Our Eternal Curse I by Rumney Simon

Author:Rumney, Simon [Rumney, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2013-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Political Corruption

At the same time as winning control of the commercial markets Julia turned her hand to the job of corrupting politicians. Behind the scenes as always she used her growing sums of money to bribe the ever-greedy Senators and, although Calpurnius had been extremely thorough during his briefings, bribery was still a completely new concept for Julia. So, in accordance with her lack of confidence her first act of corruption was one that actually benefited Rome as much as it did her.

Harnessing the vast experience of the moneylenders Julia paid corrupt Senators to lobby aggressively for the destruction of the pirates in the East. A purse full of silver was given to any Senator who repeated what he was told to say without asking any questions. The ones who took up the offer passed the word to others in the Curia and eventually Julia’s words began to ring out almost every day.

‘These lowlife criminals have held Rome to ransom for far too long!’ shouted one of her stooges passionately across the chamber when the Senate sat for its new season of debate.

“The pirates have organized themselves into a fleet; they have been systematically taking control of Roman shipping lanes!” parroted another with what appeared to be great authority.

Because of Clitumna’s secret system of extortion most Senators were surprised by this information even the corrupt ones who delivered the words were taken aback because no one had any idea that pirates were still a problem. There had been reports of galleys being taken on a regular basis just a few years ago but for the last couple of years at least the pirates seemed to have miraculously gone away.

“The reason you are all so blissfully unaware of pirates, as indeed was I,” shouted a Senator by the name of Lucius Nonius, is they no longer kill to extract money from us Romans but let me assure you they are bleeding us dry with their extortionist techniques nonetheless!”

Nonius was a very good actor who projected just the right amount of outrage in his voice and as he quoted the facts and statistics fed to him by his personal moneylender the Senators all stamped their feet and shouted as a way of emulating his outrage.

“I have one of the many captains who suffered at the hands of these greedy felons standing outside and he is prepared to speak to you all today!” shouted Nonius over the din while raising his toga-covered arm to point dramatically at the entrance of the Senate.

“Bring him in! Bring him in!” they cried.

The trembling man who walked in had been pulled from his cargo vessel by Gavius that very morning. Under threat of death he stood before them on the floor of the Senate in a weather-beaten tunic and nervously delivered the words he was told to say. Luckily for him his speech was largely based on the truth which gave a strong measure of credibility and at the completion of his sad tale of injustice the Senate was on its feet calling for the battle fleet to be dispatched immediately.

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