imperial Quintus Flavius Caesar Alexander Augustus

[Chris]

Q. FLAVIUS CAESAR ALEXANDER AUGUSTUS

63 | 5 May 11 CE | Imperial | Emperor | Hetero | Canon | Timothy Dalton

 

Personality

 

Quintus is a hardhearted and efficient man with a keen mind for strategy and politics. He is at all times a realist and sees little point in thinking of what "could be" or "should be". He considers wishing for better things to be a waste of time, and looks down upon all who entertain such 'hopeful' or idealist thoughts. Those who take hold of the reigns of their own lives and do what they can to influence their own futures are those whom he wants to associate himself with. He does not believe that any man should be given what his father or forefathers before him earned; in his mind, inheriting what one hasn't earned prevents a man from understanding the worth of what he has, or what he is.

Having spent more than an average man's amount of time in the military, serving from the ground up, Quintus has an appreciation for common soldiers and is keen to support men from lower classes. Even though his family was granted Patrician status, he considers himself more a man of the lower orders than of the traditional and established families. His time in the military and serving in administrative roles has taught him patience and duty. His ideas on personal ambition and his time spent in the military greatly influence how he interacts with others. He is never a man to sell himself short, but likewise never looks favorably upon another until he is given reason to do so. To put it simply; Quintus is a difficult man to impress, but once you have earned his favor, it remains.

For most of his life, Quintus considered love to be a trivial, philosophical thing - something to be discussed and sang about because it didn't truly belong to anyone. In older age, his opinion has changed somewhat. Though the fact that his own father was distant, and his own mother demanding still factors heavily into how he treats his own family, and what he expects of them, he would not say he holds no affection for them. Now as Caesar, he holds his children very dear, not only for the sake of his name, but also for the fact that they are the future of the empire. He is not soft, and still believes that his sons have to earn their names - but he has made an effort to spend more time with them, teaching and guiding. Likewise, he has placed more and more trust and time into his brothers - especially Jullus and Octavius - and has developed closer bonds with them than they ever shared in years prior.

Even Quintus' views on women have changed drastically. His pleasure in enjoying women of exotic locales has waned, as his focus has turned mostly on his own family and his new young wife. He sees Drusilla as everything a woman should be - shrewd, intelligent, both quiet and outspoken when necessary, and a very supportive and encouraging mother. More and more he considers that a woman can be his strength in ways men cannot.
 

 

Appearance

Quintus is slim and fit despite his age. Being a man of the military he has always cut a fine figure. Despite his position, he dresses quite modestly, and avoids overly colorful or fancy designs. Like Augustus, he is austere and traditional in his dress. He is always clean-shaven, his hair always neatly trimmed. His grayed hair still shows specs of black peppered throughout, and the line has begun to recede, but he meets it with his head held high.
 

Family

Father: Cnaeus Flavius Alexander Germanicus (deceased)

Mother: Cornelia Annthea (deceased)

Siblings:
- Rufus Flavius Alexander (deceased)
- Flavia Lucilla Augusta (deceased)
- Jullus Flavius Alexander (b. 24)
- Decimus Flavius Alexander (deceased)
- Octavius Flavius Alexander (b. 33)
- "Laelius", adopted as Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Alexander (b. 39)

Spouse: Julia Drusilla Augusta (b. 39)
- 1st Wife: Valeria Marcella (died in birth)
- 2nd Wife: Imperiosa Acuelonis (div. 57)
- 3rd Wife: Rutilia Cypriana (div. 62)

Children:
- Unnamed Daughter (stillborn)
- Publius Flavius Alexander Belanus (deceased)
- Cnaeus Flavius Caesar Alexander Gemellus (deceased)
- Titus Flavius Caesar Alexander [Geminus] (b. 57)
- Flavia [Rutiliana] Caesaris (b. 61)
- Drusus Flavius Caesar Alexander (b. 67)
- Tiberius Claudius Sabucius (nephew & ward; son of Lucilla)

Illegitimate:
- Ausonia Belanina (b. 41)
- Eutropia (b. 54)

Extended Family:
- Claudii-Nerones [Caesares] through his late sister's marriage
- Cornelii-Scipiones through his mother
- Julii-Caesares through his wife
- Aemilii-Scauri through his brother Laelius/Scaurus Alexander

Other:
- Consort: Ausonia (deceased; mother to Belanina & Publius Belanus)
- Consort: Patroclea (b. 41; mother to Eutropia)

History

CHILDHOOD [11-24]

 

On the fifth day of the fifth month, a child came into the world as the second son of Cnaeus Flavius Alexander and Cornelia Annthea. Because of the auspicious nature of his birthday, he was given the name 'Quintus' and marked as the secondary inheritor. His elder sibling, a brother who was their father's namesake, was only two at the time of his birth. Yet, within a year the young Cnaeus had died from a common cold, leaving Quintus the eldest and the principal inheritor. The family he was born into, the Flavii-Alexandrae, were a relatively new family in Rome's politics; like so many others, their rise coincided with the rise of Augustus. Quintus' great-grandfather, Gaius Flavius Alexander, was the first of the family to sit in the Senate. His grandfather, another Gaius, had been known for his oratory - his father was known for his military ability.

Despite the 'new blood' within his father's side, Quintus' mother was of one of the most distinguished and celebrated houses in all of Rome's history - the Cornelii-Scipiones. Though their fortunes had fallen with the fall of the Republic, their name remained respected and honored. Because of his father's ever-busy military career, the majority of Quintus' youth was spent in the care of his mother, and his maternal grandfather, the scion of the Scipiones, Marcus Cornelius Scipio the Elder. Marcus the Elder was a harsh taskmaster whom had decided that Quintus would present an image of his Scipio blood, so that future generations of Flavians might benefit from their heritage. Though Quintus often spoke in detest for his grandfather Marcus in his youth, he has come to be the same man in many ways.

 

TEENAGE - EARLY ADULTHOOD [25-30]

When Quintus at last came of age to enter into some form of public service, he was enlisted into a cadet school for the sons of the nobility. He left Rome and lived in Mediolanum where he trained with other young nobles in the arts of war. Once his training had finished he returned to Rome only briefly before beginning his service in the legions. Around this time Quintus' father's own career had begun to skyrocket. His many victories in Germania had earned him a reputation for being a fierce warrior and a staunch supporter of the Principate. Many expected that because of the favor being shown upon his family, Quintus' own career would be a faster version of his father's; it was not to be. In one of their few meetings over the course of his life, Cnaeus denied his son entry into the legions as an officer, instead stating that if he wanted a military career, he had to earn a position at the top.

Filled with a mix of hatred for his father and a desire to prove himself, Quintus enlisted as a miles - a common foot-soldier at the age of fifteen. For the next five years he served common duty with the 8th Twin Legion in Pannonia. He learned how to shoulder gear, how to stake a camp, how to kill a man, how to carry a wounded brother, and how to give orders. Despite his youth, he learned that leadership came natural to him. In his fourth and fifth years in the legion he found his spot in line steadily increasing. New recruits rallied to him, the son of a noble who fought in the dirt and the grime with them. He found that he enjoyed their acclaim, their praise - most of all he enjoyed the sense of power and control. When his first five years in the legion were finished, Quintus returned to Rome to embark on the next stage of his career.

 

ADULTHOOD [30-63]

From the age of 20, Quintus re-enlisted into his uncle Titus' legion in Asia. He served as an officer and found the glimpses of power and command he had seen as a common soldier amplified. For the next twenty-five years Quintus' sole drive would be to make his name large enough to escape the shadow of his father's. His exemplary service in the field and the haughty, 'Cornelian' way in which he held himself quickly earned him a large number of both allies and enemies. Nevertheless, his family's fortune's continued to rise. In due time his father became associates with Drusus Claudius Sabucius, who in time rose to the seat of emperor. Their friendship in turn led to Claudius' marriage to Quintus' own sister, Lucilla. In a single marriage, Claudius had gained himself access to one of the empire's finest generals - in Cnaeus - and his sons, of whom Quintus was the most distinguished. Quintus served the empire faithfully for the next several decades, leading legions or serving administrative roles when and where required.

In 46 AD, after a nearly continuous term of service that spanned two decades, at last Quintus took time to himself. He had built his name into one that was recognized separate of his ageing father, and separate of his glorified sister, but he understood that he could not succeed in being only a military man. For all his father's accomplishments, the man had never seen much success in politics. Quintus, with his Cornelian upbringing, was determined to show strength and aptitude in an arena his father had yet to breach. This began with a marriage to the daughter of another prominent senator, Cnaeus Valerius Messalla, who was quite often a rival to Quintus' own father. The marriage brought Quintus into Messalla's camp, which ardently supported Claudius in the growing tension that was brewing between the emperor and Camilius. Valeria's death in childbirth in 49 was a temporary setback to Quintus' ambitions, but rather than grieve him, it simply pushed him forward.

Soon enough he had established his own strength in Rome's politics, and became the head of an imperial party that looked to Lucilla and the strength of the Flavians. It became increasingly obvious that Claudius was unfit to be the supreme commander of the empire. Quintus saw opportunity in having his sister remain empress, and seeing his nephews rise to Claudius' seat. Though he had never gotten along overly well with any of his siblings, Quintus began plotting with Lucilla to see her son Marcus Darius put into power. Unknown to him, others had hatched plots of their own. His own cousin, Lucius Scipio, had been in league with Camilius; one supported the return of the Senate, while the other supported himself, but with both seeing Marcus Darius as an obstacle to their goals, their powers aligned.

With the death of Claudius, chaos broke out across the empire with rebellions in Greece and Egypt, and even riots in Rome itself. Quintus' moment had come, but again his father proved an obstacle. The old man, long retired from service, entertained ideas of becoming Caesar in Darius' place. Lucilla approached her brother with her concerns, and together they ensured that their father entered a sleep from which he would never wake. The shadow of his father at last gone, Quintus moved quickly. With support from his followers in the senate, he was awarded the command of the legions and fleets in Illyria and Pannonia in order to deal with the Greek rebellion. This gave him access to the legions nearest to Rome. However, his bid for power did not go uncontested. Camilius had his legions, Manius Claudius had his supporters, Aetius had his legions, and there were those who supported Lucilla and the boy Marcus Darius. A compromise was agreed upon, wherein power was split between five camps. 

Quintus accepted the compromise, sure that it would not last. He focused his energies on Epirus and the rebellion, which he crushed within two years, and then bade his time in Athens, waiting to see what might become of Camilius. In this period of time, Quintus' allies in Rome attempted to win him honors from the Senate. He found he was blocked by none other than his own cousin, Lucius Scipio. Lucius had started a war for himself in Dacia and persuaded the Senate to name him 'Dacicus'. From afar Quintus began a campaign to besmear Lucius' name, and it was then that Quintus discovered the man's alliance with Camilius. He forwarded the information to his sister, Lucilla, and Rome was turned upside down. With his career ruined, and with the Senate believing he had betrayed them, Lucius committed suicide within the very walls of the Curia. Lucilla took the opportunity to have Marcus Darius proclaim his position as sole "Caesar" and abolish the regencies. All was done with Quintus' silent support. He would much prefer to have a sister and nephew on the throne, than an enemy.

Quintus was recalled to Rome as an adviser to Darius, replacing Camilius. This move was the final straw for Camilius - whom had often considered himself Cnaeus' protege; the man declared himself Caesar and waged open rebellion in Gaul. It was Quintus who was given imperium to defeat the traitor. For the first time in his life, Quintus Alexander marched into Gaul and took command of the legions that had served under his own father for so long. The legions overwhelmingly rallied to Quintus, and he made short work of Camilius' "rebellion". The two met in battle near Alesia, and Camilius was soundly defeated. He fled into obscurity for a year before being driven out and executed by Quintus himself. For his service, Quintus was made provisional governor of all of Gaul, to reinstate stability and repair damages done by war.

Quintus' term in Gaul ended with the coming of 60 AD, and with it he returned peacefully to Rome. In the intervening period, much had changed. His second wife, Imperiosa, had given birth to twin boys and then showed infidelity which led to a divorce. The twins were taken in by Quintus' mother, Annthea. Further opportunities presented themselves with Darius' own sickness and death. When news reached Quintus of his nephew's passing, it came with news from Rome that in the same night his brother-in-law Honorius and younger nephew Decimus Junus had been proclaimed joint Caesars by the Praetorians and the Senate. Not wanting to raise his legions against his own family, Quintus gave his support to the new rulers of Rome and remained an active member of the Senate. 60 AD saw him married again, this time to the sister of an up-and-coming senator whom had served under him in the Greek conflict, Manius Cyprianus.

Quintus never expected the near fall of his family at the end of that year. The assassinations of both Honorius and Junus, combined with the death of Lucilla at the end of 60 left Quintus suddenly without the net of allies he had become to accustomed to. He was in Rome, away from his legions, and without legal power. He was trapped, and despite all the progress he had made, was forced to play by another's rules. He quietly supported the rise of Manius Cyprianus, his brother-in-law, and sought alternative ways that he might return to the head of legions - they were his only fail-safe. He would not accept Cyprianus as Caesar; with the deaths of all other capable members of his family, Quintus saw himself as the only remaining alternative. He simply would have to play his cards right and remain patient. His alliance with Cyprianus saw Quintus' second term as consul in 61, where he served with another long-time warrior, Marcus Scaurus.

Two months into his term, opportunity knocked. Trouble had been brewing in the east with Parthia, and considering Quintus' own past service under his uncle Titus in that region, he was the natural choice to serve as a diplomat there. He was sent as an official diplomat and deftly maneuvered himself into a position of more autonomous power as the central structure of Rome was reconfigured beneath the shadows of two giants, Scaurus and Cyprianus. Married as he was to Cyprianus' sister, Quintus wasted no time in neutralizing himself in the battle brewing between the two sides - he arranged the marriage of his widowed mother to Scaurus, accepting the adoption of his younger brother into the Aemilii-Scauri. All the while, allies in Rome continued to support him as their champion in the event of a what was considered an unavoidable civil war.

Then, Scaurus and Cyprianus surprised everyone by coming to a settlement which seemingly ended the threat of war - and also ruptured the Scauran party. Scaurus "retired" to Syria and Cyprianus was soon under investigation on charges of corruption, though whispers spoke that he and several others had been behind the overthrow of the Caesars. It was at this point that Quintus divorced Cypriana, and after dealing with the threat of the Aorsi, more or less cut himself off from Rome. In due time a coup led by the Praetorian Prefect Clemens took over Rome and civil war erupted across the empire. Quintus saw the opportunity he had been waiting for, and took it. In short work he defeated his father-in-law Scaurus in Syria (whom had risen at the front of an army dedicated to restoring the republic), the generals allied to the pretender Cotta, and then the very armies of Clemens himself before he victoriously took Rome and was named Caesar by the Senate and People.

 

THE PAST DECADE [63-NOW]

Immediately after taking control of the empire, Quintus settled the affairs in Rome by taking a very militaristic approach to the chaos that had ruled. At the close of the year, the "military occupation" of Rome was ended, and Quintus allowed normal functioning government to return - he was named consul alongside his brother Octavius, whom had served him well through all his campaigning. With considerable powers invested in Octavius, Quintus took action to strengthen the northern frontier of the empire by marching north into Gaul, routing the German incursions that had broken the lines in the fallout of civil war, and beating them back into Germania. He took a tour of each legionary fort along the Rhine, reorganizing and replenishing each by granting citizenship to entire towns and communities in northern Gaul, and creating new citizen-cohorts from their numbers.

After his first year in power saw to the protection of the Rhine Frontier, Quintus spent the next two years settling the incredibly messy and altogether undesirable situation in Britannia. From the start, Quintus had never been a fan of his nephew's plan to invade Britannia, and so as Caesar his initial goal was to reorganize the lands that Rome already claimed a stable hold over - as he had done in Germania. In much the same way, he traveled through the forts giving spirit and fresh recruits to the legions and new orders to their commanders. Midway through the year, Quintus was approached by none other than the leader of the British resistance, Eppitacos, himself. The two discussed Eppitacos' vision for Britannia, and in time the two came to terms in which Eppitacos would serve as a client king of Britannia. However, motions within the Briton ranks prevented it from ever happening. Those who betrayed Eppitacos presented him as a prisoner. Quintus, seeing it as an opportunity for momentary peace and a means to bolster his image back in Rome, accepted the offer along with a sizable payment for the offences of the Britons.

After another year spent on Britannia to ensure its stability, Quintus Caesar at last returned to Rome as the heroic conqueror whom had put an end to the civil war, stabilized the Rhine Frontier, and brought an end to the endless warfare in Britannia that had killed so many of Rome's young sons. He at last enjoyed his Triumph through the streets of the Eternal City, and at last Rome was one again. His first acts upon returning were to spare Eppitacus execution, and instead made him a gladiator to fight for the entertainment of the Roman people, after causing them so much grief. His second act was to put a silent end to the clamoring of young upstart senator known as Tacitus whom had attempted to breathe life into the remnants of Scaurus' old republican-leaning party.

Understanding that with war out of the way, the people would be curious as to the next imperial marriage, Quintus wasted no time in considering the ideal woman for his next wife. She could be no simple woman, and he had to take care in choosing which family he allied himself with. As the fates had it, a woman literally born for the position came forward. While he had been in Germania and Britannia, Quintus had approved a universal forgiveness of all Romans exiled by his predecessors. One among their number had been none other than Julia Drusilla, the young daughter of the murdered emperor Caligula. Though he was apprehensive about meeting the daughter of Caligula, Drusilla proved herself to be everything Quintus desired in a wife. Their marriage moved forward quickly, and because of her youth she was quick with child. Drusus Flavius Caesar Alexander was born to him by the end of the year. In the same span of time, Annthea at last passed from the world; Quintus pushed through a motion to deify her and she became known (postumously) as Cornelia Pia Augusti Mater.

The last half of his decade of peace has seen Quintus Caesar faced with the final annexation of Britannia, and several natural disasters across the empire. He has remained steadfast in his dedication to the preservation of the empire and support of the people, for which he remains beloved. It is now a new era in the Eternal City, wherein Quintus must now contend not only with the barbarians beyond the borders, but also with his sons, their mothers, and the growing imperial family. He is determined that his dynasty will long outlive the Julio-Claudians, and will do almost anything to ensure its continued stability into the future.

 

 

 

CHRIS | US EST | PM / DISCORD

Edited February 17, 2019 by Chris
Inserted pic.

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