The Great Crime

The biggest crime in the history of mankind. Sounds pretty impressive, but what was it, and why re-enact it? The original crime was finally revealed in 'Prey For Reign' and the details are here, but there are other hints to pick up on, so I'm going to speculate on some of them here.

The Medici family are the big cheeses in the Trust, but was this always the case? Why the sudden need for reforms if Augustus were in power before? These sound like the acts of a man who has risen into power  and is trying to consolidate it, rather than someone who has always had it. So, did Augustus consolidate his power after unexplained demise of Roland Dietrich? In the first summit meeting, it appears from various points in the conversation that Augustus initiated the recreation of the crime, the elimination of the Minutemen and the new direction of the Trust. The other families all signed up to his new vision, but there were dissenters evident.

When Milo was activated, he asked Megan how her father was, spurred by knowledge of his fate. If Dietrich was a powerful opponent, then Augustus would have a lot to gain from his demise. Why would Megan want to get involved in an art theft, were not the picture, the "Death of Caesar", of some relevance to her? A depiction of her father's fate, metaphorically or literally stabbed in the back by his closest allies? Megan wanted the picture and was angry after it was stolen from her. Now everyone wants the painting as it passes from hand to hand.The picture itself is misleading in its title. Caesar was of course, a Roman. The era depicted in the painting is clearly far more recent than that. Looking at it, it could depict events that took place about five hundred years ago. Another significant crime captured in canvas? Check out the biography of painter Paolo Veronese.

As more of the events in Atlantic City are revealed, the power dynamic within the Trust, and between the families and their agents, the Minutemen, Graves and Shepherd, become more clear, as do the motives of these disparate groups. The repeat of the great crime, the 'stealing' of a country could well have been a charade that the Trust knew Graves would decline, triggering his stance against them, the events of Atlantic City, the apparent deaths of the Minutemen, and the war that followed their return. In some decades-long plot, dating back the rise to power of the young Graves, Medici and Vasco, lines were crossed and rules broken to further the aims of the trio. As the end approaches, the answers are slowly revealed.