Albonium

Volume VII - The Perfect State

Book XIV - Elsewhere

I - Rome

Caius ran to the large rebuilt palace of Palatine, now deemed out of necessity, for Roman order had to be restored in the face of Elven and Fellic threats. It was a great fortress now, and not a symbol of mere luxury, but of a military culture, and there were great walls of concrete, which seemed so thick and tall that to someone else, unfamiliar, would be imposing and frightening. They seemed unbreakable, and the appearance of such towers, and the militancy of at least two thousand legionnaires which were visible outside, and covered all battlements, and it was said there were eight thousand more within.

He ran up the steps like a junior of fourteen years, which he was, and loved Rome as he was familiar with it, and passed the guards, who recognized him and so did nothing but look towards and then away. What he was carrying was a scroll, which seemed to him to be one of great importance, although he knew not what it was about. It was to be sent to the great man himself, who was the ultimate leader of Rome, and the closest thing to an Emperor, unless he already was one, and that was always unclear to Rome, and was always answered by the question's own irrelevance.

He was only a messenger. He knew not what was inside. It was probably some file of great importance, dealing the positions of several key cohorts and legions, which were stationed secretly to defeat the inhuman monsters of the Elven, or a report detailing the production of goods from a variety of stores, businesses, and provinces, which were headed by men, who would then be promoted or demoted, or something. It failed to matter. Why should it matter? He was only a boy seeking pay for his ill family, who had an injured father and a craftswoman mother whose income failed to provide for the three younger siblings, and so he had to work, and it seemed to be a great privilege to work for such an important man. So he thought not of it, like a common man hated a tyrant, but then when he met him in person, spoke nicely to him, and became nearly mesmerized. Polonius Claudius Drusus was not there in his quarters. He had rushed somewhere else, it seemed. Most likely to some kind of meeting, to save as many legions as he could in Germania, and then blockade the Fell that emerged there, so as to not interfere with the war of the Balkans, or some other matter. This was a thought that Caius did not think.

Inside the unopened scroll lay this message, "My dear friend Polonius, I know you are busy in such turbulent times, but I believe I have found the solution to our past discussion. For you see, sin separates itself from virtue by the period of time in which the pleasure returns to the doer. Greed and lust are nearly immediate, but justice is something for the greater good, which is of the long term, and so is prudence. Hence, as materialistic goods are typically of the short term, whereas moral ones are of the long, sin is eternally tied to material benefit, and virtue to moral ones. However, there is still the issue of pride which I am unable to muster. I believe that pride ought to be a sin if the gods are perfect, and if they are not, it is more virtuous ..."

One day, perhaps, Polonius might return and refute to Glaucon that his conclusion was unfounded and absurd, for one decided not to kill a man using his sense of justice not because of any long term or short term repercussions, but out of a decision made in the moment, and one decided not to live frugally and instead pile up wealth not for long term or short term consequences, but out of his immediate practical sense, and all of these were linked to the one attribute, and the first one, pride, for following all other principles strengthened pride, which made one feel that he was better than others.

But Polonius did not answer that, because he was far too busy, and so the scroll collected some dust, and fell off the table a day later, and was put back on, and when Polonius returned to Palatine, he read the first sentence and ignored the rest, for he had work to do.