Salvatoria: The Memoirs of Lucretia Aurelia

ᑕᕼᗩᑭTEᖇ ᙭᙭Iᐯ: ᗷᗩᑎᑫᑌET Oᖴ ᒪIᗷEᖇᗩTOᖇᔕ

February 5, 44 B.C

Rome

I had decided I had enough of Rome for a lifetime. I loved my journeys into Germania and Hibernia. I loved the idea of leaving my world behind and exploring what lay beyond. So I had begun preparing a voyage from Africa. I decided to follow in the steps of the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator. Sailing from Africa we would travel for a year down the west coast, seeing if I can validate what he's seen and recorded.

Of course, when you have plans, how often do they pan out as expected? Almost never. After the very clear collapse in my collaboration with Caesar, I had been cast into the spotlight of his enemies. They used our fallout as proof that Caesar was a tyrant, and a deceptive manipulator. Which, to be fair, he was. While he was capable of unparalleled brilliance, he was also capable of the all too common human desires of lust, cruelty and greed.

So when a prominent Optimate senator Cassius Longinus arrived at my Campania estate, we shared a glass of wine while my sons were in the garden. My husband was in Macedonia with Octavian as they prepared for Caesar's upcoming campaign against Parthia. He invited me to a meeting that night on the outskirts of Rome. He wouldn't give me a one-hundred-percent clarification of the intention of the meeting - but he described it as discussing "how to surgically remove a tyrant".

I got the memo and made the decision to attend that night. One of my servants watched the boys as I took a litter to the location given by Cassius. I entered into a dimly lit chamber tucked away from the bustling streets of Rome. There were dozens of senators there - a few of which I had met with and discussed Caesar in the past. All of them were his enemies for various reasons.

There was Brutus, Cassius, Decimus Brutus (unrelated to the former), Trebonius, Lucius Cimber, Galba, Servilius Casca and several others who I vaguely knew as either Caesarians or former Pompeians. When I entered the room, my toga swished around my ankles, and I was welcomed in hushed tones and given a seat between Trebonius and Cassius. I asked where Cicero was, but I was told they were uncertain if he would commit.

I soon took notice of the clandestine meeting. The air was thick with tension, and whispers danced around the room like shadowy apparitions. At the head of the banquet table sat Brutus as we were all served bread and wine. Brutus' furrowed brow betrays the weight of the decision he was about to make.

"We cannot allow Caesar's tyranny to continue unchecked," Cassius declared, his voice low but commanding. "He grows too powerful, too ambitious. Rome cannot withstand another tyrant."

Agreeing murmurs rippled through the room, punctuated by the occasional clink of wine cups and the soft shuffle of sandals against the mosaic floor. But beneath the surface unity lay a tangled web of doubt and fear. Caesar was, and is a very powerful man with literally the entire Roman world at his disposal.

"I fear the repercussions of such an act," Galba spoke up hesitantly. "Caesar's supporters are many, and they will not take his death lightly."

"This is true. Caesar has likely privately adopted an heir - who may be worse than him!"

A few conspirators gazed at me, "Lucretia, would you be aware of such an heir?"

I merely shook my head. Brutus nodded solemnly, his mind wrestling with the conflicting demands of duty and loyalty.

"We must act swiftly and decisively," he said, his voice tinged with resignation. "But we must also be prepared for the consequences."

More murmurs floated around the table, with rumors of civil war being thrown about. This made me cautious, of course, as it did to many.