Chrono Voyage

Chapter 17: Julius Caesar

     “What are you doing?” asked Benjamin, all this time he knew not to alter history but in fact revert it to its original state, and now Elizabeth is doing just that, altering history on the most critical levels, I mean saving a cat from drowning in the past or future is fine, but giving an empire the ultimate weapon for world domination is another thing, how dare she?

     “I’ve got a plan, trust me mate,” she looked at him. “With this Caesar and Cleopatra can conquer the world,” she looked at the soldiers, she handed the parchment to the general as he inspected it along with the soldiers, there were a tad bit confused what with Da Vinci using a bit of Italian, Latin, and French to write the blueprints, but the effort to read the bloody thing is all that mattered. “Your friend needs help quickly, takes us to your city, take us to Rome…” The soldiers were hesitant at first but seeing as one of their fellow comrades was on the ground suffering softened their hearts and lowered their guard, after all the strangers did a good job keeping him alive so far considering the injuries. The trip to Rome was rather short since they wouldn’t send scouts if it was way too far or if they were in a war. The gates of Rome were tall and intimidating made of white stone, the city was buzzing with all kinds of chatter by the peasants and the philosophers wearing nothing but draped togas in different colors. Benjamin looked to one corner of his vision than to the other, and then he turned behind him, he kept turning and turning hoping to see something but to his disappointment he saw nothing. And rightfully so… there was nothing to be seen, the Rome he knew with the Pantheon and the Colosseum won’t be yet for another hundred and twenty years. There was nothing but houses he saw the ‘insulae,’ the house of the poor that stretched a couple of floors. They were made of hardened mud, some wood, maybe concrete from time to time, and a hint of a lucky charm so that it wouldn’t cave in. Then on the other side of the spectrum were the ‘villa urbana,’ now this was a house. Featuring its own garden, fully-fledged atrium and a pool, a shrine, reception room, dining room, bedroom, because why would you eat where you sleep and greet guests? I mean come on, they are not savages. The walls were beautifully decorated with drawings, the halls and the atrium decorated with plants. These villas were of course owned by the higher society, you would know them by their stance and their silky togas instead of dirty cloth. But no, Julius Caesar had to do one better, he had to be better than the others, and thus ‘Curia Julia,’ also known as the Senate House, also known as the place where you are likely to find the Emperor of almost the entire world. The soldiers walked inside the Senate House which was a single square hall with seats on both sides of the hall where the important people to the Emperor sat, Caesar himself of course was sitting at the end of the hall on his chair with two Roman soldiers on each side making sure nothing happens to him. The floor was made of colorful tiles and the walls were decorated with frescoes and arched windows, the doors were also decorated with carved collumns and painted brown, and lastly, the roof was made out of wood carved into tiles and aligned next to each other forming a grid. The soldiers stood in front of the Emperor as he just watched, everybody watched including the nobles the hall was quiet apart from the random clanking of the Roman armor from time to time. All of a sudden the soldiers moved apart and made way for their general as he walked up and kneeled in front of Caesar.

     “Hos extra urbem, mi imperator, invenimus. Adiuvisti nostri sunt miles,” the general pointed towards the wounded Roman soldiers who were shriveling from pain, instead of getting him help right away, he first had to be brought to the Emperor, maybe to evaluate whether his life was worth saving or if it would be a waste of medicine. Caesar turned his head toward the soldier and clapped his hands as two Roman soldiers came into the hall picked up the soldier and carried him away.

     “What’s going to happen to him?” Benjamin looked at Elizabeth.

     “Quiet…” she warned.

     “Peregrini isti sunt de terra longinqua, sibi ferunt munera vobis domino meo,” the general turned his back on the Emperor and looked at Elizabeth and Benjamin, who stood frozen having no idea what he said and why everybody looked at them. Caesar looked at them for a while clapping his hands and making a gesture to come to him. The pair still stood still scared to their bones until a soldier pushed them forward, they moved closer and close to Julius Caesar himself, until the general straightened his arm toward them with his flat palm indicating them to stop. Caesar leaned on his chair to get a better look at them and indeed he could tell that wherever they were from it wasn’t Rome nor anywhere he’s conquered for that matter, not that he had any kind of psychic power or a gift to tell whether they are from far away, but simply their clothes weren’t toga, they were something else whatever they were.

     “Donum!!!” he yelled as he slumped against the back of the chair, the hall was silent for a while, Benjamin became more anxious everybody looked at them, this was it, this is where they get killed, there was no way out of this.

     “Oh… right,” remembered Elizabeth as she turned on the translating machine and looked a Caesar. “Emperor we bring you a gift!” spoke the machine. The entire senate lost its mind the once silent hall was anything but silent, the nobles jumped from their seats Julius too everybody running for his life, the soldiers pointed their spears at Elizabeth and Benjamin. I mean aqueducts, concrete, sewers, and water pressure were one thing but a talking box? All they could imagine was all of the different ways it could harm them.

     “Silence!!!” Julius ordered as the entire hall echoed by his voice. The hearts of the nobles were racing, they couldn’t catch their breath as they chattered amongst each other what that devilish box could be, none of them dared sit anywhere near close to the machine as they were spectating from the distance.

     “Now… I have this for you,” said Elizabeth, as the senate jumped again as the machine spoke.

     “Silence!!!” he had to yell again, he clapped his hands and gestured for Elizabeth to walk close to him, she did so and handed him the piece of parchment that had the plans for the golden armor, he looked at the plans but he couldn’t understand much, the only thing he could tell was that it was indeed an armor that was very different to his and his soldiers, now for a man like Julius a great general like him a light bulb flickered inside him. He moved on the chair to be more comfortable, he threw a glance at Elizabeth and Benjamin and looked down at the plans again, he could tell that he was holding the world in his hands, he felt as if immortality was in his grasp, with this… he clenched his fist, with this everybody would fall to his knees, with this he would conquer every corner of the world not just the region of Gaul, he called the soldier that stood next to him and whispered something in his ear, the soldier nodded and left the room. He waited all of them waited, Julius starred at the two of them making them uncomfortable, Benjamin smiled at him, not knowing how to react. The soldier returned and with him a group of people that chatted amongst each other: Roman Engineers there was no brighter mind at the time. Caesar handed them the plans as they formed a circle and looked at the plans, they spoke amongst each other for a while and one of them turned towards Caesar. “Genius eius!” said the engineer, as Caesar’s excitement shot through the roof, but he could contain it really well as he just nodded at the engineer, he looked at the two strangers as he stood up from the chair and walked away before he turned back and said: “Follow me!” to Benjamin and Elizabeth who stood still.

     “Do we… Do we go after him?” asked Elizabeth.

     “I think… he wants us to go with him?” Benjamin not quite certain, took a step shyly seeing as nobody reacted dramatically they took another step as Caesar walked outside the two of them followed him.