The saga of Cyrus the Great continues in this fourth novel in the series. He takes ancient Persia out of obscurity and molds an empire based on honesty, equality and dignity for all men and women. He is forced to confront enemies who wish his downfall. Some wish his death. His few friends work to help him achieve his goals, but at the risk of their own lives. He is attacked by his own family and by foreigners. He uses novel strategies and superior military tactics to vanquish his opponents. He forms and controls the largest empire in the world with a brilliant new political concept.
TRIUMPHS OF THE GREATEST PERSIAN
Cyrus the Great Molds a New PersiaBy C.J. KirwinAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 C.J. Kirwin
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4389-9854-1Chapter One
Queen Mandane lost all hope. She felt dejected about the past, the present and the future. She was helpless to aid her imprisoned father King Astyages who had been the Great King of the Median Empire before her Persians on Cyrus conquered him. Her son's conquest elevated Persia to prominence from its former status as a minor kingdom in her father's empire. She worried over her once glorious father living in isolation doing servile labor on a farm in remote Carmenia. Mandane tried numerous times to get Cyrus to free her father from his plight and improve his humble living conditions. She avoided appeals to have Astyages restored as a king, not even a minor king, hoping it would speed his rescue. Her son ignored her pleadings and her threats. This frustrated and enraged her to tears.
Her despondency drove her to disrespect people she should love and cherish. She lied to some of them and lied about others. Obstinacy, not traditional Persian truth, guided her. She deliberately chose to misunderstand past and present events which caused old friends to shun her. Her willfulness was a family trait she had learned from her Median father years ago, when he had been the extremely self-centered Great King.
She was uncomfortable living alone in the Anshan palace, and none of her personal estates helped elevate her mood. Reasons for her discontent overlapped. The details of her anxieties melded with such intimate complexity that she was unable to separate them and conquer her depression.
When her husband King Cambyses died and her son Cyrus became King of Persia, the new king left the Anshan palace with his wife, children and most of his royal relatives to get away from her. He took the excitement of daily life with him. Her home felt as empty as a vacuous cave echoing the sound of every footfall and every spoken word. Because major pieces of furniture had been moved to Pasargadae by King Cyrus, small trinkets and ornaments like her tea sets, her small bronze camel statue, gold and silver oil lamps sat on small pieces of furniture in a disorganized jumble. Figures of other animals and humans that once stood as proud decorations on large chests and tables were now crammed on wall hung shelves, and shoved into corners in every room. He had taken wardrobes, the long dining table and its chairs, blanket chests and numerous waist high cabinets used to store bed coverings and other functional household items.
Her son moved out of the Anshan palace accusing her of causing trouble within his family. It was true. She was jealous of his wife Queen Cassandane, and Mandane used insults and innuendos to aggravate the younger new queen. Mandane also lost her dominance over the andarun, the female household in the palace where a queen ruled without question. Her daughter-in-law Cassandane, as the new queen, inherited the senior position in the andarun by tradition. This led to mutual feelings of resentment between the two women. Queen Mandane enjoyed starting arguments with her daughter-in-law. When they lived in the same palace, she was free with her love for her grandchildren, but she had no love for Cassandane and resented her for having so many babies. Cyrus was the only child Mandane ever conceived. She never understood why she and King Cambyses were unsuccessful in having more children, and that had always vexed her.
King Cyrus moved his family east to a new city her deceased husband King Cambyses had started and named Pasargadae. The name meant 'the camp of the Persians.' Cambyses never intended anyone except his own countrymen to live there even though he had promised it to his wife's Median father, King Astyages. Although Queen Mandane's son lived in Pasargadae, he still referred to himself as Cyrus the King of Anshan because he cherished the old capital's ancestral foundation. Mandane knew it was her son's way of exalting his Persian heritage over her family's Median origin. She thought his sentiment was laughable affectation. She often tried to nudge his ego to get him to call himself the King of Kings because her father relished that title, but Cyrus refused. She had been told Cyrus officially struck the title King of Kings from his royal names, because he considered himself the king of countries more than just a ruler of kings. The young king based his laws on ethics and morality not on the submission of men to power. His new laws deviated from the frivolous uncertainty his grandfather used with his desperate need to be recognized as all powerful. Astyages frequently stated that he was so magnificent because he ruled kings! Queen Mandane liked to aggravate her son and entertained herself by sending King Cyrus messages using the King of Kings title.
As the mother of the king, and by longstanding Persian tradition, Queen Mandane was owed special favors and authority throughout the land, yet she was forbidden to visit the partially completed palace the family occupied in Pasargadae. The banning was a grievous humiliation, and it infuriated her. Never having seen that distant structure, all she had was stories describing the new palace and the new city beginning to form around the royal property. These portrayals took more bits of joy from her life. She did not want to believe her acquaintances who told her how more elaborate, large, and elegant the living spaces were in Pasargadae than the rooms in which she and her husband Cambyses had celebrated their marriage happiness in the Anshan palace. She did receive both good and bad descriptions about conveniences and discomforts in Cassandane's living accommodations in Pasargadae because that palace was still under construction. She hoped the less desirable conditions dominated and appalled Queen Cassandane.
Queen Mandane could not get over the feeling that her son and the entire nation had forsaken her. She imagined her son issuing decrees forbidding peasants or merchants to do business with her. She let these made-up fantasies justify her anger and moodiness. She did not listen to her royal companions who advised her to seek mental counseling from the medical magi priests and refused to consult those priests. She ignored the Chief Magus, too, when he tried to ease her distress. She knew that special privileges and honors should be available to her as the Mother Queen and she resented her isolation from such pleasures. She had the right to influence the business of the nation in her son's court, and it hurt her that Cyrus kept her from governmental decision making and banquets with international emissaries and potentates. These were national activities she had every right to attend as his mother. Several times emissaries from foreign lands made the mistake of coming to Anshan to see King Cyrus. Mandane met them instead and negotiated unauthorized treaties and contracts she knew conflicted with her son's laws. Because her political isolation from legitimate international affairs felt like prison, she devised carefully contrived political confusion to amuse herself.
When she was growing up in her father's Ecbatana capital in Media, she had the freedom of an informal education in an empire which gained her maturity and a sophisticated understanding of imperial issues that exceeded the experience of any Persian prince. After she married King Cambyses, she had been left to govern Persia every time her husband left his Anshan capital. He had always trusted her abilities, but her son evidently forgot she had this valued competence.
Sometimes she pondered negative thoughts to deliberately let the trials of her life weigh heavily on her. The sadness helped her feel sorry for herself. Her sister Amytis had agreed to marry King Cyrus, as his second wife, to establish a family alliance in order to keep the Median Empire from fragmenting. Her son Cyrus married his aunt Amytis to justify his right to take the throne of the Median Empire and hold the realm together. That marriage was a family insult Queen Mandane had to bear. It mattered not to Queen Mandane that neither emotional nor physical love was included in this second marriage. A multiple marriage was an affront to her Median family heritage. Mandane's Persian family was offended, too, because no one in her late husband's family had ever taken two wives. The second marriage broke traditions in both family lines. Also, her father's prestige was again insulted when her sister reduced her superior Median stature to accept second ranking to Cassandane, the Persian queen. Even worse, Mandane chose to believe King Cyrus was so rude he left poor Amytis isolated and degraded in Ecbatana instead of including her in his more intimate family estate. She knew better. Cyrus did not forsake her sister. Amytis had chosen Ecbatana as her home. Mandane preferred to ignore this detail.
Her mother Queen Aryenis was another quandary. Aryenis had chosen to leave Media and live in Anshan after her husband Astyages was deposed, but the company of Aryenis was no comfort to Mandane either. She loved her mother, but she did not need the constant reminder of how deeply her son had insulted her exiled father. Added to this was the misery of deciding who actually ruled the local Anshan female household-she, her mother, or her daughter-in-law Queen Cassandane? After all, Queen Aryenis was the senior female member of the entire royal family, even though she was not officially the matriarch of Persia. Queen Mandane was. Mandane felt the royal family still owed her valued homage even though her daughter-in-law replaced her as the Woman of the female household, or andarun, when Cyrus became the king of the nation. Now that he had taken the kingship of her father's empire, by what she believed was stealth and treachery, her resentment was even stronger because Cassandane had risen to be the Woman in Media, too.
Mandane felt as if she was sinking lower and lower in status throughout the land. It did not seem to matter anymore that she was Mother Queen. She was obliged to accommodate herself to uncertain andarun status in the Anshan palace. The thought made her sniffle.
Today she was dressed in a simple frock, since she had no reason to be more elegant. She wore no jewelry and her face makeup was just enough to keep her from looking ghostlike. She knew her attractiveness was waning. Her husband Cambyses used to brag about her soft delicate beauty. She felt that loveliness disappearing from her face. Wrinkles and blemishes were not yet unsightly, but she saw the change of age in her bronze mirror, and her despondency erased any attractive glow in her cheeks. She held back tears of resentment as she looked across the large plaza in front of her palace and saw her mother speaking with obvious contentment to several young princesses in the large garden her daughter-in-law referred to as paradise.
Queen Mandane stepped outside and walked very slowly across the plaza to the flowery garden. Luxuries from heaven still draped themselves among the growing foliage as brilliant colors and rich scents. The lilt of girlish laughter made her shiver. She had not been part of enjoyment like that for a long time. As she approached her mother, young women backed away from Queen Aryenis and waved goodbye to the aged queen. Aryenis looked to her left to see what had stopped her fun. It was the harsh frown on her daughter's face. The young princesses had frequently asked Queen Aryenis to mellow Mandane's mood, and she tried, but nothing worked.
"Dearest, I'm glad you came out. It is a lovely day and the flowers smell so sweet. Sit here," she said and patted the bench beside her.
Queen Mandane deliberately sat on the wood bench on the opposite side of the stony walking path. Her seating choice kept her away from her mother, but gave her a perfect view of jasmine in bloom. Its fragrance was so fresh and strong it was almost intoxicating. Any other person would have luxuriated in its presence. Queen Mandane ignored its beauty.
She said, "Mother, have you any news about father?"
"No. As far as I know his situation hasn't changed. He still lives in misery surrounded by soldiers in that crude farm house. However, I hear his slave Zav died under peculiar circumstances. The guards suspect your father broke Zav's neck, but they have no proof of murder. Fortunately for Astyages, the body was found on the ground below the highest peak of the house they lived in. Your father claims it was suicide. No evidence says otherwise to charge him with a crime."
Queen Aryenis leaned back and sniffed a branch of jasmine blooms. She tried to divert her memories of Zav when he had been the Median Minister of Taxes and Materials. He had been a powerful agent for her husband, but also a thief and a coward. She sniffed the flowers again to remove from her mind Zav's rude image with its bulging nose, sunken sneaky eyes and gaunt grey skin.
"I was told your son actually visited your father in Carmenia and told him he'd be free to live in the country of any king that would have him, as soon as Zav died, and I suspect that's the reason Zav's neck was broken. However, I also hear no one wants to associate with your father. His reputation for cruelty all his life has tainted his chances for a comfortable end to his own existence. He still lives like a peasant. Too bad."
"What do you mean 'too bad?' He's not just my father. He's your husband," Mandane blurted in accusation, intending to reprimand her mother. "Cyrus could give father a home, slaves and enough gold to make his final years a joy, but he won't. I've chastised him several times, but he just ignores me."
Queen Aryenis said, "My grandson can do as he wishes. He's the Great King now. I hear he doesn't allow anyone to call him the King of Kings. It has something to do with leadership, which I don't understand."
"He foolishly calls himself the King of Anshan," Mandane laughed. "That's a folly. When was the last time you saw him here? He avoids us, and it's good that he does. I'd make his stay a terror if he came here!"
"My Dear, you must try to be more loving. You shame yourself with your own words. Your behavior and insults make everyone uneasy here. Some of our princesses talk of moving to Pasargadae just so they can live in its atmosphere of harmony."
"This was my palace when Cambyses was alive, and it's still mine. I'll treat everyone living in it any way I wish. Even you, Mother."
"Oh my Dear, I can tolerate your silly rages. After all, I lived with your father for a very long time. I'm used to confusion, impolite words and violence." Queen Aryenis smiled at her daughter.
Her mother had a way of making quiet love feel like a chastisement. Mandane blushed and looked away. Mandane's eyes were not focused on anything. It was as if she was looking inside her head to see and unscramble her own thoughts. She was unaware of the grand walnut trees or the vegetable plants that were snuggled among lush flowering bushes where bees were busy robbing nectar. Mandane resented being referred to as a trouble maker behind her back, yet she had become one.
Queen Aryenis raised her hand and a servant girl appeared as if by magic. The young server handed the elderly queen the gold cup of water she carried. After taking a few sips the old queen said, "Mandane, since you think your father deserves compassion, why don't you try once more to convince Cyrus to make him comfortable. Try to be sweet, instead of demanding and surly. Use words a peasant would use to get a favor from a king. Humble yourself a little for the sake of Astyages, but leave me out of it, for I think your father is getting exactly what he earned with his lifetime of cruelty."
Queen Mandane glared at her mother and said, "Why don't you help? After all, he's your husband, and Cyrus is your grandson. If you know so much about addressing a king, do it yourself."
"I already do that quite often for things I believe in. I've been building a subtle chain of thought, link by link, in the king's mind to keep him forming laws of morality that protect the authority and equality women deserve and must have.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from TRIUMPHS OF THE GREATEST PERSIANby C.J. Kirwin Copyright © 2009 by C.J. Kirwin. Excerpted by permission.
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