The Uncrowned Queen

The story begins during the final glory of the Roman Republic.

Cicero's speeches denouncing the Catilinarian conspiracy are righteous and eloquent. Pompey captures Jerusalem and conquers Judea, once again expanding the Republic's borders and making its power resound across the world.

The agreement between Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, the First Triumvirate, is officially sealed, and they secretly plot to control Roman politics. To cement their alliance, Caesar gives his daughter Julia in marriage to Pompey, a man more than twenty years her senior.

Caesar campaigns in Gaul, winning immense wealth and renown. His military power and prestige are unmatched. Currents swirl beneath the surface of the Senate, and the former allies grow increasingly wary of one another. Conflict is just around the corner.

These were the Roman Republic's final days of glory.

By then, the Republic had expanded farther than ever before. After a century of accumulated strength, its legions had marched across three continents, its soldiers' weapons stained with blood. Rome's glory spread far and wide, its prosperity at its zenith and its illustrious name echoing throughout the world.

The cities blazed with splendor. The nobles' mansions were exquisite beyond compare, ivy wound around their colonnades, and the scents of Damask roses and irises mingled in a gentle embrace. Silk and jewels, wine and candlelight, songs and revelry filled the days and nights, like the gods feasting on Mount Olympus.

While pleasure-seeking nobles drowned themselves in luxury, wine from the island of Mytilene ran red as blood. A weeping girl lay beneath a man, just to earn a piece of bread. Perhaps just beyond a wall of white marble, Thanatos was reaping another lonely soul.

It was a time of lavish abundance, like oil in a blazing fire and flowers embroidered on brocade.

It was the most prosperous and magnificent age, and also the most chaotic and cruel.

At the end of an age of prosperity, an era of turmoil was about to begin, and a new golden age would soon follow.

This was the era into which Octavia and Octavian were born.

**************************The author has lost all sense of propriety divider***********************

Don't be fooled by this serious-sounding blurb and title, everyone... To sum the story up in one sentence, it's The Sacred Augustine Raising Diary! Other titles I considered include Big Sister, Little Brother, A Family of Siblings, The Untold Story of a Charming Little Brother and His Tender Big Sister, and Oh, Cold and Proud Uncrowned Ruler of the Empire, Why Must You Leave Your Widowed Sister Alone in Her Empty Chambers?... So, shrug, the story that follows will develop along these lines of cheerful snark and deadpan humor... (Get out of here!!)

--The real blurb should go like this:

Plot, as told by the heroine:

Have you ever read about a heroine who got sprayed with pee and poop by the hero the very first time they met?

Have you ever read about an innocent and adorable twelve-year-old girl, the flower of her youth, being lured away by a creepy old man with a piece of candy to become his wife?

Have you ever read about a young, stunning, pure-hearted heroine having her husband and the father of her children stolen by an empress who is neither younger, more beautiful, nor purer than she is?

Have you ever read about a saintly woman who was coldly cast aside, insulted, and forgotten by her husband, yet not only didn't resent the cheating scoundrel, but kindly raised his two children with his mistress?

Haven't? Oh no! Congratulations, your life experience is about to gain a new chapter.

Plot, as told by the hero:

See the first point above, the first time we met... All right, that was unavoidable. Babies are obviously adorable, so don't pick on them~~

I'm the one who raises the sacred Augustus, got it? I'm the childhood friend of the great Roman emperor, got it? There's an unspeakable, forbidden secret between me and my sister, got it? I consider myself the world's most successful comedian, got it?

All my life, I've acted brilliantly, outmaneuvered everyone, kept a heart of stone, and never met my match. I put on a grand and dazzling show. It really was a first-rate comedy. But even after Roman legions had marched across the world and Caesar's fame had spread far and wide, all the glory of Augustus's reign may not have been worth one peaceful nap with his head in her lap. The two most painful things in the world are this: she can never have what she wants, and he has lost her forever...

**************************The author's true nature has been fully exposed divider***********************

This story has no philosophical musings and no serious historical research. It has nothing but melodramatic romance, all kinds of outrageous twists, cringe, and ridiculousness.

The author is committed to digging up affairs, with love and melodrama as the two basic principles, and won't waver for a hundred years. The plot will absolutely turn everything upside down, and will inevitably make some historical figures act out of character... Read at your own risk =v=

Thanks to Sula for making the cover~ [Wait, Su... Sula?]