#but some have given him the tame octavian

[kariswritingblog]

actually the only child mentality kinda fits him tho-

plus imagine your dad has an army of 7 thousand vampire spawn and then his own army of kids- yeah that’s a bit insane ngl

[marcusagrippa]

regarding the…Strabo passage from the biography. the one that you tagged as “the sea that defines the contours of the man”. i agree so much…

from a narrative perspective it has always seemed to me that water (in its various forms) is a very very appropriate theme in Agrippa’s life….Agrippa, born-feet-first, reluctant to leave the water of the womb…Agrippa, ager-ripa — the field and the river bank, the land that meets the seashore….his construction of aqueducts and clearing of sewers, the veins of the empire that run above it and beneath it, one who stands firm upon the uncontrollable waves and then steps back, returns and leads the tamed waters of the empire into the cities and baths and fountains…Augustus’ affiliation with Apollo and Diana mirrored by the steadfast sea — the sea that reflects the brilliance of the heavens in the day and the tides that shift with the moon at night….even the scattering of his ashes from the mausoleums by the visigoths 400 years later, washed away by wind and rain….:”

(Also. On the point of the name etymology. Ager and ripa aren’t actually a proper pair of words for his name’s etymology but it struck me because it is so symbolic….if you’re interested in more scholarly interpretations of his cognomen in poetry, I’d recommend “M. Agrippa in Horace 'Odes' 1.6, Author(s): Francis Cairns”!)

hi anon! i agree entirely with water being a running theme throughout agrippa's life - all the points you've made are really intriguing, and may or may not have given me some ideas for my wip (thank you ashgfkhsdj). i didn't know about his ashes being scattered by the visigoths - that's fascinating. do you have any further sources/articles you'd recommend in regards to it?

juxtaposing his water motif - and by extension the tides, and the moon - with octavian's association with apollo and the sun (very off topic but one of my favourite examples of this is suet. aug. 94.6) is something i think about. a lot. how they reflect and mirror each other; how agrippa's cast into shadow (ish) by octavian's 'brilliance', so to speak... ough. ow owie. and while we're on the subject - agrippa offering to raise octavian to the heavens in the pantheon:

(cassius dio 53:27 my beloved)

kind of the sun-moon thing again. especially with their statues in the anterooms, mirroring one another - as it resembles the heavens, they are heavenly bodies themselves? augh.

sorry, off topic. going back to the water thing - in addition to the contemporary sources while he was actually alive, he's also been depicted more recently on two panels of the trevi fountain:

(i really like the first one lol. look at him go. point boy.)

and even here, he's shown discovering the source of the aqua virgo. water as veins and the empire as a living thing, and agrippa in the middle of it all (even now!).

that article was really interesting, thank you so much for recommending it. i personally know very little latin/greek so i'm sure a lot of it went over my head, but still! the etymology of his name is definitely something to look into more closely. ager-ripa might not be 'proper' but i agree - the symbolism, the symbolismmmm. augh.

[archerinspace]

An old gift [Brikila fanfic]

Note: This takes place during the time between the show's cliffhanger and the final big battle with Octavian that's seen in the book. I'm trying to kind of put together both the show and the books since the books lack some character development and the show lacks consistent plot development. To compensate I've decided it makes sense they would be staying in various places and still fighting since most planets are destroyed or taken over at this point.

For context, this is what the 'Fungus God' Jimmy looks like and the literal giant plushie Brian had given Akila in the episode 'Cleo needs Space' where the two try going on a date.

Work, work, work. Ensign Bell walked back into the lab he had somewhat started to call his new room due to how often he stayed in there building things or keeping an eye on his son. It had been at least two years since they were thrown into an unknown part of space via a wormhole and had to land on various planets after running out of fuel. Now they resided on a smaller planet that gladly only had one base that was easily chased off. Since then others had tried to land again and were promptly chased away by P.Y.R.A.M.I.D everytime.

Brian slumped into the curvature of Eyeball's arms, a place he had been used to sleeping other than over his desk. It had been a while since he had actually slept in his dorm unless Akila or Eyeball carried him there.

"Momma-daddy's home, like I promised." The robot's arm was patted once. His son tried to utter something before realizing the cyborg had passed out from all he had done that day. Scars showed light battle and would be tended to later by Doctor Queed, something that was far more frequent than anybody liked to see.

From the door the robot child could see his mother poking her head in, "Brian, a meeting is sched--" Her sentence stopped upon seeing him once again passed out from fighting and long nights working on inventions or upgrades.

"I can't move him momma, like grandpa."

She nodded, looking at the sleeping cyborg. "You're right Eyeball, that would wake him up, and he really shouldn't be woken up..."

"What do I do?" The robot looked a bit desperate, worried about how frequent this habit was and the lack of a bed. He understood that organic people needed a proper place to sleep and a good sleep schedule. The latter was out of the question but the former was doable.

His mother had a thoughtful look on her face, "I might have an idea. Just hold onto momma-daddy for a bit." He did as he was told as she left the room almost excitedly. About ten minutes later she returned, dragging in a giant plushie she somewhat struggled to hold onto in the shape of a monster Cleo once tamed. It was like a giant fungi axolotl that according to the aliens that cared for him is named Jimmy.

Akila began making a small space near a junk pile making a small bed big enough for two people. The robot looked on in confusion as she finally put the finishing touches on a makeshift sleeping space with the giant oversized plushie in place of pillows. Eyeball was then told to slowly put his dad down gently. It wasn't perfect but it was comfortable and much better than sleeping in places that aren't a bed.

"He's kind of cute like that..." Her ears turned a bit red which her son found a bit amusing. Playfully, he was told to shush as the tired language major hummed to herself in thought.

'That is kind of cozy...' and before any other choice could be made she was woken up hours later alongside Brian who seemed equally confused. It took him a minute to register where he was and what he was even laying on.

"Akila...is this what I think it is?" He looked away directly at her with a smile. It was made clear he was blushing but kept focused on her answer.

"...I thought you could use it, since you're so busy and fall asleep here." The answer was said a bit sheepishly, her own signs being apparent but ignoring them.

"...Thank you." He muttered, laying back down and reaching for her hand. "You should rest here too." It seems she agreed as he immediately heard snoring again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ready for bed dear?" Professor walked into the bedroom ready for bed as his wife was just about to lay down. He heard a noise of agreement and sat on the other side of the bed, taking off his slippers and getting under the covers. She did the same as both laid their head on a giant now beaten up and repaired plushie resembling a creature that was now held as a minor appreciated fungus god tall as Professor. Over the years it had seen some wear and tear fixed with various patches of somewhat nonmatching fabric color, completely wrong fabric color, and stitches all over the place. It was more than loved, complete with respective indents for their head placement.  

Snoring was immediately heard before he could say anything. Regardless he whispered, "Thank you" and buried his head into the groove where his own head fit.

[tiny-librarian]

We have no idea how or if Cleopatra delivered another piece of news, which likely preceded Herod across the Mediterranean. At the end of the year, she gave birth to twins. Their father was absent - he was at about this time marrying Octavia or on the verge of doing so - but the children did not want for glorious antecedents. In naming them Cleopatra made no concessions to their paternal heritage. She went Rome one better: she named Antony’s children Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, at once summoning the sun; the moon; her great-aunt, the remarkable second-century Ptolemaic queen; and the greatest commander of the age, the one who had tamed even the Parthians, and to whom she alone among reigning sovereigns maintained a link. Given the way she was stockpiling successors, Cleopatra was arguably doing more to unite East and West than anyone since Alexander the Great. The sun and the moon figured in the Parthian king’s title; Cleopatra may have been sending him a message. Surely there was no better way to inagurate a golden age than with a sun god. We know nothing of Antony’s reaction to the news but Octavian’s would have been yet more interesting. In some roundabout way, Cleopatra had seen to it that the two men were, by way of her children, again related.

She did not have to broadcast word of the sensational births. News that the enterprising queen of Egypt had borne a son named Alexander - whose father was Mark Antony and whose half brother was a child of Caesar - constituted a banner headline in 39 BC. It was enough to make Cleopatra, to borrow a much later phrase, an object of gossip for the whole world.

Cleopatra, A Life - Stacy Schiff