Rome protected one sacred shield by making it impossible to tell which shield was sacred. Plutarch says a bronze buckler fell from the sky during a pestilence in Numa’s reign. The king treated it as a pledge of the city’s preservation. A unique object, however, invited a simple danger: a thief needed to steal only … 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
An old Roman prayer name could change identity without changing its place beside Mars. For one antiquarian explanation, Nerio meant the war god’s courage, strength and majesty. In comedy and annalistic tradition, Nerio—or Neria or Nerienes—was his wife. Aulus Gellius did not solve the contradiction by choosing one clean definition. He compared priestly prayer books, … Read more
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
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
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
The disguise had carried Publius Clodius Pulcher through the door. Dressed as a woman and still young enough to lack a betraying beard, he entered the house where Rome’s elite women were celebrating the Bona Dea. Men were excluded. Julius Caesar himself had withdrawn from his own home for the night. Inside, Clodius lost his … Read more
Two doors move together, and Rome is invited to read the world in their position. Open means war. Closed means peace. The idea is almost aggressively simple, which is why it became so useful to a ruler emerging from decades of civil bloodshed. The structure was associated with Janus, the god of beginnings, passages and … Read more
The Syracusans told Cicero that Archimedes’s tomb no longer existed. Cicero disagreed because he remembered verses describing the monument. They said a sphere and a cylinder stood on its top. He searched among the many tombs near Syracuse’s Achradina Gate. Above shrubs and brambles he noticed a small column carrying exactly those two geometric figures. … Read more
