One hundred Roman women stood inside a selection whose surviving record gives only one name. From that group, Pliny the Elder says, the matrons chose Sulpicia, daughter of Paterculus and wife of Fulvius Flaccus. Their judgment named her the most modest woman and assigned her a public sacred task: dedicating an image of Venus. The … Read more
At seventeen, a Roman male crossed a line drawn by the state. Below it, the scheme preserved by Aulus Gellius called him a puer, a boy. From the seventeenth year, he was considered fit to be enrolled as a soldier and entered the group called iuniores, the younger men. That label lasted through forty-six. Beyond … Read more
A Roman hand carried more than decoration. A ring could press an identity into wax, close a store against tampering, or announce a rank in metal. Yet Aulus Gellius paused over a smaller question: why did Greek and Roman men so often place it on the finger of the left hand beside the little finger? … Read more
Ten Roman prisoners entered Rome after the disaster at Cannae. They carried Hannibal’s proposal for an exchange, but they also carried a promise: if the Senate refused, they would return to the Punic camp. The Senate refused. Around the prisoners, parents and relatives embraced them and argued that reaching their native country had restored their … Read more
The grammarian had the highest reputation as a teacher in Rome. Aulus Gellius approached him with a question he considered sincere: what did the Latin word obnoxius mean, and where had it come from? The teacher looked at him and laughed. The problem, he said, was so difficult that it must demand sleepless nights—then supplied … Read more
A peacock from Samos. A woodcock from Phrygia. Cranes from Media. By the time Marcus Varro’s remembered menu reaches oysters from Tarentum, dates from Egypt and acorns from Spain, dinner has become a tour of the known world. Aulus Gellius preserves the list in Attic Nights 6.16, drawing it from Varro’s satire On Edibles. He … Read more
A buyer approaching a Roman sale did not always need to wait for a clerk to unroll or read the terms. One sign could sit directly on the head of the person being sold. According to the jurist Caelius Sabinus, a plain cap announced that the seller accepted no responsibility for that enslaved person. Aulus … Read more
The town was fortified, well supplied and protected by its position. From the Roman camp, its citadel remained visibly beyond Scipio’s control. Yet the commander was not standing before his troops to promise a dramatic assault. He was sitting in judgment. One of the soldiers on trial asked the ordinary procedural question: on what day, … Read more
The horse stood at Argos with the qualities buyers wanted to exaggerate and witnesses wanted to remember: extraordinary size, a high neck, a thick shining mane and a rich bay coat. Cornelius Dolabella was travelling toward Syria when its fame pulled him off his route. He paid one hundred thousand sesterces for it. Aulus Gellius … Read more
A child arrived after the lamps were lit but before the household slept. Which date belonged to the birth? For Aulus Gellius, the answer did not depend on whether darkness felt like the end of yesterday or the beginning of tomorrow. It depended on the invisible line Romans drew through the middle of the night. … Read more
