amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus.

[al-shairan.livejournal.com]

Kalends of Maius, evening
The year of the consulship of Isauricus and Sabinus
The Palace

Awesome and vast is the edifice, distinguished not by a hundred columns but by as many as could shoulder the gods and the sky if Atlas were let off. The Thunderer’s palace next door gapes at it and the gods rejoice that you are lodged in a like abode ...
- Statius, describing the Flavian Palace

I stand in the Aula Regia and ensure that everything is as I would expect it to be. I'm terribly excited - I throw parties all the time, but it doesn't stop being fun. And this is the first one I've thrown since my husband died, since I thought it was seemly to wait a couple of months at least. Juno, I have been bored. Of course I've kept throwing dinner parties, but that's not the same.

The room looks perfect. It's the largest in this palace, which dear Daddy had built. It took so long that I can just about remember the finishing touches going up when I was a little girl. But now it looks like it's always been here. I love this room - the marbled walls and columns are so elegant, as well as cool in the summer, and I'm very pleased with the new mosaic. I think our guests will admire it.

We're not throwing a dinner party tonight - we already had a dinner party in honour of Daddy's friend Ursus and some of his old army friends, so boring. I don't care at all about the army, although soldiers are handsome. And I agree with spending a lot on the army because it does make one feel safe in one's position. But apart from that, I don't care what they do, and they're so rarely elegant company. Never mind, soon half the Senate will be here, and more interesting people than them besides.

Though it's not a dinner, of course there's food - pretty stacks of fruit, dormice stuffed with pork, clams, olives, pickled eggs, honey cakes and stuffed dates - as well as plenty of wine (passum, mulsum as well as finest Falernian for our high status guests). It is a wine festival, after all. In the centre of the room is a fountain which is flowing with red wine, which makes a very pretty image. I'm more excited about the entertainment than the food, though. I have a troupe of the best musicians to play, and there are acrobats and dancers, as well as a sword-swallower and a flame-eater. I've made sure the entertainers wear only the flimsiest outfits, and they are pretty boys and girls. I do hate ugly things.

It's almost time for our guests to begin arriving, and so I arrange myself on a couch as the musicians tune up.