"Of course!" he said. "Forgive me, O best one, I have been so submerged in detail that things have slipped my memory. Yes, you shall have a commission. However, you must first give evidence of being a responsible contractor."
"What does that mean, sir?"
"You will have to have a proper workshop, and you must submit a sample of your work. A bronze casting of that head of the Kelt would do for the latter."
I explained about my difficulty in getting a studio. Kallias promised to speak to Nikolaos.
Again there came a delay of a ten-day. When I again went to Kallias' office and reminded him, he bestirred himself at once.
Nikolaos, it transpired, owned a tumbledown barn of a house on the slopes of the akropolis, on the outskirts of the city, which was now vacant. He agreed to let me rent it on credit until I could get started.
I had a quarrel with my father when he learned what I was up to. The poor man kept hoping against hope that I should settle down for good and all, to become a foundry manager.
"Very well, Chares," he said, "if you are so independent as all that, you can live in your new palace. Expect no more free food and lodging from me."
"All right, I won't," I said, and marched out in high dudgeon, Kavaros staggering after me with my baggage. At the new house we slept on moldy straw pallets and ate sitting on the floor for want of chairs.
It took some time to turn the house into a studio, especially as Kavaros and I had to build most of our equipment— ovens, furnaces, and the like—by ourselves. Before we had finished, I ran out of money. Kavaros and I got hungrier and hungrier until Sosias dropped in one day to say:
"Master Chares, this is not official. But your mother asked me to tell you that if you offered to help your father in the foundry from time to time, when there is a rush on, he is willing that you should eat at home."
"Thanks for the offer, Sosias. I will think about the matter and let them know," I said. When Sosias had gone, I turned on Kavaros. "You didn't tell Sosias we were starving so he could pass the word to my mother, who, you knew, would try to bring about a compromise between my father and me, now did you?"
"Why, sir, I do not know what you are talking about! But it is true that, unless I get some food to put between my belly and my backbone, I will be as weak as green wine, and so of no help to you. And you do not want that, now do you, master dear?"
"Dog-faced savage!" I growled. "But I suppose it would be defying Fate to refuse the offer."
So matters were again patched up between my father and myself. To complete my equipment, lay in some bronze stock, and pay my rent, I had to earn some quick money. This I undertook to do by making terra-cotta statuettes for household ornaments and votive offerings. To find outlets for these, I used my acquaintance with Genetor to get an introduction to his cousin Nereus, the high priest of Helios-Apollon.
I was actually making a few drachmai from my terra cot-tas when I had a visitor at the studio. This was Lykon, the older sculptor who had been so nasty at the meeting of the Artists' Guild.
"Be in good health, O Chares," he said. "What's this I hear about your breaking into the manufacture of terra cottas?"
"It's true enough. There are some waiting to be painted. Why?"
"Because I am Rhodes's maker of terra cottas. I have an established business, which I have built up by several years of effort. There is not enough demand to support two manufactories, and I will certainly not give up mine. So you had better find something else."
"Has Rhodes given you a legal monopoly of this business?"
"No, but custom has the force of law. I'm giving you a chance to withdraw gracefully."
"To the afterworld with you! I'll make what I please and sell it where I can."
"I'm giving you fair warning—"
"Get out!"
Lykon looked as if he were about to say: "Put me out if you can!" But then he caught sight of Kavaros, absently tapping his open palm with a heavy mallet. The sculptor went without further word.
"We seem to gather enemies as offal gathers flies," I said. "If I could only get a commission for something big: say, a colossal Alexander. Can't you imagine one standing down there?" I pointed down the hillside towards the harbor.
"I am after thinking about this fellow Alexander," said Kavaros. "You do talk about making a great statue of him, but belike that is not the best plan."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one thing, sir, Master Lysippos has made statues of Alexander—little statues and life-sized statues and gigantical statues—all over Hellas and the islands. I have seen some of them myself. So who will dance and sing for joy when you say you want to make one more? Then again, too, the fellow is dead. Perhaps he was the greatest general of all, or even the son of a god, but still, he is not here to pay for statues of himself. And they do be saying that all his children and kinsmen have been murthered; so there is no commission there, either. A dead corpse has no vanity. Why do you not take some living prince or general for your model? I do not rightly understand money, as a Keltic gentleman does things only for honor and friendship; but it seems to me that, if you need the stuff, that is the way to get it."
I gave the slave a hard look. "You may be a barbarian from the unexplored wilds of the trackless North, but at times you show a keen wit indeed. I'll think about your suggestion. Meanwhile let's get that head of you cast, to have something to show Kallias."
Three days later I arrived again at Giskon's house. Kavaros carried the bronze head, saying: "Indeed and it is a two-headed man that I am, like the giant that my greatgrandfather fought in the Land of Mist. Why do you not make a double of me, master dear, and then you could let me go and keep the statue?"
Kallias greeted me with effusive charm. "A splendid work!" he cried. "So vital! One can almost hear it speaking with a Keltic accent. Now to business. The most important project now in progress is the new theater. This will require statues, and I hope to number yours among them.
"However, there is an obstacle. The Artists' Guild, having gotten wind of my intentions, protested against my hiring a sculptor not of their membership. My reply was that Chares is perfectly willing to join but has been kept out because of the personal prejudice of some members, and that it were unjust to deprive a man of his livelihood on such grounds.
"Now, I daresay I could force the issue and defeat your detractors. But I would not begin my term of office by a quarrel with those with whom I must work. I have therefore arranged with Protogenes to decide the matter by a contest in which you shall have a chance to show off your new method of sculpture. If you win, you shall enter the Guild without further delay.
"In the marketplace stands a bronze bust of Homer. You and Lykon, who seems to be your principal foe, shall each make a copy of it. He shall use a clay copy and a sand or plaster mold, while you shall employ your lost-wax method. Both the fidelity of the copy and the speed with which it is made shall be considered in judging the results. The judges shall be Protogenes, Nikolaos, and myself. As your studio is short of facilities, you shall both use that of Lykon. Does that suit you?"
"Certainly, sir," I said. "When will this be?"
"Tomorrow. Now another matter. I find that, as municipal architect, I am also director of Rhodes's defenses and general of her artillery. In the arsenal are six new catapults built under my predecessor. While they are not of the latest and most efficient design, they are still a substantial addition to the city's defenses. And crews have not yet been assigned to them. Have you been enrolled in the armed forces?"
"No, sir."
"If a war scare arise, you will hear from the Board of Generals soon enough. However, let us consider your position. You cannot join the marines, because that branch is reserved for rich young citizens. Our cavalry is a joke, and anyway you own no horse. That leaves the infantry and the artillery. You are rather small to bear the panoply of a hoplites, but in the artillery your knowledge of engineering would stand you in good stead."