Tyrant: Force of Kings
For Shelley Power and Bill Massey,
without whom, I would not be a writer
Title Page
TYRANT
FORCE
OF KINGS
CHRISTIAN CAMERON
Contents
Airyanãm
(Avestan) Noble, heroic.
Aspis
(Classical Greek) A large round shield, deeply dished, commonly carried by Greek (but not Macedonian)
hoplites
.
Baqca
(Siberian) Shaman, mage, dream-shaper.
Chiton
(Classical Greek) A garment like a tunic, made from a single piece of fabric folded in half and pinned down the side, then pinned again at the neck and shoulders and belted above the hips. A men’s
chiton
might be worn long or short. Worn very short, or made of a small piece of cloth, it was sometimes called a ‘chitoniskos’. Our guess is that most
chitons
were made from a piece of cloth roughly 60 × 90 inches, and then belted or roped to fit, long or short. Pins, pleating, and belting could be simple or elaborate. Most of these garments would, in Greece, have been made of wool. In the East, linen might have been preferred.
Chlamys
(Classical Greek) A garment like a cloak, made from a single piece of fabric woven tightly and perhaps even boiled. The
chlamys
was usually pinned at the neck and worn as a cloak, but could also be thrown over the shoulder and pinned under the right or left arm and worn as a garment. Free men are sometimes shown naked with a
chlamys
, but rarely shown in a
chiton
without a
chlamys –
the
chlamys
, not the
chiton
, was the essential garment, or so it appears. Men and women both wear the
chlamys
, although differently. Again, a 60 × 90 piece of cloth seems to drape correctly and have the right lines and length.
Daimon
(Classical Greek) Spirit.
Ephebe
(Classical Greek) A new
hoplite
; a young man just training to join the forces of his city.
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.
Himation
(Classical Greek) A heavy garment consisting of a single piece of cloth at least 120 inches long by 60 inches wide, draped over the body and one shoulder, worn by both men and women.
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
.
Hoplomachos
(Classical Greek) A man who taught fighting in armour.
Hyperetes
(Classical Greek) The Hipparch’s trumpeter, servant, or supporter. Perhaps a sort of NCO.
Kithara
(Classical Greek) A musical instrument like a lyre.
Kline
(Classical Greek) A couch or bed on which Hellenic men and women took meals and perhaps slept, as well.
Kopis
(Classical Greek) A bent bladed knife or sword, rather like a modern Ghurka kukri. 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 thirty
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
that we assume to be like the pikes used in more recent times. Members of a
phalanx
, especially a Macedonian
phalanx
, are sometimes called
Phalangites
.
Phylarch
(Classical Greek) The commander of one file of
hoplites
. Could be as many as sixteen men.
Porne
(Classical Greek) A prostitute.
Pous
(Classical Greek) About one foot.
Prodromoi
(Classical Greek) Scouts; those who run before or run first.
Psiloi
(Classical Greek) Light infantry skirmishers, usually men with bows and slings, or perhaps javelins, or even thrown 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.
Spola
(Classical Greek) Body armour of leather. Herakles in heroic depiction has a spola in the form of a lion’s skin, but soldiers might wear anything from a light leather tunic to stiffened abdominal protection and call it a spola.
Stade
(Classical Greek) About 1/8 of a mile. The distance run in a ‘stadium’. 178 meters. Sometimes written as
Stadia
or
Stades
by me. Thirty
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 500 and 2,000 men, depending on losses and detachments. Roughly synonymous with
phalanx
above, although a
phalanx
may be composed of a dozen
taxeis
in a great battle.
Thorax/Thorakes
(Classical Greek) Body armour – literally, that which covered the abdomen. Could be bronze, quilted wool or linen or a mixture of textile and metal armour; could also refer to a leather armour like a spola. The so-called ‘muscle cuirass’ forged by the armourer to look like the male abdomen was one form, and probably the most expensive.
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.
It should have been the day of his greatest triumph.
Stratokles was dressed in his very best – a chiton with flames of Tyrian red licking up the shining white wool from the hems, themselves so thick with embroidery that the gold pins that held it together were difficult to push through the cloth. Over his shoulder hung a chlamys of pure red-purple, embroidered in gold, and on his brow sat a diadem of gold and red-purple amethysts, worth the value of a heavy penteres all by itself, without reckoning the other accoutrements he wore – gold sandals with gold buckles, gold mountings on the dagger under his armpit, gold rings on his fingers.
The extravagance of his costume was matched – or exceeded – by every other person in the temple of Hera. Despite being Herakles’ foe, Hera was well represented at Heraklea, and her temple shone with white marble columns and magnificently painted statues. The vault of the portico had inlaid panels of lapis with bands of hammered gold around every panel, so that the recessed coffers seemed to radiate light. Cunning engines – engines that Stratokles had devised himself – allowed alternating coffers to be opened or shut, allowing rays of the sun to fall straight to the temple’s polished, inlaid floor.
And standing on that floor were the guests; the wedding party of the bridegroom. They stood in shadow, carefully arranged by Stratokles with due concern for precedence. They represented a dramatic shift in policy and five tense months of desperate diplomacy; Stratokles had had to sail a stolen warship through Demetrios’s siege lines at Rhodes, and later he’d had to ride across Greece with his mistress, Amastris, Queen of Heraklea, in his arms.
But he’d pulled it off, and the reward stood at the head of the procession. Lysimachos, Satrap of Thrace. Soon to be King of Thrace. One of the leading players in the war for Alexander’s empire – a near neighbour, and a dangerous professional soldier with all the resources of the Thracian silver mines and the Thracian war-tribes at his back. And at his back, Cassander, King of Macedon, still, despite the best efforts of Antigonus and his son Demetrios, the lord of most of Greece. And just behind him, Amyntas, brother of Ptolemy of Aegypt. And behind
him
, resplendent in purple and gold, stood Seleucus’s brother Philip of Babylon. Together, the four men represented the alliance that faced Antigonus, lord of Asia, and his son, Demetrios the besieger. Stratokles had arranged to bring them all here, to Heraklea, to celebrate the marriage of his carefully fostered pupil, Amastris, who stood almost alone in a shaft of golden sunlight that he had carefully arranged to fall like the benison of heaven on her golden head. She looked like Aphrodite come to earth, dressed in a long chiton of shining gold embroidery over linen so fine that the sun shone straight through it. And Amastris had the body to bear the scrutiny of the most critical of men.