I couldn't finish it today, but I'm sorry for changing it tomorrow morning.

——————

Nero

Marcus remembers that he was dead.

Thirty days after the tragic death of his grandfather, Rucius Anaeus Seneca, the Roman Emperor Nero, suspecting that the old man who had educated him for five years and had served him for ten years was involved in a conspiracy to overthrow his tyranny, sent his centurion to the village where Seneca and his family lived in seclusion, and ordered him to execute himself immediately. Marcus's grandfather accepted this command with ease, and as his relatives and friends wept for him, he shouted at his friend, saying, "What about your philosophy? ”

Unfortunately, Nero's centurion refused this request, so Ruzius cut his wrist first, but he was already a sixty-year-old man, and his blood was almost dry and could not flow, and his friend helped him to cut the blood vessels behind his knee and ankle, but the blood still flowed very slowly. Ruzius had to ask a doctor friend for a cup of poison hemlock juice, the kind that the sage Socrates used to choose to end his life, but it was not known whether it was luck or misfortune, he became extremely difficult to breathe, but he did not die, and finally they had to carry him to the steam room, close the doors and windows, and suffocate him to death.

The Emperor's centurion prevented Paulina from following Ruzius to her death, but it was not the Emperor's mercy, and his vicious heart and cowardly temperament doomed him not to let go of anyone who might be against him. After Ruzius's death, his children, relatives and friends were imprisoned and placed under surveillance, and Marcus, Ruzius's most beloved grandson, was one of the first to die.

He remembered that it was a young soldier who had come to be executed, his face was still childish, and when he saw him Marcus remembered his brother, he begged the soldier to let him see the sun outside, he had been imprisoned in the dark cellar for more than twenty days, the soldier hesitated for a moment and agreed, and the moment he walked out of the room, Marcus thought about resisting and escaping, but in the end he let the soldier cut his throat.

His last memory was the dazzling golden light in late summer and early autumn.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Marcus woke up on his grandfather's couch, he fell to the ground at once, knocked over the candlestick on one side and the marble statue on the table, and Triton, who was riding a dolphin, suddenly broke in half from his neck, this is one of Ruzius's favorite statues, if it was a normal time, Marcus would definitely go to his mother first and let her try to help him cover up, but at this time, all Marcus was thinking about was his grandfather Ruzius.

He stumbled to his grandfather's study and reception room, and along the way his pale countenance and feverish eyes made many people exclaim, and familiar faces kept passing in front of Marcus, but he couldn't find the one he longed for the most, and he stood for a moment at the marble table in the vestibule, then suddenly turned and ran towards the courtyard. He had woken up from the dining room behind the courtyard, but had neglected it because of the preconceived impression in his mind. He hurried into the wooded courtyard, bypassing the fountain in the center and a fruity pomegranate tree, to the south wall.

His grandfather, Ruzius, was there, bent over and supervising a craftsman painting on the walls, and instead of choosing the flowers, birds, still lifes or portraits that were commonly used at the time, Ruzius chose the scenery he had seen when he was exiled to Corsica, a vast ocean, with dolphins following ships, seabirds hovering over, and turquoise islands like jewels set in the sea.

Marcus remembers the fresco, but it was completed when Marcus was eighteen years old, 800 years after the founding of the city, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus's adoptive father, Emperor Claudius had been poisoned and died the year before, and as his titular eldest son, Nero succeeded him - Shortly after the fresco was completed, Claudius' son Britanicus was poisoned by Nero at a dinner party, because Nero's mother threatened her son that if he did not obey, she would make Brittany Emperor of Rome, perhaps it was just a woman's false threat, but for Nero, it was arguably the most vulnerable part of his heart, and his response was swift and ferocious.

Marcus was also present at the dinner, and he remembered that they had first drunk a very salty soup, so salty that one wondered if anyone was going to murder Nero, and inevitably, they asked for water afterwards, and the spring itself was very cold, and ice cubes were added, and they were nothing but feeling a little uncomfortable, except that Britanicus fell, and he pressed his throat in pain, and stretched out his hand to ask them for help, but the guards behind them immediately drew their daggers, and Marcus had to watch Brittanycus being carried away by several slaves, and the emperor declared that Brittanycus was guilty of epilepsyMarcus didn't know what kind of epilepsy looked like he had been poisoned - Britanicus died the next day.

"Marcus?" Luzius was surprised when he saw him, "Why are you here, why haven't you dressed yet?

Marcus then noticed that although Luzius was concerned about the progress of the courtyard frescoes, he was far away from the walls, so as not to contaminate his clothes with paint and dust, and he was wearing a fine linen kunica (a collarless pullover tune) and a Greek cloak, and his trimmed toga would not be changed until he went out, and the same was true of Marcus's white toga, but he was not even changing into a kunica now, but ** his upper body, with a piece of cotton wrapped around his waist, no wonder when he ran into the room just now, he heard bursts of screams from the women.

As soon as he heard the name of the emperor, or Nero, Marcus could not contain his anger, he clenched his fists, bowed his head, and said, "Sorry, grandfather, I will change it immediately." ”

It is impossible for Ruzius not to be aware of his grandson's abnormality, and when he went with Marcus to the Palatine Mountains, he sat him in a sedan chair with him, "What is the matter, my grandson," he asked, "why are you in a trance, and your expression is sad, what hurts you, and makes you so desperate?"

Marcus looked up, almost pouring out the words in his heart to his beloved grandfather, but the moment he opened his lips, a terrible thought seized him—his grandfather might have thought he was insane, so he simply said, "I had a nightmare." ”

"A nightmare?" Ruzius couldn't help frowning, if Marcus really encountered something that couldn't be solved, as the emperor's teacher, he could ask for his forgiveness in front of the emperor because of Marcus's absence, but a nightmare?

"What did you dream about?"

I dreamed of a bloodthirsty monster devouring all of Rome in a raging fire, and Marcus said in his heart, "I forgot." He said.

Ruzius hesitated for a moment, this was the first time Marcus had met the Emperor, the Emperor was the same age as Marcus, if possible, he wanted Marcus to be Nero's companion or bodyguard, the friendship forged by the young man was stronger and more reliable than the covenant made by the elders, he had to abandon it for nearly twenty years because of illness in his youth, and when his student became Emperor, he was already old, and Marcus was his heir compared to his dull son.

"If you're still not feeling well...... "You can go back first," but before he could say this, Marcus immediately interrupted his grandfather.

"No," he said, "grandfather, I would like to see the Emperor, I would like to see the Emperor!"

——————————————————————————————————————————

There are three palace complexes in Rome, the palace complex on Palatine Hill in the center of Rome, the Palace of Adrian in the east of Rome, and the Palace of Diocletian in Split, the old capital of Rome. Nero did not like any of them, because for him they were completely incommensurate with his greatness, and he had always wanted to expand the palace complex in the center of Rome, but he could not succeed because the civilian dwellings near the palace were too dense, and the great fire of Rome fourteen years later satisfied his vanity - after thousands of people left for the underworld and tens of thousands were displaced, he built his "Golden Palace" on a ruin Stretching from the Kerian Hills to the Augustinian Square, the Palatine to the Mizenath Gardens are full of bronze statues, fountains, artificial rivers, lakes, marble domes and gold inlays...... At that time, there were people who mocked how to be a good Roman citizen ?—— leave Rome.

Along the way, Marcus's mind is in a mess, what made him go back in time......? When almost everything could be redeemed, he held his grandfather's hand, his heart trembled, at this time, Nero had not yet revealed his tyrannical nature, on the surface, he was a gentle and a little cowardly big child, in order to show respect, such a banquet, Ruzius's couch was not far from the emperor's couch, he could have held a dagger that cut through the flesh, and stabbed Nero in the heart, then all the tragedies would not happen again.

The thought stirred his heart, and young Marcus was even a little dizzy, he did not know when they arrived at the palace of Tirbidius, this palace was not as beautiful as the other two, Nero rarely chose this place, at least Marcus was very strange to this place, he and his father washed their feet under the service of slaves, changed into comfortable robes, and went to the rectangular dining room, which the Romans called Trikrinium, and the other two guests arrived before them, they were Pallas (who also worked for Nero's adoptive father), and the chief of the guard, Sextus Bruce, and they were accompanied by several teenagers, similar in age to MarcusMarcus immediately recognized that several of them had later become Nero's playmates with him, and that they had studied together, swam together, rode horses together, wandered together in the dark of Rome, and ...... together Doing bad things, like theft, fighting, molesting women, at that time, they were so young and arrogant that they didn't even realize that they were sinning, no, it should be said, from that time Nero was smiling and watching them unconsciously degenerate. All this time had passed, and Marcus still remembered the sad and desperate look on his grandfather as he flipped through the dossier relating to him, a noble and poor old man who had not been able to get a good student or a good grandson.

The Empress Dowager Agrippina the Younger arrived before the Emperor, Marcus looked up, and it was rumored that Nero had killed her because her mother had interfered too much in state affairs, and that she had a relationship with Nero that was more intimate than mother and son, both of which were true, and if they were not related by blood, they would have been a match made in heaven.

Perhaps because Marcus had been watching her for so long, little Agrippina immediately noticed the boy, and instead of being dismayed, she winked gracefully at the boy. Even though he knew that little Agrippina was a colorful viper, Marcus had to admit that she did have a beauty that ordinary women could not match, and that this beauty would almost suffocate a healthy person to death - she was about to turn forty years old this year, and she was a rose in full bloom, all the colors and aromas had settled, making her smell like a glass of wine that had been stored for a long time.

Little Agrippina had only come to see the young men who were about to become friends of the Emperor, and she did not linger long in the dining room, and as she walked out, the chief of the guard, Sextus, followed after her, and Marcus saw it, and immediately made an excuse to follow him, and he saw the Queen Mother kissing her lover in front of a bush of roses, and then the breeze brought the scent of roses and the messy words at the same time—Marcus heard only two key words, the Emperor and Britanicus.

Brittany was Claudius' own son, the true emperor of Rome, but his inheritance was taken away when Agrippina the Younger tempted Claudius to adopt Nero as his adopted son, and even so, Agrippina the Younger and Nero still regarded Brittany as their most dangerous enemy, and after Brittany died, people were not surprised at all, wasn't this something that should have happened a long time ago?

Marcus's heart beat violently, could it be that Brittany's death was preceded by his rebirth, or was this the task given to him by the gods?

"By the way," Lucius suddenly leaned over and whispered in his grandson's ear, "When the emperor comes, don't say that he looks similar to the empress dowager." ”

Marcus nodded subconsciously, and then he looked at his grandfather strangely, what made him think so, Nero was the son of the beautiful little Agrippina, but he was a mediocre man of appearance, with a flat forehead, a short chin, a large nose, and rough skin, and it was precisely because of this that he often imagined that he was as handsome as Apollo and as charming as Venus, and thought that everyone longed for his favor.

"Why?" he asked in the same low voice.

Ruzius was reluctant to tell him at this time, but it was his negligence: "Because he did not like the face of little Agrippina." ”