Aristarkes II

The Emperor of Gehennum in the early Classical Period. An aristocrat’s aristocrat, the very epitome of imperiousness, Aristarkes succeeded to the throne in 4738, when his father Hyrkanthes retired to the priesthood (see Four Lives). He was thirty-five years old.

The opposite in every way of his weak and spendthrift father, Aristarkes kept his council in hand, and dominated the Gerusia and Apella with firm purpose and political acumen. He married late, and for political reasons, and maintained only a small harem of concubines. Throughout his reign he eschewed pomp, and led society from the front rank, an arbiter of taste and fashion, patron of art and architecture.

Aristarkes died in 4792, aged 89, still emperor. In his will he left the signet to his eldest child, Hyrkanthes, son of a Ramastaarni concubine. He thus sowed the seed of the Civil War.


Copyright © 1991 by Brett Evill. All rights reserved.