#tertulla

ladies of the conspiracy

porcia and tertulla! I have some thoughts about their appearances in the scraps of the historical conspiracy that are visible (since it's like. the nature of conspiracy, even one as widely known and studied as the one leading up to the assassination of caesar, means that there's a gap in visibility with the details etc) that I'll have to try and pin down later, but for now, I think we should give them a dagger too

Brutus, the Noble Conspirator, Kathryn Tempest

Junia too, the niece of Cato, wife of Caius Cassius and sister of Marcus Brutus, died this year, the sixty-fourth after the battle of Philippi. Her will was the theme of much popular criticism, for, with her vast wealth, after having honourably mentioned almost every nobleman by name, she passed over the emperor. Tiberius took the omission graciously and did not forbid a panegyric before the Rostra with the other customary funeral honours. The busts of twenty most illustrious families were borne in the procession, with the names of Manlius, Quinctius, and others of equal rank. But Cassius and Brutus outshone them all, from the very fact that their likenesses were not to be seen.

Servillia:

He comes back home. His hands and toga are dripping with crimson red, but, when he looks at me, he looks as lost as the day we lost his father. And, for a moment, I do not think about what he has done, I do not think about whose blood is that, he's just my son and I am his mother.

I do not care that my stola gets dirty as I wrap my arms around him. His breath shakes as he holds onto me tightly, his body trembles and I fear that, if I could see his face, I would find tears running down his bony cheeks.

"I'm sorry." He whispers. And I know he is.

I am crying too. I thought I wouldn't, and yet I do. He's gone, they all are, men die while we're left to pick up their remains, to put back together what they broke. I do not weep for him, but for myself.

Porcia:

As I stroke your hair while you sleep I wonder if you know that I was there too. I was there as you plunged your knife into his heart, as you reclaimed our freedom in the only way you could, as you avenged my father, I was there. I will always be.

I do not care if we have to keep on fighting, Ido not care if someone else's blood has to be spilled over the curia's floor. You and I will free Rome from tyranny, we will keep the Republic safe and make our ancestors proud because of it. The mask of Brutus will smile from the atrium as he sees the man you have become, my love.

Fulvia:

I see him pacing like a caged panther. Walking from one side of the room to the other with his head down, lost in his own mind, not even aware that I have entered the room.

"Marcus" I say, trying to bring some sense into him. When he stops and turns to look at me, his dark eyes sparkle with pure rage and unshed tears.

He isn't thinking. I know him and he wants to fight, he is not Clodius and he is not Caesar, but he needs to do something; and he is listening to me. He always does.

I do not show him my fear, I do not show him my doubts, those can be locked away in my heart until I find myself alone. Right now, he needs me and, after all, it is not the first time that a public funeral has helped me save my family.

Calpurnia:

I warned you, but, as always, you did not listen. Like Cassandra, I was dismissed, only to be proven right when it was already too late.

I told you, but who am I to give you orders? It was much better to follow the advice of other men, even when they are your own murderers.

I dreamt again, but you weren't at my side when I woke up, you will never again lie next to me, instead you will burn and I will mourn, and it feels so unfair that I have to suffer now, when I knew that all of this could be avoided.

I will cry, and you will still not hear me.

Tertulla and Cassius:

It's done. Neither of them can believe it at first, but as he crosses the atrium, she runs into his arms, unbothered by the stains on his clothes. The screams and conmotion can still be heard from inside the house, but all she cares about is that he's back, that he's alive and that they did it.

"You killed him." She mumbles against his chest.

His bloody hand gently caresses her hair. The trembling of his body does not go away, but his heart has started to slow down a little.

"We did, mea Tertulla." He replies before kissing the top of her head.

Illustration von Sigrid Witzig zum Märchen "der Riesenwald" aus "Deutsche Kinder- und Hausmärchen", herausgegeben von Karl Rauch. Das Märchen erschien zuerst 1801 anonym in der braunschweiger Sammlung "Feenmärchen". Es bearbeitet Marie Catherine d'Aulnoys Kunstmärchen "l'oranger et l'abeille" (der Orangenbaum und die Biene), das auch mit dem Grimmschen "der liebste Roland" verwand ist. In dieser Geschichte will die Prinzessin Aurora mit ihrem geliebten Friedrich vor ihrer Pflegemutter, der Riesin Tertulla, und ihrer menschenfressenden Söhne fliehen.

(1) Crassus’ wife may be mentioned by name only in the list of Caesar’s married lovers (Suet. Jul. 50).

“That he was unbridled and extravagant in his intrigues is the general opinion, and that he seduced many illustrious women, among them Postumia, wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla, wife of Marcus Crassus, and even Gnaeus Pompey's wife Mucia. […] During the civil war, too, besides other presents, he knocked down some fine estates to [Servilia] in a public auction at a nominal price, and when some expressed their surprise at the low figure, Cicero wittily remarked: "It's a better bargain than you think, for there is a third off."​ And in fact it was thought that Servilia was prostituting her own daughter Tertia to Caesar."

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html

(2) Two Tertullae in one paragraph! Three, actually, if we count Mucia Tertia right next to Crassus’ wife (I hope they fucked). Why a cute little nickname for Crassus’ wife when everyone else on the same list is mentioned by nomen?

(3) An oddly similar paragraph with an oddly similar list of the younger Caesar’s (Octavian’s) lovers also appears in Suetonius (Aug. 69). It also includes a TERTULLA. The list originates from Antony.

“That he was given to adultery not even his friends deny, although it is true that they excuse it as committed not from passion but from policy, the more readily to get track of his adversaries' designs through the women of their households. […] Antony also writes to Augustus himself in the following familiar terms, when he had not yet wholly broken with him privately or publicly: "What has made such a change in you? Because I lie with the queen? She is my wife. Am I just beginning this, or was it nine years ago? What then of you — do you lie only with Drusilla? Good luck to you if when you read this letter you have not been with Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia, or all of them.”

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html

(4) Now, this Tertulla is thought to be Cassius’ widow - who was definitely referred to as Tertulla, a nickname made famous at the very least by Cicero’s letters. Antony uses diminutives for most ladies on the list (Terentilla, Rufilla), warranted by his general jocular tone, so “Tertulla” is not out of place here as she is in the first list.

(5) There is at least one instance of “Crassus” likely turning into “Cassius” by means of textual corruption. Haunted? Yes. [The instance I mean is Cicero’s letter featuring “Cassius’ sister Licinia” – who actually is likely to be Crassus’ granddaughter, sister of the consul 30 bce.]

(6) So according to Suetonius, two consecutive Caesars each allegedly slept with a Tertulla, whose husbands’ names just happen to be similar.

(7) This makes me suspect that Tertulla turned from “wife of Cassius” into “wife of Crassus” in one of Suetonius’ sources, and so he noted her down in the Life of Julius with Mucia, Postumia, and Lollia – not realizing this is the same Tertia whom he talks about later in the same paragraph.

tfw you get the praetorship your boyfriend brother in law is more qualified for and now he won't talk to you and also your sister thinks your suffering is funny as hell