Nova Roma

Chapter 5 - In the Temple of Artemis

The capital Emerita Augusta of Lusitania is a city under construction which was founded in the year 25 BC (The current time of the protagonist is 21 BC, Flavio was born on 26 BC), by order of the Emperor Augustus as a gift to his daughter and grandson (The reasons for the foundation were changed by the influence of the god Apollo).

You can observe a large number of slaves moving building materials, citizens and merchants doing their daily activities, it is also possible to see auxiliaries taking care of the internal safety of the new city, while the outer security was guaranteed by the Spanish Legion IX by order of the emperor until the outer wall of the city is built.

The governor’s palace located north of the city was originally a walled mansion belonging to the former governor, after the designation from the August Emperor of Vitelio as the new governor the mansion became his property, from the location of the mansion he founded the city in the southern direction.

Leaving the walls of the mansion and entering the city, you can see a procession of cavalry surrounding and protecting a woman and a small child riding a Jet dark horse.

Flavio felt uncomfortable riding the horse with his mother "Mother, why do we have to go out on a horse and not in a carriage?"

Julia looked at her young son with firm eyes "Because of our status of my son. You must know that being the grandson of the Emperor implies that you have to show poise, the carriage does not contribute to that, that is why we have to leave on horseback ".

Flavio could only curse in his mind, and ignore the pain of his ass that was caused due to riding on the horse.

"By the way mother why doesn’t the cavalry have any stirrups?"

Julia looked at her son again but this time with curiosity "Stirrups? What is that? "

Flavio put his hand on his forehead

"Nothing mother, you’ll have to wait for me to talk to the blacksmith when we reach the farm so that I can show you the advantages of using a stirrup"

While mother and son were having a pleasant conversation, they have reached Decumano street.

In all Roman cities, there is always a street with an east-west orientation, this street is also always called Decumano, it is also the street where the shops of the city are located.

Flavio was surprised to see a lot of people moved into shops and were buying and selling all kinds of products, although the scale was not comparable to the Madero Street in the city of Mexico that he remembered in the future.

But being a city in antiquity can also have its merits, What drew his attention was not the number of people who were performing their daily activities, but it was the temple under construction of the goddess Artemis (Diana for the Romans).

Flavio pointed with his hand the temple "Mother lets go to the temple I want to check something "

Julia nodded to the order of her son and told the guard "Aurelio before going to the field we need to go to the temple of Diana", Aurelio gave the order to move to the temple.

Flavio was taken down from the beautiful dark horse by Aurelio and walked towards the steps of the temple under construction as he headed towards the middle, where he could see a detailed marble statue of Artemis and at that moment the time froze.

He could see how the workers were stopped also observed how a small fly remained in the

air petrified, suddenly he could hear a noise coming from the statue of Artemis, his eyes settled on the statue and it began to give off the dust, while it slowly moved its limbs like a person.

"Welcome brat, to my temple tell me what I can do to help you" The statue of Artemis spoke very easily.

Flavio stared at the statue from top to bottom as he walked around

"I am surprised by the way you communicate if I did not know you are a god I think I would have peed of fright "

Artemis laughed at the comment of the little brat who looked at her curiously

" But there is something I do not understand, Apollo told me you were dead did he lie to me?"

Artemis sat on the pedestal of the statue "That stupid Apollo I do not think he has explained it well, While it is true that in that timeline the cross won and we became the forgotten and pagan, but as gods we do not die we simply enter into a kind of indefinite pause, it is thanks to your divine energy that came into harmony with my temple that we can communicate "

Flavio stopped in front of Artemis" I understand, so it’s just my luck that you woke up, taking advantage of your awakening, I have to ask What things did Apollo do to me? "

Artemis stretched out her hand and placed his finger on Flavio’s forehead "It looks like it is quite complicated. I can feel your divine energy, even though it isn’t rooted in anything specific. Your divine energy feels a lot like Apollo and somewhat like my father(Zeus) and one other person, I want to ask the bastard Apollo what he did to make you have that persons divine energy. Another thing that I can notice is that you have hypnotized a lot of people, including your parents "

Flavio looked away from Artemis’s gaze "It’s not my fault! you can imagine if my parents find out that their 5-year-old behaves like an adult. I have to say it was a miracle that they never paid attention to the speed with my wounds were recovered or I never got sick, I had no choice to put them under hypnosis, talking about that, Can you teach me to efficiently use my divine powers, I do not want to have to try to use them and cause a situation that I can’t control "

Artemis looked coldly at Flavio, "Little brat, I do not like your behavior of hypnotizing people at all but I do not have an opinion with what you do or do not do, in the end, you have a mission and the means you take to complete it is up to you, and about your divine energy I can only help guide you so that you have a better understanding of your environment, the more divine energy you have greater perception, I am currently sure that with the amount you have only you can have an effective range of 5 meters "

The cold marble hand of Artemis was put on the face of Flavio.

Flavio could feel how his perception had been increased, it was like being able to see in all directions, he could assure himself that if someone wanted to hurt him and he was within 5 meters of him, none of his movements would go unnoticed.

Artemis’s hand withdrew from his face, she got up from the pedestal and proceeded to take the form she had before she stopped and said: "It’s all I can do for you brat, if you want to develop more you should look for my dad (Zeus)".

Flavio felt that time returned to normal, shortly after that his mother walked slowly until he could be behind him "Well my child what do you want to see in the temple of the goddess Diana"

Flavio replied to his mother "Nothing, simply had the curiosity to see the magnificent temple in construction. We should leave as some people are waiting for us in the country house"

Flavio took the hand of his mother and left the temple slowly, leaving behind him a beautiful statue of the goddess Artemis who seemed to follow him with her eyes looking at the two people who were leaving the temple "I should have said that his mother seems to be hypnotized by Apollo, I think though that he would be back at the moment I say it, I’m feeling very tired so I need to sleep."

Artemis closed her eyes and went back to the nothingness...

Edit by: Chroniclemale