The Last of the Pharaohs (4 of 6)

By Pueros

Chapter IV – Inundations

'Be cheerful while you are alive!'

- Maxims of Ptah-hotep (ancient Egyptian Philosopher, about 2350 BC)

(Former royal palace, Alexandria, Egypt, late August 30 BC)

The youthful form, covered by a dark, flowing robe and broad-rimmed hat, opened one of the double-doors that led to the palatial quarters. He knew that here the very pretty 10 year-old twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, and their 6 year-old, equally pulchritudinous, brother, Ptolemy Philadelphus, were undoubtedly asleep at this late hour. Nevertheless, the furtive visitor, still watched by unseen eyes, then advanced inside, careful to close the door silently behind him, before proceeding along the wide windowless dark passageway now before him, illuminated only by a few oil lamps fixed to the side walls. His initial destination was the broad stone staircase he could just about spy in the gloomy distance.

As the visitor moved forward without making a sound, he ignored the various single doorways to his left and right, knowing that the ground floor rooms beyond were only slaves’ living and working quarters. The recently reallocated accommodation for the royal children was on the level above, on the eastern seaward side of the palace, which provided the occupants, from their vantage-point, high on the Lochias promontory, with the magnificent scenery presented by the boat-strewn blue waves of the Mediterranean.

The furtive visitor did not expect to encounter any guards until he reached the bedrooms of the regal orphans. However, the adult sentinels, when finally encountered, would represent a human obstacle that he would have to overcome, hopefully invisibly through mental guile and physical agility, as opposed to overt force, which he supposed would inevitably fail against armed, more numerous and undoubtedly bigger, stronger and more combat-ready opponents. Nevertheless, he was fully prepared to die in his efforts.

The visitor eventually found himself silently climbing the double-flighted stairs, which divided the corridor above into two. On arrival at this juncture, he carefully peered, from his position on the top step, both ways to try to ascertain where the inevitable night guards were posted. As he did so, he wondered whether they would be members of the original, regally attired, palace garrison, some of whom had retained their posts, or Romans. However, what he did not expect to discover was that there were no sentinels at all, which was indeed the situation.

The cloaked visitor’s reaction to this discovery might at first glance appear incongruous, for he did not consider the unexpected development to be a pleasant surprise. He instead worried what the implications might be, with a couple of disturbing questions now invading his wary concerned mind. Where the children no longer here, or was he being lured into a trap?

The visitor momentarily considered rapid retreat whence he had come, wondering whether discretion might now be less foolhardy than continued valour. However, he then realised that, if a trap had been laid, he had almost certainly already fallen into it, with soldiers undoubtedly already somewhere barring the way behind. Consequently, no further harm could be incurred by pursuing his current mission to the end.

The youthful visitor therefore proceeded along the wide first-floor corridor, decorated with potted plants, marble busts on wooden pedestals and colourful picturesque wall hangings. He eventually reached a door that, according to Rhodon, was the current bedroom of Ptolemy Philadelphus. This entrance was then opened without noise, and the cloaked form stepped inside.

The large luxurious well-appointed chamber beyond was partially illuminated by a couple of night lamps, as well as the full moonlight streaming in from the wide curtained balcony, open to permit adequate ventilation on this hot Alexandrian evening. Aided by such illumination, the visitor saw the huge bed, apparently big enough to accommodate a dozen adults let alone a solitary 6 year-old boy, at the far end of the room, protected by translucent drapes, which were protection against mosquitoes and other disagreeable flying creatures. The unexpected arrival also noticed a small figure, seemingly quietly reposing under a thin sheet of undoubtedly very expensive and impeccably clean silky material.

The youthful visitor strode silently but purposefully across the chamber to stand at the side of the bed, carefully avoiding a collision with the various furniture and discarded toys that littered the route. He then shed his hat, knelt, separated the mosquito net and began gently to shake the somnolent figure.

Very young long-lashed eyelids then opened to reveal lovely hazel eyes, sparkling in the moonlight and adorning a cherubic face. Ptolemy Philadelphus took one glance at the young person kneeling next to him before then squealing in utter delight “Caesarion!”

(‘Megas Limen’, or ‘Great Harbour’, Alexandria, same time)

Timotheos and Sesse had accompanied Caesarion on the lengthy and dangerous journey that had taken them from the Canopic Canal, up the eponymous delta stretch of the Nile to the Mediterranean, along the coast and, somehow avoiding challenge, into Alexandria’s huge, busy main harbour, the ‘Megas Limen’. The Ephebeian training barge’s rowboat had provided the mode of transport, which had proved quite a precarious choice when the waves of the sea had been encountered. However, the selection was considered safer than entering the Egyptian capital through one of the heavily guarded gates, where all inward and outward traffic was being carefully scrutinised.

The worrying thought of then traversing the crowded city, where many greedy people, conveniently forgetting their earlier royal nationalism, would now be keen to secure a certain huge reward, also focused minds on the alternative route. The young King was simply too well known, from his many ceremonial public appearances, to advance safely by foot towards the northern royal quarter, where the palace was located on the cliffs on the eastern side of the known world’s largest, at least partially artificial, anchorage.

The other ephebes had been forced to agree very reluctantly to remain behind, ostensibly to guard the training barge. Caesarion had resisted their entreaties to be allowed to make their own way to the Great Harbour as backup protection for their King. The latter did not want to endanger the keen brave boys unnecessarily. He also believed that any support that they could provide, if he became imperilled, would probably prove useless, given the situation and mighty forces that would likely confront him if he was discovered undertaking his mission.

Caesarion had only permitted Timotheos to accompany him because he needed another strong oarsman for the successful accomplishment of the rowboat voyage to Alexandria. Sesse’s presence at his side was also unarguable, not because of particular necessity but as a result of being unable to resist the desperate pleas made by the beautiful 14 year-old to remain at his young master’s side everywhere.

Caesarion had previously been compulsorily shielded by Cleopatra from what she considered to be unpleasant, degrading, sweaty, plebeian pursuits, such as rowing, which in her mind were too demeaning for her regal son, nominally joint sovereign of Egypt, to even contemplate, let alone practise. The Queen’s attitude was allied to her desire to protect her eldest offspring from the awfulness and dangers of ordinary existence. From her narrow perspective, associated undesirable activities included going on military campaigns and being appointed to the silly Ephebeia.

Although normal noble Greek youths could expect to join the corps at 17 years of age, being eligible for military call-up from 18, princes were often honored by being enlisted when as young as 13. Being finally called for service at 16 had therefore been considered insulting by the energetic but frustrated Caesarion, who completely disagreed with his mother’s policies in respect of his activities, at least until he met the magnificent bunch of boys whom Rhodon had selected to be his belated Ephebeian comrades.

One of the main reasons why his fellow ephebes had quickly come to accept a young Pharaoh and god as one of their own had been Caesarion’s almost zealous desire to muck in, regardless of the menial or laborious nature of the tasks in hand. In his boy colleagues’ admiring minds, among other many attributes, their young King had quickly proven to be almost as capable an oarsman as any of the supreme examples of the craft to be found on his mother’s royal barges. His proficiency was matched by Timotheos but the expertise, determination and stamina of the pair of rowers had been fully tested during their most recent, exceedingly daring and precarious expedition.

After the eventual successful conclusion of the outward leg of this adventurous journey, Timotheos and Sesse were now thankfully on dry land, with the latter in particular suffering from the remnants of his seasickness, which had earlier caused him to empty most of the contents of his stomach into the Mediterranean. The highly attractive boys were currently leaning nervously against the low harbour wall of the Megas Limen, trying to resemble young sightseers by quietly viewing the many boats, often illuminated by lanterns, moored in the Great Harbour. They had positioned themselves as close as possible to the walls of the nearby palace, hopefully without looking too conspicuous to any suspicious Roman guards.

Both Timotheos and Sesse had wanted to accompany Caesarion on his very risky intrusion into the regal residence, via the ancient, well-concealed, secret passageway, previously known, as an emergency escape in times of dire peril, only to the most senior members of the royal house and their closest senior advisers. However, on this occasion, their young King had determinedly commanded his boy companions to wait, as he alone used the dark, dank, narrow, stepped passageway for entry, as opposed to flight.

The nerves experienced by Timotheos and Sesse, as they maintained their vigil, did not result from fears for their own safety. Their deep concern was centred only on one person, whom they had been unable to discourage from attempting to make a desperate, dangerous visit to his half-siblings in order to facilitate their escape. Caesarion had contended that the children would not embark on flight at anyone else’s behest, and the senior ephebe and young slave had been unable to argue against such logic. Rhodon might have achieved greater success with the young King but the latter had deliberately not informed his tutor about his plans because he knew that the man would try to dissuade him from the undertaking the escapade, probably successfully given his excellent rhetorical skills.

The rowboat that had returned Timotheos and Sesse to Alexandria was currently gently bobbing about beneath them in the calm waters of the Megas Limen. A flight of stone steps, down the brilliant white harbour wall, whose smooth surface often dazzled in daylight and contrasted pleasantly with the lush blue of the sea, led to the small moored craft. These stairs provided easy access to the tiny vessel, which was nevertheless big enough to carry three small children in addition to the trio of brave young males who had been on board for the difficult outward trip from the Canopic Canal.

The plan was that, as Caesarion and Timotheos rowed everyone to safety, Sesse would prove the worthiness of his place on the mission by comforting, in the back of the boat and in his usual very capable way, his young King’s half brothers and sister. The latter younger threesome knew the 14 year-old slave from his previously constant presence, along with Ay, at their older sibling’s side.

Unfortunately, this plan was about to be ruined by events in the nearby palace.

(Former royal palace, Alexandria, Egypt, same time)

“Are you sure it’s him?” asked an excited, anticipative Octavian. “The guard who spotted him, Sire,” the duty Centurion advised, “managed to get a good, albeit very brief, view of the boy’s face as it passed through a ray of moonlight. He’s sure that the intruder is Caes…., sorry, the former Egyptian Queen’s oldest bastard son.”

“If the guard proves correct,” Octavian commanded, “ensure that he shares the reward with the boy’s captors. However, if he’s wrong, have him flogged for incompetence. Now, do we have the intruder trapped?”

“Yes, Sire,” the Centurion confirmed, “soldiers have inundated the relevant wing of the palace and there’s now no means of escape for the boy from the room of his youngest brother, in which he is currently ensconced. All we need is your order to make the arrest and I’m sure that he’ll soon be in our hands.”

“You have it,” Octavian announced, “but see that he’s captured alive, as we need to question him, and also make sure that none of your soldiers ever discloses to anyone what happens here tonight. You and your men will be rewarded richly for obeying these two instructions but will pay heavily for failure in either.”

“The guards have been selected for their competence and discretion, Sire,” a suddenly rather worried Centurion reassured, now hoping desperately that he would be proved correct. Octavian responded by ordering “Then go and fulfil your duty!”

The new sole ruler of the Roman Empire then turned to Agrippa and suggested “I believe that you know what to do now. Please remember that all I need to be told later is that the problem has been resolved. I do not want to meet the boy or be provided with the gory details of his questioning or later fate.” The gruff general simply nodded affirmatively in response before leaving the room to supervise Caesarion’s arrest, undoubtedly grievously damaging torture and subsequent execution by strangulation.

Shortly afterwards, Caesarion, currently crouching to assist his youngest half-brother’s redressing in appropriate travel attire, heard the many footsteps in the corridor outside the 6 year-old’s bedchamber that surely signalled the sad failure of his mission. However, the courageous boy’s first concern, after recognising that he must indeed have fallen into a trap, was not for himself but for the infant besides him.

“It looks as if we won’t now be going on our little trip, after all,” Caesarion declared, whilst hugging young Ptolemy Philadelphus. “Be a brave boy for me, regardless of what now happens,” the young King then requested, knowing that his littlest brother always at least tried to obey his oldest sibling, who was an adored hero to the 6 year-old.

The door then opened and a grinning Agrippa became the next person to enter the bedchamber.

(Great Harbour, Alexandria, same time)

“Something’s very wrong!” declared a suddenly white-faced and visibly shaking Sesse.

“What do you mean?” asked a startled Timotheos.

“I can sense that Caesarion’s now in greater danger than ever,” advised the young slave. The initially sceptical Timotheos then looked into Sesse’s large sensuous brown eyes, which were displaying immense alarm.

It was, however, now the sight of another emotion visible within the sweet sensuous eyes that encouraged the senior ephebe to accept his younger companion’s declaration as a strong possibility, if not probability. The 16 year-old noticed clear, unshakeable belief.

(Former royal palace, Alexandria, Egypt, same time)

“Well, what have we here?” enquired a happy Agrippa rhetorically, as he was flanked by several legionaries, whose swords were menacingly unsheathed. “I do believe that the oldest bastard of that whore, Cleopatra,” the general continued, “has decided to invite himself to his former residence to meet his youngest brother.”

Caesarion reluctantly released young Ptolemy Philadelphus and rose to his feet to confront his would-be captors. His frightened sibling immediately grabbed the young King’s nearest leg, despite the voluminous covering robe. The younger boy seemed determined never to let go ever again because he did not want to lose the brother who also represented his best friend and hero. However, the 6 year-old soon found himself clutching only the garment, as the wearer had suddenly shed his cloak to run, now attired only in a light summer tunic, towards the balcony.

“Stop him!” Agrippa shouted, suddenly appreciating Caesarion’s surely self-sacrificial suicidal plan. However, his men, encumbered by their armour and weaponry, were too slow to beat the swift young King from reaching his intended destination.

“Don’t!” Agrippa therefore yelled in a desperate effort to deflect Caesarion from his obvious intent. However, the boy only paused to glance at his half-brother and remind him “Remember, you promised to be brave. I love you and tell the twins that I love them too, and that I’ll always care deeply for you all!” Then, with one courageous leap over the balcony’s stone wall, the young King had gone, just before a group of desperate soldiers could reach him.

The horrified legionaries then peered over the side of the stone barrier but could see nothing because of the night-time darkness. However, they could hear the crashing of the waves against the rocks on the seaward side of the promontory far below, beneath the huge palace complex and the tall cliffs on which it was built.

Agrippa quickly arrived at his soldiers’ side and also glanced down into the noisy blackness. “Damnation!” he then exclaimed on realising that Caesarion had annoyingly avoided excruciating questioning, with the general’s disappointment only partly mitigated by recognition that the boy would almost certainly not have escaped death, given the apparent fatal nature of the drop beneath the balcony.

Meanwhile, a 6 year-old had been unable to obey his surely now deceased half-brother’s instruction. The crying of an acutely distressed princely infant now echoed around the bedchamber, in tandem with many military curses.

(Canopic Canal, outside Alexandria, two days later)

A deeply distraught Sesse sat at the bow of the Ephebeian training barge looking towards the east and the Nile, just as he had done non-stop for more than a day, including throughout the previous night. None of the ephebes on board the boat had been able to persuade the distressed young slave to take a break or sustenance. The 14 year-old had even declined water, despite his parched lips and throat, caused by spending much of his vigil under the enormously hot summer sun.

Sesse had walked back to the barge during the morning of the previous day. As the boy had ambled solemnly through Alexandria and the eastern Canopic Gate, before venturing up the towpath of the eponymous canal, his heart was very heavy. The young slave despaired that the associated deep emptiness that he felt inside his stomach, which was matched in his frantic mind, might indicate that his beloved King had already departed this world to join Ay in the next.

Sesse knew what he would do if his worst fears proved well founded. The boy would continue to follow his King, with only the precise instant and method of doing so to be settled. The young slave’s mind therefore spent much time, whilst he sat cross-legged at the bow of the training barge with his eyes firmly focussed on the eastern horizon of the Canopic Canal, considering various means of committing suicide.

Sesse remained alive now only because he wanted to confirm that Caesarion was truly dead and no longer in need of his services in this world. The boy also wanted to witness his young King receiving the funeral rights to which he was entitled and would surely be granted by the Romans, if only to assuage the undoubted distress caused to the majority of the Egyptian populace by the news of the demise of the last of the Pharaohs.

The Romans would definitely publicise and celebrate Caesarion’s death in order to prevent impostors from later causing trouble. However, Sesse worried that his young King’s body might never be found, as the sea off Alexandria had a notorious reputation for not giving up the dead for proper burial. Such an unfortunate situation could severely complicate the young slave’s plan to terminate his own 14 years in this existence so that he could continue to follow his divine beloved in the afterlife.

Caesarion had advised an appalled Sesse and Timotheos of what he intended to do, if he could, should he be detected and cornered in the palace. The boy had told the young pair that it would then be up to the gods to decide whether their fellow deity should remain in this world or proceed to the next. Neither the young slave nor senior ephebe had been able subsequently to discourage their King’s intent, having to satisfy themselves instead with prayers begging that the exceptionally hazardous deed was never required.

Sesse’s premonition had, however, made both him and Timotheos believe that Caesarion might indeed have leapt into the waves from one of the high palace balconies on the opposite side of the Lochias promontory from the Great Harbour. They therefore decided that the 16 year-old Greek noble should launch the rowboat back into the Mediterranean from the protection of the massive anchorage, whilst the younger Egyptian slave remained on the quayside to see whether their King eventually turned up, with or without his siblings. They also agreed that the 14 year-old servant should not wait any longer than dawn, for either his royal master or the senior ephebe to return, before making his own escape, as nothing but danger would surely materialise after that time.

Timotheos explained that, if he somehow managed in the darkness to come across Caesarion, either alive or dead, he did not propose to return to Alexandria but to row on back to the training barge in the distant canal. He also confessed to the possibility that he himself might not, as a loan oarsman, survive the rougher night-time waves in the sea outside the safety of the harbour.

Sesse did not like to see Timotheos going on his own into such dangers but appreciated that he had his own duties to perform. The two boys therefore parted with an affectionate good-luck embrace, which symbolised their new closeness, developed through sharing similar dangers, as well as love for the same person.

Timotheos never did return to the Great Harbour. Neither did Caesarion and so Sesse, fearing the worst for both, had reluctantly but dutifully left the scene at the agreed hour. The boy knew that, if his King had somehow survived the night, which was highly unlikely, he would be needed to serve his regal beloved once more on board the training barge.

Sesse’s current vigil entailed looking out for the returning rowboat, whilst recognising that, if the craft did reappear, one rower should mean that Caesarion was dead and two that his King still breathed. No sight of the tiny vessel would signal the demise too of the brave Timotheos.

In such circumstances, it was perhaps no wonder that Sesse’s sensuous brown eyes were transfixed by the wide canal’s easterly horizon, whilst he totally ignored other distractions, including the need for food and water.

(Former royal palace, Alexandria, same time)

“Any sign?” asked Octavian. “None,” Agrippa answered, “but that isn’t surprising, given the prevailing tides. The boy’s body would have been washed out to sea, probably never to return.”

“Are you sure that he’s dead?” Octavian enquired next, frustrated that there was no clear evidence relating to Caesarion’s fate. “No,” Agrippa replied with his usual blunt honesty, “but I think it’s very likely. Have you seen the drop? Surely no one could survive such a fall, even if they somehow landed not on the rocks but in the waves. The lateral movement required to achieve the latter also appears impossible to me.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you,” Octavian advised, “but I don’t think that we should drop the matter. Continue the search on both land and sea for the boy, and increase the reward for the discovery of his body, either alive or dead!”

“What about the other bastards?” Agrippa asked. Octavian then appraised his best friend and general of his decision concerning the younger children’s immediate fate.

(Canopic Canal, outside Alexandria, same time)

Sesse stood up from his cross-legged sitting position when he spied the tiny vessel appear on the canal’s darkening eastern horizon, just as the sun deity was setting in the west. The boy’s fearful sensuous brown eyes strained to determine whether one or two oarsmen were propelling the rowboat, whilst his parched lips mouthed quiet prayers to the gods. The young slave’s sudden activity caused the remaining ten 15 and 16 year-old ephebes on board, attired only in their simple skimpy plebeian pleated skirts, denoting their military officer undergraduate status, to join the 14 year-old on the bow, whilst all peered in the same direction.

Sesse prayed in particular to Isis, goddess of nature, rejuvenation and renewed life. The boy then burst into tears when, at last, his sight of the distant rowboat enabled his question, as to the number of young oarsmen present, to be finally answered.

(Residence of Rhodon, north Alexandria, same time)

Rhodon resided in one of the most salubrious quarters of Alexandria, which was close to his continuing workplace, the royal palace, where he still taught Caesarion’s young half brothers and sister. Despite their perilous status, including unsafe cling on life, Octavian had authorised the continuance of the children’s education whilst he brooded about what to do with them.

Rhodon was now acquainted with recent traumatic events at the palace, and the shocking news that the Ephebeian training barge must only be a few Roman miles from his large town house rather than far further down the Nile. The revised plan of escape for Caesarion had involved transport to the town of Babylon, at the foot of the massive river delta, before attachment, as a young but moneyed traveller with one younger slave, to a caravan in order to cross the Sinai and then Judaea into Parthia.

Rhodon had said his tearful farewells to Caesarion days previously in the hold of the training barge before he then disembarked. Because of his important teaching position, his own disappearance from Alexandria to go on the trip would have raised too many dangerous questions, particularly as his links to the boat could easily be established by the Roman authorities because of his well-known association with the Ephebeia corps.

Rhodon had accepted profuse royal thanks for Caesarion’s supposed salvation but now appreciated that his young King had deceived him, albeit for noble reasons. He realised that the beautiful perceptive 16 year-old must have known that his wise tutor would try to dissuade him from his proposed recklessness. The man naturally readily forgave the beautiful boy for such trickery, which he prayed had not cost the divine child his life.

(Former royal palace, Alexandria, same time)

“Other urgent issues we must also now address,” Octavian advised Agrippa, “include discovering how Caes…., I mean the oldest bastard, smuggled himself into the palace and then knew precisely where his siblings were now accommodated, after we moved them to new quarters to improve our furtive watch over them and test our theories. Our suspicions that the place has secret passageways and the boy has spies amongst the residence’s servants have obviously proved correct.”

“I don’t like the idea of undiscovered clandestine corridors,” Octavian continued, “if only for the sake of our own personal security. I therefore want every part of the palace to be inundated with soldiers searching for disguised doorways. I also suggest that close surveillance is kept on the Egyptian servants, particularly those who attend Cleopatra’s younger bastards. You never know, such observation might reap a rich reward, in the shape of a still living older sibling!”

(Canopic Canal, outside Alexandria, same time)

The ephebes flanking Sesse were now startled to see the younger boy swiftly remove his sandals, tunic and loincloth underwear and dive naked into the cool blue waters of the Canopic Canal. However, most then immediately and equally joyously understood the pretty 14 year-old’s action when they heard his simultaneous exclamation.

“Thank you, Isis!” the deliriously happy Sesse had loudly exclaimed, before jumping to swim at top speed towards the silhouette in the rowboat that the boy now instinctively knew represented his still living young hero, love, king, god and cause.

(Residence of Rhodon, north Alexandria, two days later)

An immensely relieved Rhodon thanked Timotheos for his marvellous news. The senior ephebe had somehow located and rescued Caesarion from amidst the waves of the Mediterranean.

Divine intervention to aid Timotheos’ success was obvious from his description of how the moon goddess had not only assisted his hunt by providing decent light but also specifically illuminated the subject of his search by means of a beam that shone down through a gap in the night-time clouds to the place where Caesarion was finally beginning to flounder. The clear desire of the gods to keep their young divine colleague in the world of the living for now was additionally evident from this fortunate timing of Timotheos’ arrival. His young King had been close to exhausting his energy, which would have meant that he then quickly succumbed to being inundated by the waves to drown and probably disappear in Poseidon’s domain.

Rhodon rewarded Timotheos for the immensely pleasing glad tidings with the information the senior ephebe had returned to Alexandria to obtain. Consequently, the 16 year-old, who would shortly be 17 because his September birthday almost coincided with that of Caesarion, subsequently left the tutor’s town house to return to the Ephebeian barge, which was still moored in the Canopic Canal, with even more joy in his young, brave heart.

Surely, both a now freshly optimistic Timotheos and Rhodon speculated, Caesarion would now leave his current highly dangerous environs for his new life, a destiny achievable if the regal boy could be safely smuggled out of the country past the many people still on the lookout for the last of the Pharaohs. The senior ephebe was confident that such an objective could be attained if his young King accepted that his younger half-siblings could now be left safely to face their own fates.

Meanwhile, a covert spy noted both the arrival at and departure from Rhodon’s house of a very handsome boy but decided not to follow the 16 year-old. He instead maintained his well concealed observation of the tutor’s residence.

The man had already judged some of Rhodon’s activities to be suspicious, certainly worthy of subjecting the tutor to questioning, even if the subject of the interrogation emerged from the inevitably physically painful experience in a badly damaged state. After all, the teacher would soon not be needed in the palace, as the three youngsters he still helped to educate would shortly be leaving Alexandria for their new life in Rome.

The spy also believed that Rhodon would talk readily, but not because of personal cowardice or frailty in the face of instruments of torture. The man realised that the tutor would instead soon tell all he knew because of the love he had regularly observed the teacher openly display for his family, comprising attractive younger wife and two pretty children, a 12 year-old boy and 10 year-old girl.

The spy happily imagined the woman and children naked, manacled and suspended from the ceiling of some sinister, dark, dank chamber, whilst being threatened, in front of Rhodon, with the tools of the torturer’s craft. Perhaps, the man thought, as his hidden cock hardened in response to his mental visualisation of the pleasant prospect, pliers, already dirty with dried blood, hair and skin from previous activity on other poor souls, might sever the wife’s undoubtedly rosy tits, whilst a nasty, huge, spiked phallus was rammed in and out of her 10 year-old daughter’s previously virgin vagina. Perhaps, the shears, now stained with his mother’s blood, would then threaten the 12 year-old son’s masculinity, whilst a brutal barbed device, soiled by his sister’s sanguine fluids, was transferred from a young girl’s ruined front orifice to a young boy’s rear aperture. Meanwhile, the whole terrible scene would resound with loud vociferous screams, pleas and confessions.

The concealed spy now could not prevent himself from rubbing the lump that had suddenly appeared at the front of his rather grimy summer tunic, as he daydreamed about the tortures that could soon be inflicted on members of the family he was observing. Simultaneous to the man’s perverted mind visualising the noisy closure of the curved serrated blades of the shears around a pretty 12 year-old boy’s smooth genitalia, his own sexual organs eventually expelled several spurts of cum into his already unclean underwear.

(Canopic Canal, outside Alexandria, same time)

Despite the descending darkness, Caesarion had spotted the highly attractive young nude advancing rapidly and eagerly towards the rowboat. The young King had also instantly realised the identity of the lovely swimmer.

Caesarion both recognised and particularly appreciated the sight of the lustrously smooth young bare buttocks that were gliding sweetly and ever more closely through the canal waters towards him. The young King was subsequently delighted when he and Timotheos were joined on board their little craft by a dripping wet, immensely happy and beautiful naked 14 year-old, who inundated his master with hugs and kisses, causing the rowboat to come to a temporary halt.

As Caesarion now awaited the return of Timotheos with news of his half-siblings, the young King was once more paying particular attention to Sesse’s delightful rear curvature. The 16 year-old was currently stroking the delicious bare bottom he had observed slinking serenely through the canal waters two days previously.

Caesarion and his younger slave were privately situated in the neat, compact wooden thatched hut, centrally located adjacent to the barge’s single triangular sail and which represented the only covered accommodation on the vessel’s upper deck. The two boys had exhausted conversation for now and so a return to sexual activity, already blissfully practised on several occasions over the past two days, seemed appropriate to help pass time.

Caesarion, cock throbbing erectly in eager anticipation of the further delights to come, had previously kissed and fondled Sesse’s gorgeous front, literally from head to toe, lingering especially at the 14 year-old’s completely smooth delightful genitalia, which displayed a similar eager hardness to his own. The young King was now continuing his oral and manual delectation of his younger slave’s immaculate form by concentrating on the boy’s impeccable rear, knowing that he would soon spread the impressively curvaceous mounds present in order to mount and then enter his compliant young slave.

Caesarion, whose beautiful, sleek body was as smooth as that of Sesse, apart from a small, fair, hirsute tuft crowning his otherwise hairless sexual organs, was also confident that his younger sexual partner would thoroughly enjoy the imminent experience. The 16 year-old anticipated that his judgement would be proved to be justified when the 14 year-old climactically spurted more of the sperm that he had recently begun to produce, simultaneous to receiving his master’s divine seed deep within his innards. As had invariably and magically been the case with his beloved Ay, both boys would inevitably orgasm and cum at the same time.

“Ooooh!” Sesse moaned in delighted pleasure when he finally felt the entry once more of a long, slender, smooth, regal cock into his insides. The boy’s exclamation was soon repeated by Caesarion, as he gently and slowly began to slide his rampant, keen penis in and out of the 14 year-old.

As usual, Caesarion proceeded with the intent to try to prolong their mutual delight for the maximum time possible. As usual, the young King was defeated in this fine objective by the feel of Sesse’s tight but well lubricated rectum engulfing and pleasuring his eager penis. As usual, the 16 year-old’s sublime body instead quickly shuddered in acute orgasmic happiness, whilst the 14 year-old’s transcendent form replicated this delectable climactic action in response to the impregnation and inundation of his lovely rear with copious amounts of divine Pharaonic seed. As usual, a young slave’s own sperm simultaneously gushed out of his throbbing, engorged cockhead to stain the bedding beneath, which, on this occasion, consisted of dry reeds.

Meanwhile, most of the invariably handsome15 and 16 year-old ephebes outside on deck had developed their own erections, evident by embarrassing bulges visible at the front of their skimpy pleated kilts, as they enviously recognised, from the low but discernible groans, what particular activity was currently taking place within the nearby shelter.

(Canopic Canal, outside Alexandria, next morning)

Timotheos had been greatly pleased to secure Caesarion’s approval to resume the voyage to Babylon. The young King had reluctantly accepted that, after his failure to secure the rescue of his half brothers and sister, another try, now that the Romans were alerted to his ambitions and would undoubtedly have consequently increased their guard, would be foolish in the extreme, even if the unwanted occupiers of his country thought him probably dead.

Caesarion now had to agree that further attempts to rescue his younger half-siblings would surely result in disaster, and probably not just for himself. The young King was therefore compelled instead to accept, by force of overwhelming logic, that Rhodon’s news, about Octavian’s plans for the younger royal children, represented the best destiny that could presently be expected for the two princes and one princess.

Octavian proposed to send 10 year-old Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene and 6 year-old Ptolemy Philadelphus to Rome, where they would be looked after by his sister Octavia. She was the legal widow, in terms of Roman jurisprudence, of the children’s father, Mark Antony, and she was also rightly renowned for her kindness and charity, having already started caring for her late husband’s younger offspring by his first spouse, Fulvia.

Octavian’s political intuition had overruled Agrippa’s more brutal military instincts. The lives of the young princes and princess would therefore be spared to improve public opinion relating to the new sole ruler of the Roman world, in whose upper class culture the orphans would now be raised.

Octavian’s mercy should be well received by his subjects, not least by the millions of Egyptians he had just added to those he controlled, thereby assisting the newly conquered country’s peaceable political and economic integration into the Empire in the process. The fact that the children concerned were to be permanently exiled from their homeland and also gently but nevertheless forcibly Romanised should additionally prevent them becoming the centre of future intrigue.

Octavian’s generosity, however, could not be extended to Caesarion if he was still alive. The new sole ruler of the Roman world was determined to continue the search for his second cousin, genuine son of the divine Julius Caesar, until he was completely convinced that the boy was dead and posed no threat to his position.

(Canopic branch of the Nile Delta, a few days later, early September 30 BC)

The journey towards Babylon had so far proceeded well, although Caesarion could not help but reflect that he had often previously travelled along the Nile in much greater splendour. The royal barge dwarfed his current transport both in size and amenities. A huge purple sail and scores of resplendently kilted and highly skilled synchronised oarsmen would propel the huge, heavy regal vessel, which was equipped with an ornately carved golden bow and stern and luxurious deck and hold accommodation, suitable for divine Kings and Queens. However, the last of the Pharaohs was, given his fugitive status, currently very happy to be travelling in far less comfort and greater anonymity, particularly as the company he shared was exceedingly pleasant.

Caesarion had now emerged from hiding, in either the deck hut or hold, to assist the rest of the young crew with their various tasks, including rowing when the lack of wind, or its direction, made the white canvas sail useless. The young King’s confidence in doing so was assisted by his belief that pretending to be just another ordinary ephebe was actually safer than concealing himself, especially if the vessel was ever searched.

In order to help the ruse, Caesarion shared the attire of his comrades, being dressed only in the tight, short, pleated skirt sported by the other young ephebes and, like them, usually not bothering to wear sandals. The young King’s lovely genitalia, which were sometimes prone to being unruly, especially when his light blue eyes relished the superb vision of Sesse’s now similarly sparsely dressed body, were kept in check by hidden, light under-wrapping, preventing clear observation of occasional erection. However, the latter sporadic development was still noticeable to the alert, through a bulge sometimes created at the front of the 16 year-old’s skimpy white garment, which was often associated with the appearance of a reddish hue, denoting embarrassment, on an immensely beautiful face.

Caesarion’s pretence, to be merely another ephebe from the lower Greek upper class, was further assisted by his latest haircut, originally perpetrated by Ay, so that his young master could appropriately mourn the death of his mother, and subsequently neatly maintained by Sesse. Instead of the young King’s earlier long, golden, silky, straight locks, the 16 year-old’s fair mane was now much shorter, trimmed in a tidy bowl style, which was actually not out of line with the contemporary fashion for both Greek and Roman boys.

Caesarion would have liked to enhance his change of appearance by growing a moustache or beard but alas his face remained resolutely completely smooth. However, the young King’s disappointment that his visage still resisted the exhibition of such signs of development into manhood was not shared by his fellow ephebes. The latter liked the beautiful boy just as he was, especially as his new costume revealed so much of his dazzling body. Their own kilts regularly displayed their own telltale bulges whenever their eyes were entertained by the splendid sight of the16 year-old’s gorgeous form.

Despite Sesse’s status as a slave, many of the young ephebes were secretly jealous of the younger boy and his sexual and obviously loving association with Caesarion. Timotheos was no exception but, like the others, he managed to keep his envy both in check and well hidden, treating the 14 year-old with the sort of respect due to an efficient, loyal royal servant.

Timotheos’ benevolent resigned approach was helped by his own sexual pairing with a very pretty 15 year-old ephebe. This pleasant intimate friendship was one of several homosexual couplings enjoyed by the crew, in line with sympasthetic Hellenic cultural attitudes to such matters.

Timotheos’ sex life was, however, not currently at the forefront of his mind, as the senior ephebe and acting captain of the barge urinated in the customary manner whilst on board a Nile boat, namely into the sacred waterway from the side of the vessel. Defecation into the river was usually more discretely conducted, behind an awning at the rear of the craft, where a water-filled pot and disposable dampened rushes provided an effective bidet facility.

As Timotheos shook his own rather pleasant penis, to remove the last vestiges of urine from his cockhead before forcing his temporarily released genitalia back to the confinement of his skirt’s light under-wrapping, he saw a substantial wave speed down the river alongside him, causing the barge to sway. The associated steady rise in the water level and re-colouration of the previously blue Nile to a dark brown further illustrated to the handsome senior ephebe that the event he had worried about, hoping that it would not occur until after the boat had reached Babylon, had unfortunately now begun.

The great annual flood of the Nile, which generally took place every August or September, had started. Normally, the yearly inundation would be greeted with much celebration, as long as the excess waters were neither too little nor too much, because it provided the riverbanks with their renowned fertility, enabling Egypt to be the known world’s biggest grower of agricultural produce.

Egyptians regarded their world from a different perspective to the peoples of other nations. For a start, they viewed their local geography in what would be considered, in modern times, to be an upside-down manner. For example, what they termed Lower Egypt was actually the north of the country, whereas Upper Egypt was the upriver south. They also believed that other nations were peculiar in having to rely on rain clouds for irrigation, whereas the mighty Nile generally provided their own sacred land with all the water it wanted.

Nevertheless, Timotheos was not currently celebrating the arrival of the annual inundation, which would turn the Nile a muddy dark brown and flood the riverbanks far inland, temporarily marooning many carefully placed riverside communities on islands. The senior ephebe instead regretted the development because his barge would be unable to continue its upstream journey against the substantially enhanced flow of the mighty waterway. The boy and his fellow ephebes, including his young King, would instead have to settle for anchoring securely somewhere and waiting for the waters to calm, which would take many days if the usual pattern was followed.

Timotheos prayed to the gods that no one, back in Alexandria or elsewhere, would ever have cause to suspect that the Ephebeian training barge was the mode of escape from the Egyptian capital, and the undoubtedly deadly clutches of the Roman occupiers, for a still living young Pharaoh.

(Residence of Rhodon, Alexandria, Egypt, same time)

Rhodon’s wife and children were screaming, as they and the royal tutor were dragged away for questioning by merciless Roman legionaries.

(To be continued in the penultimate chapter V – ‘Pursuits’)