Julian 
The red clod did not enter the house as paint. First it sweated silver liquid under blows from iron bars. Vitruvius describes mineral material from the Ephesian region with red veins and dust. Workers struck it until drops of quicksilver appeared. More metal condensed from furnace fumes, too fine to gather individually, so it was … Read more
Before water entered a conduit, Vitruvius wanted the architect to look at the people already drinking it. Were their limbs strongly formed? Did they have fresh colour, sound legs and clear rather than blear eyes? Then came tests on the water itself. A drop from a new spring should leave no stain on good brass. … Read more
Spurius Carvilius reportedly loved his wife. The marriage ended anyway. Aulus Gellius says a physical condition prevented children from being born from her. Carvilius, a man of rank, had sworn before the censors that he married for the purpose of begetting children. He placed that oath above affection and sent his wife away. Gellius presents … Read more
The censors did not need an account book. They had the horse and the rider standing beside each other. Aulus Gellius preserves a story from Masurius Sabinus about an equestrian review conducted by Publius Scipio Nasica and Marcus Popilius. One mount was thin and poorly kept. Its rider was plump and thriving. The contrast made … Read more
The younger poet did not send a finished scroll and wait for applause. He stood in an old man’s house and read. Aulus Gellius places Lucius Accius in Tarentum on his way to Asia. Marcus Pacuvius, already weakened by age and illness, had withdrawn there from Rome. He welcomed the visitor, kept him for several … Read more
Cato’s farm did not issue the same wine all year. It counted forward from the vintage. For three months, the hands received after-wine made from grape residue. In the fourth month came a hemina a day. The daily amount rose again through months five to eight, then reached three heminae in the final four months. … Read more
The crown weighed exactly what Hiero expected. That was the problem. The king of Syracuse had supplied gold for a costly votive crown. When the finished work returned, it was beautifully made and matched the assigned weight. Then a report alleged that part of the gold had been removed and replaced with silver. The suspected … Read more
The cow was at the altar. The prophecy had reached Rome before she did. Livy says a Sabine head of household owned an animal of astonishing size and beauty. Soothsayers had declared that sovereignty would belong to the state whose citizen sacrificed her to Diana. The owner drove the cow into Rome, brought her to … Read more
An elephant stood over a writing surface and traced a sentence in Greek. Pliny the Elder attributes the report to Mutianus, a man who had been consul three times. The animal supposedly wrote in the first person that it had made the inscription and dedicated Celtic spoils. In the same chapter another elephant rehearsed a … Read more
Rome’s stolen water disappeared through openings small enough to hide beneath a street. When Frontinus audited the aqueduct system, he found discrepancies at every scale. Claudia carried 4,607 quinariae at its intake although official records credited it with 2,855. Before the flow reached a settling reservoir, legitimate grants and secret diversions had already reduced it. … Read more
