[Ancient Rome] How to Divorce the Tyrant Nero

Thanks to the documentary of later generations, Octavia is very aware of Nero's preferences, and feels quite speechless about it.

There is no doubt that Nero was a genius. He could speak in Greek and Latin when he was 13 years old. The work is not original, but a ghostwriting.

But it was such an extremely clever emperor who did his own job so badly that it could even be called unbelievable.

Throughout the previous generations of emperors, whether it was Tiberius, Caligula, or the extremely mediocre Claudius, they all made more or less contributions to internal affairs and military affairs .

On the other hand, Nero, apart from the cultural propaganda and the decisiveness of murdering his mother, most of his good governance should be attributed to the dedication of his advisors and teachers.And when Nero executed the two for unconvincing reasons, his reaction in times of crisis was enough to be called panic.

It was at this time that Nero's rule began to collapse at an accelerated rate, and finally came to an end in the third year after the teacher was executed, and committed suicide on the day of Octavia's death.

When the documentary mentioned Nero's death, as if to emphasize the sense of fate, it described it as Octavia's curse, which was chilling and full of irony at the same time.

What is even more speechless is that there are records that Nero always dreamed of his mother and Octavia in the last few years of his life, and then woke up from the nightmare.

But such an emperor full of contradictions, at the moment, is only a ten-year-old boy, who has not yet been crowned a famous tyrant, with a pair of curious cornflower eyes and soft short golden-red hair.

The Claudius family has Gallic and Germanic ancestry, so the physical characteristics of generations are closer to modern Germans and French.Like Octavia and Claudius, the appearance of ancient Rome with Latin features is very rare, which is also a bonus item for the throne won by Claudius.

After all, no matter how proud the Romans were of their tolerance, it would be better for the ruling class to look more Roman.

Especially when the Senate's PTSD against Caligula has not subsided, compared to Nero who looks less Roman, like Octavia, Bree with dark hair and Latium looks Tanikus's first impression on the Senate was much better, which made Messalina quite complain.

After all, in the upper class, blonde and red hair can better highlight the fair skin that ancient Roman ladies admired, so many hair stylists have made a lot of money.What's more, lead powder and crocodile droppings are used in cosmetics.

I remember the first time Messalina taught Octavia how to do makeup, the latter almost vomited, and then, amidst Messalina's screams, she threw away those smelly cosmetics and replaced them with roses. Flower petals, honey, pearl powder, and lip balm made from lard, fine powder made from wheat flour, and simple eyebrow pencil made from charcoal.

Although Octavia has watched videos of ancient legal cosmetics, her hands-on ability is basically zero.Fortunately, Messalina bought a cosmetics store on a whim, and the nobles in ancient Rome were used to keeping a private pharmacist.So no matter how rough the stuff Octavia asked the pharmacist to make out, it must be more than a little bit better than crocodile feces and those poisonous lead powders.

Over time, not only Messalina fell in love with this new type of cosmetics, but even the wealthy ladies in Rome made Octavia a lot of money.

After all, no one likes a woman whose face is covered in mosaics.

Before meeting Octavia, most of the girls of the same age that Nero met were slaves from Greece and Crete, with light-colored hair and olive or light wheat-colored hair after years of hard work. skin.

In contrast, Octavia has the opposite dark hair and fair skin, plus her lips are extraordinarily bright because of the color of the lip balm, so that Nero can feel her at first sight. After a strong impact, I was also deeply impressed with Octavia.

If Octavia had the opportunity to look in the mirror at this moment, she would definitely complain that Messalina put on too much lip balm, making her look like a fairy tale town worker who changed scenes to play Snow White.

And after parting ways with little Agrippina and his party, Messalina, who was very sensitive to romantic affairs, said to Octavia excitedly: "Didn't you see the way that little Domitius looked at you? I I think he's interested in you."

"Interested? A child who has never experienced a coming-of-age ceremony, where did he become interested in me?" Octavia was not interested in this, and even said with a bit of regret: "If I knew I would meet them here, I would You should talk to Lukusta in advance, so that you can put some chronic poison and medicine on that ring."

Although it is easy for people to blame Octavia for Nero's sudden death, who would doubt a child who has not even experienced the rite of passage?

As for Messalina who was traveling with her, she had never touched the ring from the beginning to the end, and she had no reason to murder her own daughter.

When Messalina heard this, she sighed regretfully, but soon, her attention was attracted by the fierce gladiator competition. The queen threw out roses, and together with the audience present, the fierce competition was heated up even more.

The box Octavia chose was semi-outdoor, so the outside world could clearly see every move of their Roman queen and princess.

Messalina is a woman who can stir up the atmosphere. Some big figures in history, such as Caesar and Augustus, would shorten the distance between them and the common people by frequently participating or holding public performances, so as to improve their popularity and support.

In modern times, this is like the image project of the corrupt royal family, and the endless canvassing methods used by the presidential candidates in the United States during the general election.

As a member of the royal family, Octavia has never objected to Messalina's participation in such more positive events. After all, when Claudius is entangled in the mess left by Caligula, how to recast The image of the Claudius family rekindled the support of the people hurt by the two tyrants, which is the biggest problem Octavia is currently facing.

It is true that she also wanted to spend a lot of money to build various public facilities and hold large-scale gladiatorial competitions to gain the support of the Roman people like the ancestors of the Claudius family.

But the financial situation of the Claudius family simply does not allow her to do so.

Especially after Caligula wanted to build temples, created an oolong and angered all the Roman people after the British Conquest, the treasury that Claudius took over not only did not have a single dinar, he even In order to win the support of the Senate, he had to rebuild various public facilities that Caligula had requisitioned as temples at his own expense.

Under such circumstances, without the help of the Barbatus family and the Lepidus family, plus Octavia's maternal grandfather Marcus Barbatus personally serving as Claudius' big creditor, only With the assets of the Claudius family that were squeezed dry by the prodigal sons, it is absolutely impossible for the Senate to improve its evaluation of Claudius.

Of course, some people will ask at this time, didn't Octavia just receive a huge dowry?She can use this dowry money to do these things!

But the problem is that the dowry is an asset that can only be used after Octavia gets married, and under the patriarchal and husbandly power in Roman society, Octavia may not be able to sell or transfer this asset easily.

So how to hold a public entertainment event that does not cost much and can impress the common people?

Octavia, who was not in the mood to watch the gladiator competition, stared at the calfskin skirts worn by the gladiators on the field, and a bold idea flashed in her mind.

The author has something to say:

The ancient Romans belonged to the Latiums, and it was impossible for them to have blond hair and blue eyes. However, because of the particularity of Roman law, many families had mixed blood from generation to generation, and there would be blond people like Augustus.

Lucusta: The most famous poisoner in history, said to be Agripina's poisoning advisor.

Roman society is quite speechless. On the one hand, it emphasizes patriarchy and husband power, but on the other hand, it guarantees women’s basic interests and assets. Even when the family is separated, a woman can get as much tangible assets as her brothers. This is also true. The main reason why many great figures in ancient Rome were afraid of their wives was because the Senate could not do business, so their wives were sometimes their biggest creditors.