Joys of Historical Knowledge

Okay! So, this is just a little something that includes a Leo that isn't depressed and instead has a mischievous streak and jokes around. Because, let's be honest: my account could do more of those stories.

I hope this makes you laugh at least!

Joys of Historical Knowledge

History, to be honest, was not an easy subject to give when it came to teenagers, as most of them liked to live under the belief that it was terribly useless to learn dates and names of battles fought long ago and dead people. Sadly, and although the demigods wished to act like mortal teenagers, when they were talking about that subject, whatever they were taught in History class was bound to come in handy later on.

When it came to Camp Half-Blood the cabin that imparted whatever history topic was needed par excellence was the Athena cabin.

That was how things had always worked―the Ares cabin taught sword fighting, the Apollo cabin trained on archery, the Demeter cabin educated about gardening. That was how the world continued spinning.

Of course, there were always some demigods that didn't really care about ancient history and were not afraid of openly admitting so.

Leo Valdez was one of those half-bloods. On the other hand, though, when that happened it was Annabeth Chase's turn to get things going and, more often than not, force those demigods to attend the classes against their will either way. Whoever didn't like Ancient History as a topic didn't like the head-counselor of Cabin 6 mad at him either.

Which was why the son of Hephaestus had ended up trying to understand Rome's olden times, for the camp's great misfortune.

―*―*―

It all went downhill one sunny day after one of those history lessons, when Leo caught up with his siblings at the dining pavilion and found, by a weird accuracy, Nico asking something to Nyssa, image that suddenly brought Julius Caesar's story to his memory.

"Nyssa, I'm telling you for the last time, you need to―"

"Hold on, hold on!" Leo interrupted the son of Hades, throwing each of his arms around one of the arguing demigods. "Nico, what's your complete name?"

"Nicolas" the boy replied out of mere inertia, too confused to think before answering.

"Are you sure? Isn't it... Nicomedes?!" the son of Hephaestus inquired, raising an eyebrow playfully, which only caused the two demigods in front of him to stare at him with furrowed brows.

"No?" Nico continued. "Believe me, Valdez, unlike you, I do know my name".

"Nimieties" Leo brushed off, turning to the daughter of Hephaestus. "Anyways, sis, Nyssa is actually your name, isn't it?"

"Yes. So?" the girl questioned, jerking away from the arm her half-brother had around her shoulders.

"See, see? It's perfect!" Leo argued, making a small fuss with his hands, as if he wanted to draw a tiny rainbow in the air.

"Valdez, what in the world are you talking about?" the daughter of Hephaestus inquired, stepping away from the boy, which concluded in him standing next to Nyssa.

Fortunately for the two confused and near near-pissed off demigods Annabeth arrived soon enough, and having heard the bizarre conversation from her own table at the dining pavilion due to Leo's shouting, she decided to help out the other two demigods.

"Don't mind him" she piped in. "He's talking about Julius Caesar and a couple of..."

"No, no, no! Let me explain!" Leo cut her off, to what Annabeth agreed, much for the others' distaste. "Julius Caesar was gay, one of his love interests was a guy named Nicomedes, the king of Bithynia, and he had a daughter called Nyssa. See, see? It's perfect!"

"He also had a sister named that way" Annabeth added, feeling proud to see Leo had actually remembered something about the Ancient Rome's lesson. The other two demigods did not share her feelings.

"What does that have to do with us again?" Nico questioned, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Don't you see?" Leo argued. "It's perfect, it's... it's... reincarnation, destiny! I don't know! Don't you believe in fate?"

"Shut up" Nyssa ordered, curiously enough drawing her right arm around Nico's shoulders―yet, more weirdly, the son of Hades didn't push her away.

"That was all you interrupted us for?" Nico continued, already turning on his heels, closely followed by the daughter of Hephaestus.

"Wait, don't you...? Don't you get it?" Leo tried once more, coming out ignored by the other two, who now held a friendly conversation. "I didn't study history for this! Aren't you excited by this discovery?" Nyssa and Nico, though, were not listening to his bawling anymore. "Guys, this is history! We live by Greek and Roman standards, this should be general culture! Nico, he was gay, just like you!"

"See how it feels when they ignore you and you're trying to teach them something interesting?" Annabeth offered with a mischievous grin, patting the boy's right shoulder with something close to pity. Oh, his first heartbreak as a teacher, she thought, rolling her eyes. "These are the simple joys of historical knowledge. Catching something that the others miss plainly because they ignore it".

In all honesty, Leo had to give her the reason. Who would have thought, he actually enjoyed the history lessons, after all. Perhaps every new knowledge was just as fun to have as this one.

Well... that's about it... What do you think?

When I was reading "About the Life of the Caesars", a few months in the past, by Seutonio (needless to say I was enjoying myself. This is a work that is perfectly understandable even if you don't have a lot of background on Roman life), but I also found this few details that left me totally flabbergasted.

For example, of course I knew that Julius Caesar had had affair with men, but when I discovered the name of that man and the name of his daughter I stopped on my tracks! Like, really? Also, both Cicero and the soldiers in his own troops publicly mocked Caesar about this and yet he didn't bat an eyelash. I mean, you can actually search for it, as they returned from Gaul (place where Nicomedes lived and they'd had their affair), the whole trip the troops sang "Julius conquered Gaul, Nicomedes conquered Caesar, and yet now you see Caesar receive honors for conquering Gaul and Nicomedes, for conquering Caesar receives nothing".

So, this is a little something with history and (hopefully) a few laughs. I really hope you enjoyed it! Read you soon!