“Yes, I killed my brother Geta.  You shudder.  And yet, if at this day, when I know all the results of the deed, the state of affairs were the same as then, I would do it again!  That shocks you.  But only listen, and then you will say with me that it was Fate which compelled me to act so, and not otherwise.”

He paused, and then mistaking the anxiety which was visible in Melissa’s face for sympathetic attention, he began his story, confident of her interest: 

“When I was born, my father had not yet assumed the purple, but he already aimed at the sovereignty.  Augury had promised it to him; my mother knew this, and shared his ambition.  While I was still at my nurse’s breast he was made consul; four years later he seized the throne.  Pertinax was killed, the wretched Didius Julianus bought the empire, and this brought my father to Rome from Pannonia.  Meanwhile he had sent us children, my brother Geta and me, away from the city; nor was it till he had quelled the last resistance on the Tiber that he recalled us.

“I was then but a child of five, and yet one day of that time I remember vividly.  My father was going through Rome in solemn procession.  His first object was to do due honor to the corpse of Pertinax.  Rich hangings floated from every window and balcony in the city.  Garlands of flowers and laurel wreaths adorned the houses, and pleasant odors were wafted to us as we went.  The jubilation of the people was mixed with the trumpet-call of the soldiers; handkerchiefs were waved and acclamations rang out.  This was in honor of my father, and of me also, the future Caesar.  My little heart was almost bursting with pride; it seemed to me that I had grown several heads taller, not only than other boys, but than the people that surrounded me.

“When the funeral procession began, my mother wished me to go with her into the arcade where seats had been placed for the ladies to view, but I refused to follow her.  My father became angry.  But when he heard me declare that I was a man and the future Emperor, that I would rather see nothing than show myself to the people among the women, he smiled.  He ordered Cilo, who was then the prefect of Rome, to lead me to the seats of the past consuls and the old senators.  I was delighted at this; but when he allowed my younger brother Geta to follow me, my pleasure was entirely spoiled.”

“And you were then five years old?” asked Melissa, astonished.

“That surprises you!” smiled Caracalla.  “But I had already traveled through half the empire, and had experienced more than other boys of twice my age.  I was, at any rate, still child enough to forget everything else in the brilliant spectacle that unfolded before my eyes.  I remember to this day the colored wax statue which represented Pertinax so exactly that it might have been himself risen from the grave.  And the procession!  It seemed to have no end; one new thing followed another.