#EHRUGHGHHHHH okay. there we go. wahoo

[katabay]

narrator voice: brutus was not.

this is playing off a few things historically: that a lot of cassius' early life before his introduction into the military/political theater under crassus during the doomed parthian campaign is non existent, which also means that this space is my sandbox to play it!

my favorite historical pairs to work with (in regards to romans, anyway) tend to fit into a gladiator/statesman dynamic, so cassius and brutus, agrippa and octavian, but also pompey and crassus fit into that mold as well (even when they're fighting with each other, the behaviors and methods they use tend to reflect the general thematic archetype)

what's really fun to sink my teeth into is how one of cassius' strengths (knowing when to step back) is also a great flaw because he consistently gave way to brutus, but brutus wasn't a good general and he's not the greatest decision maker, and letting brutus make the call frequently resulted in Worse Consequences. and somehow. brutus goes down in history as the idealized figure. what a fucking tragedy!

A Conspirator's Realism: Cassius Settles for the Second Rank, Luciano Canfora

this scene would.......probably take place around the same time brutus is having his hot girl summer being a loan shark to compliment his historical counterpart's financial adventures in salamis.