(Originally titled Defiling the Saint. Belisarius: the Eastern Roman war god, captor of two kings, nearly the conqueror of three kingdoms, the green-haired giant tortoise, moral exemplar, porridge-bar regular, saintly altruist, incompetent husband, weak and henpecked... All these titles belong to Belisarius. And I want a mentor like Belisarius... Rich in research experience, with multiple first-author papers in SCI journals and Q1 journals like Nature, not a pushy supervisor, good-natured, wealthy, and generous...)
If this were an ABO setting, it would definitely be a mature female Alpha and a burly male Beta (their initials even match). It features 4i, and the gender dynamics are interchangeable.
Belisarius: I served only one person as king my entire life, and I only ever did it with one person. Obviously, that's my wife.
Antonia is a race car driver's daughter, a general's wife, the head of the engineers, and the empress's adviser. She used to be a prostitute, too. What kind of scene hasn't she seen?
When she joked with her adopted son Theodosius, right in front of Belisarius, about heretical blasphemy that only the two of them could understand, Antonia knew exactly what Justinian wanted. By desecrating Belisarius and trampling on his true feelings and dignity, they hoped to provoke a saint's rebellion.
"Of all words, I hate obedience most and love freedom best."
"Yet as a Christian and a soldier, I must obey."
Main pairing: Belisarius x Antonia. A little Justinian x Theodora.
Older woman and younger man. The woman is not a virgin, the man is. A gorgeous shrew x a devoted general.
Based on The Last Consul / Count Belisarius, The Wars, and The Secret History. In front of Antonia, Belisarius is a pure little white flower, then an old white flower (x). The ending follows the original, with both of them dying.
Theme: "The last Roman"
