Julian 
Before six brothers fought for Rome and Alba Longa, a Roman priest asked his own god to punish Rome if it broke its word. Livy places the treaty before the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii. Three champions from each community would decide which people submitted to the other. Yet the duel did not rest … Read more
Cato the Younger prepared for a shipwreck by giving the sea something it could not easily hide: huge pieces of cork. Plutarch says Cato gathered nearly seven thousand talents of silver during his commission in Cyprus. For the long voyage to Rome, he divided it among many coffers. Each held two talents and five hundred … Read more
Rome’s most highly regarded military crown was not gold. It was grass gathered from inside a place that had nearly fallen. Aulus Gellius calls it the siege crown. The people delivered from encirclement presented it to the general who had saved them, and custom required the plants to come from the ground on which the … Read more
A single missing tooth divided two Roman jurists. Servius thought it could justify returning an enslaved person after a sale. Labeo thought that conclusion was absurd. The disagreement appears in Aulus Gellius’s discussion of the curule aediles’ market edict. The rule required a sale ticket to reveal disease, defect, flight, vagrancy and an unresolved condemnation. … Read more
The proconsul remained on his horse as he approached a Roman consul. Nobody immediately told him to get down. The hesitation was understandable. The rider was Fabius Maximus, a former consul and the father of the magistrate in front of him. The lictors knew father and son lived in complete harmony. Household respect, seniority and … Read more
Gaia Taracia gave the Roman people a piece of ground beside the Tiber. Rome answered with a law that made her an exception. Aulus Gellius says Taracia, also called Fufetia, was a Vestal. The Horatian law concerning her granted many honours, but two details carried unusual weight. She received the right to give testimony, a … Read more
An actor spoke from the stage, and hidden bronze vessels beneath the seats were supposed to answer. Vitruvius did not imagine them as decoration. He specified their pitches, positions, clearances and openings. In a moderate theatre, thirteen cavities formed a measured ring halfway up the seating. Each vessel sat upside down, isolated from the wall … Read more
The imperial journey stopped because a mule needed a shoe. At least, that was the explanation offered beside the road. Vespasian suspected a different cause. The muleteer had created just enough delay for a man with a lawsuit to approach the emperor. Someone who could not order the travelling court to halt had apparently found … Read more
A Roman column stopped marching, chose its ground and built a boundary. Then, inside that defended perimeter, it left an enormous strip empty. Polybius places the tents 200 feet back from the entrenchment on every side. The distance was not a decorative margin. It protected canvas from missiles and night fire, let soldiers move without … Read more
A Vestal returned from the spring carrying a vessel that could not be placed upright on the floor. Its base came to a point. Release it and the container would tip. Someone had to keep hold of it, support it or complete the task for which the water had been drawn. Plutarch mentions the object … Read more
