Perseus feels floaty, as if he's been suspended in the ocean. The water makes his hair float around his head, but his skin was dry. He hears the whispers again. A man was praying that Perseus would grant him safe and swift passage along the coast of Italy. At first things are dark, then the man filled an oil lamp and the lantern lit up the space around him. Perseus can see the man and the small shine he is kneeling in front of. The shrine is no larger than a cupboard and holds a plank with the lantern below a painting of a young man surrounded by crab shells that have been cemented to the wall like a border of a painting.
Perseus stared at his shine silently until the oil runs out and Percy awoke once more.
At breakfast, Percy stared into the mid distance for a while. "What's wrong Perseus?" Marcella asked.
"I… think someone made a shrine and prayed to me last night." Percy responded. Movement around the table stopped, including the very confused Lars. Percy belatedly realized he never told the Pliny family Lars that he was a demigod.
"Wait, let me get my quill and a scroll. I want to write this down!" Gaius said, rushing off. That was not helpful.
Marcella sat down next to him, "This seems to worry you. Was the shrine not to your liking?"
What a bizarre question, "The shrine was fine? I'm a demigod, Marcella, we don't hear prayers. That doesn't happen. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about it. I can't control the waves in Gaeta when I'm in Rome, and I don't want to move to Gaeta just because someone prayed to me."
"Did they ask you to move to Gaeta?" Marcella asked.
"Well, no," Percy admitted.
Marcella handed him a handful of raisins. As Percy ate, he started feeling more human, or maybe just less hungry, hard to tell.
"Sometimes when I pray, I do not expect anything of the gods, I just want someone to listen. Gods are pretty good listeners."
"I can probably do that," Percy said eating another raisin, "and when I make better ships, it'll keep people safer in their sea travels."
Marcella patted Percy on his knee as Gaius rushed back into the dining room with his writing supplies. "Okay, tell me everything!"
.
"Tacitus, hello again!" Percy said as he walked across the square toward the senate building.
The roman man looked up. Tacitus was holding an empty scroll, a quill and a writing tablet. He seemed quite surprised to see Percy.
"Perseus, what a surprise it is to see you again. And Gaius Plinius Secundus, it is good to see you as well," Tacitus said in Greek.
Gaius waved and Tacitus fell in line next to the two of them as they walked.
"Perseus, I am not sure if you are aware, but only senators are supposed to wear a large purple stripe on their toga. If you are coming to listen to the senate debate, they may see your toga as presumptuous," Tacitus said in Greek.
Gaius grinned, "Perseus is a senator! The Augustus himself appointed him to the senate."
Tacitus looked at Percy, then at Gaius, then back at Percy. "Surely you gest. Perseus does not seem old enough to have been tribune for ten years. Last we spoke, you did not speak any Latin."
"Perseus is very smart," Gaius grinned. Percy was pretty sure that was the first time someone other than Percy's mom had ever said that about him. He was learning Latin pretty quickly though. Something about the language clicked in Percy's mind in a way that was hard to describe. It wasn't as automatic as ancient Greek, but still felt demi-god related.
"I have learned a bit of Latin," Percy agreed, "and I don't actually plan to talk much at these meetings, so it should be fine."
When they got to the senate house, many people wearing the purple-striped togas were milling about in the square chatting. Marcella had given Percy a crash course in how to be polite in Roman society. Shaking hands, standing when someone introduces themselves or wishes to speak to you, remembering everyone's full name (this was never going to happen, Romans had too many names), and being very reserved in your body language (a near impossible challenge but Percy will try his best).
Percy enters the senate building. It's a large rectangular hall with ornately tiled floor and painted walls. On either side of the long room are five rows of chairs, with each row sitting a little higher than the one in front of it. Light filters in through the large windows on the second story of the hall.
On the far side of the room is a single chair, behind which was a gold statue of a woman with large wings. It looked like a statue of an angel to Percy, but seeing as Christianity was a weird cult at the moment, he was guessing it probably wasn't an angel. There are four statues of Roman-looking men placed in little shrines in the walls, and Percy recognizes them as four previous rulers of Rome including Jullius Ceasar and Titus' dad.
People mingle but largely ignore Percy, which is great because Percy makes his way to the far corner of the room and tries not to bring any attention to himself. Domitian enters and gives Percy a little wave before going to sit in the front row. Soon enough the room fills up with over three hundred men. Percy's neighbors give him strange looks but don't comment.
Then Augustus Titus enters in his fully purple robe and laurel crown. He is flanked by Tiberius Alexander on his right and another guard on his left. The assembled senate fall quiet and take their seats. Percy can't lie: Titus looks very regal. The Augustus takes his place on the throne beneath the statue of not-an-angel.
Titus starts the meeting by welcoming Percy directly. All 300+ pairs of eyes in the senate house turn to him and Percy waves awkwardly. Several of the senators look at him in distaste. The following three hours were predictably boring. Percy often lost track of what people were talking about. Percy can understand most casual conversations in Latin at this point, but long debates about money and law and ethics are a bit too much. Percy mostly focuses on trying not to fall asleep.
He'll have to bring some paper next time so Percy can draw ships, or at least doodle.
Near the end of the meeting, Titus goes over the plans for the opening of the Flavian Amphitheatre and the 100 days of games to celebrate. The games will start soon, on the first on May. Senators stomp their feet in support. Titus goes over some of the attractions and preparatory work the Imperial house has done. He has paid for food and merchants from around the empire to be brought to Rome. He has also brought lions, ostriches, elephants and hyenas for shows in the theatre. Over one hundred gladiators have been brought to Rome for gladiator fights. Finally, the bathes of Titus will also be opening; a new public bathing facility not far from the Flavian Amphitheatre.
Several senators offer to contribute to the games by financially supporting one or another attraction. A handful of senators offer to set up tents and other forms of temporary housing to help support the influx of visitors in Rome. A few more offer to pay for a theatre groups to hold performances. Titus thanks them each individually.
Percy stands up. People don't notice at first because he is in a far corner, but Percy can be loud when he needs to, "Titus Vespasianus Augustus, the ship models my crew and I are building will be finished by the end of the 100 days of games. If it would please the Senate, I could publicly discuss the improvements to ship design and demonstrate the function of the models."
Titus accepts and thanks Percy in the same way he thanked all the other senators who offered to contribute. Percy sits back down. There's muttering around the senate. After twenty more minutes of senators offering to contribute, the senate meeting is finally over and Percy is the first out the door.
Freedom!
.
Captain Valerius asks Percy if they might have the day off tomorrow for the opening of the colosseum and the first day of games. It belatedly occurs to Percy that he is technically the boss of his little boat-building crew, and that he hasn't really given anyone any vacation days. Man, Percy is a shitty boss.
"Yeah, of course. I was also planning to take the day off. Go enjoy the games. Feel free to take off more days during the celebrations, just let me know the day before so we can plan around it." Percy says.
Captain Valerius, woodworker Gaius and ship-builder Trios were a lot happier for the rest of that day. Percy and his crew were building a larger ship model with three masts. Right now, only the skeleton of the boat is complete. Percy is working on designing a proper stern and rudder for her.
When Percy had first explained the concept of a ship skeleton a few months ago, his men had been hesitant but now they all agreed that setting up a skeleton helped keep the ship intact and well proportioned. They'd built a keel that acted as the backbone, then the frames were added like ribs, then an inner keel was added and nailed together with the first keel to keep everything in place. Finally, a bow and stern were added to complete the skeleton.
Trios had been particularly impressed. He'd spent at least half a day muttering to himself, wondering why he'd never thought of that. Do you know how much trouble it would have saved to have a skeleton built first, instead of just building up from the hull and hoping things stayed symmetrical? Percy had just laughed.
.
The whole city was celebrating the opening of the Flavian Amphitheatre. The forum and the market square are full of vendors selling food. There are more people in Rome than Percy has ever seen- he wondered where everyone was staying. People are wearing their best clothes, short of wearing togas, and there are multiple events being held throughout the city.
There are horse races in the big racetrack near to where Neptune's horse shrine was located, the Circus Maximus. Priests were holding sermons, leading prayer and sacrificing olive oil, incense or animals to the gods. Several theatre troops around Rome were holding performances, politicians were giving speeches at the forum to variably interested crowds, and of course the main attraction: the colosseum!
When Percy had accidentally called it the colosseum instead of the Flavian amphitheater, Gaius had been a bit confused and asked if he meant the Colossus – the giant bronze statue of Emperor Nero standing next to the amphitheater. Percy had just said yes, that is definitely what I meant.
Apparently, the opening ceremony of the colosseum/amphitheater will involve gladiators fighting lions. Percy isn't super interested in watching badly armored people hurt hungry animals for sport, but Gaius begs Percy to join him until Percy agrees. Still, Percy is relieved when the guards stop him near the Colosseum and tell him the amphitheater is already full and that they can come back another time.
Gaius and Percy go watch the chariot racing instead. Go Green team! The chariots were pulled by a team of four horses. They were pretty good horses, so Percy could see why people honored them in his father's shrine. When he has time, Percy should go talk to them to see if they're being treated alright.
After the races, they go watch a play in the theatre of Pompey. Percy wasn't super impressed by the play they watched. The play only had three actors and they all wore masks that were a bit too uncanny-valley for Percy's taste. The story, as far as Percy can understand it, basically went like this:
Roman Play!
Dude: Woe is me! I am in love with a prostitute, and we can never get married!
Pimp: Yup. According to the law, no marriages allowed.
Dude: This is a great tragedy for me, the man not being sold as a prostitute against my will, and not for anyone else.
Soldier-friend: Hey Dude. How are you? I just got this letter but I'm too stupid to read it. Can you help?
Dude: I am too sad for friendship!
Soldier-friend: Ok? Bye.
Dude' Dad: Oh man, that prostitute who is young enough to be my daughter sure is hot.
Dude' Mother: I am comically upset by this and will chase you around with a broom. Then immediately forgive you for trying to cheat on me.
Dude: Woe is me. Let me give a ten-minute speech about how hot this girl is and how that definitely means we should get married. If only she wasn't a prostitute. I am so sad.
Soldier-friend: You're right Dude. You are the saddest person is the universe. Can't think of anyone else in this scenario who is in a worse position than you: a wealthy Roman man who is (and Percy cannot stress this enough) not a young girl being sold into prostitution against her will. Anyway, can you read this letter?
Dude: This letter from your father says you have a long-lost sister who was accidentally sold into slavery as a baby and he's been looking for her ever since. She also has a very convenient birth mark. Oh my god, it's the prostitute I met like twice and am completely in love with! This solves all my problems!
Pimp: Yup this letter checks out. You can marry her now.
Dude: Yay!
Girl: Yay?
The end!
Quite frankly, Hamilton was better.
Quite frankly, Cats was better, but only the play not the live action movie version. Roman theatre was not quite a Broadway level production. Percy is also frankly concerned that Gaius thinks this is a great love story. Gaius starts to talk about the poetic structure of the love soliloquy, and Percy just nods and smiles because he doesn't know any of the things Gaius is talking about.
It had gotten dark during the theatre production and the theatre of Pompey was a bit further away from the Plinius domus than the colosseum was. They are walking home from the theatre eating a handkerchief full of roasted nuts when three shifty young men cross the street toward the two of them. Percy clocks them right away and positions himself between the young men and Gaius. This is my friend, no touchy.
The three men try to surround Percy and Gaius. The gruffest of the men motions for his to friends to stay left as he moves right. Percy turns around abruptly letting Gaius keep walking. "Can I help you?" Percy asks.
One of the young men is so startled he drops his dagger. Man, if Chiron saw such terrible weapon handling, he'd be so disappointed. Percy kicks the dropped dagger away while the other two men pull out their daggers. "Come on rich boy, we don't want any problems," says Mr. Gruff.
"You have a really bad way of going about not wanting problems. Someone could easily misinterpret your intentions, what with the daggers and all," Percy responds.
"Perseus?" Gaius asked, finally noticing Percy wasn't next to him anymore.
"Just hand over your coin purse and no one needs to get hurt."
"Hmm, let me think about it. No," Percy said.
"Is something wrong?" Gaius asked. His voice sounded closer, and a quick glance told Percy that Gaius had turned around and was walking back to Percy.
"Look, guys, how about you just drop your daggers and walk away. We can all forget this ever happened?" Percy said.
Mr. Gruff steps forward, slashing his dagger close to Percy's face. Percy steps out of the way easily. "Or how about you give us your purse while you can still—" In that moment, Mr. Gruff's friend points his dagger at the confused Gaius and Percy's mood shifts.
My. Friend.
No. Touchy.
A bit further down the street an aqueduct that passes over the roadway overflows. Perseus reaches forward and snaps the man's wrist with a twist. A second dagger falls to the ground and Perseus kicks it into the gutter. Then he continues to twist until the man is on his knees, screaming and demanding that Perseus lets him go. Mr. Gruff goes for an attack, trying to stab Perseus from the side. Perseus sidesteps and pushes the kneeling friend toward Mr. Gruff. Friend number two, who had already dropped his dagger earlier, tries to grab Perseus so Perseus punches him in the gut so hard he collapses gasping for breath.
Perseus walks forward. Mr. Gruff looks scared and his dagger wavers. Then his eyes shift to a weaker target, Gaius. He turns his blade toward Perseus' friend. A mistake. For a moment Perseus thinks about drowning the man or ripping his face off. He could. Easily.
Percy blinks and shakes the thought away. What was that?
He then sweeps the man's left foot and sends him tumbling to the ground long before he could get within arm's reach of Gaius. Percy picks up Mr. Gruff's dagger and steps on his hand painfully. "You should have just walked away," Percy said, "Now we're going to have to call the guard and it's going to be a whole thing!"
They do call the guard. Due to the games, the city guard is patrolling more often than normal and it only takes a few minutes to find a pair of guards to take the three men away. The city guard are not quite police as they don't actually investigate any crimes, but they do arrest and/or hit people who are caught stealing, stabbing or starting riots. So, they're like Ancient Roman pre-police. At first the guard don't believe that Percy took them out by himself, but an old lady from the third-floor apartment across the street was sitting on a balcony and loudly yells down to the guard what happened.
Old ladies are apparently the ancient Roman equivalent to CCTV. Nice.
After the guard take the men away, Gaius spends the rest of the walk telling Percy about how Percy defeated the three wannabe muggers as if Percy hadn't been there. "And then you were all- whoosh!- And then -Bam!- and then the guy was on his knees and it was so amazing! I've never seen anything like it!"
.
Marcus Annius Afrinus was sitting in the back of the senate hall next to the newest and youngest member of the senate. At first, Marcus thought the young man was taking notes on the meeting, but then he saw that the boy was instead drawing pictures of boats and completely ignoring the discussion on the senate floor. He seemed completely uninterested in trying got prove himself as a capable member of the senate.
The senate moves on to a new potential law that would re-introduce Augustus-era laws that executed woman who cheated on their husbands. The law had fallen out of favor decades ago as men tended to want to deal with matters of infidelity privately with discussion or divorce. Marcus doubted it would pass today. Though senator Celsus, the old bitter man, argued that it would bring back core Roman values.
Surprisingly, Perseus stood up and walked to the podium to speak. The young senator argued, in very accented and basic Latin, that if they wanted to pass a law executing woman who cheated on their husbands, they would also need to execute men who cheated on their wives. Men should either be held to the same ethical standard as woman, or they must acknowledge that woman are morally superior and should therefore be the ones passing laws instead. A ridiculous argument, of course, but it did point out the ridiculousness of this law and made Marcus chuckle.
A few other senators chuckled, while more grumbled at the veiled insult.
"And just to clarify," Perseus continued, "Sleeping with prostitutes counts as cheating on your wife. So, if a member of the city guard sees a married man enter a brothel, they would have to be executed."
Shouting erupted from the senate. Men who were usually reserved in their speech stood up and shouted at the absolute audacity of this boy. Sleeping with a prostitute was not the same level of crime as a woman cheating on her husband! What did this child know of married life? He was all but accusing the senate of basal plebian vices, how dare he?
Senator Celsus, the bitter old man, stands up and turns to Perseus, "I would recommend you keep your foreign, barbaric, thoughts to yourself, boy. Your stupid words are not fit to be heard within these halls." Hundreds of senators stomp their feet in support. The Augustus looked alarmed.
Perseus seems unbothered and waits for some of the foot stomping and muttering to subside before responding, "I agree that I sound quite stupid, Senator. In my defense, I am fifteen and only started learning Latin five months ago. What's your excuse for sounding like a moron?" More yelling broke out. Marcus muffles a laugh. The young man was clearly not educated in proper Roman rhetoric, but one couldn't deny he had wit.
Titus put an end to the yelling and reminded the senate that discussions must remain about the law being discussed and should not be attacks on the person giving the arguments. The senate calmed down. Though Marcus noticed Celsus had a sour look on his face for the rest of the day. In the end, the law was not recommended by the Senate. He knew many of his fellow senators were sleeping with each other's wives and would not want to recommend any law that would endanger their lovers or expose their private affairs should their wives be caught in another's bed.
After the senate meeting was over, Marcus had to jog to catch up with Perseus, who had quickly left the building. "Persues! One moment, if you please," Marcus called out as he caught up. "I wanted to invite you and your wife to dinner tomorrow, if you have no prior engagements?"
"Oh," Persues said, "I'm not married. I can come to dinner though. What was your name senator?"
"Marcus Annius Afrinus," Marcus introduced himself then gave directions to his house, "My wife and I would be honored to host you."
"Oh, yes. I would also be honored to, uh, have dinner," Persues stuttered. It was once again clear to Marcus that the young man had never been trained in rhetoric. Still, Marcus smiled and shook Perseus' hand before excusing himself and walking home. Tomorrow night would be interesting, if nothing else.
.
Marcus and his wife Drucilla welcomed Perseus into their home. Marcus has his slaves bring dinner as Drucilla starts a discussion about philosophy. Perseus laughs a bit, "I'm not much of a philosopher, I'm afraid. And I can't say I agree with Stoic philosophy."
"No?" Drucilla asked, "You don't think one should guard their soul from vices and focus of logical, rational thought? Via thought, we can identify good and evil and choose to do right. Thought is what makes us human and separates us from mere beasts."
"I would disagree. While thought is important, love is a big part of being human. My emotions are as much a part of who I am as my thoughts are. Sometimes the best way to identify evil is because it just feels wrong, even if it is logically sound. Maybe I'm just not suited for Stoic philosophy, I have way too many emotions," Perseus says.
"How would you identify evil, Perseus, if not by use of logic?" Drucilla asks.
"I don't know about evil, but you can usually get a pretty good feeling for who someone is by how they treat those they consider beneath them," Perseus says.
"What does the Augustus think of your philosophy?" Marcus asks.
"I have no idea. I haven't spoken about philosophy with him. I haven't spoken to him much at all really."
"No?" Marcus asked, "So those rumors of him being your lover are false?"
Perseus looked disgusted, "Very false. That man is old enough to be my father. Gross. Why does everyone in Rome think I'm sleeping with everybody?"
"Is he your father?" Marcus asked, evading the question.
"Also no," Perseus says easily, "is that why you invited me to dinner? To get gossip?"
Drucilla laughed, "He sees right through you, my love." Marcus shares a smile with her.
"I'll admit I was curious if the rumors were true. You are the most interesting thing that has happened in the senate in years. But gossip is not my only motivation. I wanted to invite you to my home to welcome you to the senate. I myself was born in a provincial equestrian family, so I do understand some of the prejudice established senators can have toward new members of the patrician," Marcus explains, "I was given some advice when I first joined that I thought to pass down to you, though your circumstances seem quite different."
Marcus gives the young man advice about senatorial politics, advises him to establish a network of friends, to take lessons in rhetoric, and to not get too closely involved with the Augustus or his heirs.
"You don't like Titus?" Perseus asked. Marcus had to think for several seconds before realizing the boy spoke of the Augustus himself. Marcus did not know anyone who would dare speak of the Augustus by only his first name instead of his titles, save perhaps the Ceasar. He wondered once more if the boy was the Augustus' lover.
"By all accounts, Titus Ceasar Flavius Vespasianus Augustus has adapted very well to his new role and makes a wonderful Augustus. But in Rome, the closer one is to power the more likely they are to be assassinated. One becomes Augustus via blood; either the blood of your family or the blood of your victims. If you share no blood with the Augustus, it is best to be content with the honorable life of a senator and not to get too close to the purple," Marcus said.
Perseus considers this for a while. "Can you tell me about the year of the four Augustus'?" Perseus asked, "Did you swear allegiance to all the Augustus'?"
"Of course I did," Marcus agrees easily. Perseus frowns at this. "If I had not, I would have been executed. I suppose at fifteen, you must have been born right after the civil war ended." Marcus feels old for a moment, being in his mid-fifties himself, "Back then, it did not matter who won, as long as someone won and ended the civil war.
During the war, troops moved away from our borders to fight each other. The villages and cities along our borders were raided by violent barbarians. Each man that took the Purple had to reward his troops; halfway through the year Rome's treasury was empty and the Augusti that followed had to convince senators to pay their troops, else the troops would have revolted and burned down our cities and houses. Each new Augustus had the top supporters of the previous administration executed for treason. One third of the senate died that year. I grieved many friends, but I grieved in silence.
Ultimately, it matters very little who ascends to the Purple, as long as someone is unquestionably in charge. For the most part, Roman generals control their legions while Roman governors control their provinces. Even Vitellius, incompetent man that he was, made a passable Augustus, for he had many advisors and hundreds of senators to aid him.
No one will call me a brave man. No songs will be sung of my heroic feats. But I can mediate complex disputes, speak four languages, have studied the laws of Rome, and can balance a provincial budget. In short, I am a senator. My job and my position have allowed me to hire good doctors when my children fell ill, to ensure that my daughters marry respectable men and that my sons have respectable careers of their own.
So yes. I pledged allegiance to each new man to assume the Purple. All senators are trained in rhetoric. We understand empty praise is just business and serves as a demonstration of a willingness to cooperate. The current Augustus seems like an honorable man, Perseus, but I have yet to find an Augustus worth dying for.
Wars are bloody, terrible things. Sometimes the best you can do is survive them. Let us hope you never have to live through one."
Perseus considered this, frowning. "I think you're wrong about that. I couldn't just stand by and let a bad man attain such power, even if fighting back would cost me my life."
"Then you are a braver man than I, and would surely have died very quickly," Marcus responds.
"Do you know what happened to Titus and Domitian's uncle, Sabinus?"
"You should really be careful of addressing the Augustus and Ceasar Domitian with such familiar names. People may misunderstand your relationship," Marcus chides. Then he takes a sip of his wine. He notices that the young man had not touched his and wonders if the boy thinks it's been poisoned. "I knew Sabinus. He was the one who welcomed me to the senate as he, too, was born equestrian.
Poor Sabinus. Ceasar Domitian used to follow his uncle around like a little duckling. The Ceasar was not much older than you when his uncle was killed. I admit, I do not know the details of Sabinus' death, and I have never asked. But I saw his body cut up and thrown down the Gemonian Steps.
Sabinus did not deserve his death. But then again, I would be hard pressed to name a senator who did deserve death that year. One third of us died anyway."
Marcus shook his head, "Such dark topics are not suited to a celebratory dinner. Come, let us talk of better things. You mentioned that you are building model ships?"
Perseus grinned. The conversation flowed to more cheerful things. Marcus ended up learning more about ships than he ever wanted to know, but he supposed it was a good thing someone was interested in such things.
.
Tiberius Alexander is sparring with the god-child. They're surrounded by a hoard of cheering Praetorian Guards, a suspicious number of which are not cheering for their own captain. Perseus wins the swordfight, sending Tiberius Alexander's sword across the field. It's not an unexpected defeat. Perseus is the best swordfighter the Praetorian Prefect has ever met, and he himself has been largely an administrator and guard instead of a soldier for more than ten years.
"Don't worry Captain, you'll get him next time!"
"The brat was probably cheating anyway!"
"Per-Se-Us! Per-Se-Us! Per-Se-Us!"
Perseus does a flourishing bow to his supporters, while Tiberius Alexander glares at his guards until they stop cheering for the enemy. They awkwardly shuffle their feet, "Uh, I mean, good try captain." Tiberius Alexander is still going to assign them bathroom cleaning duty later today.
"You're an expert swordfighter. There is no denying that, Perseus. But how are you with a spear and shield?" Tiberius Alexander asked. Then he walked to the side of the practice ring to pick up said weapons and handed one of each to the surprised boy. While swords were used in war, spears were the first line of attack for the infantry, with swords only being used if the spear was lost or broken and the enemy was within arms-reach.
"I think I can still beat you, Alex."
"Do not call me that."
They clash again. This time Tiberius Alexander has the advantage. The boy keeps approaching Tiberius Alexander as if he needs to get up close for a sword swing, while the Praetorian Prefect knows how to keep distance. Perseus holds the spear too far up the shaft, meaning Tiberius Alexander has the longer reach. Additionally, Tiberius Alexander has seen Perseus defeat many of his own soldiers and knows how Perseus fights, while Perseus hasn't seen him wield a spear before. Despite these advantages, it still takes the him longer than it should to get his spearpoint beyond Perseus' shield to the exposed soft flesh of his ribcage. First blood is his.
Perseus' eyes flash a bright green and Tiberius Alexander hears the water from the Tiber crash onto the Field of Mars a few hundred paces away. The hairs on his arm stand on end but he does not move his spearpoint. It only takes a second, then Perseus grins and the river water recedes. His guard are cheering again.
"Captain! Captain! Captain!"
"That was amazing!" Perseus grins, "Can you teach me how to wield a spear?"
"No," Tiberius Alexander grunts, "I am far too busy for that. One of the men would be happy to teach you the basics. But are you sure you should be spending so much time fighting? I am fairly certain The Augustus pays you to design ships, not annoy his guard."
Perseus laughed, "Yeah. I should probably get back to that before my crew starts arguing with each other again. I'll help you put the spears and shields away."
Tiberius Alexander was perfectly capable of ordering his guards to put the weapons away, but he suspected Perseus wanted to talk to him about something. They entered the weapons tent and Tiberius Alexander noticed his spear had some drops of blood on it. He wiped it off with a rag and noticed a few specks of gold dust within the red. Odd. As predicted, after they left the public eye Perseus spoke again.
"Is it weird that I'm a Demi-God of the Olympians? I mean, because you're Jewish and all. Do you see me as -um – sacrilegious or something? Or do you think I'm lying? I wouldn't be mad if you did! I'm just curious," Perseus speaks quickly, as if he's nervous.
Tiberius Alexander hums noncommittally, "It's certainly weird seeing you summon weapons and wield water. Though that has nothing to do with me being Jewish."
"Yeah, but I mean. Um. Never-mind. Forget I asked."
"The Torah has commandments," Tiberius Alexander continues, "The second commandment says not to worship other gods before our Lord. The Torah never says other gods don't exist. My Rabbi might disagree with me, but I have no problem believing the Olympian gods exist. We're just not supposed to worship them. As long as you don't want me to sacrifice any animals to you, we should be fine. That won't be a problem for you, will it?"
"No that's fine. If anything, that's a bit of a relief," Perseus said.
"Besides, I don't pray much. I've found money and swords are much more effective than prayer."
Perseus laughed, but it had a bit of an edge to it, "Yeah. The gods aren't always very reliable."
The Praetorian Prefect walks Perseus out of the Praetorian camp. He watches the son of the sea god with gold in his blood walk back to Rome. Tiberius Alexander then heads back to work; he has bathroom-cleaning duty to assign.
.
.
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Author's Notes:
The plot will pick up a lot more next chapter. This chapter got away from me and this story will now be longer than the original 12 chapters I had planned out.
The senate met in a square hall, not a semicircular one as is often depicted. They had a golden statue of the winged goddess of victory, Nike, standing at the far end of the room.
Roman social hierarchy starts with the Augustus and the royal family, of course. Below them are the patricians, the nobles of Rome. Not every Patrician was in the senate, but most senators were born patricians or became patricians. Patricians are very wealthy, land owning, Italian born families.
Below the senators are the equestrians, these are people rich enough to own horses, hence the name. The Plinius family is equestrian. They often own farms and a big house (not apartment) in the city. Equestrians can occasionally enter the senate if they are good politicians (and lucky). Historically, this is what Pliny the younger did. Equestrians have also been called Knights. That's right guys, Gaius is a Roman Knight.
Then we have the Roman citizens. Roman citizens had several extra rights and could not be executed by cross. After that there were free-born men, then freedmen who used to be slaves but had been freed, and finally slaves. Only non-citizens could be executed by the cross, like that one Jewish guy Jeshua. Slaves made up a large part of Roman society, maybe as much as a third. Everyone below the patricians would be considered Plebians. Plebs. Lol.
Woman: Rome was very patriarchal. Still, woman made up 50% of Roman people and they did stuff with their lives other than be wives and mothers (though they definitely did that too). Woman of Rome had more rights than woman of surrounding areas at the time. Girls of wealthy families would be educated and learned to read. Woman could hold property, own land, get a divorce, enter business deals, lend money, be artists, own and run businesses, and appear in court.
This is turning into a lecture; I am so sorry.