The Death of Antinous || bxb ✔︎

EPILOGUS

Leonides had not been back in Rome in over three years.

After that fateful night on the Nile, he was dismissed from the Praetorian Guard and ordered to return to his legion. It wasn't long before tensions rose in Judea once again. The attack on the Imperial retinue in Athens had not been an empty threat. The second Roman-Jewish war was upon them.

All of the rebuilding Hadrian had done in the aftermath of Nero's war to assimilate the Jewish Temple to the Roman Imperial-cult, was meaningless. While the Roman Pantheon welcomed new gods from their conquered territories, monotheists like Jews and Christians, only recognized one. Hadrian's gifts and good intentions were not enough for those who demanded spiritual autonomy.

They had already lost over a thousand men and the war was far from over.

Through his valour, Leonides rose to the rank of General. It was in this capacity that he was able to take leave for a short period of time and return to Rome on personal business.

He rode north to Antioch, then west to Ephesus, sailed across the Aegean and travelled through Athens. Now he remembered why he was hesitant to leave his legion. Being on the battlefield was less painful than his past. Everywhere he went he saw his face.

It was carved into marble, stamped into coins. Even in the far reaches of the Empire and small villages he would find a statue of the boy, contrapposto, chin tilted, looking down on him with a sphinxlike smile.

When Hadrian had his young lover deified, everyone thought he had gone mad. A catamite from Bithynia a god? It was unheard of for a ruler to honour a male lover in this way. It was odd then that the person he despised most was the only one who understood him. Leonides created a temple in his heart. He could never speak freely of their love, but it burned fiercely within him, just as the incense did on those altars.

The cults that sprang up to worship Antinous were made in Hadrian's image. They were devoted but obsessed. First shrines and altars were dedicated to him in existing temples, then they built him his own temples and the cult spread across Rome to Athens, the Greek islands, Bithynia and of course Egypt. Hadrian founded Antinopolis in his name on the east bank of the Nile where he drowned.

Worshippers were as transfixed by his beauty as Hadrian had been. They held games in his honor every year, celebrating the male form, called the Antinoeia, and at night participated in wild orgies.

In Mantineria, a young priestess who worshipped at one of the more lavish temples was on all fours kissing the feet of his statue. She looked up at him adoringly like he might spring to life if she was faithful enough to stoke his passions. She noticed Leonides watching her and approached him about joining the temple. She told him to bring an offering of gold.

"Antinous doesn't much care for gold."

She folded her arms. "All gods care for gold."

"His tastes are quite simple actually. Some sweet meat and a kind word would do. Better yet, a fig and a song."

"And how would you know?" 

His chest heaved, burdened suddenly by the weight of his armor. "I knew him when he was alive."

She clicked her tongue and let out a high-pitched laugh. "Everyone from Rome claims to have met him. If I had coin every time I heard that!"

The priestess shooed him off the temple steps and told him not to come back until he brought an offering worthy of the sacred temple of Antinous.

In Rome, an obelisk not unlike the one they saw in Heliopolis was erected in the young god's honour. Carved on a tetrapylon were tondos depicting Hadrian and Antinous hunting together, their love elevated to myth. The sun pierced through the columns. He shielded his eyes. The closer he drew to Hadrian the more powerful Antinous' cult and the more keenly Leonides suffered.