Fiction: "Daughter of the Sun God: A Novella of Julia Maesa--Part 2"
Maesa flees from Antioch to her home city of Emesa, where she hatches a scheme to elevate her grandson, the priest Varius, to the highest position in the Roman Empire.
Hello, readers! Welcome to the second installment of my historical fiction novella, Daughter of the Sun God. I’ll be releasing a new installment over the next few weeks, as Julia Maesa, daughter of the high priest of Emesa and sister of the deceased Roman empress Julia Domna, schemes to put her grandson on the Roman throne. If you enjoy the historical works of authors like Margaret George, Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, and Michelle Moran and series like Rome, Domina, and Those About to Die, then I think you’ll enjoy Daughter of the Empire.
*Note: A historical note, explaining some of my narrative choices, will come with the final installment.
Domna’s cremation takes far less time than I think it should. It seems to me that someone whose life was so important to me should take longer to consign to the flames, that the gods shouldn’t be so eager to welcome her to their embrace. Once it’s done, though, I also feel a paradoxical sort of freedom. Now is the time to turn from the past and to look to the future.
I’ve said nothing to either my daughters Bassiana and Avita or my grandsons, Varius or Alexander. There’s no point in bringing them into the scheme until we’re well out of Macrinus’ gaze. He might think that he can keep an eye on me in my own lands, but I think he’ll find that there’s a loyalty in the East that goes much deeper than most Romans would expect.
Still, as we gather around my sister’s pyre, I take a moment to appreciate the dynasty that has taken shape right under my nose. Both of my daughters are beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. Bassiana, my eldest, looks more like Domna than she does me with her high cheekbones and her pouty lips, while her sister, Avita, looks like me, all cold angles and deep-set eyes. The boys, likewise, are both beauties: Varius with his golden-blonde locks and Severus with his brown curls, both looking like little demigods.
Or perhaps that’s just a grandmother’s vnity.
Yes, there is a great deal to love about this family of mine. We’ve been through a great deal, we’ve risen to the very pinnacle of power and now we’re threatened with ruin. However, we’re going to survive this, and we’re going to thrive, and we’re going to show anyone who dares to question us that they cannot triumph over the House of Emesa.
After the cremation we all begin our progress back toward our home city. It’s clear that Varius is in a particular rush to get back there. He’s taken to serving the god El-Gabal with a particular fervor, much more than I would have expected and, while his devotion is to be commended, it’s also something of a complication. As I watch him riding outside of my own palanquin, I wonder just how amenable he might be to taking up his place as the imperial heir.
There’s no question that he looks like an emperor and, in fact, the more I look at him, the more I see a shadow of Caracalla. This, in turn, gets me thinking: what would happen if we began to spread a rumor that he was, in fact, the son of the former emperor? Some, I’m sure, would scoff at the conceit, and others would be more than a little dismayed at the idea of the emperor cavorting with his own cousin, but it wasn’t as if this was such a strange occurrence in Rome, anyway, was it? I also suspect that Bassiana wouldn’t be very thrilled about that either, but I’m sure she’d be willing to put her own interests behind those of the family. Besides, it would all be worth it if she manages to become the mother of the emperor.