Sharpie

"You can start your list - I might want several more tablets in order to inscribe the whole thing," he said, his lips quirking into a smile. He had liked Ovinia, when they had first met, and was being reminded why. She was easy to talk to, she made him smile... if they hadn't been so far apart socially, they might have made a very good husband and wife for one another. His mother would like her, he was sure of that. "Ah - but the throws and textiles from any of the market stalls aren't woven of Hispanian wool. I promise that you have never felt any wool so fine." He clapped his hands in summons. "Chrestus! Bring a sample of that Hispanian merino wool for the lady to see." The slave thus summoned bustled away and he leaned back. "While we wait for that, how have you been? You can see what's been occupying my time, but what about you?" What did dutiful (beautiful) senators' daughters do with their days, after all? @Sara

"Which is more than a little odd, considering that Juno Lucina supposedly has oversight of childbirth as well as pregnancy and motherhood," Aulus observed. "After all, if she is responsible for pregnancy and then the motherhood that follows, shouldn't she also have oversight of the act that makes an expectant woman into a mother?" Presumably, the priestesses were senators' wives and daughters who had never done a day's work in their lives other than (possibly) set up a loom and watched their slavegirls working at it. And maybe passed a rattle to their beloved son or daughter when spending time with their children and doting husbands. "The issue is precisely that childbirth is a loud and messy affair... not that I know from experience, of course," he added dryly. "Yet Horatia felt it her duty to offer prayers in the temple itself, and presumably could not have gone elsewhere when everything began." He could see only one solution at the moment. "If the temple were to be provided with a dedicated midwife, she would have to have somewhere to stay, a room for women to birth in, and its own altar and representation of the goddess herself, otherwise there will be more children born in the very temple." Which would no doubt either do the old bats good, or cause them to expire of shock and vexation. @Chevi

Teutus had a jug already poured and poured her a glass of wine (Syrian glass, expensive and beautiful, just one sample of the sort of wares he could supply). He handed it to her and sat back in his own seat, with his own wine, the consummate host. "Not jewellery, then, we wouldn't wish to overwhelm her." He inclined his head, offering a smile. "I am as you see me, slowly building up a business and hopefully gaining a good reputation for supplying... well, what don't senators' daughters want?" Their first meeting had been interesting, perhaps a little uncomfortable - he had really not had much idea how to address a young patrician lady when it was patently obvious that his father expected him to court her, and her father (and quite possibly Ovinia herself) considered it a ridiculously unsuitable match. As evidenced by the fact that Tertius himself couldn't marry Charis properly but had had to concede to mere concubinatus with her... That fact alone would probably render Teutus an unsuitable husband for Ovinia even he had been born free. On the other hand, if he had been born free, Tertius wouldn't have had to resort to such a convoluted arrangement himself and Ovinia's father wouldn't have objected to Teutus' marrying Ovinia. "Hispania... Well, if jewellery is not a permissible offering, perhaps some fine textiles from there - linen or wool? And there are some very fine wines from Tarraconensis, too." He tapped his bronze stylus thoughtfully against the closed wax tablet resting on the desk in front of him. @Sara

"I'm sorry to hear she isn't well. I hope she recovers soon," he said, guiding her to his office, away from the sounds (and smells) of whatever was being unloaded for next door. "Would you like some wine while we discuss what you're looking for - or at least, while we discuss what you might find suitable for her?" He kept an amphora of wine for his clients. He had found that he was more easily able to work with them if they were comfortable and relaxed and there were plenty of people who did not find wharves and warehouses a generally relaxing place to be. Indeed, a visit to Teutus' warehouse was probably the first time many of them had been in these sort of surroundings, regardless of the fact that places like the Emporium Magnum were nearby. "Is there anything in particular that you know your mother does like - jewellery, knick-knacks... even whether she prefers Greek things to Egyptian, say, would help me find you the perfect thing." @Sara

Teutus had been overseeing and organising things to make space for a second shipment of goods that was due the next day, and had very nearly forgotten about the appointment that Ovinia Camilla had made to come by to look for something for her mother. He had at least remembered it enough to make sure that he had some things set aside for her to look through, before being distracted by workers with questions and others needing to know where to put things, and the late morning had crept up on him before he was completely aware of it. Seeing the things set aside for her had jogged his memory, though, and he hoped that he wasn't too late as he went to meet her outside in the courtyard in front of the warehouse. (Or behind it, depending on whether you thought it faced the river or the land!) "Salve, Ovinia Camilla. Of course it hasn't, I am always open for you." Perhaps not the entire truth, but a perfectly acceptable white lie, and it wasn't even that much of a lie, really. "Come in - I wasn't sure what sort of thing you had in mind, but I've got some things you might like to look at to begin with." If none of those suited, he had plenty of other things in stock, at least. @Sara

It's not who I am, Tiranês signed fiercely at his cousin, the only person present who could read his signs. He was still slightly cautious around Tiberius when it came to anything to do with his past since their conversation a few months before, and his own name was not something he really wanted to share with his master, even on a day when they were (supposedly) equals, because they wouldn't be tomorrow. He adjusted his position a little and consciously let himself relax, breathing in the sweet perfumed smoke of the hemp as it curled up from the brazier, taking the opportunity provided for a pause to think what story he could tell in turn. "I never knew the story," he said simply. The answer to Azarion's question was probably just that the slave trader had a stock of names suitable for slaves and assigned him one from that list, he hadn't struck Tiranês as being possessed of an imagination. He indicated Azarion, directing his question at Tiberius, trying to make it clear he was translating. "Why that name in particular, though?" Not that Tiberius would know, not really. @Atrice @Sarah @Chevi

(The day after Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) The Porticus Liviae was one of those places where, eventually, you'd see every Senator and rich equite in Rome, and their wives twice, which meant that there were a lot of very high-class shops and stalls (so it was somewhere Teutus was interested in for perfectly good business reasons). It was also one of those places that had cheaper more functional shops and stalls selling more everyday items at more everyday prices, because of its location on the lower slopes of the Esquiline. There was no need to drag Jannus further afield to the Emporium Magnum or anywhere else, not with the Porticus Liviae (and the senators' wives!) right on their doorstep, so to speak. His mother was busy weaving, and didn't need Jannus or him underfoot, and he didn't have a shipment due until the next week, so this was the perfect opportunity to take Jannus shopping. He'd made a promise and was going to keep it, after all. Even a promise to buy something small was a promise worth keeping, in Teutus' opinion. And as they were going shopping anyway, he'd made a list of other things they might look for, for the home. (And if he saw anything his mother might like, he wasn't above spending a bit of money on her; she deserved all the good things, after all.) "First things first, though," he said to Jannus, diverting to a familiar shop in the arcade. He'd been here numerous times on errands for his father when he was still Tertius' secretary and had a friendship of sorts with the proprietor. "I promised to get you a wax tablet and stylus for your own, didn't I?" @Insignia

"I'm surprised he didn't throw me out, the way I spoke to him," Teutus admitted with a shrug. "I didn't really think it would have any effect on him... he'd taken so long over freeing me that I stopped believing he ever would." The long and the short of it was that he no longer really believed his father when it came to the things he said or the promises he made. "What does it matter, how well or badly he thinks of me, if he doesn't do the things he says he will - or come right and say why he can't do them instead of dragging things out for months - years, even." He was bitter over it, perhaps he always would be, though he managed to muster a smile. "I liked him. He's... he's far too nice and believing, to do at all well in Rome, especially when it comes to Father." They didn't feel like siblings - Teutus had no real notion what it was supposed to feel like to have a sibling, anyway. Antonia Varia was much younger than him and had been a freeborn daughter while he had been a slave, that was probably a very different thing from having a brother of nearly the same age. "I don't know what to think, about Father. He treats everyone so... shabbily." @Sarah

"Life is rarely fair, Domine," Jason replied, a simple statement of fact. "You - I - people - can fret over the unfairness of life and never find pleasure in anything. Or they can try to make the most of it, even if where they are isn't where they would want to be. Different people choose differently, of course." Jason wouldn't be where he was now, given a choice, but he was more than astute enough to know that even though he was a slave, he had it relatively easy. He had an easy-going master, and didn't spend his days in back-breaking labour on someone's farm or in the mines. He could easily have ended up in a place like that, after all. He felt that Tiberius was trying to figure something out, had maybe come close to it - might have, had it not been for that misunderstanding earlier, in fact. He risked a glance up at Tiberius, trying to gauge whether he could offer something further, or whether he had strayed too close to that unspoken boundary earlier, intentionally or not. "There is... something, that we teach our horses, back home," he offered, cautious in case he strayed too close and his master might misunderstand him again. "We can only do it when a horse really knows and trusts its rider. We teach them to stand, and to wait, without being tied or having someone hold the reins. And they always do." He could teach Ignis, though it would take time and patience - the horse's temperament, right now, was not right for it, but he thought that he could learn it. The question, right now, was whether Tiberius would understand the deeper meaning behind his words, whether he were still in the train of thought that equated horses and slaves. @Sarah

"Yes, we're looking for him now. I am as much as I can, anyway - I can't get away that much, after all." Azarion knew that, of course. "Oh - one of the places he goes to, or went to, is a brothel somewhere in the Porta Absidata, called the Elysium. The girls there might know who it is, the Greek medicus went to see if he could talk to any of them. We'll find him." If there were any justice in Rome, they'd let Azarion have a bow, and arrows, and turn the bastard into a pincushion and let him bleed to death. Slowly, and painfully. He looked at his cousin in concern. "How are you - apart from some idiot Red winning... That wasn't the riding race, was it? I heard rumours about some White using stirrups. I mean, I guess they meant stirrups, they don't have the right word. And I'm pretty sure that would be you, and I can't see you losing when you're riding properly." @Chevi

"Yes." Jason nodded, his expression grim. "I don't suppose you know the name Lucius Sempronius Atratinus?" Jason hadn't heard it before that evening, so he wasn't one of his master's coterie or linked in any other way to the Imperial Family that he knew of. The body had been that of a man in his late thirties or early forties, probably not someone who had been a consul though perhaps one who would have been consul in the next few years if he hadn't run into a maniac with a knife and a death wish. "We had another meeting - Alexius, that patrician vigile and the Greek medicus - and we think that he lives in the Aventine somewhere and works on the Esquiline, or the other way round. Most of these happened in those two places with some between the Forum and the Aventine." He gave his cousin a frank yet apologetic look. "We don't know why he was here by the Circus - I don't suppose you have any ideas about that?" @Chevi

It was an easy quiet ride through the streets of Rome. The Praetorians would, no doubt, not catch them up before they reached their destination - they had to tack up, after all, and they would be following the same path at the same speed. Ignis was quieter under him, no doubt cheered by the actual exercise rather than just the few steps in the courtyard. He had expected that his master would abandon conversation with him, especially after it had taken such a disastrous turn. He would have believed a simple unadorned 'no' from Jason... but would he have been content with it? He was too aware of his master's curiosity and propensity for studying and learning everything he could. With anyone else, he might have offered that simple 'no' - but then, nobody else would have brought him to the stables, watched him work with Ignis... Were he slave to anyone else at all, they would not be where they were right now. And then his master broke the silence between them. "You said that your father is a chief of your people. How did you come to be a slave?" Right there was the proof that he would not have been content with a simple 'no' earlier. Maybe the question offered a truce as Tiberius' admonition earlier had not. If only Jason could phrase things in a way that wouldn't inflame things between them again - and he had to do it in a language that he might have spoken for eight years but that was not his mother tongue. Tabiti, help me speak with this chief!! "There is a river that is the border between your people and mine, Domine," he said quietly, feeling his way in the dark and anxious not to awaken the sleeping giant. "There had been raids, on both sides, and your people demanded hostages against crossing the river from our side to yours. I was a chief's son, it was almost a given I would be one. And two years later, another tribe crossed after a harsh winter, driven west. The retaliation was... simple, really. For the Romans. They took us down to the river, crucified the older men and sold the rest of us to a slave trader." He could still hear the screams and cries and smell the blood. There was no need to mention what they'd done to Azarion or to him, especially after the earlier rebuke. @Sarah

"I don't know why she won't," Attis returned with a shrug, stepping past his master to knock at the door. He wondered sometimes, privately, what would happen if all the slaves in Rome somehow vanished overnight (not run away, just... weren't there in the morning). Three-quarters of Roman patrician would probably end up stuck in their rooms, unable to operate a simple door! "Maybe she'll think differently after the baby's born? I can hope." The door's spyhole opened. "My master Lucius Cassius Longinus to see your master Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus." He'd quiz the other senator's secretary about how he got his master to sign paperwork but secretly suspected that the answer was simply that Calpurnius Praetextatus was a more organised and efficient man than Longinus. He'd been a Consul after all, and Longinus was still dithering about becoming Praetor. "If she's happy the way things are, who am I to upset that?" he asked, stepping back into his place as the doors swung open. @Sara

"May I point out that I'm supposed to be wherever you are, Domine," Attis said. "And I doubt you'll want to have Metella and a baby in tow if you get posted back to Britannia, or anywhere else." It was highly likely that Cassia would be left in Rome, again, and as Metella was in that limbo somewhere between being Cassia's nurse and her body slave, she would be where Cassia was, and of course the baby would be with Metella. "If I fucked off anywhere just because I couldn't cope, I'd probably have a slave catcher or bounty hunter on my tail before I was halfway anywhere - and it's not like I have anywhere to go. Metella would kill me even if you didn't, too." What was worrying him? Everything, and there were some things no senatorial patrician would be able to advise on. Like, how to ensure a child didn't make itself too known to people to whom slaves were part of the furnishings. Well. Not that Longinus was really one of those, especially when it came to Attis and (probably) Metella, but it was never wise to risk it. @Sara

"I'm sorry," he returned, with a shrug. "It's not usually a good idea for a slave to assume anything - and you joke about selling me often enough, after all." Not that those were anything but jokes, yet there was always that ring of truth to them - Longinus could do it if he chose to, after all. He had every right, as Attis' master. Something that a slave forgot at their peril. "And I'm not sure I'm going to be very good as a father," he added. "I mean... Well, you know me, Domine. I'm going to be a terrible example for a child to follow." Especially a child who had to learn to navigate the cruel and unfair world of being a slave in a Roman household, however benevolent the master was. And Longinus didn't have a cruel bone in his body, not when it came to those close to him... even on his pessimistic days, Attis knew that it wasn't wishful thinking or mere sycophancy to think that he was close to his master. There was probably nobody else anywhere who had seen Longinus in every temper and every state. "You'll find a nice wife and get yourself a whole gaggle of Senatorial brats for us all to chase after, just you see if you don't," he added. @Sara

"She's his concubina," he continued. "There was a whole long list of conditions for her, of course." He didn't know what was on that list, though he could probably guess at some of them, not that he needed to. " He looked up at his mother, whose expression was one of concern. "I suggested it, last year? Or was it the year before - no, it was last year, last Saturnalia." There was another sigh. "He invited me for dinner, and I turned up to find I wasn't the only guest." This revelation might hurt his mother, as it had stung Teutus at the time. But better get it out in the open so they could at least acknowledge the hurt. "There was another man there, younger than me, who said he was named Wulfric, who had come from Germania. My half-brother." Free but barbarian half-brother. "It was rather a disaster, that dinner," he added with a slightly bitter laugh. "I ended up telling Father some home truths that I think might have taken him by surprise - and I told him he should free Charis because he wouldn't want his baby with her to end up like me." It had almost been the last time he'd spoken with his father - a whole year... That wasn't right, he ought to do something about that. He just would prefer not to. @Sarah

Attis grinned. She hadn't changed much, then, not really, except she was rather less likely to tell Longinus where he could go, or what he could do with himself in the meantime. "I'll tell her, Domine," he said, not sure whether to be amused or impressed that Longinus was apparently willing to do anything for her. He wondered how far that 'anything' might extend, and whether Metella would request anything she didn't already have. It was easier to picture Metella as a mother than to visualise himself as a father; she had always been a motherly sort, and had been more of a mother to Cassia in her own way than her Cassia's grandmother, Longinus' mother. Attis was not ready, in any way, shape, or form to be a father, and wasn't entirely sure how he felt about having a child in slavery. Too late for regrets, though, and he would at least make a good attempt at being a father. "How do you feel about it, Domine?" he asked, wishing he knew Longinus' thoughts about it all - he had his master's reassurance that the three of them would be able to be a family, but he still didn't really have a reading on what his master actually thought about it all. @Sara

Jason finished rerolling the scrolls and sorting them into neat groups, to be returned to each library they had been borrowed from. He folded his hands in front of him and assumed a position by the wall, just within Tiberius' eyeline should he be wanted but otherwise as noticeable as a table or chair, and tried not to resent everything that had led to his being here in Rome and a slave to one of the most powerful men in the city. They were talking something about Roman laws and inheritance and stuff, which all seemed to depend on whether a man was married. How stupid. A man's father could die before his sons were married and what was supposed to happen to his possessions if his sons couldn't have them? What was even the point of having children if not to pass on your goods and duties to them? He'd be willing to bet that women here couldn't inherit a damn thing whatever the circumstances, which was also a complete nonsense. For people who insisted that anyone not-Roman was a barbarian, they had some truly nonsense ways of doing things! @Sarah @Atrice

"I know it isn't always easy to trust," Teutus continued - oh, how well he knew that! "I appreciate that you might not always have been able to, but I'll do my best to not let you down. Any of you." If you showed you trusted someone, thought the best of them, it was human nature to rise to the occasion and prove that trust warranted, after all. He fell silent as Jannus bent to his attempt at the alphabet. The letters were less awkward than before and he finally sat back after writing out all the letters in order. "Oh, well done!" Teutus had never stinted with praise where praise was due - admittedly his only previous pupil had been his half-sister, who was a child. But surely every student wanted to know their efforts had been noted. @Insignia

Hi Mobius! I saw this this morning but didn't really have time to reply properly for whatever reason.... Welcome to AeRo, we hope you enjoy your time here! :D

"Well, this bastard attacked another girl, a plebeian. She's all right, someone else came along to distract the bastard." Jason had been speaking quietly in Sarmatian; nobody else needed to know about the crazed killer on the loose. He took a breath. "This person wasn't so lucky, though. He managed to get himself killed. And there's going to be the biggest stink ever about because the bastard bagged himself a senator." That wasn't all, but he paused to see how Azarion would take that - judging by his earlier scowl he was about ready to commit murder himself. Did the Romans burn criminals, he wondered. Because Azarion would probably light him on fire just from the scowl - Jason was rather surprised he was still in one piece himself, if there truth were known. @Chevi

"I trust you." Three words, three simple words, in answer to a statement of intent... Three words that sent a warmth through him that he didn't realise he needed. His father had never said those words - had never demonstrated those words, which would render the saying them out loud null and void. Oh, Tertius had trusted him to go shopping for him and come back at a reasonable hour with the correct change. But he had never trusted him in the bigger things, the personal things. He didn't trust his brother, or Charis or... anyone. He never trusted anyone with his thoughts, or his emotions, anything like that. He expected them to screw him over and so he played guessing games with them, almost searching for reasons to justify why he couldn't trust them. What a sad lonely life he had, that he couldn't let anyone in to it. "I trust you." It shouldn't mean anything, coming from a slave who was utterly in his power, but it meant everything. Far more than Jannus would ever know. "Thank you." He could only hope to be worthy of that trust, even if he was never worthy of his father's, he could for someone else. "Now, do you think you can write the alphabet from memory, or do you need to copy it again?" @Insignia

"He'd have a lot less grey hair, Domine," Attis pointed out cheerfully. He wouldn't know what had happened if Longinus decided, for once, to leave his 'to do' pile vastly smaller than his 'done' pile - well, no. He'd probably call a medicus in a tearing hurry, convinced the master was sickening for something dreadful! He wondered if he could persuade Longinus to do it, just once, just to see what the outcome really would be. "She told me - Metella, not the ex-Consul's lady wife, Domine! - that the priestesses were completely unhelpful, so much so that she thought they'd disappeared completely off the earth at one point. She's not a trained midwife, either." And agreed with his master that yes, being able to ask for any favour at all from the lady was a powerful thing, if she only knew it. He rather suspected that the only thing she'd want to ask for would be completely outside Horatia Justina's power to grant: an easy birth for her own child. @Sara

"Oh. I see." Yeah, that'd put Azarion into a foul temper all right. "He must've cheated - anyway, you'll win next time." He didn't have a lucky talisman he could give his cousin - the horse bead he'd handed over on his first visit here would have to do until he could find something else. He'd have to find out what team his master supported, although his own support was with the Whites for obvious reasons. "At least there is a next time. I've got news... though it's not all good." And if Azarion was about to incinerate things now, he's probably spontaneously combust in a moment. Which would be interesting but not really what Jason wanted to see. He hoped there was a bucket of water nearby, just in case. "Were you going to see to the horses?" @Chevi

Jason had news. Sort of. Not good news, but news. Things were back to a bit more of an even keel between him and his master, and he had managed to snag an errand or two to run in the city which gave him the excuse of being out already to ask if it was all right for him to see his cousin. Said cousin seemed to be attempting to learn how to set things on fire from the heat of his glare... Azarion had always scowled loudly and today it was deafening. "Who ate your breakfast for you?" he asked, finding a clean bit of wall to lean against out of the way, where his pale yellow tunic wouldn't pick up too much grime, though he tucked his brown cloak between his shoulder and the brickwork. Just in case. @Chevi