Assignment 8
Percius
had just awoken at dawn to the noise of his master, Lucius Minucius Basilus, yelling at Gaius for not cleaning the
atrium the night before. Basilus, a Roman politician and military commander,
was having an important meeting with fellow Roman politicians. It was March 1st
and Basilus was becoming anxious and nervous for some upcoming event. Percius
was unaware of the situation, but he and his fellow slaves had been taking the
full might of Basilus recent temper. Percius knew that if anyone did not
complete their duties, all of the slaves would be beaten for disobedience.
Percius had grown up being a slave, but he knew there was more to life then
serving others. He put all of his effort every day to have a chance to become a
freedman.
Percius
became increasingly curious at the events and meetings Basilus was having with
his friends. He overheard them one night talking about the injustice and abuse
of power Caesar had on the Republic. He also found a few letters written to Marcus Tullius Cicero talking about the struggles of having Caesar as dictator. Percius
realized this was his chance to better himself; he just needed to find a way to
tell Caesar. Percius began writing a letter to Caesar detailing the information
he had learned over the countless times Basilus and his friends had arrived at
the home on Palatine Hill.
On the morning of
March 15th 44BCE, Percius again woke up to noise of yelling, but
this time it wasn’t Basilus, it was the whole house. Percius realized Roman soldiers
had overrun the house. He was overwhelmed with excitement. As he exited his
room, he saw the family and his fellow slaves lined up and slaughtered. Percius
ran back into his room and locked the door. Trembling and confused, he could
not understand what was going on, he never thought it would end like this. Seconds later, he heard the soldiers pounding
on the door, he knew this was the last seconds of his life. The soldiers broke through the door to find
Percius in his tunic on the floor.
They called out, “Are you Percius?”
Percius nodded his head.
They proceeded to tell Percius, “Caesar is outside of the
Villa waiting for you, hurry now.”
As Percius got off the floor, he
did not know what to think of the situation. He wiped the tears off his cheek
and swollen red eyes and began exiting through the vestibule. He was still frightened
at the event that had just taken place, but he realized now his life would be
completely different. He was going to become a freedman.
