Spartans 12 (Conclusion)

By Pueros

for Tom

Chapter 12 – Adar

(Susa, Persia, February 477 B.C.)

The month of Adar had begun and Xerxes did not want to be present in Susa when the executions of his wife and former gatekeeper and catamites took place, and the annihilation of the city’s many Jews commenced. He therefore decided to return to Persepolis, where the culling of the Semite population would be less distasteful as there were fewer of them in the ceremonial capital, for which he departed in the usual big but slow royal cavalcade.

Coming in the opposite direction was the Spartan palace guard whom Mordecai had diplomatically transferred to Persepolis because Hadassah had told him that Lysander disliked the man and his apparent attempts to become friendly. The Greek had deserted his post to return quickly to Susa as soon as he had heard the Great King’s dreadful proclamation, conveyed by fast mounted courier relay along the royal road. However, his action was not prompted by sympathy for the Jews, or his former commanding officer and Queen, but by that part of the edict that announced the forthcoming executions of two of Xerxes’ catamites. The 32 years old knew that with just one old horse, compared to the many fast steeds of the regal messengers, he would not reach the administrative capital speedily but he prayed to his gods that he would be there before the fourteenth day of Adar.

The sneering Haman, now the second most powerful man in the Empire, had delighted in visiting the four prisoners in the dungeons of the palatial citadel in Susa to appraise them of their imminent fate. The chamberlain had ignored their various entreaties. Mordecai had begged for the Queen, the young royal catamites and his people to be spared, accusing himself of being the only true culprit of the perceived crime against Persian culture and honour. Hadassah, having been refused access to her husband on the grounds that he did not want to see her again and was leaving for Persepolis, had also pleaded for the others, blaming everything on herself. Lysander asked for Alexias to be reprieved but his lie that he had unwisely persuaded his unwilling friend to help the two Jews fell on deaf ears. The young Athenian uselessly sought mercy for everyone amongst many tremulous tears.

Most Jews throughout the Empire were prevented from fleeing to safety and so many, including those in Susa, barricaded themselves in their homes or ghettos in an attempt to defend themselves when the soldiers came to obliterate them from the face of the world on the fourteenth day of Adar. Meanwhile, until this scheduled day of atonement, Lysander, Alexias, Hadassah and Mordecai spent lonely fearful days in chains in the solitary confinement of their cells, their only contact with the outside world being the servants who came daily to feed them and help with their toilet, ablutions and redressing. However, the slaves, old eunuchs for the male prisoners and old women for the Queen, had been ordered to remain silent, on pain of death, when confronted with the traitors, who therefore gleaned nothing about what was happening elsewhere.

Lysander and Alexias were fed nothing from the 10th of Adar and were subjected to several deeply humiliating enemas per day from that date. The frightened boys realised that this was because an attempt was being made to ensure that their bodies did not despoil themselves during their long lingering executions. Neither petrified and now famished 14 years old slept on their fresh straw bedding as the 13th of Adar became the 14th and dawn slowly approached. They had become accustomed to the discomfort of having their hands permanently chained behind them, with their feet in shackles, but their terror as to what would happen to them during the forthcoming day now prevented slumber. However, despite their deep trepidation, they still experienced painful groins, caused by their intensely frustrated endangered genitals still being tightly encased in hard leather covers, apart from which they had been kept naked.

Neither Lysander and Alexias had cum for many weeks, accidental ejaculations, when the genital covers were removed for daily toilet and washing, with their rapidly expanding cocks eagerly popping into view, being cruelly prevented by application of stinging solution to the penises. This painful tear-forming practice, supplemented by the pressing of an attendant eunuch’s fingers on the boys’ perinea, quickly caused rigid excitement to become aching flaccidity, a situation that aided subsequent reattachment of the tiny but sexually impeding garment. Both 14 years olds recognised that the desperate needs of their loins were being deliberately kept unsatisfied so that their genitalia would produce a good show for the thousands of spectators who would watch them die, one more humiliation to add to their woes on the day of their deaths.

Lysander and Alexias tried to display bravery when the eunuchs came to prepare them on the morning of the fourteenth day of Adar. After toileting, the scared boys were subjected to further enemas before being more carefully washed than previously. Their cocks were softened in the usual way to prevent unwanted early ejaculation but the genital covers were not reapplied. The young Spartan and Athenian knew that they would be walking shamefully naked, as traitors, through the streets of Susa to their place of public execution and that their acute embarrassment would be compounded by a gradual depletion in the effect of the stinging fluid. This would undoubtedly result, given their recent enforced chastity, in the display of full erections by the time they reached the platform on which they would be killed horribly and slowly.

After finally being removed from his cell, Lysander, as on the occasion when he was publicly flogged, was led along many corridors to the huge courtyard located at the rear of the palace. As then, two bearded skirted soldiers waited to receive the young Spartan from the palace guards. One held a wooden yoke whilst the other had possession of a leather crop. However, this time, there was also another pair of similarly equipped warriors, presumably assigned to escort Alexias to his doom.

The heavy yoke was again fitted to Lysander, who quickly found his head poking through the central hole whilst his outstretched hands were chained to the sides. The deeply ashamed and terrified boy then had to wait for his naked friend to arrive to be similarly bound. This soon happened and the two tremulous 14 years olds looked at each other as the wooden restraint was being attached to the young Athenian.

Lysander tried to hide his own fear and encourage Alexias to overcome his natural obvious trepidation by smiling. However, this only caused his friend to start shedding some tears, although this was caused more by sadness that the young Spartan would be sharing his awful fate than by concern for himself.

Smack of the crops across the boys’ lustrous naked buttocks soon indicated that the soldiers wanted them to move and the small party walked through the courtyard gate into the busy streets of Susa beyond, where the beautiful 14 years old nudes were to receive many lecherous stares.

Progress along the narrow crowded thoroughfares was slow, the pace partly dictated by the throngs and partly by the heavy loads the condemned boys now carried. As expected, their shame at their nudity was increased when the effects of the stinging fluid on their still completely smooth genitalia began to wear off and their cocks began to grow, seemingly perversely stimulated by the many rude insults hurled at them.

Susa’s main square was reached just before noon, when the slow executions were due to commence. The soldiers with the crops had used the implements several more times to encourage the boys into speedier progress. Consequently, the rears of the young Spartan and Athenian exhibited a number of red and purple stripes by the time they had struggled through the enthusiastic surrounding thousands to the large wooden platform on which they would die. Their 14 years old penises were also vertical and dripping precum.

Lysander was, of course, already acquainted with the platform and its vertical posts, each with shackles attached to the top and bottom and interconnected by crossbeams. However, unlike the last time the young Spartan had been here, he did not now pray to his gods that his shame would not be compounded by the lick of the whip making him cum, as he considered such humiliation as inevitable.

The bearded army officer, who supervised Lysander’s previous public chastisement, was again present, with the same evil looking whip in his hand. He ordered the boys’ escorts to suspend the naked 14 years olds from the crossbeams connecting the three central posts. As this was done, the young Spartan tried to exhibit bravery but the young Athenian broke down, causing him to sob profusely whilst begging for mercy.

The officer took up position first behind the apparently more courageous Lysander, wanting to compound the seemingly more cowardly Alexias’ fears by making him wait for his flagellation. The young Greeks were now suspended from the crossbeams, with feet manacled together and metal painfully eating into their wrists. Nevertheless, both boys still sported fulsome vertical damp erections, a sight that made the noisy insults from the huge raucous crowd intensify in volume.

Lysander bit his lip to try to prevent a scream when the first lash crossed his back. However, his precaution did not work as this first blow caused him not only to sway but also to utter a loud yelp. The second, to the boy’s buttocks, made the young Spartan repeat the shameful act that he had perpetrated the last time he had dangled here. The 14 years old again bent his knees to raise them towards his belly, despite the heavy manacles attached to his feet, whilst his body quaked and his cock spurted much of his copious stored supply of previously frustratingly unreleased semen, to even louder ribald commentary from all around. Meanwhile, the adjacent Alexias continued his tearful pleading.

The bearded officer continued his relentless flogging of the now persistently sobbing and shrieking Lysander’s back and bottom until they were covered with many red stripes. As the man had proceeded, he had caused the young victim to shame himself again by encouraging his cum-covered and still rigidly throbbing cock to re-erupt. However, the boy’s initial flagellation had now come to an end, although the lash would return later to the front of his body before he was to be lose his nose and be nullified. Instead, weights, gradually increasing in size, would now be suspended by other soldiers from the young Spartan’s feet until he was so fully stretched that his shoulder blades became dislocated. Simultaneously, the whip would be applied to his adjacent friend’s rear.

As Xerxes travelled in his luxurious wheeled litter, he decided to occupy his time by devising the words of the inscription that he proposed to have carved in the new Harem of his Persepolis palace. He intended the statement to be his letter to posterity, which the long but stereotypical text was, as it can still be seen.

Haman had decided to break all protocol by visiting the Queen in the palace dungeons on the day of her hanging. However, the chamberlain did not meet Hadassah in her cell. Instead, he had instructed her female guards to take the young woman to another chamber, full of instruments of torture, and suspend her from chains hanging down from the ceiling. The 18 years old’s toes just touched the floor, to which her ankles were immovably shackled.

The sneering Haman entered the torture chamber shortly afterwards to find Hadassah alone in her demeaning and distressing bondage, and no longer attired in finery. Instead, the young woman now wore a simple dress of cheap brown cloth. No man except the Great King himself, no matter how powerful, should have visited the Queen in the dungeons, let alone in these circumstances, but the chamberlain did not care. With Xerxes absent and now disinterested in matters of state, the Amalakite considered himself all-powerful and therefore above needing to observe such respect, especially to someone he considered a Jewish whore.

“Release me,” Hadassah exclaimed, in a commanding rather than pleading tone as the shackles bit painfully into her wrists and ankles, “as I am still the Queen!” “Not for long,” Haman answered, “because I shall soon see you and your cousin hanged, but only after I’ve played with your filthy Jewish bodies first. Later, you’ll both be pleased to see the gallows!”

“If the Great King finds out what you’ve done….” Hadassah tried to continue with threatening defiance but her words were cut short by Haman who, removing a menacing knife from a pocket, simply replied “He won’t!” The Queen, fear of what was to happen to her on this day intensified by this surprise and shocking turn of events, was now cowed into silence by the appearance of the sharp blade. The young woman’s gorgeous but terrified eyes focused on the weapon as the chamberlain approached her beautiful helpless form.

Haman walked slowly around Hadassah, immovably chained in place, to gain a close-up view of her delicious shape before proceeding to acquire an even more intimate perspective. The young woman gasped in mortification as the chamberlain, standing right in front of her, then began to shred her dress, her only cover, with the knife. “You can’t do this,” the 18 years old shouted, as her wondrous firm breasts popped into view, “I am still Queen and this is therefore sacrilege!” “So what,” the man responded, lust clearly evident in his eyes as he threw the blade to the floor to complete the removal of the delectable girl’s sole flimsy garment with his bare hands, “who is powerful enough to stop or punish me?”

Hadassah began to shed tears as well as her dress as her now nude splayed body was lecherously and intimately inspected and fondled by Haman. “Don’t,” she begged repeatedly, “as I am still the Great King’s wife!” However, the chamberlain, as he weighed the young woman’s fine rotund breasts in his hands, declared “More like whore!” The young woman’s lachrymation intensified as the man moved his manual attentions downwards to her pubic hair and bottom, and become fulsome when he subsequently began to remove his trousers.

Lysander’s own tears had also increased as the heavy weights dangling from his ankles were gradually increased in magnitude, although this was not entirely due to the excruciating pain that he was enduring. A considerable amount of his distress was caused by hearing the sound of the whip being laid across Alexias’ rear to accompanying heart rendering shrieking and pleading. The young Spartan was distraught that he could no longer do anything to save the young Athenian from such affliction and subsequent much worse adversity. He also blamed himself for placing his friend in such terrible trouble.

Lysander’s grief was not in way alleviated when, despite his tears, he observed several wide arcs of white fluid spurt out from the position occupied by Alexias to fall onto the wooden floor of the platform to the same sort of loud bawdy commentary that his own humiliating ejaculations had received.

The bearded officer eventually completed the initial flogging of the second young Greek, whose well-striped bloody rear now matched that of the adjacent penitent. The second flagellation had taken longer because the victim had fainted several times and had had to be re-wakened by being inundated with buckets of water, available nearby for just this purpose. After roughly fingering the results of his ministrations on Alexias’ back and bottom, adding to the young Athenian’s agonising torment, the man went to check on the progress of the torture being inflicted on Lysander. He immediately recognised that the next weights would dislocate the shoulders, and possibly the ankles, of the boy, who was stretched so completely that his full ribcage was visible. However, before he ordered the attachment of the weights, he decided to take the opportunity, in advance of later whipping them and detaching them, of ascertaining the difficulty or otherwise of severing the 14 years old’s sexual organs.

Lysander now felt his genitals being fondled by the bearded officer, embarrassingly causing his cock to grow again despite his excruciation. However, the man, who had cut off the genitals of many hundreds of condemned criminals over the years, ignored the common reaction and continued with his examination. He soon satisfied himself that the slim circumference of the base of the boy’s genitalia would make severance easy. After wiping the white substance that had suddenly emerged from the 14 years old’s rigid penis, as the lad shook in further orgasm, from his hand onto the producer’s chest and belly, he ordered the attachment of the next weights.

“You can’t do this,” the 18 years old again shouted, as her would-be rapist approached with full erection exposed, “I am still Queen and this is therefore sacrilege!” “So what,” the man again responded, “for, as I asked before, who is powerful enough to stop or punish me?”

“I am,” announced a voice behind Haman, who turned to find Xerxes standing at the door of the torture chamber, with Artabanus next to him.

As two soldiers lifted the heavy metal slabs to add them to the others stretching Lysander, a palace guard climbed onto the platform and commanded “Stop!”

(Persepolis, Persia, 12 years later, March 465 B.C.)

Artabanus, with fellow palace guards, burst into the Great King’s bedchamber, swords drawn. “What’s the meaning of this outrage?” a stirring Xerxes not unreasonably shouted. He received his answer when the gatekeeper thrust his sword into his royal master’s heart. The naked and now screaming and bloodstained young eunuch, who had been sharing the regal bed, was allowed to flee.

Artabanus had survived Xerxes’ unexpected return to Susa because of the misplaced loyalty of the fellow palace guard he had met in the corridor after first disclosing the news of Hadassah’s background to Haman. The 32 years old Spartan had claimed that he did not know the identity of the person with whom the chamberlain had been talking when he had overheard their conspiratorial chat. The Greek, who had innocent business to relate to the court official, had stopped outside his door to await access after the present visitor had departed and had been drawn to listening secretly to proceedings inside.

Haman had not been given the opportunity to reveal the identity of his co-conspirator. Xerxes had been so enraged at the scene he had come across in the torture chamber that he had ordered the immediate use of the outside gallows. However, it was not Hadassah or Mordecai who were hung on the fourteenth day of Adar but rather the royal chamberlain.

Xerxes had ordered the royal caravan to turn round to proceed back to Susa, having earlier granted an urgent audience begged by one of his palace guards who had been speeding from Persepolis to the administrative capital. Having heard what the Spartan had to say, the Great King had also commandeered relays of horses from royal road couriers to return rapidly to Susa in an unprecedented manner, for he was only escorted by the similarly mounted Greek and a few other guards.

Xerxes rode tirelessly back to the administrative capital because he was determined to arrive by the fourteenth of Adar, ire now redirected away from the Jews and their friends. The sudden arrival of the Great King, no mean horseman, back at the palatial citadel in Susa surprised and alarmed Artabanus. However, he quickly learnt from his Spartan colleague, who considered informing on fellow officers disloyal, that the chamberlain was currently in serious trouble because of his foreknowledge of Hadassah’s background, but not the new gatekeeper, whom he considered had simply supplied the damaging information.

Artabanus had been happy to help Xerxes find and arrest Haman, whom he intended to kill before he could reveal his co-conspirator’s name. However, in the event, the Great King’s fury had made this desperate act unnecessary.

Artabanus thereby retained his position of gatekeeper, with Mordecai not being returned to his former post but instead becoming the new chamberlain, his predecessor’s prodigious property as well as position being allocated to the Jew.

Artabanus was later very happy to release his Spartan colleague from royal service so that he could return to his homeland. It meant that he did not have to murder the Greek because of the dangerous knowledge he retained.

Over subsequent years, Artabanus’ influence grew, especially after the childless Queen Hadassah’s sudden tragic early death after a miscarriage. This had traumatised both Xerxes and Mordecai, grief making the former become very reclusive and neglectful of state affairs within his palace at Persepolis and compelling the latter to want to retire to Palestina, a wish granted by his royal master.

In 465 B.C., Artabanus considered himself sufficiently in control of matters that he made a bid for the throne itself, murdering the Great King and his eldest son, product of an early marriage. However, his coup was short-lived as a younger son, Artaxerxes I Makrocheir, reclaimed his rightful heritage. He was to reign for over forty years and complete his father’s works at Persepolis, although some fresh additions were to be made by some of his own successors.

Unfortunately, the splendid palace complex was to survive Artaxerxes I Makrocheir by less than a hundred years for Persepolis was captured by Alexander the Great in the first weeks of 330 B.C.. The King destroyed the palace in April, supposedly after a drinking bout with friends. The Palace of Xerxes seems to have received special treatment because it was damaged more severely than other buildings. It is possible that the non-Macedonian Greek soldiers in Alexander's army had revenged themselves for the destruction of Athens by Persian forces in 480 B.C..

When Alexander returned several years later, now as King of Persia as well as of Macedonia, and saw the devastation, he regretted the acts that had been perpetrated on the great legacy of his predecessors, especially when he read, amongst the ruins, Xerxes’ Harem inscription. The Great King had amended the original draft that he had retained in his mind after having Hadassah released and redressed and granting her an audience.

The lovely Hadassah’s natural charms had already disarmed many, not least Xerxes, and they worked again. She persuaded her husband of her genuine love for him and unwillingness to do anything that would cause him hurt. She apologised for not disclosing her true background, truthfully advising that she was just waiting for the right time to tell him. She outlined her motives for wanting to become Queen, effectively to serve the Great King, not least by securing protection for her people. She reminded her royal master about the Jews’ past loyalty to the throne and their contributions to the administration and wealth of the Empire, her people being renowned everywhere for their skills and industry. She diplomatically and effectively suggested that they should be able to expect the Great King’s respect and protection in return.

Hadassah finally reminded Xerxes that Mordecai had saved the Great King from assassination a few years earlier. She was so convincing in her entreaties for mercy for her people, her guardian, her young Greek friends and herself that riders were urgently despatched to all parts of the Empire with a fresh royal proclamation.

The earlier decree that the Jews were to be annihilated could not, by tradition, be rescinded because it had been sealed with the Great King’s ring but the new document declared that the Semites were to be given the right to defend themselves. Everyone knew what message this instruction was really meant to convey, the effective repeal of the earlier command.

Many provinces were not too displeased at the change of royal mind, recognising and appreciating the Jews’ contribution and worth to their societies. In these places, efforts to implement the original proclamation had been very half-hearted and few Semites had suffered by the time it was rescinded. However, in a few locations, massacres did occur after much resistance from the victims.

The latest decree also announced that the blood of certain Jews could be considered, at the Great King’s discretion, to be as pure as that of Persians, which opened the way for the lovely Hadassah to remain as Queen to her freshly infatuated husband.

Xerxes later dictated his revised Harem valediction to a scribe. It read and still reads:-

‘A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this excellent thing which is seen, who created happiness for man, who set wisdom and capability down upon King Xerxes.

Proclaims Xerxes the King, by the will of Ahuramazda, I am of such a sort, I am a friend of the right, of wrong I am not a friend. It is not my wish that the weak should have harm done him by the strong, nor is it my wish that the strong should have harm done him by the weak.

The right, that is my desire. To the man who is a follower of the lie, I am no friend. I am not hot-tempered. Whatever befalls me in battle, I hold firmly. I am ruling firmly my own will.

The man who is co-operative, according to his co-operation, thus I reward him. Who does harm, him according to the harm, I punish. It is not my wish that a man should do harm, nor indeed is it my wish that, if he does harm, he should not be punished.

What a man says against a man, that does not persuade me until I hear the sworn statements of both.

What a man does or performs, according to his ability, by that I become satisfied with him, and it is much to my desire, and I am well pleased, and I give much to loyal men.

Of such a sort are my understanding and my judgement, if what has been done by me you see or hear of, both in the palace and in the expeditionary camp, this is my capability over will and understanding.

This indeed my capability, that my body is strong. As a fighter of battles, I am a good fighter of battles. Whenever with my judgement in a place, I determine whether I behold or do not behold an enemy, both with understanding and with judgement, then I think prior to panic, when I see an enemy as when I do not see one.

I am skilled both in hands and in feet. A horseman, I am a good horseman. A bowman, I am a good bowman, both on foot and on horseback. A spearman, I am a good spearman, both on foot and on horseback.

These skills that Ahuramazada set down upon me, and which I am strong enough to bear, by the will of Ahuramazda, what was done by me, with these skills I did, which Ahuramazda set down upon me.

May Ahuramazda protect me and what was done by me.’

(Athens, Greece, another 61 years later, April 404 B.C.)

The Spartan general had turned to the offensive. After a string of victories over the enemy, culminating in the destruction of their last fleet at Aegospotami the year before, he had sailed to Athens to dictate to the city leaders the terms for their capitulation of their small state. Athens was forced to surrender the remnants of her navy, demolish her immensely long city walls that had defied the attacks of all besiegers and become an ally of Sparta, now undisputed master of Greece.

It is an irony that the great Spartan general who accepted the submission of Athens to end the Peloponnesian Wars, that had previously racked Greece in three separate lengthy conflicts over more than fifty years, possessed some Athenian blood.

73 years earlier, in faraway Susa, a 32 years old Spartan was comforting a distressed 14 years old compatriot and his similarly aged and hurt Athenian friend in the boys’ original resplendent quarters within the palatial citadel. “Who are you?” Lysander had asked the blonde-haired blue-eyed man, who had come to the platform in the main square of the Persian administrative capital to disappoint the watching crowds by putting the boys’ sufferings to a premature and unfinished end.

The palace guard had carried a royal document proclaiming that he now had the right to defend the boy penitents from further harm. No-one had wanted to dispute such an entitlement when it belonged to a Spartan warrior.

“I too am Lysander,” the man answered, “and I am your real father!”

The startled young Spartan and Athenian forgot some of their anguish to listen to the man’s tale. He described his secret love affair, as an 18 years old, with Lysander’s similarly aged mother, which had produced a son. Adultery was a major sin in Sparta, punishable by the stoning to death of both participants, regardless of whether the female was carrying a child. The child’s mother had therefore convinced her husband that the baby was his and, befuddled by regular bouts of drunkenness, her spouse had believed her, despite the boy sharing none of his dark features. However, the birth had caused the separation of the secret lovers, as the woman was too afraid of the consequences for her son’s welfare of discovery to allow the illicit liaison to continue.

The older Lysander, distraught at the end of the affair and feeling unable to remain in Sparta as a result, had left his homeland to try to forget his true love and to seek adventure and riches elsewhere. He had eventually joined the large contingent of Greek mercenaries that formed part of the vast Persian army.

The older Lysander did not believe that he was being treacherous to his place of birth as the Greeks were at peace with the Persians at the time. He mistakenly did not believe that the new Great King, Xerxes, would repeat the failed attempt of his father, Darius, to invade Hellas, which had foundered in the bloody defeat at Marathon. When war did occur, the Spartan’s obvious suspect divided loyalties had caused him to be consigned to garrison duties in Susa, where he was later to recognise instinctively his son, for the boy resembled his father at the same age. The lad’s identity had been confirmed, in the man’s mind, by his name, an appellation his mother had managed to persuade her uncaring husband to accept without explanation.

The older Lysander had been hoping to speak secretly to his son but a safe opportunity had not arisen and the man did not want to risk an unsafe approach, as his motives might be misunderstood and endanger the pair of them. Xerxes was very jealous of his male and female concubines and did not like them talking to unauthorised persons. Nevertheless, the lack of contact and his son’s apparent disdain for him had not prevented the man from plotting mutual escape before the boy was castrated, a plan seemingly temporarily thwarted by his transfer to Persepolis.

The older Lysander had been unable to change Mordecai’s mind about the move. However, as the threat to his son’s genitals appeared to have disappeared through the Queen’s kind intervention, he had gone to the ceremonial capital compliantly, knowing that the boy would follow with the Great King, and the rest of his concubines, in the spring.

The older Lysander had successfully convinced Xerxes that he had delayed his report of Haman’s conversation with someone unknown because he was unsure of the veracity of what had been said. It had only been with the news of the Queen’s much later downfall that he knew that he had to disclose to the Great King himself what he had heard. He had been rewarded, with the help of Hadassah’s entreaties, with the lives of his son and his friend, who were also given permission to return with him to Greece. The trio, with the boys fully recovered from their ordeals, set off, at the end of the month of Adar, after saying very emotional and tearful farewells to Hadassah and Mordecai, which were reciprocated by their Jewish friends.

Alexias’ family had been killed in the war and so he accompanied the two Lysanders back to their homeland, not wanting to be separated from his friend. In Sparta, they found the younger Spartan’s mother now a widow, her husband having perished in the battle of Plataea. The former secret lovers quickly became legal spouses, with a real son of their own blood who now had an adopted Athenian brother. The boys were excused an immediate return to military service because of their recent awful experiences and both eventually grew up, in an idyllically happy home, now full of dogs, to become two of the five ephors, who were the state’s chief magistrates.

The younger Lysander’s son, another Lysander, later married Alexias’ daughter and the grandson of this union was the general who accepted the surrender of Athens many years later in 404 B.C.. The saving of the genitals of the young Spartan and Athenian from being detached from their bodies had eventually served Lakedaemon well by assisting the procreation of the most famous of all those named ‘Lysander’.

Meanwhile, Jewish scribes recorded their own version of events in Persia during Adar in 477 B.C., much distorted by much retelling. One of these now appears in a very well known publication. Throughout, it calls Xerxes by his birth name of Ahasuerus and it finishes with a description of Mordecai’s new resultant status within the Empire.

‘For Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.’

The publication is, of course, the Bible, where this statement is to be found in chapter 10, verse 3, of the Old Testament Book of Esther, the other name for the Queen known as Hadassah.

THE END

of

‘SPARTANS’

by Pueros