New Fiction #5

So I am a member of this: http://novaroma.org/nr/Main_Page
And to show my enduring love for the Roman Republic, Empire and way of life, I've been working on a still ongoing story to showcase it but I'm having a bit of trouble capturing real Roman virtues and not demonizing them like everyone else.

Latin Names: Alecto is a Latin name used by Virgil in the Aeneid for one of The Furies but it is a female name. I didn't know that when I started this but now I do, however I still love the name so it stays for the guy. His siblings, in the beginning were named for the planets because I wanted their names to be easy to pronounce but I may change them to appear more Latin. Alecto's nieces and nephews are named for the constellations, I just found it fun. I use the name Gallo instead of Gallus simply because I think Gallo sounds better, and I'm trying to push the rooster meaning of the name instead of, of Gaul.

Setting: Roughly around 249 AD. History after Emperor Septimius Servus didn't happen, the Antonine Dynasty came back through great great great grandsons of Lucius Aurelius Verus, so the main family use the Aurelius name if only to tie them to Emperor Marcus Aurelius as great great great grandsons of his daughter Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla. I messed with some timelines so the Franks are a thing, Huns, vikings too for fun, and some characters are Christian and have Christian names, I changed character Daniel's name to Domitian to make it more Roman, although I believe Domitian is a surname and not a given name.

Notes: And there's a Pope as it is entirely fictional with historical facts when it comes to certain people like the Five Good Emperors. There is Italian in it rather than Latin, because this is fictional but I didn't want to do anything around the fall of Rome (though it does have some components from that era) but I wanted to show a Rome that was steadily changing somehow.


Chapter 1

Alecto lounged down in the upright chair, he sighed heavily to himself as he kicked his foot at nothing. He had been back for two months and was loathing every moment of it. His ships were hidden, his crew all gone home after many years at sea.....his wife....left him.
He didn't know what went wrong, what he did wrong, she wouldn't tell him. She didn't tell him much of anything, just that they both would benefit from being separated now. They had been separated before and he had promised himself then that it would never happen again.  
Yet it still happened.
He would do anything to see her happy, if being with him was no longer what she wanted, he would let her go to make her happy.  
And he did.
And he regretted it.
He spent nearly every day for the last month in tears, hidden away in his office or his bedroom when he wasn't working. He discovered upon his arrival that his brother, Saturnus, had taken another wife, one he swore to be his last. She had even spawned two children for him, two boys who were now adults. He wasn't sure how he felt about the expansion of his family, for the longest time it had just been him, Saturnus, their sister Venus with her husband and their seven children plus the adopted boy who became their eighth, all of them adults now.
They had grown so much and he hadn't been part of their lives at all, at the most he was the cruel uncle who they could remember but hadn't seen for the last near 30 years. He wasn't sure how he felt about that either, or the woman named Alexandria who claimed to be his bastard daughter birthed by that terrible Frankish woman, Isaline Marie.  
He sent that girl away with the truth. He sold her mother to a brothel, any man who ever fucked her could have been her father. The girl bolted in tears, he hoped that would be the last he saw of her. It was terrible enough that he could never get rid of Domitian, he didn't need the boy's half sister hanging around also.
He had been trying to keep himself busy by doing what he did best, be an accountant for the villa. He looked over the records, then re-looked them over then studied the older records from when his father had done the same. The decrease in wealth couldn't be ignored. When their father was still alive, they had been so wealthy but after he stopped being the accountant years ago, their funds had been drained away somehow.
It wasn't hard to figure out, Saturnus was horrible with money. Irresponsible actually, he wondered how Saturnus kept the villa intact for so long without his financial help.
It bothered him.
It worried him.
After Saturnus, there would only be children to take his place and he didn't think his brother's sons had it in them to rule efficiently, Saturnus didn't have that either. What was worse, was the decline of his brother's health.  Saturnus had always been healthy, always, he never even seen him sick or ill with a cough or cold but now.......the strength of his former years were drained from his face, leaving his strong masculine jawline jaunt and thin. He noticed his brother was having a hard time breathing, and an even harder time simply standing.
Before, he could get to his feet without a problem but now, it was as if every movement hurt him. His hands trembled ever so slightly that people of lesser skill wouldn't notice, but he knew his older brother well. His steps were slower, his eyes seemed vacant at times and he pondered if it was his very soul that was leaving his body causing his bouts of weakness. He hated the man, and perhaps this was divine punishment but he never thought he would see Saturnus like this.  
He never wanted to see him like this.
He hated to admit it but he always relied on his brother's strength to protect him from others, if he was so weak that he could barely stand without assistance, it would be more than himself that could never be protected by the king. The city itself was in danger. Saturnus needed someone to defend him now, to be his anchor, Alecto found despair in the change of the city, it was decaying. Roma needed both brothers to stand for it or else the Gallo famiglia would be emperors and kings no more.  
He looked through all of his father's belongings, nothing personal, just official records that dealt with the empire, when it had been a glorious empire.  
His father had taken extensive notes on the income of the city, what was worth keeping and what was worth dropping. Afterwards, he took a stroll around the city, the images he saw were not the ones found in his memories. It wasn't the same city he wandered around aimlessly at night while trying avoid heading home in his youth.  
There were no gardens, no colorful buildings, even the river he had visited so often as a child seemed small and less significant. It looked sick, he wasn't quite sure if a river could be ill but it was the first word that came to mind as he stood at the bank just staring at it. He had spent many years staring at this river, occasionally swimming in it, but he couldn't find the energy to do that now.
The river didn't look like it would accept a visitor.  
What saddened him most was that his beloved pack of wolves who used to own this side of the forest had disappeared. He looked for signs of the canines but found no traces, he tried calling the Alpha wolf by shouting out the title, king, which was what his father had endowed the Alpha with.  
The Alpha wolf was a king, the boy Alecto was a servant, a puppy, a kindred spirit who owed his life to the king Alpha. If the wolves had moved on then perhaps he should pack up and vacate again.
Without the pack of wolves, he felt a part of himself was already 
gone.
He couldn't leave though, his brother was dying, so was the city with him. He didn't fear for himself, he could live perfectly without being a prince inside Roma, it was his sister he feared for. What would happen to her and her family if the army suddenly disbanded? Libra couldn't be holding the current standards in high opinion, not when he watched it plummet so far down. What was Libra's life worth now without a competent military? What did he sacrifice so much flesh for if they city became a shadow of its former self? Where had all the ambition gone?
Hating it, he walked back to the villa to take another look at his father's record books and this time he would check if these businesses were still open and he would make new records of what should be saved and what could be lost.  

The woman's heart pumped madly in her chest at just the mere sight of the man who steadily strolled passed the crowded market. It was just a glimpse but she had spent many days and nights watching his stride, she wouldn't forget him. She had to see if it was really him, he had left so abruptly and to her knowledge hadn't returned, there was even a rumor that he was dead! She put down what she was holding in her hands to follow the man who hadn't conformed to modern fashion. He still wore the white toga with blue lines stripped across the bottom of the sleeves.
His skin was a bit darker than she remembered but it was him nonetheless, she pushed through people to keep up. His hair seemed a bit longer, a bit more curly and she could see facial hair run down the side of his face.  
She felt her heart rise even higher to the point of rejoicing, if this was who she felt it was, then he could help her, if he remembered her. He was the only one who could help her, he did say himself that she was a Roman like any other woman. She prayed that he remembered his own words.

Alecto sat in his office as he did most days, but this time, he sat in the visitors chair while his sister sat on the edge of his desk. Such a beautifully crafted desk, he doubted there were anymore craftsmen of this caliber around. Where did the peoples' love for luxury go?
Venus had delighted in her brother's return but her joyous feelings were short lived. His behavior changed, he looked sad all the time, constantly on the verge of tears and he was not a man prone to crying for any reason.  She was determined to get to the bottom of it, it was bad enough that her eldest brother was coming to meet his final days but she could not have both of her brothers be invalid. One had to be the strong one, and he was younger than Saturnus by 16 years.  
He loved his sister but his love and need of her companionship had been replaced by another by a more intimate form of love. He told her of his wife and how she just ended their close to twenty year relationship without ever giving him an explanation. He placed his head in his hands, stammering as he next spoke his words, "I don't want to keep crying over it but I can't stop myself. I used to be better than this."  
He meant he used to be unaffected, heartless.
She patted his shoulder making a suggestion to send a message or see her himself. What he needed was closure, then he could move on. He tried moving on without closure, he'd been the whore afterwards, there were even a few women who he could see having a real relationship with but he denied all of them because he knew that if he was married to someone else, he'd still want Althea, he'd still be in love with her and that wouldn't be fair.
"Send a message, or see to her, ask for a reason. Demand one." That was her sisterly advice.
"Signore, you have a visitor," came the drone voice of a slave he barely recognized. He accepted the visitor which caused Venus to leave his presence but she wouldn't be far. He hastily wiped the tears from his eyes, as he prepared to speak to this visitor.  
A woman appeared before him, dark of skin with fine black hair that reached her shoulders and brown eyes. She was older but the attractiveness of her youth remained present in her face. Did he know her? Did she know him?  He leaned against the edge of his desk and waited for her to speak.  
"Signore Gallo, meministine me?" Her Latin was perfect, unlike that of uneducated slaves or foreigners. She amazed herself by keeping her composure when all she wanted to do was jump up and hug the man, but he wouldn't like that, he never did. Especially from her, but he had been kind and as patient as a Latin man could be anyway. She came to respect him for that, he could have 
been unbearable.  
"Should I?"  
So they had met before? When? Where? He knew dark skinned 
women but only if they had been acquaintances of Hafeza or any of his crew originating from Africa, no where else. "I was your slave once, given to you on your birthday, I'm Benedicta the Carthaginian. I was freed from slavery, pardoned by your document when you last departed." Was it terrible that she had to explain who she was? Why didn't he remember? Was he ill?
He hadn't thought of her in a long time, hadn't thought of that birthday either. Recognition filled his face, she was the prized Carthaginian slave whom was coveted by most men but was given to him as a birthday present by an elder member of the Senate. "Yes, yes I remember you, you were a birthday present. Why're you here, you're still free aren't you?" Did she want to be a slave again? What kind of madness was that?  
"Signore, do you remember when you told me I was a Roman citizen?" She inquired carefully, he was dangerous in the past and she doubted the years made him any less a threat to anyone who was stupid enough to cross him.  
"Yes....."  where was she going with this?  
She handed him a letter that he opened up and read.  
He couldn't believe the words on the page, how dare they tried to 
destroy his letter of pardon. He hand wrote a document freeing her from enslavement in the event something happened to him or if he was to disappear on his annual-no-one-knows-where-the-hell-he-goes-trip.  
If he was to leave the villa for any reason, she was to be freed, he did it to protect her but now, the Vatican was deeming her a foreigner, a non Roman citizen without equal rights. She was a Roman citizen, she was born in Roma, raised in Roma, freed in Roma. She had every right as any low class citizen!  
He wouldn't tolerate this lack of respect, Vatican or no Vatican.
"Signore, there is a hearing coming up for me to prove my citizenship 
but I cannot prove it, my former master died years ago and....." she lost her words suddenly losing confidence, he was a prince, surely he had better things to do than waste his time attesting for her at a hearing. 
Had she lost her own pardon? Was a copy ever handed to her? "I'll go.  When is it?" He surprised her by easily agreeing. There was something he needed confirmation on, something he couldn't arrange easily for himself and she had given him the perfect excuse, however, he'd feel better if he talked to Saturnus about it.  
Later in the evening, he and Saturnus sat alone at the dining table, 
Saturn had a cup of wine, Alecto only drank water. It hurt him to look at his older brother, he had been handsome once but now he was just an old man, like their father, something about his brother always seemed immortal to him. He never thought Saturnus' good looks would fade. He took in a breath while awaiting Saturnus' reply but he said nothing.
"I've looked through father's old record books for the economy then I looked through yours.....ever since father pushed for the Vatican to exist, to help spread Christianity, we've been losing money......when he was pagan, there were no extra bills....I'm wondering if the Vatican itself is part of the problem." It was just a thought, one he wanted Saturnus to confirm or deny.
"Suddenly they've intervened in the life of your slave, your gift, your property which is why you suddenly care. Unbeknownst to you, little brother, the Vatican which you Christians hold so dear have been invading in places where they do not belong. They've passed laws and restrictions on brothels and slaves.....some of them say that brothels and slaves are immoral, should be banned or we'll be punished by your lowly, dead Hebrew carpenter of a Savior."  Saturnus fingered the edge of his chalice as he spoke his long awaited words.
Alecto eyed him, "what do you mean "you Christians" and "lowly, dead Hebrew carpenter of a Savior"?" He never heard his brother speak like that of the Church or of their Savior before, maybe he was just bitter about his plague of illness and hadn't meant it.
Saturnus shot his brother a look that brought back the man he used to be, "I say it because it is true. Gesù Cristo was nothing more than a Hebrew carpenter, and a dead one at that. Tell me how dead men can save anything or anyone? He's a figurehead for cowardly, greedy Christians. Nothing more."
How could he say that? Alecto glared hard at him, "you don't mean that."  He was just feeling bitter was all, he could blasphemize as much as he wanted 
as long as he confessed it in the end, he would be fine.
Saturnus took in a long breath which had his chest burning in seconds, the exhale felt less painful, "you make the mistake that I worship the same man that you do. I do not, I never have been Christian. Father could never convert me, thus my religious beliefs remained secret. Your savior is a dead man who had a trade in life, that isn't impressive, worse is, the Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians, a much greater kingdom. A slave savior and a God who never shows his face or reveal his true name to his own subjects, why does your God have to hide? I do not trust those traits.
"I don't trust a man who worships a man who never married, whose 
very laws condemn women. I hear people say that Gesù Cristo was of love but I found nothing loving about him nor his teachings. They took my holidays, Saturnalia and renamed them, demonized my Gods for being brave, for not hiding among the clouds, and created a place envisioned by barbaric Saxons called Hell and said a demon will chain and hurt me for all of eternity......
"I rather believe Anubis weighs my heart and eats me for my wrong doings than believe in anything created by the Saxons, for these bleeding pussies called Christians have never gone to war with a Saxon. They say their ridiculous prayers and end them with 'Amen', another word of praise 
for Amun Ra yet they damn Ra as myth, if he's such a myth then why do Christians keep saying his name, Amen? If anything, Christians are the demons, they were invited and they have been vying for control, telling everyone that all else is a lie, that they should only rely on the Vatican, this isolation is just like a demon's doing, no?"
Alecto drunk his water during his brother's long rant, he had no idea that Saturnus wasn't Christian, how the hell had he been successful at hiding it for so long? What must he had thought of the new practices and laws as he watched people conform to it? "What Gods do you worship then and what have they ever done to prove they exist?" Despite that he had lived with pagan believers for years, he never asked them that, never had any reason to unless he wanted an ill conceived argument.
"Isn't it obvious? Cupido, Venus and Apollo. They proved their existence every day to me and even if they didn't, they cannot die like yours and are in no need to prove anything to me. I believe therefore they are. I know what they're about, I've seen their likeness carved in stone, painted upon walls, I know their names. None of them are cowards like your God. I don't respect a man who's too afraid to lie with a woman, I fear men who pray to another man who's never once fought his own battles. It's an induction of cowards, nothing more."
"And I fear a man who prefers to lie with a boy and yet still think he is worthy to be called a man. I couldn't help but to notice we were wealthier when all believed in such Gods. I can't help but to think that if we reintroduced the Latin Gods, or even Greek ones, we might see our wealth swell up once more.  I don't want to see us fade from history as a one time empire. We can come back from this rut."
"I'd love to worship Gods who are worth it in the open again but how exactly do you plan to accomplish this?"
Alecto stared at his brother for a long time, Saturnus had always accused him of using his mind and natural talents for evil and self-serving purposes which weren't always false, maybe this time he should use what he had for a greater good but who would be the one that decided what was good or not?
"First I will help out my former slave then undo whatever nonsense restrictions the Vatican has placed on slaves and brothels. That is, if they aren't just using the laws I created years ago. Afterwards I will have a word with Libra, he has to know something of good ole Roman military and this so called Papal Army I've heard whispers of. Gesù Cristo is in no need of an army, for one, he is technically deceased and second, he preaches non violence. The simple creating of an army is an invitation to war, so just who are they planning on conquering exactly?" That was the question that had been on his mind ever since he first heard wind of the Papal Army.
Saturnus shrugged, he always thought it was him who was the choice enemy of the Vatican, if you dethrone the king, who else could stand against you? "Get it done." Saturnus said ending their discussion, Alecto stood then walked around his brother's chair where he bowed his head to his ear so he could keep his last few words private.
"Unlike you, frater, I always get things done."  
Saturnus didn't turn his head until he could no longer hear his brother's footsteps, he didn't know how he did it but he managed to suppress that shudder.