Roman Hidden Ones

The Roman Hidden Ones were a group of Hidden Ones who operated throughout the territories controlled by Rome during the era of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was one of the first branches of the Hidden Ones, who would later become the Assassin Brotherhood, and was founded by the Greco-Egyptian Hidden One Aya shortly after she had founded the organization in Egypt alongside her husband Bayek.
The branch was dissolved following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, but it would be revived centuries later as the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins.
==History==
===Roman Republic===
====Foundation as the Hidden Ones====
In 47 BCE, the Medjay Bayek and his wife Aya, who were on a quest of vengeance against the Order of the Ancients for the death of their son Khemu and had formed a network of people opposing the Ancients and supporting the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, were betrayed by the Roman general Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, who were influenced by the Order. While Bayek tracked down and killed the Order's leader Flavius Metellus, Aya recruited the Roman Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, enemies of Caesar, to their cause, determined to leave for Rome to combat the Order there. Before leaving, Bayek and Aya named their new brotherhood the Hidden Ones, laying out the foundation of the Creed and their customs.Assassin's Creed: Origins
While Bayek established a bureau in Memphis, Aya set sail across the Tyrrhenian Sea towards Rome, accompanied by Damastes and Phoxidas. In 46 BCE, their ship was attacked by a Roman fleet, but they successfully managed to sink the ships and made port in Antium shortly afterward. From there, Aya made her way to Rome and established a bureau there.
Aya founded the Roman branch of the Hidden Ones, and aside from Brutus and Cassius, also recruited several other Roman Senators, as well as the Roman philosopher Publius Volumnius.Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Database: Reconstructed Data 011 The Roman Senators that would take part in the conspiracy against Caesar referred to themselves as Liberatores.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Scrolls of RomulusAssassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Rome: Chapter 2 – Giovanni Borgia
====Assassination of Julius Caesar====
By 44 BCE, Julius Caesar had become the new head of the Order of the Ancients, with Lucius Septimius as his right hand, and even considering him the Father of Understanding. With Aya as their leader, Brutus and Cassius spearheaded a conspiracy with thirty-eight other Roman Senators, who were also all secretly Hidden Ones and opposed Caesar's imperialist ideals after he was appointed dictator for life.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
After being assigned by Cassius as the one to come up with the plan of assassinating Caesar, Brutus designated a Temple of Juno preceding a sealed Isu Vault as a meeting place for his co-conspirators. Having received visions of Caesar's future assassination within the vault, Brutus was further motivated and scheduled their attack for the Ides of March.
On 15 March 44 BCE, Aya, Brutus, and Cassius went to the Theatre of Pompey where the Roman Senate was to convene. While Brutus and Cassius went to the curia, Aya fought and killed Septimius before joining her brothers in the Senate. Aya was the first one to strike at Caesar, followed by the Roman Senators. Caesar resisted at first but resigned himself to his fate upon recognizing Brutus. Shortly after, Aya adopted the name Amunet.
Driven by severe guilt from his actions, Brutus later returned to the Colosseum and abandoned the dagger he had used to strike down Caesar within the vault, along with his heirloom armor and the scrolls describing his dreams and discovery of the vault, as well as include drawings of the chamber and its pedestal.
====Attempted resurrection of Brutus====
After the assassination, the Senate passed an amnesty on the Hidden Ones, which was proposed by Caesar's friend and co-consul Marcus Antonius. Nonetheless, an uproar among the population forced Brutus and Cassius to flee from Rome, and a civil war ensued.Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy – Holidays: Chapter 1 – Ghosts of Christmas Past In 42 BCE, armies under the command of Marcus Antonius and Caesar's adopted son Octavian clashed with those of Brutus and Cassius in Philippi, Makedonia. Faced with inevitable defeat, both Cassius and Brutus committed suicide shortly thereafter.
After Brutus' death, his fellow Hidden Ones gathered in Philippi and tried to reanimate him using a Shroud of Eden. Since they had never used it before, the Hidden Ones feared its effects but nevertheless wrapped Brutus in the cloth. Though the corpse opened its eyes and moved its arms, it neither breathed nor reacted to any touch, and eventually fell still in a seeming "second death". As some of the Hidden Ones wept, Brutus was wrapped instead in a burial mantle and the Shroud was returned to its wooden storage box.
===Roman Empire===
====Assassination of Caligula====
In 27 BCE, the Roman Republic was transformed into the Roman Empire by Octavian, who became the first Roman Emperor under the title Augustus. The third emperor, Caligula, was a tyrant whose reign was supported and influenced by the Ancients. This turned him into a target for the Hidden One Leonius, who assassinated him with a dagger in an underground corridor beneath Palatine Hill on 24 January 41 CE.Assassin's Creed II
As the Roman Empire expanded through Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, the Hidden Ones established many bureaus across the empire.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Database: The Hidden Ones 
====Roman Britain and Gaul====
In the early 1st century, the Hidden Ones expanded north into the Roman of Britannia, establishing bureaus in the towns of Ratae, Londiunum, Venta Belgarum, Eboracum, Camulodunum, as well as a temple dedicated to Ceres.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones The Hidden Ones also established bureaus in the province of around Paris.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – Hidden
In the 90s CE, the Hidden Ones sent requests and pleas to Emperor Domitian and his governor Verus to accord Roman citizenship to the . When they ignored the request, the Acolytus Anicius killed Verus in public at Camulodunum to send a message to the Senate.
In 122, as Emperor Hadrian planned a war against the northern native people of England, the Hidden Ones decided to assassinate him. The Acolytus Caius infiltrated his villa in Londinium but was discovered and killed before he could accomplish his mission.
Shortly after Marcus Aurelius came to power, the Hidden Ones made motions towards him to broker peace in the region. Aurelius agreed to cease hostilities and retreat south from Antonine Wall to the more easily defensible Hadrian's Wall. Although the Hidden Ones trusted Aurelius to abide by the deal, they sent magister Eghan to oversee the retreat in order to verify that Aurelius kept his word.
However, a few decades later, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus disregarded Aurelius' established treaty and resumed the fortification and reoccupation of the Antonine wall. The Hidden Ones in Eboracum thus sent magister Khloe to poison the emperor during his stay in the city in 211.
====Securing the Ankh====
At some point during the 2nd century, the Hidden One Lugos established his own brotherhood known as the Liberalis Circulum, which operated throughout the territories of the Roman Empire. Lugos later traveled to Egypt to recover two Pieces of Eden, the Ankh and the Scepter of Aset, which had been found in a pyramid by Roman plunderers. However, while carrying the two artifacts aboard his ship back to Rome across the Mediterranean Sea a terrible storm opened an enormous waterway within the ship, causing it to sink. Before his demise, Lugos recorded a message with the Ankh, detailing the ongoing events and lamenting the failure of his mission.Assassin's Creed 3: Accipiter
By the mid-3rd century, the Liberalis Circulum had grown to include members from the various provinces of the Empire, having agents operating in Gallia, Germania and Iberia. However, the group was primarily based within the city of Lugdunum, where they were led by the Gallo-Roman Lucius.Assassin's Creed 2: Aquilus
In 259, Lucius' nephew, the Aleman general and Hidden One Accipiter, found the Ankh after it had resurfaced in Germania, and Lucius arranged for the artifact to be given to his son, Aquilus. Aquilus was also tasked to assassinate three targets who held high positions within the Empire: Senator Caius and Generals Titus and Gracchus. However, Gracchus learned about Aquilus' intentions after being informed of Caius' and Titus' deaths, and so when the Hidden One confronted him in his tent, he stabbed and left him for dead.Assassin's Creed 1: Desmond
Aquilus was saved by a timely attack on Gracchus' camp by Accipiter's Alemmani forces, who defeated the Romans and found Aquilus' unconscious body. After being nursed back to health by Accipiter, Aquilus was given the Ankh by cousin and returned to Lugdunum, where he gave the artifact to his father for safekeeping.
At Lucius' villa, Aquilus met Senator Caïus Fulvus Vultur, an old friend of the family, and told his father about his failed assassination of General Gracchus. Lucius suspected that Faustinus, the bishop of Lugdunum, had betrayed them by revealing their plans to their enemies, and so Aquilus decided to interrogate him. Before Aquilus' departure, he was informed by his father about the Ankh's powers, which he described as a "temporary resurrection".
Making his way to Faustinus' home, Aquilus woke him up in the middle of the night and threatened to kill him for his treachery. After Faustinus stated that he had no choice and that Emperor Gallienus had forced him to expose the Liberalis Circulum's plans, Aquilus demanded to know who his collaborators were. Faustinus initially claimed that he had acted alone, but upon being beaten up by the Hidden One, he betrayed the identity of his accomplice: Vultur. Taking advantage of Aquilus' surprise, Faustinus attempted to flee, but was promptly killed by the Hidden One with a throwing knife to the back.
Aquilus subsequently rushed back to Lucius' home to inform him about Vultur's treachery, but arrived too late, as he found his father dead and the Ankh missing. Upon further inspection, Aquilus found his father's servant Weke, who had been mortally wounded and only managed to utter a few words before passing away. Just then, a maid came up and revealed that Vultur had killed both Lucius and Weke and stolen the Ankh, causing Aquilus to vow revenge.
Aquilus tracked Vultur to Rome, where he eliminated him and his fellow conspirators and retrieved the Ankh, taking it back to his home in Lugdunum. During this time, the Alemanni planned to ransack the city, but the Iberian Hidden One Cuervo convinced Accipiter to negotiate a deal with the Prefect of Lugdunum instead, in order to preserve the Liberalis Circulum's interests. The prefect agreed to pay Accipiter a significant tribute in exchange for sparing the city, but later ordered the arrest and execution of Aquilus and his wife Valeria.
After learning about his cousin's plight, Accipiter attempted to save Aquilus and Valeria, but only managed to rescue the latter, as Aquilus was executed by Roman soldiers. With the Ankh now in Valeria's possession, Accipiter requested that she hide it in a safe place, claiming that he was too busy with his conquests to do so himself. Valeria ultimately hid the artifact within an altar erected to the memory of her late husband.
====Later activities====
In 306, the Acolytus Beatha delivered a letter to Emperor Constantine I who was in Britain pleading for the protection of the Christians who were killed by the warriors.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones Three decades later, an unidentified Hidden One witnessed the investiture of Constantinople as the new capital of the empire by Constantine I.Assassin's Creed Unity: Abstergo Entertainment – Employee Handbook
In 383, as Emperor Magnus Maximus took most of his troops to march in Gaul, the Hidden One Marcellus ordered the evacuation of the bureaus of Eboracum and Venta Belgarum as the local population turned against them.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones
During the late-4th century, the Christian Church executed the Belgae pagans in Britain. The Hidden Ones tried to convince Emperor Theodosius I to a compromise. As he didn't respond, the Acolytus Teague and his Magister were sent to kill the church fathers Vitus, Secunda, and Agapitus during a public spectacle. The Hidden Ones succeeded but the Magister was wounded and died.
In 423, following the death of Roman Emperor Honorius, the Hidden Ones in Britannia were forced to evacuate from their bureaus following a note issued by Magister Vitus, who informed that due to the local tribes who harbored ill sentiments towards the Hidden Ones and their mission having filled the power vacuum left by the departing Roman legions, remaining in Britannia would lead to unnecessary bloodshed and lost of members. Vitus also suggested that they move their headquarters and join forces with the Hidden Ones based in the German city of Cologne.
In Roman Gaul, some Hidden Ones followed their British brethren in Cologne, sealing their bureaus in the province, while other stayed in Gaul to resume their work.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris – Hidden
==Members==
;Roman Republic
*Aya 
*Caesarion
*Decimus Junius Brutus
*Gaius Cassius Longinus
*Marcus Junius Brutus
*Servilius Casca
*Publius Volumnius
*36 other senators involved in Caesar's assassination
;Roman Empire
 
*Accipiter 
*Aquilus 
*Anicius
*Beatha
*Caius
*Cuervo 
*Eghan
*Khloe
*Leonius
*Lucius 
*Lugos 
*Publius Volumnius
*Marcellus
*Maya
*Roman Assassin
*Sebastos
*Teague
*Vitus
===Allies and puppets===
;Roman Empire
*Calvinus
*Valeria
*Weke
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed II 
*Assassin's Creed – The Ankh of Isis Trilogy 
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 
*Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
*Assassin's Creed: Initiates 
*Assassin's Creed: Unity
*Assassin's Creed: Syndicate 
*Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants 
*Assassin's Creed: Origins
**The Hidden Ones 
*Assassin's Creed: Origins comic
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla 
==References==
Category:Assassin guilds