\u2026though Hadassah had no facts or foundation for what she felt, she was convinced something dark and sinister was beneath the man\u2019s smooth facade. Whenever Caius looked at her, she felt chilled by that dark, unblinking stare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I don\u2019t want to discount this. I\u2019ve gotten weird vibes from people before, only to learn later that they were busted for child molesting. I don\u2019t discount vibes. However, I worry that stories like this\u2014where the good Christian correctly senses that something is off while others don\u2019t\u2014may suggest to evangelical readers that they will recognize an abuser when they meet one. As we know from many many many cases, that is frequently not the case.\u00a0Christians don\u2019t come equipped with potential-abuser detectors.<\/p>\n
Note, too, that Hadassah never had a problem with Claudius. In fact, she urged Julia to give Claudius a chance, and she viewed Claudius as a good, honorable man. Never mind that Claudius, at 50, had married a 15-year-old girl, thinking she might be the reincarnation of his dead wife. Never mind that Claudius forced himself on a 15-year-old child even though she found his sexual advances repulsive, and shuddered when she thought of it. Never mind that Claudius didn\u2019t care a whit about Julia\u2019s happiness.<\/p>\n
Both<\/em> of these men approached Julia with only their own interests in mind. Both<\/em> of them treated her as an object placed on earth to fulfill their<\/em> needs. Neither of these men cared what Julia wanted. True, Claudius never laid a hand to Julia (as Caius will), but then, he was angry enough the day he went after her on his horse that he might well have done so had he found her\u2014and if he had, who would Hadassah have blamed? Julia. If Julia hadn\u2019t run off to the ludus alone \u2026 and after all, Claudius was just trying to protect<\/em> her.<\/p>\nThe double standard in how Rivers treats Claudius and Caius is disgusting.<\/p>\n
Hadassah wishes she had someone she could talk with about her concerns about Caius, but alas, Marcus is (apparently) her only confidant and he is conveniently still away on business. Phoebe is charmed by Caius, but Rivers keeps coming back to Hadassah\u2019s spider senses.<\/p>\n
\u2026it was as though Hadassah\u2019s soul caught a glimpse of something malevolent and dangerous hidden beneath the polished manners and good looks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m grinding my teeth here. Seriously, Rivers? Seriously? Caius is malevolent and dangerous \u2026 but Claudius was good and upstanding and honorable. Caius may be a horrible abusive shit, but he\u2019s not an old man marrying a child for his own gratification, and he\u2019s going to give Julia the life she wanted\u2014parties and games and shows. He\u2019s not smothering her the way Claudius did. Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014I am absolutely on team Caius is the worst<\/em>. What\u2019s grating is that Hadassah has picked this up but thought Claudius was the best<\/em>.<\/p>\nAlso, Rivers is engaging in some not-so-subtle signaling to her evangelical audience in her word choice here. She is using the sort of words Frank Peretti uses when writing\u00a0about people with demons whispering in their ears. There is something spiritual going on here. Caius isn\u2019t just an abusive narcissistic shit, he\u2019s malevolent<\/em>. Claudius, meanwhile, was upstanding and kind and gentle and so forth. Hadassah\u2019s greatest regret regarding Claudius was that she never witnessed to him\u2014he was, we are to believe, open to the gospel.<\/p>\nDo you know what\u2019s getting me? All of the men in Julia\u2019s life so far have been abusive, but Rivers does not know that<\/em>.<\/p>\nI could clearly spend my entire post on this, so let me move on\u2026<\/p>\n
Everyone is happy happy happy at the wedding. Julia is radiant, wearing a white plus and orange shoes. Phoebe is proud of how beautiful her daughter looks. A pig is sacrificed, and Hadassah feels nauseous at the blood\u2014I\u2019m curious whether she would have been exposed to animal sacrifice while in Judea. Perhaps even if she was, all of the blood she saw in the sack of Jerusalem\u00a0changed her reaction? It doesn\u2019t read that way, though\u2014Rivers seems to be emphasizing that animal sacrifice was pagan and barbaric, and that good Christians were properly horrified at the sight.<\/p>\n
We do learn this of the wedding guests:<\/p>\n
Most of those attending the wedding were there purely out of social obligation to Decimus Valerian, their patron. Few who knew Julia had any fondness for her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Rivers seems to think she is emphasizing how selfish and horrid Julia is with this comment\u2014I mean no one<\/em> likes her\u2014but somehow it only makes me feel more sorry for her. Did she have no friends growing up? Were there no adults outside of the family that invested in her? What happened that made her friendless? And just as important\u2014why does Marcus seemingly have lots of friends? Isn\u2019t Marcus already\u00a0as hedonistic as Julia wants to be? Is the problem that Julia was born female, making these traits unattractive?<\/p>\nAlso, what is it with the Hadassah kitchen scenes at Julia\u2019s weddings?<\/p>\n
Summoned to the kitchen, Hadassah was handed a silver tray of goose liver molded into a horrific beast with exaggerated genitals. Mortified at the obscene offering, she clanged the tray back onto the counter and drew back from it with revulsion. \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter with you? If you\u2019ve done damage to my work, I\u2019ll have the hide flogged off of you. The master asked expressly for that dish. Now take it out and serve it to your mistress.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo!\u201d she said without thinking, horrified at the very idea of offering something so grotesque to Julia. The blow the cook gave her sent her back agains the cupboard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This time the wedding feast is at Caius\u2019 villa, not the Valerians\u2019, so this cook is not Sejanus. At the feast celebrating\u00a0Julia\u2019s marriage to Claudius, as you may remember, Sejanus, the cook, asked Hadassah to carry dishes that were considered unclean under\u00a0Jewish law. Hadassah gushed over the dishes and congratulated Sejanus over them, but when Sejanus offered her a taste, Enoch, the Jewish slave who was responsible for purchasing her, objected. I suspect we\u2019re meant to see this exchange as contrast\u2014Hadassah has no problem with food considered unclean under Jewish law, but she does<\/em> have a problem with food\u00a0shaped like a penis. Priorities.<\/p>\nAs the feast ends and Caius and Julia leave for bed, Phoebe tells Hadassah that she will be returning to the Valerians\u2019 villa. \u201cCaius told us he\u2019s arranged for servants for Julia already and has released you from your duties to her,\u201d Phoebe tells her. But before I close, I want to make two more points.<\/p>\n
In this section we are told that Phoebe is completely taken in by Caius, but we aren\u2019t told until much later that Decimus was not.\u00a0Here is an excerpt from a conversation between Decimus and Marcus much later, on page 351-352:<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Caius beat [Hadassah],\u201d Decimus said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you know the beating was meant for Julia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. Your sister and mother were blinded by Caius\u2019 charm. I was not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you prevent the marriage?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I didn\u2019t want to lose my daughter completely! I forced her into an unwanted marriage, and that turned out to be a disaster. I couldn\u2019t interfere with one she chose for herself. \u2026 Sometimes, no matter how much you want to protect your children, you have to let them make their own mistakes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now yes, Roman women often had more freedom in a second marriage, and yes, Julia likely wouldn\u2019t have listened if Decimus had aired his concerns. But I find I\u2019m still bothered. Decimus let\u00a0this marriage go forward with nary a word of caution. For Julia to make her own informed decisions, she needed information<\/em>. She didn\u2019t have that.\u00a0Decimus tells Marcus that \u201cAll you can do is hold on to the hope that they\u2019ll turn to you when they need you.\u201d But\u2014spoiler!\u2014Julia doesn\u2019t turn to Decimus when she ultimately recognizes Caius as abusive. Surprise!<\/p>\nI get that Julia wasn\u2019t in a listening mood, and I get that Decimus has forfeited any right he may have had to be listened to<\/em>. But this still feels wrong.<\/p>\nNext, Rivers tells us that this time Julia is married coemptio<\/em>.<\/p>\nI am by no means an expert on Roman marriage law, but from what I\u2019ve read, both conferreatio (Julia\u2019s marriage to Caludius) and coemptio (Julia\u2019s marriage to Caius) were \u201ccum manu\u201d forms of marriage. This meant that the bride transferred to her husband. However, it is my understanding that by 70 AD, cum manu marriage was rare. Most women preferred sine manu marriage, which allowed them and their property to remain with their family rather than transferring to their husband\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n
Rivers appears to only be aware of \u201ccum manu\u201d marriage. Julia\u2019s third marriage (not to look too far ahead here) is by\u00a0usus<\/em>,\u00a0which is the third and final form of \u201ccum manu\u201d marriage, and which had become obsolete during this period. If Decimus was as concerned about Caius as we\u2019re told he was, he could have had Julia married \u201csine manu\u201d which would have allowed for easy divorce and would have protected Julia\u2019s property from speculation by Caius (Julia\u2019s money\u00a0would have remained with her family). But again\u2014I\u2019m not sure that Rivers is aware of \u201csine manu\u201d marriage, despite its being the most common form of marriage used by women of Julia\u2019s status.<\/p>\nWhew<\/em>. We\u2019ve covered a lot this week\u2014from Hadassah\u2019s selective abuser detecting spidey sense to Hadassah\u2019s revulsion for penis cakes to Decimus silence on Caius\u2019 true nature to Rivers\u2019 selective knowledge of Roman marriage laws. Next week we find out how Marcus reacts when he returns from business to find his sister married. If only they\u2019d sent a raven.<\/p>\nI have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m grinding my teeth here. Seriously, Rivers? Seriously? Caius is malevolent and dangerous … but Claudius was good and upstanding and honorable. Caius may be a horrible abusive shit, but he’s not an old man marrying a child for his own gratification, and he’s going to give Julia the life she wanted—parties and games and shows. He’s not smothering her the way Claudius did. Don’t get me wrong—I am absolutely on team Caius is the worst. What’s grating is that Hadassah has picked this up but thought Claudius was the best. <\/p>\n
Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":33568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[630],"class_list":["post-33551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-voice-in-the-wind"],"yoast_head":"\n
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