The Royal Council

Lykikos stands, hoping to impart some useful advice

"Young Makedon, there are always bandits roving throughout the Empire, if you take a tour through different regions you may find yourself in a position to take a local garrison and defeat one. The residents of Asaak still talk of the day I crushed a group of cut-throats plaguing the region. It can be difficult to gain influence in the council, if you want it you need to go take it however you can. Just remember to ask permission to use a garrison first, and if you want my advice, go east young man."

The Babylonian sits

Nikarchos stands, looks to Lykikos and studies his face for some minutes without saying a word. The other Strategoi - knowing that patience is considered one of the highest virtues in theirs cultures - sit on their places in irrepressible phlegm and wait.

Nikarchos recognises benevolence in Lykikos face and says

"Accept my thanks for these wise words of advice, Kýrie Polyxenidos Lykikos . I shall take it to heart."

He sits back on his place, obviously content about the council of the blind wise man.

"First of all, I would like to welcome you here as well. It is good to see a Makedonian here.

But, if the thought of riding with me isn't too much for you to stomach, perhaps I could interest you in joining me in my campaign against Pontos? You would act as my second-in-command, and I could guarantee you'd see some action. Mikra Asia is a much more attractive region than the east, don't you think?"

The soldier-messenger from before, Alexander, walked into the Council Chambers. From his slightly odd walking it was evident his legs were still a bit stiff from a long ride, and the sweat that bristled on his brow made it clear the young man ran a distance as well.

"Esteemed Basileus, Kleronomos, Chancellors." He bowed to the respective directions, making sure to bow the lowest to Basileus and his heir.

"My Lord, Mikithion Kalamou Phoinikikes, sends word from Kappadokia. He humbly requests to be assigned on the Pontic frontier, where he could commit his body and mind to the service of the great Arche fully."

"He states that he would be particularly honored to aid our great Kleronomos and ex-Chancellor, Lord Sarpedon Syriakes." Alexander bowed again to the direction of Sarpedon.

"A generous offer, Sarpedon Syriakos, Kleronomos Basileion. I am honoured."

Nikarchos tought about it for a while.

"I just decided to accept your offer. I will travel the empire with only my retinue, because i want to see more of our lands. I will travel to Arbela, Edessa and Antiocheia, the great Town founded by Antigonos I, cross Kilikia and Phyrgia and join up with your army in Ipsos, where the Father of our great Nation, Seleukos I. Nikator, defeated Antigonos I 35 years ago."

"And if it is the will of the gods, i shall meet your young master there too, Alexander."

Alexander half-nodded half-bowed. "If my knowledge does not fail me, your Lordship is from Makedon; Lord Mikithion will be, no doubt, pleased to encounter someone from Mother Hellas, regardless of the relationships between my and my master's home city Athenai and Makedon."

"Very well! You shall join me as soon as you can, Nikarchos, and I hope sooner rather than late.

As for your master, Alexander, I am happy to accept his request as well. Together, we three shall draw our swords! I'm looking forward to this more and more for every minute."

With a few words in Hilarion's ear, Sarpedon sits down again.

Anaxarchos Kyrrhestikes Syriakes enters the council chambers looking around at the impresive columns and tapestries depicting battles and royal splendor.
As I take a seat near the edge of the assembly I look to learn of the ways of the empire and the qualities needed for the leadership of such a large nation. Seeing a lull in the discisions and activity I stand to ask a word from the senior statesmen present.

"I Anaxarchos Kyrrhestikes Syriakes come to serve this assembly. I have survayed the empires maps and see oppertunaty to the south on the north coast of Arabia. The settlements there could provide valuble sea trade along the coast. I will take my counsel and orders from this assembly and you have my suggestion as to a course of action.
I await your instrutions."


For short you may call me Anaxar.
Bows to the assmbled nobles.

Nikarchos nodded in direction of Anaxarchos Kyrrhestikes Syriakes, pleased to see the young makedon who he knowed since the time they spent together in the Akademia in Seleukeia. Then he stood up and bowed in direction of the basileus and his heir.

"My Lords, by leave of the council, I shall go immediately and prepare the departure to issos. Galaktíon, my messenger, will bring my word whenever it is necessary to the council."

Good Anaxar! I welcome you to our great Council Chamber. If you are looking for instruction, you can join me in Antiocheia to retrain. We will be campaigning against any Pontic armies who roam our land. As the Syrian army has both its second and third in command now I am open to a second in command as well.

Sarpedon coughs.

"If you're referring to my army, Panaitolos, you are quite incorrect in calling it the Syrian army. It is not. It is in fact my own, personal royal army that we were talking about."

Achaios Syriakos rises

"Young Anaxar, you may serve under me in the basileus' Royal Army if you like, if there are to be any battles against ptolemy then i would like to utilise the hammer and anvil tactic that brought Megas Alexandros such success."

Aw yes...young and already losing ones train of thought Panaitolos laughs yes well in any case Anaxar my offer for a chance to defend our home against Pontic scum remains open

Theodoros rises and starts to speak.

"I greet you newcomers to this council. As I am myself just getting comfortable to the thought of being involved in high politics I might know the way it feels to you. Welcome, and let me just note that as much as it pleases me that the campaign into the Pontic Kingdom sees so much assistance I want to also invite anyone not involved in any active positions right now to join me and the Parthian Army on the way to Phraaspa. The mission to take this town might not be as glorious as marching into the pontic heartland but it is nonetheless as important. We need to secure our borders and I personally think we need a buffer between the Hay and our own heartlands."

With this Theodors sits back down, talking to one of his searvants, before sending him away.

I thank you all for the opportunities to prove my worth.
I wish to see combat against the Ptolemy. I have personal scores to settle with some of their commanders who raided my family’s estate when I was much younger.
I reveal in the opportunity to fight as Mega Alexandros once did.
It is nice to see you Nikarchos I hope your exploits in the saddle will match you exploits in the academia. I’ll refrain from recounting which ones.

I wish you all good fortune in battle and would be honoured to fight by your sides in the future.
Salutes and bows to the assembly

*A blood and mud stained messanger arrives with a grim look on his face*

I have the most soloum duty a messanger can ever be given to carry, the mysiakes duo have lost against two armies of ptolemai, and Attalos Pergemou Mysiakes has died in battle, leading the charge aganst a karian warband, but such charges by him and the rest of the cavalry were not in vien, almost half our army suvived whilst bringing down half of the amassed enemies that marched against them

Antiochos lowers his head...

This is a sad day to Arche...

We have lost a good general! And looks like the Liberation of Hierosolyma and Ioudaia have fell into distant dream! The only man who can still free the city is Bithys Parthiakes!

Attalos Pergamou Mysiakes, what a fine man he was...

Antiochos sighs while thinking how many more similar messages he have to hear...

The old man stands up with a grim look."Tell his brother, 'My deepest condolences.' To the rest of you, take note of this hero. Honour him."Euripedes sits down again and plays with his beard.

"Alas! that he would fall! He was a great man, and I had offered him to be my aid, so that he could take care of Pergamon, the city that he would have ruled if it hadn't been for that treacherous snake of an uncle he had. But he wanted to wait with it until Hierosolyma was taken." Sarpedon sighs. "Now he'll never get to rule his beloved city..."

Sarpedon shakes his head.

"Damn these Jews, damn them all and the Aigyptian dogs with them! We should never have taken this mission in the first place! Why should we care about these people anyway? What does their freedom mean to us? Send them all to Hades, I say."

"I did not know this men, but a man, willing to throw down his life for the Arche is my brother in arms. I will mourn for his passing."

Theodoros looks to Sarpedon.

"My brother, you have to calm down. Don't let rage and grief guide you. We have promised to rescue these people, because we cannot let Ptolemaoi behave like Barbaroi in opressing their people. We are true Hellenes, Greeks, if you will, we cannot think about ourselves only. It was a wise decision to accept this mission. The only mistake we made was to underestimate Ptolemaoi. They are much stronger than we thought and a lot more determined to hold Ioudaia."

He turns to adress the Basileus.

"Father, if you want this town to be liberated it may be wise to call an emergency council to call off or delay the campaign against Pontus or Phraaspa to concentrate our swords and spears where they are needed most - in the heart of Ptolemaoi.

I must ask do we have an army in the making because from what I see our forces are split in to three small forces. They are praying upon our forces being spread out. I suggest with withdrawing our forces and combining them for a greater assault upon their armies. My friends our knowledge of our foe shows 23 regiments in their main force I must ask we train more forces in Damascas, Sidon and (what will become Antioch).
I must also ask has the royal army been assembled to meet this threat?

Achaios Syriakos' representative on the council stands

"The Royal Army is assembled, and my master has recently used it to prevent the main army of ptolemy from entering our lands without bringing him to battle, he sends word that the sooner you can join him the better as the army of ptolemy greatly outnumbers him andhe is desperately in need of some heavy cavalry

A saddened Panaitolos rises with a suggestion

"It is indeed a sad time for we Men of the Arche...however we must be quick with our mourning and agree upon a plan of action . The Ptolemaoi will make haste in continuing their offensives against us and I believe that it would now be wise to rethink our planned campaign against Pontus.

My proposal is to keep either the Syrian army or my Lydian army in the north to keep Pontic forces at bay should they become more of a problem. Which ever force is not chosen for this defense should be sent to the front against the Ptolemaoi along with the Royal Army. Anaxarchos is right in the fact that our forces are divided. Therefore, we must consolidate what we can and launch counter offensives against the Ptolemaoi. That is all...and my condolences as well to Attalos Pergamou Mysiakes brother."

Panaitolos seats himself still full of both sorrow and hatred...

Andromachos Syriakos marches into the council room.

"An apology, friends, for I was not able to travel to Seleukeia in over a month, due to illness. However, I have almost fully recovered and can take back my position as Satrap of the Persikoi.

Andromachos takes a vacant seat next to Sarpedon and quickly scopes the council.

A messenger from the Basileu's Royal Army enters

"Great Men of the Arche! My commander, Achaios Syriakos, proposes that the remaining soldiers of the defeated army either join his army until the immediate ptolemaic threat has passed or that his army and the defeated army attack the enemy in tandem!"

"With some utterly bad news came a good one. I'm happy to see you here again, Andromachos, though I cannot smile for this recent loss of a man whom I counted as a good friend. Welcome back!"

Sarpedon turns to Theodoros.

"I don't oppose taking Hierosolyma from Ptolemaic rule, but we should have done it on our terms, when we were fully ready, and simply to put them under our control instead. There's nothing wrong with that. If they want freedom, they should fight for it themselves, not have good Greeks like Attalos pay for it in their stead."

Now turning to Antiochos, Sarpedon continues.

"Father, I know you don't want to break your word, and I respect that. You have promised to free them, and you want to see it done. However, we have tried our best, and one of us died in the attempt. We were simply unable to do it, and surely you can't consider not doing something you promised because it turned out you couldn't as breaking your word?

No, we have done our part. What have the Jews done themselves? Have they risen up in revolt to divert resources and attention, and aid us in the capture? Did they open the gates for us? Have they done anything except just sitting there on their fat behinds, waiting for us to do their little dirty work for them? Is it really worth losing more of our soldiers' lives just to live up to a promise we by all right should no longer consider ourselves bound by?

I say we should go ahead and offer the Ptolemaioi peace now. That would give us time to take care of Pontos and prepare for a new, proper attack against the Ptolemaioi once we are done with Pontos. Then we can strike with our full fist forward, knowing that our back is secure."

Theodoros looks up and replies.

"It was not my intention to question your determination to increase the glory of the Arche and I am by no means saying that there's anything wrong with what you are proposing. I'm just saying we can't be too rash in our decisions and judgements. After all in this battle Iudaoi fought and died alongside our own men and they have raised all the funds involved in this liberation attempt."

Theodoros sighs.

"I do agree with you though. If the Ptolemaioi are willing to accept a cease fire let them have it by all means. The only reason I propose for the armies to head south are my doubts that these egypt bastards will accept such an offer. They have exploited a weak spot on our side and struck with a force we wouldn't have thought them capable of using. We have to be careful not to loose ground in the south in a retaliation strike by Ptolemaoi forces. I fear, if they accept a cease fire, we will have to take it on their terms instead of offering our terms as we wished to do, after the fall of Jerusalem. We cannot aford to pay them tribute at the moment and, after all, in doing that we would strengthen our enemy while weakening ourselves... Let us make no mistakes, friends. Any peace with Ptolemy can only be temporary."

Euripedes stands up and addresses the whole room"We should not abandon Jerusalem. Pull the beaten army back. We must bide time, The King's Army should move and hold off any Ptolemaic threats to our southern border."

I agree Euripedes! And I hope you all had read my proposal we must act now!

We should concentrate our coffers on the Pontic Campaign for now. Once Pontus is dealt with, a new surge on Jerusalem should take place. We cannot call edicts right now, and this is not nearly an emergency yet. But I think we should have a quick vote by voice, who concurs that the Liberation of Jerusalem should be held off till we settle the border dispute in Pontus? Stand up and let yourself be heard."