The way you draw lines from Cassius to Brutus, Trebonius, Messalla, even Antony, has me like that Silvia Pepe gif (I am enjoying it immensely).

tbh, I’m not really drawing any new lines that didn’t already exist/haven’t already been written about by other people, but it’s a lot of fun to see where the threads connect and to make comics speculating about whatever was left unsaid. on the other hand, my brain does feel like soup keeping track of who knows who. shoutout to people who write articles and books diving into how everyone knew each other, you’re the real champions of the historical fiction crowd

like, what was up with Brutus and Gaius Antonius! every now and then Servilia appears when I least expect to see her and I have to readjust the scope of what I was imagining. conspiracies and economics are mentioned and Crassus’ name shows up and it’s a real ‘I’ve been here the whole time!’ moment. the Herodian dynasty is here as well. do you ever think about the Herodian dynasty, because every day I think about how Herod Agrippa knew Caligula, and now I have to remember to keep Gemellus in the back of my thoughts.

Could we get more thoughts on the possessiveness of your version of Pompey please?

a lot of it has to do with wanting everything sulla had and more, and crassus is at that very fun intersection of something sulla had and more. so naturally. he wants crassus in every way sulla had him, and in every way sulla did not. and he'll never get crassus coming to him (like crassus went to sulla) but he can get something else that is more valuable on this stage of politics: a partner.

crassus' own attitude is complementary to pompey's, since he decided to be co consul's with pompey! more than once! in a way, crassus bet his life on pompey. wow.

I love the way their rivalry and antagonism binds them together ngl

Julius II: The Warrior Pope, Christine Shaw

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this

but it’s Pompey, Crassus, and the ghost of Sulla

incredible phrasing, fascinating subtextual implications happening here

incredible phrasing, fascinating subtextual implications happening here

most likely it was Publius that prompted Crassus’ doomed expedition, but this whole ‘seduction by gold’ thing involving Lucullus is too sexy not to explore on it’s own narrative and thematic merits

in a way, it was lucullus who was pouring gold down crassus’ throat

Plutarch, Lucullus (trans. Scott-Kilvert & Pelling)

in a way, it was lucullus who was pouring gold down crassus’ throat

in a way, it was lucullus who was pouring gold down crassus’ throat

thinking…..about Hannibal……..

Hannibal, Patrick N. Hunt

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I love posting things and then realizing after I made several spelling mistakes. anyway! some more ladies of the modern au

now that i have seen modern au fulvia i can die peacefully. keep doing gods work. thank you <3

🫡 just doing my part, also can I interest you in modern AU Julia and Servilia

now that i have seen modern au fulvia i can die peacefully. keep doing gods work. thank you <3

🫡 just doing my part, also can I interest you in modern AU Julia and Servilia

I’ve mostly posted the parts of the modern AU that are filled with whimsy because the internet is in shambles but rest assured, the directors cut in my head has a hard MA rating

ok the Fulvia comic was supposed to be the last modern AU post for the time being, but this is like. the One AU I have where Crassus doesn’t die, so Octavius (the legate) got bumped up to secondary main character status so that Crassus’ exit from the narrative could still pack a similar punch. this scene is sometime after the Bona Dea scandal, probably

this is Octavius!

But when they mutinied and clashed their targets in a threatening manner, [Crassus] was overpowered and forced to go, and only turning about at parting, said, “You, Octavius and Petronius, and the rest of the officers who are present, see the necessity of going which I lie under, and cannot but be sensible of the indignities and violence offered to me. Tell all men when you have escaped, that Crassus perished rather by the subtlety of his enemies, than by the disobedience of his countrymen.” 

Octavius, however, would not stay there, but with Petronius went down from the hill; as for the lictors, Crassus bade them be gone.

Plutarch, Crassus

and Pompey is right btw but he didn’t have to come out and say it 😔

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public library save me

Fulvia: —this kind of thing will probably end Caesar’s marriage, are you cool with that

Crassus: You know that one up and coming politician who hates Pompey’s guts? Caesar’s been having an affair with (Brutus’) mom for years, it’s fine.

everyone has a lot of thoughts on why Crassus would turn down a wedding invitation from his long time business partner, but what really matters is that this is the set up for the modern au bona dea scandal babyyyyy

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Oh my god would you elaborate on the parallels you see between Octavian and Caligula?

ABSOLUTELY

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. Mark Antony charged him, besides his hasty marriage with Livia, with taking the wife of an ex-consul from her husband's dining-room before his very eyes into a bed-chamber, and bringing her back to the table with her hair in disorder and her ears glowing; that Scribonia was divorced because she expressed her resentment too freely at the excessive influence of a rival; that his friends acted as his panders, and stripped and inspected matrons and well-grown girls, as if Toranius the slave-dealer were putting them up for sale. 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. Does it matter where or with whom you take your pleasure?"

Suetonius, Augustus

He respected neither his own chastity nor that of anyone else. He is said to have had unnatural relations with Marcus Lepidus, the pantomimic actor Mnester, and certain hostages. Valerius Catullus, a young man of a consular family, publicly proclaimed that he had violated the emperor and worn himself out in commerce with him. To say nothing of his incest with his sisters and his notorious passion for the concubine Pyrallis, there was scarcely any woman of rank whom he did not approach. These as a rule he invited to dinner with their husbands, and as they passed by the foot of his couch, he would inspect them critically and deliberately, as if buying slaves, even putting out his hand and lifting up the face of anyone who looked down in modesty; then as often as the fancy took him he would leave the room, sending for the one who pleased him best, and returning soon afterward with evident signs of what had occurred, he would openly commend or criticise his partner, recounting her charms or defects and commenting on her conduct. To some he personally sent a bill of divorce in the name of their absent husbands, and had it entered in the public records.

Suetonius, Caligula

it runs in the family!

how would you feel about your art being used in designs for personal embroidery projects/practice? just curious, it's totally okay if you wouldn't want that!

as long as it's just for private/personal use & enjoyment, that's totally fine with me! have fun!