Pompeia Sulla giggled and covered her mouth with one hand; her youngest had just learned how to chase his own tail by watching the newly arrived puppy. A year ago, her late husband would have frowned upon such a house pet, but Pompeia had different views over the healthy raising of children, and her views were generally right. It was not that Pompeia had not been happy in her second marriage, or that Vatinius had not appreciated her. Quite the opposite. Vatinius had loved her very much, always done his duty by her, and never once shown any disappointment about the circumstances with which he had achieved union with her. His reward had been a Pompeia Sulla neither he nor Rome knew existed within her; a superlative mother. Pompeia herself had been surprised by her ability to handle children, and their caregivers. Her initial reaction to pregnancy had been one of fear, even despair at moments. Then she settled down into her gestation and never looked back. With motherhood the mantle of domina wrapped round her for real, and her instincts led her to make the right decisions for happy balanced children and domestic harmony that placed her firmly on the road to admired matronage.

For with her successful mothering, Pompeia Sulla found herself the center of attention she never had before. Gone were the days of the Clodias and Fulvia, Mark Antony, and his sort, because her atrium was too full of conservative matron’s coming to ask for advice about their colic-y child, or teething infant. Even her mother, Cornelia Sulla, had finally broken down after the shock, and asked advice for her other grandchildren.

“ I had always in my heart believed my daughter innocent of anything improper that night,” she had stated pragmatically one winter noon to Servilia Capeonis in her sitting room. “ Yet it is not possible Bona Dea would have so liberally endowed Pompeia with such sense in such a crucial area as mothering, nor granted her such lovely children and pregnancies had she been guilty of sacreledge. This is proof positive of her having suffered a wrong at the hands of men.” Servilia, legs crossed and a goblet of warm spiced wine in hand had smiled slightly as if in relief for Pompeia, thought Cornelia. Cornelia was of course aware that Pompeia’s abrupt divorce might have proved fortuitous for Servilia, but she also recognized Servilia to be, like herself, Roman Matron to the core. No true Roman woman would wish to violate the Bona Dea, nor be thought guilty of it. Servilia could be given the benefit of the doubt.


Nor were Servilia’s and Cornelia’s the only sitting rooms where such ideas were discussed. Similar conversations took place throughout the city amongst the great matrons, wives of the Patricians and Plutocrat Plebians alike. From suspect and ostracized idiot to popular mother of ‘Rome’s Best Blood’ the pendulum had swung. For in truth, Pompeia’s only real fault was that she was not the brightest wick in the lamp. This mixed with deep beauty and an unfocused girlish tendency that led her to make the worst choices in friends had Rome dubbing her an idiot. Perhaps had Pompeia not spent the first 25 years of her life surrounded by highly intelligent individuals, from her grandfather Lucius Cornelius Sulla, to her own mother, to Gauis Julius Ceasar and his mother Aurelia Cottea, she might have come out a bit differently. Even the average tree suffers when overshadowed by ancient tall oaks; Pompeia Sulla was positively stunted.

So for Pompeia, it could be said her second marriage was not only far more successful than her first, it was her chance to grow if she could. Since she was by nature not one to harbor deep seated grudges and possessed of a generous nature, she did. No, she would never be highly literate, politically attuned, or generally intellectual. Instead, having received the right dose of respect and nurturing from Vatinius, she in turn gave it back liberally to any and all in need of what her guise now offered; a wise supportive mother. If most of that wisdom was actually the result of a powerful instinct, it mattered not as the results were the same. In the approximate 13 years of her marriage, Pompeia Sulla had demonstrated that she had substance, was above suspicion, and capable of a bit more than her often vacant look indicated. Always possessed of an exquisite figure, lovely red hair, and creamy complexion, her new status accented them all. Anyone spying on her in her black widow’s draperies and playing child would have thought, “ Domina Pompeia is one of Rome’s loveliest matrons.”

Such was the thought that struck the elderly Mamercus when he arrived not long after with Cornelia Sulla, to discuss the future….

-Pompeia Sulla

OOC: SALVE I know this was a long start, but since I am a late arrival to the game, I thought it would help really flush out her biography, where I see her as a human being-more to come!-and her current position in Rome. I had to think hard, to make her a space without tampering with other’s developments, but also to make it clear that she will have a role. I am sorry if it seemed I was taking liberties with Servilia. I try and never ever presume emotions or movements of the characters of others. In this case though, I felt it necessary to have her in part of Pompeia’s biography, as it is very likely she was at the Bona Dea in question, and also very familiar, if not intimate with her aunt.