Claudius Lupercus

Third Empire

**Claudius Lupercus**, also called **Lupercus the Younger**, is an Imperial statesman.

## **Biography**

Claudius Lupercus was born on 17th Sun's Dawn 224, under the sign of the Lover. His father was the statesman Claudius Lupercus (called *the Elder* to distinguish him from his namesake son). Young Claudius's childhood was spent in his father's villa in the Niben Valley, where he was provided with an excellent (and expensive) liberal education. His cultivation as his father's heir culminated in his matriculation to the Imperial University in 3E 238, at the age of fourteen. He was educated by the Breton scholar {TBA}, whose philosophy would influence Lupercus's life and career.

On the death of Emperor Uriel IV in 3E 247, Lupercus the Elder was a key confederate in the Elder Council's election of Cephorus II. He immediately became the new emperor's High Chancellor, holding this office until his assassination in 3E 253. The twenty-nine year old Lupercus the Younger, at this time the Imperial Prefect of Kvatch, thus inherited his father's wealth, property and allegiances.

The circumstances of his father's demise prevented Lupercus's return to the Imperial City for three years. In 3E 258, however, he entered the White-Gold Tower to indict, and subsequently prosecute, those responsible for Lupercus the Elder's assassination. The younger Lupercus's oratory and ataraxy during these proceedings, which were conducted entirely in public, was particularly praised. Two Elder Councillors were executed and three others were exiled as a result of these trials. Accounts of these events were proliferated throughout the Empire, portraying the protagonist Lupercus's pursuit of justice (rather than vengeance) for his father's murder. He earned acclaim and enemies in equal measure. The family, allies and clients of the condemned accused Lupercus of fabricating evidence to eliminate political rivals.

At the end of the year Lupercus was appointed to the Elder Council, symbolically assuming his late father's seat. Lupercus the Elder was further commemorated with the establishment of a cult dedicated to him in the Nibenean fashion of ancestor worship (by no means a novelty in the *City of a Thousand Cults*). A small temple, housing his tomb, was built in the city's Temple District.

Lupercus's first decade on the Elder Council coincided with the final decade of Emperor Cephorus II's reign. During this time Lupercus became distinguished for his moderation, moralism and incorruptibility. '*My purse is heavy enough'*, he wrote to a friend; an understatement from one of the wealthiest men in the Empire.

The accession of Uriel Septim V to the Ruby Throne in 3E 268 marked the height of Lupercus's political career. He was duly appointed High Chancellor by the new emperor, who was content to delegate governance of the Empire to the Elder Council as he laid preparations for the invasion of Akavir. Lupercus did not share the conquering ambition of the emperor, and despaired at the tremendous cost of this campaign while parts of the existing empire lay in ruin and open revolt. He obstructed legislation that would introduce new war taxes across the Empire, arguing that provincials should not bear the cost of the emperor's gratuitous conquests.

The High Chancellor's position became untenable following the subjection of Roscrea in 3E 271. The emperor, buoyed by his victory and the subsequent popular jingoism, obliged Lupercus's resignation the following year. Though still formally an Elder Councillor, he retired to his villa in the Niben Valley, complaining of the *'disagreeable climate'* in the capital. Soon after his departure, the temple of Lupercus the Elder was vandalised.

Banishment did not render Lupercus idle, and during this period he busied himself with works of history and philosophy. His most notable work, *On Civic Virtue*, was a treatise disputing the emperor's absolute power and thus vindicating the power and privileges of the Elder Council.

> *"Must we entrust the virtue of all men to the virtue of one man?"*
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Lupercus nevertheless deplored the notion of popular government. *On Civic Virtue* advocated an oligarchy of those *'learned in such affairs and versed in their duty'*; unmistakably an idealised description of the Elder Council. The emperor, campaigning abroad, contemplated the arrest of Lupercus for sedition. An advisor dissuaded him: *'Only if Your Imperial Majesty's legions will march without bread'*.

Lupcercus might have quietly relished the collapse of the Akaviri campaign in 3E 290 if not for the personal tragedy this involved. Against his wishes, his son (also named Claudius) had embarked on a career in the Imperial Legion. Earning distinction during the conquest of Esroniet, he served as a tribune in the Tenth Legion. This was the legion which was annihilated, alongside the emperor, during the *Disaster at Ionith*.