Chapter 1 - The House of Kallias

Chapter 1 - The House of Kallias - Athens, 448 BCE

The goats had broken the fence again. Two goats stood in the olive grove, chewing as if it belonged to them. Νικίας shouted and waved a branch. His child voice cracked in the air. The goats were not scared of his size and did not move by the length of one finger - a δάκτυλος. The child, angry at their indifference, screamed louder, yet hesitated to approach them closer. Κάλλιας arrived. His shoulders were broad, tough, bearing the marks of the hard toil from the years that he bent over fields and on ships. He squinted at the sun, then at the boy...