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
Rain crossed the Lycian fields, but Licinius Mucianus could not hear it striking the leaves above him. He was eating inside a plane tree with eighteen members of his retinue. The hollow enclosed stone seats, pale pumice and moss; loose leaves supplied more than enough material for their couches. Wind did not reach the table. … Read more
The enslaved man changed his argument while the punishment continued. He stopped insisting that he was innocent and stopped crying out. Instead, he addressed Plutarch as the author of a book on freedom from anger and accused the philosopher of violating his own teaching. Plutarch answered in a calm voice. Were his eyes fierce? Was … Read more
The chains began at a distance. In the silence of a large Athenian house, iron sounded first from somewhere remote, then drew close enough to announce an old man at the threshold. He looked wasted and neglected. Fetters burdened his legs, while the links on his hands rattled as he beckoned. Athenodorus did not leap … 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
