In Fine, Solum Est Tibi (A Quest in Rome, During The Fall of the Republic)

Stories of the Aeneid: Aeneas' Wanderings (I)

After having led her fellow Tribune through the camp, letting him know of his various responsibilities to the men and what expectations would be placed upon him, they retired to her work station, where they proceeded to outline the loading of the men onto the ships. Eventually, as the official matters of the day would run their course, she turned to contemplate him for a moment in silence.

"Tell me Caesar, if I may be so bold," she asked, breaking the silence as she reclined further into her camp stool, continuing once given a slow nod in return, "but now that matters of state and war have been, for the moment, attended to and I must ask for curiosity's sake alone, but what tales of our forefathers Aeneas and Romulus have survived these long centuries within your family?"

"For what purpose, if I may ask?" Caesar said, slightly

"I'm sure that you've heard the mutterings about my writings, of how many in Rome's priesthood find it as somewhat heretical to their own teachings," she began, "Then I'll have you know, the vast majority of those writings were written in the stylings of Herodotus to chronicle the traditions as kept within my own familia, and given to him freely as a gift in the twilight hours of his life. But it was in the process of creating that gift, binding all that he had ever endeared to teach me into a cohesive codex, that I came to find that I had a hidden passion for acquiring such knowledge and have endeared to speak to many throughout the Legion about such matters, comparing and contrasting their tales to my own to see what lessons their ancestors had prized.

But I freely admit to you that many of my father's accounts had to be carefully reconstructed over a manner of years, given the unfortunate current state of my House, as many truths we once held dear have been lost to the cruel hands of time. Of their number, Aeneas' journeys by and large suffered the most from this, rendered almost entirely disjointed from the overall tale of our times; until you, I had little hope of inquiring on such matters directly from a more direct line of Aeneas, and so with your permission I hope that I may be able to restore and chronicle these lost truths to mine descendants, giving them a sense of character beyond just giving context to our present."

Caesar was silent but a moment, blinking twice in rapid concession, before nodding his assent, settling down in the offered stool across from here

"Very well, though if it isn't too much to ask I'd like a copy for mine own as well," he says, continuing once she gave it, "Given your bearing, I will dispense with the Homeric sagas of the Trojan War and our ancestors part in them, given your stated...disagreements with his works, and instead begin with the Aeneas' flight from the city, beginning thus his journey to the West.

In the midst of the night, as the Veneficus Ulysses burned the city of Troy from within, King Priam charged the young Prince Aeneas with not only the safety of their remaining family but also the Lares and Penates, so they would not fall into the hands of the traitorous Graeca, so that the history of their people would not pass into Oblivio. Angered at this charge, at the thought of abandoning the peoples of his city, to watch their peoples become scattered and all manner of foul peoples stealing away Troy's sons and daughter for terrible and vile purposes [the most heinous of their number made by Jupiter himself for stealing the child prince Catamitus to his chambers], the young Aeneas gathered up his arms to follow his father, Anchises, into battle in die an honorable death and was only stopped by the actions of his wife, Creusa. She begged him to think of her and their young children, of the duty he now held to his people and the final wish of his king, an old argument they had had many a time before and one that fell once more to deaf ears...if not for the intervention of Vesta, who swaddled their infant son Ascanius in bright flame of Mars' wandering star. Aeneas, heart laden with great sorrow, took up his oaths once more and, in the midst of the city's sacking, gathered a loose fleet of seven-and-twenty ships, comprised of everything from humble fishing vessels to the few remaining warships, taking with him all manner of Trojan peoples, similarly comprised.

But it was in the midst of this gathering that Creusa vanished from Aeneas' sight, instead finding in her stead her youngest sister Polyxena, niece Helena, and Sarpedon's infant son, his wife having chosen to sacrifice herself to save the children from their fate. In the depths of his grief, as he stared at his beloved city disappear into the infinite horizon, he received visions of his late wife who gave the account of her final fate, that it was by the will of Ceres and Venus that she pass into the Underworld with dignity, having sacrificed her life to spare the lives of her fellow Trojans and, before her departure, she burdened him with the weight of prophecy, that he was destined to make landfall in Hesperia and marriage to another; thrice, Aeneas attempted to grasp her and hold her to him, begging forgiveness all the while and swearing to never love another, naming her a queen among women, and thrice she escaped his grasp, begging him with reason once more.

Juno, having heard the words of prophecy and learning that it would lead to the destruction of her favored peoples, attempted to send many a storm to sink his vessels and forever end the line of Illum. In doing so, she angered Neptune for daring to intrude on his domain, and [though he was no friend to the Trojans] so choose to steal away the winds and create a great flood to sweep away a great many of her favored peoples."

"While I wish for you to continue the tale, the hour is growing late," she interrupted, somewhat startling her Tribune in doing so, "We shall continue this another time."

"Ah, right then," Caesar said, standing stiffly from his seat, clearly having rested on one leg for too long, "Though before I depart, I hope it isn't too much to ask you for a character in your family's ancestry for an oration at a later time?"

"While there are many tales I could share with you of the line of Nerva," she said after a moment's thought, "I cannot rightly verify the oldest of them without access to mine villa, and so must turn to my mother's people and say that of her line the most well known was that of King Thoas."

"The one slaughtered by the Amazonians of Lemnos?" he asked, eyes flashing with a brief glimpse of fear.

"From my understanding, any and all Amazons have simply been Scythian warrior women who struck fear in the hearts of Delian men, who hid their shame by naming them daughters of Hercules," she says, spitting Delian out with some venom, "And he did not die by their hand, but by Apollo guiding Menelaus' hand for giving his aid to Achilles."

"The men already believe you to be an Amazon, what difference does it make if you're also a Scythian?" he jests, and while she knows it is irrational...it is late, and despite the unintentional slight to her heritage, she gives in.

"Caesar?" she says with false calm, her expression suddenly dead.

"Yes?" he says as he suddenly snaps to attention, a look of fear briefly passing before his eyes.

"This evening, let your men know to prepare themselves for the morning, and, if you haven't already, I would have you properly store your pack. It would not good for the men to see their Tribune do poorly on a standard, seven-thousand-pace ruck run before we go to sea."

She shouldn't be so amused by that look of pain, but she is.

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A/N: Beyond making allusions to the various syncretism's of various world myths, I've been throwing in references to various other materials and have yet to be called out for any of them...but that might be my fault for repeating the same myth from three different perspectives in the last few snippets. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the series and if you have any request for a Claudiae Fabulae retelling of any myth, any of them at all, I'll see what I can do about working that in at some point...though I will say, there's a reason I've avoided any mention of Hades beforehand in these retellings.