Chapter 6

Servia Laeillia Severina, Roma, ante diem iv Nonas Decembres DCCCXLIX A.U.C. (December 2, 96 AD)

I was summoned to the atrium where I found father in somewhat nervous discussion with Earinus, the late emperor Domitian’s favorite eunuch. Father turned around when he saw me and clapped his hands together.

“Severina, you’re here. We have been summoned to the Domus Flavia.”

I followed father to the palace in a litter. Lucius was actually a childhood playmate, despite being two years my senior, but we had drifted apart once I reached the age where father no longer wanted me playing with boys. I had seen him little in the past two years, and since the death of his father we had only met each other at banquets and when I came to sacrifice before him. When I thought about it, I realized that sacrifices might have been the root of the problem. My stepmother, Attia, had adopted strange religious ideas of late and refused to sacrifice to any god, including the emperor.