Syphax

Syphax, a character in the A Courtesan of Rome book, was your bodyguard and one of your love interests. He is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Syphax has brown eyes, short black hair and dark skin. He wears Roman armor.

Personality
Syphax is calm and patient. He hates cruelty and avoids violence if possible. He's also brave, caring, selfless and loyal.

Background
In a premium scene in Chapter 1, Syphax tells Main Character about his origins. He came from Numidia, country in North Africa. He originated from a family of farmers. After his father took a part of uprising, Syphax was incorporated into Roman legion. Since then he had no contact with his family, so he proposes Main Character to pray together in their families' memory. In Chapter 4, after the hunt, Syphax continues his story. His parents were farmers, and the family was poor, because their ancestors had arisen against Rome earlier, and Romans held the grudge that passed for another generation. If you ask him why did he leave Numidia, he repeats that was a punishment for his parents' uprising, but for him it was rather a chance of a lifetime - like traveling to gods. If you ask him instead about his childhood, Syphax tells you that he used to help his parents working on the field, but he also had a lot of free time; he also tells you that he had four sisters. In a premium choice, if you choose to take a walk with him through the woods, he adds more details about what happened to him before joining legions. As a young boy he used to hunt animals in the wilderness to provide meat for his family. When he turned 14, he started to leave his house to travel, sometimes alone and sometimes hired by caravans, and the older he grew, the further he used to travel. Once he spent a year on the desert with a caravan. He went also to Egypt, where he took part in crocodile hunt for venatio (fight between gladiator and a beast). Syphax tells you that hunting crocodiles was a challenge, giving him satisfaction from pushing himself to his limits, but venatio itself was nothing but cruel slaughter.

Series/Book: A Courtesan of Rome

 * Chapter 1: A Princess of Gaul
 * Chapter 2: Crossing the Rubicon
 * Chapter 3: The Aid of the Gods
 * Chapter 4: The Hunt
 * Chapter 5: Red-Handed
 * Chapter 6: Marked
 * Chapter 8: The Goddess of Watching
 * Chapter 10: Snakes in the Grass
 * Chapter 11: Trial By Combat
 * Chapter 12: Raising The Stakes
 * Chapter 13: Bread and Circus
 * Chapter 15: Best Served Cold
 * Chapter 17: A Life for a Life
 * Chapter 18: The Die is Cast
 * Chapter 19: A Warrior's Death
 * Chapter 20: The Liberators
 * Chapter 21: The Ides of March

Main Character
Syphax is the Main Character's bodyguard and one of her love interests. Even as just a friend, he is devoted enough to her to take the blame for murder in her place. He tells her that he will not stand in her way when she has to do what must be done. In Chapter 17, he tells Victus that if one of them must die in the arena, he wants it to be himself as he was willing to die for Arin before and would rather die than have her hate him for killing her father. Even if Main Character does not pursue him romantically, he tells Victus that he loves her.

In Chapter 18, she is confronted with the choice of trying to free either Syphax or Victus. If she chooses to free Syphax and succeeds with the help of her reputation, he will be freed immediately. They can also go swimming together in a premium scene. He tells her that he has always supported her but didn't truly understand her hatred towards Rome until he became a gladiator. In Chapter 19, he will then sit in the audience when Main Character has to fight in the arena. If he is not free, he will train her and fight in the arena together with her and will be freed after winning.

In Chapter 21, Syphax and Main Character are attacked by Roman soldiers and can fight them together. He tends to her when she gets wounded. If she chooses to be with him at the end of the book, she can tell him that she either wants to go to Gaul with him and restore her tribe together, take care of the scholae, or travel with him to Numidia.

Lena
Lena is his boss. Their relation is based on mutual respect and trust. When Syphax is imprisoned, Lena is truly pained with loss of one of her best subordinates. She and Main Character try to make a plan to save him.

Xanthe
Syphax was once Xanthe's bodyguard, and she gave him hard time with her whims and arrogance. He didn't like the way she used to treat her patrons, as if they were tools. According to him, Xanthe was always her own worst enemy. In Chapter 20, Lena orders him to escort her to her ship to Sicily. When she refuses to leave, he has to usher her out of the scholae.

Family
Depending on questions you ask Syphax, you get different fragments of his story. His parents were farmers, and young Syphax helped them working on the field. His father wanted him to follow his footsteps, but Syphax hated this kind of work, so they fought a lot. Syphax had four sisters, but wasn't very close to them, because their father wanted his son to spend more time with the other men. We don't know names of Syphax's parents and sisters, neither do we know whether the sisters were older or younger than their brother. After joining Roman legions, Syphax lost contact with them.

Trivia

 * He is shown on the cover of A Courtesan of Rome.
 * It's mentioned many times that Syphax comes from Numidia, historical country on the territory of today Algeria. The capital of Numidia was called Cirta (today Constantine).
 * If you decide to make prayers with him in Chapter 1, it's revealed that he worships Great Mother Isis.
 * Watching him during the games, Cassius states that he fights like a trained legionary, unaware that Syphax was actually a legionary once, what's mentioned several times in the book.
 * In Chapter 4, asked by Main Character if he wants to return to Numidia, he states Never. Rome is when I want to be. However, in the Chapter 21, if Main Character wants to go with him to Numidia, Syphax is eager to do it.