The Assassination of Caligula

Chapter Three

The Amphitheatre of Caligula was unfinished and yet here it was being used. In the First Citizen's box sat Claudius, cousin to Romulus and uncle to Caligula, with his third wife and his first cousin once removed Valeria Messalina, who should not have been confused with Romulus' wife Messalina who was completely unrelated, King Herod Agrippa of Batanaea and Galilee and, of course, Romulus' family consisting of his wife Messalina, their firstborn son Conn and their second son Julius.

Claudius and Herod were friends, they had been so since their boyhood. Herod had been sent to Rome for an education and so had grown up alongside Claudius, Drusus Julius Caesar, Germanicus and Agrippa Postumus. Romulus had never been friends with Herod, anymore than Romulus had ever been friends with his maternal half-brother and adoptive uncle Agrippa Postumus, son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, whom Herod Agrippa had been named after. There was uncertainty of who had influenced who but Agrippa was his father's son. Romulus had never known Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The only one of his mother's three husbands he had known had been her third and last: Tiberius, who considered his marriage to Julia Major a disaster and his first wife Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, to be his only real wife out of the two that he had. That his mother had been a harlot, Romulus knew very well and would often agree with Tiberius, during the time their relationship as family members had improved, on how his mother had been only for Tiberius to say: "Romulus, you knew your materfamilias not. You have no opinion of her, only the word of mouth of those who did know her."

To this Romulus would respond: "But I am the boy of an intrepid Hibernian trader my materfamilias took as one of her many swains, Tiberius. This we all know to be so and thus of my mother's nature I am in agreement with." And then after that, Romulus would ask: "Did Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa poison my mother's first husband Marcus Claudius Marcellus?"

Of this, Romulus never got an agreed upon answer. Tiberius would grow enraged at this accusation of a Roman military man such as himself and say: "This conversation is at an end!"

Livia, Romulus' step-grandmother who would later be known as "Julia Augusta", spoke thusly: "I do not know if Agrippa poison Marcellus. It does not seem likely but given his eagerness to divorce Claudia Marcella Major and marry your mother I dare say it is possible, Romulus."

Augustus would say to Romulus: "I always noticed who Agrippa would stare at your mother, Romulus. The concupiscence in his eyes... Had I not wanted to see my line continued I would have looked elsewhere for a second husband for your mother my daughter. Agrippa was my friend... In hindsight though I wonder how much of a friend he truly was."

Romulus had never known Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa but his maternal half-brother and adoptive uncle Agrippa Postumus he had known well. Scornful for the sake of being scornful, Agrippa had been tormented his maternal half-brother and adoptive nephew, someone a decade younger than him, since as soon as he could. Augustus had adopted Agrippa when Romulus was six twelvemonths old, so they were not adoptive uncle and nephew and maternal half-brothers at the same time when Romulus was born. When Agrippa learned he would be heir to Augustus' bloodline but not to the position of First Citizen, rather that would be Tiberius, he hoped he would be his stepfather's heir as First Citizen. When Augustus revealed that Germanicus was to be Tiberius' heir, Agrippa's scorn towards his maternal half-brother and now adoptive nephew increased. Agrippa's treatment of Romulus was so terrible that Tiberius, who at the time did not have the best relationship with Romulus, would come to the boy's defense. It all ended when Romulus was eight twelvemonths old. Armed with a great tree branch, Agrippa intended to kill Romulus. Tiberius responded by beating Agrippa within an inch of his life with is bare hands. Augustus abdicated Agrippa from the family and with that he was no longer Romulus' adoptive uncle. Romulus had never known the reason for Agrippa becoming even more scornful. To him, Agrippa had merely become worse with every passing twelvemonth.