The Military Camp of Titus Flavius Vespasianus, Judea

"Imperator?" Titus inquired, a bemused smile playing upon his lips. "Let's not be hasty." The older man had a coolness about him, even as the barges made their way to his designated point. "Now let us see if the rumors are true." As the prisoners were variously kicked, unloaded, or rolled off the decks of the ships, Titus squinted. "By the cock of Jupiter, they do float!" he observed. The siege had been ongoing, these Jews had been a pain in his side for nigh on three years now, though he knew he now had the force available to crush them. Still, the news from Rome had been grim. "Nero dead and now Galba. What do you make of it, Legatus?"

Titus shifted uncomfortably, his self assured grin giving way to a slight frown. "Well, there are those considerations indeed." The Jews appeared to be bobbing up and down now, like corks. Interesting. "Otho is a miser, and Vitellius is a brute. But a brute may ascend nonetheless. He does have the support of the legions of the Rhine, I believe. Battle hardened they are against the worst our enemies have to offer. They would be worthy adversaries, much more than these...fanatical Jews." He scoffed. "Did you know they believe in only one god? One staggers at the lunacy of it." The cries of the corks reached him at last "Fine, bob them out. The experiment is at its end."

Titus turns to Traianus, "Nero, Otho, Galba, Vitellius..." he smiles "dead, dead, and soon to be dead. None of them have a claim to legitimacy. None. We are in a new era, my friend. In this era the shrewd shall rule the world. I am old, yes, but I am not dead yet. The sons of Caesar squandered his empire but they left intact his road to power."

Titus screened his eyes against the setting sun to view the last of the Jews dip and bob in the salt-rich inner ocean they had so revered. He waved his hand to quiet the younger men. "Now, now." He said as he lifted a silver chalice to his mouth, taking a swift gulp of wine. "Galba, yes Galba. I never saw him where he did not appear to be straining over the toilet in order to shit. A most rightful choice from our venerable colleagues in Rome. As for Vitellius, send him a dozen gallons of this beer the Egyptians brew, he will be dead within the month. The man cannot help himself it would seem."

Vespasian stood, clasping his sword-hilt in one hand and his breast on the other. "Now, what are we to do? This Jewish upset shall soon be set to rights but the Republic? Are we to complete all this work to swear allegiance to scum as the likes of Otho? The drunkard Vitellius? I spit at the thought..."

"Marcus Cocceius Nerva, I had no idea you had indulged in such orgies." Titus mused with a mischievous smile. "Though there is little doubt Otho is flaccid as ever. Whatever position he finds himself in, he must be prone. Ready to take the cock! Vitellius can do that much with the German legions, I suppose. What news of Pannonia? The Danube? Have they thrown in their lot?"

"No words from the Danubian legions, though it is hard to imagine why those soldiers on a distant front would fight for an obese buffoon"

But enough coin could convince many of doubtful loyalties to sway their cause to the wrong side. It would be a lamentable fate for the Republic if they were to bribed by an obese buffoon or the brute in control of Rome. Whatever old Republican sympathies Traianus held was soon washed away in his thoughts, there was no feasible chance of the supremacy of the Senate returning now. So it was best to side with the Caesar who would protect the republic the best. 

"Luckily Egypt and Asia Minor are close to ours, the richest provinces of our Republic will surely prove to be a big boon when we have swayed them to our cause."

"The Christians and Jews say that the man who will rule the world shall rise in Judea."

Idly remarked Catulus, choosing not to comment on Alexander's Jewish prayer. The young man threw a stone, watching as it skidded across the water. Quintus was curious about such things. Often was the young man found in the company of seers and soothsayers of all religions. Though a disciple of Plato and Aristotle, he could not resist the allure of the mysterious and divine, of answers to the unanswerable. He was also friends with Josephus, another Romanised Jew who had become something like Vespasian's official chronicler of events here in the east. It was from that clever man's mouth that he had heard such a tale. And prophecy was something to be taken seriously. All deities held power, even the selfish God of these Judeans.

"And what world is worth ruling beyond the boundaries of our fair Republic?" He opined, throwing another stone into the sea. Now the sun was setting, it seemed, for the air had grown considerably cooler.