Chapter Text
I am Alcibiades. My father was a commander died in war. My mother died of a plague. I was raised by my cousin-uncle, Pericles.
The name of Pericles was a household name for Athenians, as a prominent member of the Athenian parliament, a career politician, and the highest-ranking official of the Alcmaeonidae family, on which the court awarded him my custody.
Pericles was handsome and was called the golden bachelor by the ladies of Athens, but as far as I knew he was not “single”. Yesterday he made an exception taking me to a banquet hosted by the owners of the silver mines in Laurion, north of Attica, who wanted to borrow his hands to the new tax law. He revealed to me some details of the amendment a few days ago. It appeared to give out a little sweetness to the agricultural tax on the southern vineyards and olive gardens. But the truth was, the mining projects in the northern area would be the real beneficiaries. The old fritters in Athenian Parliament could see the merits of this kind of amendment at a glance, so the miners were eager to lobby around. Pericles was the most prestigious among the liberal MPs, therefore the mine owners had high hope to have him persuade the vineyard owners to pass the bill.
After the banquet, Pericles logically abducted the daughter of a certain mine owner back home. In fact, this was not the first time the two of them hooked up. The two of them were drunk, messing around in the lobby on the first floor. I hid in my own room, which was on the second floor, yet I could still hear the voice of endless flirting. The woman suddenly screamed, presumably Pericles stripped her clothes off.
I covered my ears irritably.
Walking to the window sill, there was a wilderness outside the window. There was no moon tonight, and the night was extraordinarily quiet and deep.
As a Greek tradition, adolescent boys were responsible for wine bearing for the elders, which was one of the reasons why Pericles had always banned me from this kind of social gatherings. During the entire banquet today, those mine owners took every chance to have me pour wine for them, to encourage me to lay beside them, or even to share wine with them from the same cup, all of which I had happily granted favor to.
"Someday in his life a man must learn to drink." Said Pericles himself not long ago.
The melodious singing of the wrangler could be faintly heard in the distance, echoing in the wilderness. I leaned against the stone pillar, listening to the singing quietly.
A pair of hands wrapped around my waist from behind, interrupting my daze. When I turned around, it was Pericles standing behind me. The smell of alcohol mixed with ladies' perfume made me nauseous.
"Shouldn’t you be in bed by now?" He smiled at me with half-squinted eyes.
"Get your hands off me." I shook him off, "Don't touch me tonight."
"Alright, I won't touch you." He pushed my hair back, put a kiss on my forehead, "Good night, Alcy. Go to bed early my dear."
The turmoil in one’s private life did not prevent Pericles from becoming an excellent politician. He was eloquent, preached every benefit of the democratic system, and portrayed himself as a hero who saved the dying, hated evil, and cared about women's rights which obviously made him women's favorite. Although Athenian women did not have the right to vote yet, their opinions mattered enough to influence the male citizens around them. Their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons all had the right to vote.
During holidays, Pericles often played polo with same group of businessmen and dignitaries. He took me to this kind of private gatherings every time. I inherited my birth father's looks, with sun-reflecting curly blond hair, tall nose bridge and a pair of deep eye sockets. Pericles carried me like a vase to show off. Athenian aristocratic circles were popular with keeping nice-looking adolescent boys as trophies. When adults were playing, I could only team up with the other "trophy boys", and they sucked at the game.
"Alcy, come play with us." Pericles raised his hand to call me over, "You beat them too much, which affects their mood."
Dude, that was so kind of him. I pouted, turned the saddle around, slapped the horse's butt with my heel, and walked slowly towards the adults' polo course, enjoying everyone’s attention.
These old geezers, they should not beat me in the game. Only if they pleased me, then I could think about letting them score a few goals.
When holidays were over, Pericles returned to his office in the Mount Ares Parliament Chamber of the Acropolis from his manor on the outskirts. I then went back to the Academy of Athens, where almost all the politicians’ kids go for college. I was put into this most famous school in Athens as the adopted son of Pericles. If it were my father's status as a military commander, I probably would not have studied here.
But I did not like it here. I especially hated literature classes.
Sports were what I was good at. I could throw a javelin halfway across the court, or easily bounce over a certain height. In outdoor gymnastics, my flexible body and powerful muscles would always attract a bunch audiences to appreciate. Other sports, such as hunting, or horse racing, which I would consider compulsory as men's basic skills, were not taught in the Academy of Athens.
"Alcibiades, you live like a Spartan." My classmate Agathon laughed at me which made me annoyed. In Athens, "being Spartan" meant ignorance and backwardness.
My family probably had belligerent blood flowing. Pericles himself was also a commander who had led the Delian League against the Peloponnesian League during The Confederate War. One Tuesday afternoon, my father was ambushed, killed by the enemies after receiving the wrong order to march. It had always made me think that the reason Pericles asked the judges for my custody was out of guilt. Being a single parent with a drag-on kid obviously hindered his normal love life.
At the end of The Confederate War, Pericles on behalf of the Athenian Parliament signed the Thirty Years Treaties with the Spartan king Archidamus. However, Pericles himself was obviously never satisfied with the Treaties. He claimed that these treaties were detrimental to the rights and interests of the Athenians. He took some aggressive measures towards the contracted Peloponnesian League countries and their immigrants, a move that heavily boosted his popularity among the native Athenians.
Speaking of Pericles, it suddenly reminded me of today's date.
"Why is it Tuesday again." I cursed quietly.
In today's literature class, Agathon showed off his pages of variant poetry to the teacher, but I fell asleep in my seat shortly after he started reading. According to classmates’ description, Agathon finished reading the whole poem with a dark face in my long, sounding snore, and the teacher's praise did not make him feel any better.
"Alcibiades, I’ve still got high hopes in you." My mentor advised me. I understood the duplicity of my mentor. He treated me, who was privately regarded as a "Spartan trash", in such a gentle and encouraging way, only because he did not want to cause any trouble, such as offending my adoptive father.
At night I was sitting by the window of my room, shooting a slingshot at a bird's nest outside the window. The houses in the city of Athens were not as large as those outside the city, and the distance between the buildings was not as wide. If I were stronger, I could hit the pigeons on the glass windows of the house on the opposite side.
The door was pushed open. Pericles entered the room.
"Is that what you do with these elegant poems?" He smiled as he stepped over the papyrus I had thrown all over the floor. Those papers were actually my reading assignments.
"I hate writing poetry." I complained without looking back at him.
More papyrus fell to the ground. Wiped clean the table, Pericles walked toward the windowsill. He took the slingshot away from my hand and then picked me up. He hardly brought lovers home on Tuesdays. I knew exactly what he was going to do to me.
"Beauty under the moonlight, I only belong to you tonight." He gently placed me on the table, untying my belt while reciting poems.
In the political arena of Athens, a politician who could climb onto a high ranked position like Pericles had to accumulate a lot of experience without making major mistakes. However, based on the fact that I had lived in his house for free for more than ten years, I had no reason to refuse his love to me.
"Perry, transfer me to the Athenian Military Academy." I tried to claim my reward while he was resting beside me. There were not many people in Athens who’d call the nick name of Pericles in front of him, but he didn't mind me calling him Perry.
The man frowned.
"No."
"Why?"
"I promised your father to take good care of you."
I stretched out my middle finger, dipped into the semen drops on my belly skin, and held my finger toward his nose tip unceremoniously.
"Is this how you take care of me?"
Pericles' eyes dimmed for a moment. But he quickly calmed down, putting that friendly smile back on his face. He rolled over and stared at me intently.
"There’re only three days left this week. Why don’t you finish your poetry assignments at school. The weather's supposed to be nice on the weekend. Let's travel through the sea, get on islands and have some fun."
"Sicily?" My eyes lit up.
"Good guess." He brought my hand to his mouth, opened his lips and sucked off the semen on my finger.