When the emperor wants someone dead he only has to send a message. The bearer of that message needs to witness the suicide of the undesired individual. Once death has been confirmed, the witness will report the done deed to a questor, who will report to a praetor, who will report to a magister, who will report to the emperor, if he is in a proper state of mind.

A man is traversing a main street in the middle of the night, wearing his black toga and a long broom on one shoulder - signifiers of his position as an imperatorial witness. Black toga for the black news that he carries, a broom - for the trash that he helps remove from the world of the living. At least that was emperor Nero's interpretation. People distance themselves from the man and his ilk, naturally, but he doesn't mind. People say that the man was a retired legionary, a career that explained his limping, others said that he was some Phoenician, because of his unusual features. The man doesn't bother with trifle gossip. He is on his way to the temple of Mors, leaving a memento from the last suicide he witnessed. It was an old patrician, <span class="mu-i">'an enemy of the state'</span>, proud until the last moment. Soon the task is complete.

The man fingers a final letter on the inside of his toga, one last state sanctioned death is to be carried out until the night is over. He reaches an oakwood gate surrounded my high marble walls and knocks, a slave's voice is heard from inside - "Yes?"

<span class="mu-i">"I'm carrying a degree, approved and sealed by our Pontifex Maximus and Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, addressed to..."


>Xanthos, the Athenian philosopher

>Flavia Florens, the matrona of this house

>Decimus Bubo, the satirical actor</span>