Writing in progress - 9/28/2024 In Ancient Rome “do ut des” echoed through the halls of every temple. The saying was simple, I give so that you might give. This was not just any saying though, but instead the life blood of an ancient religion that predates spirits and gods themselves. Artists would pray to whichever entity that would give them an ear, hoping to bring fortune and name to their family. Cideuos was a young man in the capital, his family held no name and no honors. His brothers were deemed to weak to be legionaries, and his sisters were married off into foreign farms to toil their life away. His parents, short and thin of stature, worked in ammonium baths cleaning the woven silks of the senate. Cideuos, crafty in his thought, would steal silver doubloons from his parents’ task master. Using all of his new found allowance, he bought his way into a local art class hosted at the decrepit temple on the far side of the capital. His journey that first morning was arduous, his worn out slippers barely cushioned his stride through the cobblestone streets. As he approached the temple, the light seemed to strike the west facing wall in a dancing array, as if the sun could not decide how to illuminate. The stone work, falling apart at the seems, was done in a haphazard manner. Even the stained glass portraying what once illustrated the spirits of the temple, was washed out and shattered. Walking through the threshold, a gust of icy wind crept up Cideuos’s neck, elevating each follicle. A ragtag group of young men sat on wooden stools with frames wrapped in goat skin strewn throughout the temple. A man in dirt covered robes towered over the seated men. “Welcome” he spoke with bravado, “this is the art of the mind, and here you will explore the depths of your machinations.” An outstretched hand graced Cideuos as he paused before grabbing the man just before the elbow. The Roman handshake the legionaries would call it. “I’m excited to start the class” Cideuos timidly exclaimed, “I’ve always had a passion for painting and want to learn from the best.” “We start small here, and learn the basics.” The man paused, “Soon we will dive into divine art, as all my students before you have. By the way, my name is Ardeseus, I have seemed to get ahead of myself.”