Julian 
One grape bunch remained attached to its vine while a clay vessel closed around it. The pot had four handles so cords could suspend it from the plant. Its lid came in two pieces, allowing the halves to meet around the living stem. Inside, the fruit hung loosely enough to touch neither wall nor cover. … Read more
A stone struck an unnamed man, and one category of knowledge vanished. Pliny the Elder says the victim forgot the names of the letters—only those names. He does not say the man forgot his family, his surroundings or the event itself. The damage appears in the account as a narrow blank cut through an otherwise … Read more
The soldiers outside Alesia planted lilies in eight rows. They were not flowers. Each lilium was a narrow pit three feet deep, tapering toward the bottom around a sharpened stake hardened by fire. Only a short point projected above the ground. Brush hid the opening. Caesar gives the pastoral name without softening the construction. The … Read more
At the foot of Rome’s Gemonian stairs, a dog stayed beside a dead man whom the city had learned to avoid. The animal howled while a large circle watched. Someone in the crowd threw it food. Instead of eating, the dog carried the offering to the mouth of Titius Sabinus. The gesture could not revive … Read more
Tongilianus had bought a house for two hundred. Then the building disappeared in what Martial calls an accident all too frequent in the city. A collection followed. Its value reached ten times the first figure. That is enough for Martial. “I ask,” the poet says, can Tongilianus not appear to have burned his own house? … Read more
Two loaded carts were climbing the Capitoline slope, each drawn by mules. The upper vehicle had turned or threatened to run back, so its drivers stood behind it and supported the load while the animals tried to pull. Then the cart began moving downhill. The men between the vehicles got clear. The upper cart struck … Read more
Masclus needed an answer before tomorrow. Should his men return with the standard all together, or should alternating groups make the movement? The surviving line may point toward a crossroads or a shrine there, but the editors keep that destination uncertain. The choice itself is unmistakable: one body or divided details. After the greeting and … Read more
Octavius had already committed himself. Roughly five thousand modii of grain ears had been bought, about three hundred denarii had gone down as a deposit, and the seller still needed to be paid. His letter to Candidus therefore asks for at least five hundred denarii, quickly. Without it, he says, the deposit will be lost … Read more
A large grub with two peculiar horns begins Pliny the Elder’s account. It becomes a caterpillar, passes through stages he names bombylis and necydalus, and after six months reaches the form his translator calls a silk-worm. Then it makes something like a spider’s web. Pliny does not leave that pale material attached to the insect. … Read more
At midnight the householder rose barefoot while the rest of the Roman home slept. Dogs had stopped barking; birds were quiet. He washed his hands in spring water, took black beans, turned his face away and threw them behind him. The action carried the same spoken bargain: with these beans, he would redeem himself and … Read more
