The Golden Dice - A Tale of Ancient Rome Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Tell me the story, Apa. I like the story.”
    Mastarna smiled. “Very well, but you must help Arruns clean my armor in payment.”
    “ That sounds fair,” replied Tas, formal and earnest as usual.
    Mastarna settled into the familiar account. “Before the war began Ati was married to me to seal a treaty between our two cities. For, you see, Rome and Veii had been at peace for twenty years. Both wanted the truce to continue so that Veientane traders could pass through Roman land, and Roman bellies could be filled with Veientane corn.”
    “ But then a mean man became the king of Veii,” said Tas, showing he appreciated that a good yarn needed a villain.
    “ Yes, a man called Tulumnes seized control by poisoning the wise and just Zilath Ulthes. He declared himself lucumo and threatened to kill your mother unless I helped him wage war on Rome.”
    Larce dared to pipe up. “What’s a ’cumo?”
    Caecilia stroked the two-year-old’s hair. “Lucumo is the title that the Rasenna give our kings.”
    “ Don’t interrupt, Larce!” Tas was impatient to resume the story. “But then Ati ran away from the bad lucumo, didn’t she?”
    Caecilia smiled, thinking how well her oldest son knew the story. Time would ingrain it in him and his brothers. As they learned it by rote, soon the tale would grow fabulous, a legend created. “Yes. Tarchon helped me escape to Rome so your father didn’t have to worry about King Tulumnes hurting me.”
    “ But you defeated him, didn’t you, Apa?”
    Mastarna shook his head. “Not alone. Tulumnes was a coward—cruel and selfish. He offended the leaders of the League of the Twelve, who didn’t like monarchs. And then he ran away when the principes of Veii rose up against him.”
    “ But the Romans still wanted to fight, didn’t they?”
    “ Yes,” added Caecilia. “Wolves had taken power in Rome by then.”
    The boy frowned. “Had they eaten all the people?”
    She smiled. “No, I mean men who were as hungry as wolves. Generals decided that Rome needed Veii’s land for their citizens, so they declared war.”
    “ But they said the war was your fault, Ati. Didn’t they?”
    Caecilia nodded, trying to keep her voice even. Bitterness always welled inside her when she thought of the day war was declared. Camillus planned to attack Veii whether she was Tulumnes’ hostage or not. Her escape home was seen as a nuisance. And her defection an excuse to rally the Roman people against an old foe. “Yes, Tas. They said I betrayed them because I wanted to be with Apa. They are seeking vengeance against me, but they would have attacked Veii even if I’d stayed behind.”
    Tas paused as though digesting the information, then reached over his father to the table beside the bed. Retrieving Mastarna’s small golden box, he rattled the dice within it. “And Apa gave you these to ask a goddess what she wanted you to do.” The boy scattered the two gilded tesserae onto the coverlet. Larce immediately tried to grab them. Mastarna deftly collected them, denying both sons possession.
    “ Yes,” he said, handing the dice to his wife. “I sent Arruns to give these to Ati so she could ask divine Nortia if she wished your mother to come back to me.” He raised his eyes to Caecilia. “And she did.”
    She rubbed the dice between her fingers, remembering their smoothness as she’d held them in her hand, heavy with potential, on that summer’s afternoon. Remembered, too, how they seemed to tumble forever as she rolled them upon the dusty road, waiting for an answer. She closed her eyes briefly. Now she was beholden to the goddess Nortia forever.
    The touch of Larce’s hand prizing the tesserae released her from the memory. She surrendered them to him.
    “ And you were married again,” said Tas, ignoring that his brother had claimed the dice.
    “ Yes, Bellatrix returned to Veii and once again became my wife.”
    “ Why do you call her a bellatrix?”
    “ Because she is a