Chapter 10

Less than a half year later, Augustus died. As he lay on his death bed, the Senate came to pay their last respects. "If you feel that I have done a good job, please applaud," he stated. Without exception everyone clapped their hands. He then died. After the Senators left, Tiberius hurried in having heard the news while hunting.

"Is it true?" he asked his mother, staring at the Emperor's body.

"You can see for yourself," Livia said.

"The earth will shake," he stated, not knowing if he were up to the work or not.

Augustus' funeral was a great affair. All the important people from Rome were there in their best robes. Penelope wore a pure white one with the wreath awarded to her for her killing of Groat. It would be only one of the few times she'd wear this crown of honor. She did it for Augustus, not for herself. Her stomach had expanded to where she was showing that she was with child.

The orations were long but she sat with Livia because of her condition. Then the pyre was lit and the body was burned. Penelope noticed that Livia hadn't shed a tear while she couldn't hold them back. Maximus had given her a clean cloth so she could dry her eyes.

A few days later, Tiberius set a precedent as he sat in Augustus' chair in the Senate. He was asked if he would accept the role as the new Emperor. He declined. After some debate, he was asked a second time and he accepted. He claimed, like Augustus, that no celebration be given to his ascent to power. That the Empire should still mourn for his predecessor to last another sixty days with the games in the arena to be on the sixty- first day in honor of the late Emperor. From then on, the candidate for Emperor of Rome would initially decline the first time but then accept the second offer.

As feared by Penelope, Sejanus was given the power to root out all sedition against the new Emperor. This began gradually and kept up growing in momentum until most of the nobles were afraid to leave their houses. Sejanus was given de facto power to arrest and convict all those known to even hint of being a traitor.

Maximus, Penelope, Agrippa, his father's family and hers were spared due to what she had done to Groat. Tiberius grew suspicious of his own Praetorian Guard and had many replaced by loyal Germans. Those who were cut loose from the Guard were sent to the Legions throughout the Empire. The mix of Romans and Germans guarding the Emperor began to show tension on both sides of Guard. It was a tinder box ready to explode with fire but for now, there was a strain between them.

Livia was given a home in Ostia and ordered by her son never to come back to Rome unless by his permission. She fumed as she was escorted from the palace grounds and taken to a house that was not as lavish and only having three slaves. Penelope had four.

Tiberius' wife Julia had died in exile after being accused and convicted by her father for sleeping with half of the noblemen in Rome. He was free but his first wife had died also.

He became a very embittered man.

"I'm sorry about not giving you another son but she is so beautiful," Penelope said, holding her new daughter Attia.

"I'm afraid that you and me are going to spoil her," Maximus said, watching the tiny girl sucking on her mother's tit. "She's going to be beautiful."

"When can I hold her," Agrippa asked.

"When I feel you're old enough," his mother stated. He looked up at his baby sister as she continued feeding. He was fascinated by his mother and his sister.

"When are we going to work on another?" Maximus grinned.

"No more," Penelope complained. "Two is enough. You use some protection when you put that muscle into me next time."

"When will that be?"

"When I say so," Penelope grumped. The last thing she wanted to have at that moment was sex with her husband. As far as she was concerned he could visit that Jewish whore he liked so much. She had heard that this particular prostitute were for noblemen only and only a select few such as Maximus.

After Attia's feeding, she turned the girl over to Isa and prepared for her nap. She wished to start practicing with her sword play as soon as possible. She lay on her side to sleep.

Penelope was too used to having a child in her as she put a pillow under her stomach anyway. It would take a few weeks to be sleeping like a normal person again.

Penelope was practicing her swordplay on the wooden dummies while Attia slept in the shade of the yard and Agrippa sat by his baby sister eating grapes. It was nice to get back into shape again. It didn't take her long to get her energy to return. She always found this to be fun. The bath afterwards would soothe the tired muscles as the hot water soaked into her skin. When Maximus was in the house, she practiced on him. He often complained that she attacked him too visciously then she'd jokingly remark something about his manhood which made him angrier. On those days, she would make it up to him in bed.

Now that the small depression she had after giving birth was over, she was her old lively sex addict again. Sometimes he'd complain that his sex was sore from going all night with her. She even gave thought to having one more child. She was thirty now and time was running out.

In the meantime, Sejanus' reign of terror continued. Any hint of being a traitor to the Emperor Tiberius brought serious consequences to that person. Even women were not exempt. Often he had whole families imprisoned, their estates confiscated to Tiberius, and left to slowly die in the dark damp dungeons. There were some he wanted to go after but Tiberius wouldn't give his permission to some he considered to be friends or heroes of the Empire. Penelope being one of them. Sejanus recalled how she snubbed him in her house pretending to feign illness once he arrived. He hated the woman but the killing of Groat made her off limits. He also thought of raping her over and over before having her killed. This would bring her down a peg or two his imagination would run wild over his lust for her.

One afternoon Maximus took his son to the market to buy him a pony. Attia was asleep in her bed. The girl was a year and a half old. Penelope was about to lay down for her nap when she heard a commotion from her bedroom. She ran out to see a hooded man had slain one of her slaves. He spotted her and took off his covering.

"You're the one I'm looking for," the bearded muscular man growled.

"Who are you and why did you kill my slave?" Penelope felt her heart racing.

"A friend of Arminius, you are the one who killed Groat."

Penelope watched the man step toward her. She reached for a sword and gripped it tightly. The German's blade was over five feet long. Hers was the customary Roman sword with only a twenty inch blade. The German's was sharp on only one side while hers was on both.

"Outside," she commanded. "I don't want your blood spilled in the house." The man laughed at her heartily. He thought of her as a fool.

"It will be your blood that will flow!"

Penelope backed outside while the German walked forward confidently. He raised his weapon and brought it down hard. She side-stepped the blow and readied herself to attack. The man brought his weapon down again and again. Each time she dodged it. He swung trying to relieve her head from her body. She finally gauged his style. Now it was her turn. She let one more swing pass over her as she ducked then slashed him across his abdomen and followed up with a quick thrust to his heart. Blood came from three places on his body. His mouth, his chest, and his stomach as her first slash cut him open with his stomach, intestines, and liver spilling out onto the ground before he fell.

"If Arminius sends anyone else, he better have someone more skilled than you," she said. Penelope wiped the blood on his clothes and ran inside to see after her slave. It was Adelia. She cried as the dead body of such a loyal servant lay there bleeding.

At that moment Maximus and Agrippa walked in.

"What happened?"

"One of Arminius' men did this to Adelia."

"Where is he?"

"Out on our porch sunning himself," Penelope replied.

"Maximus ran outside with Agrippa following. "He's dead!" Maximus stated.

"Exactly!" she held Adelia getting her blood all over her clothing.

Maximus walked in, "I'll never complain about your sword practice again."

"We have to report this and then make arrangements to bury Adelia."