amici probantur rebus adversis

Caeso carries himself tall, with an air of command that comes from serving as a centurion for many years, then as primus pilus, the highest rank achievable to a man of low social status at this time. His voice is deep and pleasant and he's well-spoken. His main distinguishing feature is a long, thin scar that runs under both eyes and across his extremely aquiline nose.

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Caeso was born into obscurity, an ordinary plebeian in a family of ancient name but no ancient line. At the age of 16, he joined the army, a few years before the start of the bloody Social War to between Rome and her Italian allies. He served under the command of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, and one of his junior officers Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Sulla was a successful and compelling leader, and commanded the devotion of his troops.

Towards the end of the war, civil strife and violence broke out in Rome over the assignment of duties to senior magistrates. Sulla, offended by the loss of his promised command in Asia and denouncing the strife and damage to Rome's political system, decided to invade Rome itself with his legions.

This was an unprecedented act and Lucullus was the only officer willing to take part. Caeso, compelled by his adoration for Sulla, willingly participated in the invasion. He believed Sulla would fulfill his promises to protect and restore the Roman republic.

His faith was misplaced.

Caeso went east with Sulla and Lucullus and fought in the First Mithridatic War. After the successful settlement of the war, Lucullus (and Caeso) remained in the east and Sulla marched on Rome again and started a civil war. Caeso avoided the worst of the civil war, serving under Lucullus in the east, where he earned promotion to centurion. However, his legion was sent to Spain to fight a rebellion by Sulla's enemies. The campaigning was bloody and unsuccessful, and worst of all against Caeso's fellow Romans.

After his return from Spain, Caeso accompanied Lucullus on his next campaigns, eventually earning the rank of primus pilus, the senior centurion in Lucullus' Legio Prima Italica. But trouble of a more personal nature broke out in Rome. One of Lucullus' friends was murdered, and his eldest daughter forced to marry her father's killer. Lucullus wanted to see his friend's younger daughter brought safely out of Rome, and entrusted Caeso to bring her to him in Greece.

Lucullus' new ward turned out to be something of a prodigy, and she saved most of a legion and its commander from an ambush. One of the casualties was promising young officer Gaius Julius Caesar. Lucullus rewarded his ward with a promotion to legatus, or commander, of Legio Victrix, and the legatus appointed Caeso to her praetorian guard, or bodyguard. Caeso served her loyally, acting not only as head of her praetorian guard, but also as a military advisor and strategist as they put down a rebellion in Rome's provinces incited by the Greek king Mithridates. Caeso's loyalty and devotion to the legatus grew as he spent more time with her, admiring her principles, her abilities, and her sense of justice.

It took years - long after Mithridates was defeated - for him to admit to himself he was in love with her. It took even longer for him to admit it to her.

In the meantime, in an ill-judged one night stand he had fathered a child with another man's slave. Devastated at the potential consequences of his actions for a powerless woman and an innocent child, he was determined to do what he could to protect his daughter and her mother, Lucia, but he couldn't afford the asking price. He eventually had to turn to the legatus for help getting them freed.

Caeso followed the legatus as she undertook a remarkable military career that echoed that which might have been taken by Caesar had he not died in Greece. But like Caesar, they had powerful enemies, determined to force her into destroying herself. Some of the praetorians thought the only answer was to cross the Rubicon river with Legio Victrix and march on Rome itself.

That would be the one thing that Caeso couldn't do for his commander.

🌕 default worldstate: m/f romance with the legatus, cincinnatus ending 🌕 happy to play any other worldstate 🌕 code: 10billionghosts 🌕 banner photo: andnowimhere