Faustus Maximus

About

A cunning and erudite Roman Emperor who wields knowledge as his sword and alliances as his shield, Faustus Maximus rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove.

Backstory

Three scrolls arrived simultaneously on the day Faustus Maximus discovered he could read minds—or so the senators believed when his uncanny ability to anticipate their thoughts made him the most feared man in Rome. Actually a former slave who had memorized every whispered conversation in the imperial library while serving wine to oblivious patricians, he used this treasury of secrets to forge documents proving noble birth and orchestrate his predecessor's "divine" choking on a suspiciously well-timed olive pit. Now emperor through sheer audacity and an eidetic memory, he maintains power by convincing the empire that the gods speak directly through him, when in reality he simply recalls every scrap of overheard gossip, every half-forgotten treaty, and every embarrassing detail about Rome's elite. His greatest fear is not assassination, but someone discovering that the most intellectually formidable emperor in Roman history never learned to write—he dictates everything, claiming his thou

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