Tacitus (Gladiator)
- You may be looking for the historian.
Tacitus was a poet and soothsayer in Rome. Rory Williams thought he was an awful poet, but almost all his predictions came true, one way or another.
In May 118, he foretold the assassination of Caesar on the Kalends of June, the day of a celebration honouring the anniversary of his reign. In this case, he was being paid by Lepitus to spread this rumour, under orders from Augusta, Caesar's wife.
In the end, Caesar did die on the day of the festivities. Though Augusta's first attempt, killing him through Matteus during their production of Agamemnon, with the use of a swapped-out stage sword, was thwarted by Rory, her backup plan succeeded. Caeser died by poison in his wine, served to him by Augusta, who had Rory try it first, knowing he was impervious to poison. Afterwards, she rose up (AUDIO: Gladiator [+]Loading...["Gladiator (audio story)"]) to become Empress of Rome.
A relatively short while into her reign, without being pushed by anyone, Tacitus foretold Augusta's own end. This claim soon became public knowledge, so she ordered Rory, now her assassin, to kill him. Instead, Rory planned to make a deal with Tacitus in order to spare his life while pretending to have killed him, but the Empress arrived on the scene to intercept them while Tacitus shuffled through his papers trying to decide which to take with him.
While imprisoned at the palace, Tacitus predicted Augusta's demise and the rise of a new ruler by day's end. Indeed, Augusta died shortly thereafter from belladonna in the figs served to her by Decima, who had Rory taste test them. Rory had accidentally distributed the poisoned figs into the market which were delivered again to the palace.
Though he briefly saw that the Roman Republic would rise again, Tacitus instead announced Rory the next Caesar on seeing him unaffected by the same poison that killed the Empress. Decima agreed, (AUDIO: The Unwilling Assassin [+]Loading...["The Unwilling Assassin (audio story)"]) and Rory became the new Emperor of Rome. (AUDIO: I, Rorius [+]Loading...["I, Rorius (audio story)"])
