Mardonius waited at the foot of the steps by the four-wheeled carriage covered in gold leaf that would transport her to the temple. He assisted her into the transport and then sat beside her as the four horses pulling the carriage walked forward, the queen’s bodyguard in their dragon-skin armour mounted all around her. We followed the royal party out of the palace and along the Processional Way to the Temple of Marduk.
I looked up at the sky. The gods were favouring Axsen today for there was not a cloud to be seen, and a pleasant westerly breeze brought fresh air from the Euphrates to blow away the stench of the city. The crowds cheered their princess as she made her way to her new life as a queen, and at the entrance to the temple she was carried shoulder high on a simple wicker chair by four of Nabu’s priests through the temple and into the inner sanctum. The temple was filled with the kingdom’s nobles and their wives plus the representatives of the five populations of the city. In order of hierarchy these were the original Babylonian citizens who were represented this day by the president of the city council, a small, piggy eyed man with thinning hair who had a very tall and haughty wife. The next group was the priests of the Temple of Marduk; then the Greek citizens whose descendants had arrived when Alexander of Macedon had take the city; followed by the slaves who worked in the temples and palaces. At the bottom were the so-called ‘people of the land’: the farmers who worked in the fields.
Axsen was escorted into the holy of holies, Nabu going before her banging a drum and proclaiming ‘Axsen is queen, Axsen is queen’. This was not for our benefit but rather to alert Marduk that a new ruler of Babylon approached him. Afrand, again wearing a low-cut red robe that showed her ample breasts to full effect, stood at the entrance to the holy shrine and handed Axsen her gifts for Marduk — a richly embroidered robe, a gold bowl filled with oil and a mina of silver.
Axsen then disappeared behind the curtain with Nabu and there paid homage to the god. When she reappeared she was escorted to a gold throne on a dais covered with purple cloth that had been erected in the temple for the ceremony. Nabu stood on her right side and Afrand on her left as two priests carrying felt cushions approached her, a gold sceptre laid on one, the crown of Babylon on the other. The temple was filled with the smell of burning frankincense as Nabu took the gold crown and placed it on Axsen’s head.
His words echoed round the room. ‘Before Marduk, thy god, may thy priesthood and the priesthood of thy sons be favoured.’
Afrand took the gold sceptre and handed it to Axsen.
Nabu’s voice boomed once more. ‘With thy straight sceptre make thy land wide. May Marduk grant thee quick satisfaction, justice and peace.’
Thus did Axsen become queen of the Kingdom of Babylon. As the assembled dignitaries paid homage to her, including Gallia and I, the priests burned more frankincense. I smiled to myself. This precious incense was extracted from the bark of trees that grew on the coast of Arabia. It was collected by Haytham’s people who sold it to the Egyptians and Romans and even the Parthians, the merchants in Dura doing a brisk trade with the supposed enemies of the empire to acquire the precious incense.
When Axsen had received oaths of loyalty from all her nobles she was escorted outside by Mardonius to witness the grand military parade. First came her own royal bodyguard in their dragon-skin armour, followed by a thousand mounted spearmen with shields and five times that number of horse archers. Then came my father’s royal bodyguard led by Vistaspa with Hatra’s banner flying behind him, followed by my own heavy cavalry looking resplendent in their scale armour, steel arm and leg protection and full-face helmets. Vagharsh carried my banner and griffin pennants flew from every kontus. Five hundred of Nergal’s horse archers brought up the rear of the column.
As the horsemen who had ridden into the city via the Ishtar Gate and down the Processional Way left Babylon through the Marduk Gate, slaves brought our horses and we journeyed back to the palace to attend the feast that was attended by four thousand people.
Two days later representatives from other kingdoms in the empire appeared at the palace to pay their respects to Axsen, nobles from Media, Atropaiene, Hyrcania and Margiana. No one came from Persis or the other eastern kingdoms in the empire, though an invitation for Axsen to attend Mithridates at Ctesiphon did arrive. The queen wrote back accepting the invitation when her present onerous difficulties had been attended to.
‘You should have asked him to return to us all the Babylonians he took back to Ctesiphon as slaves after his recent visit,’ remarked Mardonius dryly.
With the evacuation of Babylonian territory by Narses’ army the task of rebuilding those areas laid waste by his army began. This involved Axsen receiving a seemingly never-ending stream of nobles and village headmen begging for aid from the royal treasury. I attended one such meeting a week after the queen’s coronation, the throne room crammed full of petitioners, guards and city officials. The intimidating figure of Nabu stood on the left side of the queen on the dais and Mardonius on the right.
The day was hot, airless and the crowded room was stuffy and began to reek of human sweat. Gallia and Praxima had taken themselves off to see a woman who lived in the south of the city who could apparently levitate off the ground from a cross-legged position. My father had already taken his leave of Axsen and was taking his men back to Hatra, a letter from Vata increasing the frown lines on his face with news of yet more Armenian incursions.
Orodes, ever the diplomat, had taken a keen interest in the affairs of Babylon and a delighted Axsen had invited him to act as an adviser with her high priest and Mardonius, and now he stood to the side of the old general listening earnestly as a headman implored the queen to send engineers to assist in the rebuilding of his village’s irrigation system.
So there I was standing like a fisherman in a boat without a net, as Axsen took the burden of kingship on her shoulders. I was daydreaming when I heard someone cough behind me. Turning, I saw a young woman in a low-cut white dress standing before me. Tall and shapely, she wore delicate white slippers on her feet and her shoulders were bare. Her skin was dark brown like her eyes and her complexion was flawless. She was certainly a beauty, the wife of a prominent noble no doubt, judging by the expensive perfume she was wearing.
‘Forgive me, highness, I have a message for you.’
‘A message?’
She smiled, her teeth white and perfect. ‘Yes, highness. I am one of the priestesses at the Temple of Ishtar and I bring a request for you to go to the temple.’
I was confused but also curious. ‘Who makes this request of me?’
‘A lady, highness, who asked that you come to the temple today to meet her.’
It was all very mysterious but as I had nothing better to do and was bored to distraction by what was happening in the throne room, I agreed to her request. I made my excuses to Axsen and Orodes, who appeared absorbed in it all, and left the throne room with my attractive messenger.
She accompanied me as I walked to the stables to collect Remus, smiling at me when I caught her eye, her steps delicate and silent beside me, almost as if she was gliding over the ground. The stables were like those in Hatra — large, luxurious and well staffed. A small army of stable hands tended to the horses’ every need, each animal having a separate stable boy to feed him, groom him, muck out his stall and saddle him, in addition to the farriers and veterinaries who tended to their wellbeing. It was a far cry from the austere stables at Dura, not that the horses there were any less cared for, just not as indulged as they were at Babylon.
I arrived at Remus’ stall and told the young men in purple livery standing around that I would be taking him out, and then was met by incredulous stares when I informed them that I would saddle him myself. They gave my escort guide lecherous glances as I dismissed them, leaving me alone with her.