It was the late hour of noon just before the evening arrives. The sun was beginning to prepare its return to the west. Luciano walked through the Atrium to the ¹Peristylium, then towards the ²Peristyle to look for his mother. He knows that she often rested at this hour of the day in the enclosed garden to calm her mind, and enjoy a bit of outdoors. From knowing his mother since childhood, the Peristyle has always been his mother's private space to think and clear her mind whilst communing with the essence just like the Tablinum is to his father.
Peering from the ³Portico, he saw his mother seated on her favourite spot on a stone bench in an alcove between a statue of Venus, Rome's goddess of fertility and the marbled fountain. Luciano's father has paid a small fortune to a renowned sculptor of the empire to mould it specially for his mother during her time of difficulty in childbirth. Sometimes she will sit quietly watching the fountain or admiring the stone idol as she fingers her prayer beads. At other times, she will sew patterns on her needleworks seemingly lost from the world.
As usual, her mother sat and stared at the fountain, deep in thought. Her personal slave, Batya, knelt before her mistress massaging her feet which were also placed on a stone footrest. The slight furrow on her forehead tells Luciano how troubled she may be. Sighing softly, he approached them with light steps.
"Mother," He greeted
Startled from her thoughts, she turned towards him. "Luciano."
"Do you have a moment? May I speak with you? He asked altogether.
She nodded and pulled her feet from Batya's firm hands. "Batya, I'll be fine with Luciano. You can go straighten out my bedchamber."
"Yes, Mistress," She bowed and took up the jar of chamomile oil she had used on her mistress's feet to walk.
"And Batya,"
"Yes, Mistress."
"Take your noon meal too. You are always fasting. It is not good for your body," her mother added. "I don't want you fainting while attending me."
"As you wish, Mistress." Batya smiled warmly at her mother and went back into the house.
Her mother sighed softly. "I don't understand why she fast all the time. And her religion is really strange. She told about a God. That he is one God but in three personalities. How could that be? I don't understand it at all," his mother explained to him with a small frown, patting the space beside her for him to sit down.
Luciano smiled at his mother and sat down. He took her hands in his and kissed it dutifully as a whisper of a voice in Greek flitted through his mind like a cool wind.
⁴'O Iisoús apántise: «To kyriótero eínai:« Akoúste, Israíl! O Kýrios o Theós mas eínai énas Kýrios.'
Being a scribe, Luciano knows what it says, 'Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord…'
"Mother, Batya knows what she believes in and she holds strongly to it. You may not understand her religion, but the empire's religion of many gods and deities is more than a whirlwind of confusion as well. They worship what they do not know of."
"What do you mean they, Luciano? Are you not of the empire? Are you not one of us?" His mother's gentle face creased more in a frown, slight fear appearing in her warm brown eyes.
"Mother, you worry unduly. It is not time to speak of such matters now. I came to know how you fare. It's been more than a decade we saw. How do you fare, Mother?"
Aquilia Servius gazed steadily at his son without responding. There's something strange about him that she cannot put a finger to… Some kind of aura that cannot be explained. This is her first son. She raised him herself refusing to take the service of a wetnurse even though she was weak of health. She knew him best – his volatile emotions, his mischievousness and his frivolities. But this son she is seeing now seemed different, changed – almost docile though not so.
Shrugging her shoulders, she replied. "I fare as the gods allow me. Luciano, you've changed. What happened to you?"
Luciano laughed at her mother's observation. "Yes, mother. I've changed. Do not fret though. It is a good change. I will tell all about it in good time."
"That remains to be seen, Luciano. Be careful of the kind of change you hold," his mother warned subtly. "Remember that there are eyes - unseen eyes always watching and waiting. Some of these eyes are not good ones. They bid their time and when you let down your guard, they bring you down to Hades."
The whispering voice coursed through Luciano's mind again, ¹ⁿ'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places… Do not fear them. ²ⁿFor the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.'
"What worries you, Mother? What do you fear?"
Her mother gave him a forlorn smile. "My lips forbids to speak of what I fear in the open, Luciano. Here in Lucca, our fears are buried in our hearts. We fear to speak of the fear that grips and chains us. Here, fear is our master and we have learned to bend and live by its will."
"Mother, that is not a healthy way for people to live. If you let fear hold you prisoner this way, why then do you need the gods you profess to worship? Are they not able to protect and keep you?" Luciano asked. The shock on his mother's face mirroring what she suspects of him.
Aquilia looked at her son in brokenness. "Oh, Luciano. I fear what may happen to you. You speak as one of those that rebel against the empire – that rebel against the laws of our land and ancestors," she said hugging him.
In Lucca, mothers do not hug their grown sons because sons are considered the next in line to the patria potestas. It is believed that to hug a grown son, the son may likely end up not having the firmness and strictness required to manage a household. Therefore the upbringing of the sons is more strict than that of the daughters. The women – mothers and daughters – are under the authority of the men of the household, that at the adolescent age of 14, mothers can no longer hug their young sons. However, Aquilia treated her children differently. Although she knows her place as her husband required of her, still her husband's love for her has allowed her certain freedom to cross some boundaries and enforce authority in minor things as long as it does not challenge his patria potestas. She remembered the last time she hugged the young Luciano at 14 years of age when he was about to journey to Rome with his first trade. He had pushed her away and scolded with a grumble, 'Mother, you are not to hug me. I am no more a babe. I am a man so treat me like one.'
Aquilia smiled sadly at the memory. Is that the same Luciano she is hugging right now. The same son that'd avoid her then and choose rather to stay with his father learning how to be a man and manage a large household. This same son reciprocating her hug and rubbing his large calloused hands over her back in quiet consolation?
Aquilia gently pushed away from his son and looked at his face, her love for his son shining in her eyes. "My son, I want to ask a favour of you," she said, uncertainty marring her features.
"What favour would that be, mother?" Luciano curiously asked.
"I love you, Luciano. Do you love your mother too?"
Luciano was confused not knowing what his mother wants, still, he answered, "Of course, mother. I love you. What son wouldn't love a mother as graceful as you?"
His mother gave him a small smile and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Then do this for me – for your family, for our lives. Drive away the young girl you brought home to us. Destruction follows her. Chase her away before it consumes our household."
Footnotes:
1. Peristylium: An open courtyard within the house/domus in ancient Roman.
2. Peristyle: A long row of columns surrounding a courtyard with a covered walkway around it (Portico)
3. Portico: A covered walkway supported by regularly spaced columns.
4. O Iisoús apántise: «To kyriótero eínai:« Akoúste, Israíl! O Kýrios o Theós mas eínai énas Kýrios. (Greek):
Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; (English Holy Bible NASB: Mark 12:29)
1n. Ephesians 6:12 (Holy Bible NASB)
2n. 2 Corinthians 10:4 (Holy Bible NASB)