David Gemmell - Lion of Macedon

Parmenion felt uneasy with this casual blasphemy and changed the subject. 'Xenophon told me you once fought alongside the Spartan army.'

'Three years ago. I was twenty-five then, and a lot more naive. Thebes and Sparta were allies against the Arcadians. I was given ten gold pieces by Agisaleus, who told me I fought well — for a Theban.'

'The line broke,' said Parmenion, 'but you and Pelopidas locked shields and stopped their advance.

When Pelopidas was struck down, wounded in seven places, you stood over his body and protected it until the Spartans came up to support you.'

'You know a great deal about me,' said Epaminondas, 'while I know little about you. Was Xenophon your lover?'

'No, friends only. Is it important?'

Epaminondas spread his hands. 'Only in so far as I must trust his judgement. He says you are a gifted strategos. Is he right?'

'Yes.'

'Excellent, no false modesty. I cannot abide a man who cloaks his talents.' The Theban rose. 'If you are not tired from your long ride, we will walk around the city and become acquainted with your new home.'

Epaminondas led Parmenion through to the front of the house and out on to the wide main street heading south to Electra's Gates. Parmenion had ridden through these gates only an hour before, but now he stopped to examine the reliefs carved in the stone gateway. The figure of a man, hugely muscled, was shown attacking a beast with many heads. 'Heracles' battle with the Hydra,' said the Theban. 'It was carved by Alcamenes. There is more of his work to the north-west.'

Together the two men walked around the walls of Thebes, through the market-places, passing houses built of white marble and other smaller dwellings of sun-dried clay bricks, painted white.

Everywhere there were people, and Parmenion was struck by the variety of colour in the clothing and in the decoration upon house walls. The streets also were paved and decorated with mosaics, unlike the hard-packed earth of Sparta's roads. Parmenion stopped and stared at a woman sitting on a low wall. She wore a dress of red, edged with gold, and silver pendants hung from her ears. Her lips were impossibly red, her hair a gold he had never seen.

She saw him and rose smoothly. 'A gift for the goddess?' she enquired.

'What gift?' asked Parmenion. She giggled and Epaminondas stepped in.

'He is a stranger to Thebes, doubtless he will give the gift on another day.' Taking Parmenion's arm, he steered the young man away from the girl.

'What gift did she desire?'

'She is a priestess of the Temple of Aphrodite and she wanted to bed you. It would have cost forty obols. One obol goes to the temple, the rest to the priestess."

'Incredible!' whispered Parmenion.

They walked on and made their way slowly through the crowds thronging the market stalls. 'I have never seen so much waiting to be sold — so many trinkets and items of little value,' remarked Parmenion.

'Little value?' replied Epaminondas. 'They are pleasing to look at, or to wear. There is value in that, surely? But then I am forgetting you are a Spartan; you like to live in rooms with one chair made of sharp sticks and a bed with a mattress of thorns.'

'Not quite,' responded Parmenion, smiling. 'We occasionally allow ourselves the treat of sleeping naked on a cold stone floor!'

'A Spartan with a sense of humour — no wonder you were unpopular with your fellows.'

At last they came to the twin statues of Heracles and Athena, standing at the southern base of the Cadmea. They were shaped from white marble, and were over twenty feet high. 'Alcamenes' greatest achievement,' said the Theban. 'When you and I are dust, and forgotten by history, men will marvel at his workmanship.'

'They are so real, like frozen giants,' said Parmenion, lowering his voice.

'If Athena did exist, I would think she would be pleased with his creation. It is said that the model was a priestess of Aphrodite, but then with a body like that it is hardly surprising.'

'I wish you wouldn't blaspheme,' said Parmenion. 'Have you ever considered the possibility that you might be wrong? The Spartans are very religious, and they have never lost a land battle where the foe had equal numbers.'

'I like you, Parmenion, and I ask you to consider this: Sparta is the only city to retain a regular army, magnificently trained, superbly disciplined. Could that be the reason they win battles?'

'Perhaps it is both.'

'Spoken like an ambassador,' said the Theban, with a broad smile. He led Parmenion to an open square where seats and tables had been placed beneath canvas awnings to block the sun. They sat at an empty table and a young boy wandered over and bowed.

'Bring us some water and a few honeycakes,' ordered Epaminondas. As they ate, he questioned Parmenion about his life in Sparta and the full story behind his departure. He listened in silence as the Spartan talked of his life and of his love for Derae.

'Falling in love is like gripping a sword by the blade,' said the Theban. 'You have it in your hand, but at great cost. We stopped sending victims for Cassandra more than thirty years ago.

Athens abandoned the vile practice ten years since. It makes no sense.'

'It placates the gods,' said Parmenion, with the ghost of a smile.

'I'll not worship any being who demands the blood of innocence,' responded the Theban. He gazed up at the citadel on the acropolis; it was surrounded by a high wall on which Parmenion could see sentries walking. 'So, young strategos, merely for the sake of debate, how would you retake the Cadmea — if you were a Theban?'

'I would not bother. I would take the city.'

'You would conquer Thebes in order to save it?'

'How many citizens live in or around this city? Twenty thousand? Thirty?' asked Parmenion.

'More, but I do not know the exact number,' replied the Theban, leaning forward and lowering his voice.

'And how many Spartans in the garrison?'

'Eight hundred.'

Parmenion lifted his goblet and drained his water. 'Is there a well there?'

'No.'

'Then I would encourage the citizens to rise up and besiege the Cadmea — starve the Spartans into submission.'

'And what would happen when the Spartans drew their swords and opened the gates? There would be panic, the crowd would flee.'

'If they could open the gates,' Parmenion agreed. 'But what if they were secured from the outside?

Then there would be no way out, unless the soldiers lowered themselves by ropes. I don't think I can recall a battle where a phalanx advanced by dropping down on the enemy.'

'Interesting,' said Epaminondas, 'merely as a theoretical strategy, of course. But I like you, young man, and I think it likely that we shall become friends. Now let us move on, there are many things to see.'

'It is a wonderful city,' said Parmenion later as the two men returned to Epaminondas' white-walled home. A servant brought them platters of cheese and bread and they sat on a first-floor balcony, enjoying the cool of the shade below the towering Cadmea.

'You have not seen one tenth of it,' Epaminondas told him. 'Originally the Cadmea was the city, and Thebes grew up around its base. Tomorrow we will see the Theatre, and I will show you the grave of Hector and the Great North Gate.'

'With respect, I would sooner see the training ground. My muscles ache from the ride and I would like to run.'

'Then it shall be as you say.'

That night Parmenion slept in a room at the top of the house, and a cool easterly wind blew in through the open window. He dreamt of an ancient temple with huge, broken columns. An old woman was there, lying on a pallet bed beside an altar; he took her hand and gazed down into her blind eyes. It was a curious dream, and he awoke in the depths of the night feeling calm and strangely refreshed.