Belsia Valeriana, the misfit in the House of Iulii

After various attempts I have finally managed to sketch this character in a way that my wife approves of!

Belsia Valeriana, the misfit in the House of Iulii, has had a curious fate in the development of the #Romanike series. We had introduced her as a minor detraction in the first few chapters of "Codebook of the Cosmos" that was meant to be quickly disposed of near the end. But she would not tolerate that: Valeriana is such a versatile and powerful character that, once she was there, it was impossible to get plausibly rid of her and she usurped much of the plot, challenging even the assassin on the heels of our young hero Iulius Adrianus. Then, when we translated the first three volumes of the "Romanike" series into English, I realised that she would already have been around during the time of this story. I made a note that a phrase ought to be added at some place which introduced her in passing as the two-year-old little girl she was then. But again, Valeriana did not accept to be pushed aside like that. Whenever my wife was bored with merely translating what was already written, up pops the little one on the scene to create mischief! At the end of the day, Valeriana had become the only character who features prominently in all six volumes of the series and some readers consider her the actual heroine of the tale.

So, when we first meet her, she is a very poor little girl from the neighbourhood that trespasses the property of the House of Iulii at will - with the assent of Castilla, the lady of the house, but irritating her husband Restitutus who would literally trip over her when he least expects it - and slow by slow develops the ambition to become another resident of the noble house to which she is coming and going. In the subsequent volumes her fate is traced to adulthood: Valeriana grows to become a talented but cunning minx who would use every scheme conceivable to defend her endangered place up the social ladder which she has arranged for herself. Our hero Adrianus does not call her the Vixen for nothing - though never in her presence, fearing for the integrity of his nose.

Indeed, Valeriana is noted at times for her eyes that vaguely resemble those of a sly fox. Otherwise she was born with a few girlish freckles on her nose and strong brown curls that are difficult to trim into shape: most often she lets them wildly flow though she likes to constrain them with diadems - expensive ones, ideally. Her trademark, in a way, is a blue and white silk scarf that she has received from Castilla. Over the years she grows to become a markedly tall and deveicingly innocent-looking young lady, a natural advantage that she exploits without restrictions. Valeriana is very popular with the private house teachers who acknowledge her intellectual skills but much less so with Adrianus' mother who is aware that the relationship between her son and the misfit is determined by a sexual attraction she very much disapproves of. She poses the most imminent threat to Valeriana's place and position in the house of Iulii and when Castilla dies, Valeriana is left without her only and much needed guardian.

The House of Balbilli and the last Kings of Commagene

 

For the purposes of our series of historical novels, "Romanike", we have recreated the family tree of the House of Balbilli, a notorious clan in Imperial Rome whose history has never been fully written yet. Some of its more prominent members may need a few comments:

• Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus was a trusted friend of emperor Tiberius who met him first during his self-imposed exile on Rhodes. Thrasyllus was a dubious court astrologer but also a respectable philosopher who edited the works of Democritus and those of Plato, arranging the latter into the still familiar sets of four volumes.
• Claudius Balbillus, his son, was court astrologer of the emperors Claudius and Nero. His career included the head office of the Library of Alexandria and the prefecture of Egypt. The city of Ephesus - followed by Smyrna and Pergamon - installed the Balbilleian Games in his honour; the last games ever to be named for an individual person.
• Ennia Thrasylla, grand-daughter of Thrasyllus, was wife of the Praetorian Prefect Macro and mistress of Caligula. At one point, Caligula promised her marriage. If he had not withdrawn that promise, the Balbilli would have advanced into the Iulio-Claudian house of emperors.
• Antiochos IV was another associate of Caligula but suffered from the emperor's impredictability. Claudius restored his throne but Vespasian ultimately removed him and annexed his realm to the province of Syria. Commagene would never be a sovereign kingdom again.
• Iulia Capitolina, daughter of Balbillus, was the first member known to claim royal descent through the kings of Commagene.
• Prince Philopappus is chiefly known from the Philopappus-Monument in Athens, a major tourist attraction up to this day, on which he prides himself of royal blood through the kings of Commagene. It has been suggested by researchers that Iulia Balbilla may have financed the monument that commemorates his somewhat premature death.
• Princess Iulia Balbilla (also of royal blood, according to her self-description) was an associate of Hadrian's empress, Sabina, and with their entourage in Egypt. Common consensus among historians makes her Capitolina's daughter and Philopappus' sister, assuming that Capitolina was married to king Epiphanes before she wed Iunius Rufus. This assumption is entirely unfounded; worse, Epiphanes seems to be too old to be her father. We have moved her one generation forward, therefore, and made her Philopappus' daughter which deemed us more plausible. In our "Romanike" series, her desire to reclaim the power of her ancestors Thrasyllus and Balbillus is the prime motivation of the political crisis arising.
• Avidius Cassius is of course the hero of the Parthian war in the age of emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus who, somewhat unintentionally, would become a short-lived usurper of the Imperial Purple. In our "Romanike" series it is indicated that the Balbilli had a part in this.
• The two Iulii Balbilli appear as high priests of the Severan dynasty. It is not known whether they were actually related to Claudius Balbillus, but the fact that this rare cognomen was still prominent at the Imperial Court is striking, particularly considering the close relations of the Severan dynasty to Syria (and Commagene). For narrative purposes we have assumed that Balbillus Aquila was a nephew of Princess Balbilla.

Chaeremon of Apamia

Chaeremon is the first priest of the dragon goddess who enters the stage in the initial volume of the "Romanike" series. He calls himself the Herald of the Lady of All and second in the hierarchy of his order. Close to nothing is known about him before he pops up in the provincial capital of Pannonia to establish his fledgling cult. He claims to come from a place named Apamia, far in the east of the world: there were several cities of this name, but whether any of them is really his home is unknown.

It is not evident, either, whether he has Roman citizenship, for he is never referred to with a triple name (like, say, Caius Iulius Caesar) nor is he ever seen wearing the traditional dress of the citizen, the toga. Chaeremon prefers effeminate long robes under which he is able to hide his hands or other objects, and in violation of Roman customs he displays a black coloured beard in the fashion of eastern barbarians. Like all the other disciples of the Lady of All, he is marked by a heavy jewelled collar which he often pairs with a diadem from which a dragon's head protrudes or with a high pointed hat and a staff. 

Chaeremon is an extremely dominating and impressive character, exceeding paternal authority over strangers or subjects and leaving no one unaffected who meets him. In his religious order he serves as astrologer, and for some reason he is capable of calculating any person's horoscope at the speed of the wind, a procedure that takes other men of his profession considerable time, especially with the clumsy numerical system of the ancient Greeks given. He also has significant scientific and technological knowledge by which he contributes to the designs of his cult. In public he is usually accompanied by four Marcomannic bodyguards, two men and two women, who are as loyal to him as they are ruthless to others.  

C. Iulius Restitutus

Caius Iulius Restitutus, priest and councilman in Aquae Mattiacorum, is the last living descendant of a house of aristocrats who had received Roman citizenship by Iulius Caesar himself, as family history claims. At the age of 52, he has spent much of his life presiding over his small parish of devoted followers and fighting sleep during council meetings. Having stayed without heir, he is also without perspective for the future of his house and prefers to seclude himself in his waiting for the herald of death despite the occasional kick by his more sociable wife, Lucania Castilla. His heart is kindled by looking into the stars, however. Restitutus has a large collection of astronomical books and instruments and enjoys giving lectures to others, whether they would listen or not. Unfortunately, his lack of ambition has earned him reputation as a good citizen of Rome, attracting the attention of men of power who one day decide he is their ideal puppet in pursuing their political aims.  

Restitutus is an inconspicuous man of medium size with greying hair and increasing presbyopia, so that he prefers to request the services of a slave to read to him aloud. Though fully Romanised, he is still fluently speaking the language of his ancestors from the Mattiaci tribe. He treats his slaves with distance rather than harshness and feels that his household does not quite pay him the respect that his position as pater familias demanded, but he is lacking the energy to change anything about it. His profound dislike of children is persistently ignored by little Belsia Valeriana from the neighbourhood who trespasses his property at will, sometimes so that he trips over her.

C. Iulius Restitutus is an historical character. According to an inscription kept in the museum of Wiesbaden, he has been curator of a temple dedicated to Sirona, a Celtic deity equated with Diana, goddess of the Moon.

Caesernii Charis

Introducing one of the main characters:

Caesernii Charis

is a teenage slave-girl born into a rich house near the borders of Italy and Pannonia in the Roman Empire. Her first sixteen years she has spent fairly decently - for a servant in the Roman Empire - because her master had educated her beyond her needs at work, in spite of his sister who considers teaching slaves to think an expression of useless sentimentality. Charis has been trained as a cook and actually commanded her master's kitchen until the day he was slain with all his trading convoy, allegedly by a host of barbarian criminals. Her master's uncompromising sister, married to a veteran from the war against the Jewish rebel Simon bar-Kochba, has inherited her and fled the environment where the murder had happened. Degraded to the level of a kitchen drudge and misplaced into the far reaches of the Empire, Charis dreams of returning to her far-away home town and contrives to run away from her new masters. During one such attempt, she gets enmeshed in the plot to establish a new deity in the Roman Empire: a fundamentalist cult from the Middle East that does not hesitate to spread terror and death when challenged.

Charis has a swarthy, southern-European complexion, black hair and is grown quite small, which tempts strangers at times to underestimate her age. Her looks are plain which may contribute to the fact that she has (so far) not suffered abuse in her household. From Apollodorus, the tutor of her house, she has received basic education that is not matched by practical experience; she has a mind of her own, however, which her master's sister does not approve of. Charis is afraid of dogs and of barbarian men but inclines to answer people, even those of higher rank, with blunt impudence before she has time to think about it. She considers herself smarter than she actually is, which causes her designs intended to avert trouble to backfire more often than not.