Rome Drabbles: Future

[artyartie]

For the rome100 challenge, Future. Two futures which never happenned to two very different men.

It wasn’t hubris if he succeeded.

And he succeeded, in spite of every obstacle before him. Mark Antony and his ambition, Cicero’s harangues in the Senate, Brutus and his-

It still made his heart ache, Brutus’ betrayal. Caesar had mercy, when he could afford it, but the treachery of the man who had once been like a son could not be forgiven. Servilla followed her son soon after, and some nights her curses still rang in his ears.

Yet these were bearable costs, to forge his own destiny. To craft the very future of Rome, to earn them both immortality.

***

He never should have fled his villa into yet another exile. His death would have held some honor, at least. His life now held nothing but shame.

Antony’s death brought no satisfaction. Octavian was far more dangerous than he ever imagined, no mere boy the Senate could use. The day of his triumph, Cicero came home and held a sword to his belly, but could not drive it in.

With this latest failure, he finally abandoned Rome, slunk back to his villa. He drank too much and wrote too little, of futures that never happened and courage he never had.

Comments

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

Both these drabbles are very creepy, in a good way. Caesar in the first trouble is very intimidating and ruthless, just as he should be (indeed, how everything would have turned out if he truly had nobody standing on his way?), and the broken Cicero in the second drabble just breaks my heart.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It took a while to craft these alternate futures, and cram them into so few words, but I'm glad they worked so well.

I don't know how, but I must find happy Cicero stories to write, because all my past Cicero stories have been so heartbreaking.

[vaznetti]

I love both of these -- the way survival and victory are not at all the same, even for Caesar. Or at least, in his case, that survival and success carry a terrible price.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Thank you - it seems so often in these histories that victory comes at such a painful cost, and a defeated life is seldom worth living.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Like I commented above, I love writing heartbreaking!Cicero, but it would be nice to write something a little more cheerful for a change.