The eternal republic

I

"I had a dream. I was walking in an empty and dark city. It seemed abandoned for a long time"
The oracle nodded.
"Tell me what the city looked like"
"Broken columns, I heard wolves howling and in the moonlight I recognized the buildings" the young aristocrat responded.
"Ah, so you recognized the city. So what city was it?"
The young aristocrat was fashionably but respectfully clad. The oracle would not have noticed. The native was blind.
"It was the city of my childhood. It was Rome"
The oracle grabbed the young man´s hand.
"You have been a long time away from Rome haven´t you?"
"Yes, ever since my father sent me here 10 years ago"
"You miss it?"
The aristocrat nodded but of course the oracle didn´t see. The native maybe didn´t need to hear the answer for he answered immediatly:
"It is natural. Here you are surrounded by ruins. Your legions have marched over my home country and you fear a similar fate for your country. But there is no reason for that fear. Everything comes to an end. But Rome has at least thousand years more. You will not live to see it perish."

The native oracle was a shaman that ate mushrooms and lived as a hermit. The aristocrat didn´t know of what tribe he was, whether he was an Aztec or of some other former sovereign entity. What did it matter? In only 100 years the great republic had squashed any resistance, and this old hermit spoke latin perfectly.
But he stepped out feeling that the oracle had not given him a reasonable answer. The sunlight gave him a brief headache before a native servant came running with a sunshield.
While in the shadow of the umbrella young Claudius could think more clearly. Perhaps he was giving to much attention to dreams and not enough to his studies.


II
History, his father used to say, is the key to the future. How often had Rome not been threatened by ruin or tyranny. Had it not always risen again? Perhaps his dreams of it´s destruction came from another world. A shadow world like the one Plato described.
Yes, this was an appeasing thought: "Maybe they were living in a cavern unable to see the most true and beautiful world of all. But perhaps deeper in the cavern there were even shadowier worlds where the civilisation of the Latins had never even been born. Perhaps his most disturbing and savage nightmares came from such a world."
Claudius wrote it down in his notebook. He had bought it in Sophronia in a local bookstore on the coast of the Julian sea. The notebook had been produced in Britannia by a man whose grandfather had been born in Persia. But of course Claudius was quite unaware of that.
He was in fact quite unaware by most of his surroundings. Or maybe he had already become bored with this colonial city in the mexican mountains. Just another silvermine, just another tribe.

III

Claudius was abruptly awakened. One of his servants came running and bowed down.
"What is it" Claudius could see the servant brought urgent news.
News that by the manner of the servant came from far away on a copperwire. Riding on stream of lightning.
The servant hesitated briefly, but only briefly. (Claudius was not cruel or very short-tempered):
"Master. Your father. The senator is dead. Your mother wants you to come home immediatly"

How-it didn´t say-what more?-nothing master-but how?-sorry, no word.

IV

On to the boat Claudius brought only a single book. A key to the future in form of history. His father´s favorite book:

"The eternal republic" by Gibbonius

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Note: In this TL we will go through the history of the republic through Claudius and his ponderings on the history of his own country. There will be a traditional TL along with every chapter. Right now, the POD is still undecided.;):rolleyes:
 
The myth of rome

I
So Gibbonius started his account:

The history of Rome is shrouded in myths. We cannot decypher these myths and make out of them real events, so we must accept them. After all myths are useful in a way, they contain truths in a more clear way than reality does.
Of course all children that are able to read in latin have learned the story of Romulus and Remus. They learn it as a truth, but we know of course that it is a myth. The roman republic is glorious in it´s modern state but to be frank, it probably had a very modest beginning.
Did the sons of Mars found it? No, probably a tribe either from north or south somewhere on the italian peninsula settled in Latium and built a modest village on the top of a hill. But the fact that we romans count us as the offspring of the war god says something about us. Have we ever gone through a time of peace?

But why start there? Why not start with the legend of Troy and of noble Aeneas? Why not delve further?
No, this book is not intended to cast light on mythology. It is my attempt to piece together what we know as a fact and try to glue it into a fundamental truth. Leave myths to the children that must be inspired to love. This is the story of how our forefathers preserved a republic that very well could have over-expanded or ended as a tyranny. (And even though freedom has always triumphed Rome´s history is abundant of tyrants).

A gentle breeze disturbed Claudius from reading further. He noted:
"myths are useful but for children only... Why? Are they meant to inspire emotions that cannot be rationalized?"
He was about to continue but he could the ship start to move. He jumped up and ran to the deck.
He wanted to enjoy the new world landscape for a few moments more. Perhaps he would never again get the chance to travel in this fascinating colony.
The port town of Sophronia was full of new roman architecture. A lot more up to date than the old cities of Europe in a way. But that was not what he wanted to see.
As the coastline disappeared Claudius focused on the ancient pyramid that the original owners of the town had built. Claudius had drawn many pictures of these pyramids and inquired into the religion of the natives. Those bloodthirsty natives...

He scribbled into his notebook:
"Yes, myths can be useful but, myths drove the inhabitants of Mexic to perform human sacrifices of enormous scale... myths can drive you to both glory and horror"

When the town had vanished Claudius sat down again and continued his reading. Before dinner he had already reached chapter two:

Rome was not built in one day.

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Still no Pod...;) But this is the style of the storytelling. There will be a TL with dates and so on accompanying.
 
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