ALEA IACTA EST: A Roman Republic Game (Senate Thread)

[Garlan Gunter]

ARRIVAL OF EMBASSY FROM THE KINGDOM OF EGYPT

What an incongruous sight they made in the venerable hall of the Conscript Fathers! A fleshy, yet etiolated boy with the unhealthy, inbred Macedonian pallor and Asiatic adornments that gave away his membership of the ancient and decadent house of Ptolemy. A young military tribune of Rome, evidently ill at ease in the chamber to which neither birth nor office would usually admit him. Outside but within call, a small but more than ceremonial honour guard of troops, a sight of curiosity for the multitude - for despite their gaudy admixture of Roman arms and Alexandrian jewellery, they were nearly to a man Gauls, of the same race who had once burned the Capitol. Here then came Prince Ptolemy the Elder, his interpreter Lucius Septimius, and their small command of the already fabled, debauched but victorious Gabiniani...





Young Ptolemy speaks in a Greek too elaborately accented to be fluently understood by all but the best travelled and most learned Senators. Septimius, however, translates him into decent Latin competently and rapidly.

"Hail, pilgrim fathers! Ptolemy, Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, sends his friendly, loyal and grateful greeting in the person of myself, his elder son.

"Restored to his throne over backward, superstitious and rash traitors by the prompt action of the Senate and People of Rome, he seeks to acknowledge and repay his obligations and ensure amity all round.

"It has come to his attention, however, that some in this great city still favour the claims of the criminal, thief, and fugitive from royal justice, Rabirius Postumus. Rabirius was condemned in the King of Egypt's own courts; he cannot be pardoned nor his overblown demands met. Hearing, however, of the noble Cicero's opinion of this scoundrel's innocence, the King reluctantly agrees to let the matter rest here. He will neither seek to visit further punishment upon Rabirius nor answer any further petitions from this trickster.

"Instead he means to over gratitude where it is richly deserved - to the Roman Senate and People whose deeds directly and indirectly restored the Pharaoh, and rightful order, to Egypt."

A large chest of treasure is brought forth by Nubian slaves and presented to the Conscript Fathers for the City's treasury.



"Furthermore, my father appoints me to make a longer and more permanent stay in Rome. He means in future for our ancient kingdom to be ruled by a dual monarchy, as was Sparta, Macedon and even Rome of old, whose tradition lives in the annual Consuls. I therefore do humbly seek from your reverend fathers the boon of Roman citizenship, and adoption into a Roman clan of suitable high birth. I am also commanded to make consideration of a Roman bride, with the understanding that an alliance with the House of Ptolemy is a great honour in itself, to be met with appropriate gifts in turn."

It seems the prince and his tribune have finally said their piece...at least for now.

[Garlan Gunter]

G. Valerius Catullus addresses the Senate, sent with a message from Ptolemy XII of Egypt



The last Egyptian embassy had come with a prince, an honour guard and a chest of gold. This one, in stormier times, constitutes a single, albeit gifted, Roman equestrian with a somewhat chequered reputation...

"ROMANS! Countrymen! Critics! I come from the King of Egypt, but it is my first wish to discuss one of our own - the pretty boy - the son of Lesbos - the ravisher of sisters - the defiler of the Good Goddess - the plaything of Caitline and the arsonist of the East - I refer of course to P. Clodius Pulcher!

"Now I knew Clodius, and well enough - though not near as well as some I could mention, aye, and of both sexes - the wife of the rebel Caesar, for one - a near Clodian relation and Metellan matron, for another...now wed, they say, to another rebel, one M. Antonius, one of the few Romans foolish and depraved enough still to espouse Clodius's cause after his murder of the hero Pompey...

"All this I know and heard and saw and remember, conscript fathers, and I know you do too, for you denounced the man as an enemy of Rome, a vile and lawless creature fit to be hunted as a beast. Well, then, should we not recall that it was this pretty animal, too, that once incited the capture of Cyprus and the murder of its Ptolemy?

"The current Ptolemy bids me inform you that I arrived along with the first shipment of Egyptian grain bound for Cyprus for six months. He swears more will follow if his possession of Cyprus is accepted. Whether you choose to put food in our people's bellies or not is of small concern to a poet like me...but it may interest the hungry mob out there, a mob that otherwise could well be tempted by the lies of Curio or even of Caesar.

"King Ptolemy urges a lasting peace, and intends to support his departed friend's honoured son, Pompey the Younger, and the legal standing of the Senate against gangs like the scum who wounded his son. As to Clodius, he has taken various counsels regarding the outlaw's fate from his chiefest friends of our nation and intends soon to decide it.

"And as for me - I am delighted to be back in the most truly alive city upon earth!"

[Garlan Gunter]

BRIEF INTERVENTION FROM CATULLUS

"Though I speak as an envoy and lack the right to vote, I would point out that the honourable Cicero was rather less scathing about Egyptian influence very recently. Who has bought his silver tongue today?"