Re: Down From Africa (An AAR Sidestory)
Beginning Again, Fresh
My days during the cold season of that year were spent within the
walls of the city of Seleukeia. This city was named for a long
dead Hellene whose family had been friends then enemies to the
current kingdom of the Hellenes. It was a large city, similar to
Alexandreia in Aigyptos or Demetreia in Syria. It was not as
clean or orderly as Demetreia and there were still many signs of
the Persian occupation within the city.
Antigonos was forced to spent his much of his time dealing with
the complex issues of management and government. I stood
guard over many meetings but I rarely knew what his advisors
were talking about. There were many mentions of Antigonos'
father, the king of the Hellenes, and his building projects back in
the Hellenes' homeland. Antigonos did not enjoy these matters
of management. He left most of the minor tasks to his advisors
or his sister's husband.
Many members of Antigonos' family were in the city or came to
visit him there. When we arrived, his sister and her husband, the
man who had taken the city from the Persians, were in the city.
They had taken to the task managing the newly conquered city.
After only a few days in the city, General Antigonos was joined by
his wife and young son, whom he had written to telling of his
intent of wintering the army at Seleukeia. When the war had
started, his son had just been born. By this time he was already
two years of age and had spent little time with his father.
Antigonos spent as much of his time he could with this wife and
son. He preferred privacy when with his family and often order all
of the royal guards out of his private quarters. When I did see him
with his family, he was like a completely different man from the
one I had known. While campaigning, he was a strong leader who
seemed almost unbreakable. He rarely spoke with the men of the
army or even his guard. He had no friends and spoke only of
business. He seemed to be at all times a soldier and a leader,
who would do whatever was necessary to win no matter the cost.
When he was with his family, he acted entirely different. He was
still the vain nobleman, but he seemed much softer and weaker.
He was like any other man that loved his family and wanted to
spend his time with them. He played with this child, spoke at
length with his wife, and spent his time relaxing and avoiding the
problems that were often just outside his door.
I was reminded of my father, back when I was a child and my
mother still lived. Antigonos had the same look in his eyes I had
seen in my father's when he and my mother had watched me play
along the banks of the great river back at my village. With all the
marching, suffering, death, and war I had seen over the
preceeding years, it was nice to be reminded of the peaceful
times in this world.
When I saw General Antigonos' weaker side when with his family,
I did not loose respect for him. I felt that this man was even more
worth defending.
When I was not working for Captain Damatrios and the royal guards,
or doing my fair share of relaxing, I spent my time with Alys and
Duratios looking for signs of spies and assassins in the city. Alys
had heard from his contacts within the city that Mitrozaban himself
had entered the city and was making another plan against Antigonos'
life.
The city had its own network of spies that had been set up when the
city fell to the Hellenes, but Alys prefered not to rely on them. We
worked independant of them and did all our own work. Alys insisted
on avoiding contact with the spy network or sharing information. I
wondered if this was due to some kind of rivalry Alys had with
Seleukeia's spymaster? It did not matter. We were always several
steps ahead of the spy network, though alway one or two behind
Mitrozaban.
Everyday we searched the city, from the palace to the slums, from
the desert to the river. For the first month, we found very little, only
whispers and rumors. From what we heard, Mitrozaban and his
agents were within the city but we knew not where.
Mitrozaban had taken to hiding somewhere within the Persian quarter
of the city, where he was hidden by the locals. With this information,
Captain Damatrios advised sending in troops and harshly punishing
those who helped any Persian spies or assassins. Antigonos was did
not wish to be disturbed during this time. His sister's husband was
convinced that such an act would only cause greater troubles for the
Hellenes from the Persian settlers and locals peoples.
It was the deep of winter but we saw no snow here. Around this
time, Duratios got a lead of an assassin plot against Antigonos.
With much effort and initiative, Duratios had found a location where
a Persian agent was said to be hiding within the city. Once again
we took this information to Antigonos' brother-in-law. We requested
additional guards to take the man by force but instead the
information was passed on to the city's spymaster. He sent one of
his own men into the Persian quarter and quietly had the man killed
without even questioning him.
The body was brought to us. Though angry over not being able to
deal with the situation ourselves, we inspected the body. He was a
young man, and I did not recognize him. Alys was able to identify
him as an agent of the Persian army, though he was not Mitrozaban.
This was a younger, inexperienced assassin who may not have
even been connected to the man we sought. Still, a man who
wished harm on our leader was dead, and that is a victory. However,
the local city spies got all of the credit for the kill.
There were continued rumors of Mitrozaban and his agents, but they
made no visable move. Once a servant of the palace was found to
be plotting to poison the food, but failed. Other than the "normal"
security problem a "prince" has, there were no major attempts on
Antigonos' life made that winter. Rumors were building that
Mitrozaban had a plan and would strike some time in the spring
or summer.
As that spring came, Antigonos made a short trip north. He visited
his rebellious cousin [Euktimenos Idomeneus] in the city of Arbela.
There, he recognized the coming of age of his cousin's son.
Rumors were that this cousin's son was more like his grandfather
[Pefkolaos Idomeneus, the man who had started the Makedonian
Civil War] than his father. They said he sought power and had
claimed that he was the rightful king. I do not know any of the men
in that family, so I cannot judge. Duratios was convinced there
would be another war amoungst the Hellenes if this young man
came to power. Although Duratios jumps at any shadow and sees
trouble where there is none. Perhaps this fear... or should it be
called insight? Perhaps this insight of his was why he was
assigned to work with Alys and I hunting assassins.
While we were in Arbela, we encountered no problems with
Persian agents. Antigonos' cousin had his own spies and royal
guards protecting him and the city was quite secure. I found it
odd that the general's cousin had more royal guards around him
then he had.
We recieved word, in Arbela, that the Persians were starting the
campaign season early. After defending for two years, the
Persians finally made a effort to attack. An army lead personally,
by the Persian king, Koyroun, attacked the Hellenic garrison,
commanded by Antigonos' uncle, down by the coast where the
two rivers met the sea.
So far, this war had been fought by the sons of the Persian king
and the son of the Hellenic king. The old king of Persia [in the west]
now was personally leading his men into battle against us. From
what I overheard from Antigonos' advisors, the Persian king was not
a great fighter and was best left to administration. They said this
was a symbolic act and if placed in a test of wits, he would make
mistakes. Soon we would see if this was true.
Since spring had arrived, the army was already preparing for
campaign. Antigonos sent word to Seleukeia to prepar the army.
By the time we had returned to the city, his generals had prepared
the army to march.
Because of the losses the army had taken in the first two years,
this spring saw fresh replacements in the ranks. Some of the new
soldiers were loyalist troops from the fallen Kingdom of Babylon
and some mercenary archers from Persia. I was unsure if foreign
troops would fight well alongside the Hellenes, but my old unit was
still in the army and we had been quite successful.
I do not know what happened to the plans of Mitrozaban within the
city of Seleukeia. Antigonos only spent a couple days in the city
before marching out with the army. Had there been any plans, there
was now know target for them.
The army marched eastward along the far bank of the river Tigris then
crossed over to the old royal roadway. News came to us that a
Persian army was on the royal road to our east. Antigonos ordered
the army to slow its march and to wait and see what the Persians
would do.
With us delayed, the garrison to the south would have to hold out on
their own. Only one other army was in the area and it was an army of
veterans from Aigyptos and new recruits from Arabia. As the dry
season approached, this army would have to fight a battle with
Persians trying to reinforce their king.
News arrived of their battle while we were still marching eastward.
The Persian army nearer to us had retreated back into their own
lands and we pushed forward slowly. But our delay meant that the
Aigyptoi and Arabians would have to fight without us. The report said
that they had choosen to attack the Persian reinforcements as they
tried to cross a river ford.
They held their ground and used the river to prevent the Persians
from flanking them or overwhelming them with greater numbers. As
the Persians crossed, they were there to meet them on the banks.
The result of the battle was a complete success. The Aigyptoi and
Arabians held back the Persians. Those Persians who survived the
battle either drown in the river or surrendered.
With his reinforcements wiped out, the Persian king broke his siege
down by the sea and retreated back into Persia. Antigonos
considered giving chase to the Persian king and his army, but the
Persians retreated into the mountains. Antigonos did not wish to
wander the mountains for a second year and instead chose to head
northwards.
We headed north. Before we crossed into enemy territory,
Antigonos received another messenger. This time he was from the
far south. A kingdom in Arabia had fought a battle against another
one. The friendly kingdom had won but lost most of its army. The
messenger requested aid from Antigonos. The Arabians wanted
troops to defend their city. Antigonos gave them only money to raise
a new army of their own. The messenger was unhappy but took the
money and returned to his home. I recall Antigonos' advisors telling
him that the friendly kingdom was doomed to fall, but Antigonos
chose not to divert troops from the war against the Persians.
By the time the hottest part of the year was over, we were at the
walls of a Persian city. We still did not have the equipment to take
a city, but Antigonos was convinced he could get the Persians to
come out and fight him. Our army surrounded the city and we
began the siege. All around us there were Persian armies, but
Antigonos was confident of a victory. His vigor and strength had
truely returned. The army saw his confidence and morale grew. We
would be marching toward victory once again.
Originally Posted by MarcusAureliusAntoninus
7x
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Just...plain
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