#new rome

[lilsillustration]

Camp Jupiter & New Rome

[working-mans-blog]

Paul uses one of those razor blade subscription services and, since it's cheap, sends Percy at New Rome University a spare pack every time he gets a delivery. Percy keeps a MUCH cleaner shave than Paul does, who kind of keeps it scruffy. Unfortunately, one time, there's a shipping error as Paul's package is lost in the mail, so nobody gets razors.

Percy doesn't consider it much initially, but as days go by without a shave, he starts to build up stubble - something incredibly uncommon for him. People turn their heads and tease him a bit until the stubble grows into a shadow, grows into a beard.

Suddenly, nobody teases Percy. They give him a wide berth, and on more than one occasion, a younger New Roman called him "Sir" reverently. Now, when Percy delivers some Classic Snark during a lecture or between classes, it's not met with snickers and eye-rolls. It feels scathing in a way it never had before. Now things that Percy pokes fun at are corrected, and people nod along to his comments as though they were suggestions - no, expectations.

Sure enough, people relax a bit when some new razor cartridges come in, and Percy shaves again, and things go back to normal. Percy isn't sure why people acted odd for a week or two there. Then Annabeth, who (tactfully) avoided kissing him for that duration, points out, "You look a lot like your dad."

[sadhalfblood]

Redraw of a pretty old one! I think this was meant to be a college au but I genuinely don’t remember 😭

I’m projecting how I was in college onto Percy tehehe

[theendlessnessofbeingme]

Roman Demi god: Who’s in charge here?

Greek Demi god: Well, usually it’s whoever yells the loudest (points to Percy and Clarisse in a screaming match)

[sodamnbored]

Octavian, scowling: You’re a terrible influence on Jason. He called me a bad name yesterday and I know it’s because he’s been spending too much time with you.

Nico, unfazed: Oh. Did he call you a bitch?

Octavian, stiffly: No, he did not call me a B-word.

Nico, conversationally: Oh. Then, did he call you a cunt?

Octavian: No, he most certainly did not.

Nico, shrugging: Then he didn’t get it from me.

[vyky]

Romans calling Percy Perseus is not even a headcanon to me anymore, I consider it canon atp

[helenofsparta2]

I am a committed member of the “Percy is extremely weird, even by demigod standards” agenda and the newest piece I think about regarding that is the fact that Percy seems to be strangely adapt at understanding Latin, especially compared to other demigods from Camp Half-Blood.

Throughout Heroes of Olympus, it is made pretty clear that greek demigods have issues speaking and even understanding latin.

Annabeth, for example, admits in Mark of Athena that she has some trouble with it:

Annabeth said nothing. She knew very little about the Roman goddess. She wished she had studied up, but Latin never came as easily to her as Greek. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 4, Annabeth)

When Jason recites the prophecy of the seven at the campfire in “The Lost Hero”, the campers had very obvious troubles understanding it (despite all, or most, of them already knowing the contents of the prophecy he is reciting.) Piper doesn’t even understand a single word, and is only able to discern that it is Latin that he is speaking:

An uneasy silence settled on the group. Piper could see from their faces that several of them were trying to translate the lines. She could tell it was Latin, but she wasn’t sure why her hopefully future boyfriend was suddenly chanting like a Catholic priest. (The Lost Hero, Chapter 10, Piper)

In the same book, Chiron states that greek demigods are merely able to recognize a few phrases at most and that no one can speak latin fluently without practice.

 “You know Latin,” Chiron observed. “Most demigods recognize a few phrases, of course. It’s in their blood, but not as much as Ancient Greek. None can speak Latin fluently without practice.” (The Lost Hero, Chapter 7, Jason)

Yet, it is a bit of a different story for Percy.

He not only has a relatively easy time understanding Latin, but he has actively spoken it in the past. By far not as well or fluently as Jason obviously, but still to some degree.

In fact, the beginning of his understanding of Latin in son of Neptune is remarkably similar to the beginning of his understanding of Greek in “The Lightning thief."

Just compare these two scenes. One from the beginning of Son of Neptune, and one from the beginning of The Lightning Thief:

‘They won’t attack,’ Reyna said, ‘unless you try to steal something, or unless I tell them to. That’s Argentum and Aurum.’ ‘Silver and Gold,’ Percy said. The Latin meanings popped into his head like Hazel had said they would. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 3, Percy)

“The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into,” Chiron told me. “Its name is Anaklusmos.” “‘Riptide,’” I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 10)

Important note here: The scene in Son of Neptune was still when Hazel thought he was a roman demigod. Meaning his understanding of Latin seems to have an equal progression to how a roman demigod would understand Latin in his situation.

Now, obviously these were only a couple words and still align with Chiron’s description of the ability of Greek demigods to understand a couple words and phrases, but we have other direct comparisons, that show that Percy’s understanding seems to be a bit more advanced than other demigods.

For example, we do have direct comparison like that between Percy and Annabeth.

Again, let’s look at these two scenes from Son of Neptune and Mark of Athena respectively:

As Hazel marched down the hill, she cursed in Latin. Percy didn’t understand all of it, but he got son of a gorgon, power-hungry snake, and a few choice suggestions about where Octavian could stick his knife. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 4, Percy)

A statue of Terminus exploded into being, right in front of Annabeth. He yelled at her in Latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker; but she pushed the statue over and kept running. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 4, Annabeth)

“No doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker” Meaning, Annabeth only assumes what he says from his tone of voice and the circumstances and doesn’t actually understand it. In contrast to Percy actually understanding most of what Hazel was saying.

A little bit later in Son of Neptune, Frank, who is a roman demigod, and has spent six weeks actively learning Latin in Camp Jupiter admits to having a bit of trouble understanding Ella when she recites the prophecy in the library:

Ella twitched uncomfortably. ‘Alaska. Six hundred twenty-six thousand, four hundred twenty-five square miles. State mammal: the moose.’ Suddenly she switched to Latin, which Frank could just barely follow thanks to his classes at Camp Jupiter. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 36, Frank)

Yet, Percy is perfectly capable of understanding the very same prophecy. A prophecy he has never heard, in contrast to the demigods at camp half blood. He seems to be just as capable of understanding it as Hazel and Frank are:

‘Camp,’ Ella muttered. Then in Latin: ‘“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.”’ ‘Uh, right,’ Percy said. ‘That sounds important, but we can talk about that later. (…) ‘We’ll see her again,’ Percy promised, but he frowned uneasily, as if he were really troubled by that last bit of prophecy – the thing about Athena. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 36, Frank)

But that is not all. Percy even spoke Latin as far back as the lightning thief:

“Zeus will destroy you!” she promised. “Hades will have your soul!” “Braccas meas vescimini!” I yelled. I wasn’t sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant “Eat my pants!” (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 10)

He didn’t even plan on speaking it, it just came to him as naturally as greek does to other greek demigods.

And I know some people will say “he had Latin in school. Chiron was his Latin teacher after all”.

Listen, I had Latin in school. I had Latin in school for close to 8 years and did an extra course at university for my history degree. You do not learn to speak Latin in school. At all. Especially in grade six. At this point you have some very simple sentences in Latin that you have to translate, and maybe learn like twenty vocabularies. You have sentences like “Julia puella est. Cornelia puella est. Julia et Cornelia puellae sunt.” You certainly don’t learn grammar, the conjugation of passive verbs like viscimini, declinations of “Bracca” or to use all of these words in a coherent sentence. Unless the American education system regarding Latin is completely different than the german one  and you guys learn to actively communicate in Latin and have a bunch of 12 year old prodigies, I can assure you, this did not stem from his Latin classes.

Now, do I believe that this was intentional on Rick’s part? No. Not at all.

Am I interpreting too much in a few little lines? Definitely.

But it’s written in these books, so I am free to interpret and use it however I well may please.

[dreamyswordpath]

The Romans don't like ambiguous situations. They hate power vacuums. If there's one thing their history has taught them, it's that the lack of secure leadership leads to civil wars or, horror, having an Emperor.

Therefore, it is understandable that Jason's disappearance makes everyone want to fill that void immediately.

Of course, Jason is important for camp. But it's even more important not to risk Reyna or someone else taking absolute power.

Reyna is under pressure. It is she who continues to refuse to have another praetor chosen. She is convinced that Jason is alive - on what evidence, who knows, - and even if the fifth cohort tells her to be more flexible, she does not give in.

Jason wouldn't do it in her place; why would she do it? Unfortunately, Octavian and the Senate are very vocal about it, and rumours are circulating about his possible responsibility for Jason's disappearance (circulated by Octavian or one of his lackeys) and her ambition for power. Of course Reyna is ambitious. She is a Roman. But she certainly does not aspire to absolute domination! What a headache!

But rumours are a problem, and she has to have her hands free to keep looking for Jason. Thankfully, demigods have a long line of stories to draw inspiration from. And what did Penelope do to prevent her from being given a new husband?

Reyna: So, if you want to become a preator, you must [insert very dangerous and impossible task to do]. If you do it, you will be the new preator. Octavian: This is absurd! You can't do it! Reyna: Why not? No rule prohibits it. Octavian: No, but... Reyna: Man up, Octavian. If you want to become praetor, you have to work for it.