Domina Victrix

Chapter 17: 22 AD, Antioch, Syria and Rome

Julia unwound the wrapping on her husband's left forearm and looked over Victoria's stitching. The wound was still irritated but not feverish or swelling. She smeared more honey over the injury and rewound the bandage. Cornelius reached for a red uniform tunic.

"Prince Juba said you could wear civilian dress if it was more comfortable," Julia said.

"Everyone else is wearing dress uniform," he said.

He picked up the balteus or service belt and buckled it around his waist. Enlisted men wore the gladius on the right and pugio on the left. Centurions, like other officers, had the option of wearing the sword on the left. Cornelius had a custom spatha but opted for a lighter gladius. A padded leather undertunic cushioned the weight of the cuirass, which Julia helped him buckle in place. A leather brace over the cuirass held the campaign medallion for Baalbec and his service medals. He picked up his helmet, with its crest across the top, not back to front.

"I'm ready," he said.

Julia wrapped her palla or formal shawl around herself and found her handbag.

"Let's go, then," she said. "Are you worried about running into Bolt?"

"I know he'll try to make it up to me somehow, but I don't need that."

"He needs it," she said. "Victory is right. He needs to own his mistake."

...

Lucius walked into the nursery and checked on Epona. Her forehead was cool and she was sleeping. Junia came through the door.

"We need your dagger," she said.

"I thought it was supposed to be a spear point," Lucius said.

"She wants the dagger because of Mark Antony," Junia said.

"It's heavy and sharp," Lucius said. "I better do it."

He followed Junia to Tryphaena's room, where Victoria was being dressed. She was wearing a pure white lamb's wool tunic with a heavy woolen cord in a double knot round her waist.

"How is Epona?" she asked Lucius.

"Sleeping like a baby," he said and pulled the ivory-handled dagger with its carved Egyptian jackal's head from its sheath. "Now what?"

Tryphaena and Junia outlined the hair parts needed for the traditional seni crines or seven-braided hairstyle worn by brides and Vestal Virgins. Lucius traced the dagger point through Victoria's thick tresses. As they worked on her hair, Victoria looked over the jewelry she had chosen for the day. It included the diadem of the set she had received from the Legions, a red jasper necklace and earrings from Selene's collection, her Baalbec medallion on a chain, and a bracelet from Tryphaena.

"I wish I had something of Great-Grandfather's," she said.

"Juba has a torq with a lion's head that belonged to him," Lucius said. "Trust me. Mark Antony is all over this wedding."

Victoria laughed.

"Bolt is going to stand with Juba and me," Lucius said. "We've let him off punishment, with a price set by Juba."

"I haven't," Victoria said.

"It's between him and Cornelius," Lucius said. "I think he knows what's due and owing."

....

Bolt pulled an archery brace over his injured right hand, hoping to disguise somewhat the bandage on his right wrist. Juba was taking a risk in allowing him to participate. Roman tradition held that every aspect of a wedding had to be perfect. A groomsman with a broken wrist, stitches, and a black eye did not fit that mold. Bolt put another brace on his left wrist and combed his thick, curling black hair around his face to cover the stitches. The eye could not be helped. He left his room and wandered the halls, looking for Cornelius.