Aurelia || SERIES ROMANA I

Chapter 86 ~ Io Saturnalia II

Even as a child, Gaius had loved the Saturnalia in his father's camp and when he had experienced it for the first time in Rome, he had greatly missed the jokes and songs of the soldiers. The festival was just completely different. When slaves mocked their masters, it was funny, but there were certain limits. Even if slaves and masters exchanged roles for a day, they always remained slaves and masters at heart. Soldiers didn't care about these boundaries because they couldn't swap roles with their commanders. Therefore, they took full advantage of what the holidays allowed them: They indulged in sumptuous meals while the wine flowed in streams, and they mocked themselves and their superiors that there was no stopping them.
As the commander of his own soldiers, he enjoyed the feast even more than he did then. With each cup of wine, the songs became harsher and, as Aurelia used to call it, less and less juvenile. But most of all, Gaius enjoyed the mean remarks that poured in on his legates and him from all sides. It was so funny to see the usually grim-faced Vespasian laughing at the soldiers trying to imitate that expression and shouting orders at each other in exaggerated peasant dialect. In contrast, the performance of Sabinus' legion, who merely wanted to emphasise his know-it-all manner, was boring, and even the legion of Aulus Plautius, who belted out a few entertaining drinking songs, simply did not come close to the performance of Vespasian's legionaries. Fortunately, Uncle Claudius could also laugh at the stuttering and limping men. Well, anything really was fair game at the Saturnalia.
When the soldiers' attention turned to Gaius and started making fun of him, he leaned forward with interest. But all the soldiers brought up against him was merely his, in their eyes, utterly excessive fidelity to his wife. One of them recited some very corny, love-struck verses to Aurelia that reminded Gaius distantly of Catullus and which the legionary claimed he had written himself. If this was the only thing he could be accused of, then Gaius could live with it very well. He watched their performance with a pensive smile, ignoring his legate's comments.
"Well, when you're married to the right woman, you don't want another," Gaius taunted back and Vespasian choked on his wine. Snorting hard, he put down his goblet and gave Sabinus a look that Gaius couldn't interpret. Was this about Caenis? Was she still Vespasian's mistress, even though he was now married? Perhaps the brothers knew something about his wife that was previously unknown to him. But that seemed very unlikely to Gaius. After all, they had no secrets from each other. At least not as long as they were together. Automatically, his thoughts wandered back to her mysterious message. Ever since he had received it, he had been racking his brains as to what his sister could have done. The Saturnalia had given him a little respite from this tormenting question, so that it could now return with full force and take over his whole mind.
Things were happening in Rome that were completely beyond his control, and it was bothering him. Something inside him screamed that there was a very great danger from these things that were unclear and hidden from him. But he could not leave here. He had to finish what he had started first. Even if a part of him said he was making a mistake in doing so.
In his whole life, he had only been truly sure of three things. Firstly, he was Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, the son of the great Germanicus and Agrippina Maior, which was why, secondly, neither his wife and children nor he would ever be truly safe. And thirdly, not even death with its black wings could put an end to the love he felt for Aurelia.
Even though Gaius knew that this campaign was important to secure the position of his whole family in Rome, the fact that he had not been with her to protect her from his own sister tore him apart.