[Ancient Rome] How to Divorce the Tyrant Nero

"Ask Elius to prepare [-] sesterces for me. I'm going to the slave market tomorrow." Octavia, who stayed up all night, finally finished writing a chapter of an opera praising His Majesty the Emperor. It is a fellow of clay sculpture. It is estimated that anyone who has read it will suspect that Octavia wore ten layers of filters when she wrote, and cut and pasted all the wonderful words describing Augustus onto Claudius.

The owner of the bookstore belonging to the Claudius family also questioned after reading Octavia's new work: "My dear Octavia, even though I am a loyal citizen of the Roman Empire, I have to doubt that you Seems to confuse the great Augustus with His Majesty Claudius."

The bookstore owner's words were euphemistic and subtle, and his face showed undisguised confusion: "This is like exchanging the heads of two full-body stone statues. Even if Vulcan is reborn, it is impossible to exchange the two heads. perfect repair of cracks.”

"These are not things you should care about." Octavia, who was about to write her second book, asked Tita to pour her a glass of lemonade soaked in rose petals, and negotiated with the bookstore owner: "You just need Just know that this book will make His Majesty happy, and if you don't take over the printing and sales of this book, I will find someone else."

After all, Octavia showed a commercial smile: "Mr. Rubius, you don't want to give up a piece of easy income and the opportunity to praise His Majesty the Emperor, do you? The signatory is me, who would argue with a child?"

Although a girl in ancient Rome would be assigned to a boy who passed the 16-year-old coming-of-age ceremony at the age of seven, Octavia's status is too special, so Claudius has been entangled in whether to give Octavia The packaged poison dagger was delivered to Nero.Among other things, Lucius Hiranus, who was about to take over as the chief justice, had expressed his desire to be engaged to Octavia, and was even willing to pay 200 million sesterces to conclude the marriage contract.

Lucius Hiranus was the nephew of Claudius's second wife, Ugrania the Great, and the only grandson of Appius Hiranus, the Grand Consul during Tiberius' time.

After the accidental death of Drusus, the eldest son of Great Ugrania and Claudius, Appius Hiranus has been trying to maintain their family's influence on Claudius, even in After being sent back to her mother's house by Claudius, Great Ukrania persisted in trying to remarry the two.

It wasn't until little Ukrania was born that Appius Hiranus gave up on this idea, and turned to attack Messalina's two children.

If Brittanicus, like his half-brother, died unexpectedly before Claudius closed his eyes, then Octavia was the key to the throne and Claudius' treasury.

What is a mere two million sesterces compared with the emperor's crown?Even if Lucius Hiranus didn't like Octavia, he could execute Octavia after all the mountains on his head went to see Pluto like Tiberius executed Julia Caesares.

"I don't intend to let your reputation be questioned by ignorant people, but I just hope that you will not cause a rift in our friendship." It is about the reputation of the royal family members, even if the bookstore owner is fooled by the interests described by Octavia. I was a little heartbroken, but I had to inoculate Octavia in advance: "Those free people will not tolerate you because of the "Twelve Bronze Tables Law", even Tiberius and Cary Not even Gura's blade can stop them."

"About this point, I have already made psychological preparations." Octavia wrote lightly: "After all, I personally resolved the scandal caused by my mother and Scylla. Those days were much more difficult than now."

The owner of the bookstore was speechless.

In the few years when Claudius first came to the throne, in order to block those voices who questioned that he was not as good as Germanicus, Claudius followed the example of Augustus and his brother and began to attack several tribes on the border. aggression against the country.

At that time, Messalina, without her husband and father's restraint, unexpectedly started the XING marathon with the courtesan Scylla in Rome in a twitch.

At that time, Octavia was taken to the temple of Vitas by her grandmother Little Dominia to pray for blessings, so she didn't know what shocking news her mother had done.

When she finally rushed home, little Dominia was so angry that Meserina passed out, forcing the young Octavia to try her best to clean up the mess for Messalina while comforting her grandmother. .

At the time, everyone thought Messalina was finished.

After all, a queen who dares to cuckold the emperor in public, and once she wears it, is 25 queens, even if she is not executed immediately, she will probably be exiled for a year or two in a fake manner, and then be executed secretly.

However, what no one expected was that Octavia, who was less than the waist height of an adult at the time, not only restored Messalina's reputation, but even made Messalina stand on the pedestal dedicated to Rome. on top.

The whole of Rome was stunned by this coquettish operation.

This is a completely epic moment in the history of ancient public relations, and it can be compared with "Flana's trial".

The ancestor of Octavia and Messalina was the highly respected goddess Venus. Her first identity in ancient Roman culture was the goddess of beauty, and her second identity was the goddess of wisdom after Minerva. The three identities are the protectors of prostitutes and women.

In order to find a reason for Messalina's immoral behavior, Octavia reached an agreement with Scylla, with the Claudius family and the Barbatus family as Scylla's backing supporters. According to the conditions, let her call the prostitutes and women of ancient Rome to raise war donations, and publicize this move to a large extent, so that the eyes of the masses will be taken away from Messalina, and the mouths of political opponents will be blocked by this.

Even if "slut humiliation" is the most common method used by politicians who often go to sensual places and mistresses' boudoirs to attack political opponents.However, during the period of the Greek and Roman Empires, the chastity and harshness of women was not as harsh as before, "starving to death is a small thing, and uncleanness is a big thing". The freedom and inheritance rights of women are gradually liberalized in the Table Law, and the following prostitution behaviors are completely legal by default in society.

One is to collect taxes, the other is to make money for the temple, the third is to eliminate the anger in society, and the fourth is to save a little retirement savings for poor women.

Octavia brushed off the edge of Claudius' previous war tax collection, legitimized Messalina's actions, and let Matrona who supported Messalina and Scylla have prostitutes, The women donated 1000 million sesterces to the war front.

God pays off, after Octavia ran for Messerina in fear for a month, the Roman Senate, under the persecution of Claudius and the voice of the people, announced that Messerina and Sku La's "match" was a legal way of paying taxes for Rome's devotion, and also praised the Matrona and whores who collected donations.

Although the crisis was successfully resolved, Octavia and Messalina were also ridiculed by some self-defense, Taoist priests and political opponents, and became synonymous with "royal bitch".

It’s just that Octavia didn’t care about this, because Claudius and Marcus Barbatus saw Octavia’s potential from it, and this was also an important turning point for her to be able to attend the discussion of political affairs between her father and grandfather.

The author has something to say:

Most of the ancient Romans were old couples and young wives, because they would be engaged when the girl was seven years old, and the boy would not be said to be married until he became an adult or even started to make achievements. This is why the children and grandchildren of many emperors were so much younger.

Germanicus: elder brother of Claudius, nephew of Tiberius, uncle of Octavia and grandfather of Nero, and grandson-in-law of Augustus.After Augustus's four heirs (nephew and three grandchildren) all "accidentally died", Germanicus was adopted to Tiberius as the heir chosen by Augustus for Tiberius.

Pluto: The ancient Roman name for Hades.

Trial of Flanna: Flanna was a famous prostitute in ancient Greece. Once she was accused and faced with the final trial of guilt by the Supreme Court. With her graceful body, she convinced the judges and the people, so she was released in court.

This chapter is very ruinous, but Octavia can't let Messalina die.Perhaps for many people, she is an idiot, but for Octavia, Messalina is an irresponsible mother who loves her enough, and it is impossible for her to let little Dominia and Marcus. Barbatus dragged down by Messalina.

Some aristocratic women in ancient Rome were really speechless. In order to escape the male guardians and the shackles of morality, they would announce in the temple that they would give up their noble status and superior life and become prostitutes.Because prostitutes and women are legal taxpayers, their property is protected.This is also very ironic. On the one hand, women are required to be chaste, and on the other hand, they draw nourishment and desire from prostitutes.And the relationship between noble women and prostitutes is also difficult to describe in words, and some prostitutes will even help noble ladies hold their husbands so that noble ladies have the opportunity to have an affair. (Black question mark face.)

The eighth table in the "Twelve Tables Law" - "Whoever slanders others with words, or openly sings lyrics that insult others, shall be sentenced to death."

PS: Don't ask a little girl under ten years old how she knows so much, asking is a genius, and asking is "Orphan's Complaint".