IT's summer vacation time ... for our many thousands of Antinous devotees in the Southern Hemisphere ... and anyone who is interested in historical fiction in general and Antinous in particular should read this book by Ben Pastor, the award-winning Italian-American historian and author.
She knows more about Hadrian and Antinous than almost any other living expert.
Her historical novel THE WATER THIEF is an example of fine scholarly research, as are indeed all of her books.
This novel traces the efforts of Aelius Spartianus to discover the fabled LOST TOMB OF ANTINOUS.
Aelius
Spartianus is a true-life figure who did in fact write a biography of
Hadrian nearly 200 years after the death of Antinous.
Set
in the year 304 AD, it tells of this very literate Roman army officer
who is commissioned by Emperor Diocletian to do research on his
predecessor the Divine Hadrian, who had died nearly two centuries
earlier.
It
is while delving into the mystery of the death of Antinous and while
trying to learn the whereabouts of the Boy's tomb that the officer
stumbles onto evidence of a letter penned by Hadrian uncovering a covert
conspiracy to bring down the Empire ... a conspiracy that is still very
much at work in 4th Century Rome.
As
Spartianus comes ever closer to finding the answer to the death of
Antinous, the conspirators' efforts to thwart him become ever more
violent, resulting in numerous brutal murders and attempts on the
officer's life.
Pastor's
descriptions of Rome in the year 304 AD are superb. You get a real feel
for the teeming city in mid-summer, with all the odors and noise,
colors and steamy heat that that implies.
Best
of all, for those of us who love and worship Antinous, are the chapters
in which Spartianus ensconces himself in Hadrian's derelict villa
outside Rome.
It
is there, as he stares up into the stars at night, that he makes a
startling connection between the layout of the villa and the eight
visible constellations in the nighttime sky in late October when
Antinous died ... indicating that Hadrian's obsession with horoscopes
and astrology led him to create an earthly universe where time stood
still at the death of Antinous.
Did
Hadrian's belief in astrological fate compel him to have Antinous
killed? Or did Antinous take his own life in a bid to fulfill his
astrological fate?
Or
was it more mundane? Did he and Hadrian have a lovers' tiff that ended
tragically? Was he done in by young male rivals intent on gaining
Hadrian's affections for themselves?
Or
was something even more sinister at work? And why is someone desperate
to preventing the officer from finding out what happened to Antinous all
those years ago?
For
those of us who love Antinous, this book is a joy to read. Pastor works
in many small and obscure details which are well known to his
modern-day followers.
To give just one example, the Roman officer expends a great deal of effort trying to locate and decipher the OBELISK OF ANTINOUS which today stands in a park in Rome and is the focus of much current research in the 21st Century.
The
obelisk's key inscription, which is the focus of modern experts seeking
his tomb, says that Antinous "rests within the garden bounds of the
great lord of Rome".
Just
as today's researchers have puzzled over the meaning of that phrase,
Ben Pastor's protagonist must also make sense of it ... and he arrives
at a startling answer that almost costs him his life and jeopardizes
future of the Empire.
The
novel's characters are well drawn and the reader identifies with
Spartianus as he attempts to unravel this Gordian Knot while at the same
time pulling together the strands of his own personal life.
There
are numerous gay characters and they emerge as well-rounded and
believable characters, especially the flamboyant Egyptian gays who find
themselves unwittingly the target of unscrupulous killers in their very
midst.
The
tales of Antinous and Hadrian which unfold as the investigation
progresses are a true pleasure to read, if only because they are all so
contradictory and often far-fetched ... precisely as they are to today's
researchers.
Spartianus
must work his way through this thicket of tall tales and outright lies
and defamations in order to determine precisely what sort of persons
Hadrian and Antinous were ... in order to save the Empire two centuries
after their deaths.
One
of the more outlandish tall tales is told to Aelius by a Roman
transgender hustler named Cleopatra Minor who claims to have frequented a
notorious whorehouse which specializes in boys for aristocratic
customers whose villas line the Bay of Naples.
Cleo
claims it is "well-known there" that Antinous was a boy prostitute who
had just arrived from Bythinia and "had barely become accustomed to his
little bed" when Hadrian stopped by the whorehouse and took a fancy to
him.
There
are lots of other, equally intriguing characters in this book. But the
most intriguing character of all, of course, is the one character who
cannot take active part in the plot but whose presence is felt at every
turn of the plot:
Antinous himself.
Though
the 4th Century murders take center stage in the story, this book
actually is more concerned with telling the story of Antinous and
Hadrian and their abiding love affair which spans the gulf of the
centuries.
As
you read the novel, you get a growing awareness of Antinous as the
living, breathing, three-dimensional human being that he must have been
in life.
The
more Spartianus looks into the life of Antinous, the more he becomes
obsessed with the Blessed Boy. He simply has to find that tomb, even if
it means his death and the downfall of Rome.
We
won't give away the thrilling ending, except to say that, when
Spartianus finally "exchanges glances" with Antinous (in a manner of
speaking), Spartianus is overcome with emotion ... and the reader finds
it hard to hold back the tears.
CLICK HERE to order, but don't wait too long ... or the Water Thief will catch up with you.
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