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.’