Caesar's Riches

With trembling fingers you slide the last bolt into place. The telltale click makes you shudder. There it is, the ultimate truth of imperial power. You have revealed the secret, it is in front of you. Just a few steps through the impenetrable darkness of the dead city. Silver light reflects off the brittle walls of the lifeless earth, the breath of millennia past wafting through your nostrils as you stride knee-deep through the shallow waters of the immortal viaduct. The smell of death and infinity makes you tremble as the claws of knowledge take you captive. Knowledge creeps into your mind with fiery certainty as you see it: The treetops, golden, adorned with silver ornaments, The sails of deep red cloth flap in the breathless wind. The rotten wood, trembling to the rhythm of the eternal sea, crunches ominously. There it rises on the clear water, lifeless and motionless - Caligula's boat.

All the ridicule and all the hate has passed in time. Weightless swearing and venomous screams. The splendor of his dignity and the desire for immortality spread before you, in diamond clarity. You managed. You have found the one treasure that was thought to be lost forever. You step carefully through the shallow water. The smell of sulfur and plague sends shivers down your spine as you spot the first skeletons through the clear surface. Slaves, victims of a rule born of pride. All their torments and sorrows have preserved this treasure of millennia - a last testament to a glory time never seen again since.

You swim towards the boat. The smell of long-dead flowers tickles your nostrils. The last attempt of eternity to convince you that everything was so much better in the past years. And as the cold water soaks your clothes and your limbs tremble in fear, you understand that immortality is not born in what you have, but in what you are and leave to the world.

So I congratulate you, brave explorer. Your name will go down in the history of archeology forever. But now it is up to you to decide the value of your find. will you share it Or will you understand that all the power, all the gold, can't outweigh the impermanence of your existence?

Please fill out the form by leaving your required time and a comment. The data is then entered in the table below.

Note: Once you have submitted the form, it will take a few minutes for the entry to be visible.