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Sharpie

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  1. Sharpie
    "I have to tell the children?" Aulus said. "Coward - you're the ruler of the domestic sphere, my dove." He grinned up at her. "I shall wear my toga and do it in the full majesty of their father, and have you sit there in stola and palla, having to be silent and bear it while I praise you to the heaven and pretend not to see everyone rolling their eyes at me. Including the slaves." He was teasing her, of course - she still seemed a little out of sorts for whatever reason (probably dwelling on her difficult relationships with her relatives) and hoped the light-hearted teasing would break her moodiness. He would not call for a family assembly for it, there would be no need and he wasn't that sort of man anyway, throwing his familial authority around just because he wanted to impress people with his potestas. Everyone in the household was aware of the authority he had, after all, he was not so unsure of himself that he needed to throw his weight around and get everyone's backs up. @Sara
  2. Sharpie
    "I think it is," Jason said, and then gave her a rueful shrug and an apologetic look. "Not that I know, of course, being..." He indicated himself - he was obviously male and could not be mistaken for anything else, even in very bad light. And right now they were sitting in a garden in broad daylight, the lighting could hardly be better. A river-goddess would surely get along with a goddess of the hearth - fire and water were both necessary for life, after all. Perhaps all gods shared the same celestial home and merely responded to their own people and their prayers, ignoring those of other people - or perhaps Tabiti and Vesta were indeed the same goddess, merely worshipped under different names and with different rituals. Brigantia did not have a Sarmatian name, though, so perhaps she was content with the worship she received from her British worshippers. "There aren't many Sarmatians in Rome, I would be surprised if you had met another - and thank you, I will take that as a compliment." He laid his fist over his heart and bent his head a little in her direction. "I have mixed feeling about the Romans. If it weren't for them, I would still be with my people. But I would not have met you, and I am glad to know you, Cinnia." @Atrice
  3. Sharpie
    "I will - I am sure my father will be thrilled," he replied. Perhaps more thrilled that Aulus would be around and Horatia would not appear bedraggled and unkempt to dump a baby on him and declare it to be his son's. "I am sure your father would appreciate a dinner invitation," he added, recalling the recent meeting he had had with his father-in-law. He had drunk rather too much and grown somewhat morose. Was Horatia aware of that tendency in her father? News of an impending birth would certainly distract Marcus Horatius from trying to find a suitable husband for Calpurnia (or at least from providing Aulus with a growing list of names to consider - not all of them were suitable, of course, not for someone of Calpurnia's sensitivities). "I don't think your sister is likely to be pleased," he said quietly, knowing there was some sort of tension between Horatia and her sister and only able to attribute it to Horatia's having two children while Livia had none - of course, it could be due to almost anything, he was not privy to the details and had no wish to be other than to be a reassuring presence for his wife when she needed him to be. @Sara
  4. Sharpie
    He stroked her hand with his thumb. Her reason made sense - eight years was a long time, and it meant that she was that much older now (he was not going to think what that might mean for this pregnancy, his wife, or the child). "Together," he affirmed, repeating her statement and returning the squeeze she had given his hand. This time they would be together, too - he would not be separated from her during this period if he could help it; they had been separated shortly after Titus' birth and again before Calpurnia's and he did not want his wife to feel alone or abandoned again. It would mean her third child, too, and under the Lex Julia, that meant her emancipation from her father - though Aulus suspected that meant rather less to Horatia than it would to many other women. She had not needed her father to intervene between them or protect her from her husband in any way, and she knew that Aulus would go to the ends of the earth, take on any challenge at all, to protect his wife. He found himself thinking what to call the child - Quintus Calpurnius Praetextatus, maybe, after the previous Emperor and his patron. Quinta, perhaps Quintilla, if it was a girl. @Sara
  5. Sharpie
    "I would like to reach at least praetor, I think," he said. He really wasn't sure he had the ambition or talent for consul; Calpurnius Praetextatus was a wise and intelligent man and Gaius wasn't at all sure he would be similarly suitable for the role. But when had suitability or its lack ever stopped an ambitious Roman before? "What do you like doing? Apart from visiting the tombs of long-dead Emperors and their wives, that is." He could manage a smile for her, it was genuine curiosity that had prompted the question. He wasn't sure how women of their class liked to spend their time; he was fairly sure that 'shopping' would be on most women's lists, but other than that, they were as foreign to him as Parthia was. This was probably why the vast majority of marriages were arranged; gods knew he was horribly bad at figuring out what he wanted in a wife and whether Ovinia would make him a good wife really - how suited were they when it came down to personalities and interests? @Sara
  6. Sharpie
    Attis gave a companionable grin to the slave on the other side of the counter. Just because he was the legate's slave and therefore one of the most senior slaves in the whole camp (if not the senior slave) didn't mean that he was going to look down on the others - the soldiers did that enough for anyone, after all. "Is it really freedom to freeze to death, though?" he asked. "Surely people can be free and civilised at the same time." Though if the Emperor had wanted the legate to set an example of how to be free and civilised, he'd picked totally the wrong man when he'd chosen Longinus. Not that Attis would ever say as much to anyone. He tore off a chunk of bread to accompany the nondescript stew. "There's a bath-house right here in the camp," he pointed out. "And I think the only reason we're here in Britannia at all, really, is because Roman soldiers can't bear to think that there's a place they know of that they haven't even tried to conquer yet." @Chevi
  7. Sharpie
    "The chieftain is a man, but it would be a very foolish chief who did not listen to his wife, and there are women in our councils - they are affected by the decisions made as to where to pasture, perhaps more than the menfolk because they have to think of the young children." He smiled. "Oh, of course horses are valuable, but we breed them, of course, and every Sarmatian child is born to the saddle." Perhaps one day his people would ride their horses westwards - perhaps even to the very gates of Rome itself. That would be a sight worth seeing! An impossible dream, of course, but who knew what might happen, and vengeance was a powerful motivator. Though the deaths of a few people was a small enough thing to seek such vengeance for - people died all the time on the steppe. Life was not easy, there, something that Tiranês' longing for it conveniently forgot. "The most important of our deities is a goddess, though - Tabiti. She is... I suppose she is like the Roman Vesta, in that she is the goddess of fire and the hearth and family. She is also the protectress of our chiefs." It was Tabiti that he had invoked in their brief, private, ceremony a few moments ago. @Atrice
  8. Sharpie
    "Our father is..." Teutus made a slightly exasperated gesture. He was not willing to denigrate his father to a near-total stranger (even if that stranger was his half-brother!) but he didn't exactly have a lot of good things to say about their father. "He likes to control everything and that often means he doesn't tell people things that maybe they ought to know." Tertius was good at his political role - very good at it, in fact. It was just his family life that was completely messed up. He had four children by four different mothers, and only one of them was legitimately a Roman citizen and Antonia was a girl. He would probably think differently if Antonia had been born a son - if Antonia had been born a son, Teutus would still be a slave and would never have even received a promise of freedom. "There's not much to say about me. I was born a slave in my grandfather's house - before our father set up his own home. When Father moved out, after he came home from Germania, he took me with him to be his secretary. I was freed about a year and a half ago, just before Charis' baby was born." Probably his brother would think him contemptible, that he had been a slave. Well, it wasn't as if most Romans didn't think that, even if they hid it. @Atrice
  9. Sharpie
    "Your first?" Tiranês was secretly impressed; he hadn't thought it was Azarion's first race that he'd seen. He reached across the table to grasp his cousin's hand. "Artimpasa blessed me indeed by allowing me to be there to see it, even if neither of us knew at the time." He would have to find something to give to thank her for her benediction in arranging for him to be there to see his cousin's first ever race. Azarion had done well, for his first time, and Tiranês was even more impressed than he had been. His cousin had little enough to boast of but he had shown the prowess that was rightly his as a Sarmatian. He could be proud of that - certainly Tiranês was proud of him. "How many women for me? What, you think the personal attendant of the chief's son gets to laze around all day with his pick of beautiful women?" he asked with a grin. @Chevi
  10. Sharpie
    Rufus blinked. Nine out of ten people considered slaves to be little better than animals and wouldn't think twice about how an injured slave was going to get home. Apparently Quintus Flavius Theodorus was the ten per cent. His cognomen was an apt one, he was indeed a 'gift of the gods'. "I've caused enough disruption to your day," he said (not to mention the other man's purse!) "I'll be all right." He lowered the cup after taking a sip of wine. "Do you often put yourself out for injured slaves?" he asked, unable to rein in his curiosity now that the shock of the injury had worn off and it didn't hurt so much. "It makes you a very unusual man, Theo." Great. Now he was drunk on top of everything else! Hopefully Theo would put the impudence down to the wine, anyway. @Chevi
  11. Sharpie
    He pressed a thumb over the cut on his own wrist; it might scar (he hoped it would) but it would be a tiny, insignificant scar that might have been caused by almost anything... Insignificant to anyone except the two of them, that was. "The Romans can take anything, except that," he said, nodding in understanding. "Tell me of your people, the Brigantes, and your home." She had only said the name once but it had sounded as if she spoke of her tribe and she had not corrected him when he had used it. If they spoke to one another of their homes, it might rouse the longing inside, but it would also stir up the memories that might be in danger of being forgotten. @Atrice
  12. Sharpie
    "I believe they have already selected my sister's replacement," Aulus replied. In truth, Calpurnia Horatia was too old to be considered for a position among the Vestal Virgins, who were selected at a very young age (his sister had been chosen when she was only five). He had one or two candidates in mind for his daughter, but it was very early to be thinking of such things; her courses had not yet started, after all. "I am extremely proud of my sister; of course I am," he said, with a brother's fond smile. Truthfully, he and his sister were both in good positions, and he had made a good marriage to Horatia Justina, although her relatives were a little cause for concern at times. Such as right now, Marcus Justinus was no longer sober - the loss of his wife had been very hard on him and Aulus felt rather sorry for him. He couldn't imagine losing Horatia in the way that Marcus had lost his wife (though Horatia had likewise lost her mother, but had not been consumed by grief in the same way). "I hope you are as proud of your daughters," he added. "Perhaps you would like to come and have dinner with us this evening?" He would have to beg Horatia's forgiveness later! @locutus-sum
  13. Sharpie
    She didn't mean for him to sit on the same bench as her, did she? It was obvious to anyone that she was the daughter of some rich man, probably a senator, and it was equally obvious that Davus was a slave. She couldn't be so naive that she'd suggest a slave sit beside her? It did look that way, but Davus wasn't a fool, and simply squatted comfortably at her feet, a position that would let them talk with one another but that wouldn't attract unwanted attention and censure. "I... I don't know," he said, knowing that he probably couldn't tell her the one thing he did want, badly - to see his mother again. Admitting that would hurt Sosia, who likely didn't realise any of the realities of a slave's life, and he didn't want to hurt her. "I'd like to be free, I think, Domina. What about you, if you could have anything at all?" @Atrice
  14. Sharpie
    "Well, that's good," Teutus said. Someone else unknown to them both, unrelated to them both, thought that Wulfric was a good worker and capable of overseeing others. That was good to know (though Teutus would make discreet enquiries to double-check the simple statement). If he was going to go into business with his brother, better it was with someone capable than someone who was merely a follower. Though by all accounts, Wulfric was a chieftain or a chieftain's son or something, back at his home, so of course he should be able to command others. "Shall we go back to my office, then?" he asked. "I'm sure you didn't come here just to talk about my business, after all." @Atrice
  15. Sharpie
    "We will see what happens when the time comes, there's no point crossing the bridge before we reach it, my sweet," Aulus told her. He would only ask Caesar when it drew closer to the time. Horatia did not look as happy as she pretended to be; there was something in her eyes and the tightness of her mouth that hinted at her true feelings. If she didn't want to speak of them, Aulus wouldn't push - well, not too hard, anyway. "I don't mind, we have one of each and I will be happy with whatever the gods send," he told her, resting his hand on top of hers. "What is troubling you - if there's anything I can do, you only have to say." And if there was nothing that he could do for her except listen, well, he would listen. @Sara
  16. Sharpie
    "I don't believe anything was stolen, I don't know if she had anything worth stealing," Marcus said, and glanced at Azarion, letting out a breath in a long silent sigh. Azarion was a slave, for one thing, and a mute for two things. He should really be waiting outside the door rather than be part of this conversation, even on the periphery. But he had been friends with Safinia and it would be an injustice to ignore that. "I would say that nothing else was done, either, her dress wasn't disturbed in any way that I noticed." His sigh this time was audible. "Azarion, do you remember anything else about how she was when you found her?" He was going to have to do his best to interpret the boy's signs - they were usually clear, but then, his signed conversations were generally to do with the horses or various aspects of racing. And he rarely had the necessity of making himself understood to the head of the faction. This could get... interesting. Marcus rarely liked interesting. @Chevi @Atrice
  17. Sharpie
    "Well, then. You have my sincere thanks," Rufus said. "I wouldn't mind a bit more wine - but I don't need it neat, it doesn't hurt so much as it did." It wasn't broken, but it did look very swollen, though the cool compress was helping. "I can probably get a hired carrying chair home - or most of the way home, at least," he said, his habitual good humour beginning to resurface. He hoped that the medicus didn't think that he was a sour-tempered snappish sort all the time. Apparently it took a bad sprain to do that to him. He would also try to find some way of repaying Theo's kindness; he shouldn't have to be out of pocket simply because he'd treated a slave, after all. @Chevi
  18. Sharpie
    "I am honoured that you would be my sister, Cinnia," he told her, returning her smile and then rolling his eyes. "There are a lot of things that it is not a good idea to tell the Romans, and a lot that they would not understand. What they don't know need not trouble them." It was a simple ceremony - it hadn't even required the words, really - but with so much meaning, far more so than the elaborate Roman rituals that went on for hours. They were bound together inextricably as family, Cinnia's quarrels were Tiranês' and Tiranês' quarrels were Cinnia's, and she now had family out on the wild steppe of Sarmatia if she could ever get there. "We aren't so very different at all, your people and mine," he said. "Not where it really matters. It just might look different on the outside, that's all." She hadn't asked about the significance of what they'd done, as though she already knew of it - anyway, she'd said as much, though it sounded more like something she knew of from hearing about it. Well. It was a private thing between two individuals, whichever way you looked at it; it wasn't supposed to be a big public thing. @Atrice
  19. Sharpie
    Romans were predictable, with their straight roads and stone buildings and soldiers in nice straight lines, all wearing the same armour and carrying the same shields as though pressed out of a mould. Tiranês came from a people where spontaneity, even if it was a planned spontaneity, was a large part of every-day life - you couldn't march in a nice straight Roman line if you wanted to bring down a deer for the evening meal, after all. He took her hand, gently, bringing the two cuts together to allow their blood to mingle. A few drops landed on the ground between them, commingled so that it was impossible to tell which was her blood and which was his. It was a solemn thing, a ceremony between two warriors that was as old as the steppes, and now her blood flowed in his veins and his blood flowed in hers, binding them together heart and soul. Something the Romans with all their predictability and rigidity would never understand and never be able to take away. "Tabiti, witness this, that I take Cinnia of the Brigantes to be my blood sister," he said quietly. @Atrice
  20. Sharpie
    "You're a warrior, I'm a warrior, why not?" She had no family here - that wasn't exactly a shock, Romans didn't like their slaves (the ones captured in war) to have any real knowledge of where their relations were, after all. He'd heard vague references about someone named Spartacus, and a slave uprising a hundred years ago or so, that had ended with thousands of slaves being crucified along the Appian Way. A very nice mental image and stark warning, as it was probably meant to be. "You shouldn't need to be alone," he said. She probably had friends here - he did, after all - but there was something about having a shared history (or rather, a similar history) which none of the other Palace slaves had, being mostly born into slavery. He carefully cut his wrist, the smallest nick, allowing a few drops of bright blood to bubble up, before offering the knife to Cynane. @Atrice
  21. Sharpie
    "Maybe - and I hope so," Jason said, and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. It was growing out a bit, not as long as it was when he'd been captured, but not as short as the Romans wore it. He sucked in a breath as she said how her people had been betrayed by a relative - at least the Roxolani hadn't actively betrayed them to the Romans. Just broken a treaty and crossed a river that they shouldn't have, and set in motion a chain of events that had led to Jason and his cousin being here in this vast stone city with their people thinking they were dead. He felt an affinity with this woman whose people were so removed from his own yet whose story was so similar to his. A warrior woman from a warrior people. She could also be a pattern for the stories of the Amazons, he thought. "I am sorry for that, Cinnia of the Brigantes," he said, and a daring thought came into his head. He reached for the knife he had been using. "Do you swear the blood brotherhood, in your people?" he asked. It would probably be asking for trouble, but who cared. @Atrice
  22. Sharpie
    "If the new Caesar intends for me to have a Proconsulship anywhere, it may not be immediately my term in office is over," he pointed out soberly. He did not know the new Caesar the way he knew the previous one, after all, so what position he would have afterwards was a mystery. "I have promised to take his brother as a Tribune, if I do end up with such an appointment," he said. That was something to be discussed at another time, though, of course. "Three months," he said thoughtfully. "That will make it February - surely that is early enough in the year that I could ask for a delay in being posted anywhere." At least until the child was born and Horatia recovered enough to make the journey to - wherever. He didn't want her to be alone again going through things. Not that he planned to be in the room, of course. But somewhere within the house, at least, where she would know he was at hand. Oh, the sacrifices he would make to Juno and any other deity who had even the slightest interest in childbirth and motherhood! @Sara
  23. Sharpie
    "I'm happy," he said, looking up into her face. "I missed so much with Titus and Calpurnia, after all." But Horatia was older now than when she had borne Calpurnia, and pregnancy was not something to be taken lightly, not by anyone. But she had borne two healthy children - it had been so many years since Calpurnia's birth that he suspected there might have been a third that had not gone to term but it was only a suspicion and he would not ask if she would not say. He would do anything for her to bear this child safely. "I know..." He laced his fingers with hers. "If there is anything I can do, you only have to say." @Sara
  24. Sharpie
    "Titus is with his tutor, declaiming Cicero's first speech against Catiline and doing rather well at it -much better and I'd be out of a job, I think. Calpurnia has gone to see a friend." He stepped aside so that she could sit down, which left him leaning against his desk, trying not to look as worried as he felt. Apparently it wasn't working because she had to reassure him. After a marriage as long as theirs, they knew each other almost too well! He blinked. "Pregnant? You're pregnant?" A smile appeared on his face. "Juno be praised!" He took his winecup, tipping out a libation to the Queen of Heaven herself before offering the rest of the wine to Horatia, coming to kneel beside her and wrap his arms around her. "You're pregnant!"
  25. Sharpie
    Horatia would not be amused if she discovered precisely how worried her husband had been, Aulus thought. Worried enough that he had insisted she see a medicus, practically ordering her slave to take her to the one they usually saw and threatening dire things if she didn't. He had cut his morning short and was in his tablinum, ostensibly working but in reality merely rearranging things and trying not to fret about his wife. He had discarded his toga but hadn't changed out of the white tunic with its broad purple laticlavus. "Of course I have a moment for you, my dove," he said, looking up and hoping his worry wasn't too obvious to her. She looked... Well, she looked well. As well as anyone would if they hadn't been eating properly or sleeping well, anyway - not that he was sure of either of those things, but he had his suspicions. He closed the wax tablet (he hadn't been writing anything much, simply declining Greek nouns in extremely messy handwriting) and set it aside, misjudging its position on his marble desk so that it clattered to the floor behind him as he crossed to his wife. "Is everything all right?" @Sara
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