I am rome, p.1
I Am Rome, page 1
I Am Rome is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Translation copyright © 2024 by Penguin Random House Editorial SAU
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Ballantine is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Originally published in Spain as Roma Soy Yo by B, an imprint of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Madrid, Spain, in 2022. Copyright © 2022 by Santiago Posteguillo. Represented by Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells, S.A.
Hardback ISBN 9780593598047
Ebook ISBN 9780593598054
randomhousebooks.com
Book design by Barbara M. Bachman, adapted for ebook
Cover design: Scott Biel
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Principium
Prooemium
The Trial I: Petitio
Chapter I: Caesar’s Decision
Memoria Prima: Aurelia Caesar’s Mother
Chapter II: Sentenced to Death
Chapter III: The Plebeian Tribune
Chapter IV: An Impossible Negotiation
Chapter V: Stone-Cold Justice
Chapter VI: The Blood of Aeneas
The Trial II: Divinatio
Chapter VII: An Unexpected Opponent
Chapter VIII: An Unexpected Choice
Memoria Secunda: Gaius Marius
Chapter IX: Marius’s Return
Chapter X: The Only Victory That Matters
Chapter XI: The Wrath of the Gods
Chapter XII: A New Scipio?
Chapter XIII: The Barbaric Giants
Chapter XIV: A Doctor for Young Caesar
Chapter XV: Teutobod
Chapter XVI: The King’s Challenge
Chapter XVII: The Teuton Attack
Chapter XVIII: Out for Rome
Chapter XIX: A Meeting of the Senate
Chapter XX: Aquae Sextiae
Chapter XXI: The People’s Legions
Chapter XXII: The Final Battle
Chapter XXIII: A New War
The Trial III: Inquisitio
Chapter XXIV: The Witnesses
Chapter XXV: The Via Egnatia
Chapter XXVI: The Sad Eyes of Orestes
Memoria Tertia: Cornelia
Chapter XXVII: A Pact for Power
Chapter XXVIII: Caesar’s Apprenticeship
Chapter XXIX: Rome Is Mine
Chapter XXX: Cornelia’s Apprenticeship
Chapter XXXI: The Cult of Sulla
Chapter XXXII: Cinnamum Tempus
Chapter XXXIII: The Temples of Greece
Chapter XXXIV: The Eagle at Rest
Chapter XXXV: The Death of Julius Caesar
Chapter XXXVI: Fimbria vs. Sulla
Chapter XXXVII: Caesar’s Wedding
Chapter XXXVIII: Cinna Confronts Sulla
Chapter XXXIX: Aurelia’s Decision
Chapter XL: Sulla’s Advance
Chapter XLI: Marius’s Ashes
Chapter XLII: The Longest Night
The Trial IV: Reiectio
Chapter XLIII: Aurelia’s Advice
Chapter XLIV: The President of the Tribunal
Chapter XLV: Shadows in the Basilica
Reus: Dolabella
Chapter XLVI: First Crime: Violatio
Chapter XLVII: Second and Third Crimes
Chapter XLVIII: The Curse of Thessaloniki
Chapter XLIX: Fourth Crime: Sacrilegium
The Trial V: Prima Actio
Chapter L: Caesar’s First Witness: Marcus
Chapter LI: Caesar’s Second Witness: Orestes
Chapter LII: Caesar’s Third Witness: Myrtale
Chapter LIII: Betrayed by Your Beloved
Memoria Quarta: Sulla
Chapter LIV: In the Hands of the Gods
Chapter LV: Sulla’s Dictatorship
Chapter LVI: Caesar’s Divorce
Chapter LVII: Sulla’s Proposal
Chapter LVIII: A Deadly Confrontation
Chapter LIX: Fugitive from Rome
Chapter LX: The First Victory
The Trial VI: Secunda Actio
Chapter LXI: Dolabella’s Testimony
Chapter LXII: The Defense’s Final Statement
Chapter LXIII: Caesar’s Final Statement
Memoria Quinta: Labienus
Chapter LXIV: The Land of Sappho
Chapter LXV: Lucullus’s Orders
Chapter LXVI: Caesar’s Extermination
Chapter LXVII: An Impossible Mission
Chapter LXVIII: A Messenger
Chapter LXIX: Caesar’s Fear
Chapter LXX: The Eyes of Rome
Chapter LXXI: A Friend’s Life
Chapter LXXII: Caesar’s Orders
Chapter LXXIII: The Civic Crown
The Trial VII: Sententia
Chapter LXXIV: Unanimously
Chapter LXXV: Another Kind of Justice
Chapter LXXVI: Caesar, Caesar, Caesar
Epilogus
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Historical Note
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography
Structure of the Novel
Dramatis Personae
About the Author and Translator
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Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.
—William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I Scene II
Principium
The woman spoke quietly to her baby as she rocked him. “Always remember your ancestors,” she said. “I, your mother, descend from an ancient lineage, the gens Aurelia, heralds of the cult of the sun. In you, my bloodline converges with your father’s, and he is of the gens Julia, a noble family that refuses to amass wealth through corruption and violence like so many others. The gens Julia holds the most special birthright in all of Rome: the goddess Venus lay with the shepherd Anchises and from them Aeneas was born. As a young man, Aeneas fled the city of Troy as it burned to the ground, escaping with his father, his wife Creusa, and their son Ascanius, who in Rome we call Julus. Years later, the beautiful princess Rhea Silvia of Alba Longa, direct descendant of Julus, would be possessed by the god Mars himself, and from that union Romulus and Remus were born. Romulus founded Rome, and here we are today. You are a direct descendant of Julus, from whom the gens Julia takes its name.
“This world that you have yet to take your first steps into is ruled by patrician families like your own. Many powerful senators have built immense fortunes in Rome’s recent years of growth, and because of this they believe themselves to be chosen and special, favored by the gods, granted the right to do as they please. They feel superior to other citizens and to the socii, our allies in broader Italy. These vile senators call themselves the optimates, the best. But remember, my son: Your family descends directly from Julus, son of Aeneas; you share the blood of Venus and of Mars. You are uniquely special. You alone, my little one. You alone. And I pray to Venus and to Mars that they may protect you and guide you in times of peace as well as in times of war. Because you will see war, my son. That is your destiny. I can only hope that in those times of war you will be as strong as Mars, as victorious as Venus. Remember this always, my son: You are Rome.”
Aurelia repeated the story over and over to her infant son like a prayer. And, although he did not understand her words, they filtered into his mind and settled in his memory, forever etched onto his brain, as if carved in stone, forging Julius Caesar’s destiny.
Prooemium
The Western Mediterranean
Centuries II and I B.C.
Rome’s growth is unstoppable.
Since the fall of the Carthaginian Empire, Rome has become the dominant power in the Western Mediterranean region. Already controlling Hispania, Sicily, Sardinia, Italy, and parts of northern Africa, it has begun to set its sights farther, on Cisalpine Gaul, the Celtic lands north of Italy, and Greece and Macedonia to the east.
Rome’s expansion has filled the republic’s coffers to the brim, but the distribution of wealth and conquered l
Such blatant inequality leads to conflict: the Assembly of the Roman People demands a more equal allotment of wealth and power. A few bold men speak out in favor of redistribution. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus is among them. Son of famed Roman mother Cornelia and grandson of the great statesman Scipio Africanus, he is chosen as plebeian tribune, the people’s highest representative, and sponsors a law of land redistribution in the year 133 B.C. But the Senate ambushes him on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, beating him to death in broad daylight and tossing his body into the Tiber, without a proper burial. His brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, is later elected plebeian tribune and attempts to further Tiberius’s reforms. In response, the Senate passes an unprecedented decree granting the Roman consuls, top leaders of the Senate, the authority to detain and execute Gaius Gracchus or any other plebeian tribune who supports the redistribution of lands. In 121 B.C., finding himself surrounded by the Senate’s assassins, Gaius Gracchus asks a slave to kill him so that he does not fall into his enemies’ hands.
Supporters of the Gracchi brothers and their thwarted attempts at reform join forces to create a group that calls itself the populares, “in defense of the people.” The more conservative senators, in turn, form the party of the optimates, meaning “the best,” since they consider themselves to be superior and favored by the gods. Rome is officially divided into two opposing political factions when a third group emerges. The socii, inhabitants of Rome’s allied cities in broader Italy, demand Roman citizenship and the right to vote so that they might take part in decisions that affect them directly.
The Assembly of the Roman People, time and again, elects new plebeian tribunes who, over and over, try to pass reforms like those initiated by the Gracchi years prior. All of them are systematically killed by the optimate senators. Finally, a young Roman appears, patrician by birth but sympathetic to the demands of the populares and the socii. He understands that a fourth group has entered the fray: the inhabitants of the new Roman provinces that have been annexed from Hispania to Greece and Macedonia, from the Alps to Africa.
This young man believes that it is time for things to change once and for all, but he is only twenty-three years old, with few supporters. In fact, hardly anyone in Rome has even taken notice of him. That is, until a trial in the year 77 B.C. when this man, despite his youth, agrees to prosecute a powerful senator.
The defendant, accused of corruption during his term as governor of Macedonia, is none other than optimate senator Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, who amassed unthinkable wealth and power as a close ally to the tyrannical Lucius Cornelius Sulla, former dictator of Rome.
Sulla, during his dictatorship, decreed that senators could only be tried by a jury of their peers: other senators. This means that the tribunal set to hear Dolabella’s case is composed entirely of optimates and is expected to fully exonerate Dolabella, who has also hired the two best defense attorneys in Rome: Hortensius and Aurelius Cotta. Seeing the case as a lost cause, no Roman lawyer will agree to prosecute Dolabella. Only a madman or a fool would bring charges against such a powerful senator under such disadvantageous circumstances.
Until one man finally steps forward. Dolabella laughs when they tell him who has agreed to serve as prosecutor in the trial against him. He continues his endless series of parties and banquets, secure in the notion that his case has already been won.
The name of the inexperienced young lawyer who agrees to prosecute him is Gaius Julius Caesar.
During the petitio period of a Roman trial, any free person may formally seek a lawyer to serve as either defense attorney or prosecutor for a given case. Should a non-Roman citizen wish to bring a Roman citizen to trial, they must find another Roman citizen willing to serve as prosecutor and present charges for the alleged crimes.
I
Caesar’s Decision
Julia family domus
The Suburra neighborhood, Rome
77 B.C.
“Everyone who has attempted something like this has been killed. You should not, cannot, accept their proposal. It will only lead to ruin. It’s suicide.” Titus Labienus spoke vehemently with the passion of someone trying to keep a friend from committing the biggest mistake of his life. “You can’t change the world, Gaius, and this trial aims to do just that. Do I need to remind you of everyone who has died trying to challenge the optimates? They have always been in control and they always will be. Opposing them only spells death. And you know it.”
Caesar listened intently to his childhood friend’s heartfelt advice but for the moment remained silent.
Cornelia, Caesar’s young wife of nineteen, stood watching the scene from the center of the domus atrium. He paced around her, weighing Labienus’s words and contemplating the response he would give the Macedonian men who had come seeking his help. The three Macedonians themselves sat nearby, looking on uncomfortably as Labienus made his case.
As Labienus watched Caesar circle Cornelia—the action symbolic of how central she was to him—he appealed to his friend’s wife. “Cornelia, by Hercules, you love Gaius. Tell him that for your sake, for his mother’s sake, for the sake of his family, he has to reject this insane proposal. Dolabella is untouchable. Your husband already escaped a death sentence once before, for defying Sulla. If he takes on Sulla’s favorite crony now, in this trial, he’s as good as dead. By all the gods, help me reason with him!”
Cornelia blinked as she stood listening to Labienus. Just then, the sound of crying filled the air. Little Julia, Caesar and Cornelia’s daughter, barely five years old, appeared in the atrium with her nursemaid close at her heels.
“I’m sorry, domina, so sorry,” the nursemaid apologized. “The girl is so quick.”
“Mama, Mama…” Julia shouted, clinging to her mother’s legs.
Little Julia’s interruption saved Cornelia from having to give the response Labienus demanded. “I’ll be right back,” she said, taking her daughter by the hand.
Caesar, wearing a serious expression, nodded to his wife.
“Goodbye, Papa,” the child said as she passed him.
Gaius Julius Caesar smiled at the girl as Cornelia led her out of the atrium, followed by the nursemaid.
Labienus continued to press his case, ignoring the presence of the three Macedonians who wanted to hire Julius Caesar as their lawyer. Perdiccas, Archelaus, and Aeropus were made uncomfortable by Titus Labienus’s words, but they didn’t dare interrupt the discussion between the two Roman men.
“Listen to me, Gaius,” Labienus continued, disregarding the Macedonians’ hostile stares. “If you accept, you will most likely be defeated in trial and then murdered, either on some dark corner or perhaps even in the forum, in broad daylight. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. The optimates think they are more powerful than ever. They are more powerful than ever. And even in the unlikely event that the tribunal determines in your favor, it would mean going up against Cotta, your own uncle, who Dolabella has hired for his defense. Is that really what you want? To force your mother to choose sides between her brother and her son?”
