Chapter V: XVII-1/2 – Not-Sunday Colour Comic
More experimenting with digital colour.
I tweaked the language in panel 3. movingfinger had asked: I don’t follow Felix’s distinction when he says “Not the son of sons of a freedman.” Although Damon is an adopted Antonius, the bloodline certainly matters in some way, does it not? Although, legally, I know that to the Romans the adoption makes Damon an Antonius.
So, this is my take on it…
The bloodline matters. (Especially, I should think, for families clinging to the specialness of their old-line patrician status.) The name and assuming the mantle of representative, if you will, for a family line also carries weight, depending on how someone wants to exploit it. Or how it’s assumed that person will want to exploit it. But even when the emperors were adopting heirs, killing off heirs, and/or marrying off heirs, they tended to select from an elite circus of power players where bloodline and political clout were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. The Antonius family were power players throughout the first century of the empire, even their freedmen. But the direct-line males tended to get disappeared.
How I see it, is that the “wow” factor of being direct son-to-son bloodline would impress the crowds if one has no actual political power, wealth, or military rank to fall back on. Popular/populist rabble-rousers were feared by the upper echelons. Though I can see the forum crowd saying, “show us what you’ve got” rather than “stick a crown on him, he’s royalty.” Feelings would probably run differently in, say, Egypt than in Italy.
Titus’s family has only been in power for a decade, neither he nor his brother have any sons, they might be feeling precarious. Bad enough there are people running around pretending to be Nero. And people actually wanted Nero back—go figure.
I hope it doesn’t come to that, because what Damon do not understand is that if he and Felicia need to hide is because Felix is dead.
PS: I like the colours. There I wrote in proper English English. 😉
I can’t help myself, I like the “u.” It’s what I used to see in books growing up 🙂 A high school English & History teacher retrained me to write like a proper, modern, American person, but now I am a rebel!
So, Felix is giving Damon the same speech he got from his father. While the meaning is clear, I find something frightful: What about Iusta?
She is now an Antonia, if by marriage only, and she is in every bit of danger as Damon and Felicia are. Is Felix hinting that not only he but Iusta as well would be dead, should Damon need to run and hide with his sister?
But, speaking about Iusta, that feels right. She would never abandon Felix if he has to face danger. She would do everything to help him, but won’t desert him at his time of need.
She had to be forcefully carried away during Vesubius eruption, since she wanted to look for Alexander.
I’d say that Felix is being optimistic here. If the Flavii really decide that his menage is a threat I’d find it unlikely that the Roman demimonde would be able to keep them hidden for long…
The demimonde have powers and influence you cannot imagine.
Well, probably not.
But it’s all he has until he can relocate his family to Alexandria.
I’ve been trying to figure out – how old is Damon at this point?
I’ve decided he was about 3 during the siege of Jerusalem, making him just under 13 now.
For some reason I thought he was older when we were seeing him on his own. Now that he’s “safe” and can act more his age, I can see that.
Nero has been made up the monster we think he was. But, even taking into account the killings that he is supposed to have ordained towards the end of his reign, the main thing with him was his being of the “popular” party, whereas the Flavians were of the “senatorial” party. The people had loved Nero because he had been generous with them (indeed, the upper class complained that after his death they couldn’t get their money back because those to whom Nero had given it had given it in their turn. But just realise that one of the main reproaches made to him was that he never paid for a gladiator show in the circus, and instead, wanted the people to go to concerts and theater.
There is also this curious ending of one of Paul’s epistles, where he writes “I’m sending you the salutations of Caesar and of his household”. What could that mean: there was only one person thus called.
It’s a good point–Nero ravaged the upper classes with his informants and eliminations, and then there was that dicey elimination of religious undesirables. Nero’s standing with the lower classes could be entirely different, though. The people even liked Caligula. I’d like to think more about this. And I’d like to think about/read up on/discuss that line in Paul too.
I’ll be coming back to this topic (when I’m not typing on a phone…).
Do read the Pauline line for yourself. Depending on which translation you use Philippians 4:21 says, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.” The Greek text pretty clearly refers to the household of Caesar, rather than the family of Caesar.
I’ll look at the Greek and see what it says. Then see what any debate about it might be. Waaaay early on, my formal studies included how Paul illuminates the social structure of the time, but it’s been a long, long time since I’ve read up on it.
I can see how something like that can become tricky after translation–what sort of “of Caesar” was meant (his greetings or his people).
There doesn’t seem to be any variation in the different versions:
μάλιστα δὲ οἱ ἐκ τῆς Καίσαρος οἰκίας
Which is unambiguously the household (which encompassed vast numbers of servants, employees, guardsmen, parasites, as well as relatives), not Caesar himself. But that’s only what I find from a quick search.
By Flavian times, there were possible Christians within the ruling family, but that’s post-Paul.
Lovely Paul who so much loved to burn books of science…
Paul’s not really relevant to the comic, since it takes place years after his time.