possession of so many cavalry and archers.

Although Mardonius’ forces fought with great bravery, the superiority of the Greek hoplites in hand-to-hand fighting, aided by local conditions that nullified the enemy cavalry, ensured that the Persians were eventually routed. The general himself was killed and only a few thousand troops survived to return to Asia Minor.

Xerxes subsequently permanently abandoned his dream of conquering Greece after hearing about the disastrous defeat at Plataea. In doing so, the King of Kings permitted himself the wry observation that "All empires expand until they are checked, and the Hellenes have checked me!"

(Mycale, Ionian mainland, Asia Minor, same time)

A small allied Greek fleet under the command of the Athenian, Xanthippus, father of Pericles, and the Spartan, Leotychidas, had crossed the Aegean to Samos. Their intention was to destroy the last of the Persian warships, which, amongst other benefits, should help the islands of Ionia, such as Chios, again to free themselves.

A naval battle eventually took place off the coast of Asia Minor, near to the promontory of Mycale. The Persian fleet, ironically in the circumstances, still included a forcibly enlisted contingent of Ionian triremes.

Amongst the reluctant Ionian contingent of triremes was a Chian vessel, commanded by the now 32 year-old Capros, supported by his second-in-command, Danos. Persian soldiers, who outnumbered the Greek crew, were also aboard the warship, as was Dios, along with his assistants, Theanos and Atrios.

Dios, who was the same age as Capros, and his two companions were aboard the trireme as official royal observers. Their role included ensuring that the Chian crew stayed loyal, although the more numerous Persian soldiers aboard were a greater deterrent to desertion.

The sea battle proved indecisive. However, the demoralised Persian naval commander eventually chose to disengage and beach his triremes at Mycale, where he knew he could receive help from local land forces.

The beached ships and sailors were then indeed joined by a large number of local Persian troops, led by a general called ‘Tigranes’, who protected the triremes behind rapidly erected timber and stone fortifications. The threat to the Greeks from the remnants of the imperial fleet was therefore still extant and so they decided to storm ashore in order to try to capture or destroy the enemy vessels.

The Greeks were therefore confronted with a major land battle as opposed to the expected sea engagement. Fierce bloody fighting ensued, with the Persian defenders of the beach palisade resolutely beating back one enemy assault after another.

Meanwhile, Tigranes had wisely not used the undoubtedly unreliable Ionian sailors in the fighting. The general had instead assigned them to protecting the beached triremes within the palisade, particularly from enemy fire-arrows.

Tigranes was later on the verge of winning the land battle when two events happened to turn victory into defeat. Firstly, the general was himself killed in the fierce fighting. Secondly, Dios used the ensuing leaderless confusion to suggest to his fellow Ionians that they set the triremes they were supposedly guarding alight before then deserting to the enemy.

The subsequent successful torching of their own beached ships and those of their erstwhile allies by the Ionians, leading to the utter destruction of the Persian fleet, meant that there was then no real reason to carry on the battle. Consequently, both sides subsequently disengaged.

The leaderless Persian survivors fled into the coastal hills. Meanwhile, the Greeks re-embarked onto their own triremes, which also provided transport home for most of the Ionians who had fatefully changed sides.

After spending three years back on Chios, Dios had accepted that, after what had happened during the Ionian Revolt, his countrymen would never again be meekly compliant to Persian rule, regardless of the economic benefits brought from being part of such a large empire. Revengeful patriotism had been irreversibly stirred and his fellow Chians would therefore be constantly plotting to regain their independence. However, the eunuch worried that, if further insurrections occurred impatiently at inopportune moments, the only result would be further death and destruction on his home island.

Dios therefore eventually concluded that, given the prevailing resolute insurrectionary attitudes amongst his countrymen, it would be best for both Chios and Persia if his homeland could somehow achieve freedom in a bloodless and irreversible manner. The island, along with the others of Ionia, could perhaps then best serve the Greeks and the King of Kings by being a useful independent economic and political link between the two cultures.

In coming to his conclusion, Dios again recalled the inscription on the tomb of his beloved Darius at Naqsh-i-Rustan. He in particular remembered the phrase "The spear of a Persian man has gone forth far".

Dios had sagely decided on the day of Darius’ internment that imperial expansion had gone far enough and that he would remain in Xerxes’ court to try to counsel against an attack against Greece. However, his wise advice had been ignored and the new King of Kings had subsequently suffered greatly for such disregard.

The land battle at Mycale had now caused Dios to realise that an ideal opportunity had arisen to achieve his revised aim of renewed independence for Chios. The only expense would be the burning of some ships because lives would actually be saved on both sides by ending the fighting prematurely.

In fact, Dios originally intended that only one life would be seriously threatened by his fateful action and that would be his own. If the Persians ever realised what he had been responsible for at Mycale, he would surely be crucified if he ever fell into their hands again in future, which he actually proposed to allow.

Dios did not desert with his fellow Chians, including Danos and Capros, to the Greek fleet at Mycale. He instead remained behind in order to return to Xerxes’ court, where he hoped to influence the king to allow the islands of Ionia, which would surely now free themselves again after the demise of the Persian fleet, to retain their independence.

Given what had happened to Chios fourteen years previously, Dios greatly feared the consequences of another eventual vengeful re-conquest by a monarch who lacked Darius the Great’s compassion and wisdom. The more recent experience of Babylon provided a terrible example of the current King of Kings’ sense of just retribution.

Dios considered that another devastating re-absorption of Chios into the Persian Empire was inevitable sometime, once Xerxes had recovered his lost military resources, unless quiet persuasion and diplomacy could somehow placate the King of Kings’ undoubted fury and dissuade him from such action. The eunuch was now prepared to risk his own life in an effort to save his home island from such further appalling revenge by returning to the royal court.

Theanos had recently spent some happy times on Lesbos, becoming re-acquainted with his family and original friends. Meanwhile, over the past three years, the Macedonian, Atrios, had come to love Chios as much as Dios.

Theanos and Atrios, however, bravely had no intention of allowing Dios to undertake his potentially dangerous mission back to Xerxes’ court alone. They therefore remained with their friend on the beach at Mycale, sincerely hoping that none of the Persians had noticed their involvement in the torching of the beached ships.

(Island of Delos, Cyclades, Aegean Sea, 1 year later, 478 BC)

A summit meeting between some Greek political leaders was taking place on the island of Delos, where legend suggested that the twin sibling gods, Apollo and Artemis, had been born. The result of the conference was to be an important alliance.

The liberation of the islands of Ionia, including Chios, from the Persian yoke had indeed commenced with the destruction of the remnants of the enemy fleet on the beach at Mycale. Thereafter, the Athenians subsequently acquired most influence over the local islanders, with whom, at this meeting, they formed the alliance called the ‘Delian League’.

The League, to which all members had to contribute either ships or money, was named after the island of Delos, which served as treasurer and meeting place. The aim of the alliance was to defend the freedoms recently won and also to liberate all Greek colonies.

The League, however, ultimately failed to free from Persian suzerainty all Greek colonies and the continued independence of the islands of Ionia was secured more by the actions of one person than by the alliance.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Dios, Theanos and Atrios were not crucified for treachery at Mycale. After advancing up the wide and tall steps leading to Xerxes’ new ‘Gate of All Nations’ at the palace in Persepolis for their first audience with the King of Kings after their return to Persia, they were instead allocated new jobs.

There was apparently no reliable evidence against Dios, Theanos and Atrios to charge them with treason. However, given their 3-year absence on a now rebellious island from the royal court and suspicions surrounding them, after the change of sides by the Ionians during the battle of Mycale, Xerxes took the precaution of allocating the three eunuchs to positions of supposedly less importance than they had previously held.

Dios, Theanos and Atrios were fatefully charged with the oversight of the upbringing, mainly in the harem at Persepolis, of Xerxes’ very pretty and pleasant 4 year-old second son, Artaxerxes. Despite the obvious demotion, the three eunuchs relished the challenge ahead.

(Persia, 13 years later, 465 BC)

Xerxes actually spent most of his final years not engaged in fighting vengeful wars but instead indulging in regal pleasures, during which he concentrated his sexual activities on females, in the process considerably increasing his feminine harem. Royal wives and other women, by whom he had many children, thereby gained great influence, which caused fanatical jealousies.

Xerxes’ distraction from his royal duties caused major difficulties throughout his empire, including further revolts, during one of which Egypt even gained temporary independence. The king eventually appointed a highly able eunuch to the post of Lord High Chancellor to try to stop the rot.

This new Lord High Chancellor somehow eventually managed, despite Xerxes’ continued dissolute distraction and many continued problems, to keep the bulk of the remaining empire together, despite Greek, and particularly Athenian, attempts to inflict further serious damage. The name of this very capable Hazarapatis was Aspamites.

Xerxes was eventually assassinated in his bed during a coup led by the disgruntled and ambitious commander of his bodyguard Immortals, Artabanus. This treacherous man also killed the crown prince, Darius, before placing the supposedly more compliant murdered king’s second son, 18 year-old Artaxerxes, on the throne as a puppet ruler.

Artabanus additionally had 56 year-old Aspamites arrested. He then actually had the temerity to blame the now deposed Lord High Chamberlain for the murders of Xerxes and young Darius and subsequently had him tortured to death.

Artabanus, however, did not reckon on the skill with which Artaxerxes’ own small retinue of loyal eunuch servants would launch a successful counter-coup to ensure that their young royal master ruled in his own right and not as a puppet. The most senior of these royal aids happened to be 44 year-old Dios, who was also seeking revenge for the horrible execution of Aspamites, with whom he had remained very close.

Artabanus was crucified, whilst Artaxerxes went on to rule the Persian Empire soundly for 42 years, during which time he re-conquered Egypt. After listening to Dios’ sage counsel and, unlike his father, accepting the wise advice, the King of Kings also agreed to attempt to reach an armistice with the Greeks, especially the still bellicose Athenians.

(Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor, same time)

A curious and vigorous 19 year-old Greek, born in the Persian vassalage of Halicarnassus on the coast of Caria, set out from his home city to wander western Asia, largely on foot. He was an assiduous listener, who actively pursued historical facts about the many places he visited and later recorded them in writing.

The name of this first real historian was Herodotus.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, 16 years later, 449 BC)

A great banquet was taking place in the royal palace at Persepolis. The guest of honour was Dios, who had finally successfully concluded a peace treaty with the Athenians on behalf of his royal master, the King of Kings, Artaxerxes.

The treaty, concluded after an early armistice had been informally observed for several years, was called the ‘Peace of Callias’, after the principal Athenian negotiator. However, the real brain behind the agreement and previous cease-fire belonged to Dios, who had argued sagaciously and successfully that there was no point in further conflict between Persian and Greek.

Dios correctly argued to Artaxerxes that, given the problems of communications, the Persian Empire had reached its logical viable limits, with Greece and the Aegean islands geographically peripheral, and that the king should therefore concentrate on governing his existing domains. The Chian also perceptively suggested to the Athenians that they had enough problems with their Spartan rivals and so continuing to be an enemy of his royal master was foolish. In fact, the first of the long Peloponnesian Wars between the two Hellenic city-states was to begin shortly after the conclusion of the Peace of Callias.

The treaty was effectively a military disengagement, intelligently enlightened for the era, with both sides making concessions, including in terms of territory. For Dios, the most important aspect of the agreement was the withdrawal of the rebuilt Persian fleet from the Aegean, which, in practice, guaranteed the continued independence of his beloved Chios.

(Island of Chios, Ionia, eastern Aegean Sea, 1 year later, summer 448 BC)

Dios eventually retired with his loyal companions, Theanos and Atrios, to Chios in 448 BC, having said tearful farewells to their other close friends, Hermotimus, Bagapates and Stapses, who had chosen to remain in Persia. The threesome went with the grateful thanks of Artaxexses, and was greeted enthusiastically on their island by the Chians, prominent amongst whom were Danos and Capros.

Shortly afterwards the clothed Dios and Capros were strolling along a certain quiet beach on the eastern coast of Chios, supervising the play of two beautiful naked boys. The summer day was glorious. The sky was virtually cloudless, with its colour so matching that of the shimmering blue sea that the horizon was barely discernible. However, a gentle but nevertheless cooling landward breeze thankfully lessened the heat.

The temperature might otherwise have driven the exceptionally beautiful 11 year-old fair-haired and blue-eyed Dios and his similarly aged and featured best friend, Capros, to seek some cooler surrounds, instead of frolicking together naked on this quiet beach of golden sand under adult supervision. The former child was Danos’ grandson, who had been named after his famous great uncle, whilst the latter shared the appellation of his grandfather.

As they watched their respective great nephew and grandson play, the now sexagenarian versions of Dios and Capros noticed that the landward breeze, which currently cooled them all, had also caused the disturbance of the previously indiscernible eastern horizon by tiny black forms. These gradually grew larger, gaining shape and colour in the process to reveal themselves eventually as the expected small flotilla of Phoenician merchant ships, making their regular expedition to Chios. However, their purpose was not to collect the annual tribute for the Persian King of Kings.

Thanks largely to Dios, Chios was now independent and free of providing such tribute. The Phoenicians were instead arriving to collect Chian merchandise for the Persian market, in an example of the lucrative trade that restored peace had brought.

As the older Dios and Capros subsequently sat on the golden sand to watch their great nephew and grandson at play and the Phoenician flotilla pass, they therefore experienced no fears. Nor did the ageing friends regret the roles that the gods had apportioned for them in this life.

(Royal palace, Ecbatana, Media, 118 years later, summer, 330 BC)

Darius III, the last Achaemenid king, had recently been murdered by some of his own courtiers and servants, as Alexander the Great pursued the ragged remnants of the once mighty Persian army with great energy. After making respectful arrangements for the proper internment of his royal rival’s body, the 26 year-old Macedonian monarch had then crossed the Elburz Mountains to the north. He was heading for the Caspian Sea, through forests full of oaks and chestnuts and steep ravines, which were the lair of many fierce creatures, such as tigers and wolves.

Alexander, who, given his own position, naturally abhorred regicide, ventured north because some of Darius’ killers, plus the Greek mercenaries who had loyally served the Persian king to the very end, were known to have taken refuge in the area. Within a week, an important court vizier offered his own surrender in return for a pardon for his role in the recent royal murder. He had become one of the conspirators against the last of the Achaemenids because he had been disgusted at his regal master’s cowardly weaknesses and unwillingness to continue to resist the Macedonian invasion.

Having received the vizier’s gifts and heard his pleas, Alexander eventually granted the royal official the requested pardon, as long as he agreed to retire quietly to his ancestral lands, which the man did. However, the most important reason for the Macedonian king’s leniency had not been the force of the Persian’s arguments but instead the nature of one of the tribute presents he had brought with him.

Because of his exceptional beauty and grace, Bagoas, son of Pharnuches, who had lived on the mainly ethnically Greek coast of Asia Minor, had been Darius III’s favourite young eunuch. An even mightier king now developed an immediate liking for the boy tribute brought by the highly astute vizier, who knew of Alexander’s particular sexual predilections.

Alexander subsequently mercifully accepted the surrender of the Greek mercenaries, transferring them to his own army. Such a decision was in marked contrast to his angered massacring of similar Hellenic soldiers of fortune on the side of the enemy after the first battle of the war, at the River Granicus in Mysia in western Asia Minor.

Now with the beautiful Bagoas as part of his personal entourage, Alexander the Great then marched his accompanying forces down the northern slopes of the Elburz Mountains to Zadracarta, which was the capital of the Persian province of Gurgan and was close to the Caspian Sea. The area, freshened by summer rains, possessed a lush tropical landscape, abundant with oaks and silver firs, as well as with naturally growing exotic foods.

Alexander and Bagoas particularly enjoyed visiting the nearby precipitous edge of the Caspian Sea, which the Macedonian king considered to be a gulf of the vast ocean that encircled the world. Here, rivers and streams poured over cliffs and caves, where the natives held sacrificial feasts, into the waves below.

Alexander and Bagoas were intrigued by the sweetness of the Caspian Sea. They were also amused by the presence of many small water snakes.

Legend suggests that Alexander now spent thirteen days in Zadracarta trying to satisfy the desires of the queen of the Amazons, who had arrived with 300 female warriors to announce that she wanted to bear the child of the great Macedonian. However, this story was mere myth, invented by later historians of the ancient world.

The king actually dallied in Zadracarta to offer sacrifices, hold athletic games and accept further surrenders from Persian nobles, who had taken refuge locally. Amongst them was Artabazus, who had been a guest-friend of Alexander’s father, Philip II, plus his seven sons, who later served the Macedonian monarch in important court roles.

Any sexual passion exerted by Alexander in Zadracarta was directed not at an Amazonian queen but instead at a certain young boy eunuch. One immediate result of Bagoas’ intimate relationship with the Macedonian was the king’s changed attitude to Persians.

In order to please his lover, Bagoas, and to emphasise his new role as Darius III’s successor on the Persian throne, Alexander now began to adopt certain aspects of the costume and protocols of the Achaemenid monarchs. He declined use of, to Greek eyes, effeminate sleeved overcoats and trousers but started to dress in a purple and white striped tunic and a royal diadem, and insisted that his companions wore Median court attire. Access to the king also became more controlled through the employment of ushers.

The king’s revised outlook, caused by Bagoas’ influence, began the process of local assimilation between Greek and Persian, which would be of great future significance. As a result, the influence of aspects of both cultures would become much more widespread. The way would also be paved for the success of the later Seleucid dynasty, which was to be founded by one of Alexander’s generals and would be the successor for 260 years to that of the Achaemenids.

After his sojourn to Zadracarta, Alexander returned briefly to Ecbatana, prior to heading east into Bactria to chase another of Darius III’s assassins, Bessus, who had declared himself king of Persia. The Macedonian monarch naturally made use of the ancient but luxurious palace of the Achaemenid summer capital before having to face the harshness of another military campaign.

Whilst in the palace at Ecbatana, Alexander had rescued Bagoas from being abused by Macedonian royal pages, who disliked and were jealous of the Persian catamite’s influence over their royal master and were therefore using the boy as a target when practising their spear throwing. The supposed idea was for their weapons to land as close to the young eunuch as possible without actually hitting him, although it is doubtful if any of the Greek youths would have regretted an unfortunate accident.

Bagoas exhibited much bravery during his ordeal, from which he eventually luckily emerged physically unharmed, apart from a minor cut. Nevertheless, Alexander, after reprimanding his pages severely, thereafter always kept the young eunuch much closer to him wherever they went.

Later that same day, Alexander shared a bed with his beloved Bagoas, coincidentally in the same chamber in which Darius the Great had once done similar with Dios over 160 years previously when spending part of a summer in Ecbatana. During post-sex pillow-talk, the Macedonian king referred to the statuette of solid gold, which was now standing in the corner of the room and had been plundered from the palace at Persepolis.

In an action he was later to regret, Alexander had recently allowed the vengeful Athenians amongst his army to burn to the ground the great palace at Persepolis, the building of which had been started by Darius I, continued by Xerxes and largely finished by Artaxerxes. Such architectural sacrilege had been permitted to avenge the Persian despoliation of Athens after the battle of Thermopylae 150 years previously.

Given his particular tastes, Alexander had taken an instant liking to the golden statuette, which depicted a beautiful naked boy and possessed an intriguing inscription in two languages. The still extant item also inspired this 5-part story by Pueros.

"Who was Dios?" Alexander asked of Bagoas, who, like the young Chian 1½ centuries previously, was himself effectively royal eunuch tribute and also regularly entertained his king with fictional and factual tales. The exceptionally gorgeous boy was happy to provide his regal master with the answer as far as he knew it, which actually replicated much of this 5-part story by Pueros.

After Bagoas eventually finished, Alexander asked about one aspect of the story that had not been clarified. "What happened," the Macedonian king enquired, "to the evil castrater, Panionius?"

"You should already know, Lord," Bagoas, who had become an eager reader of Greek literature since he had become an intimate of Alexander, initially intriguingly answered. "However," the young eunuch added, "perhaps you’ve not yet connected the name of Panionius to a passage in the history of the Persian Wars by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which is amongst the books you take with you everywhere."

The naked Bagoas then rose from the bed and proceeded to open a large chest, containing the many scrolls to which he was referring. The young eunuch subsequently successfully rooted for the one he needed, which was the eighth book of Herodotus’ history, written about a century previously.

Bagoas unscrolled the papyrus copy of Herodotus’ history and eventually found the section he wanted. The young eunuch then read to Alexander three particular paragraphs, which were later to be numbered 104-6.

(Atarneus, Mysia, Ionian mainland of Asia Minor, 151 years previously, late 481 BC)

The now 29 year-old Hermotimus had become Xerxes’ favourite eunuch and, after he had become too old for the king’s bed, he had become an important and therefore very powerful royal official. He had also never lost his desire for vengeance against the man who had once castrated him in a highly sadistic manner.

Whilst Xerxes was in the Lydian capital of Sardis, making final preparations for his imminent invasion of Greece, Hermotimus, with the permission of the king, made use of both intelligence received and geographical proximity to travel to Atarneus, where Atrios had once been castrated and to where Panionius had retired. The town, which was largely inhabited by Chian colonists, was on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, opposite to the island of Lesbos.

Panionius was now married with four young sons of his own. Nevertheless, the evil Chian still performed castrations on a part-time basis in his own little workshop in the local slave-market, to where he and his equally petrified children were now taken after their arrest by some of Hermotimus’ accompanying Immortal bodyguards.

The heavily guarded Panionius did not initially recognise the now exotically dressed Hermotimus, as 18 years had passed since he had castrated the Leleges and he had in the interim gelded thousands of other boys. However, the evil Chian was soon to discover who had ordered his arrest, and that of his sons, and why.

Dios, when he later heard about the event, greatly disapproved of Hermotimus’ terrible act of vengeance. However, the Chian understood the cathartic reasons and subsequently forgave his fellow eunuch, thereby ensuring that their close friendship continued.

After introducing himself, Hermotimus, who had recognised much of the equipment in the workshop, including the old bloodstained table on which he had been castrated, commented, with clear irony, "It is to you that I owe all my current prosperity." He then asked the rightly intensely fearful Panionius to provide him with some information.

"You," requested Hermotimus, "who has clearly earned a rich living by performing more vile deeds than anyone else in the whole world, tell me what wrong to you or yours had I, or any of mine, done that you should make me the sexual nothing that I now am?" As the eunuch had expected, he received only silence in reply. Panionius either could not formulate a satisfactory answer or was too terrified for coherent speech.

Hermotimus therefore continued the one-sided conversation himself. "You must have thought," the eunuch added, "that the gods had not noticed your crimes. However, their justice has finally delivered you, the perpetrator of unrighteousness, into my hands and I don’t believe that you can have any real complaint about the vengeance that I am now resolved to take."

"To avoid personal crucifixion, you will now castrate your four sons in your own evil workshop," the vengeful Hermotimus ordered, "and, in doing so, you will cut away the whole of their genitals, not just their balls." Panionius’ personal cowardice subsequently ensured that, after having his copious pleas for mercy ignored, he preferred to obey the eunuch’s vengeful command rather than be nailed to a cross.

Later, the oldest son, after partial recovery from his own appalling nullification, obeyed another order from Hermotimus. The boy similarly emasculated his own father, Panionius.

(Royal palace, Ecbatana, Media, 151 years later, summer, 330 BC)

Wanting quickly to forget Herodotus’ horrific story about Hermotimus’ terrible revenge against Panionius, Alexander the Great’s mind refocused again on the much more pleasant subject of the golden statuette of Dios. Whilst doing so, the king looked again at the inscription, appropriately in ancient Greek and Persian, which had so intrigued him and which he not only envied but also wanted to learn from and emulate, thereby fatefully confirming the nature of his own future political attitudes, already partly shaped by Bagoas.

According to Bagoas’ recent narrative, Darius the Great had himself been responsible for the engraving of the name. This king’s grateful grandson, Artaxerxes, had later commissioned the subsequent praiseworthy comment on hearing with sadness of the death on Chios, in prosperous great old age and surrounded by the extended families of Danos and Capros, of his universally revered former servant.

The inscription on the statuette enviously read by Alexander the Great truthfully stated: "Dios – hero of both the Persians and the Greeks!"

Τελος

(the end)