Although
he was born a slave, Quintus has always taken interest in Rome’s great military
stories for as long as he can remember.
Growing up he heard legends of Romulus, founder and warlord of Rome; and
Marius the famous commander, recruiting poor volunteers in promise of great
land rewards. Quintus daydreams of
wartime triumphs yet very well knows that as a slave he can only daydream of
such adventures, as one must be a property-owning Roman citizen to be a part of
a legion.
While Quintus escapes the boredom of
his slave duties through his daydreams of past battles, he is well aware how
his master Titus feels about the current civil war. Titus fears he has been too outspoken in his favor
of Pompey, especially since everyone knows his influential family has been
friends with Pompey’s family for years. As
soon as he returns home Quintus crouches by an open window of the main house,
pretending to tend to the garden while he strains to hear Titus complaining to
his wife Lucilla about the newest battle between Caesar and Pompey.
“The
battle of Pharsalus should have been easily won by Pompey! Caesar was greatly outnumbered, and with much
less horsemen. What a disgrace!” Titus
moaned.
Lucilla
languidly turns her head towards her husband, cooing “try not to worry
Titus. There is still hope Pompey will
again gather his men and keep Caesar far away.
After all, Caesar dared to cross
the Rubicon, he cannot go unpunished after that!”.
“I
think not! There are rumors of Pompey’s
flee to Egypt, where I fear Caesar will surely pursue him. I try not to think of what would become of
our family if Caesar were to take power.
Disaster!”.
“Well
then”, Lucilla sighs, “we must pray to the Gods to favor Pompey, for our own
sakes”.
