Introducing Pallene to the Family Chapter 17.3

Family Dinner with Pallene

With everybody sitting around the dinner table, I introduced my fiancé to the family “Everybody this is Princess Pallene of Thrace who I am engaged to be married to.”  With Pallene already knowing everybody in the room, I only had to formally introduce my father Xanthippus.

At this point, Pallene piped in “Actually, Pericles, I already wrote my father and told him to register our marriage in Thrace.  After how well you have treated me and my vassals since I’ve met you, and how kind, caring and loving I’ve seen you be, I was certain that I didn’t need to wait until the end of the year or graduation from Athena Academy to know that I want to marry you.  You are currently next in line as the King of Thrace.” Shocking both my father and I.

After recovering my demeanor, I Raised my wine glass, proclaiming “Well in light of that, here is to a happy life together with me and another one of my beautiful and amazing wives!” prompting everyone to drink, especially my father…

After the toast, Taygete piped in “Pallene, did you know my brother is already married to two other women and potentially a third?”

Viewing Taygete between squinted eyes, I rebuked “What exactly are you trying to do Taygete?  Are you trying to stir up trouble with my wives?  By the way Pallene, Helen and Argia came over last night for dinner and informed us that they too had registered our marriages in Spata and Thebes.”

First simply congratulating me, she then turned to Taygete and replied “Yes, I know Helen and Argia well, and I can’t be happier knowing Pericles is marrying women that I get along well with.  It is very common for kings to take many women as wives and concubines in order to ensure the continuation of the bloodline.  My Father, the King of Thrace, though never having remarried has many women in his harem.  You should keep this in mind as you are marrying a man who will eventually be King of Sparta.” Which pretty much shut Taygete up as she became lost in contemplation.

Father then mentioned how he had seen Pallene before as a little girl when he fought side by side with her father who was posing as a mercenary leader as they battled barbarians together on the coasts of the Black Sea.

While Father was narrating his story the maids had brought in plates of baked Plaice cod fillets, which have a sweet, mild flavor and soft, tender texture, seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil, fresh oregano, thyme, and garlic, and served with grilled zucchini, eggplant, and bell peppers, which in turn were seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs alongside, which they set in front of everybody’s place. 

They also brought in a pan of comforting and nutritious Spanakorizo spinach and rice cooked together with olive oil, lemon juice, dill and parsley.

As dinner got well underway, Father asked me “Have you discussed with Helen and Argia about what their parents intend to do about dowries?”

Assessing my father, I replied “After dinner the three of us talked about several topics.  The first thing we discussed was being able to afford building a house.  If Thebes gave us the house that Argia is currently living in and is using as an embassy, that would work well.  It is right next to Pallene’s house and together with it, we would have the room to build a larger house, for us and the rest of my wives.  We’ll even build the new place in such a way that it would be able to serve as an embassy for both Thebes and Thrace.”

“Though we’ll need an architect and a general contractor to oversee construction, we’ll be able to reuse a lot of the stone blocks, lumber, ceramic roofing tiles and windows, doors and kitchen equipment out of those two houses.  With the lots of those two houses going all the way to the back of the block, we’ll also have a nice big yard, which I intend to plant and test new crop rotations on.  We can even keep most of the estate stone walls and gates with the two current houses being side by side.”

Turning to ask Pallene, I enquired “What do you think, would your Father, the King of Thrace, allow us to make use of that house that way, which is currently the embassy?”

Giving it some thought, Pallene concluded “Since you are now my husband, and Crown Prince of Thrace, you are currently the highest-ranking government official of Thrace in Athens and thus are the current ambassador. What you do with the embassy is your choice.  It is probably the same with the Thebes Embassy.”

Excited now, I continued “If that is the case, Father, I intend to build a house similar to this house in many ways, just bigger in order to accommodate my large family, and also to incorporate features needed by an Embassy.  You’ll have to let me know who the architect and general contractor were that oversaw the construction of this house.”

Father, proud at having his house complimented, quickly responded “That’s no problem, those guys are good friends of mine, I’m sure they would be happy to help.  The only real challenge you will face is getting your hands on soda ash, or producing it from trona ore, in order to bring the temperature down when making the glass for the windows.  I don’t think getting ahold of cullet recycled glass will be too much of a problem as people don’t understand how valuable it also is in bringing the melting point of new glass down, and most will sell it to you cheaply.”

At this point I turned to Pallene and continued with the next topic “I also discussed with Helen and Argia about having their fathers provide a building at a good commercial location in their capitals to serve as the first Alcmaeonidae General Store there, something similar to our store here in the Agora.  I would like to also have your Father provide something similar so we can open an Alcmaeonidae General Store in the capital of Thrace to facilitate trade between our countries.”

“Now that we are actually married, I fully intend to teach the people of Thrace our family’s advanced farming methods so they, as our allies, can grow their population and be able to sell the excess to Athens which always needs to import food.  This is actually a good time to do this because we are coming up on the fall planting season for winter crops.  So, we should confirm that your father is willing to receive an agricultural expert that currently works on our family farm to teach Thrace how to properly do crop rotation and use our advanced farming implements.  In fact, I thought the first products that we would sell to Thrace would be iron plows, hoes and spades, along with the necessary seed to plant the crops that they would be growing.  The people that we send would need to be paid a consulting fee to cover their time, travel and living expenses of course.”

Thinking intently, Pallene enthusiastically replied “After your explanation of crop rotation out in the gardens this afternoon, I can see how this knowledge and equipment could eliminate periodic starvations and create food security for the people.  I’ll write Father about the details of all of this at once.”

Focusing back on my Father, I continued “The next thing we discussed last night was that Sparta is likely to provide some part of Helen’s dowry in iron bars, which they use as currency.  If they send us those, they can easily be converted into plowshares, heads for hoes and spades to replace the scratch plows, and other flimsy wooden tools their current field hands are using.”

“I also discussed with Helen and Argia the idea of providing the dowry from Sparta and Thebes in the form of bovine, porcine, sheep or goat hides that we can process into all kinds of refined leather products like the components of a draft horse's harness, or even saddles and hardened leather cuirass armor.  One of the things I aim to do is add a leather processing component to the family business, that would make a whole host of consumer products from shoes, belts, bags, all the way to leather furniture.  You had recently discussed that you needed to thin the family’s herds of sheep, goats and cattle, which will result in a large number of cured hides.  I want you to sell those hides to me at the going wholesale rate with the understanding that I will pay you for them when I sell the finished products.”

Father began talking about how Grandfather Ariphron had wanted to replace some of the aging iron plows with upgraded, more resilient steel plows.  He then went on to tell me that he wanted enough iron for three plows and then complained that it would cost money to process all those plows, hoes and shovels.  What followed was a high paced negotiation between him and me where he agreed to provide all the other labor and materials to produce three plows for Sparta, Thebes, and Thrace each, and all the other hoes and shovels that needed to be produced in exchange for three of the steel plows and the components of the draft horse harnesses to pull them.

Suddenly remembering, I continued “Ooh, I wanted to let you all know.  I almost forgot to tell you; I’m pursuing marriage with Aspasia of Miletus and Cleobulina of Rhodes.  Though they are more than willing, both of their fathers are putting up irrational barriers, which leads me to believe there is some kind of politics unfolding in the shadows.  I probably won’t be able to get a commitment out of them until, at the earliest, next Spring.  We should still construct three sets of plows, hoes and spades for both of them as well, and if we receive additional orders, we can fulfill them with those and just make more…”  Though I finished with a big smile, father was visibly flustered.

As Dinner wound down, I asked Aethusa if she would accompany Pallene and I tonight. Alcyone told her that it would be a good chance to get to know Pallene better, and not to worry about helping to clean up from dinner since she and the maids would take care of it.