Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River creating a civil war
in Rome. The time was now 45 BCE, when Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, which
left him as the first dictator of Rome. Appius Antonius, son of Marcus Appius
Antonius, has an elite status within the Roman senate. He worked closely under
Caesar along with the other high-powered men in Rome. Marcus Appius was proud
to see his son take his place as senator and have such a high rank to the
public eye. This all changed when Appius married a woman, Aurelia. Aurelia was
left stranded after her family was broken up during the civil wars that were
taking place in Rome during Caesar’s rule. Appius took Aurelia in, seeing that
her family was also of high status before the civil wars took place. It wasn’t
long before they fell in love and got married.
Appius was happy with his decision, he thought Aurelia would
be a loving wife and represent him well in public. However, Marcus Appius felt
his son married beneath him and tried everything in his power to make his son
reconsider the marriage. He goes through a lot to strategically make Aurelia
look like she is cheating on his son.
While Appius is off handling business affairs, his father feeds
him information leading him to suspect his wife is having an affair with one of
the many slaves in the house. He trusted his wife, but at the same time was
worried because women were not meant to bring shame to the family name. Aurelia
becomes pregnant, but is worried her husband will send away her child if her
father in law convinces him she is cheating. She doesn’t want her first-born
son to be sold into slavery for false accusations of adultery.
As the tensions become more and more apparent between Aurelia
and her father-in-law, Appius finds himself stuck in the middle having to choose
between his wife, whom he loves dearly, and his father, who is threatening to
disown him for shaming the family name.
