Rome ruled the world. Caesar ruled Rome. Bread and circuses ruled the mob, and the bloody gladiatorial games ruled the people's decadent appetite for entertainment--bitterness ruled the heart of Ronicus, until a slave girl with fiery hair and a fiery heart taught him to fight--how to live--and again how to love.
Based on characters from "Rewriting History."
See if you can match the names with their K.P. equivalents: Middle-town, Iacomos Timotheus Possiblius, Anna Possiblius, Drusus Lipiscus, and his cousin Eduardo--or am I giving away the surprise?
Bear patiently with me, readers, as the story unfolds.
Ronicus The Gladiator, chapter one:
There was a bloody civil war, and Julius Caesar had finally emerged victorious. He planned great things for Rome, but he was ambitious. It was rumored that he wanted to be a king; and so he was assassinated in the very Senate building in Rome. There was another bloody war, and his nephew Octavian Caesar emerged victorious.
Octavian was shrewd. He let the Senate rule Rome as of old, content to be the power behind the power, content to merely be called the Prin Ceps, the First Citizen. He was a wise administrator. Peace and order was the way of Rome's new empire. They called it the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. He was renamed Caesar Augustus. Culture, learning, literature, art, and science flowered.
Rome practically ruled the world, from Germany in the north to Africa in the south, from Persia in the east to Spanish Iberia in the west, at the very edge of the world's land mass, at the shore of the great Ocean. In the northwest was Britain, land of the Celts, Rome's newest colony. It's capital was Londinium, what would one day be called London.
There was a small town outside Londiniun; it's Latin name is lost to history, but it was known by it's common name: Middle-town. A Roman lived there, Timotheus Lipiscus. He had Celtic slaves, which was not unusual, among whom were three young men, Iacomos, Drusus, and Eduardo, Drusus's cousin. He was unmarried and childless, and he grew to love the young men, not as certain rich idle men loved boys ("Perverts," he would growl with disgust) but as though they were his own sons. Eduardo displayed a talent for handling horses and driving the chariot. Timotheus Lipiscus made him a drover. The other two, however, displayed a knack for learning, especially of mathematics and science. He sought the most able tutors on the province, but his two young wards mastered all their curriculum. The last tutor solemnly advised him: "Master Lipiscus, these two are geniuses, prodigies. Young Iacomos, in particular, is a veritable Archimedes, a veritable Aristotle. It would be a crime against learning not to provide him with the finest schooling available. Let me be bold: for one of his ability and one of your wealth there can be only one possibilis, one possibility: the University of Alexandria." He emphasized the Latin word.
Lipiscus whistled. Alexandria was the seat of learning, greater than Rome, even greater than Athens; it was also at the other end of the Empire, in Egypt. It would take one many weeks of travel, either by boat or by road. He called Iacomos and Drusus to him. "My sons," he called them, for they were dear to him, "Your schoolmaster tells me that you are capable of greatness. I have no family, and the wealth of many men; to whom shall I leave it if not to you? You both are my future; I am told I should send you to Alexandria. It is my wish to take you to Alexandria. I have nothing here. I ask because you are like my own: could you bear to leave all that you have known?."
Both young men were speechless. Iacomos knelt and kissed Lipiscus's hand, speechless with gratitude. Drusus stammered, "My father--."
Lipiscus smiled. "It is settled."
Iacomos spoke up. "My father--there is one thing."
"Yes, my son?"
"There is a girl--I wish to marry."
Lipiscus grinned; this was delightful. "Does she also wish to marry?"
"Y-yes."
"Then let us meet this Siren who has captured your heart."
"She" was Anna, a Celt, the slave of another. Anna's master was a friend of Lipiscus, and was open to an offer, but Lipiscus wanted to talk with her himself.
Anna was a tall serene ruddy-haired beauty with eyes the color of a cloudless sky. She was known for her ability as a healer. "Lass, do you love this young scholar?" asked Lipiscus.
"Yes, master; he has taught me to read and write in both Greek and Latin, he reads to me from Socrates and Sophocles; but he often misplaces his tablet and stylus; he is very absent-minded."
It was true. "Would it please you to be his wife--to travel even to Egypt?"
"Egypt?" she said breathlessly. "Land of the Nile, of the Pharaohs?"
Lipiscus looked surprised.
"You see, master, Iacomos has taught me much; and yes, master, to be his wife would be a great honor."
And so before they left Britain, there was a wedding, an occasion of great joy.
There was also an official matter: manumission. "I grant you all your freedom. I travel far and many slaves are a useless extravagance. Those who stay will be given enough money to go where and do what they will, to buy land, home, to start a livelihood. Let those who accompany me do so out of heartfelt loyalty."
Anna and Iacomos were speechless. "It is my wedding gift to you," said Lipiscus.
Drusus and Eduardo bowed before their former master. "My cousin casts his lot with us, my father," said Drusus.
"It is well," said Lipiscus. "We will have need of his talents in our new home."
Drusus leaned toward his cousin, a large hulking man. "Follow my lead, cousin, and we will have the old man's wealth--and then we can acquire power," he whispered. Eduardo nodded. Drusus was the schemer; he was the doer.
"As freedmen, you must now have proper legal names," Lipiscus said.
"I will choose the name of my former master--as is customary," said Drusus Lipiscus; but he thought in his heart: someday there will be a new name; and there will be no remembrance of a former slave Drusus, or the kind-hearted fool Timotheus Lipiscus, or the fawning dog Iacomos. Eduardo was content with his own name.
"I will do likewise," said Iacomos.
"Not for you, my young mathematician," said Lipiscus with a wink. "For you I choose a new name, a symbolic name; because your future is so fraught with possiblis, with possibility, as your tutor said, let me, with your permission as a free man and scholar, coin a new name: Iacomos Possiblius."
Iacomos felt the tingles up and down his back; he unconsciously straightened. Anna gripped his hand; how proud she was of her new husband. "For love of you, my father, let me take your name, Timotheus; and when the gods have blessed us with sons--" Anna blushed "--we will bestow my name--and yours--on them."
"Iacomos Timotheus Possiblius; it is a good name, a blessed name. A new name for a new life; may the gods show favor to its bearer and all his house."
A little group boarded the ship in Londinium bound for the straits of Gibraltar, and from there to the ports of Marseilles, Sicily, Crete, and finally Alexandria.
Iacomos Timotheus Possiblius, the absent-minded mathematician-to-be, and his wife Anna, the healer, entered their new life in the glory of their love. Drusus Lipiscus and his cousin Eduardo went their way with hearts full of dark ambition, greed, and murder.
To Be Continued