Eumenes 1, Chapter 7: Hidden Oasis

We at last reached the mouth of Persian Gulf sixty days after we had got into the desert. Good harbors welcome us along the sea lane to the inlet of Euphrates river. Nearkhos' fleet does not need King's support anymore.
Here King gave his army a rest. We can go straight to Susa traversing the Persian royal road, but King insists to join Krateros team in Kerman first, crossing over the Gedrosian range. At the entrance, there is the capital of the Gedrosians, named Pura, which simply means 'town' in Persian.
“How dare you came across this out-of-the-way district,” the old inhabitants said one and all, “but you cannot go any further. There is no road to Kerman from here. Nobody can cross this desert. There are various deserts in Persia. those of sands, those of salt, also lakes of salty water or dried up salt lakes. These are obstacles which never permit us to pass thought, but if we choose the relatively cool ridges, avoid scorching basins, tracing oases one by one carefully, we can trip through such districts somehow.
But in that way to Kerman, no vegetation at all. Except only one oasis. Reaching the spot is as difficult as finding a single drop of pearl in the ocean. You encounter dunes after dunes and just other dunes. Climbing up and down the infinite series of dunes in the heat of daytime, your colleagues as well as your horses and mules will soon be exhausted, finally you all are stranded and wrecked in the sea of sands.”
“Nobody succeeded so far?”
“Yes. No one had ever hitherto passed that way to emerge in safety from the desert, even though bringing a mighty army.”
“Without exception?”
“In legends, I know only two cases.” One of the old men spoke out. “Assyrian Queen Shammuramat and Persian King Kurush. When the queen fled from India, she emerged with only twenty men of her army. And the king, son of Kabujiya67, escaped with only seven of his men. Kurush also marched into this region for the purpose of invading India, but he did not effect his retreat before losing the greater part of his army, from the desert and the other difficulties of this route.
“In other words, if I succeed to pass the desert, I'll be the first one in history. It's time to excel King Kurush and Queen Shammuramat.” King rather pleased. “Old man, to get your story straight, the ultimate task to pass through this desert is to discover the only one oasis by all means. Am I correct?”
“As far as that is a possible task.”
“Can you help us? Does someone here pilot us? I reward him with big money.”
Few of them responded affirmatively.
Ptolemaios and I look each other, annoyed that our King once again hit upon an eccentric idea.
“I'm willing to go with you,” Raokhshna says with sinister smiles. “It's a quite nice opportunity for us to become mummies lying side by side, buried in the desert.”
“Have it your own way, everyone! If you spare your life, retreat to the harbor, get on board. Nearkhos will take you to Susa by water. Or if you have the guts to challenge the dunes, come with me. I think it is not so difficult to find the oasis, because we used to chase fleeing enemies surveying vast fields throughout. We can utilize the experiences to find the oasis hidden in dunes. Once it is found, maintaining the path is so easy task. We'll be appreciated if we make a convenient shortcut from Persian Gulf to Kerman. It also means I add a new royal road to the empire. It's an unprecedented achievement. Why don't you try it? You must be heavily rewarded and honored.”
“I'll go, my brother.” Amastri replied. “I must be as a brave woman as Assyrian Queen Shammuramat. A woman also can do what a man can do. Brother, my name 'Ama-Stri' means 'strong woman', which many Persian queens and princesses have been named. If you take me with you, you will be blessed by the Persian guardian god Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom.”
“Well said, my sister. You were given a good name. My name 'Alex-Andros' means 'enemy-breaking man' in Hellenic.”
King and Amastri were brewing an extraordinary positive mood, which prevented us from denying escorting them.

We made marches in the daytime and encamped at sunset. After it has been repeated three times, appeared the dunes, which are almost one stadion and a half in height. Since we met these lofty dunes of deep sand, not only humans, but horses and mules are still more, all suffering to proceed. We walk upon it just as though we were stepping into mud, or rather into untrodden snow.
Partly because we hasten ourselves to exit this place as quickly as possible, or partly because we cannot endure the burning heat under the sunshine, we changed the daily schedule; we take a short nap in noon under the tents shielding the sunlight, whereas go on marching all night long. When the sun goes down, we kick the asses of the still asleep colleagues to awaken. Even they start to walk, some are overcome by sleep, falling down on the sand, afterwards rousing up again. Those who still have strength follow upon the tracks of the army.
The blue sky with no cloud changes the color to burning orange in twilight. Dragged by the setting sun, a thin crescent moon also sinks into the ground, the heavenly obsidian cathedral is illuminated by myriads of stars.
We make journeys by the stars at night as sailors do by Kynosoura68, also known as 'Phoenician' constellation, or 'Mikra Arkos69.'
“What a gorgeous star night!” King exclaimed. “Look at the Pleiades, the constellation of Seven Sisters. It looks very close to earth, as though they were hanging in my reach. I could take the jewelry and feel it in my hands.
How beautiful the Galaxias70 is! We cannot see like this in the Hellenic sky.”
He enjoys this deadly desert, no birds flying over, no moisture growing trees in our sights.

We climb a dune, only to see just another dune ahead. How far we go, hills and dales of dunes come up again.

One night, on an occasion when King walked beside me, he abruptly talked to me, “You hear that a mass wedding is arranged in Susa, calling all peoples from all nations in the world.”
“Yes, I do, my Lord.”
“I anticipate it. Eumenes, you also marry at last, giving up the girlfriend who rejected you in Athens. What kind of girls do you prefer? A daughter of Darayavaush? Or one of pharaoh's? Otherwise Maha Rajah's girl?”
“I cannot answer such a question, because I have never imagined it before.”
“Mind you, I never permit you to marry a Hellenic woman. You must marry a foreign one.
Hey you, how about Amastri? If you marry her, I will be your brother in law.”
“The Princess? Please refrain from joking. She is just twelve or thirteen years old.”
“I'm already fifteen.” Somewhere in the dark dunes sunk under the starry sky, some woman said so. Amastri also listened it.
“She is royal, whereas I'm humble. We differ in social status.”
Amastri is too aristocratic to marry me. Apama will be more preferable, if King forces me to choose.
“I also marry Raokhshna to be my consort. Each one of Persian noble women, including Amastri, is married to some Makedonian or Hellenic general or officer. Oh, I almost forget Apama. She also. Since she is a daughter of the honorable general Spitameneh, her son will be a good brave general. Hence she will be married to the strongest general in my army. Who do you think is best, Eumenes?”
“I'm not sure, my Lord.”
Apama has no freedom to choose her own husband. And I and Amastri, either.

“My Father Vakhshuvarda, what do you think about it? I think Amastri will be a good partner of Eumenes.”
If I will marry her, Vakhshuvarda will be my father in law. The marriage of Amastri concerns not only me or King, but also the members of the Persian royal family. We must respect them.
In front of us, a herd of long eared animals were crossing. Someone shot an arrow at them to catch and eat, but escaped.
“They must be a family of sand foxes.”
“Sand foxes have long ears like hares.”
People buzzed for a moment directed their attention to it. Soon after that, silence returned. Vakhshuvarda started to talk quietly.
“Since Bakhtrish became one of Persian satrapies, a member of our family used to govern it. I have two elder brothers, Darayavaush and Artakhshasta71. My oldest brother Darayavaush succeeded the satrap of Bakhtrish, but at the age of fifty-five, he rose the throne of Persian empire unexpectedly, since the direct descendants of prior kings were all exterminated by a eunuch called Bagoi. He became the vazir to Hakhamanesh72 family, seized the superior power in the Royal Court, finally replaced King Artakhshasta III with his child by poisoning. As the puppet-king Artakhshasta IV grew a little older, he started planning to remove the evil eunuch. However, Bagoi again acted beforehand in order to protect himself and managed to poison and kill Artakhshasta IV. Bagoi then raised a cousin of Artakhshasta IV to the throne as Darayavaush III. When my brother Darayavaush III attempted to become independent of the powerful vizier, Bagoi tried to poison him too; but Darayavaush forced Bagoi to drink the poison himself. He finally succeeded to remove our deep-seated tumor.”
Got tired speaking while walking, Vakhshuvarda paused for breath. A little rested, he started again, pulling his right and left feet out of sand, putting into the sand again alternately.
“The battle of Issos, which we could never ever lose, put us into a predicament. But only a single defeat cannot perish our family. Persia should have enough power remained. But we were already a dying patient affected by a fatal cancer spreading to various parts of the body. We were at the last moment before extinction. Our family ate each other, the ruler and the ruled bit each other. We were far from expecting the national solidarity to confront foreign threats. The next battle of Gaugamela revealed the reality.
After vanquished at Issos and Gaugamela, my elder brother Darayavaush returned to his home country Bakhtrish crossing the river Oxos, planned to pull ourselves together in Samarkhand with general Spitameneh, but suffering consecutive defeats abandoned by fortune.
However, we still had possibilities to recover.
King, if something will happen with you, the Makedonians, outlanders without you, will never reign the vast domains of Asia. No one is capable of commanding your army like you. I heard that you even go to Scythia and Libya. Conquering and wandering one place after another. That is what every Persian king had desired but could never have done yet. I thought that your ambition would soon be aborted by your sudden death.
Hence we changed the strategy, keeping our homeland firmly just a little while, for one year or two, but no more than three years, I estimated. It was the road to a glorious escape. I convinced our eventual triumph.
But, my brother Artakhshasta betrayed our eldest brother Darayavaush, who was still on the throne of Persia, injured and abandoned him on the road, and raised himself to the throne.
My poor brother Darayavaush had died before he found by his chasers.
The self-proclaimed king Artakhshasta V had also never won. I and general Spitameneh entered Sogdia pursuing Artakhshasta and arrested the betrayer.
Spitameneh wanted to raise me to the throne in Samarkhand, call up survivors, preparing for the counterattack to the invaders. However, the strongholds in Sogdia were easily fallen one after another, my evacuated daughters Raokhshna and Amastri were arrested together, and at last Spitameneh was killed by his relations. The game was over. It was no use to ascend the throne by myself. I handed my brother Artakhshasta over to Ptolemaios and fell into your hand. You punished and executed him in Hagmatana, the homeland of Medes.”
“He usurped the Persian throne. A brother-murderer. His crime deserved thousands of death penalties.” King spat out.
“It's a pity that Spitameneh were killed by frantic relatives. He would have soon surrendered as I did.
King, I'm the last heir of Persian royal family. You appointed me to the satrap of Kaukasos. Also you protected my daughters, as well as my mother and my nieces, who were forsaken in Issos. And you married one of my daughter, and others to your comrades.”
I've never seen Vakhshuvarda such eloquent before.
“The fate of us, the Hakhamanesh family, the descendants of King Kurush the great, had at last run out after the elapse of more than two hundred years. I regard you as the host of our funeral ceremony, an angel sent by our god at this very moment. You restored the tomb of Kurush the great in Parsa. You also buried the body of my brother Darayavaush in Parsa, as our ancestors had been done. You reconstructed our graveyard magnificently.
I swore, in the name of our Lord Ahura Mazda, my loyalty to you, adoring on my knees, giving up my revenge. Now I rather thank you but never have a grudge against you.
But, you see, tens of thousands of descendants who share the blood of King Kurush the great are living in Persia. Do you never think that they would rebel against you all together? Don't you doubt it at all? Why you can be so generous?”
“Ah-em,” King thought a moment. “First of all, I love Persia, respecting. Makedonians hated Persians but admired its fragrant cultures and matured civilization. I'm not so perverse as Hellenes. They never unite, never cooperate, never try to get together. Never! Until they confront a critical situation. So loose people like dry sands in Gedrosia.
I love this boundless continent. I love this endless history initiated by Sumerians, flourished by Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians, and finished by Persians.
I clashed with Persia because it invaded us. I could stop conquest after liberating Hellenic city-states from Persia. But I didn't. I determined to invade Persia thoroughly. Why? Because I hate Persia? Or I want more glories? Not exactly. I felt deep sorrow for the decline of Persian authority, hence I wished to take Persia's position, the guardian of this world, by myself. I wanted to be one of the legitimate diadokhoi73 of Sargon74, Hammurabi75, Assurbanipal, and Nebuchadnezzar76.
Today I became a member of glorious Hakhamanesh family. I gained the legitimacy to rule Asia. Yes, this is what I was ambitious for. I want my comrades to understand and share my ambition.
And it is obviously natural that the strongest man seizes the throne of the king of kings. Who can a king without the grace of Heaven? A Hellene, Egyptian, Indian or Persian, regardless the nationality, the strongest man shall be my successor. I don't feel sorry if my sons, who are half-Makedonian and half-Persian, will be expelled by Persians or Makedonians.
Eumenes, you will marry a Persian woman and have sons, who also shall be kings.”
So abruptly mentioned that I'm quite embarrassed.
Somewhere a suppressed sigh leaked out of someone, was it Amastri? Vakhshuvarda recalls me and says, “Mr. Eumenes is a fine man, intelligent and gentle, assisting King's work wisely. I noticed that Amastri shows some affections toward him. I think they will be good partners.”
Vakhshuvarda finished saying and became silent.
Amastri loves me? Well, I've seen some symptoms in her attitude. It's embarrassing. She can't love me because she doesn't know me at all. What she can know about me? I am a man just always teaching her. She knows few other men, so she mistakes she loves me. That might be the only reason. Don't select a lover so easily.
It seems it's my turn to speak something, but I have nothing to say. Instead, I feel like asking my King some questions.
“My Lord, when you become an Asiatic king, Persian peoples will welcome you. Egyptians and Indians may also. But how about Hellenes? They are so stubborn to admit your reign. You wear a golden crown as Asiatic kings do, but Hellenes hate it. They prefer the laurel wreath, associated with Apollon77, which victors in Olympias have been worn, as well as ancient Hellenic kings.
You ignore them? Or you put the laurel on your head instead of gold to soothe them?”
“Stop thinking of it. Why you so adhere the difference in Hellenes and Makedonians? We are all KOSMOPOLITAN. It's better all peoples in this world share a unique nation and a unique language. In the beginning, POLIS was unique. LOGOS was also. But after some millennia, humans have been divided into pieces of DEMOS, unable to communicate each other. We must return to the very beginning of humankind. For that reason, Persians and Makedonians must take the initiative to be a unique Demos, to have a unique Polis, to share a unique Logos. And a new era of humans begins.”
King is sometimes so utopian and passionate. The world never catches up with him.

Next evening, we started marching again. King commanded, “Light signal fires. We are approaching the oasis. Infantry, spread to make a wide row at constant intervals. Cavalry, patrol and keep the infantry line. In desert, we hydrate or die. If we miss the only oasis in this desert, we will be dried up. Search around carefully.”
Someone reported that he found an oasis in the horizon. King investigated it but turned out that was a mere mirage. Other one says he saw a nomad riding a camel, which he stares at and waves his hand calling “Hey!” but nobody is out there. He still says
“There goes an Arabian riding his camel.”
“He noticed us waving his hand back.”
He doesn't tell a lie. Human mind perceives non-existent phenomena which cannot be seen when the thirst is so urgent.
The desert has been trifling our minds repeatedly. But suddenly, we found the oasis in a deep, narrow basin like a nest of an antlion. It's a miniature of a green garden. It is so deliberately hidden that we've almost missed it.
“Water!”
Soldiers are descending the slope, sliding down, rushing to the waterside, hardly undressing, jumping into the water one after another.
“Hooray! It's pure water! Not salty at all!”
What a crowd, pushing each other, animals also follow humans. Not a few soldiers were dead, pushed into water, unable to breathe.
“Oh, suicides with no meaning. You had better killed in a battle.”
King let us pull the dead bodies out from water to bury courteously in the sand.
“We have to encamp first apart from an oasis at least thirty stadia away. I must not make soldiers die like this anymore.”

“I want to take a bath, too.”
Raokhshna stopped Amastri, who is about to run after soldiers throwing her clothes away. King laughed at the sight, ordered me to draw curtains around a small fountain for princesses to bathe. Apama is also watching the site.
Recently, King seem to make me and Amastri couple together. Or it is possible that he already had such intention when he made me her tutor.
There comes the sound of water splash with playing voices.
“Hey, Eumenes. Come over here. Feel so good.”
It's Amastri's voice. She at last calls me without title.
“Stop joking, Basillissa81.”
“Basillissa? Don't call me by title. Call me Amastri, Eumenes. We are lovers. If you don't love me yet, after all my brother makes me your wife. Never mind anymore.”
“Stop, don't be so shameful!” Raokhshna scolded.
“Nothing is determined yet, Basillissa.”
“But if I become your wife, what will you do with me?”
“I don't have any idea. I discharge my duty and may go back to an Athenian school. In case King calls me again, I will continue to serve as a secretary. Or I will be a physician in my hometown Kardia.”
“Then I will be a wife of a physician, and my children will be physicians, too.”
She started again indulging in her own fantasy. I can't deal with her in every detail.
“I fear the story my brother telling yesterday. Regardless of lineage and ethnicity, a truly strong man will be the world king. May my sister's son and my son fight in the future to seize the throne?”
“Unnecessary anxiety. Nothing has even started yet.”
After that, the sisters became quiet. No voices, no splash sounds. I asked Apama to check inside, only found that they are already done bathing and left. I requested Apama to take away the curtains, after she also finish bathing. We have to go soon.