HISTORY & EVENTS
The story to date:
Valeria’s first match was aborted when Messalina sent Praetorians to arrest her. She managed to escape and uncovered a secret letter Messalina had written, full of embarrassing information, which she read aloud in the Forum. This created a scandal, forcing Messalina to lie low for a while. Valeria emerged alive and intact, without a prize purse, but with some notoriety and helpful contacts.
Undaunted, she entered the Colosseum a second time, but was shocked to find herself fighting a man. (Customarily, women fight only other women.) She reacted to this unexpected challenge by mocking him and belittling his manhood, thus provoking him into a rash, headlong attack which she swiftly countered, leaving him on the ground with a sword at his throat. But then, there was an extraordinarily long pause before she was given the thumbs-down signal. This left her wondering if the mismatch had been deliberately planned in order to kill her. But she collected her prize purse, and the Colosseum crowd, rooting for the underdog, found a new favorite.
Shortly thereafter, she was offered a package of three exhibition matches at the Theater of Marcellus. After winning the first match, she was dismayed to see someone had marked down the names of everyone who cheered for her as suspected members of a subversive political faction. These were just her fans! She felt obliged to write polite messages to all of them, thanking them for attending, but warning them away from the following two matches. Who would pull off a dirty trick like this?
The second opponent came as a surprise, because she was entirely unarmed. Apparently, she was trained as a boxer. Valeria admired her moves, but she really had no chance against an experienced swordswoman. After the fight, she got together with the woman (who suffered only a slight leg wound) and was told she had been put up to it by someone who wanted to test Valeria’s skills. But then, someone else had altered the instructions, she was to force Valeria into an embarrassing error. Subsequent investigation produced two names, Publius Varenus, a public bookmaker, and a mysterious man called Secundus, who had altered the plan.
The third match was no pushover like the second. This time, she had to face a scarred arena veteran who had studied her moves in the first two matches. This time, she was expected to lose, perhaps fatally. Valeria countered by following the same strategy she had used before, thus leading her opponent into a false sense of confidence that she broke suddenly by changing plans and inflicting a wound to the shoulder. She went home with another purse, but a growing sense of unease. Who was behind all these schemes?
In order to pump some information from Publius Varenus, she devised a fiction: She said she had been interrogated by gamblers, dangerous men who claimed the exhibition matches were fixed and the records altered. Aghast, Varenus checked his own records and discovered the alteration, which was traced to a go-between named Secundus. Pressured, Secundus admitted to falsifying the record and said he had acted under instructions from the exhibition’s principle sponsor, Lucius Cassius Varro, a rich and important man with connections to the imperial palace.
Valeria now observed that she was being followed by Varro’s agents, who obviously wanted to destroy the evidence and silence the witness. Using a decoy to divert the tail, she managed to shelter them safely in the Temple of Demeter and bring the case before a magistrate. But going home, she found that her family had been questioned in her absence, and Varro had left a threatening message. She brought the message back to the magistrate, who added it to the evidence in the case against Varro, who was now neutralized. Pursuing Valeria wouldn’t help him, because the case was already in the hands of a magistrate.
Shortly thereafter, Valeria received an invitation to fight in the Colosseum before the Emperor Claudius himself. This put her in a difficult position: Claudius had executed her father, but rejecting the Emperor’s invitation was unthinkable. It would open her to suspicion. She agreed to the fight, but made a statement expressing her gratitude to Claudius for sparing her family and pledging their loyalty. This went over very well. She emerged as a victor from her fifth match with a fat prize purse, a huge following of fans, and a growing sense of confidence.
After this success, she was able to schedule her sixth match in the Colosseum without any interference. Her opponent turned out to be a Murmilla, whose heavy shield and helmet slowed her. Valeria circled, while the Murmilla impatiently followed. Valeria quickened the pace, as if attempting to flee, and the Murmilla hurried to catch her. At this moment, Valeria stopped and whirled. Due to momentum, the Murmilla couldn’t react in time, and Valeria’s blade touched her on the shoulder. After another touch, the Murmilla was tired and slowing; feeling herself weaken, she attempted to end the match with a sudden rush. Valeria, who was faster, simply leaped aside and tripped her. Lying on the sand, the Murmilla said she would concede honorably, if Valeria allowed her to rise, and Valeria agreed. And so the match ended honorably.
Valeria spends a day exercising with Marcus and her new friend, Murmilla. She receives an invitation for a public demonstration at the imperial palace, which she accepts, but unwisely remarks that she would prefer to serve the emperor from a safer distance. She makes a small sacrifice at the Temple of Jupiter, but no omens or epiphanies are forthcoming. She goes to bed with the uneasy feeling that she is missing something important.
