Chapter 5: Part V
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.
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"I found Westeros a land of timber and brick and left it made of concrete and marble"
Joffrey Augustus, Emperor of Westeros and Essos - 356 AL
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King's Landing – 298 AL
"Honestly are you reading again?" Cersei Lannister addressed her oldest boy, once more finding him in his quarters with his nose in a book. "What is it this time?" she asked. "Another boring list of some non-entities ancestors?"
Octavian fought back the urge to groan at the unwelcome interruption. "It's a history of Essos concentrating on the Ghiscari Empire and their wars with the Valyrian Freehold" he told her. "From what I've read in here and other books the Ghiscari Legions were the finest heavy infantry ever fielded, thanks to their training and discipline."
"But they lost to the Valyrians didn't they?" Cersei responded, thinking she remembered that right.
"Only because the Freehold had dragons as far as I can see" Octavian told her, hardly a fair fight he thought to himself. "Do you want something Mother?" he asked.
Cersei took a seat next to him. "I've been meaning to talk to you ever since we made that horrible journey to Winterfell" she said. "You've never been much of an enthusiast for reading before but now you hardly do anything else, and when you're not reading you're behaving in a manner that I've never seen from you before" the Queen continued. "Others have noticed too, many others, and they're talking about it" she told him, "it has become a prime subject of gossip and debate throughout the Red Keep."
Octavian had been expecting this conversation for a while and naturally enough had planned for it. "So what are they saying about me?" he asked.
"Various things, not necessarily bad things, but some of the things you've been doing are simply bizarre" Cersei observed. "Asking members of the City Watch their names and then greeting them as such the next time you see them" she began. "Sitting in on the Small Council" she went on, "and according to our cousin Lancel he found you having a conversation with one of the servants about their wages and the cost of bread!" she exclaimed.
"If I don't know things I think are worth knowing I ask" Octavian replied. "I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know" he added, quoting Cicero although she wouldn't know that of course.
"But why would you want to know something like that?" Cersei asked in exasperation.
"Because details are important Mother" Octavian patiently replied. "The truth is made up of a multitude of interconnected facts and to understand the whole you need a grasp on that which collectively makes up that whole."
Cersei looked at him askance. "I have no idea what you're talking about" she said flatly.
"You're probably missing some of the details then" Octavian wryly observed, earning a glare in response.
"Just tell me what's going on with you" Cersei insisted, and since when did he bandy words about like Tyrion, she wondered?
Octavian closed his book. "Father happened" he replied.
Confused, Cersei pursed her lips. "Meaning what?" she asked.
"Meaning that during all that time we were travelling to Winterfell I got to see more of the King than I ever get to do here and a few things dawned on me" Octavian lied. "I say dawned on me, but it was a revelation more akin to a brick smacking me in the back of the head."
"What revelation?" Cersei wanted to know.
"That my father isn't really a very good king and because he's eating, drinking and whoring his way into an early grave I could end up inheriting the crown and having to start cleaning up his mess at almost any time" Octavian told her with a sigh. "One drunken fall down the stairs or trip over the battlements and I'm suddenly sitting on the Iron Throne with no better an idea what to do when I'm there than he does."
One secret to a good lie is that it should be something the person you are telling it to wants to hear, it will be believed much more readily then. Octavian knew that Cersei fervently disliked her husband, perhaps even hated him, and hearing from her own son that he also considered the man an incompetent oaf would make her receptive to believing everything else he said.
"He's very popular…" Cersei responded, a little uncertainly.
"He's the life and soul of the feast, always laughing and joking, and he was a good fighter too so people like him" Octavian agreed, "but being a good ruler isn't a popularity contest."
Cersei smiled. "Your grandfather Tywin would agree" she agreed in turn. "So you think reading all these books will help you rule Westeros when the time comes?"
"I hope so" Octavian replied. "If I hadn't wasted so many years enjoying myself I wouldn't have to work so hard at it now" he said sadly. "It's easy to be lazy and self-indulgent when there isn't any pressure on you to do something other than please yourself" he continued before frowning. "I suppose I actually did take after my father in a way there until now."
"Taking after your father, yes" Cersei concurred, nodding although Octavian noted there was an odd look in her eyes as she said it.
Octavian looked thoughtful. "Do you think people will think well of me now I'm trying to learn to be a good king or will they castigate me instead for being so indolent until now?" he asked.
"Who cares what anybody else thinks" Cersei dismissed his concern. "You are my darling boy and I'll make anybody that ever says anything bad about you regret their mistake" she told him, fiercely protective as ever.
Leading others to believe Prince Joffrey had always been intelligent, but that this had been hidden by being bone-idle, spoiled and generally apathetic as a child seemed the best approach to Octavian. Furthermore if people reasoned that much of his new understanding of politics was simply down to recent book-learning all the better.
Fortunately both Tywin and Tyrion Lannister were known for their own intellect so the Prince's cleverness should simply be attributed to his lineage Octavian hoped. "You know I think the Ghiscari had the right idea as regards their army" he commented, opening his book again. "Not just the training and discipline I mean," he continued, "their rulers didn't have to rely upon soldiers borrowed from the armies of various Noble Houses throughout their empire, they had a proper standing army as we should" he said. "An army trained and led by experienced soldiers instead of a mob of peasants who've never held pikes in their lives" he explained. "It took five wars before the Valyrians finally defeated Ghis forever, smashing their capital and sowing their fields with salt so they couldn't ever rise again" he said. "Do you imagine our small-folk levees being able to stand up that long against a foe supported by dragons, as the Lockstep Legions of Ghis did?" he asked rhetorically.
"And do you think the soldiers of your own new legions would be loyal to the crown or to where they come from?" Cersei asked him knowingly. "Would Northerners in this army be willing to fight against the Starks? Or boys from The Reach kill Tyrell bannermen?"
Octavian smiled. "They all come from Westeros" he said. "They just need to be persuaded to place their loyalty to the entire nation above their loyalty to some nobleman with the same accent as them sitting on his arse in some castle somewhere."
"Persuaded by force you mean" Cersei supposed. Joffrey was still apparently silly enough to think that would work she thought.
"No, persuaded by a vision of a better world for their children" Octavian replied. "Plus good pay and honest-to-goodness naked self-interest of course" he added confidently.
Notes:
Note from the author:
Octavian is well aware of the superiority of a well-trained, disciplined, full-time professional army over peasant levees, even a levee bolstered and led by the battle-hardened knights and nobles of Westeros. The late Republican Legions initially created by the reforms of Gaius Marius, and later well employed by his nephew Julius Caesar (Octavian's own uncle), were the best army of their era and Octavian is lucky to be able to point to the Lockstep Legions of the Ghiscari Empire when trying to make his case that Westeros needs a similar military.
Needless to say Octavian is also well aware of the interesting parallel between the Valyrian/Ghiscari Wars and the Roman/Carthaginian Wars of his own world (especially sowing the razed enemy capital with salt). ;)
In the contemporary era the Unsullied fight in the old Ghiscari fashion and New Ghis has its own Iron Legions following the example of their ancestors, so there are other more modern examples to point to as well (although I doubt you'll get many volunteers to go through the "training" and conditioning the Unsullied do!).
Joffrey wanted to create a professional military as well so this is a rare example where Octavian is on the same page as him.