104: Antiochus Epiphanes

104. Antiochus Epiphanes (Transposed into English by Charles Bryant) The wellfed handsome face was clouded; the shapely brow contracted; its habitual Parian smoothness disfigured by partially histrionical tragic grief. The Antiochian favourite addressed the king Antiochus Epiphanes, at court, surrounded by the hushed and peopled panoply of the throne. Having studied rhetoric, the boy held out his trembling hands toward the king. "The Macedonians are at war again; and I'd give anything - I'd give back everything you gave me, each precious gift from you if I could only make it true that Macedon prevails." Counting on his fingers, he tallied up the love-gifts one by one. The golden cup with gem-encrusted rim; the lion and the horses; the coral Pan, so proper and so prim its carved expression (even while exposing its shapely bum); the sumptuous palace, Tyrian gardens a-hum with busy bees searching brimming nectar. "I'd return it all and welcome, give back your endless munificence, gracious liege, if only beloved Macedon might prevail." Epiphanes stared at his lover; didn't speak, remembering his father Antiochus the Great beaten at Magnesia by the Roman; his assassinated brother Philopator. Among the over-attentive courtiers a spy might carry his reply to an enemy. Better be discreet; not say a word. He looked at the young Antiochian; he smiled as if at the effusions of a child. The court relaxed; the heavy tension ceased. As it turned out, the thing was quickly sorted; Macedon defeated, as expected.