"Hellenes give dowries; Persians give bride payments. What for no suffer these customs to cancel out? Let Vardanas give his bride payment to his sister to be her dowry; and, sin he'll then no have muckle left to live on, let you give Phila her marriage portion to set up housekeeping with the Persian, though he dinna expect it."
My mother cried: "Would you really let your own flesh and blood marry on these strangers from ayont the seas, where they practice the gods know what abominations?"
"What for no? Gin the king can do it, we can. As for Vardanas, from what I've seen of him, I call him a braw chappie. He and I have just ridden into town and back."
"But, Demonax!" protested my father. " 'Tis clean illegal! 'Twould cost Leon his citizenship, let abee social standing!"
Now Demonax grinned broadly. "That may have been true last month, but 'tis so no longer," said he, relishing every word. "Have you no heard of the notice on the news board in the market place in Atrax?"
"Na!" we all cried. "What says it?"
"'Tis a proclamation by the king, which arrived by royal post a few days syne. Alas, that we were no in town to hear it read by the crier! 'Twould have saved a muckle havering. But what it says is this: The Alexander, to cement a lasting bond of love atween the noblest peoples of his realm, namely the Hellenes and the Persians, has adopted a policy of intermarriage. He will this very month, at Sousa, celebrate a marriage atween himself and his Macedonian generals on one hand, and ane equal number of Persian ladies on the other. Soldiers who have taken Persian concubines shall have their unions made legal unless previous marriages prevent. All laws again such interracial marriages, throughout his empire, are repealed; and all penalties sic as loss of citizenship shall be remitted."
"Why said you no so, long syne?" I cried. " 'Tis a cause for me to rejoice!"
"The Alexander will never persuade the southern Greeks to swallow that doctrine," said my father.
Phila, her eyes red from weeping, said: "Please, Father, let him go on."
Demonax continued: "Such marriages shall be deemed as noble and legitimate as any other, and aught to the contrary shall incur the king's displeasure. To give the new unions ane auspicious start, all soldiers and former soldiers taking part shall receive a dowry of one year's pay from the royal treasury. What was your pay, Leon?"
"Eh?" So turbulent were my thoughts that he had to repeat his question.
I said: "I'm carried on the rolls as squadron leader the now. That would make—let me think—about sixteen pounds of silver." In sooth, the question of money interested me much less than the fact that the last legal obstacle to an honorable union had been blown away by the king's decree, like a scrap of papyrus in a gale.
Whilst my parents sat with stunned demeanor, Demonax went on: "So all you maun do is wed your Persian lass, ride to Larissa with witnesses or depositions, and file a claim with the governor again the Macedonian treasury. Gin all go well, you should be getting a bonny nest egg in a month or two."
I muttered my thanks and started for the door to find my sweetling, but my brother caught my arm. "One moment, Leon. Vardanas and I talked business on our ride, and he has a thought that might make this union gey profitable to us."
"Aye?" said my father, rousing himself from his stupor. "Profit? Say on, son."
"You ken the giant cavalry chargers of Media, the royal breed? Well, it seems that horse thieves broke up the great herd at the fall of Dareios, and some of these horses came into the hands of Vardanas' family. Vardanas thinks we could fetch the increase of this herd hither from Sousa. They'll command fabulous prices in Hellas."
My father looked at Phila and me. "Children," he said, "I yield to the manifest will of the gods. Wed your Persians with my blessing!"
There was much to be done ere all these high-sounding plans could be executed. We sent Getas, a trusted slave who had refused emancipation, to Sousa with letters to Vardanas' family. Whilst awaiting a reply, we busied ourselves with the myriad chores: delivering calves and foals, building a new hay cart, mending the horse trough, and visiting sick serfs.
My mother, to give her due credit, did all she could to make up for her early hostility by being good to our guests. On closer acquaintance she came to love them even as I had.
In the spring, Getas returned. He brought news that old Thraitaunas had grown feeble and was confined to his bed. Young Kambouzias, who now held the reins of the household, wrote that his sire longed to see his runaway son and daughter again. If they came home ere he died, they might wed black Ethiops for aught he cared. As for the royal horses, the herd was waxing, and the proposal for an export trade was excellent. When could we begin?
So, one fine day in Mounychion, Vardanas was joined to Phila and I to Nirouphar. We borrowed my uncle Leon's house so that there should be the proper wedding processions both ways.
Ere she would wed me, however, Nirouphar exacted one extraordinary promise: namely, that I should teach her to read and write Greek proficiently. At the time, I thought this a mere womanish whim, but it turned out well. If my readers detect in this memoir a touch of literary art beyond what would be expected of an old soldier and horse trader, the credit should go to the merciless prodding, criticism, and revision of my dear wife, who seems to have a natural literary gift.
Her one regret is that she did not learn to read and write the Greek tongue in childhood. She is sure that if she had, she would have surpassed Sappho as a poet, Thoukydides as a historian, and the divine Homer himself as a spinner of tales of adventure. Who knows? Belike she would have, at that.
It were not decent to go into the details of my married life. I will only say that if, like most married couples, we have had our ups and downs, I would repeat those marriage vows without hesitation.
After the wedding feast, we set forth once more upon our travels. We traveled in comparative comfort, with slaves and my burly Kordian to tend us. One pleasure of this merry journey was to show Phila, who had never even been to Larissa, the sights of distant lands. We reached Sousa at the beginning of Skirophorion, in time to receive the onset of the terrible summer heat. But business is business, as we say in Thessalia.
Our horse trade went through appalling vicissitudes, but in the end it flourished. We have had the patronage of Seleukos the Victorious, king of Syria and Persia. He alone of the Successors kept the Persian wife whom Alexander thrust upon him, the princess Apama; and he therefore looked with favor upon Vardanas and me because of our mixed marriages. We have also had the good will of the younger Arivarates of Kappadokia, through whose land the roads to Hellas run.
I bought a house at Alexandreia-by-Issos from that same Syrian stonemason who sought to sell me one when I went there with the elephant, thus placing myself in an advantageous position in the middle of our horse-trading route. I also bought enough land to provide grazing for the beasts on their way through. My children are as proud of this patch of Syrian seacoast as I was aforetime of our broad Thessalian plethra.
On the whole, I have done well. I have seen the pyramids of Egypt, the snows of Scythia, and the bustle of Syracuse, greatest of Greek cities. I have outlived many of those who played leading roles in this tale. For, after Alexander's death, the philosopher Aristoteles was forced to leave Athens because of his Macedonian connections, and the next year he died in Euboia. My brother Aristos, alas, perished in the Lamian War, which broke out at this time.
That fat rascal Harpalos, who had tried so diligently to have me slain, for a time had all Athens dancing to the tune of his bribes. The great windbag Demosthenes succumbed easily. Even grim old Phokion, the general-in-chief, was drawn into the circle of corruption by a commission to his son-in-law to build a huge monument to the treasurer's first wife.