Soldier of Rome: The Last Campaign (The Artorian Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her shame and despair, she killed herself after confessing to her husband what had happened. The senator vowed to avenge her, consequences to himself be damned.
    This was but one of many such incidences, and the four years of Gaius Caligula’s reign as Caesar had been a twisted paradox. Despite being the son of the legendary general, Germanicus Caesar, those closest to him saw none of his father’s noble qualities. Like many, Cassius wondered if he was the son of Germanicus at all. His sexual promiscuity with both young boys and girls may have raised a few eyebrows; however, it was the incestuous relations that he had flaunted with three of his sisters that caused the most revulsion amongst the nobility. His cruelty towards women was profound. His first wife had died giving birth to a stillborn child, and many speculated that this had ruined the young man. His second wife was only his consort for six days, after being forced to divorce her first husband. Caligula promptly became bored with her and later had her banished on rumor that she’d returned to her first husband. His third wife had also been forced to divorce her husband, a former consul named Regulus, who also accompanied Cassius this day.
    “Today I avenge my wife,” the first senator said coldly, clutching his weapon beneath the folds of his toga.
    “And I, mine,” Regulus said quietly.
    After being forced to divorce him in order to marry the emperor, Caligula subsequently divorced her six months later, forbidding her from sleeping with or associating with any other men.
    “Today we avenge Rome ,” Cassius added as soon as they passed a group of entertainers who were heading back up the passage towards the palace. Even though their mission may have been a matter of patriotism for their nation, it had also become a matter of personal survival for the men.
    Caligula was emotionally unstable, prone to fits of rage where he would sometimes order the immediate execution of those who displeased him. Such actions had surpassed the bounds of legality and common decency, yet there were none in the senate or the patrician class who would dare oppose him. Indeed, two of the senators who accompanied Cassius had only been spared execution by the intervention of Caligula’s current wife, Caesonia, as well as his uncle, Claudius. Declaring himself a living deity, he demanded to be worshipped as a god. In a strange turn of events, he staged a number of legions for a supposed invasion of the isle of Britannia, only to order the soldiers to unleash their javelins into the waters and to ‘attack the sea’ in order to suppress his divine rival, Neptune. This had been fortuitous for the legions, as the emperor had neglected the very basics of logistical support needed to conduct an invasion, and had they crossed the channel they would have eventually met with disaster once their supplies ran out.
    And yet, d espite his erratic behavior, the squandering of most of the vast imperial treasury that his predecessor, Tiberius, had left, Caligula was loved by many of Rome’s common people. It meant little to the plebeians if their emperor cut down a few patricians or cavorted with their wives, and whatever happened with the legions on the frontier was a different world that few gave any mind to. Caligula gave them the proverbial bread and circuses , making the people forget Rome’s pending bankruptcy with a plethora of games and endless festivals, the irony being that such costly celebrations were only hastening pending demise. It was as if the annual holiday of Saturnalia had become a daily event throughout much of the year.
     
    As Cassius and his conspirators continued down the tunnel, they saw a number of senators and other magistrates, who were gathered with the emperor. Caligula was addressing a troupe of young male dancers who were scheduled to entertain him later at the palace. Also with him was his uncle, Claudius, who quietly excused himself as the squad of praetorians