Tyrant: Storm of Arrows

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also by Christian Cameron

 
 
 

 
Tyrant: Storm of Arrows

 

 
CHRISTIAN CAMERON

 
 
Orion

An Orion ebook

 
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Orion Books,
an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House, 5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA

 
An Hachette UK Company

 
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

 
Copyright © Christian Cameron 2009

 
The moral right of Christian Cameron to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior permission of both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book.

 
All the characters in this book are fictitious, except for those already
in the public domain, and any resemblance to actual persons
living or dead is purely coincidental.

 
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
ISBN (Hardback) 978 0 7528 9054 8

eISBN : 978 1 4091 0686 9

 
Maps drawn by Steven Sandford.

 
www.orionbooks.co.uk

 
This ebook produced by Jouve, France

For Sarah

ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλεπᾶν δὲ λῦσον
ἐκ μερὶμναν ὄσσα δέ μοι τέλεσσαι
θῦμοσ ἰμμέρρει, τέλεσον, σὺ δ’ αὔτα
σύμμαχοσ ἔσσο.

GLOSSARY

Airyanãm
(Avestan) Noble, heroic.

Aspis
(Classical Greek) A large round shield, deeply dished, commonly carried by Greek (but not Macedonian)
hoplites.

Baqça
(Siberian) Shaman, mage, dream-shaper.

Daimon
(Classical Greek) Spirit.

Epilektoi
(Classical Greek) The chosen men of the city or of the
phalanx
; elite soldiers.

Eudaimia
(Classical Greek) Well-being. Literally, ‘well-spirited’. See
daimon
, above.

Gamelia
(Classical Greek) A Greek holiday.

Gorytos
(Classical Greek and possibly Scythian) The open-topped quiver carried by the Scythians, often highly decorated.

Hipparch
(Classical Greek) The commander of the cavalry.

Hippeis
(Classical Greek) Militarily, the cavalry of a Greek army. Generally, the cavalry class, synonymous with ‘knights’. Usually the richest men in a city.

Hoplite
(Classical Greek) A Greek soldier, the heavy infantry who carry an
aspis
(the big round shield) and fight in the
phalanx
. They represent the middle class of free men in most cities, and while sometimes they seem like medieval knights in their outlook, they are also like town militia, and made up of craftsmen and small farmers. In the early Classical period, a man with as little as twelve acres under cultivation could be expected to own the
aspis
and serve as a
hoplite
.

Hyperetes
(Classical Greek) The
Hipparch’
s trumpeter, servant, or supporter. Perhaps a sort of NCO.

Kopis
(Classical Greek) A bent, bladed knife or sword, rather like a modern Ghurka knife. They appear commonly in Greek art, and even some small eating knives were apparently made to this pattern.

Machaira
(Classical Greek) The heavy Greek cavalry sword, longer and stronger than the short infantry sword. Meant to give a longer reach on horseback, and not useful in the
phalanx
. The word could also be used for any knife.

Parasang (
Classical Greek from Persian) About 30
stades.
See below.

Phalanx
(Classical Greek) The infantry formation used by Greek
hoplites
in warfare, eight to ten deep and as wide as circumstance allowed. Greek commanders experimented with deeper and shallower formations, but the
phalanx
was solid and very difficult to break, presenting the enemy with a veritable wall of spear points and shields, whether the Macedonian style with pikes or the Greek style with spears. Also,
phalanx
can refer to the body of fighting men. A Macedonian
phalanx
was deeper, with longer spears called
sarissas
, which we assume to be like the pikes used in more recent times.Members of a
phalanx
, especially a Macedonian
phalanx
, are sometimes called
Phalangites
.

Pous
(Classical Greek) About one foot.

Phylarch
(Classical Greek) The commander of one file of
hoplites.
Could be as many as sixteen men.

Psiloi
(Classical Greek) Light infantry skirmishers, usually men with bows and slings, or perhaps javelins, or even rocks. In Greek city-state warfare, the
psiloi
were supplied by the poorest free men, those who could not afford the financial burden of
hoplite
armour and daily training in the gymnasium.

Sastar
(Avestan) Tyrannical. A tyrant.

Stade
(Classical Greek) About 1/8 of a mile. The distance run in a ‘stadium’. 178 metres. Sometimes written as
Stadia
or
Stades
by me. 30
Stadia
make a
Parasang
.

Taxeis
(Classical Greek) The sections of a Macedonian
phalanx
. Can refer to any group, but often used as a ‘company’ or a ‘battalion’. My
taxeis
has between five hundred and two thousand men, depending on losses and detachments. Roughly synonymous with
phalanx
above, although a
phalanx
may be composed a dozen
taxeis
in a great battle.

Xiphos
(Classical Greek) A straight-bladed infantry sword, usually carried by
hoplites
or
psiloi
. Classical Greek art, especially red-figure ware, shows many
hoplites
wearing them, but only a handful have been recovered and there’s much debate about the shape and use. They seem very like a Roman gladius.

329 BC

T
he conqueror of Asia stalked into his tent and tossed his golden helmet at the armour stand by the camp bed. It hit the wooden post with a bronze clang. The servants froze.

‘Where the
fuck
are my recruits?’ he yelled. ‘Antipater promised me eight
thousand
new infantry. He sent three thousand Thracians and some mutinous Greeks! I want my Macedonians!’

Members of his staff followed him into the tent, led by Hephaestion. Hephaestion was not afraid of his royal master, certainly not his master’s temper tantrums, and his bronze-haired head was high. He was smiling.

Behind him, Eumenes and Callisthenes were more hesitant.

Alexander scratched his head with both hands, trying to get the sweat and the dirt out of his hair. ‘Don’t stand in the doorway like sheep. Come in or get the fuck out.’

Hephaestion handed him a cup of wine, poured another for himself. ‘Drink, friend,’ he said.

Alexander drank. ‘It’s not fair. If people would just do as they were told...’

Hephaestion raised an eyebrow, and they both laughed. Just like that.

Alexander swirled the wine in his cup and looked at Eumenes. ‘Did he say why?’

Eumenes - shorter, not godlike in any way - accepted a goblet from Hephaestion, who rarely served anyone but the Great King himself, and met his lord’s eyes. They were mismatched, blue and brown, the blue eye ringed in black and opened just a little too wide. Eumenes sometimes thought that his master was a god, and other times that he was mad. Either way, Eumenes, a brave man and veteran of a dozen hard fights, disliked meeting Alexander’s eyes.

Eumenes of Cardia was a Greek and not a Macedonian, which made the bearing of bad tidings all the harder. Men competed to bring Alexander good news. When the news was bad, men conspired to avoid being the goat. Eumenes, the foreigner, the smaller man, was the goat.