[ic] Studying with Grandpa Rome!

[vidi_vici_veni]

[At one of the tables in the library sit an ancient empire and a young scholar, stacks of books and unrolled maps surrounding them.]

So... Where are we starting? There's so much.

Comments

[lifeinrunes]

... Let's start at the beginning.

[vidi_vici_veni]

I remember Romulus, my first king. He took care of me when I was still little.

[lifeinrunes]

[grabs one of the books and starts flipping through it]

Hold on, hold on. Ah! Here it is--a list of Rome's kings up until overthrow of the monarchy. Do any of these seem familiar? Tarquin the Elder, Superbus...?

[vidi_vici_veni]

Oh, Tarquin brought me back a lot of presents from the Latins. And set up horse racing. He was fun.

[lifeinrunes]

That's... that works, actually. What about Servius Tullius?

[vidi_vici_veni]

Hmmm... The name's not ringing a bell.

[lifeinrunes]

[still holding the book, but mostly rattling things off from memory]

He fought against the Etruscans, expanded the city, built temples, ruled things from a primarily military perspective--all pretty typical for a Roman king. He broke the mold later and organized the first census, which he mostly used to figure out who had the money and resources to donate what and how much to the kingdom--a useful thing to know when your army is privately funded.

He also tried catering to the lower classes, which eventually upset the patricians enough to have him killed--most likely by his daughter, Tullia, and his son-in-law, Superbus.

[vidi_vici_veni]

I think I remember that... I may have been off at war, though.

Ahhhh, all these things were so long ago...

[lifeinrunes]

[headaaaaache]

[vidi_vici_veni]

[hey, you try remembering 2,800 years of history]

[lifeinrunes]

[remembers more than you, just sayin' 8|a]

What would you say you remember the most? Wars, sieges, emperors...?

[vidi_vici_veni]

Mmmm, a bit of both. I remember the Punic Wars and Hannibal kjdksdkl, and some of the emperors were really fun.

Oh! I remember going to Egypt.

[lifeinrunes]

[writin' this down]

[vidi_vici_veni]

What else...

I remember Caesar a lot, and his grandnephew. They helped me become an empire! And took me to a lot of different places.

But that might be jumping ahead too far.

Are we still on when I was a kingdom?

[lifeinrunes]

No--no, I think we can move on. Keep going.

[vidi_vici_veni]

Hmm... Tiberius, Caligula though I'd rather forget that name, Claudius...

...oh, there was the fire.