Sharpie

"They could make some poor lame excuse even if we invite them to Rome, although such a happy event would make it harder to offer an excuse," Aulus said. His expression grew fond. "I can think of a few ways a Consul and his beloved wife might... celebrate... privately..." She had a way of looking at people that intimated that she could read one'e thoughts - doubtless a slave standing before her after being caught in some misdemeanour or other would be trembling with fear were his mistress to employ such a look. Aulus had nothing at all to fear from his wife, of course, and returned her shrewd look with a level look of his own. "Had you some idea of how you would like to celebrate should... somebody.... become Consul?" He rested his elbow on the arm of his chair, and his chin in his hand, watching her closely. She might imagine him in such a position in the curule seat he would be entitled to in the Senate, should he be fortunate to rise to that position of authority. "You realise we would be entitled to the very best seats in the amphitheatre and the circus, second only to the Augustus and his family?" he said after a moment. @Sara

"Which would be why I wouldn't offer to help Publius unless he asked, mel mi," Aulus pointed out wryly. "After all, nobody reaches his age without being able to do things on his own merits. And it's not like I wouldn't mention his name in the right place - or Lucius' - if I'm present and they're not." The same went for his friends Sulpicius Rufus and Cassius Longinus, too. Perhaps especially for them; they both seemed to think their careers had stalled somehow and if Aulus could help by keeping their names in Caesar's thoughts when he needed to come up with people to command his legions, or for something else either or both would be perfectly suited for, he was going to mention them. Even someone as knowledgeable as Quintus Caesar needed suggestions from time to time, after all. "I think a dinner would be perfectly, ah, a good choice." He noted the sudden tension in her jaw. "Would you prefer to impose on them in Tibur so we can leave when you've had enough, or invite them to our house in Rome, where you can be somewhat uncomfortable in familiar surroundings?" He had a suspicion that either visit would probably require one party or the other to remain overnight, but thought vaguely that the Quinctilii-Varii (or Secundus' branch of the family) had a house in the city. He was certain that the younger brother did at any rate. @Sara

"You go to watch them just because you like eyeing them up," Teutus said, somehow amused by the idea - although Alexius hadn't really struck him as the uptight sort at all. He shrugged. "I guess I can see the appeal in that after all." Especially as they wore pretty much just a loincloth and whatever armour or other protection their various roles allowed for. He wondered for an instant if that was wy his father liked them so much and decided he didn't care to find out the answer to that question. Anyway, his father had Hector if he wanted to get handsy (or worse) with a man - and it wasn't as though Hector didn't like the attention. He'd been jealous enough of Charis when she'd caught Tertius' attention, after all. "So, is there someone in particular who's caught your attention, then?" he asked, glad to have something to ask that would deflect the conversation even more away from him and how uncomfortable things had grown at home. @Atrice

"Noted. Don't quote you on something I didn't understand the half of," Attis aid with a grin. "And I was angling for the master to get me an elephant or something. Not a gods-damn battle dog. Are you filling Cassia's head with stories of your barbarian queens, then? They're not Roman, I don't think it's an employment option for a well brought-up Roman girl. Especially a patrician girl." He shrugged as the dog snuffled around the statue of the grumpy nymph. "Go on, Licky, that's the one you want to pee on." @Chevi

"Or Licky," Attis said in agreement, finally able to put the dog down. "Yeah. I've seen fully grown dogs smaller than he is now. I hope the master doesn't mind having the entire house rearranged every time he wags his tail. The dog, I mean. And blergh." He wasted no time in crossing to the fountain and ducking his head under the water. He emerged a moment later scrubbing at his face and running his fingers through his soaking hair, which had drooped over the scar on his forehead. "What on earth possessed him to decide a dog that size would be a good addition to his domus, rather than sending him out to the villa, anyway? Though he'd make a good pony for Cassia." @Chevi

"Me? Why me?" Attis asked, accepting her help to get up.from the floor, which was not an easy manoeuvre to accomplish when constrained by an armful of wriggly wrinkly puppy. "I caught him, you can show him the best flowerbeds to dig up and which statues he can piss against. That grumpy-looking nymph would be a good start." He managed to free one hand enough to wipe his face off. The very first thing he was going to do once he could put the dog down was to wash the slobber off in the fountain. "I think he should've been named Fugitivus," he added, waiting for Metella to open the garden door. @Chevi

Attis obliged, throwing his arms around the puppy, which obliged him by wagging its tail so hard its entire back end seemed to be wagging. It was a very wriggly armful of dog that he ended up with - and he was probably showing far more of his person to the world at large than he habitually did because his tunic had ridden up somewhat. He looked up at Metella who was in fits of laughter. "We have to get a collar for this thing if he wants to run off every time the door's opened," he said, trying to keep hold of the dog and stop it from thoroughly washing his face for him. @Chevi

"Oh, cock! No, you don't!" The dog had noticed the open door, and gone running towards it. Attis threw himself full length on the floor, trying to grab the animal somewhere and prevent it running out into the street. Why he was so concerned with keeping the creature in the house was a question for the ages. Or the gods. Meanwhile, Attis was left sprawling across the mosaic floor of the atrium, with a grazed arm that was going to sting like crazy when he noticed it, getting licked half to death. @Chevi

"Considering chances are pretty damn high I'll be with him the next time he goes anywhere, that doesn't make sense," Attis replied. "Anyway, you're high enough in the pecking order that you can get someone else to watch the thing. Just suggest Cassia wants to go to the baths or something." Why Sulpicius Rufus thought Longinus would like a pet dog, particularly one whose skin seemed several sizes too big and hung off it like an oversized tunic, was something Attis couldn't begin to understand. @Chevi

"What're you going to bet?" Attis shot back, promptly, patting his own calf to see if he could encourage the puppy to him. It was just like their master, ignoring everything except what was in front of its nose. At least it had moved a bit closer to the passage through to the garden by now, probably more by luck than anything. They would be lucky if it didn't divert through the tablinum. Attis couldn't help a momentary grin at the thought that, if it did, and if it did something unspeakable on the tablinum floor, Longinus would only have himself to blame. Or Sulpicius Rufus. On second thoughts, it was all entirely Sulpicius Rufus' fault. @Chevi

"To answer your first question, I have no idea why we're watching it. Though I suppose it needs more supervision than Cassia," Attis said with a one-shouldered shrug before peeling himself away from his column. "C'mon, doggy, Aunty Metella will get a biscuit for you if you come this way." The dog ignored him, flopping onto its behind and lifting a leg to scratch its ear. @Chevi

"It's a dog," Attis said helpfully, leaning against a pillar with his arms folded. "It's not supposed to be useful for anything. Well. Maybe keeping the master amused. And if it leaks - or anything else - I am not cleaning it up." Attis rarely ever pulled rank over any of the other slaves in the house, but clearing up behind a puppy that couldn't or wouldn't control its bathroom habits was not something Attis was at all prepared to do. "Though if it's as leaky as all that, the garden might be a better idea than the atrium." @Chevi

I'm another one with crazy cat lady aspirations. One day... And welcome to AeRo!

"Ah. If Lucius wants any sort of support in his military career, I'm happy to put in a word for him in the right ears. Same for Publius, though he's rather less likely to need it, I suppose." He reached to squeeze his wife's hand. "I'm sorry about you and Livia. If there's anything I can do to help, you'll let me know, won't you?" He held the needle he was holding out for the slave to take, so that he wouldn't put it down somewhere it might get lost. "The Quinctilii-Varii? Not particularly. Secundus is the paterfamilias, I believe, and his brother Tertius is a praetor - I don't think he has any ambition to any other office." Meaning, Tertius had no ambition to become Consul or even take a governorship somewhere. "They pretty much keep to themselves, I understand, and there has been some difficulty about an heir for both of them, neither one having a freeborn son." He shrugged; Aulus had no real interest in gossip and what he knew was simply from common talk gathered from his fellow senators after the senate meetings had closed. "I don't know if I can be any help there, though if I can, please say so," he added. Horatia was calm and not easily ruffled, but e had been married to her for long enough to know that her emotions ran deep, and she was as defensive of her family as any wild creature, though it would not show in open anger or violence. Woe betide anyone who hurt anyone Horatia cared for! @Sara

"Gods forbid! I would make a terrible housewife - and what would you do, displaced like that?" dux femina facti - he could see Horatia as such a leader as Dido, perhaps, although reserved as she was, perhaps not. She did not have the forthrightness of Dido, but he was sure that she would inspire confidence and conviction in any who chose to follow her. "I would have thought that you would quite like this particular story to be as epic as the Aeneid. I'm afraid it'll either be that, or a very brusque, I went into the Senate chamber, was announced as Consul and sat down in the curule seat placed for me. Gods willing, anyway," he added, not at all wishing to tempt the Fates. Too much of that kind of talk and he wouldn't get it at all, would be passed over entirely in favour of some pipsqueak like Marcus Minicius Verulus, who has done... precisely nothing of note except not get killed in the purges. "And how are your brothers?" he asked, kissing the inside of her elbow. "And your sister?" @Sara

Davus shook his head regretfully. "No, I don't, sorry. But you should, if you can find someone to write it for you - I'm sure he'd like to hear from you." Davus himself couldn't think of anyone who'd like to hear from him, but that didn't necessarily hold true for Artemon, of course. It must be nice to have a brother who you could write to. Not that it sounded as if Artemon could write, and Davus was rather glad that he didn't have any siblings (that he knew of). Family was always rather a fraught and precarious thing, when you were a slave. He nudged the other man. "You know, when I said you must have a lot of stories to tell, most people would take it as a hint to tell one or two of them," he said , as if confiding some great secret. It didn't seem as if Artemon was precisely the sharpest knife in the set, but he made up for that with enthusiasm and optimism - he was about as enthusiastic as any puppy Davus had ever seen. The mental picture was helped along by the other's fluffy hair, which would probably be some wild mane if it was much longer than it was. "You've probably got a lot more interesting stories than I have, anyway," he added with a smile. @Liv

"My mother? Well, that probably explains it," Aulus said with a shrug, frowning at the thread. He looked up, meaning to smile at his wife, though he was defeated by the cloth between them, and had to peer around the loom at her. "I shall make sure to describe it to you at length, my dove - better yet, my father will, and likely with very little prompting. Though I will furnish you with a full description of the senate chamber, so you can picture it all properly." He retreated back to his side of the fabric, his smile now at the memory of his return to Rome from Britannia, when he had entered the house in full Senatorial regalia, tunic and toga both (borrowed from his father) and over-awed both of his children - who had been very young at the time. Where had the intervening years gone, that Titus should be so near taking his own adult toga, and Calpurnia had become a woman? He didn't think he would overawe them quite so much this time, although perhaps the lictors would. @Sara

Attis had not expected anyone to be behind him, had certainly not expected anyone to follow him, so when someone said his name - and in about the most unfriendly tone he had ever heard! - he jumped and spun round. It was a woman's voice that had addressed him, but he wasn't sure he could remember the woman in question. She seemed somehow familiar, though, and she certainly knew him, but it was only the way her eyes narrowed that brought the full recollection back. She had been a prisoner, had bested a young legionary, and Longinus had seen potential in her to be a successful gladiatrix. "Annis," he said in return. In any other circumstance, he'd be amused at the similarity of their names, different only in the double consonant. She spoke his name with the short consonant, as if it were only spelled with a single 'T', whereas he lengthened the consonant sounds of her name, pronouncing both exactly as he would any other double consonant in his own native Latin. "You look like you've stubbed your toe or something," he added, a little nonplussed at the extremely unfriendly look on her face. Why bother him? It wasn't as though he'd had anything to do with - anything. He was just a slave, after all. @Echo and OMG I am SO sorry!! I must've read this ages ago and completely forgotten to post a reply!!! Hope it's not been so long you've given up on it.

Aulus had visited the Temple of Juno where he had offered a sacrifice in thanksgiving for his wife and their marriage, and then gone on to the Temple of Jupiter to offer a sacrifice for the continued health and well-being of the Emperor, and to ask for favour in his quest for consulship - and for wisdom if he was elected (he would go and make similar sacrifices at the Temple of Minerva if he was fortunate enough to be elected). Although he had Quintus Augustus' approbation, so that was something. He wasn't about to take it for granted, though - anything could happen between now and then, of course. And of course he'd asked for the priest to take the omens for him, to find out if the gods were in favour or not of his ascending to the Consulship. He was ambitious, to be sure, but his was an ambition tempered with pragmatism, knowing that he wanted nothing further, nothing higher in Rome than that. A friend of Caesar's, not a rival - never a rival. He had supported Quintus Flavius Alexander through the grim dark days of civil war and would continue to support him, and his heirs. The omens, as far he could ascertain, were favourable, and he left the smoky darkness of the temple feeling more settled and certain. He paused on the temple steps to throw his toga back (he had covered his head with a fold of it as was usual when conducting a ritual) and rearrange its folds into something more becoming a senator and less like a priest, and took a deep breath of the clean fresh air.

Teutus squinted at his drinking companion's slightly blurred face. He was Roman, he knew about gladiators, even if he didn't particularly like watching the Games. "I'm not a barbarian," he said, feeling a little insulted. "You have the retiarius, with the net and trident, the secutor with the sword and shield, the Thracian - you know all this, better than I do!" He shrugged. "I have been to the Games before, I just don't find them particularly appealing." He saw little point in watching combat for fun. Maybe he wasn't truly Roman after all. "What is so appealing about watching men fight for sport, then?" he asked, perfectly willing to listen to a different perspective. @Atrice

Marcus nodded at his mute trainee's gestures; he had indeed noticed Safinia's throat. He had managed not to touch the body while conducting what examination he could - he had no wish to have to go through a ritual cleansing just because he had come into contact with a dead body (even that of one of his own faction). He would if it became necessary, but if he did not, so much the better. He absolutely did not like the implications. She had been out here on presumably lawful business, and had been killed in what passed for daylight here under the shadow of the Circus Maximus. Anyone might have seen it happen, although apparently nobody had seen it. Or associated Safinia with the Whites and come to tell them. No matter. He watched Azarion carefully pick her up and place her on the litter. She had not been very large in life, she had stood no chance at all against an attacker who had probably been much bigger and stronger than her. Work would carry on as much as possible (the horses still had to be fed, watered and exercised, after all) but all business would be suspended until the funeral had taken place. And hopefully whatever aedile Linus managed to retrieve would not be some useless purple-striper but would actually be able to piece together what had happened. He patted Azarion on the shoulder. "You've done well." And so much for keeping ritually pure. Oh well. In for an as, in for an aureus... he might as well go the whole way, and closed her eyes (Romans took great stock in such things, even though the followers of his own faith did not). @Chevi

Rufus groaned at the pun, though he'd leave it to Didia to smack Theo upside the head for it - he might be friends with the pair of them but he wasn't about to overstep his bounds as a friend and do that. Besides, Theo was standing on the other side of the table and Rufus would have to stand up and move, giving him plenty of opportunity to get out of the way. "Free, and willing," he said instead. Perfectly willing, not that he thought anyone would really recognise what he meant, or take him up on it if they did - which was a shame but he would live, and their friendship would remain intact. If only he could keep from dropping hints and things that they wouldn't get. It had been too long, he should probably think about heading to a brothel at some point just to get his mind off it. "What are your plans this Saturnalia, then? I hope I haven't interrupted anything in particular," he said instead, though whether or not the conversation would return to safer topics was anyone's guess. That ship had probably sailed by now. @Sara @Chevi

I have several sources I can cap myself, too, so if you want any pics from any of the following, let me know! My DVD library is growing, so I hope to be able to add to this list in future. Agora Alexander (2004) Ancient Rome: Rise and Fall of An Empire The Apocalypse of St John Attila the Hun Britannia (first season, I don't have the second season yet!) Ben Hur (both the 2011 miniseries and the 2016 film) Cleopatra (1999) Eagle of the Ninth (the 1977 BBC TV miniseries) Gladiator Hannibal: Rome's Worst Nightmare I, Claudius Imperium: Augustus Imperium: Nero Jesus of Nazareth Julius Caesar (the 2002 miniseries) Last Legion Masada Paul, Apostle of Christ Risen HBO's Rome HBO's Spartacus

"Me, a quitter? I should hope not," Aulus told her, with a smile. "I wouldn't be on the verge of becoming consul if I was! Though I don't mind telling you I've had to pinch myself once or twice at the realisation. I don't suppose you ever saw yourself as the wife of a consul, either." He dropped a kiss on her head and went where directed, taking the needle she passed him - a far smaller and more delicate tool than anything he had used before - and squinted at the woven cloth. "Who chose pink at this point, anyway? And listen to me, sounding as if I know anything about any of this!" He couldn't help laughing, and then sobered, to try to help. "No, I haven't spoken with Father yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to come back with us - it isn't every day you see your son take the curule seat as consul, and I know I'll want to be there for Titus when he does in his own turn, gods willing." @Sara

"Yeah, I like you," Teutus said. "I did say, if you really want to show me your gladiators, I'll come with you. I've never had an ex-gladiator talk about them, only listened to my father, and he's more interested in their looks than... Anything else. I think." He seemed to have fallen in with someone who preferred someone else to take the lead which Teutus wouldn't mind doing nine times out of ten. Today was the tenth time, though, when he'd prefer not have to make any sort of decision of his own but follow someone else's ideas. The only thing he was perfectly clear on was that he wanted to stay out of his father's house for as long as possible while the household celebrated the baby. He didn't want to think about that,he wanted some sort of distraction and watching gladiators train would probably be a better distraction than taking an amphora of wine anywhere and drinking it dry. "How far is it to your old ludus, Alexius?" @Atrice