Previously: Lucius Claudius Valerius feared for his life
because of his rumored allegiance to Pompey and made plans to flee by
nightfall. Unfortunately he never made it out because he was murdered. Or so
Graecus, the head household slave, thought until Clodia, Lucius’ wife, noticed
inconsistencies with the body. Now Graecus has set off to find his Master to beg
for his freedom and avoid being tortured in trial.
As Graecus walks down Veila towards
the Forum Romanum, he prays the Greek God Zeus (similar to Rome’s Jupiter), and
asks for safe passage and success in his endeavors. Graecus weaves through the
forum trying to avoid authority figures sure to recognize him and blends into
the shopping crowd at the Basilica Aemilia. Once he arrives at the Forum Boarium,
he asks a friend if he’s seen his master. “Yes, he crossed the Pons Aemilus
(bridge across Tiber River) not two days ago”
Graecus thanked him graciously and begins
to think where he may have gone. “That’s it”! Graecus suddenly realizes where his
master Lucius would flee in a time of panic, Delphi. Graecus’ homeland “known
as one of the greatest Greek sanctuaries,” he told Lucius about it as a boy.
It took a week’s time to sail to
Delphi and when they landed on shore it was just how Graecus remembered it,
beautiful. He quickly suppressed his urge to reminisce and focused on the task
at hand. Lucius Valerius was clearly had no clue how to blend in with the
masses because Graecus spotted him almost immediately posing as a peddler.
Lucius noticed him spoke first, “Graecus, why have you come? This is very
dangerous.”
“There is no time to explain sir, your trial is in a week
and I am begging you to free me before…” three large men grabbing for Lucius
cut his plea short, they had followed Graecus and he led them straight to
Lucius.
“We were sent by Marcus Antonius of Rome to find, capture
and return Lucius Claudius Valerius for the trial concerning the Mighty Julius
Caesar”.
The first few days of the voyage back to Rome, Lucius denied
every claim put against him until the men threatened to hurt his family should
they find out he lied.
“All right! It’s true I was plotting against Caesar, but I wasn’t the
only one”, the crashing of the waves was suddenly the only sound in the cabin.
Lucius then proceeded to tell his plan; clearly he had given up and knew it was
his life or his family’s. The waves were loud and Graecus couldn’t catch the
entire story but it had something to do with an ambush. Whenever the next
battle was against Pompey (turns out to be the Battle of Munda March 17th
45 BCE), the opposition would come towards him like any other battle and then
have the men posing in Caesar’s troops come up behind him, encircle him and
kill him and it would’ve looked as if he had died in battle. He mentioned how
they choose lower level spies because Caesar was infamous for knowing his
generals. When they docked Lucius gave Graecus his freedom and was taken to
trial. In a matter of hours Lucius was accused, tried and found guilty by
punishment of death. The search continued for the other conspirators but they
were never found. The family was not allowed to bury his body in pomerium, the
sacred burial place outside of the city, but fortunately his wife Clodia and
their son, Young Lucius, were pardoned.
