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Boubakes (Bubaces). A faithful eunuch who remained with Darius III to the end of the King's life. He appears to have acted as an interpreter (C 5.11.4).
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Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire by Waldemar Heckel
The name "Boubakes" was used in the countries of the Middle East, Algeria, Yemen, Egypt, etc. So, I decided that perhaps he was from this area.
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"Fearing an ambush, Patron simply stares at Darius, who eventually sends the eunuch Bubaces to ask Patron what he wants (5.11.3). Via Bubaces the eunuch, Patron requests a private audience, which Darius grants.
Rufus, rather than having Patron simply approach Darius, concocts an elaborate chain that ends with the eunuch Bubaces escorting Patron to the king. Some might object that a Persian king using eunuchs to summon people was common practice, and nothing more should be read into Bubaces. That point is valid, historically. It is not Rufus’ common practice, however, to bother mentioning these banal episodes featuring eunuchs. Rufus does, however, explicitly mention Bubaces in this instance of Darius summoning Patron—a Greek who says that he and his men “have left Greece behind” (5.11.6). This statement is true on a geographical level, of course, but coupled with Patron’s description of himself in a way that correlates so perfectly to Rufus’ description of Persians a paragraph earlier, it takes on a more figurative meaning as well. After being escorted by Bubaces, the Greek Patron describes himself as Rufus’ stock Persian. Later that day, Darius is in his tent with only his eunuchs, including Bubaces.
He has no doubts that Patron’s concerns were valid but refuses to flee his own camp (5.12.10-11). Darius thanks the eunuchs for their steadfast service and tells them to save themselves. In response, “the eunuchs’ mournful cries filled not only the tent but the entire camp,” striking panic into the troops who “dared neither take up weapons for fear of meeting [the conspirators] nor remain inactive, in case they appeared guilty of impious desertion of their king” (5.12.13)."
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How the Eunuch Works: Eunuchs as a Narrative Device in Greek and Roman Literature
Dissertation By Christopher Michael Erlinger, B.A.
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"There was a great solitariness within Darius his lodging; for none remained about the King but a few Eunuchs, that had no place to repair unto. Then he (Darius) debated and devised with himself alone, sometime one thing, and sometime another; and anon he waxed weary of that solitariness, in which before he took a comfort, and called Bubaces unto him, whom he beheld, and said: "Go, provide for your selves, who, according to your duties, have been true to your Prince till the last hour; here I do tarry for the fatal Law of my destiny: Per adventure you do marvel that I do not end mine own life; I had rather dye through other men wickedness, then by mine own."
After these words, Bubaces filled both the Kings lodging, and also the whole Camp with mourning and lamentation; and divers brake into the place where Darius was, and tearing their cloths, bewailed his case with a great lamentation."
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THE LIFE & DEATH OF Alexander The GREAT, KING of MACEDON. IN TEN BOOKS, BY Quintus Curtius Rufus.
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2022-05-10 01:14:16 +0000 UTC