Aetius Remembers...

We met them at the field. Our troops prevailed, but this was no victory. No invincible army standing strong. No honored Legionnaires gladly defending their Empire. We fought, the barbarians fought... and now, standing here, I wonder why.

For years we fought for her, for her undying glory. She was the Eternal City, bringing light and beauty to a savage world. She simply was, and we did not question it. It is not that we failed to see the fall into decadence... we lived it. When the screams of innocent victims in the Colosseum were drowned out by the roar of the mob, remember whom that mob was comprised of. It was not the Goths or the Scythians... just as it was not Attila who burned men alive to light his banquets.

Attila... I had him that day at Chalons. I had him in my power and could have destroyed him but I did not. Is it ironic that I could only save Rome by letting her enemy go? No matter. Later generations may debate as they like, I handled the situation as I saw fit... and that meant playing our barbarians against each other.

And in the end, of course, it was all in vain. She will fall, as she would have fallen had there been no Attila, no Huns, no war. For her true death is from the inside, by inches, while grey-haired men in white robes debate and point their fingers in blame. And all the while we have kept vigil, fought and died, filling the gaps in our ranks with men of the same stock as our foes. Even at Chalons we would never have prevailed were it not for an alliance with barbarians.

Theodoric and his Goths... Theodoric died in the battle-- trampled, they say, by his own cavalry. Another irony. For though I live and he dies, yet my people will fade and the barbarians flourish. And when it is all over, even our descendants will not know what it was that we fought for.


Omnia romae venalia sunt. Cecidit babylon magna. Finis.

Book Cover

So, on the advice of some friends, I thought I'd start posting some of my attempts at illustration/graphic design. This one is the cover for a heroic fantasy book my brother is self publishing.



The tower, the staraxe, triangle, flames, and lettering were done by hand with colored pencil, then scanned into the computer for some slight touching up and realignment. Finally I added the red background from a photograph. On the whole it ended up pretty well (better on paper, believe me). I'm not happy about the lettering though...

You can find out more about the book here.