En Route from Illyria

I have just been informed of what sort of heinous crime has just been committed in Rome.

While I have been serving with the military in Apollonia, I naturally had some difficulty in remaining in contact with Rome—such is the nature of prolonged military duties abroad. I now find myself confronted by great regret and remorse over what has transpired while I was away.

What has happened to us Romans? I am well aware of the opinions and past disagreements many of the Senators had with my grand-uncle, Gaius Julius Caesar. I am not deluding myself into believing that he was loved by all of these men, as the war with Cnaeus Pompeius so aptly demonstrated, but certainly he was loved by the people of Rome. Of this there can be no doubt—he dedicated himself to the greatness of Rome, both outside Italia and within, while others played the role of the intellectual and enjoyed their comfortable lives writing poetry and philosophy. However brief, I had the privilege of serving under his leadership and tutelage in the West, and I am of firm belief that all he did, he did for Rome.

It is inevitable that in a government there are disagreements. But it's appalling to think such an act could be committed against a man legally appointed by the very conspirators who killed him! Do they not owe their positions to his compassion and understanding? When he offered clemency to them, they responded with betrayal. When he offered friendship, they responded with assassin's daggers. What kind of treacherous men take another's loyalty, love, and trust, profit from it, and then slay him before the entirety of the Senate? And now, after the crime is done, are these men in a position to declare themselves the supreme legal authority in Rome? That their will is more legitimate than that of the Senate as a whole?

By the time this reaches the Senate, I will have already left Apollonia with the intent of returning to Rome to settle my honored great-Uncle's estate and address his last testament. In the meantime, I trust that arrangements are being made for a funeral that will afford my grand-uncle the honor and dignity that he deserved, as well as giving the people of Rome a chance to pay their final respects to the man they loved.