The traveller did not need to prove that the innkeeper had cut the strap or carried away the bag. If property received at a Roman inn vanished inside the house, the host could still be required to answer for it. That burden sat beside an important distinction. Gaius explained that the innkeeper’s payment was for … Read more
The dead emperor returned to public view behind a mask. At Vespasian’s funeral, Suetonius says, the leading mime Favor wore the ruler’s likeness and copied his familiar actions and words. Then the performer turned toward the procurators and asked what the procession cost. Ten million sesterces, came the answer. Favor replied that they should give … Read more
Augustus began a tragedy about Ajax with enthusiasm. Then the emperor decided its style did not satisfy him and destroyed it. When friends asked what had become of the hero, Augustus replied that his Ajax had fallen on his sponge. Suetonius gives the joke only a sentence, but he places it inside a sustained account … Read more
A Roman beekeeper did not lose a colony each time its workers flew beyond his reach. Gaius placed bees beside pigeons and deer accustomed to leave for the forest and return. Their movement demanded a rule different from the one applied to a fish in a net or a wild animal held after capture. The … Read more
Silius Italicus kept another poet’s birthday more carefully than his own. Near Naples, Pliny says, he approached Virgil’s monument as though it were a temple. The practice belonged to a retirement crowded with books, statues, busts, new villas and learned visitors. Pliny reports these habits after announcing that Silius has starved himself to death at … 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
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
The young nobles stayed seated when Gnaeus Flavius entered the sickroom. None would perform the ordinary gesture of rising for a curule aedile. Flavius, the son of a freedman and a former professional scribe, did not demand an apology. He laughed and ordered his official chair brought to the threshold. Once he sat in the … Read more
Verginius Rufus was standing with a heavy volume, practicing the speech in which he would thank Emperor Nerva for a third consulship. He was eighty-three. The book slipped from his hands; he moved quickly to catch it, lost his footing on smooth pavement and fell. The broken thigh never properly united. Pliny the Younger tells … Read more
Calpurnia did not sit among the visible audience when Pliny the Younger recited his work. In his account, she concealed herself behind a curtain and listened. The fabric let sound through while keeping her outside the public arrangement of author, guests and praise. From there she heard the response to the man whose reputation shaped … Read more
