Cassiviria Julia Donata, junior priestess in the Temple of Jupiter, must prove that Julius Caesar is a brutal megalomaniac, before he seizes full power.

SYNOPSIS:

Cassiviria Julia Donata is something of an odd duck, as Julius Caesar ascends the cursus honorum. For one thing, while dryads are semi-divine beings, almost expected to be in dedicated religious service, her allegiance is primarily to Jupiter, rather than Demeter, or even Hera. Of course, her colleagues rarely hesitate to agree that she's earned her place in the temple. Aptitudes in law, rhetoric, history, and governance are exactly what the king of the gods expects from his most devoted followers.

Recently, that has been compounded by her being in the right place, at the right time. Or perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time. Donata has discovered that part of the groundwork for Caesar's ambitions for extended time in office, and power thereunto, was a deliberate decision to exploit his own constituents' deaths to advance his status. This is beyond the petty venality of politics that one might expect of many magistrates. Genuinely cold, calculated, and sickening.

But before she can act, she must prove it. Unquestionably. And more than prove it, uncover the depths of his scheming. Determine the totality of his plans, such that the piety of Roman high society can hound him to the depths of Hades' domain. (Donata's been there. Not the most pleasant of trips.)

Caesar, and his fall, have been household knowledge for centuries. A depiction of his rise, augmented by a judicious dose of Roman mythology for flavor and thematic accuracy? Not so much. Structural resemblances to Succession, The West Wing, and Percy Jackson are nigh-inevitable, which is far from a bad thing.