Forging Kingdoms by Robert Fabbri

Author:Robert Fabbri [Fabbri, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PTOLEMY.

THE BASTARD.

PTOLEMY, TOO, HAD been enjoying himself – although, in truth, rarely did he not. But the opening of the campaigning season had been a triumph to relish. He had left Ophellas, his governor of Cyrenaica, with adequate men to keep his western border safe from any incursion by Agathocles, as the Tyrant of Syracuse had taken his war against Carthage to Africa and had managed to inflict a stunning victory over them in their homeland. Then Ptolemy had taken his fleet north; Phaselis, Xanthos, Kaunos, Iasos and Myndos, as well as scores of smaller towns along the Lycian and Karian coasts, had all fallen to him as he progressed west, coming up from Cyprus. It was not that he had even had to try very hard: none had been taken by storm, nor, indeed, had he laid siege to any. In fact, he did not think he had lost a single man during the whole campaign – apart from a few unfortunates who had received summary justice at the hands of fathers, husbands and brothers of women they had raped; the luckier ones had died of their injuries. He winced at the thought of what the survivors would endure for the rest of their lives, but despite the grotesqueness of the genital mutilations, he had not sought out the perpetrators: it was good his men knew that if they went too far despoiling a town that had given itself up willingly, there would be no sympathy from him. And they all had surrendered without a fight, for Ptolemy had been using his new favourite method of paying the faction within the town not in power – generally the democrats – to open the gates and reward them for their treachery by allowing them to massacre their political opponents – normally the oligarchic faction supported by Antigonos. He had found it a very satisfying way of doing business, having learned it from Kassandros’ campaign in the Peloponnese a few years previously. ‘And the best thing about it is,’ he had explained to his son, Lagus, after he had sent Archias the Exile-Hunter into Phaselis, the first time he attempted the ploy, ‘is that you don’t have to pay them very much at all as they’re so keen on revenge nothing else matters to them. It’s perfect, really. I shall congratulate Kassandros on it when I see him – if I do see the pimply little toad; although, in truth, I hope I’m spared that dubious pleasure.’

‘I’m sure it’s been done before, Father. Many times, I would have thought, with all the wars there have been.’

‘I’m sure it has; but my history was never so good. Anyway, it was Kassandros who’s recently revived the old custom.’

But that old custom was not going to work in this case, he realised as he and Lagus listened to the Exile-Hunter’s report upon return from yet another well-paid foray into one of Antigonos’ cities in an attempt to subvert those with a grievance. ‘You mean

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