2005-09-01

Chapter Two

I have killed Haxâmanish.

Actually, I have written how Ienheru (Inaros) killed Haxâmanish (Achaemenes) and took over Papremis.

That closes IONs A, B, C and D, with about some 18,500 words of first draft, where I know there's a lot missing, and a whole lot that will be cut out...

It's been pretty interesting so far... Actually, it's been extremely interesting. I have learned loads of incredible stuff about people that have amazed me, and about those cultures that hosted them, the incredible Hellenic culture, through Athens and the League of Delos; the amazing Achaemenid Persian culture, and the hundreds of cultures that surrounded it---how much have I missed until now!---and the Egyptian culture, which, I must admit, I am still exploring... With so much Egyptian mystical thingies going around in the world, about the far Bronze Age dinasties, it's hard to find info about the Achaemenid Egypt, but I'll do my best to do a fair enough job for them---after all they are the stars of the book, sort of!---, if not in the first draft, in the next revisions.

What's coming now, you may be wondering? I'll tell you: more research, more thinking, and the arrival of the Delian League ships to Egypt from Cyprus, the fight up the Nile until Memphis, and the victory over the Persians in Memphis, except for the White Castle... That's, roughly, IONs E, F, G and H, and together with the ones already written, will be Part I.

Wordcount guessing update: 1/2 Part I ~ 18,500 => Part I ~ 37,000 words. If the nest two parts are like this one, that will make about 111,000 words. Add the words of the Prelude and the Conclusion, which are about 1/4 of a part (2 IONs) and we'll get around 120,000 words for the first, under-researched, under-developed draft...

Not bad... :-)

But we'll see along the path... In the meantime, I'm enjoying some sailing time around the coasts of sunny, lovely Cyprus. (I mean, that's what my Delian League characters are doing on the novel, I wish I could be sailing around Cyprus!!!)

sigh... :-)

En fin, in the meantime, I'd like to thank all of you (yes the 5 of you) that have been following this adventure, for your warmful company, and your unvaluable help... Thank you, really. Let's go on with this, shall we?

Kallisti!

4 comments:

Gabriele Campbell said...

Good luck with it. Sounds as if you're going to get your chickens in a row.

I wish I could give more helpful information, but the setting of your NiP isn't a time I know much about. I'm waiting for your Visigoth book. :)

Excalibor said...

Thanks! :-)

Alaric will come later on. With all the things I do as well as writing, I wouldn't multitask in two novels very well... But it will come, it's a fascinating story I need to tell.

Don't be a stranger, nevertheless ;-)

xibalba said...

Sounds as if your really far along into your book. So congrates.

In the book I sent you there isa translation of an inscription from the Heraium of Samos that indicates a victory at Memphis in which some Persian / Phoenician ships were sunk or captured

xibalba said...

Oops! posted too soon!

Sounds as if your really far along into your book. So congrates.

In the book I sent you there isa translation of an inscription from the Heraium of Samos that indicates a victory at Memphis in which some Persian / Phoenician ships were sunk or captured, and in another inscription Inaros awarded Leocritus, the Samian General a prize.

I would say that te reason that Inaros needed the Delian Fleet was because he needed to isolate the "White Walls" of Memphis from contact with the outside world and didn't have the naval forces to do so without outside help. I have no idea if the victory at Memphis was over local Persian naval forces, say unitsfrom upper Egypt or over forces trying to breakthrough from Phoenicia to break the seige or of forces trying to stop a Egyptian / Greek advance on Memphis.

Its my understanding that the city of Memphis itself was not well fortified, and so the garrison would have, probably quite sensibly, withdrawn into the Citadel, the "White Walls".

We have no idea who the comander of the garrison was, he must have been a tough cookie, along with his men, given that he withstood a seige of probably more than two years. I wonder if he was a relative of Megabyzus or perhaps a native Egyptian? The native Egyptian thing is less likely given that the Persians ussually gave such commands to Persians / Medes.

As I indicated earlier it appears that efforts to isolate the Persians and their Greek supporters failed. It appears that the Upper Egyptians continued to support the Persians. Perhaps here is room for some stuff about tension between Lybians and Egyptians and between Lower and Upper Egyptians?

Or perhaps a description of a failed attempt to penetrate upper Egypt.

Just some thoughts.

Pierre