Why?
My people were dying.
It was a slow death certainly but an undeniable one all the same. Everyday there were less people who spoke our tongue, another day without the prayers to our Gods or thanks given to the Numina.
Our cities were shrinking, it was easier to just move your family to a Latin city than stay in a Samnite village that was more and more filled with the old and sickly.
My village in particular was dead, a population of two soon to be just one, everyone else that had once lived here was now dead or Roman. Grandmother tells me that once our village had been quite important, in the old days before even Hannibal had come asking for assistance, when the Samnite bull was strong enough to challenge the Latin wolf on its own terms.
She says that back in those days our village had been on an important hill that denied access to an army of Tarantine Greeks thinking the hills of Samnium easy prey. It is said that every man and woman of the village had gathered arms and repelled the invaders; it's hard to imagine that ever being possible, I only have memories of at most 2 families living here.
Now it was just me and Grandmother, my parents had gone missing while outside the village when I was only ten, our neighbors had fled two winters ago towards Rome.
As I sit next to my dying Grandmother inside a dead village I can't help but ask, why?
Why were the Latins allowed to prosper?
Why did their cities always grow when ours shrunk?
Why did their armies always prevail in the end?
Why did the gods love the Latin but hate the samnite?
"Why indeed." The weak but familiar voice drew my thoughts from my peoples woe to the frail form of my Grandmother. My cheeks reddened as I realized I had spoken aloud my thoughts.
"Apologies Grandmother, I did not mean to wake you." My apology felt hollow, it hurt to speak to her when she was like this, with her sunken cheeks and shaking hands.
"Yet waken me you did," Grandmother tried to sit up before with a sudden cough she was forced back to the bed, she waved off my worries with a single hand.
"It won't be long now, Gellius I can feel it coming." She eyed me from her bed with half lidded eyes, " You're so big now Gellius, fourteen summ-"
"Fifteen." I interrupted proudly, my chest puffing out as I did so. "Fifteen summers old and still interrupting your old Grandmother hmm?" I shrank down in embarrassment again, my slightly too long hair moving in front of my eyes as I did so.
She was racked with coughs again before waving towards her old chest in the corner, I wasn't allowed to look inside it normally.
"Inside there you should find a book, please fetch it for me Gellius." I got up slowly before opening the chest slowly and indeed within lay an old book bound in linen, I couldn't help but to gaze at it wide eyed. "Is… is thi-"
"Quickly now Gellius I don't have all day." I mumbled a quick apology as I rushed back to her bed with the book in hand.
She took the book from me before asking me to lay my hand upon it, as I did so I heard her mumble something about not being a priest before she sighed and looked me in the eyes.
"Gellius Minatius, you want to find the answer to that question of yours?"
"I do." my response was quick, my eyes were wide, my hand not on the book shaking at my side.
"Then swear an oath that you will find one, swear an oath that at the end of your days you will come back to this old hill to tell the Numina why the Gods favor the latins over the Samnite."
"I swear it, I swear that at the end no matter what, I, Gellius Minatius will tell the Numina my answer." For a moment the world seemed quiet and still, not even the sound of my heart intruded upon the world, before with the howl of a wolf in the distance the world was brought back to motion once again.
"hmm, That will have to do, now let this old woman sleep Gellius, I will still be here come morning."
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In the end she wasn't still with me in the morning, she had left to join mother and father in the afterlife. Part of me had wanted to stay and bury her as was the tradition for our people, yet once again the Latin way would win out as I did not have the strength to dig a grave in the old and unused graveyard our village had once kept, so she was burned before I left the old village.
After having dealt with Grandmother as best I could I readied myself for the journey to Rome, it wasn't a particularly long journey, only a few days at most if I followed their roads.
Before I left I made sure to say my final thanks to the Numina of our old village, before beginning my travels towards rome.
On the first night of my journey I heard the howl of a distant wolf ring through the night, I could barely sleep.
The next morning after I had packed my bedding and stamped out the small fire I had built, I noticed a wolf watching me from a nearby hill silhouetted by the morning sun. I took it as a sign from mighty
Mamers and decided that my choice was the correct path towards the answer I sought.
That day I had to wait and watch for hours as a Roman legion passed me, it was a wonder my people had once been strong enough to fight armies even larger than this one. As a consequence of that, I unfortunately made little progress towards Rome.
I stayed up later that night then perhaps I should have, I ended up making a camp near a grove of myrtle and roses, it was a beautiful sight in the dusk light. Perhaps this too was a sign from the gods, though what heavenly
Herentas would have to say about the Romans eluded me.
The next morning found me crossing some invisible line where the wild stopped and civilization began.
Near mid day after crossing the path of many travelers and traders I had finally made it into the city of Rome proper. I was lost as to where to go from here, so naturally I decided to go where any traveler would go when new to Rome, the Market.
It was crowed with men and women in every direction I looked, some were merchants advertising loudly their myriad wares from myriad places to any that who would listen, some were slaves both those already purchased and those being sold, some were lowly with poorer clothes and no slaves following them to carry their goods, and a few were proud with straight backs and flowing robes those had many slaves carrying their purchased goods and all stood aside when they crossed their path.
But even with the crowd taking up both space and interest, one person stood out above the rest. A women with only one slave following her, a one eyed gaul, she was walking through the crowd with nary a misstep, as she conversed with her lowly companion the sea of people in front of her seemed to part completely.
She was beautiful that much was obvious, with a straight face and fair skin, I had never seen someone who could take my breath away with nary a word before. I could not help but compare her to the second most beautiful thing I had seen in my life, that grove of flowers from the previous night that had haunted me so.
Yet, it wasn't her looks that attracted my attention so, it was her eyes, bright and almost golden, they seemed to prowl around the crowd daring any to stand in her path. It brought to mind the wolf sent from
Mamers in that early morning after I had left my village, majestic and threatening all in one moment.
As she passed me I could not help but to glance into her eyes, when contact was made I swear it was as if I had sworn that oath once more in my Grandmothers old home, the world stood still and my heart stopped beating; I felt the firm hand of
Mamers upon my throat stop me from breathing or speaking and a gentle brush from
Herentas that kept the hair from my eyes so that I could neither blink or look away.
In only a moment, she had passed with her gaulish servant, both not even giving me the barest of thought.
My people were dying, and perhaps now I could find out why.
I turned around to say something only to find naught but crowd, I believe some would have been disheartened, yet not I, for I was Gellius Minatius of the Samnites, and I had sworn to answer a question.
