When the picnic is over Percy sees Gaius on the banks of the Tiber River. Grinning, Percy waves. He says the proper goodbyes to the Augustus and Julia then jogs across the river, focusing enough to keep himself from sinking though the water.
"Gaius!" Percy says with a grin.
"Lord Perseus," Gaius says with a bow.
"Oh, don't you start," Percy grumbles and pulls him into a brief back pat, "Sorry I left without saying anything. I had some stuff to figure out."
Gaius grins but then glances around self-consciously at the gathering crowd. So the two of them make their way up the Via Julia to the Plinius Domus. There is a bunch of stuff in front of the doorway. Flowers, gold bands, old food, oil lamps.
"What's with the stuff?" Percy asks.
"They are sacrifices to you. People have been leaving them in front of the door since you left."
"Oh. Why haven't you picked them up yet?"
"They're for you. I wouldn't steal from a god."
"I'm only a demigod," Percy says as he picks up some of the stuff before walking into the domus.
The door closes behind them. "Are you?" Gaius asks, "Still a demigod I mean? The Augustus is planning to build a temple for you along with your father."
"Yeah. I'll be a demigod until I die. So lets hope I stay a demigod for a while yet," Percy says, "Do you think I can convince Titus to include a cool fountain or something with my temple?"
"You would know better than I, my friend."
"Oh, I got you squid ink, here." Percy hands Gaius the vial of ink. "I can get you more if you run out."
Gaius thanks him then excuses himself. He walks off quickly with a grin as he goes to test out the squid ink.
Percy drops his toga and some of his stuff off in his room. Mr. Pinchy climbs onto his shoulder. 'Food?' he thinks. So Percy goes to the kitchen and gives Mr. Pinchy some dried meat.
Percy will have to talk to Grandpa Pliny later about helping him negotiate his engagement to Julia. Or at least give advice about how engagements work in Rome. He also still needs to talk to Julia about what she wants to do, and finish the model boats. The last day of the 100 days of games was next week and Percy had promised to give a demonstration of his cool ships.
Marcella walks into the house holding a wine amphora and some groceries. When she sees Percy in the kitchen, she stops. For a second Percy sees a flash of fear in her eyes before she bows. "Lord Perseus. Welcome back," she says, eyes cast downward.
Percy tries to smile, but he feels wrong footed. Marcella isn't supposed to be afraid of him. "It's just me Marcella. No need to bow," Percy says.
Marcella stops bowing but won't meet his eyes, "As you say my lord."
Percy takes a step back. He feels like he's been slapped.
Marcella gives him a wide berth as she walks past him to the courtyard. Percy is left feeling disoriented, but he isn't sure how to make this situation better. Hopefully everything will just go back to normal soon. Marcella shouldn't be afraid of him.
.
Percy enters his model ship workshop. Most of the models are complete. He'd been gone for two weeks, but his crew hadn't stopped working, apparently. The models are about one pace in length, with the smallest rowboat being about the size of Percy's forearm, and the largest warship model being around the size of Percy himself. Mr. Pinchy climbs onto one of the boats, his little crabby feet tap-tap-tapping on the wood. Percy runs his fingers over the models and feels the tides of Perseus the god grow stronger.
The model ships seemed to respond to Perseus' presence. Their oars and sails shaking with recognition. These are his ship models. Swish swish.
The door opened behind him and Perseus turns to see Gaius the woodworker step inside. The man stops in his tracks, looks up at Perseus wide-eyed and falls to one knee. "Perseus," he says, "Welcome back my lord."
"Hello Gaius. The ships are coming along nicely, I am very pleased. You have done a wonderful job," Perseus says.
"Only due to your designs my lord," Gaius says, head bowed. The man was afraid.
"We have one week to finish the river boats," Perseus says, "Do you think we'll make it on time?"
"Of course, my lord."
"Wonderful. I'll work on the rudder if you make the planks for the hull. Where are Captain Valerius and ship-builder Trios?"
Gaius stands up but doesn't look Percy in the eyes, keeping his head lowered, "They are in Ostia, my lord. They were ordered by the Augustus to oversee the collection of wood for the shipyard." Ostia was the fishing village at the mouth of the Tiber River.
Perseus feels himself swell with pride, "They're building a ship. Which one?"
Gaius points to one of the mid-size vessels with two masts, triangle sails, a jib, a central full keel and an extra long rudder. "This one, my lord. There are some skirmishes in Britannia as barbarians from the north of the island invade our lands. The Augustus wishes for more reliable transport across the sea."
"A fine choice. This one is designed to withstand the waves of the Atlantic and the currents of the crossing to Britannia," Percy says, running his hand over the model.
"You've explained your designs quite well, my lord."
Percy allows Mr. Pinchy to grab onto his tunic and starts heading out the door, "I'm going to go take a look at the shipyard. Get started on the riverboat hull, I should be back before dark. You've done good work."
Perseus walks out the apartment and to the river. A few people bow to him as he jogs past. Once in the water, Perseus makes good time to downriver. Walking from Rome to Ostia would take all day, but it's only an hour by swimming. Not having to pretend to be fully human makes travel so much faster.
He startles some merchants at the riverfront when he steps out of the water in Ostia. One of the horses greets him as 'Prince'. Percy greets the horse back and walks down the road to the large wooden building on the beach. Next to the structure are several tree trunks piled on top of each other and a pond. A shipyard.
He throws open the door and startles the group of men beyond. "Valerius! Trios! I heard you were building one of my ships!"
"Perseus!" Captain Valerius says happily.
Trios the ship builder elbows him hard then bows to Percy, "Welcome back, my lord."
"Ow. What in the harry balls was that for Trios?"
"Show some respect to the god, you dumb-ass," Trios hisses back.
Perseus approaches the two men. On the desk in front of them is a diagram of an ocean ready-vessel. Next to the diagram are calculations about how many materials they need including the number and thickness of wood planks, the length and thickness needed for the masts, the length of triangular sails, the lengths of rope, the number of hinges, and more.
"Have you started building her?" Perseus asks.
"Not yet, my lord. We are gathering materials and allowing the wood to age. The trees needed to build the hull are underwater as we speak," Trios says.
"We've picked out the wood for her keel already Perseus. Um, I mean Lord Perseus," Valerius says, "a strong tree, thick enough to make a full keel."
"Show me," Perseus says. He needs to see these trees. He needs to see the pieces of his ship.
Valerius and Trios lead him outside. Next to the large pile of trees is a pond connected to the ocean, but blocked off by a wooden gate. The pond is full of oak trees. Wood that is used to make the part of the ship that sits underwater should be aged underwater as well. Dry wood will swell as much as 5% when fully swollen with moisture. If you build a ships hull with dry wood, the hull will swell and cause shifting and cracking when launched. A mere 5% expansion is enough to sink a ship.
Perseus walks into the pond. There's not much room in the pond as it is absolutely full of tree trunks. Still, Perseus can see which of these trees is going to be the hull, because it's the largest oak tree near the bottom of the underwater pile.
Perseus places a hand on it. This is going to be his ship.
A part of him flows into the wood.
After a few moments, Perseus swishes back into a more human state. Percy spends the rest of the day discussing details of shipbuilding with Trios and Valerius and getting to know some of the builders. Eventually he makes his way back to Rome, filled with a newborn excitement.
.
The senate meeting is awkward. People are all very polite and give Percy a wide berth. Titus discusses a minor invasion in northern Britania (ancient Scotts, maybe?), and his planned response. Senators discuss taxes. Percy makes drawings of cool ships and stays quiet.
Senator Marcus does not sit next to him.
Fair enough.
.
Tiberius Alexander has been sent to guard the Augustus' daughter on her date. Ceasar Domitian was sent as chaperone, and Perseus has brought his friend along as a chaperone as well. He clearly does not understand what a chaperone is supposed to be. Or what a date is supposed to be.
Teenagers.
Julia had turned the pearls Perseus had given her into various types of jewelry. She has her hair in a bun with a pearl chain wrapped around it, a necklace with several rows of beaded pearls, earrings with several dangly pearls, rings and bracelets with pearls, and peals sewn into her dress. It was normal for engaged Roman woman to wear jewelry that had been given to her by her fiancé, but as far as Tiberius Alexander knew the two were not yet engaged. She was clearly making a statement.
The only jewelry Perseus wore was his bronze quill tucked behind his ear.
They are in the Augustus' box in the Circus Maximus looking out at the horse races. The races started twenty minutes late because all the horses stopped near the box to bow and prance around in circles for a while as the chariot riders tried and failed to control the beasts. Perseus finally spoke to the horses and told them they are very amazing and fast looking horses. Then the races had finally started.
Apparently the kid talks to animals now.
Why not.
The races start. There are four chariots, each drawn by four horses. The red, white, blue and green teams. Perseus laughs and says that the lead horse in the red team swears like a sailor while one of the horses in the blue team monologues everything he does.
Perseus' friend pulls out a scroll and starts to read.
"Gaius, there are races going on! What are you doing?" Perseus asks.
"I don't really see the appeal of racing. I knew I would get bored, so I brought some scrolls I have been meaning to study," the friend says. He spends the rest of the race reading.
Tiberius Alexander had thought that Perseus was quite bad at hiding his godly nature ever since they had found the boy performing water magic in the Baths of Nero. However, now that Perseus was no longer pretending to be human, Tiberius Alexander realized how much of his nature he had been hiding.
When the god-child laughs the water in Tiberius Alexander's water pouch shivers. Now that he is no longer avoiding horses, they would stop and bow their heads as he passes. He just seems bigger than he was even though the kid is still a head shorter than Tiberius Alexander.
The first race is won by the blues, then the reds. Each time a race finishes a loud cheer and angry yelling roars from the crowd. People are chanting songs about how the charioteer of the white team is a moron too stupid to find his own shoes. On the third race one of the spectators throws something onto the racetrack and it gets caught in the wheel of the green team's chariot. The chariot veers to the right and crashes into the side of the racetrack. Perseus leaps out of his seat and down the wooding bleachers onto the racetrack many paces below.
The crowd goes wild.
He commands the horses to stop and they do. Clouds gather above the Circus Maximus. Then he runs to the chariot, helps the charioteer out of the wreckage and checks on the horses. He's too far away for the Praetorian Prefect to hear what he says but the charioteer and horses are alive and escorted off the track. Perseus comes back holding a wooden tablet with large ten-inch nails hammered through it.
"What is this?" He asks.
"That's a curse tablet. Spectators use it to curse chariots they do not like," Ceasar Domitian says.
"That's like calling a sword a curse stick. The curse is not the part of this thing that does damage, it's clearly the nails," Perseus says, frustrated, "How was this allowed into the Circus Maximus? Don't they have guards?"
He and Ceasar Domitian talk about the role of the city guard at various public events. Perseus seems frustrated when the Ceasar says it's fairly common for charioteers to die during races, it happens multiple times a year.
After the races the party has lunch in the palace dining room. Lunch is served. Bread, olive oil, fruit, cheese and boiled eggs. At this point Tiberius Alexander realizes just how bad Perseus is at flirting.
"You're like a killer whale," Perseus says to Julia.
"Excuse me?" Julia says, not quite keeping her annoyance out of her voice.
"Oh um," Perseus' friend Plinius Secundus interrupts, "He called me a squid the other day. I think it's a compliment, or a metaphor."
"Well, more like a description," Perseus says.
"Oh." Julia says.
"In a good way!" Perseus says, flustered. "Killer whales live and hunt in both the Mediterranean and the open ocean. You know? They eat sharks for breakfast. Gaius is more of a Mediterranean squid, you know? He would not do well in the open ocean."
Julia looks at Plinius in confusion. He just shrugs. "So I'm a whale?" Julia asks.
"Well, technically, killer whales are actually dolphins," Perseus says.
"So I'm a murderous dolphin? Okay, I can accept that," Julia says, "What is my father?"
"Shark."
"Uncle Domitian?"
"Hmm… Angler fish, maybe? Definitely an ocean creature," Perseus says. Tiberius Alexander has no idea what a fishing-fish is. How can fish fish? He doesn't ask. Ceasar Domitian laughs at his own description.
Lunch continues. At some point Perseus talks about dagger-fighting techniques with Julia, while Domitian and Gaius discuss the Cursus Honorium. At some point Gaius and Julia discuss poetry and some of their favorite plays while Perseus and Ceasar Domitian discuss warships and their max capacity. No one tries to assassinate them so Tiberius Alexander's job that day is fairly easy.
.
"Begone foul creature! Spreader of lies!" An old man with grey hair and tan skin splashes water from a cup on Percy. He had been on his way to the boat-making workshop. It was only three days until Percy would get to show off his boat models, so he was excited to finish them. The people on the road nearby stop and stare, giving Percy, the old man and the man's ten followers a wide berth. People held their breath. Perseus was more amused by the water attack than annoyed.
Percy can't help but laugh, snorting a little. The man's hands shake but he does not step back even when one of his followers tries to get in between Percy and the man. "You heard that I was the son of Neptune and your first thought to get rid of me was to splash water on me?" Percy laughed, "You should probably re-think your approach. Have you tried daggers?"
"This is Holy water," the old man says, "and God will protect me from your unholy wrath."
"You're ancient Christians," Percy realizes, "I mean modern Christians." Percy is very good at this time-travel stuff. "Well sorry to break it to you, but if Holy water was going to hurt me, I would have died as a baby when my mom had me baptized."
"You're Christian?" the man asked with wide eyes.
"I don't know about that," Percy says with a shrug, "I haven't been to church in years, but my mom Sally is." Sort of, Sally had also not been to church in years, but she did occasionally say grace before eating dinner, so maybe that still counts.
"We heard you murdered a man for accusing your mother of being Christian," the old man says.
"Oh. Um. No. I cut a man's arm off for calling my mom a liar and um… a loose woman. The Romans killed him after. I can't say I'm too upset about it. Although I have had a chat with my followers about not murdering people in my name in the future," Percy says.
The Christians whisper among themselves. The old man looks up at the sky and whispers in what Percy thinks is Hebrew. Were Christians still also considered Jewish? That was a thing for a while, right?
"Well, it was nice to meet you…" Percy trails off.
"Yohanan, cousin of Yeshua," The old man introduces himself and Percy shakes his hand. Percy's not sure who Yeshua is though. Someone famous? A senator maybe?
"Well, nice to meet you, Yohanan. I actually have to go to work. I have boat models to finish building for the Augustus. Good luck with the whole being a Christian thing," Percy says, excusing himself. "Oh, and have your Holy Water back," Percy says as he taps the chalice the man was carrying, letting the water flow back into it. Percy then waves and continues walking. He should be able to finish building his river-boat models today!
.
Today's the day!
The last day of the 100 days of games, and the day Percy will get to show off his model ships! He starts the day in the theatre of Pompeii, where he talks about some of the design changes he's made.
He had several large wooden signs on which he had painted different types of keels, sails and rudders. He also has the glass crate full of water and one of his model ships he uses to demonstrate the concepts. He explains the trade-offs between having deep keels vs being able to sail in shallow waters. He explains how the weight limit of a ship can be measured by volume of water displaces minus the weight of the ship. He explains how square sails can pick up more wind, but triangle sails can be pulled tighter to give better control of the ship's direction.
There are a lot of people in the theatre, and only a handful of them are interested. Percy feels kind of like he has to present his middle school research project in front of his class. Except the class is Rome. The senators in the front row are clearly trying not to fall asleep.
Welp.
Ship design is not for everyone.
Percy sees at least a few people in the audience who seem to think this is cool, so he'll take that as a win. After the lecture Percy spends some time answering questions for the handful of people that stay behind.
In the afternoon, Percy goes to the Colosseum. The Augustus had ordered the colosseum flooded several days ago. For the past three days they had been re-enacting historical naval battles. Percy had personally saved seven people who had fallen from the ships during the demonstrations so they wouldn't drown in the ten feet of water.
He meets his team there. Gaius the woodworker, Trios the ship builder and Captain Valerius. Percy carries the warship model he'd used in Pompey's theatre, and the rest of the models are laid out on the front row of the colosseum. All twenty-five of them. The recreations of current Roman ships were painted red, Percy's ships were painted green. Percy asks his crew to put the riverboats in the water first. He puts Mr. Pinchy on one of the riverboats. Mr. Pinchy clicks his claws happily.
Julia is sitting next to her father and uncle in the Augustus' box. She's looking mighty proud in her pearl studded outfit while Titus looks collected and regal. Women are generally now allowed in the colosseum, but Percy had been able to convince Titus to let woman in to see this performance. There was still about a 5:1 ratio of men to woman in the bleachers. Still, it was something. Percy grins and waves. The Flavian family waves back. Gaius and grandpa Pliny are also in the seating area.
Marcella had not come.
Percy swims to the middle of the colosseum and pulls himself up to stand on top of the water. "Hello Rome!" Percy shouts and his voice is carried throughout the colosseum. A thunderous cheer comes up from the colosseum that could likely be heard through all of Rome.
Percy starts the demonstration with the riverboats. He pushes most of the water out of colosseum to form a kind of moat around the structure, then forms a river through the center of the arena. He sails his riverboats over the river, explaining the changes he's made to their design.
Even from a distance, it's as easy for Percy to control the models as if they were an extension of his own body. The red ships have to row while the green ships can sail zig-zag up the river. He feels the waters of his more godly side swish and flow so Percy is not entirely sure who is in charge now. Both sides of him are proud of his ships.
After the river ships, Percy pulls the water from outside back in to show his Mediterranean ship models. The large grain ships, the quick messenger ships, the strong warships. Then he fills the water higher, going above the first row of seats to show the depth increase in the Atlantic. He keeps the water within the bounds of the arena floor so the senators in the first row are looking at a thick column of water and have to look up to see the ships, but the people further up in the bleachers can see the ships easier.
Percy narrates and explains his ships as best he can over the sound of rushing water. He shows how his triangle sailed ships can sail up to 45 degrees against the wind direction. Thus, by zig-zagging, they can sail upwind. He generates waves and shows how much more stable a keel will make a ship, and how much faster they can turn with a rudder instead of a paddle.
Then it's time for the storm test.
Perseus makes the water more and more jagged; he makes the waves bigger and with a twist in his gut he summons a storm. He's not currently angry, so he has to put effort into summoning a storm. He also needs to keep it contained to only the arena and not the seating area so no one gets hurt. He starts with a windy day, then a rainstorm, then a real storm for ships on the Mediterranean, then a storm with the currents of the English Channel, and finally a storm you could only see on the open ocean.
The riverboats sink first. But riverboats are not designed to survive sea storms. He explains this, as best he can over the sound of a storm. When Mr. Pinchy's boat sinks the hermit crab swims up to Perseus and climbs into his feet.
Then, one by one, the red ships sink. The roman ships. Without keels they sway with the water and capsize with large waves. Percy brings the sunken ships to rest on the arena floor without breaking them. He lets the storm continue for a while. He controls the ships as he would if sailors were on board, but doesn't prevent them from sinking. This is a test as much as it is a demonstration.
His Mediterranean messenger ships sink. They had been designed for speed over stability. The rest don't sink.
He calms the waters and the winds and lets his surviving ships sail around the arena victoriously for a several laps. People are cheering. Percy walks over the water to the Augustus' box. Since he's standing on several feet of water, he's eye level with Titus.
"What do you think of my ships, Augustus Titus? Will you agree to build them?"
Titus stands in his full purple robes and very regally gives Percy a thumbs up. Percy grins as the crowd cheers louder.
.
.
.
Author's Notes:
The sports races had four teams: the blues, the whites, the reds and the greens. Rivalries could get very heated. People would absolutely get into fights about their favorite sport team though. Curse tablets were a real thing, crashes were common and charioteers were more likely to die than gladiators. Ancient Roman workplace safety laws were clearly lacking.
Later in roman history only the blues and greens are still around, and sports teams start representing political beliefs. The blues are supported by the ruling class while the greens by the working class and identifying with a team was a political statement. This was an early form of political parties as the races were one of the main ways for the public to interact with the emperor.
.
Jesus' name was likely pronounced closer to Yeshua. When it was translated to Greek, it became 'Iesous', because Greek doesn't have an 'sh' sound and added '-s' at the end to make it more masculine. Then to Latin 'Iesus', then to English 'Jesus' (J is a relatively new letter). 'John' was pronounced as 'Yohanan'.
In 80AD Jesus had only been dead for less than 50 years, so people that knew him were still alive. John the Apostle was in his seventies. John was one of Jesus' 12 apostles, his cousin (probably?) and wrote a large section of the Bible. He (supposedly, sources are scarce) started writing the book of John around this time period, when he was in his seventies. Domitian banished him to a small island a few years later where he had plenty of time to write, so he was still alive during Domitian's reign.
Also it turns out if you google a lot of things related to early Christian religion and figures, you get SO MANY adds about bible stuff. Guys. Guys. It's too many bible ads. Help.