Chapter Three

Conn approached his step-great-grandmother and sat next to her on her bed. Julia looked at her step-great-grandson and smiled. "Conn..." she said. "You are such a handsome boy, a pity I shall not see you grow into a man like your father... Would that I could live to be a century old so I might see you meet the girl Venus and Juno have chosen for you, see you married perhaps see your children... But I leave you as a child and I have loved you, Conn, just as much as I have loved my natural great-grandchildren... Or at least have I attempted to love some of them... I loved Caligula when he was a child but now no such thing is possible. Beware Caligula and remember that you have been more of great-grandchild to me than he has been for a long time."

"I love you, step-great-grandmother." Said Conn.

"I love you as well, Conn." Julia closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. "Take good care of your sibling when they are born. Should you have a sister she shall be called Julia after myself... Should you have a brother he shall be called Julius, after myself."

Romulus leaned over to speak to Messalina. "Do you think we should tell her we decided on Gaelic names for our children only?"

"An exception can be made, Romulus, she is your step-grandmother after all." Replied Messalina.

"Once she dies there will still be my niece Julia Livilla."

"Then pray for a son because there are none in this family living with the name Julius."

"What are you two whispering about?" asked Julia. "Conn, could you hear what your parents were whispering about?"

"No, step-great-grandmother." Replied Conn.

"Only that we pray that Julius will be as proud a man as you are a woman, Julia." Stated Messalina.

"I am sure he will." Assured Julia. "He will have a right to be proud. As the father determines the race of the child Julius will be a Gael. Goidel Glas, father of your race, was fathered by a Scythian prince and born of an Egyptian princess and you Romulus were born of Julia Major who through her father Augustus, my second husband and your maternal grandfather, was descended from Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and Prince Anchises, himself a descendant of Troy's founder Tros."

"I know my ancestry, step-grandmother. I have taught it to Conn."

Julia looked to Conn and asked: "Has he taught you?"

"Yes, step-grandmother." Answered Conn.

"Good." Julia once more looked to her bedchamber's ceiling and said: "A person should know their ancestry. "We do not always have such grand ancestries as that: a Scythian prince, an Egyptian princess, an Olympian goddess, a Trojan prince... I am descended from a consul... Messalina, what is your ancestry?"

"My father was a soldier at Clades Lolliana and Lupia River, my mother was a Germanic woman he took as his wife."

"My second son Nero Claudius Drusus faught and won at Lupia River..." said Julia, still looking at the ceiling. "The Germanic tribes are one of the worthiest opponents Rome has ever had, Messalina, you should be proud of your Germanic heritage... Would that Germanicus had lived, I would have loved to have him here... I guess in the end you were right, Romulus... So much like Alexander the Great that he even died young... Do you suppose there will ever be one like Alexander that will live to see old age?"

"Who can say, step-grandmother?" asked Romulus. "I do regret not being with Germanicus to fight alongside him at Mindon."

"Do not regret such a thing." Scolded Julia. "We might have won that day but we lost countless that day just as the Germanic warriors did... We lost our ally the Batavian chieftain Chariovalda... If you had died at Minden then... I will not think of such things upon my deathbed, I will not, I shall not, let all thoughts of that manner be banished from my mind... Eighteen is much too young for you to begin a military career, Romulus... I would prefer you to remain with what you were taught history, astrology, strategy and, uh, I do believe there was another, dear me, what was it?"

"Mathematics." Answered Romulus.

"Mathematician, astrologer, strategist, historian... You are many things, Romulus, a solder should not be one of them." Said Julia, closing her eyes again. "Your grandfather's time was fraught with wars. There was the civil war that followed the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father Julius Caesar, there was the Sicilian revolt, the Perusine War, the war against Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius, the Cantabrian Wars and then there were the battles against the Germanic peoples. Rome must be at peace, the masses get blood at arenas we do not need to be going out into the world to bathe it in blood. Despite the wars, Augustus' time was relatively peaceful, something I'm surprised has continued under Tiberius... I suppose the less we need for soldiers the happier Rome will be for a long time."

"Claudius seems to believe we should conquer Britannia." Said Romulus.

"That is something I feel he should stop expressing." Said Messalina. "Isn't all that is Rome big enough already? What could we possibly get from adding Britannia to our domain?"

"Should the day ever come that Claudius becomes First Citizen, and I am not sure that will ever come, no doubt he will conquer Britannia for some reason or another." Said Julia. "I've always known he has exaggerated his stammer and made himself appear clumsy, he is a smart one and may just outlive this entire family."

"I doubt it." Romulus shook his head. "He may be smart but Caligula seems to have it in for him."

"What else is new?" asked Julia, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Caligula seems to have it in for most of Rome, all of these enemies he is bound to make, I wouldn't be surprised if he should become First Citizen that he would only lasted four twelvemonths."

"That sounds about right." Commented Messalina with a completely blank expression.

"Just the other day I heard him..." Julia looked to Conn and said to him. "Go and find your uncle Claudius, dear, this is talk for adults." Conn exited the bedchamber and Julia then said: "Just the other day I heard him profess his love to his sister Julia Drusilla."

"I forgot about her and her sister Julia Livilla completely." Muttered Romulus.

"What was that, Romulus?" asked Julia.

"Nothing, step-grandmother."

"That is abhorrent!" exclaimed Messalina. "We are not Egyptians!"

"There hasn't been an Egyptian married to his sister since Ptolemy XIV and Cleopatra, I'd have hoped such madness would have ended when she poisoned him." Expressed Romulus.

"You really think she poisoned her own brother?" asked Messalina.

"It is something I debated with Claudius well into the night a few times this week." Confessed Romulus.

"Is that why you've been coming to bed so late?"

"I'm afraid so, my love."

"That is terrific." Commented Julia, now with a blank expression on her face. "Who here wants to persuade Drusilla to poison Caligula so I might have company on my journey to the afterlife?"

"You really want Caligula to accompany you to the afterlife?" inquired Messalina, more than a tad bit concerned at what she was hearing.

"Of course not, Caligula is..." Julia paused to think of a description of Caligula until she finally said: "He is Caligula. Tiberius would be more preferable to him."

"Step-grandmother, I'd say that old villain Spartacus himself would be more preferable to Caligula." Stated Romulus. "Still, I have a great deal more respect for Tiberius than I ever could have for Caligula. I'm just glad Tiberius stays in Capri leaving Messalina unmolested. He has become a fornicator with unnamed blemishes and exclusive turpitudes."

"Abhorrent!" exclaimed Julia. "Nero was worth ten of him. "

"I am grateful that you don't take me with you when he summons you to Capri, Romulus." Said Messalina.

"Would that Tiberius had died thirty twelvemonths ago and Nero had lived to become First Citizen. He never would have tried to expose you, Romulus." Stated Julia.

"We went fifteen twelvemonths without bringing up him having wanted to expose me." Romulus scratched his neck, while clutching Messalina's hand with his left hand.

"Fifteen twelvemonths... Would that Augustus still lived." Julia blinked a few times, thinking of her beloved second husband.

"He'd be ninety." Pointed out Romulus.

"What of it?" Julia asked.

"I'm just saying, I'm not sure if he could have made it this long with how his health was."

"No one expected him to be five and seventy." Commented Messalina. "Do you not think it possible he could have lived to be ninety?"

"If his health had not been the way it had throughout his life maybe." Romulus then began to rub his chin thoughtfully. "Although if I am to be honest, I cannot think of my grandfather any other way than the man who had a dozen fevers but did not die from any of them, most of those fevers weren't even in my lifetime. Germanicus was of better health and yet he lived a shorter life."

"That was the life Germanicus had chosen." Said Julia. "He had chosen a short life of glory like Achilles and Alexander."

"That is no life." Romulus placed his free hand on Messalina's stomach. "A life should give a man a chance to see his sons grow, to love his wife... Achilles was absent from Neoptolemus' life and Alexander never lived to see his son... They loved their wives but Achilles had been away from Deidamia for a decade when he died at Troy. I cannot imagine Messalina and I being separated each other for that long, being separated for two decades like Ulysses and Penelope is even more unimaginable."

"Germanicus took his wife your half-sister Agrippina Major with him." Julia opened and closed her eyes a few times. "How strange it is that I will ultimately just stop closing my eyes today. All that lives must die but still it is so strange. There are times when people think they will never die indeed there was a time I thought I never would expire but yet here I am and the whole thing feels so strange to have your life slipping away from you so slowly. I wonder if this was how it was for Augustus... Augustus was mourned, I know I shall be mourned and I am left to wonder if Tiberius will. Will you Romulus?"

"I am uncertain if I will feel anything once he dies, step-grandmother." Replied Romulus.

"Will you, Messalina?"

"I will not, Julia." Replied Messalina.

Julia gave a small laugh. "Tiberius has become the kind of a leader that none would mourn for... Augustus was a good man Tiberius is less than a good man, what a thought to have on one's deathbed. Will your son's successor be better than he?"