Word: cejonius
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...friend and protector, the Emperor Nero. Varro had grown to like and understand the East; thanks to his money and his sympathetic shrewdness he had become one of the most potent men in Syria. Then fate sent to Antioch, as Roman Governor, Varro's old acquaintance and antipathy, Cejonius. Because Cejonius, a cut-&-dried type of administrator, did Varro down on the little matter of a tax bill, Varro privately swore vengeance. He soon found a way to get even...
...made him and his memory extremely popular in the East; the present government, with less flexible policies, was not. Varro's idea: to start the rumor that Nero had reappeared, then palm off his protege Terence as the revivified Emperor, thus stir up hornets for penny-pinching Cejonius. Varro knew it was a dangerous plan, decided to try it anyhow, to satisfy his revenge and political curiosity...
...scheme worked smoothly. Rumors of Nero's reappearance spread just like hornets, stung awake the disaffection already smoldering under Cejonius' inept rule. Varro, who had craftily let some bordering native princes in on his secret, withdrew from Cejonius' jurisdiction and watched the Roman frontier go up in flames. A few hints to Protege Terence had been enough to set him practicing Nero's every remembered gesture. Soon he was fit to be seen by everybody but his wife, who thought he had gone crazy. For a while everything went so well that Varro began to think...
...Roman Governor, now thoroughly alarmed, waited watchfully. "Nero's" rule, at first wildly popular, grew into hated tyranny as "Nero's" hangers-on, whom Varro found it harder & harder to control, made hay by killing and confiscating right & left. By the time Cejonius was removed from his post and a new Governor came out from Rome with enough troops to stamp out the rebellion, "Nero's" government was collapsing from its own rottenness. Crafty Varro did not wait to gloat over Cejonius' downfall or to see what became of his puppet. He took refuge with...
| 1 |