By Theseustoo

Digital Food Stylist – Warrigal

Croesus had lined up his army on a low hill overlooking the coastal city of Sinope; on the Euxine Sea. They had arrived the previous evening. Now, as the sun started to climb above the blood-red horizon, well fed and rested, they were drawn up in battle formation, awaiting only their king’s command to attack the city. As Croesus sat on his horse in the centre of the front rank, intensely regarding the town which was their goal, Sandanis rode up to him,

“Your majesty has chosen the ground very well…” he said, “This region is called Pteria; it is the strongest position in all Cappadocia; if we defeat the Syrians here and capture their city of Sinope, the rest of Cappadocia will soon fall, giving us a strong base to defend against Cyrus, who will surely come in response to our invasion…“

Croesus nodded silently; his mind already focussed on the battle ahead. To the trumpeter at his side, he quietly said,

“Sound the advance!”

At this the trumpeter played a brief fanfare; repeated it twice and then concentrated on keeping close to his king so he could relay his king’s orders to the army as they marched determinedly towards the poorly-defended city.

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It had not been much of a battle, thought Sandanis as he watched his men looting the city. Indeed he’d been surprised how poorly defended such a crucial city had been. Although her walls were high and strong, yet they were ill-maintained; worse still, her menfolk had become fat, lazy and careless as the result of several generations of peaceful trade between Lydia and the Asian Greeks. They had not been anticipating any attack, let alone an attack from what had hitherto been the friendly trading nation of Lydia. Croesus’ cavalry simply rode into town through the open gate, followed closely by the Lydian infantry and rapidly seized control of all strategically important administrative centres. Completely unprepared for Croesus’ attack, Sinope’s small garrison quickly capitulated.

But Sandanis realized that Sinope occupied a strategically crucial position on Cyrus’ trade routes; controlling all trade going through Cappadocia, which in turn was the gateway to many countries in the region. This enabled Croesus to put an effective embargo on all trade heading eastwards along the King’s Highways; the network of ancient roads which the Sumerian king, Hammurabi, had built to encourage regional trade and facilitate his government of what several centuries earlier had been the largest empire in the world.

Staging posts had been built at regular intervals along all of these smoothly-paved highways, where fresh riders and horses were permanently stationed, thus providing a reliable and speedy messenger service throughout what under Cyrus would become the Persian Empire. But if these roads were the very veins and arteries of the Empire, its heart and mind was the bureaucracy he’d established and housed within the Great Tablet House. In this huge complex of educational and administrative buildings Hammurabi had installed the whole tribe of the Magi as his court astrologers, teachers, scholars, archivists and bureaucrats; choosing the Magi specifically for the talents with which they were already particularly gifted; the result of their ages-long quest for knowledge.

The roads made trade safer and easier; and at the same time it facilitated troop movements, enabling the Great King’s armies to travel from any state in his fast-growing empire to any other state in a matter of several days, or at the most a few weeks, whereas similar journeys made before the King’s Highways were built had often taken several months. These roads were thus crucial as a means of social control for they allowed the ruler’s armies to quickly and easily reach any potential rebellion. At the same time the roads had increased the wealth which paid for the vast armies which had made the vast expanse of Hammurabi’s empire possible.

Indeed, it was accurately said that the Kings’ Highways were the net which had held first the Sumerian, and then the Assyrian Empires together; just as it now held the Persian Empire together, even though Cyrus had greatly extended her borders. Already, Sandanis now realized with a start, Cyrus had conquered more territory even than Hammurabi; and the King’s Highways now stretched unbroken as far north as the Hellespont; and almost as far south as the Sinai and now eastwards too, through Media and Persia. In spite of himself, Sandanis was very impressed at this marvel of both social and physical engineering.

But, as he supervised the blacksmiths, who were currently riveting heavy iron fetters onto the wrists and ankles of the surviving Sinopeans who were about to be sold off as slaves, Sandanis thought grimly, these roads would also make it much quicker and easier for Cyrus to reach us.

“No matter” he thought; “…we’ll be ready”.

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