Domina Triumphans

Chapter 37: 52 AD, Rome

Urracca picked through a jewelry box that had belonged to Marcus' grandmother, a Boii woman from Cisalpina in Northern Italy. The Boii were Celtic, though Romanized for many years. Some of the motifs looked familiar, mostly geometric patterns, whirls, and dots. A matron could wear a diadem and pearls, but heavier jewelry would have to wait until she had born three children. Urracca laid out some necklaces. All were too dense for a small frame and not proper for a young wife. Antylla saw her dilemma.

"What about Grandmother's jasper necklace that I gave you?" she asked. "Put it with those small gold discs and you should be fine. Use the diadem Aunt Claudia gave you. One bracelet and your gold wedding ring is enough."

Urracca's handmaid put the diadem in her hair and pinned her palla behind it as a veil. Urracca fastened the other pieces and gathered the formal shawl around herself. Victoria came into the room. She wore a diadem that had come from her mother, Princess Tryphaena of Pontus and Armenia, and a suite of Red Sea pearls given her by Tiberius. Tiny like Urracca, and still thin in middle age, she had the bossom and hips of a woman who had born eight children. Her jewelry did not overwhelm. She and Urracca went to a bench in the atrium.

"I hope I haven't got Mother and you in trouble," Urracca said.

"Not at all," Victoria said. "Our work is well known and we were already invited to speak. Just let us handle it."

Abonos leaned against a column, watching all that went on around him. Several Senators went into the library. He recognized Vespasian, who pointed his son Titus to a bench. He was thirteen but rembered Abonos from Britannia.

"Do you like Rome?" Titus asked.

"Lugdunum is better," Abonos said. "But, they've made me king now alongside Mother. I may be going home before I finish my studies."

"They don't have schools in Britannia," Titus said.

Abonos sat down beside him.

"You got that right. I'll have to improvise."

Caradoc, Grainne, and Carada stood talking to Coel and passing a tablet amongst themselves. Coel wandered over and sat on the other side of Titus.

"It's official," he said. "Three of Uncle's tribes have acclaimed me. I'm a king."

"Glad I'm not alone," Abonos said.

"Just don't ever fight against Rome," Titus said.

"You aren't kidding," Coel said. "Aren't we late for this whatever it is?"

"The Emperor must have a lot to say to Iolarix," Abonos said. "They're not back yet."

"He's probably chewing ass on Nervius," Coel said.

"That would be an exercise of futility," Abonos said.

...

Iolarix and Bolt set back along with Urus Deiatorianus and Antonillus, watching Nervius and Claudius conversing like the academics they were. The Emperor peppered Nervius with questions about Celtic peoples from Iberia to Belgica, Hibernia to the Adriatic and Asia Minor. Nervius responded with names, battles, alliances, and how offshoots of one tribe were related to others hundreds of miles away.

"You're a historian, yet you want to be a doctor," Claudius said.

"I admire my mother's work, Divinity," Nervius said. "I want to be both. I want to visit Hibernia, Caledonia, and find out if yet more tribes of our people exist. If I can be a healer and a teacher, we can revive those traditions in a new way."

"Not as a druid, I hope," Claudius said.

"The druids made their own downfall and I support Father in eliminating them," Nervius said. "Human sacrifice is an aberration. So is witchcraft. Forbidding writing is foolish. How else can knowledge be preserved if not in written form? I think we can do far better under Rome's guidance if some of the old ways just go."