Arden by: dnrock(dnrock@rock.com)
46: Being Leaders
1319, 7th month, day 19:
It was late yesterday afternoon when one of the recently wounded came to see us. The young man Aristos, about 22 or 23 told us he was making a good recovery but was still a little weak on his right side. "Princes, there is a small group of 6 or 7 older boys, who are causing difficulties for many of us at one of the public baths. They are being highly disrespectful to the old, those of us who are recently wounded and the boys who are weaker and perhaps a little more girl like."
Kastor asked if he had complained to the sheriff. Several had but the sheriff finds they brake no laws. "His, as our admonitions, to show good manners, seems to fall on deaf ears. They as much as told us, they would do as they liked, since we were to weak and cowardly to prevent it." I am sure if healthy Aristos would have taken a more physical action. He and the other will, when their wounds completely heal.
We asked more questions and learned that several of the more famine boys were being humiliated and forced to receive the bullies sexually, before all to see. I could see the twinkle in Kastor's eyes and knew he had a plan. We asked Aristos to take some refreshments with Silas, while we formulated an appropriate response to this situation. One could see from Kastor's expression that he already knew or though he knew what we would do.
All four of us were in full agreement, this behavior need to be stopped before the bullies got themselves into some real difficulties. It always upsets me to see young men in my law court and I am not adverse to preemptive actions that may forestall or prevent it. In our society the passive or perceived passive male, in all male sex, is open to ridicule. Being the butt of jokes or receiving poorly thought out comments is one thing.
The idea that intimidation, real or threatened is another. Perhaps we are all barbarians underneath a thin facade of civilization. Who is to know? What I know is, courteous behavior is learned from and reinforced or undone by the community at large. Most parents teach the young, that is not to say the young always learn the lessons. Sometimes they see the apparent hypocrisy of civilized society, as well. I would guess they have learned that one is not courteous to others, the consequences are not that great. They probably perceive that power often gets its way. Sometimes because of it and sometimes because it is just the right thing.
We decided to organize a little party to visit this public bath and teach a few lessons in civility and embarrassment. I asked Agapios to find several palace boys who were well trained in marshal arts and who were or could act, highly feminine.
We did not attend but our guardians did. Apparently Agapios was playing the girl role and doing so quite well. One of the toughs, made some comments about his bright red hair and his femininity. Agapios did not respond until the fellow moved close to him and demanded he submit to himself. Agapios doubled over the much larger boy with one blow to his gut and twisting his ear, told him he would gladly accept his invitation to be fucked and bent him over a bench and did just that. Hard and fast. Then he rose and asked if anyone else wanted to try out his new boy's (NT: Arden used the term passive lover) ass. All the wile, reminding everyone that looks and mannerisms can be deceiving. About four of the boys Agapios brought lined up. When finished Agapios invited anyone who wished to take this lesson to a new level, to meet him and his girlie friends at the castle sports fields. "None of the tough's associates made the slightest move to help him, seeing the other palace boys and ourselves in the ready." I guess they figured things out quick enough. All of the old men, wounded and others, found much to laugh and chide about. Captain Darkon did not think this group would cause any further trouble. He doubted any will show at the sports field either.
As the council meeting began we were all still buoyant, having had another successful educational experience just completed. I suspect that will be the last time any of those boys pick on the younger or apparently weaker ones.
Toward the end of the council meeting a page arrived with a brief message from one of our merchant ship captains. It said he just docked, coming from Tornto and several of his passengers seemed suspicious. Uncle asked Hesiodos to visit the captain and gather what details he could.
On his return, Hesiodos told us that the three passengers were supposedly from Napols and were merchants, looking to purchase several kinds of goods. What got the captain's interest was, the number of questions they were asking about the royal family and the few about the guilds they would need deal with. He did learn that the first guild they would visit was the clock makers. Hesiodos immediately went to the place clock maker, who sent one of his senior apprentices to the guild. I assume the idea is to place our man as their guide, that we can better accretion their true purpose in Parga.
I think this kind of thing needs be expected. We have been very successful in the past at gathering intelligence and I suspect others must do it as well. We know others have done so in the past and have used that knowledge to our advantage several times. We will just need see what they are up to and just what they wish to learn or do.
My first thought was Umar. If these people are from Napols, I would not think they have any connection to the Sultan but one never knows in this business, does one. It could be they work for more than one master or that who ever their employer is, wishes to take advantage of Umar for some other purpose.
We are expecting either some further communication with the Sultan or some attempt to kidnap him or one of us, to try and arrange an exchange. Neither will work. Getting out of Parga would be almost impossible. Getting past our guardians even more difficult. The longer we have no word from Bejaia, the more likely it is they are trying to gain some leverage.
Hesiodos has assured me that Venice, Florence, Constantinople, and several others, already know that I have taken in a young boy survivor of the battle. They also know several others are being fostered in the castle as well. We must assume they realize or speculate the boy is somehow special. Let them think what they will. I don't think we have anything to fear from them on this. The last thing the Sultan wants is for his enemies to learn about Umar. I do think we need keep some of our military secrets away from them for as long as possible. Perhaps that is what these "merchants" are truly after. Their questions about us may be little more than ignorance.
The core of our tempered glass team met today. They told me the first order of business was to develop a way to measure the heat content of the glass. Things like iron or bronze are judged by the color, they glow a specific color when they gain different amounts of heat. Glass does not glow but it flows when it gains enough heat. The lens will deform at that point. We need to know when the glass is hot enough to be tempered but not quite hot enough to deform. Also if this heat needed to temper is specific or in some range and if the time being heated is some factor.
Philo of Byzantium and Heron of Alexandria have both written on the manor of measuring heat, but their methods will not work to measure the heat in the kiln. I sent the team off the university, to meet with both the alchemists and ingegneres. For the next few months we will be using the facilities in the sculpture and pottery shops of the castle. The glass making master, who the Argonaut apprentices worked for, has accepted a temporary appointment as Master Glass Maker for the castle and he is setting up his equipment in the sculpture shops. Those shops already have the furnaces to make bronze and the wind powered bellows that will be required. The potters are moving one of their small kilns into it also.
I will be assigning a scribe, artist and a steward apprentice to the team. I want special attention taken of every aspect and every experiment. Materials, costs and procedures must be recorded and kept track of. Justus and Joulous both seem very interested in what I am doing. I have asked Kastor and Poly to encourage this. I have noticed they seem more interested in experimenting and in how and why things work than the others. Perhaps this is where their ultimate talents lie. I have also noticed, like Poly and Kastor, they not only anticipate what the other thinks but like Iason and I, they seem to add to each others thoughts. This may be very powerful in the future. They seem as excited as myself about the prospect of inventing something new. I am beginning to think we will be inventing a number of new things, the prospect is most exhilarating.
1319, 7th month, day 22:
Everything seems to be progressing well. I managed to do a good amount of running these last several days. It seems I get stronger every day. My competition on the shorter distances grows stronger too. I still win most races but the one stadia only about three quarters of the time. I have asked the clock makers to prepare a clock that counts seconds and minutes. The seconds to the 60th part. I want it to stop and start by a lever. This special clock we will call a Timer. In the place of a shout, we will use a flag to signal to start and each place judge will have a flag to signal the end, first, second, third and so on. We will need a Timer for each runner or at least three. I want to see if training can be improved by running against the Timer as well as other runners.
I suspect the alchemists and others can use these Timers in their experiments. It will be useful for the glass tempering work as well. I am also thinking that we can better quantify the rate of movement, for example by measuring the distance covered over a specific interval of time. Ships move like runners. This can be compared to the strength of the wind and other variables. I will ask the ingegneres to make a machine that is based on the pedometer. If the pedometer is turned by the sails of a windmill, we can relate the strength of the wind to distance, in a measured amount of time. This is very exciting. I think I should involve the younger twins in this work. Not that I expect them to greatly contribute but to get them excited about the possibilities of experimentation. All these and other things are good projects for Helladios' Achemedia.
Yesterday, I became aware of some criticism toward our sun spectacles. It was strange in both source and content. I suspected little more than an excuse for some other purpose. The source was primarily the religious groups. The reason give was, god want us to see each others eyes. The sun specialties hid the eye and were therefore the work of the devil. I was quite surprised to see the Imam, Rabbi, and Christine Priest, all together in a delegation before the council. Apparently the Pagans were not invited or were not interested. They wanted us to ban them and punish the lens maker for his blasphemous behavior. I think they knew better than to suggest the purchasers of this should be punished.
Uncle Iason listened as they spoke. I know several of the council knights were working hard not to laugh and Kastor had to scowl at the pages a couple of times. When they finished the King looked at me. I took this as a signal to prepare my answer. He thanked them for bringing their concerns before us. "Since Prince Arden and his brothers, were the first members of this court to test these objects, perhaps it is appropriate he respond." I think Iason and Kastor were disappointed they were not selected, I know Poly cares little to speak toward anything that is not rational.
I told them, sun spectacles was a useful, new invention; that I felt had the potential of assisting those who worked in the bright sun and glare, in keeping the eyesight into old age. The devil, I told them, had nothing to do with this invention. Since spectacles had been in use for longer then any of them remembered, many of you use them to read your holy books; these were just spectacles made of darkened glass. They were the invention of a cleaver spectacle maker, who tired of squinting, due to the brightness, as did I.
We do not come with hats or kilts installed. Obviously your god did not think them necessary and we perhaps should not ware them. As to not seeing the eyes, that was not quiet true. The eyes are less visible but still so. I reminded them that people have pounded gold so thin, that it could be seen through, thousands of years ago. This transparent gold is used to look into the brightest of light, even into the sun. In this example the eyes can not been seen. I was not aware this was considered the work of the devil but what do I know.
I do know some think the eyes are windows to the sole. Those people are mostly the secular poets, who you do not like people reading anyway. If you truly believed these as evil then you should advise your believers not to purchase and use them. You could forbid it as you do other things; with as much success no doubt. That is why you are here isn't it? You desire us to do what you know you can not. The state does not believe in either your god or your devil. The state believes only in the sovereignty of its citizens.
I personally find them a great benefit but only when outside. I will continue to ware them in the bright sun, weather you or anyone else likes it or not. That is my sovereignty as a citizen. Besides it would seem to me that these dark spectacles might protect against such things as the evil eye, were one to believe in such things.
They protested that the people follow the lead of the princes, our example is paramount. I responded. Were it so then my law court and your temple, mosque and church would all be empty, as no longer being required. Sadly they are all still attended, my law court greater than I would like and therefore needed.
Some may follow our example because of who we are, most will not. Some will try them and find they do not like them. Others will find them useful and will. I suspect you are concerned that your authority will be reduced should your people choose to ignore your admonitions. This secular state is not in the business of bolstering any specific religious ideas. We are not in the business of discrediting them either. We are in the business of representing the peoples' sovereignty.
If I am correct, in my forecast of the near future, we will see many new and many reinvented or improved things. They will all be the works of men. None from god and none from the devil. Some will be of great benefit to Parga and its people and some not. Some will be useful and beneficial to all men, others a scourge upon them. Mostly it will be how these inventions are put to use and for what purpose. I can predict with some certainty that if some evil thing can be made of the most beneficial invention, it will be and it will be done by so called pious men, for pious reasons. Scratch any of us, you included and you will find the barbarian within. It would seem to me that all religious groups should spend their time and energy in making sure beneficial things are not turned into devices of evil and less on preventing them from invention; because they might find unintended uses or do not quite fit with your existing dogma.
This brings the question of what is evil and what is not? You three all pray to the same god but can agree on little else. In fact, if one did not know better, listening to you all talk, one would not realize it is the same god. Yet you all claim to have the only true word, the only true way. You would force your faith on others, attack those that disagree and destroy anything you think is contrary to your orthodoxies. In your introduction you could agree that these colored spectacles were undesirable but all for different and I might add rather weak theological reasons. It seemed to me that you are more concerned with control of your faithful than anything else.
It is this secular state that protects each of you from the other. It is the laws of this secular state that has done away with much evil and inhumanity, such as torture and slavery. In this secular state, every citizen and that is all of us, has sufficient food and shelter, no one starves or need live on the streets. We have no beggars on the steps of any place of worship, as in other places. That does not mean all need for charity is gone. It means survival is not dependent on it. It means that none are favored by virtue of belief above any other.
We all know how you feel about both your faithful and the others in society that are not quite what you think they should be. You would see that Parga has different classes or levels of citizen and even deny citizenship to some. Parga only has two inherited titles, Citizen and Crown Prince. Any other honor, title, station is based in merit.
That means, the only way any of you or the others not represented here, can gain converts, is by reason and demonstration of your worthiness. Our civil code sets standards that are greater than any of yours. Our justice is far more merciful and far less punitive, than any proposed by any of you.
We, the civil secular state, do have some laws that seem to offend one or more religious groups. These laws allow all citizens to engage in behaviors, some of you do not agree with. They do not allow you to practice some of your prescriptions. Take adultery as an example. Some would stone the adulteress and not the adulator. Our remedy is less harsh, considering adultery a breach of contract, however it is applicable to both men as well as women. The secular state is not in the business of killing its citizens for breaking contracts between it citizens. We see no difference between men and women, adultery is adultery. Men and women in Parga both have rights and obligations. Those rights are protected by the state for both. I know some of you find some of them offensive. But consider for a moment what would result if any one of you gained a privileged position. I think it the best interest of all that less attention is paid to our neighbor's soul and more to making our state work to the benefit of all.
I know that you all consider marriage as a secured ritual and adultery braking a sacred contract between the believer and the god in question. You have every right to do so. If you sanctify a marriage, then you feel it is a contract between the parties and your god. You may feel these contracts can not be broken even if the state considers that possible. The rules are different for division of property and fait of the children, should be this or that. We manage to settle these things in our courts, using the marriage contracts and customs of Parga as a guide. Your only course of action, if these are not acceptable, are theological, not punitive. Just like the prescriptions for any other behavior. The laws or customs of other places and societies are not applicable here. Remember, you three represent imported faiths. We allow and even encourage the importation of ideas. We have no need for the social organization of any other place, as we have our own.
Two points here. First, most of our common laws and customs predate your existence as a religion and second, they were here in place before your religion came to Parga. We are not Romans, we do not change laws or customs at the whim of some unelected and unrepresentative emperor or demigod. Our common law has become more inclusive over time, not less so. This has benefited you later entries into our society.
Few, probably none, of the laws or customs you object to are obligatory on your members. If they allow some behavior you do not like, you are not obliged to partake in it. Your objections seem to lay in two areas. One, they do not give your members some advantage over others. Two, they allow others and your members as well, to do that which you do not think or believe they should. The Pagans, were they here, would say they feel the same as you on this.
The state does not believe it is or should be, in your business; that of legislating privet actions or personal morality. We do feel we are in the business of legislating public morality and behavior; that of governing the interactions between citizens and setting standards and civil codes of conduct. That conduct is not unlike those of all societies we know of. Murder, theft and so on are not allowed in any. If a citizen wishes to be clean shaven or bearded, have short or long hair, cover their head or not, is none of our concern and has no bearing on the interaction between citizens, with other citizens or the state.
I ended at that point and offered to debate any of them, on any philosophical point or points but only in a truly public forum. Strangely none took my offer up. The Rabbi and Imam would both be very reluctant, as I am better educated than they, even in their own texts. The Patriarch knows his history and could not defend it.
All three know, in recent years the Jews had been expelled from France and other places and the Moors from most of Spain. They all and the Pagans, realize in Parga the state is all that stands between persecution and great civil turmoil. The looser would be everyone, the smaller groups would be wiped out and Parga would be weakened and overrun by its neighbors. We four looked at each other and I could see in our faces that this was not to happen, while we had breath to stop it.
Kastor and I came into our apartments to find Iason and Poly along with most of our males, training a group of nine, twelve year olds, in the arts of male sexual pleasure. For us, boys are not considered as passive and men active or dominant. That is a more ancient attitude and custom. Boys, especially the younger ones lack experience and skills. Older boys and men have a duty to teach and mentor them. It is the same for girls. At first they are not expected to do little more than learn the joy of receiving sexual attention. I know it does not take long for them to learn the joys of giving as well.
I must admit the sight of nine small naked butts, being presented to their instructors, was more than Kastor and I could control. We were fully erect in moments. My first desire was Iason's ass. He too was in that mood and we demonstrated for our new students, all the ways two men can satisfy each others lust and love.
There is little else more stimulating to a boy then having another boy or man sliding his hand under you kilt and across you buttocks or fondling his maleness. This is not some man justifying his actions, it is the memories of a boy grown to manhood.
Just because we train our boys in sexual activities, it does not mean they become easy for any male. Our boys know what and how and when. They know the joys and pleasures of all parts. They also know that almost any hand feels good but only the lips of those men desired, need be accepted and only the penis of your chosen need apply for your attention. Among themselves, sex is almost continuous until the boy has secured a mentor. However, as we see often in the bath, sharing is frequent and wide spread. None of these boys were as advanced as Iason and I were. Dios and Helladios are most well advanced of all. For me it is almost as thrilling to run my hands over a young boy's buttocks and between his smooth legs as to touch Iason's most exquisite body.