full tl

"Britannicus was now of age — Britannicus, the genuine and deserving stock to succeed to his father's power, which an interloping heir by adoption now exercised in virtue of the iniquities of his mother..." Annals, Book XIII by Tacitus (with further apologies to Vidal, Brass and...

(Awesome title card courtesy of SargentHawk) "La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas." ("The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.") Charles Baudelaire, Le spleen de Paris, XXIX (1862) ======= PROLOGUE ======= THE RISE AND...