Pueros

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Part δ΄ - ‘Γύναικωνίτις’
(Part 4 - ‘Harem’)

Dios and Aspamites now formed part of a caravan that was much smaller than the earlier convoy, which had taken the tribute from Chios along the long Royal Road to Ecbatana. The 100 Chian children had been split up according to their new functions, as decreed by the aged Daniel, who was the Lord High Chamberlain, or ‘Hazarapatis’.

Some of the young Chian boy eunuchs and girls were remaining behind in the palace at Ecbatana with similar tribute from elsewhere, receiving instruction for their new lives. However, others, including Dios, were transferring for their training to Susa, which in the Bible is called ‘Shushan’, or literally ‘lily’ in ancient Semitic. The city was where Darius I would be wintering and the school for royal pages was located.

Dios did not yet know but all of the latest child tribute, comprising 1,000 Greeks and a similar number of Babylonians, would assemble in the following spring at the beginning of the Persian New Year. They would then be formally paraded before the King of Kings, along with the other annual gifts from all of the satrapies, before proceeding to their new existences, in the households of either Darius I or the imperial nobility.

The road linking Ecbatana with Susa was 350 kilometres [217 miles] long and passed through the mountainous province of Luristan. The local hillsides were mainly densely forested but some had been cleared of trees to create fertile animal pasturage.

Dios, still riding his pony alongside Aspamites’ taller horse, continued to be amazed at some of the sights during his travels, not least the height of some of the mountains. The exceptionally beautiful boy had also noted that none of the communities through which they now passed appeared to possess temples and so he asked the invariably indefatigably co-operative and informative spasaka about this strange phenomenon.

Aspamites answered that "The tenets of Zoroastrianism, Dios, forbid the building of temples or statues to Ahuramazda. For the adherents of the religion, the concept of the one true supreme god is simply too vast to be contained within any shelter except the vault of heaven, or to be represented in any sculpture. However, the deity can be worshipped at an altar of fire, flames being the divinity’s purest manifestation, and be depicted on monumental carvings, usually, as you have already seen, as a bearded man, crowned with a tiara and enclosed in a winged solar disc."

On the road to Susa, Dios was also occasionally shocked to see tall unadorned masonry towers in some villages and towns, on top of which dead bodies were exposed on wooden trellis platforms. The inevitably inquisitive boy naturally additionally asked Aspamites about these, to his young mind, awful phenomena.

"With the exception, Dios, of the divine form of the King of Kings," Aspamites had patiently replied, "Zoroastrianism forbids cremation or burial of dead bodies in order to prevent contamination of sacred fire and the land. Corpses are therefore instead exposed on top of tall ‘towers of silence’ until the flesh rots or is consumed by bird scavengers. The skeletons are subsequently covered with wax to avoid contact with the earth and then placed in ossuaries!"

The occasional grisly sights of bodies becoming skeletal in such a manner did not, however, cause Dios’ next nightmare. The boy instead again relived the horror of his recent castration, and also dreamt about suffering an appalling future.

Aspamites was therefore once more required to comfort Dios within the privacy of the pavilion tent, which they now shared every night during the 10-day journey to Susa. Whilst the caring Babylonian platonically embraced the younger Chian, the boy expressed sorrow at again waking up and troubling the spasaka, who, however, kindly replied that there was no need to apologise for suffering a rather natural nightmare.

Aspamites’ considerate attitude was partly ascribable to his secret guilt about being the person who had instigated the cause of Dios’ nightmare. However, the spasaka also still believed that he had made the correct decision about not reprieving the boy from castration and transport to Persia, as he remained convinced that the young Chian would eventually prove invaluable to his beloved King of Kings.

Aspamites again attempted to soothe Dios but the quaking tearful boy proved more difficult to console than ever. The spasaka therefore perceptively realised that something else had to be disturbing the young Chian in addition to the recollection of his castration.

Consequently, Aspamites gently lured Dios into confessing what else was worrying him. The boy answered rather quietly and sheepishly: "I know that you think I’m quite brave, Sir. Nevertheless, I’m currently very frightened!"

"What are you frightened of, Dios?" asked a sympathetic Aspamites. The trembling boy replied "I’m afraid of what I can expect to experience when we arrive in Susa, which I believe will happen tomorrow afternoon!"

"Well, Dios," Aspamites advised truthfully, "I can’t say that you won’t endure some more hurt after you arrive there, both mentally and physically. However, such experiences should be fleeting and I anticipate that you’ll emerge, like I did, a better person, especially if you succeed, as I expect you will, in entering the King of Kings’ intimate service as one of his personal pages."

Dios was not particularly comforted by the thought of suffering more mental and physical distress after arriving in Susa, which appeared to confirm his nightmare, and so enquired about the likely reasons for such further unpleasantness. Aspamites contemplated for a few moments whether providing the younger eunuch with a truthful response would be in the boy’s best interests. The spasaka eventually decided that such information should be helpful to someone committed by solemn oath to meet his fate compliantly, as the news could assist him to prepare to suffer the prospective ordeals concerned.

"There are four early aspects of your new life that you’ll undoubtedly dislike, Dios," Aspamites then told the boy. "Firstly, part of the selection process conducted by Darius for his pages will be to examine the naked bodies of the young candidates and I know from experience that you find such inspection deeply shameful. Secondly, if you pass such scrutiny, you’ll subsequently attend the relevant imperial school, where classes are hard and discipline is harsh, and where you’ll be taught some duties that you’ll find distasteful, such as what to do if chosen to be the king’s bed companion for the night. Thirdly, on graduation, you’ll be marked with the royal brand denoting your status."

"I’m to be branded, just like a common slave!" the boy then interrupted to exclaim in shock, forgetting in the process his usual polite custom of addressing Aspamites as ‘Sir’. "You’ll be taught, Dios," the spasaka retorted, "that the royal mark you receive is a sign of great honour not shame." The Babylonian eunuch then lifted up his colourful silk night-gown to show the young Chian the permanent small symbol that was burnt into the middle of his own chest.

Dios’ shock was initially increased by sight of Aspamites’ little brand. However, the boy’s ravenous curiosity quickly overcame his fright and he was soon peering closely at the mark in order to try to discover what the small pictorial scene depicted.

"The brand, Sir," the boy subsequently suggested, whilst displaying greater calmness and returning to his usual politeness, "appears to portray a man riding a chariot between two palm trees, with a winged circle hovering overhead!" "Your eyesight is obviously as perfect as all of your other attributes, Dios," Aspamites replied, with his compliment causing the young Chian again to blush. "The mark," the spasaka then advised, "duplicates Darius’ royal seal. Situated above the figure of the chariot-riding king indulging in a royal lion hunt amongst date palms is the disc of the god, Ahuramazda."

Aspamites next told Dios of the peculiar circumstances in which he received his own brand, which most unusually did not occur on his graduation from the school of pages. The spasaka also related a Persian proverb to the boy, which involved shoes and feet and basically suggested that there were always people who suffered worse than oneself. As a result of hearing the story and maxim, the younger Chian eunuch began to feel rather ashamed at his earlier shock and fright at the prospect of being similarly marked.

Aspamites subsequently proceeded to advise the boy about the fourth early aspect his new life that he would undoubtedly dislike. "You’ll probably consider, Dios," the spasaka suggested, "actually acting as Darius’ bed companion to be rather degrading and hurtful, at least until you become accustomed to and begin to gain pleasure not mental and physical pain from the role!"

"Can I, someone who has been castrated, really eventually gain pleasure out of being Darius’ bed companion, Sir?" the still red-faced boy next enquired, almost in a whisper but as usual with intense incredulous inquisitiveness overcoming any natural reserve, which in this case comprised embarrassment. "Yes, Dios," Aspamites answered, with his common, and on this occasion also uncompromisingly descriptive, candidness, "at least as far as your rectum is concerned."

"The act of sodomy, Dios," Aspamites advised, "will undoubtedly hurt at first, as your virgin rectum will not be accustomed to being penetrated, especially by something as big as Darius’ cock, which is truly worthy of a King of Kings. However, he indulges in his favourite pleasure with great consideration, attempting to minimise the early pain experienced by his boy eunuchs and eventually to provide pleasure instead."

"Once you, Dios," Aspamites informed, "and your rectum become both accustomed and proficiently accommodating to penetration by the king’s large cock, you’ll find that the royal penis will tickle something within you and this will eventually replace pain with increasing personal pleasure. Darius takes immense pride in bringing his boys to an intensity of sexual climax that matches his own, in the only way that us eunuchs can experience such delicious ecstasy!"

"If you share my experiences, Dios," Aspamites suggested, "your own cock will, despite your castration, eventually become erect and produce some clear ejaculate during climax. You’ll also begin to experience such peaks of pleasurable passion that you’ll really look forward to being Darius’ bumboy for the night. However, I have to confess that I liked much less occasionally having to suck and lick the king’s penis, especially when he wanted my lips and tongue to bring him to orgasm and my mouth to swallow the product. Nevertheless, I ultimately became both competent and happy in performing such fellatio, as I came to love him dearly and gain delight from providing him with the relevant enjoyment."

"My love for Darius is also the reason, Dios," Aspamites then confessed, "why I cruelly insisted that you were still to be castrated and brought to Persia, despite my early development of affection and admiration for you. You see, after I met you, I almost immediately somehow realised that you were someone who would perform a great and much-needed service for the King of Kings!"

"What’s that, Sir?" the still blushing but intrigued Dios next quietly enquired. The red hue of the boy’s beautiful face then increased in intensity when he received Aspamites’ answer.

Aspamites answered with complete conviction: "I’m sure that you will come to love Darius as intensely as I still do, and will serve him extremely well in the intimate manner I once did but can longer do!"

(Susa, Iran, next afternoon)

As could be expected, the journey along the well-protected road to Susa from Ecbatana by a caravan led by such an important young man as Aspamites and escorted by fierce Assyrian cavalrymen concluded safely. Dios then saw for the first time the administrative capital of the Persian Empire, which was located on an artificial hillock and was one of the oldest cities in the world, having already existed for about 3½ millennia.

The Assyrian leader, Ashurbanipal, had ruthlessly destroyed Susa, then capital of the rival kingdom of Elam, 140 years previously and massacred most of the population. His deeds were recorded on reliefs in his palace at Nineveh, which are now in the British Museum.

In one of these reliefs, Ashurbanipal is depicted feasting with his queen in a garden where the head of the king of Elam dangles before them on a tree. In associated inscriptions, he also boasts of the ruthless devastation and slaughter he wrought in Susa. However, his empire did not last, as 30 years later his own capital of Nineveh was laid waste and desolate forever whilst the rival Elamite city eventually recovered its prosperity and, under the rule of the benevolent Persian monarch, Cyrus the Great, attained greater wealth and splendour than ever before.

Cyrus re-fortified Susa with new encircling walls and a palace castle. Darius I subsequently built his own royal residence in the city, wanting not only to improve the amenity but also to outdo his illustrious predecessor in terms of the magnificence of his main winter home.

As they rode towards the walls, Aspamites advised Dios that Susa was a pleasant place to be in winter. The spasaka also kindly attempted to reduce the obvious tension within the boy by making him laugh when he also informed: "However, it is said that even scorpions die if they attempt to cross a road at noon in the height of summer under the sun’s unforgiving glare." The Babylonian eunuch added, to the young Chian’s further amusement, "Cyrus is reputed to have liked the water of the local River Choaspes so much that he had cartloads carried in silver flagons for his use wherever he went. Nevertheless, he took the wise precaution of having it boiled before consumption!"

Susa was entered via the northern gate and the caravan proceeded to Darius I’s new palace in the city, the massive size and superb opulence of which Dios discovered was in stark contrast to the living standards endured by his poorer subjects. Such people tended to reside in very basic urban and rural accommodation, comprising single-chamber windowless dwellings in family blocks of sun-dried mud-brick, where a small vestibule around otherwise open doorways might afford some privacy. More prosperous citizens commonly enjoyed homes built of similar material but consisting of several larger rooms facing onto a central courtyard. Timber and stone were usually reserved for temples and the residences of the elite.

On consolidating his position on the throne, Darius I had decided that he was dissatisfied with Cyrus’ palace in Susa. As the new king wanted to impress, he decided to build afresh and that the residence had to be even more splendid than his predecessor’s had been either at Susa or Pasargadae.

In a truly international operation, Darius I recruited Ionians and Lydians to quarry and carve the fine grey limestone of the Zagros Mountains to form the main building blocks for the new palace. Median and Egyptian craftsmen fashioned decoration from gold secured from Sardis and Bactria and silver and ebony from the Nile kingdom. Cedarwood was shipped from Phoenicia to Babylon by Syrians, with the journey then completed by Carians. Rare sissoo trees were brought from Carmania and Gandhara, turquoise from Chorasmia, ivory from Nubia and cornelian and lapis lazuli from Sogdiana.

Because of the planned size and weight of the new palace, a vast pit first had to be dug through to the chosen site’s underlying rock level, which was then filled with compressed rubble and gravel to a depth of 40 cubits [8.1 metres or 26.6 feet]. The created foundation platform measured 1,234 by 740 cubits [376 by 150 metres or 820.5 by 492 feet]. On this, the centrepiece was to be a towering square audience hall, or ‘apadana’, where 6 rows of 6 tall elaborate columns, topped by capitals, each in the form of two back-to-back bulls, held the cedarwood roof in place. There were four towers at each corner, linked on three sides by peristyle porticoes approached by wide staircases and with twelve pillars apiece. The internal walls were decorated with glazed tiles, portraying archers of the royal guard in their Elamite-style garb.

The complex was built in the Babylonian style, with other rooms grouped round large courtyards, where glazed panels also decorated the walls. These portrayed a variety of scenes, including depictions of the elite royal military guard unit called the ‘Immortals’ and mythological pictures of the likes of winged bulls or lions with human heads. The royal living quarters were surrounded and linked by long corridors.

Dios had considered the old palace at Ecbatana to be the most magnificent building into which he had ever entered. However, as the boy, and the other few Chian tributes who had not remained behind in the King of King’s summer retreat in Media, was now led by Aspamites into Darius I’s new residence in Susa, he realised in awe that this place was even more splendid.

Dios immediately believed that there could not possibly be a more magnificent building in the whole of the world than the new palace in Susa. However, the boy was to his astonishment eventually again to be proved wrong in his presumption when the following spring arrived.

One of the awe-inspiring sights that Dios and his companions observed, as they were led through the palace gateway towards their temporary accommodation within the substantial palace harem quarters, or ‘anderoun’, was a large statue of the King of Kings. The sculpture was made of green schist and was situated on a stone platform, on which were representations of Darius I’s many subject peoples, each identified by inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The presence of the latter symbols provided evidence of the country of manufacture.

Dios and the small number of fellow Chian eunuchs were eventually separated from the few girls in their party and then introduced to their barrack-like but pleasant palace harem accommodation, where some young gelded tribute of other nationalities had already gathered. All of the latter Greek and Babylonian boys became silent and morose at the sight of Aspamites accompanying the new arrivals, as the spasaka had been responsible for their original selection for castration and exile from their respective homelands.

Aspamites, however, did not remain long but departed immediately after he had ensured that the new arrivals, especially Dios, had been allocated decent bunks and that the attendant array of adult harem eunuchs were reminded of their responsibilities towards their precious charges. After all, some of the gelded 11 year-old boys could soon become very intimate with the King of Kings and thereby exert some significant influence over him.

Darius I’s palaces were also the homes of many other people apart from the king, as the Archaemenian household, which formed the top echelon of society, was extremely large, even if the huge array of attendant menials was excluded from consideration. In addition to royal blood relatives, other residents included high-born Persian and Median nobles, who for reasons of personal protection and advancement liked to be as close as possible to the centre of imperial power. There was also a big assortment of officials and other important servants, plus favoured foreigners, such as visiting diplomats, scholars, physicians, artists and architects, as well as political exiles and honoured captives.

The household was greatly boosted in size by the existence of the harem, which was an asset prized by all Archaemenian rulers. This sizeable and carefully guarded community comprised not only the king’s several wives and many somewhat under-employed concubines but also all his other close female relatives, such as his mother, sisters and cousins. Regal children, including the 21 year-old crown prince, Xerxes, additionally lived within the well-protected confines, where all were attended by a large retinue of eunuchs, carefully chosen for competence.

The conquests of Lydia, Babylonia and Egypt had brought the Persians kings immense wealth and introduced them to the notion of an opulent lifestyle. They soon adapted their tastes accordingly, partly to awe their subjects, and they consequently became famed in the ancient world for luxurious indulgence.

As Aspamites departed from the royal harem, Dios noted that the spasaka, who was obviously greatly feared and hated by his fellow young eunuchs but whom he had come to like a lot, reserved a special smiling farewell glance for him.

(Royal winter palace, Susa, Susiana, Iran, 2 hours later)

Aspamites, carefully freshly groomed and adorned by his most magnificent attire and jewellery, entered the opulent chamber alone. Although, the hall was only used for private audiences, the amenity was very large, with the high ceiling needing the assistance of several tall marble columns to supplement the walls in holding the cedarwood roofing aloft.

As in the massive old palace at Ecbatana, most of the columns and ceilings in the even bigger and new regal residence in Susa were covered with gold and silver gilt and some were also encrusted with precious jewels. Parts of the marble floors were covered with exceedingly ornate and expensive colourfully decorated carpets, which also adorned many walls, as well as being hung between some pillars as both ornamentation and discreet draught protection. The splendid décor of the private audience hall was no exception to such ostentation.

The sweet-smelling Aspamites knew from previous experience that there would currently only be two other people in the private audience hall. However, the spasaka had not yet properly seen them, as court protocol dictated that he had to keep his eyes fixed downwards onto the marble floor as he approached the throne.

Having performed the relevant formal ceremonial here many times previously, Aspamites knew instinctively the correct spot at which to collapse in a dignified manner facedown onto the floor and fully stretch himself out in the act of ritual prostration. As was customary, the spasaka was required to maintain this pose for several moments before a cherubic soprano voice advised him in Persian that he could stand again.

As Aspamites subsequently rose back onto his feet, he kept his eyes firmly focused on floor. The spasaka was waiting for a certain instruction, which came moments later.

The same cherubic voice as before then informed "You may now gaze upon the King of Kings!" Aspamites immediately obeyed.

Aspamites then saw a resplendently colourfully attired and bejewelled 50 year-old stern-faced man sitting on an elevated marble throne. Darius I wore flowing silk robes with trousers. The King of Kings also sported on his face a neatly trimmed short black beard, curled throughout in the Persian style. On his royal head was a gold diadem, encrusted with many precious stones, although diamonds were missing as no-one would learn how to cut such hard gems for many more centuries.

Standing beside Darius I, on top of the marble platform, which supported the throne and was stepped on all sides, was a beautiful 13 year-old Babylonian boy, also splendidly dressed, this time in Median court garments similar to those worn by Aspamites. The spasaka correctly assumed that the page was the possessor of the cherubic voice and was at present the King of Kings’ favoured catamite. In fact, the young eunuch, named ‘Staspes’, had been the same one who had entertained his royal master in bed on the morning of the opening of the new Egyptian canal.

There was then a moment’s silence as both Darius I and Aspamites took in each other’s forms. The spasaka’s quietness was compounded by the knowledge that he was not supposed to speak until given permission. The King of Kings needed to break the impasse.

Darius I did so by shedding the stern look from his face and producing a broad smile of genuine warmth instead. The King of Kings also stood up and, breaking all court protocol, rushed down the steps leading from his elevated throne in order to go to hug his young spasaka.

"Welcome back, my love," Darius then said to Aspamites, as the King of Kings maintained his long embrace, "and thanks be to Ahuramazda that you have returned safely to me!" By the time that the older man finally decided to let go of his young spasaka, the eyes of the pair of them were damp.

"Come, my love," Darius then suggested to Aspamites, "let us sit informally." The King of Kings then guided his young spasaka to the side of the private audience hall, where there were some ornate chairs and a very intricate small round Egyptian-made table, whose four legs were expertly carved in the form of lions.

On top of the table were a golden jug of wine and snack sweetmeats and fruit placed in two silver bowls. One of these dishes was shaped like a lotus flower whilst the other portrayed rosettes with radiating petals.

In line with protocol, Darius sat first and then invited Aspamites to take one of the other chairs. Meanwhile, the boy eunuch also reached the scene to offer to pour the wine from the golden jug, which possessed a handle whose upper end depicted a lion’s head biting the vessel’s rim, into hemispherical goblets of the same precious metal, embossed with hunting scenes.

Both Darius and Aspamites accepted the boys’ offer before the well-trained young eunuch was dismissed by means of a discreet gesture from the King of Kings to a distant part of the hall. Here, the young page would be out of earshot but could nevertheless respond to any further signal to be of service to his royal master.

"I believe, my love," Darius then commented to Aspamites, "that you’ve come to report formally the success of your mission. Full tribute has been efficiently collected from the Lydian satrapy, including 500 fresh beautiful young eunuchs and the same number of gorgeous girls. I knew that you were the right man for the job!"

"Yes, O Great King," Aspamites answered rather sombrely. "Now, my love," the King of Kings first replied, in response to his young spasaka’s rather unenthusiastic words, "you know better than to call me that in private. In such circumstances, I should always be to you just ‘Darius’."

"Yes, Darius," Aspamites responded, whilst a brief smile flicked across his still very handsome smooth face. "Well, my love," the King of Kings next retorted, "now that we’ve settled that point, you can now tell me what’s wrong, and don’t dare hold back, as you’ve never done so previously, which is one of the reasons why you make such a good spasaka!"

Darius had always trusted Aspamites to tell him the truth, even if such veracity was unpleasant, whereas many other courtiers were often reluctant to convey bad news. The young spasaka did not let the King of Kings down on this occasion.

"I disliked the mission intensely, Darius," Aspamites confessed, "as I abhorred creating so many eunuchs like myself and taking so many boys and girls away from their families and homelands. I know that you believed that I would be the perfect person to identify the best child tributes, and I believe that I have done well in that respect, but I hated the task."

Darius, face mow displaying seriousness, replied "I’m deeply sorry to hear your words, my love, not out of disappointment at your attitude but in disgust that I did not recognise before that such a mission would distress you. I realise now that it was cruel of me to ask you to organise something that had once been perpetrated on yourself."

"I don’t particularly like seeking such tribute myself, my love," Darius then truthfully confessed, "but the customs of Persian and Median society demand regular large supplies of young eunuchs and girls to satisfy the needs of the royal palaces and the aristocracy. This situation is currently exacerbated by improved prosperity, especially amongst the nobility, and the construction of my new residence at Persepolis. Hence, the necessity for my command to increase the requirement and widen the collection to the Lydian satrapy, which is, after all, renowned for the beauty of the local children."

"For reasons of state, my love," Darius advised, "I need to maintain in great opulence in my palaces very big households, including huge harems, to provide the King of Kings with the aura that he requires to help intimidate his many subjects. A monarch’s continued authority is partly based on retaining such a sense of popular awe. I also have to supply the increasingly wealthy aristocracy, including the satraps, tyrants and other regional rulers, with their share so that they can sustain similar substantial entourages."

"You know well, my love," Darius commented, "that I am actually very restrained in my use of my harem, preferring to concentrate my desires on just a few young eunuchs, of whom you were once a prime example. Indeed, most of my female concubines go unmolested by me and so I allow their guardian geldings to permit the girls and women to fill some of their time in pursuing discreet affairs amongst themselves."

"You also know, my love," Darius remarked, "that I greatly value eunuchs in senior imperial posts. Having undivided loyalties, they are much more trustworthy than members of the nobility, and again you are a prime example."

"Nevertheless, my love," Darius informed, "I shall delegate the task of overseeing the gathering of future annual human tribute to another. I apologise sincerely for having encouraged you to fulfil this year’s task!"

"What, my love," Darius then asked, "would you prefer to do instead in future? I hope that you will consider a permanent return to my court, as I could do with your companionship and regular sage advice!" However, the King of Kings was to be disappointed in the response to his declared aspiration, despite the fact that people who caused royal frustration immediately became eligible for crucifixion. Aspamites was, of course, one exception to this custom.

"I’m not really ready yet, Darius," Aspamites replied, with sadness in his voice, "for a permanent return to court." The King of Kings did not need to ask why.

Darius already knew that Aspamites, who was the only person he really loved in this life despite no longer desiring him for his bed, had wanted to go on distant missions because of his distress at not now being a principal aspect of his master’s sex life. The King of Kings correctly presumed that his beloved young spasaka was still experiencing grief about the matter.

"I could therefore instead make you a satrap, my love," the king seriously suggested. Aspamites smiled broadly on hearing this proposal but replied: "I am much too young and inexperienced, Darius, to accept such a great honour. I have not seen enough of government, especially in the provinces, to be able to fulfil such a role with any confidence. Please let me remain one of your ‘eyes’, albeit one not involved in the collection of human tribute!"

"I have the ideal mission for you, then, my love," Darius advised in response, "for I believe that the activities of the satrap of Gandara need checking. A certain excellent young treasury official of mine, with whom you are very well acquainted, has suggested to me that the viceroy appears to be skimming off more of the annual tribute, none of which includes humans, from that province than is his entitlement. I’d therefore like you both to go to determine the truth!"

Aspamites’ smile broadened even further, as the ‘certain excellent young treasury official’ to whom Darius had referred was the spasaka’s former slave. All of the King of Kings’ most favoured boy eunuchs were allocated similarly-aged and gelded personal menial servants to attend to their off-duty needs.

Aspamites’ unusually highly literate and numerate slave had performed so well in his role that, at his young master’s suggestion, Darius had freed him and appointed him to a senior position in the Susa treasury. This had occurred at the same time that the Babylonian eunuch had been released from sexual duties for the King of Kings and instead been appointed a spasaka.

"I’d be delighted to go on such a mission, Darius," Aspamites told his royal master, with earnest truth. However, the young Babylonian’s broadened smile had already previously indicated to the King of Kings what answer would emerge from his handsome spasaka’s rosy lips.

The highly perceptive Darius also noticed something else within Aspamites’ current smiling expression. The King of Kings therefore commented "Excellent!" before enquiring: "Are you now also going to tell me what you really came to see me about, as I don’t believe that reporting on your recent mission or a desire to meet me again were your main motivations?"

Aspamites blushed and then sheepishly remarked: "You, Darius, could always judge me better than I could myself!" "I had to," the King of Kings replied, whilst a broad smile emerged on his own bearded face.

"Do you recall, my love, the first time we met," Darius reminisced, "in this very hall about a decade ago when you were an 11 year-old?" Aspamites’ facial hue intensified at recalling the event but the King of Kings was not to be denied his retelling of the story.

"You, my love, and a few other fresh young Babylonian eunuchs," Darius reflected, "were being presented before me as prospective new pages, just as a few boys will be later this day. However, when the time came for all of you to remove your garments so that I could inspect your naked bodies, you resolutely declined to obey the command from the then Lord High Chamberlain. The extremely embarrassed Hazarapatis immediately wanted to spirit you away for execution for such sacrilege in front of the King of Kings but I wouldn’t let him do so."

"You, my love," Darius rembered, "subsequently proceeded to ignore later further and increasingly vociferous orders to follow the other boys in stripping, despite serious threats of being beaten or executed unless you complied. In the end, the defeated Lord High Chamberlain began to beg me to allow your immediate crucifixion but again I refused, commanding instead that you proceed to the relevant school for imperial pages, as you obviously needed comprehensive instruction in court protocol before you could enter my service. You did not know but I also asked to be kept closely informed of your progress and ordered that, although you could be beaten for continued misdemeanours, no permanent harm was to be inflicted on you!"

Aspamites, now interested in Darius’ retelling of their mutual history and therefore no longer displaying facial redness, had not previously known about this latter revelation. In retrospect, the King of King’s order did explain why the many formal beatings that were inflicted on his forcibly stripped form, whilst attending the school for pages, appeared curtailed, not matching what his continued exhibitions of ill-discipline and recalcitrance truly deserved.

The original attitude of Aspamites, who came from a noble Babylonian family, had been connected to his intense personal pride. Although he was resigned as an 11 year-old to learn about court protocol because he was, after all, being prepared to serve a man who was king not only of Persia but also of his homeland, he was unwilling to do anything voluntarily that he considered demeaning. For example, he was not prepared to participate in lessons about how to please Darius sexually.

In the end, Darius, who had been kept fully appraised about Aspamites’ progress, ruled that the young eunuch should leave the school for pages and join his service unusually early, despite being told that the occasionally unmanageable boy was far from ready for such a step. The sagacious King of Kings then first appointed the 11 year-old Babylonian, who on his new master’s command had not been branded, to be his main palace courier.

This important job meant that Aspamites, in order to fulfil his role properly, quickly had to learn the layout of the vast palace in Susa, plus the identity of the many various household members, courtiers and officials to whom verbal and written messages might be sent. From the start, the boy proved an excellent and conscientious courier, which was clear testament to his inherent intelligence, speed and reliability, as well as to the increasing liking he afforded to Darius. The king was always very pleasant to the young Babylonian and so the eunuch became very keen to please his royal master in return by serving him efficiently.

The astute Darius, who now knew Aspamites’ full background and abilities, next asked the boy to act in a similar courier function during the annual spring court relocation from the palace in Susa to the one in Ecbatana. To fulfil this role properly, the young Babylonian eunuch would need to ride a horse.

"But, O Great King," Aspamites had advised Darius with embarrassment, "I have not yet been taught to ride a horse." "Then," the King of Kings replied, whilst simultaneously granting the boy an unprecedented honour, "I shall instruct you myself!"

Aspamites, like Dios a decade later, quickly became, at the age of 11 and with the help of expert advice, an accomplished horseman. The young Babylonian also began to love the kind person who was taking the trouble to instruct him in the art.

A decade later, Darius concluded his reminiscence by commenting "In the end, of course, my love, you needed no threats of execution to encourage you to strip or entice you into my bed because you did both voluntarily. In fact, if I recall you blatantly seduced me!"

"Yes, Darius," Aspamites now happily recalled, "we were hunting in the forested countryside near Ecbatana and fortunately became separated from the rest of the party. We then stopped at a stream to allow our horses a drink. I appreciated that you liked me, or otherwise you wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to nurture me into becoming a good page. I also knew that you fancied me. I additionally wanted to reward the man, who had shown me so many kindnesses and whom I now loved deeply, and I realised that there was really only one gift that I could offer to someone who otherwise has everything!"

"So, my love," the King of King announced, whilst taking up the reminiscence again, "I recall that you began your seduction by telling me quite brazenly on the bank of that stream that you would now strip naked for me. Before I could say anything in response, you were standing before me without your clothing, proudly displaying the new brandmark on your chest, which I had originally commanded should not be inflicted on you when you left the school of pages earlier than normal."

"You told me, my love," the King of Kings declared, "that you had become so ashamed at not displaying my insignia that you had tricked the man responsible for the branding into burning my mark onto you, supposedly on my orders. He later advised me that you had faced your ordeal with calm bravery, so indicating to him that you really deserved the honour!" "And, as the saying goes, Darius," suggested a freshly grinning Aspamites, "the rest is history!"

"You rarely, my love, spent any night away from my bed for the next six years," Darius happily reflected, "making largely redundant the bedtime ritual of selecting my sleeping companion. You later became in the process easily the oldest male with whom I’ve ever enjoyed sex. I truly regret that my tastes don’t extend to handsome young men rather than being confined just to younger boys, as I miss you alongside me. Your successors, although very pretty and efficient, simply don’t have your character. How I wish I could find another 11 year-old Aspamites!"

"Which brings us to the last question you asked, Darius," the spasaka remarked, "when you enquired whether I was now going to tell you what I had really come to see you about." The King of Kings’ eyes lit up and he almost begged "Do you, my love, have another young Aspamites for me?"

"I truly believe so, Darius," the real Aspamites answered, "and he’ll be the boy on the right end of the line of potential pages whom you’ll inspect later." "Will he too need help to become adjusted to his new life, my love?" the now excited King of Kings next asked, not being bothered if a positive answer was received.

Darius had already gently moulded the real Aspamites into the love of his life. The King of Kings was fully prepared to attempt the same with another boy whose great beauty matched the splendour of his character.

"No, Darius," Aspamites replied, "as I’ve already broken him in for you." The spasaka then went on to tell the King of Kings about the circumstances in which he secured Dios’ word of honour that the young Chian would go compliantly to his fate.

"I’ve also, Darius, provided Dios with an early taste of the heavy scourge," Aspamites added, "and the benefit of my close companionship all the way from Ephesus along the Royal Road to Ecbatana, and then from there to Susa." "Ah, my love, a bit of both stick and carrot for such a bravely and selflessly spirited boy!" the King of King observed.

"Partly, Darius," Aspamites responded, "as there were in all four reasons why I allowed Dios to ride beside me along the Royal Road and sleep in my tent at night. Firstly, I’ve taught him to ride as well as me, so you or others won’t have to perform the chore and can therefore concentrate instead on inducting him into other more important matters. Secondly, I genuinely enjoyed his intelligent company. Thirdly, I’ve introduced him to much knowledge about the empire, which should be of immediate and future benefit to him and you. Fourthly, he’s rewarded me for my consideration by reciting from memory much Homer to me!"

"Dios might not be a professional storyteller, Darius," Aspamites added, "and might not have recited Homer’s verse exactly as written but his memory is so good that I’m sure his ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ are very accurate. He also claims to have many more stories to tell, which I truly look forward to hearing sometime. The boy not only relates interesting tales but also makes his narration extremely exciting by apparently expert use of vocal inflections to denote emotions such as anger, awe, happiness and sadness, with his proficiency most pronounced rather significantly when expressing love, such as that of Achilles for young Patroclus."

"I asked him how he had acquired such a gift," Aspamites continued, "and he replied rather modestly that he was just copying his father, who regularly entertained his family with tales. Dios therefore appears to have an inherited natural talent for storytelling!" "I, like you, my love," the King of Kings interrupted to advise, "therefore also look forward to hearing the boy’s yarns!"

"Although Dios doesn’t know yet, Darius, I have already made arrangements for the appointment of his own personal slave if you should select him as one of your pages," Aspamites next proceeded to confirm. "You appear to have thought of everything," the King of King commented in answer before asking "but why are you so keen to promote this particular boy as a replica of yourself?"

"Because, Darius," Aspamites replied, "I know from experience that you do need someone, who truly loves you, to be constantly at your side day and night. As I can no longer be that person, I considered it my duty to find someone of splendid character who could fulfil the role instead. I am somehow sure that Dios is the answer!"

"If, my love," Darius concluded, with sudden dampness evident in his eyes, "you have really provided me with another young Aspamites, you could have rendered your king no greater service!"

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

Nationalist agitators, spurred and aided by mainland Greeks, especially Athenians, were beginning to stir unrest amongst the Hellenic and allied populations in the western Persian Empire, including Dios’ homeland, the Ionian island of Chios. Not all of those encouraging disquiet just had the interests of the people at heart. Some were also very ambitious to replace Darius I’s tyrants with themselves.

The agitators were assisted in their cause by the imposition of the tyrants by Darius I to rule his Greek subjects in place of the previously established orders, which on Chios had comprised an embryonic but working and popular form of republic. All of these Persian-appointed rulers were local Hellenes but they were nevertheless very unpopular.

Darius I had introduced tyrants because he believed that they would give him greater control over the always potentially rebellious ethnically Hellenic parts of his empire, where Greeks from independent states such as Athens were constantly trying to ferment trouble. However, in later retrospect, the imposition was to prove the least sensible of the king’s administrative reforms, as allowing his proud subjects a veneer of nominal freedom by instead retaining existing forms of local government would have caused less discord.

Darius I’s more recent requirement for enhanced tribute from his Greek subjects, in the form of young freshly gelded eunuchs and virginal girls, exacerbated unrest and was in later retrospect also to prove unwise. However, given Persian culture, there was a genuine need for such recruits for the increasingly prosperous and ostentatious courts of the king and his satraps and nobles.

Dios’ father, who was acutely aggrieved and sorrowful at the loss of his older son, was, only naturally in the circumstances, a foremost critic of Persian rule, although he had so far been discreet about his attitude. He had also secretly pledged to avenge the boy someday.

Only Sparta of the Greek states possessed a standing army. In the remainder, adult male citizens retained personal weapons and armour and regularly performed appropriate training in readiness to be summoned for military service.

Dios’ father was no exception to this custom and his weaponry and armour was that of a marine hoplite, as befitted a Greek island state. The arms, which had been passed down the senior paternal line for centuries, were once destined to be inherited by the man’s eldest son. However, given the self-sacrificial calamity that had befallen the boy, they would now someday be given to his currently 9 year-old younger brother, whose name of Danos followed ancient family tradition by also beginning with the letter ‘D’.

(Royal winter palace, Susa, Susiana, Iran, same time)

Shortly after his arrival in the harem accommodation provided for the new batch of eunuch tributes, destined to be trained in Susa rather than Ecbatana for their new life, the highly gregarious Dios had approached the boy who had been already allocated to the next bunk. The young Chian had noticed that his fellow beautiful 11 year-old, who unusually in the group sported black hair and eyes, appeared to be exceptionally lonely and sad.

Dios believed that he might be able to cheer the boy, whom he soon discovered was a fellow Greek, albeit from Chios’ rival island of Lesbos. The child was called ‘Theanos’.

Dios was to succeed splendidly in his aim of cheering Theanos.

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

Danos’ new best friend was 11 year-old Capros. The latter older boy was well aware that his rescue from being a eunuch tribute had been due to Dios’ self-sacrifice because Aspamites had informed him of the reason for his reprieve when releasing the child.

Danos and Capros had been drawn together by the tragedy that had occurred to Dios. They also swore to secure vengeance.

Dios’ father was pleased at the attitude of both Danos and Capros. However, he also realised that unarmed and untrained 9 and 11 year-old boys could do little against the might of the Persian Empire and so dismissed their professed determination as childhood fantasy that would gradually subside with time.

This negative assessment by Dios’ father about the ability of Danos and Capros to strike a significant blow against the might of the Persian Empire was eventually shown to be completely wrong.

(Royal winter palace, Susa, Susiana, Iran, several hours later)

Dios knew that he would soon again be standing humiliatingly naked, with his hands at his sides so that his gelded genitalia could be inspected. The sensuous shamed blue eyes of the boy, currently attired only in a short Greek-style tunic, were presently looking, as instructed, down towards the marble floor.

Dios could smell the strong fragrant aroma that now permeated his beautiful body. The boy, like the other young fresh eunuchs who had shared his accommodation in the palace harem quarters, including Theanos, had earlier been taken to a communal bathing facility by adult geldings. They had then been subjected to their first, but by no means last, embarrassing enema before subsequently being carefully bathed, massaged, groomed and redressed.

Dios had abhorred being forced to bend over so that the tip of a metal funnel could be carefully inserted into his anus, followed by the flow of warm scented water. The acutely ashamed boy had also hated then having to stand whilst attempting with all his might to retain inside him the copious fluid that now filled his rectum. However, he had to admit that he had enjoyed the relief of finally being allowed to release the liquid into a broad metallic pan, at least until the whole humiliating procedure was repeated.

Dios’ experience was, however, less prolonged than that of some of the other young eunuch tributes. He only had to suffer two enemas before the expelled water was clear, whilst some of the other boys had to endure as many as four.

Dios also now gained further compensation by enjoying the subsequent gentle bathing, massaging and grooming of his body by adult eunuchs. The latter geldings were clearly experts at the tasks and were so proficient, pleasant and polite that permitting them intimate access to his form somehow did not feel shameful to the boy.

In an era when soap had not yet been invented, baths and massages, whereby bodies were anointed with various scented cleansers, were undertaken to ensure purity. Dios had already become accustomed to having his form perfumed, which might have been considered effeminate by some fellow Greeks, when, during their journeys, he had shared a hot tub with Aspamites every night in the privacy of the spasaka’s tent.

Dios’ current shame did not therefore arise from his body’s lovely fragrance but rather at having soon to display his nude form for imminent intimate inspection by the most powerful man in the known world. The boy’s abashment was only partly diminished by the fact that he was not suffering his embarrassment alone.

Under the continued discreet supervision of adult eunuchs, Dios was standing next to Theanos in Darius I’s large opulent private audience hall, where the king had earlier met Aspamites. The boy was at the right end of a dozen-strong line of freshly gelded 11 year-old Greek and Babylonian tributes, from whom the monarch would personally choose some pages to replace ones who had become too old for his tastes. Those rejected from the current parade would be returned to Ecbatana for training in other functions.

Dios stood looking at his toes for what seemed an eternity but was actually only about half an hour before the sound of people entering the audience hall reached his ears. However, the boy managed not to be tempted to glance at the arrivals, having been told that, if he raised his eyes without permission, he could be severely punished.

Dios next perceived that the people who had just entered the hall were proceeding slowly along the line of young eunuch tributes from left to right, and so he would be the last to be subjected to their gaze. Another eternity then seemed to pass, during which the boy heard instructions uttered to the others to strip, before he finally saw six feet, all covered by colourful and ornate slippers, arrive in front of his own bare variety. However, the young Chian obediently still did not raise his eyes.

A conversation in a language unknown to Dios was subsequently conducted in front of the young Chian eunuch. However, he recognised one of the participating voices, as the rather boyish vocal tones clearly belonged to Aspamites.

The boy then heard Aspamites address him in Greek. The spasaka quietly commanded "Please strip, Dios!"

Dios, aware of his oath to be compliant, immediately lifted his tunic up and over his head before allowing the garment to fall to the marble floor at his side. During the manoeuvre, the boy somehow obediently kept his eyes focused onto his own toes.

The now blushing boy, however, subsequently instinctively felt other eyes now focusing on his own naked body and lingering there for a while until the impasse was broken by a further command from Aspamites. "Please turn round, Dios," the spasaka ordered and again the young Chian complied.

Dios now felt eyes inspecting his nude rear, probably concentrating in particular on the lustrous curves of his pert bottom. The boy’s facial redness then intensified when a man’s voice made a comment in the language currently unknown to the young Chian but which somehow appeared to him to denote immense satisfaction at what was being viewed.

Aspamites then again addressed the boy in Greek. "You may now turn back round and raise your eyes, Dios, to gaze upon the King of Kings!"

Dios, fear more than shame now pervading his beautiful body, slowly complied. The boy was rewarded by the sight of three very richly dressed men standing in front of him.

Dios recognised the smooth-chinned Aspamites and octogenarian Lord High Chamberlain, Daniel. The boy therefore presumed correctly that third bearded man, wearing flowing silk robes with trousers, and sporting on his head a gold diadem, encrusted with many precious stones, had to be Darius I, King of Kings and living god.

Dios’ initial reaction to his first sight of the most powerful man in the known world was a little nervous bodily quivering. This response intensified when the boy noticed that the King of Kings was carefully viewing his now uplifted young face.

The boy’s nervousness was, however, then immediately dissipated by the appearance of a kindly smile on the King of Kings’ bearded face and the comment from Darius in reasonable Greek that "It’s nice to meet you, Dios. Aspamites has told me a lot about you. I look forward to you joining my service as one of my personal pages!"

Dios next noticed that Aspamites was also smiling, presumably in satisfaction that the young Chian was now to serve Darius in the manner the spasaka had long hoped. The boy then saw that the three men were preparing to depart the private audience hall, which caused him to panic.

Dios was desperate to know what Darius had decided in respect of Theanos. The boy had quickly appreciated that the young Lesbian was a particularly delicate soul, who needed the help of a close friend to overcome the trauma that he was still suffering as a result of his castration and exile from family and homeland.

Consequently, Dios bravely decided to do something that he had been earlier forcefully instructed not to do, on pain of severe punishment. The boy spoke to the most powerful man in the known world without first gaining permission.

"Excuse me, O great king," Dios said to Darius’ back, as the monarch and his two companions walked towards the exit of the audience hall, "but may I ask a question?" The three departing men stopped and turned, whilst the appalled chief adult eunuch supervising the young gelded tributes began to think that he was about to lose one of his charges to crucifixion.

The adult eunuch could never recall such effrontery towards the King of Kings happening before. However, he had not been present when a certain 11 year-old Aspamites had refused to strip in this same audience hall a decade previously.

On that previous occasion, the then Lord High Chamberlain had presumed crucifixion to be inevitable for the miscreant Aspamites. However, as Daniel now turned back towards Dios, the current Hazarapatis’ aged wizened face sported a broad smile, as did the much more handsome façade of the reprobate boy of a decade previously.

To the amazement of the senior eunuch, the King of Kings’ face also displayed a broad smile and, instead of ordering Dios’ execution, he granted the miscreant permission to ask his question. The young Chian then enquired "What, O great king, have you decided to do with the boy next to me in line?"

Darius glanced at Theanos, who was as shocked as the senior eunuch by Dios’ potentially fatal disrespect for court protocol, as well as by the nature of the question asked, and then back at the young Chian. The king subsequently answered the boy with his own enquiry.

"Why do you ask?" Darius enquired. "Because, O great king," Dios replied, "he’s my close friend." Theanos was again shocked, now by this unexpected statement from a boy he had just met and hardly knew, although he had taken an instant liking to him.

"Theanos, who I’m sure will not mind me saying so, O great king," Dios continued, whilst appreciating that the young Lesbian might actually adopt the opposite attitude, "has suffered particular distress from his recent castration and exile from family and homeland. I therefore wish to beg that he is not now also separated from his new best friend!"

Dios realised that Theanos might be embarrassed by his fellow 11 year-old’s comments about his recent acute unhappiness. However, to the young Chian, the remarks were clearly true and the young Lesbian obviously needed a close friend to help him overcome his trauma and adapt to his new circumstances.

After talking to Theanos, Dios correctly believed that his fellow 11 year-old might otherwise do himself some serious harm, or become fatally ill because of moping and consequent personal neglect. The young Chian therefore sincerely and rightly believed that he was acting in the other boy’s best interests.

Fortunately, Darius agreed with Dios, in respect of whose further demonstration of selfless bravery the King of Kings was very impressed. However, the young Chian’s plea had been unnecessary, as the monarch had already decided that Theanos would also be attending the royal school of pages.

After informing Dios of this happy fact, and as Darius did now leave the hall with his two companions, the joyous 50 year-old King of Kings advised his 21 year-old spasaka "I believe, my love, that you might be correct. It appears that I’m about to gain another young Aspamites in my life!"

(Royal school of pages, Susa, Susiana, Iran, ½ year later, early spring 499 BC)

The residential royal school of pages formed part of the palace complex in Susa, with the small size reflecting the fact that there were only usually about half-a-dozen pupils, who occupied the place for just their six months of formal full-time training. However, in this half-year, the young eunuchs were intensively instructed in a number of subjects, with any necessary residual tuition continuing part-time after they had taken up their posts.

The boys, comprising four Greeks and two Babylonians, lived in a small barrack-room, with an adjacent bathing amenity and a study-room, which also acted as a dining facility. They were constantly supervised by the school’s own adult eunuchs and received their instruction from a retinue of some of the best specialist tutors in the empire. The King of Kings wanted to be served by exceptionally beautiful but also highly intelligent, educated and skilled pages, who preferably also displayed other good characteristics, such as devotion and courage.

The boys were subject to harsh discipline for any inattention, major mistakes or other lack of discipline. However, their beatings, across palms or bare backs and bottoms, never resulted in permanent damage, given that the duties of royal pages invariably extended to Darius’ bed and the King of Kings disliked physical imperfection in his young eunuchs.

Instruction concentrated initially on the various languages of the royal Achaemenian court, including reading and writing, which were considered administrative tools, not cultural pleasures, and were therefore used only for bureaucratic and legal records. Communication, including the relating of stories, was generally oral and often dependent on good memory. The Persian kings, although often able to speak several tongues, were themselves illiterate, seeing no need to be able to read and write when servants could perform the chores for them.

Darius possessed in his palaces a veritable army of excellently educated and trained scribes who could perform such tasks. However, the king preferred to enjoy the beauty of his pages when he wanted to recite something to papyrus or tablet, or have such objects read to him.

Royal records were marked with the symbol of the king, produced by carefully rolling an inked agate cylinder seal across the surface. Dios shivered when he was shown an example of the printed symbol, which was similar to the motif he had seen branded onto Aspamites’ smooth chest and would soon be displayed on the boy himself. The main difference was the presence of a side inscription in three languages, Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, which recorded the name of ‘Darius the great king’.

Ancient Persian was the native tongue of the Achaemenian kings but it did not dominate imperial government. Elamite, the language of the inhabitants of Susa, Akkadian, that of Babylon, and Hebrew, that of the Jews, were also once prominent. However, this situation had proved unwieldy and gradually Aramaic became dominant.

Aramaic, which resembled Hebrew, was the tongue of the Aramaeans, who were originally north Arabian nomads until they settled to form the small kingdoms of Edessa, Palmyra and Petra in what are now Jordan and Syria. Their language, with a 27-letter alphabet that was much easier to use than the 600 or so symbols comprising Assyrian and Persian cuneiform, became widely known throughout the region as far away as India and therefore gained predominance in commerce.

Consequently, Aramaic eventually became accepted as the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, although the more customary tongues were still used for official records. For this latter purpose, many of the king’s army of scribes were employed copying texts onto papyrus and tablets in the traditional languages for storage in archives, often in the royal palaces. As well as official correspondence and accounts, the material included chronicles, religious and scientific writings and poetry.

Dios, Theanos and the other eunuch pupils were therefore primarily being taught Aramaic. Fortunately for the palms and rears of the young Chian and Lesbian, the two boys were clever enough to learn the language quickly, as well as to pick up rudimentary Persian.

The pupils were also taught about Persia and its society and wider empire. Dios, who had already learnt much about the subject from Aspamites, was able to assist the progress of Theanos in the topic. The two boys had already rapidly become true close friends in the school of pages, with the relationship having a remarkable therapeutic effect on the young Lesbian.

The pupils learnt that the Persians had no institutionalised system of education for all. However, sons of the nobility and other prominent men were generally destined as adults for important positions at court or in the army or provincial administrations. They therefore underwent, between the ages of five and fifteen, a rigorous regime of preliminary training in residential military schools, which were usually located at the nearest royal or satrapal capital.

The training was based on the tenets of the monotheistic state religion, Zoroastrianism. Dios and his companions received instruction in this faith but only as further background information about Persia. No attempt was made to change the boys’ own beliefs, as the religiously tolerant King of Kings allowed his pages, like all of his subject peoples, freedom of worship.

Tuition about Zoroastrianism was entirely verbal. The religion’s sacred book, the ‘Avesta’, had not been written by Dios’ time. The teachings were instead currently passed orally from generation to generation.

Dios and his companions were told many of the ancient legends associated with the prophet, Zoroaster, who initiated the monotheistic Persian religion about half a millennium before their era. The boys did not, of course, learn that such stories were to be paralleled in the much later life of Jesus, as described in the Christian Bible.

For example, Zoroaster was supposedly miraculously conceived and all nature rejoiced at his birth. Attempts were made by a prince to murder him. He retired to a wilderness to meditate. He was led into the presence of god and given divine revelation. Some people later speculated that the Biblical chroniclers of Jesus actually borrowed much fiction for their own stories of Christ’s life from the old Persian religion.

The training of the sons of the elite in military schools was also based on the customs inherited from the nomadic roots of their Persian and Median ancestors, which were centred on the concept of pride. Being proud of themselves and their king and country was a key element of their ethnic character.

The emphasis during a boy’s preparation for adulthood was on physical accomplishment, valour and respect for traditional attitudes, particularly virtue. They were especially taught military tactics, horsemanship, how to use the bow and always to speak the truth. The result was the Persian reputation throughout the ancient world for producing excellent cavalry and archers and for good faith, illustrated by their kings invariably respecting treaties and keeping promises.

In the schools, the boys would be divided into groups of about fifty according to age. Competitive spirit was then fostered and endurance tested in the likes of gruelling cross-country runs and being occasionally forced to scavenge for provisions, as well as being subjected to extremes of temperature. Pupils more likely to end up being a satrap, judge or court officer than general were also taught relevant administrative practices and protocols.

Dios, Theanos and their fellow eunuch pupils were taught about the Persian educational system not only verbally but also by example. They too were eventually tested in their horsemanship and use of the bow, a stage in the royal school for pages that Aspamites had never reached because he had been summoned to Darius I’s service exceptionally early. However, he had subsequently made up for this by receiving the unprecedented personal honour of being instructed in the arts by the King of Kings himself.

Dios was glad that he had already been taught proficient horsemanship by Aspamites, and again he was happy to pass on his knowledge and ultimately his skill to Theanos. Both boys also became quite adept at using the bow, at least sufficiently to avoid being beaten for ineptitude, and the pair additionally survived their tests of endurance.

Dressed only in skimpy loincloths, Dios and Theanos successfully endured regular lengthy cross-country runs in all weather conditions, including that of the still hot days of autumn and the cold of winter. The boys even lived through their final physical test, when they and the other pupil eunuchs were left in only their sparse undergarments and with no supplies on a desert plain in early spring and told to survive by themselves for two days.

Dios, who was to prove a natural leader throughout his life and had realised that his companions were at a loss as to how to survive, took on the task of organising them initially to search methodically for a waterhole. The young Chian cleverly recommended that the first sign of such a lifesaver might be birds hovering overhead and he was happily to be proved correct.

Dios also suggested that subsequent survival would depend on protecting themselves from the unrelenting hot sun. The boy recommended resting in the shadows of the palms located at the little oasis, whilst covering themselves with warmed sand and snuggling up to each other in order successfully to endure the later overnight cold. The young Chian naturally chose Theanos as his own main companion whilst the moon and stars and not the solar disc ruled the heavens.

Dios and his companions did not know but they were never really in any danger during this exercise, as the King of Kings would be most displeased if any of his prospective pages were to be lost. The boys’ physical training instructors, aware of the terrible fate that would await them if they were negligent over the welfare of their pupils, were all skilled at furtive tracking and personal camouflage and always knew what their young charges were doing.

The instructors also later reported to their superior that they had never seen a band of boys so young cope so ably with such an ordeal. Displaying some inherent ignorant prejudice, they additionally commented that they considered the achievement particularly remarkable given that the group comprised foreign eunuchs, as if such young geldings were supposed to be less intellectually and physically capable than Persians still possessing their balls.

The instructors’ report, as with many earlier similar assessments, later reached the ears of the King of Kings, who had demanded to be kept informed of the progress of his new pages, and of one young Chian in particular. On receiving the latest relevant information, the increasing ecstatic and excited Darius truly began to believe that a budding new Aspamites really was occupying a place in the royal school of pages.

Dios and his companions were eventually finally introduced to the customs of the royal Achaemenian court, such as the rigid protocols that the boys would have to follow whilst performing their duties, not least the act of prostration in front of the King of Kings. Their instruction also included how, when delivering messages or otherwise meeting such people, respectfully to bow before and address members of the royal family and nobility, as well as senior military and bureaucratic officers and important foreigners. All of these traditions were practised by the young eunuchs until they had perfected the arts.

Other related instruction involved the King of Kings’ bathing, dressing and dining rituals, leisure activities and nightly repose. All of the boys found the latter topic to be the most embarrassing.

The boys were instructed in how they might be expected to act if chosen by the King of Kings to assist at his morning and evening bathing and redressing, with expertise acquired by performing the duties for a compliant adult eunuch. As part of this process, the young pupils were shown how to recognise the discreet gesture from their royal master, which would indicate that they were to form part of his most intimate entourage.

The boys were also taught to notice the final sign of the day regarding who was to remain behind in the royal chamber at bedtime whilst the others departed. However, the most embarrassing element of their training was being shown and having to practise what came next if they were the selected one.

As part of this embarrassing training, the boys were introduced for the first time to the rich and colourful Median-style ‘candys’ court clothing that they would be expected to wear as pages, which was similar to the attire still worn by Aspamites. Dios winced at the thought that he had to exchange his relatively simple Greek tunic for the spectacular trousered garments that he and Capros had once found so amusing when they had first seen them sported by the spasaka.

Theanos’ own natural Greek attitude towards such garb also encouraged him to share his new best friend’s aversion. However, he and Dios had no choice but to allow their attendant adult eunuchs to dress them in their new attire so that the young pupils could ironically then learn how to disrobe from their candys uniforms. The boys had to practise stripping quickly and discretely in readiness to lie naked on the royal bed beside the King of Kings.

The royal school of pages did not have a reputation for something that the Greek soldier, philosopher and writer, Xenophon, would later criticise the educational establishments of the sons of the Persian elite for tolerating. He rather hypocritically condemned the common existence of pederasty and homosexuality, despite the fact that many of his own countrymen commonly indulged in such pastimes and another Hellenic historian, Heroditus, confirmed that the pleasure had been imported from Greece.

No adult, if he valued his life, wanted to molest any boy who was destined for the King of Kings’ bed and so pederasty involving the well-guarded young eunuchs of the royal school of pages was unknown. However, the small and highly select educational establishment was not entirely devoid of such a practice.

As would happen in the school for Imperial pages in Rome over half a millennium later [see ‘Death On The Nile’ by the same author], Dios, Theanos and their fellow pupils were taught how to be a good sexual partner for their royal master. Their instruction included practical demonstrations by a genitally intact man and a boy eunuch.

The pupils were also expected to prove whilst naked that they had efficiently absorbed the instruction by virtue of their own demonstrations of sexual technique. However, smooth ivory dildoes rather than manly penises were carefully held by adult eunuchs in order to practise fellatio, whilst bodily movement only was sufficient to exhibit readiness to be the subject of sodomy. Nothing had to disturb the boys’ virginal rectums until the King of Kings’ own cock did so.

Such restriction inevitably meant that the boys would have no previous real practical experience of true fellatio and subjection to sodomy when they were eventually required for such acts by the King of Kings. The initial ability of the new pages to lick and suck their regal master’s large cock and swallow the ultimate product efficiently without gagging, or to continue to manoeuvre their bodies to provide maximum satisfaction when entertaining the manly penis inside their rectums, could therefore not be guaranteed. Inexperience, shame, discomfort or pain could conspire in some combination to reduce proficiency but problems from an angered Darius never arose.

Darius was invariably considerate towards newcomers in his bed. The King of Kings tried his best to treat his young eunuch companions well, attempting to reduce their natural early unease and shame, plus discomfort from first performances of fellatio and pain from initial anal penetration. He forgave early ineptitude at lovemaking, and was generally rewarded when this was subsequently replaced by competence after his boy pages eventually became accustomed to, and usually came to derive some personal pleasure from, their sexual duties.

Nevertheless, Dios and Theanos, having learnt the full range of their duties, including the demeaning elements, believed that they could not possibly ever derive personal pleasure from being the King of King’s young overnight bed partner. However, the imminent prospect of having to perform such a distasteful task was not currently foremost in the boys’ concerned minds, as they were finally about to graduate from the royal school of pages, half a year after they had begun their training.

(Pedasa, Caria, Asia Minor, same time)

Hermotimus was not unusual in being very excited. All of the other Leleges inhabitants of the now 11 year-old’s Carian city of Pedasa, of both genders and all ages, were equally exhilarated.

The thrilled attitude of Hermotimus and the others would, however, surely have vanished, as would similar simultaneous emotions in other Leleges and Greek communities of the western Persian Empire and environs, if the people had known what would ultimately result from the reason for their excitement.

(Royal Mint, royal palace, Susa, Susiana, Iran, same time)

The worries of Dios and Theanos and their fellow pupils were currently concentrated on the reason why they had just been temporarily transferred from the school of pages to the royal mint of the palace at Susa and compelled to strip naked. The six boys, all now 12 year-olds, were also quivering but not from cold because the place, which was full of fires and furnaces for melting metal, was very hot.

Croesus of Lydia has been traditionally credited with the invention of officially guaranteed stamped coins. However, Darius I introduced the practice into the Persian heartlands, where he closely guarded the sole right of the King of Kings to produce money.

Darius I called the principal monetary unit the ‘Daric’, after the ancient Persian word for gold, ‘dari’, which also conveniently reflected the king’s own name. The coin was equivalent to twenty of the silver supplement, the ‘sigloi’. The previously mentioned shekels and talents were technically measures of weight for precious metals.

Darius I’s gold daric was, following the Babylonian standard, 98% pure, with the remaining 2% silver and other metals introduced to improve hardness. The coin, 19 millimetres [0.75 inch] in diameter and weighing 9.5 grams [0.33 ounce], bore on one side a representation of the tiara-wearing king kneeling at prayer, or alternatively running whilst holding a bow and a spear.

Darius I’s mint was, however, not just for the manufacture of blank coins and their subsequent stamping with scenes of regal authority. The King of Kings’ cylinder seals and similar objects, such as branding irons, were made here and, given the additional presence of strong fires to melt metals, the place also seemed most appropriate for marking other property with symbols of royal proprietorship.

The naked and fearful Dios and Theanos were, with their four fellow pupils, about to be branded here with the King of Kings’ mark, as a symbol of their graduation from the school of pages and entry into Darius I’s intimate service.

(Babylon, Mesopotamia, same time)

Panionius was now ready to enjoy his second sexual climax of the day. Although the Chian castrater preferred boys, he had nevertheless earlier on this day been tempted to visit Babylon’s great temple of Ishtar, the local goddess of love and fertility, who was equivalent to the Greek, Aphrodite.

Panionius had known that on this day, which was sacred to Ishtar, young free women would be voluntarily offering themselves for sexual intercourse to the first male visitor to the goddess’ temple who chose her for the purpose. Given the reason why the castrater had recently relocated from Ecbatana to Babylon, there were also many senior Babylonian priests and other officials with pretty 11 year-old sons who were keen to please this particular imperial servant. They thought that by giving the bearded Chian preference in selecting a female might help their young offspring to avoid quickly becoming a eunuch and being sent to Persia.

Panionius had been delighted to secure the privilege and used the freedom to full advantage by choosing by gesture the most delectable young high-born woman on show, a female with long silky brown hair and similarly coloured eyes adorning a face worthy of Ishtar herself. The fact that the girl, clearly of aristocratic background and disliking her predicament, appeared to possess big breasts under her flowing robe further stimulated both his selection and erection.

The worthiness of the young woman’s breasts were then soon verified when Panionius guided her towards a relatively private and dark recess of the vast temple, rested her back against a wall and slowly undressed her. For the sacred occasion, the attire worn by the unhappy girl was easily shed, being like a coat held together by a cord, and she wore no undergarments.

The very eager Panionius quickly untied the cord and parted the quiet young woman’s robe to view her magnificent nakedness, ornamented by splendidly fulsome breasts, crowned by large rosy nipples, and a small patch of brown pubic hair. After the girl’s garment fell to surround her ankles on the cool marble floor, the castrater was soon engaging his manly hands and lips and tongue on exploring virtually every aspect of the female’s gorgeous body.

Panionius’ passion eventually literally climaxed after his huge cock, temporarily retrieved from his loincloth underwear under his tunic, finally penetrated the young woman, whose response was to yelp in shocked pain. The castrater was acting more like a brutal rapist than considerate lover, as he relentlessly thrust his large engorged cock harshly in and out of the girl, whilst only having regard for his own personal pleasure.

Panionius eventually achieved his passionate aim when, with one final forceful thrust, he impregnated the young woman with plentiful bursts of semen. However, no pregnancy would result because the girl had previously taken the precaution of absorbing an effective oral contraceptive and abortifacient, which is a substance that can produce an abortion. The herbal potion concerned was produced from silphium from Cyrene [modern Libya], whose overuse in the ancient world ultimately led to the plant’s extinction.

A happy Panionius subsequently swiftly departed the temple sporting a broad smile, leaving the now ashamed, tearful and still naked young woman in an almost traumatised state, resting against the wall, whilst extraneous sperm dripped from her hurting vagina. Neither she nor the castrater had spoken throughout their liaison, nor would they ever meet again.

Panionius returned to his modest lodgings, where his second delicious sexual pleasure of the day awaited him. His rapidly restored passion was soon evidenced by his re-hardened cock, which was currently openly throbbing because the exhilarated owner was now naked. The man was about to begin the gelding of a similarly stripped beautiful 12 year-old boy, who was helplessly bound before him, face-up and spreadeagled, on his castration table.

Panionius was currently castrating the replacement for the now 13 year-old Atrios, whom he had sold to someone else. The sadistic man decided that his new young assistant, who would after recovery soon be helping him to create another 500 Babylonian eunuch tributes for the King of Kings, should also be gelded. The procedure would enhance the boy’s resale value and provide pleasure to his owner from the performance of the cruel deed, which would be deliberately prolonged in order to secure maximum personal satisfaction for the perpertator.

The tearful boy’s screams were effectively muted by the gag forced into his mouth, as Panionius began his incision into the smooth and currently fulsome 12 year-old scrotum to expose the young balls within. Semen eventually spurted from the man’s exposed throbbing cock, with much of the ejaculate landing on his victim’s very attractive but presently acutely anguished body, after the gelding knife had finally snipped away the second testicle to create another new eunuch.

(Royal Mint, royal palace, Susa, Susiana, Iran, same time)

Dios remembered the Persian proverb once told to him by Aspamites, whilst also noticing the immense dread being experienced by Theanos and the other four boys at what was about to be inflicted on them. Consequently, the young Chian again demonstrated his leadership abilities and bravery by courageously volunteering to be the first to be branded. Whilst trying to hide his own fearful emotions, he stepped forward to allow his beautiful naked form to be carefully but firmly chained in an upright spreadeagled posture to a nearby wall.

The senior and highly experienced workman of the royal mint, who had been responsible for years for branding duties but was normally responsible for the furnaces and the ladling of molten metal, subsequently quickly appeared in front of Dios. The adult already held the required red-hot iron, manufactured in the mint and with the relevant royal seal forming the scorching tip. He was charged with minimising the anguish of his young victims by being efficiently rapid. He was also determined to be especially considerate with the first boy, who had demonstrated such bravery.

Dios was therefore soon rewarded for his fortitude by the smell of his own roasting flesh entering his nostrils, whilst his chest was agonisingly burnt with the King of Kings’ mark. The subsequently released boy later woke from his sudden faint just in time to hear the sizzle of Theanos’ skin, after the young Lesbian had courageously followed his best friend’s example by volunteering to be the next to be branded.

(Royal pavilion, Jin Jin, Persia, 2 weeks later)

The long caravan proceeded slowly southeast along the Royal Road from Susa, heading for Darius I’s new and uncompleted palace at Persepolis, where the King of Kings was formally to receive the year’s tribute from his subject peoples. However, on the way the convoy paused overnight at a resting point at Jin Jin, near Fahlian in the Zagros foothills.

Adjacent to a broad river in wooded terrain, there was a magnificent royal pavilion, which represented an ideal stopping place for a journey already of several days’ duration before the long ascent to the Iranian plateau via the ‘Persian Gates’ was attempted. Dios, Theanos and their fellow young graduates of the school of pages, now happily fully recovered from their branding, were accompanying the royal caravan, of which the most important component was Darius I himself. The King of Kings had decided to hold the ceremony, formally receiving tribute, in the vast new apadana of his Persepolis palace rather than in the similar amenity of his residence in Susa.

Dios, Theanos and their fellow young graduates of the school of pages would not take up their new positions until they had formally been handed over by representatives of the satrapies of Lydia, from which four of them came, and Babylon, from which the other two emanated. They would be ceremonially transferred with all of the other gifts being given to the King of Kings, including the other young eunuchs and girls originally left behind in Ecbatana to be trained for different duties. Afterwards, the young human tribute would proceed to their new allocated lives.

Whilst Darius I slept in the royal pavilion at Jin Jin, a huge well-guarded encampment formed around the palatial building to accommodate the vast entourage accompanying the king to Persepolis. Dios, Theanos and their fellow young graduates of the school of pages, carefully looked after by menial servants supervised by a senior adult harem eunuch, were housed in a large and opulent tent. The canopy was similar to but even bigger than the one that the young Chian had shared with Aspamites during the long journey from Ephesus to Susa via Ecbatana.

From their tent, the young eunuch tributes could clearly see the royal pavilion and some older boys dressed like pages scurrying in and out of the building. Dios, Theanos and their four companions immediately recognised a scene that foretold their own future.

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

The long caravan had proceeded slowly further southeast, through the impressively steep-sided gorge called the ‘Persian Gates’ and onto the Iranian plateau before again pausing, this time to spend a few days at Cyrus the Great’s favourite palace at Pasargadae. This royal residence stood on the Dasht-i-Morghab, or highland ‘Plain of the Waterbird’, which was 9,325 cubits [1900 metres or 6,200 feet] above sea level and was in the north of the original Persian heartland of Parsa.

Dios noticed that limestone escarpments flanked the western edge of the Plain of the Waterbird, before rising gradually to form the Zagros Mountains. The boy was delighted to see that these ridges pleasantly reacted differently to the light in varying times of the day and weather conditions. They were generally greyish purple at dawn, honey under the direct glare of the sun and burst into a brief opalescent orange at dusk. Buildings that were built of the stone quarried from them, such as Cyrus the Great’s local palace and tomb, also displayed similar spectacular variances in colour.

Rivers flowed down from the Zagros onto the Dasht-i-Morghab, where over many millennia they had been cleverly tapped for irrigation. One of these watercourses, the Pulvar, ran the length of the plain and alongside Cyrus the Great’s palace.

The overhead sun shone relentlessly down onto the Dasht-i-Morghab during daylight for most of the year. However, the rivers and associated irrigation systems ensured that the plain was swathed by greenery.

The defeat of Croesus and the capture of his capital at Sardis had opened the eyes of Cyrus the Great to the wonders of Greek architecture. This surpassed anything then known in Persia or Media, where buildings were generally of roughly cut stone, mud-brick or wood, with little fuss made of adornment or even alignment. However, the Lydian monarch’s fabulous wealth had enabled him to construct in his kingdom impressively decorated and impeccably colonnaded palaces, temples and other public amenities of great opulence.

Cyrus decided that he wanted something similar in his homeland and the result was the compulsory borrowing of the stonemasons and other relevant craftsmen of Lydia and Ionia to construct the palace complex at Pasargadae. Consequently, work on the biggest temple in the known world, that of Artemis at Ephesus on the Aegean coast, was temporarily halted, whilst a splendid unfortified royal residence arose in distant Persia.

The Pasargadae complex eventually comprised many splendid and virtually faultless stone buildings, with wooden ceilings covered in coloured plaster. The constructions included two separate porticoed palaces, with colonnaded halls, pavilions and towers, in a parkland setting that was irrigated through stone-lined water channels.

Large winged bulls in Assyrian style flanked the palace gatehouse. The whole setting was in complete harmony with the surrounds, including the ability of the stone facades to change colour throughout the day in line with the nearby limestone ridges edging the ‘Plain of the Water Bird’, where many followers camped when the king was in residence.

Such an encampment had again formed, whilst Darius I decided to spend a few days at Pasargadae. Dios, Theanos and their fellow young graduates of the school of pages were again accommodated in their large and opulent pavilion tent.

Whilst briefly residing in this tent, alongside the River Pulvar on the Plain of the Waterbird, Dios remembered a fact about Pasargadae, about which Aspamites had informed him and which he now passed on to Theanos and the others. The smiling young Chian told them that Persian kings were formally crowned here by Magi and, as part of the ceremony, the monarchs ate a fig cake, chewed turpentine wood and drank a cup of sour milk, rituals which all of the amused boys found to be quite disgusting.

As the royal caravan later resumed the journey southwest to Persepolis, the convoy passed Cyrus the Great’s tomb and exited the Plain of the Waterbird into a steep-sided gorge, created by the Pulvar and called the ‘Tang-i-Bulaghi’. The Royal Road then followed one bank of this meandering river.

Dios noted that small herds of wild camels roamed the gorge, stripping the local shrubbery of leaves, and gazelle could also occasionally be spotted on the high limestone cliffs towering on either side of the valley. However, despite the new and often beautiful sights that the boy was viewing as he travelled to Persepolis, his mind was again more concerned about another matter.

Dios’ mind was now often preoccupied by worries about soon shamefully becoming one of the King of Kings’ latest eunuch bumboys.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, next day)

After seeing the magnificent palaces at Ecbatana, Susa and Pasargadae, Dios did not believe that the new and still uncompleted royal residence at Persepolis could possibly surpass such splendours. However, the young Chian was again to prove incorrect in such an assumption.

A few years previously, a restless Darius I had begun to plan an even more spectacular palace in a completely fresh capital before his similar project in Susa had even been completed. The king wanted the new city and residence to be forever associated with him alone as the founder, and to render by their magnificence the eternal homage due to him.

Darius I chose for the ambitious project a site in Parsa, which he called Persepolis, or ‘City of the Persians’. The location was 500 kilometres [311 miles] to the southeast of Susa but only 30 kilometres [18.6 miles], or a few hours’ horse-ride away, southwest from Pasargadae. As planned, the short intervening distance between the old and new palaces, which were linked by extending the Royal Road, was intended to indicate symbolically the present King of Kings’ association with Cyrus the Great’s dynasty.

Darius I decided to locate the new palace on an extended apron of a local limestone mountain called the ‘Takht-i-Jamshid’, or ‘Throne of Jamshid’, which was by tradition considered sacred. This foundation platform rose on three sides up to 78 cubits [16 metres or 52 feet] above the adjacent forested plain, which today is mainly open crop-bearing farming land.

Unlike at Susa, Persepolis was not intolerable in the heat of summer, although the local climate was best in spring or autumn. The palace, the basic building materials for which were mud-brick and stone, was lofty and open-sided, affording plenty of ventilation and shade. The location therefore gave Darius the chance to spend all of the year in one residence if he wanted, instead of transferring between Susa and Ecbatana.

The royal caravan approached Persepolis across the forested northwestern plain of the Marv Dasht, part of which had been converted into a royal park. Palatial homes had also been built amongst the local cypress and other trees for nobles, generals and the swelling bureaucracy, plus their families.

When the palace eventually came into better view, Dios noticed that a wide and high flight of steps, capable of literally accommodating an army, rose from the Royal Road to the gold-plated doors of a gateway. This entrance, which like that of the royal residence at Pasargadae was flanked by large sculptures depicting human-headed bulls in the Assyrian style, would later be improved further by Darius I’s successor and then be called the ‘Gate of All Nations’.

Dios would later discover that the gateway led to three other impressive doors, facing east, west and south. Inside the eastern entrance was the vast ‘Hall of a Hundred Columns’, whilst the southern opened into a similarly impressive audience hall, or ‘apadana’, which was even bigger than the one at Susa.

As Dios was also soon to see for himself, up to 10,000 people could gather in the apadana at Persepolis to pay their respects to their king on his elevated throne. They would be accommodated under a ceiling of Lebanese cedar, held up by 72 fluted columns, each of which were 90 cubits [20 metres or 60 feet] tall and weighed up to 40 tonnes. They were covered in painted plaster and glistened with gold and jewels.

The palace complex actually eventually came to comprise fifteen magnificent major buildings, the decor of which included splendid colourful carpets and textile tapestries. Amongst the constructions was the empire’s biggest treasury.

To the south of the Persepolis apadana were the king’s private rooms, the southern windows of which overlooked the extensive harem quarters. There were many ornate depictions glorifying the monarch throughout, mainly in the form of wood or stone friezes and often with him attended by guards and servants. However, unusually for the era, there were no portrayals of military achievements.

Being remote and insulated from the scenes of war, Darius and his successors appeared to want their palace at Persepolis to help them forget the harshness of conflict, for nowhere amongst the hundreds of friezes was there any portrayal of battle. In fact, the only sign that successful wars were being waged, apart from the urgent coming and going of diplomats, generals, royal messengers and other such people, was the steady inward flow into the local treasury of vast amounts of monetary tribute. Despite the colossal cost of keeping an enormous household in luxury, maintaining a huge army, administrating a massive empire and embarking on vast construction projects, the Achaemenian court still accumulated unprecedented wealth.

Dios, Theanos and their companions finally encamped again with most of the arrivals in front of the lofty palace, into which only Darius and his royal entourage entered. The boys’ tent was now surrounded by a far greater number of other canopies than during the journey from Susa, as many more people were gathering here to pay annual homage to the King of Kings.

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

The Persians were celebrating their most important religious festival of ‘Nawruz’, or New Year. On this day, subservient rulers would pay formal homage and bring their tribute to the King of Kings.

The New Year parade began with Persian and Median princes, escorted by foot-guards and squadrons of royal cavalry, normally based in Susa, moving in procession up the great monumental entrance staircase and through the gateway into the apadana of the palace. Once inside the vast audience chamber, they ceremonially rendered allegiance to the enthroned king, who, with his personal retinue, was watching from an elevated royal box.

Tribute-bearers from all constituent parts of the empire, led by the hand by a Persian or Median court usher, followed, leaving their gifts, symbolic of the obeisance of their nations, at the foot of Darius I’s throne as a token of fidelity and loyalty. The five hundred fresh young Greek eunuchs, including Dios and Theanos, and similar number of virgin Hellenic girls, neatly attired in garments reflecting their homelands, were amongst the largesse being presented by the Lydian satrapy, of which Chios and Lesbos formed a part.

Amongst other peoples paying homage in the enormous apadana in their national costumes were Egyptians, Libyans, Nubians, Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, Babylonians, Elamites, Medes, Scythians, Sogdians and Indians. By the end of Darius I’s reign, twenty-nine races would be represented at the annual event. Amongst the gifts symbolic of their countries were rams, dromedary camels, horses, chariots, mules, oxen, clothes, textiles, bowls of precious metal, jewellery and gilded weaponry.

As Dios and Theanos formed part of this immaculately-drilled spectacle, they appreciated that they would soon be redressed as royal pages in the, to them, embarrassingly effeminate style of the Persian court, and then be less formally and more intimately presented to the King of Kings. As the boys stood to attention amongst the thousands of people, animals and goods now gathered in the apadana before the enthroned Darius I, they both privately wondered whether they would ever again wear the simpler but surely more honourable attire of their respective home islands.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, next day)

The attractive 13 year-old, now attired in the rich and colourful garments of a Persian royal harem eunuch slave, greeted his younger friend with the words "Hello, again, Dios!" In response, the young Chian was at first very surprised to see the slightly older boy, which caused him to ask, rather impolitely, "What are you doing here, dressed like that?"

"I’m your new slave," answered a very happy Atrios.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, next day)

Dios and Theanos were amongst the new small entourage who for the first time had helped to bathe and redress the King of Kings in readiness for bed. Both boys noticed that the 51 year-old body of Darius I was still strong and muscular for his age, as well as rather hairy.

Tension then reigned within the bedchamber, as the attendant six royal pages, all from the latest intake, awaited the signal that would indicate the choice of boy virgin whom the King of Kings would deflower overnight. Dios prayed to his Greek gods that Darius’ first selection would not be Theanos, whose emotions were still rather brittle despite the best efforts of the young Chian to cure his friend’s earlier deep depression.

Dios’ prayers were subsequently answered, when the now 12 year-old Chian himself received the discreet signal that he was to remain behind in the King of Kings’ bedchamber to strip naked and lie next to his expectant royal master.

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

Aspamites finally arrived in the satrap’s palace in Gandara, ready to perform his latest commission for Darius I. The local viceroy was not at all happy at the arrival of a spasaka to check on his administration of the province. However, the governor also knew that such an ‘eye of the king’ was untouchable.

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

Dios had barely unfastened the belt of his candys when Darius commanded "Don’t strip, boy. Instead, just lie next to me and tell me about the ‘Iliad’!"

(Satrapy of Gandara [modern north Punjab, now split between India and Pakistan], 1 month later)

Aspamites unrolled Darius’ despatch, written for confidentiality on scrolled papyrus rather than conveyed orally, whilst sitting in the opulent rooms allocated to him in the local satrap’s palace, from where he had proceeded to fulfil the King of Kings’ latest commission. The spasaka grinned as he read the message, which, although he was literate in several tongues, was politely in his native Babylonian because his regal master liked so honouring the handsome young man.

Aspamites’ smile, however, had nothing to do with the language in which the message had been written but was instead connected to the news that the communication was transmitting. Darius was telling his young spasaka about the latest pages to enter royal service, with most of the writing devoted to one young Apollo-like Chian in particular.

Aspamites happily and proudly read about Dios being the best pupil the instructors in the royal school of pages could recall. The spasaka also discovered that the young Chian had proved to be a natural leader, with certain incidents in the desert and the royal mint being cited as examples of such a characteristic. The now 22 year-old Babylonian eunuch additionally learnt about the boy’s actual early service for the King of Kings, who reported that he was now fully conversant with Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’.

The spasaka’s heart really swelled with happiness and pride when he finally read Darius’ last words. The King of Kings informed: "I believe, my love, that you have indeed found me another young Aspamites!"

(Royal palace, Persepolis, Persia, same time)

At the same time that Aspamites was perusing his papyrus, Dios and Theanos were being bathed in the Persepolis palace harem quarters by their new similarly-aged slaves in readiness to attend later on the King of Kings. Atrios was naturally washing the young Chian.

The boys initially chatted happily about the hunting Darius proposed to do, with Dios and Theanos amongst his entourage, in the royal park on the forested Marv Dasht plain in the afternoon. However, none of the young eunuchs present currently knew that disturbing news was simultaneously reaching their master, which would cause the cancellation of the enjoyable pursuit.

As Atrios continued to sponge Dios in the warm perfumed water, the latter boy changed the subject of conversation by suddenly announcing to the others that he proposed to begin dancing lessons. "Why would you want to do that?" asked Theanos, who had strangely not yet spent a night or otherwise been sexually involved with the King of Kings.

"Because," answered Dios, who had also unusually so far experienced only a platonic association with the King of Kings, despite sleeping overnight with him on many occasions, "I’ve decided to do an ‘Aspamites’!" A puzzled Atrios next enquired "What do you mean by that?"

"I’ve decided to dance for Darius," Dios replied, "dressed only in a skimpy loincloth and some jewellery, as I intend to seduce him like Aspamites once did, albeit by different means!" In making this declaration to his astonished friends, the boy was actually confirming what the King of Kings already hoped and suspected.

Darius had taken an instant liking to Dios, just as he had once done in respect of Aspamites. Over the past month, this attitude had, like previously, developed into a deep love for a boy, which he longed to see reciprocated.

The clever and perceptive Darius had once effectively seduced the young Aspamites through showing great interest and kindness in him, although the boy had actually been the one who voluntarily initiated mutual sexual activity. By showing similar consideration to Dios, which had been extended to his best friend, Theanos, the king astutely calculated that the young Chian would eventually want to do something similar for the same two reasons that had stimulated the spasaka’s reaction of over a decade previously.

Firstly, Dios would develop a desire to please and reward Darius, perhaps boosted by truly developing feelings of reciprocal love. Secondly, the young Chian eunuch’s sexual curiosity and self-interest would eventually cause him to want to investigate the possibility of achieving personal ecstasy despite being castrated. However, such a pleasant scenario was not currently foremost in the King of Kings’ highly intelligent and benevolently manipulative mind.

One of Darius’ new young Babylonian pages was reading an urgent and disturbing message to the King of Kings from the satrap of Lydia, Artaphernes. The communication reported a major and widespread violent insurrection in his province, including on the home islands of Dios and Theanos, respectively Chios and Lesbos.

The first thoughts of Darius on receiving this disquieting news were, however, not related to decisions on how to suppress the insurrection. The King of Kings instead initially worried about how the revolt, which for reasons of state he would have to crush mercilessly, would affect his blossoming relationship with his new young beloved, Dios.

Άυαπυοή
(Pause)

(To be concluded in the final part ε΄ - ‘Ττάσίς’ [part 5 ‘Insurrection’])

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