Capua, 71 BC:
Aetius and his wife Hilaria heard the crying long be fore they found the tiny baby boy laying in the arms of the gravely injured woman at that lay at the foot of the cliff below the former villa of the lanista Batiatus. Seeing the gravely injured
woman and the child that, by the gods was unscathed Aetius and Hilaria hurried to her to see if she could be saved but it wasn't to be so. AsHilaria prayed to the gods for a quick and painless passing for the woman Aetius took the crying babe
from her, blood spattered arms and held him to his warm chest
"Quint-us... Sparta-cus.." The woman sputtered from bloody lips as he took the child from her as the light of life started to fade from her eyes. Tears collected in Hilaria's eyes as she watched the woman take one final breath and pass into the
afterlife, leaning against her husbands shoulder Hilaria looked at the tiny newborn in his arms and touched his tiny hand.
"It is a gift of the gods that this little one was killed from the fall from the villa above, the gods must have a special purpose for this one don't you agree Aetius?" She said as he laid the baby in her arms and closed the woman's death dulled
eyes as they stared blankly toward the heavens. Silently he nodded and stood to his feet then helped his wife to hers as she clutched the baby to her bosom as if he were their own and why not, for years they had been trying to conceive a child of
/their own with no luck. Maybe this was the gods way of giving them the child they had been praying for for so many years without reply or answer, this young one was without mother or father and they had more then enough love to give him.
"We should be on our way my dear wife, Paulusis expecting us at first light at his smithy shop on the first of the week or he will give the job to another that can be there on time." He said holding her close to his side and took off his cloak
and wrapped the babe in and discarded the bloody white clothe he was wrapped in as the woman held him. Nodding Hilaria quickened her pace to keep up with his long legged strides down the road to Pompeii, smiling at the baby that was to become their
/son after so many years of praying and sacrificingto the gods for a son to carry on her husband family name.
"Let us go my love, we have much farther to go in just a few days and it's not safe for a babe so little out her on the road he needs a roof over his head and milk in his belly." She said as they put distance between them and the ruined villa that
/once stood as the home of many of the most famous gladiators in all of Capua until they revolted and massacred everyone inside the villa that night. Laying her head against his shoulder they put the past and death behind them and made their way to
/a brighter future filled with prosperity and the love of a son tha they would love as their own even thought he wasn't blood.