The Sandman - Issue 30- Fables and Reflections - Distant Mirrors - August

I woke up to write this recap this morning and realised I'm at Issue 30! Almost halfway there. I certainly did not imagine I'd still be doing this or that you readers would be here. I began these recaps to address the complaint of insufficient Sandman content on this Facebook page. Instead of adding my voice to the chorus, I decided to do something about it, so here we are. Thirty issues later, these recaps are now a part of my Sunday morning routine. Thank you all so much for the support.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest let's get down to it. The second tale in Fables and Reflections is also the second story in the Distant Mirrors quadrilogy. Titled simply 'August', it begins in the dark with a young boy suffering the silent agony of anticipated horrors, never crying because it isn't Roman.

We then move to the journal entry of Lycius, a dwarf mentioned by Suetonius as a small performer with a giant voice. Lycius is reaching the twilight of his life and chronicling events known to no one else. He highlights his interaction with the first Emperor of Rome, Caius Octavius, later known as Caesar Augustus.

Lycius is walking through what I presume is Domus Augusti on Palatine Hill, the primary residence of the Emperor. He brandishes a coin or seal that allows him entry by the Praetorian Guard before he's greeted rather impatiently by Livia Drusus, wife of Augustus. While first puzzled by his appearance, she soon realises the reasons for Lycius's presence and directs him scowling to her husband.

The actor finds Augustus, now in his sixties, in his private chambers. Lycius has brought a sample of scaldrum dodge, a concoction of soap, bone, fat and ashes (apparently acids and gunpowder) used by beggars to simulate blisters and scarring. Lycius tells Augustus a Persian merchant first introduced him to the stuff and how paupers use it to improve their begging prospects. Augustus notes that the scaldrum dodge smells awful, and Lycius rightly points out that beggars rarely smell like roses. A mild dousing in vinegar and the concoction works, reacting with the acids to leave Augustus and Lycius seemingly scarred and ulcerated.

Augustus is impressed, uttering that immortal saying 'Quicker than boiled asparagus' or velocius quam asparagi coquantor.

Wearing an eye patch and reminding Lycius that he is to be addressed by his given name, Caius, the duo leave the Palatine, passing by the Temple of Avenging Mars (sadly a ruin these days and better known as the Temple of Mars Ultor) to approach the Forum of August. As they walk, Caius asks Lycius's age, and we learn the actor is twenty-two while Caius is approaching his seventies. The gods granted him a long life, and he repaid it by rebuilding Rome. Others followed his example, and as a result, Augustus turned Rome from a city of brick to the finest marble.

Lycius offers Caius food, but the Emperor declines, revealing he eats simple fare these days and not much of it. The actor is puzzled by this. In Caius's position, he would be gorging himself on delicacies. But he is not Emperor, Caius reminds Lycius pointedly, and neither is he today, at least until sunset.

As Lycius instructs Caius on the rudiments of beggar craft, Caius voices his dislike of actors, claiming the make-believe profession is one of lying and deception. Lycius is aware of this, reminding Caius that the Emperor has banned the nobility from taking up the craft, and only Lycius gained dispensation because his disability gave him few other prospects in life. Cauis concedes the point for today because, on this occasion, he needs to be an actor. Lycius hopes he does better than Pylades (a pantomime dancer of the time), who was exiled for reacting to a heckling audience. As Emperor, Caius does not regret this. He banished Pylades not for his performance but for disrespecting his audience, in other words - Rome.

The day continues, and the marketplace fills with people going about their daily business, barely noticing the two beggars on the steps of one of the many fine buildings in the Forum of Augustus. On behalf of the audience, Lycius asks Caius why he is doing this. Caius tells him it's because of a dream. This immediately prompts Lycius into a story about digging for treasure at his father's estate because of one, but Caius has nothing so whimsical in his response. Dreams coming through the Ivory gates lie but dreams slipping through the horn gates tell truths. Caius is plagued with dark dreams that lie, but the true dreams have saved his life.

Then there is the dream that sent him here.

Lycius relates his dream of Julius Caesar and how he wished he met the great man. Of course, Caius would know him. Caesar was his father. Caius is quick to correct Lycius on this point. Caesar was his uncle, not his father. He is an heir by adoption. In silence, Caius remembers their first meeting at his grandmother's funeral and how Caesar's eyes awed him. To the boy he was, Caesar was his uncle, hero and a god, A great man.

This prompts a discussion on family, and Lycius is sure he is an embarrassment to his own. While the foundation of Rome is family, Caius's own are sores. His biological daughter Julia is disgraced, and his granddaughter cavorts about town with men and women alike. His laments are interrupted by bystanders dropping copper coins into his beggar's bowl, receiving good wishes for their charity. Some dismiss him, believing the gods who leave him incapable of working should also be responsible for feeding him.

Despite Lycius's amusement, Caius agrees with the sentiment. They cannot defy the will of the gods. He explains his role as ruler, general and priest in the Roman world. When Lycius doubts the gods, Caius assures him they exist. Some are even more powerful than Jupiter. Terminus for instance. The Inner mysteries speak of the Seven who stand behind the gods, who are not even worshipped. Lycius states that Julius is now a god, the Divine Julius. Caius supposes he will be one too. Already, people are exaggerating his birth by stories of his mother being impregnated by a snake. It is a claim Caius dismisses as nonsense because he knows he was born of his mother and father.

Instead, Caius would prefer to be dead and a god. In death, his crimes would be absolved, his mistakes forgotten. The Emperor is fully aware of his sins and the deaths he's ordered to protect Rome. Lycius sees little difference between his eventual godhood and the power he now possesses. Augustus is master over millions, his dominion vast, and his people love him for filling their bellies and giving them peace. How is being a god any better?

When he is a god, Caius answers, he will no longer be afraid.

He remembers waking up as a terrified old man in his bed, thinking for a moment he is still that frightened boy on that dark night so long ago and everything since is an illusion. He calls for the storyteller in the anteroom, awaiting his call. Caius sleeps alone but is terrified of solitude. Only a story can assuage the night's terror and put him back to sleep.

In the midday sun, the square empties, and Caius relates his first voyage to join his uncle on a campaign. It's a difficult journey that results in a shipwreck, ransom and cross-country escape before he finally arrives in Spain. For young Caius, it's a boy's adventure, and he is excited. After spending time together, Caesar leaves for Rome while Caius waits in Apollonia, intending to join his uncle for Caesar's next campaign.

History decides differently, of course. Caesar is assassinated, and Caius leaves Apollonia that very day, vowing to avenge him. When Lycius says Caius must have loved Caesar very much, he is surprised to learn it is far from the truth. Caius hated him.

Lycius asks about Rome in the days of the Republic, and Caius answers that it was chaos held at bay by a handful of men, such as Cicero. He admits that Cicero was the last of the giants, a great orator and then reveals he had him killed. For history buffs, the actual killing was done by Mark Anthony, but the then Octavian went along to preserve their alliance. Of course, Cicero hadn't done himself any favours either by bad-mouthing both.

Caius claims he is not a vain man. Augustus's name is taken from the word 'august', hoping piety would elevate Rome's fortunes. Even naming a month after himself is a fleeting bit of fancy. Caius has no doubt it will change after his demise. No, he aims to leave Rome with something more substantial than the name of a month. He wants to leave behind an empire.

Then why isn't he a king, Lycius asks. Caius explains that Romans do not follow kings. They follow commanders. He puzzles at the dichotomy of human nature, where people can take all his power but choose instead to continue following him or others like him when these so-called 'leaders' know no more than them. On the other hand, followers are realising the dreams of their leaders.

The discussions pause at the generous donation of a former slave who built himself a prosperous life once freed from his bondage. Now a merchant, the former slave does not forget where he came from and how easily he can lose all he has gained. The man goes on his way, mindful of how capricious fate can be. After all, no one can know the future.

Caius disagrees, having brought together from the Office of Marcus Lepidus every volume of prophecy. Two thousand were destroyed, the others transcribed and edited. Only two hold any importance for him. The first speaks of a future where Rome's rule is finite and will go the way of the Greeks, collapsing several hundred years later, assailed by barbarians and new gods. The second is far more optimistic, a Rome that lasts ten thousand years. The prophecies gave him the blueprint of what to do. Caesar knew this and spoke of it to Caius in Spain. His uncle's dreams for Rome were far grander than history allowed it to be.

He asks Lycius if the actor is afraid of him. When the actor says he isn't, Caius reminds him that it would be easy for the Emperor to snuff out his life. He demonstrates this by his deft approach to vermin control. A little bit more aware of his vulnerability, Lycius cannot disagree but still wants to know why Cauis is begging in the marketplace.

Because he had a dream.

After waking up again in terror, Caius summons a storyteller, but who arrives is not anyone he recognises. The pale stranger with eyes of stars recounts to him the story of his arrival in Spain and how something terrible happened to him the first night he spent in his uncle's camp. Outraged by the knowledge possessed by this stranger, Caius demands to know the intruder's identity. The Lord Shaper does not give his name but reveals he is here as a favour to a god. Gods begin in his realm and return there to die once they are no longer worshipped.

Caius realises this is a dream, and the raven that introduces himself as Aristeas of Marmora confirms it. The Emperor realises that Aristeas became the raven of Apollo and asks if the stranger is Apollo. Morpheus does not admit to being Apollo, although he is sometimes mistaken for the sun god. He is himself and has come as a favour to Terminus, the god who walks the boundaries. Terminus has asked Morpheus to help Caius out of his troubles.

Caius is unhappy that the gods watch him and know what ails him. Morpheus guesses rightly that Caius has plans he wants to keep secret, even from his gods. The Lord of Dreams advises that Caius should become a beggar in the marketplace for one day a year, panhandling for coppers so the gods are tricked into not paying attention. He should make his plans on that day.

And with that advice, Caius awakes.

This confuses Lycius. All this pantomime has been because an unnamed messenger in his dreams came to tell him to think in the marketplace so he could hide from the gods? Why? Which god frightens him so. To no one surprise, it's the Divine Julius. Julius paved Caius's path to the Emperor, who taught him how to gain power and hold it to expand Rome beyond its boundaries. Caius has realised this dream. He's made Rome the pinnacle of civilisation and its people prosperous.

Thanks to Morpheus' advice, Caius can make his plans. He knows Rome will live as long as there is territory to conquer, but even Jupiter must bow to Terminus, the lord of boundaries. With this revelation, the charade is over. Caius bids Lycius farewell with the caution to never speak of this encounter to anyone. He can keep the coppers.

Augustus returns to his residence, dismissing the cloak he's worn through the day and taking up the mantle of Emperor once more. On his way to his chambers, he asks for a storyteller as he prepares for bed. When he does lay his head to sleep, he dreams.

He is the boy in the bed, ill and tired. His uncle enters the room and rapes him. Through the agony, he is promised an empire. The boy says nothing but takes the violation, night after night. Never crying.

We return to Lycius's journal and the results of what came of that day in the marketplace. At last, Lycius comprehends Caius's last words to him. Even Jupiter must bow to Terminus. Augustus set Rome's boundaries, limiting its ability to expand. Now Rome is beset by lesser leaders, fractures are appearing, and the ten thousand-year Rome is fading into the sand. Was this what Caius intended? Lycius does not know but suspects it is due to the dream that awakens the Emperor screaming.

Whatever the dream, it's Caius's secret to take to Olympus or the grave.

And there you have it. August. Neil, if you're listening - when it's time to cast these roles for Netflix, please get Brian Cox and Peter Dinklage. I can see no one else in these parts.

Finally, these recaps have been longer due to the complex nature of the last two entries. I hope you enjoyed them.

NEXT - Issue 31 - Three Septembers and a January

PREVIOUS - Issue 29 - Thermidor