*Your* Roman life

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*Your* Roman life

Postby Tiberius Dionysius Draco on Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:27 pm

Salvete Romani!

Having discussed some aspects of the Roman life earlier, I was wondering where you (yes, you, dear reader) might have wanted to lived back when the Roman Empire was at its height of power.

Perhaps you could also shed some light onto what your occupation would have been, you house, your wealth,... . Remember, anything is possible!

Valete!

[edit: my 200th posting, hurrah :party: ]
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Postby Primus Aurelius Timavus on Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:39 pm

As a lover of Rome, I've often wondered what kind of life I would have led had I lived during either the Republic or the Empire. I always come to the sad conclusion that I would not have survived infancy.

I was born with a severe defect in my feet (clubfeet). I certainly would not have been able to walk if not for the corrective measures that I endured as a baby. Were I born in Rome in the old days, the only question would be whether I would have been exposed at birth.

I love the glory of Rome, but hooray for modern marvels!

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:51 pm

Salve Tiberi,

Well, let say :

*A few million sesterces to begin with, both to provide myself comfortably and to be a generous and upright benefactor to the less privileged, not just your showing-off wealth patron. (E.g., I would rather want to help my clientes taking their own lives into hands (helping them to start a business e.g.), than to keep them dependent of my daily gifts. I think the dependency system the rich Romans cultivated was both untenable and unethical.)
*A nice domus in one of the better quarters of the Urbs Aeterna, one country villa in Latium and one on the Amalfi coast (not Baiae, too noisy) .
*Private baths (I think I'd be rather disgusted with the clamour of the public therms)
*A nice personal library. Conditio sine qua non !
*A few, good, honest, friends, cultivated but without being snobbish, shallow, power-mad or decadent, as we see too many members of the elite in the chronicals.
*A good matrona, neither the bossy "la mama" type, nor the meek, naïve housewife. A good, cultivated, warm companion briefly. And please, not a twelve-year old at marriage, as was not unusual...
*A good cook, and generally nice servants, which I would treat well and liberate early (Ideally, I would have free, paid servants, for ethical reasons (I would have money enough anyway in the scenario I'm drawing up :wink:), but that would be very anachronistic if I were to be a Roman).
*A job in the administration to be useful, at least a few hours a day (I think I could bear working a few hours in the morning :wink:)

Well, that's about the first things I'm thinking of. Not bad ey ? :lol:

Vale,

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Postby Curio Agelastus on Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:19 am

Salve,

I think I'd live from 155BC to 95BC. This would allow me to be a revolutionary ally of the Gracchi, but also see the rise of Marius. Of course I could also keep an eye out for any suspicious aristocrats by the name of Dionysius. ;-)

A small house and enough money to get drunk once a week would be enough. I'd probably spend most of my time travelling, so I'd wouldn't need too much cash, unlike the rest of you greedy types... :roll:

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:22 pm

Salve Tiberni Draco

Once, it is true, I led common soldiers, serving as a decurio with the First Cavalry before receiving wounds that forced me to retire. It was not so glorious a career as had some of my ancestors, true, but honorable, and far more profitable, for it was in Asia that I had served first, then on to the rock-strewn plateau of Syria. The cities there were populous and wealthy, the women dark and sweet, and so I returned with a modest fortune. The time I spent healing from my wounds I spent wisely, attaining a respectable education if not quite the finest money could buy, preferring instead to invest in more risky ventures. Fortunes won and fortunes lost. There is little difference. Although it seemed at times that the wiles of Fortuna had taken more often than given, nonetheless my wealth grew, and through hard labor I became prosperous. I first took possession of a small, old vineyard, 40 iugares in ill repair near Nomentanum in the Sabine country. Land was cheap in that region, but responded quite favorably to diligent work. Often it was that I would join in digging trenches about my own vines, being frugal by nature and enjoying the vapors of the earth. An excellent and very profitable vintage I turned out, allowing me to buy another nearby vineyard as well, and from that an olive orchard at Venafrum in Samnium as well. Although another small plot, it was old and coming into full production when I bought it, and it proved to offer the most excellent oil, so that my investment proved most profitable. And with time I inherited a small farm and flocks from my proavus at Ferentium, and apartments at Teateum from an avunculus, that overlooked the Sangrus flowing into the Mare Adriaticum. Thus my holdings allow me to travel through the beautiful valleys of the wild Apennines, enjoying gentle Favonius in early spring as it passes on Marruccinian shores, summers spent hunting in Marsian forests, returning by autumn to oversee the harvest at Nomentanum, and, being only 8 miles from Roma, enjoying the season of the ludi Magni as well.

Mi amicus et commiles in Syria, Valerius, chose to remain in the East with his commercial interests and a local woman he married, while others among our turma settled in Cyrene. When they return to Rome they are my guests, and I in turn enjoy an occasional voyage and a stay in their villas. This too has afforded me no small profit as I have from time to time contributed to their ventures. Valerius is aware of my keen interest in plants from distant lands. His trade in rich perfumes, spices and incense, as well as Eastern wares, places him in a good position to find exotic herbs from India and beyond. I have found that these grow well at my villa at Salernum. My avocation has meant that I am able to supply many medicinal herbs to Valerius? sister, the sacredotus of the Bona Dea, as well as several physicians between Salernum and Roma. It is at Salernum, too, that I keep a scriptorium, transcribing Greek works on medicine and philosophy. This has afforded me a modest biblioteca at Salernum and another in Roma, but it is to Nomentanum I most like to return to enjoy reading in the autumn sun. There beside my piscina or else in the shade of the arborium, sampling the local wine as I pour over Philodemus? De Pietati or some similar work. I am afraid I never did tend to my lessons in Greek, and thus I require my scriptorium to translate Greek works into Latin, and as I am a voracious reader, I keep them quite busy. One house at Nomentanum is filled with tintinnabula in the Campanian fashion. A tasteful but humorous fresco of a silanus surprised to fine his conquest a hermaphrodite greets guests as they first enter, offering them a good laugh, which serves to ward off any evil spiritus . The decoration of other walls includes a galleria of Hercules. There a besotted Hercules is enticed by Auge or wrestles the Nemean lion or contends with Bacchus. It serves me well as a place to entertain. But it is my other house at Nomentanum to which I retire for reflection. It is decorated with fanciful landscapes and scenes of putti in the Blessed Isles while Venus oversees the nymphaeum from Her shell-couch. This latter house is made with an enclosed peristyle, dark and cool for summers, but opens then onto a garden with a panavista of the vineyards. The former has a tetrastyle atrium, its expluvium large, so that it is light and airy as one passes through it on to the garden enclosed by a peristyle. Fashionable but not overly luxurious; again good for entertaining or offering as a guest house.

When I was a younger man I actively participated in the City?s politics, holding some minor offices, but my war injuries in time forced me to take a more reclusive style of life, retiring to the countryside. But there, in accordance with my lineage and status, I serve as a duovir and as a curator of a local shrine, and I have become a patron of various sodales throughout Campania and Vitalia. My knowledge of herbs has led to my advice being sought on the various maladies of plants and animals, while my biblioteca on philosophy and medicine has almost turned me into the local substitute for a physician. I maintain good relations with some of the local women healers, sharing ?trade secrets? as it were. Many of those old women appear to me at times to be strigae, but it never hurts to know a few Marsian carmina to supplement the cures provided by Nature. For their part I provide herbs that are not so readily available and have become the patron of the annual procession held for Angitina, a local version of the Bona Dea. Over the years I have acquired acquaintances in many parts of Italia and the East. Aiding friends and clients with loans at moderate rates, below the 6% permitted and far less than is usually available, so that my true wealth is measured by the number of contacts I have in various parts of the empire. That has often come to serve my friends as I make my contacts available to them, easing their own pursuits, and they in turn have shown their appreciation with gifts or services. Thus, one time while heading to my estate at Salernum, I came upon a dispute between two neighbors on the Via Consolare in Pompeii. The Vettii had just purchased a house and were seeking to expand it by buying two adjacent houses, and this led to a dispute with their neighbor on the other side, with whom they shared a wall. I discovered that the man had an interest in medicines and eased his tensions with a gift of some herbs and a surgical kit, and for the Vettii I provided a loan at only 4% interest that they might hire some better workers, not disturbing the man so much. This proved beneficial for Valerius, and profitable to the Vetii as well, as by my aid they became business partners in supplying Pompeii with perfumes from the East. I in turn was able to set sail from Brudisium with free passage on one of their ships, stopping in Greece where I acquired an interest in another olive orchard near Corinth, before sailing on to Epheseus, a city I have come to much enjoy, and then on to visit Valerius in Antioch.

So while I have left military glory to younger men, and have eschewed seeking honors in greater offices or pursuing wealth in commercial opportunities, I have come to enjoy a moderate life that is carefree and entertaining. It is a life that has been filled with many joys, Venus providing me with many children, oh, and a daughter too, and not a few sorrows as well. Only two of my sons reached their maturity, the youngest now off on campaigns in the East as I had once done, the other in the south carving out his own plot of land. He is filled with plans for planting his own orchards, but has unfortunately taken to sponsoring teams in the Circus and the arena with his limited resources. That artists? colony for which he has become a patron looks promising however. And wives, Annia died young in childbirth, Junia and I parted as friends when I went off to war, taking our daughter with her, and for thirty some years a woman I met while a student has managed to put up with me as husband. So all in all it has been a life blessed by the Gods. I give thanks to the Gods, who have so richly merited it by the richness they have given me. And someday I hope I may be reincarnated in one of my descendants that I may enjoy it once more.

Vale optime
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:30 pm

Salve Curio

Marcus Scribonius Curio wrote:Salve,

I think I'd live from 155BC to 95BC. This would allow me to be a revolutionary ally of the Gracchi, but also see the rise of Marius.


I might like to explore that a little further. Were the Gracchi really revolutionaries? I don't think so. It has been a while since we last entertained the Forum with a good trial, so maybe we could consider trying Scipio Nasica for the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, hero of the final assault on Carthage.

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:24 pm

Salvete Piscine et alii,

Were the Gracchi really revolutionaries?


An interesting question indeed. It all depends on how one sees a revolutionary. If one considers the Gracchi as spokesmen of the proletariat, fighting for social equality and the establishment of a utopian state, that is of course a firm anachronism.

The term "Populares" in the late republic surely did not mean "the people's party"; it did not govern for the people, but through the people, as opposed to the "optimates" who governed through the aristocracy and the Senate, somewhat comparable to the antagonism between the Eupatridic (="aristocratic") oligarchs in Athens, who depended on aristocratic hetaireiai ("gentlemen's leagues"), and the democrats on the other side, who often also belonged to the Eupatridic families (Pericles, an Alcmaeonid, being the most famous, although it most be said that he also depended on private hetaireiai; only his successors were to be "real" democrats), but who depended upon the support of the people. Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives, compared Pericles with Fabius Maximus, and the Gracchi with Agis and Kleomenes, but perhaps he could've compared Pericles with the Gracchi as well ?

Also, the Gracchi's first concern was to restore the taxation base of the Roman republic, which alarmingly degraded in their time. Some think this was their only serious motivation, others estimate they must've felt some genuine social concern. Personally I don't know, although I think we should not be as cynical as to a priori exclude the possiblity that some Romans, even aristocrats, could have felt genuine concern for the poor, even if it occupied only a second place after more calculating reasons.

Valete optime,

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Postby Curio Agelastus on Sat Apr 24, 2004 2:32 am

Salve Piscine,

Well of course the revolutionary nature of the Gracchi is highly debatable, but I didn't say they were revolutionaries, simply that I would be a revolutionary ally of theirs. :-) Ah, bringing communism and anarchism into the classical world...

:twisted:

As for a trial of Scipio Nasica, I think that's a superb idea. Is anyone else interested? I don't know enough on the subject to either prosecute or defend Nasica, I'd join the jury for sure though.

Bene vale,
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Sat Apr 24, 2004 8:15 am

Salvete

The idea that the Gracchi represented interests of the Roman proletariat is a totally modern misrepresentation. None of the proposed reforms of the Gracchi benefitted the proletariat, the Roman proletariat, but were aimed instead to advance the interests of the equestrians (in its broader meaning, not the eques pro populi). The problem with seeing the Gracchi as revolutionaries, which would mean they had an intent to overthrow the ruling authorities, is that they were part of the very highest social strata of Roman society and were supported by the leading members of the Senate - Scipio Aemilianus, Appius Claudius, Scaevola, and a number of other former consules. And Tiberius was the ultimate Roman hero, having led the charge that breached the walls of Carthage. As for his "radical" legislation, to enforce an existing law, it was a proposal that had already been put before the Senate by Aemilianus and other consules. Projecting back in time what occured in the Late Republic what were the differences between the optimes and populares would be an historical fallacy, but the distinction made by Mus does seem to apply. It was not policy but the methods of passing the legislation that differed between Aemilianus and Gracchus, and it would seem that Aemilianus had actually been the one to propose that Tiberius do it. Scipio Nasica was a Cornelian, the pontifex maximus and member of the Senate, but not in the highest elements of the Senate. I think the struggle was between the very highest and very lowest elements of the equestrian classes against what we could say was the middle equestrians. So as in the Late Republic it was a struggle within the upper reaches of society.

As for an aristocracy of that time, Gracchus' supporters would have to be considered the landed aristocracy, and they were supporting proposals to recreate or restore a propertied gentry. The opposition, represented to us by Nasica, were those who had interests in expanding the cales. It is almost like the cattle barons were trying to keep an open range (sorry, Old West in US analogy) against farmers and sheepherders. The Gracchi program in effect supported the old aristrocracy against the nouveau riche, and at the same time the result of the proposals, which did not end with the Gracchi, created a new powerful class. By the Late Republic the commercial equestrians created by the Gracchi program joined with the cattle barons, but that was not the situation in the Gracchan period. So I can not see how the Gracchi can be thought of as revolutionaries when they were from the highest elements of society, supporting programs to restore the old social structure against rising economic interests.

Now then, a trial of Nasica. Who would be able to defend him against supporters of the Gracchi, in what would be a hostile public opinion, not only in SVR but in Roma antiqua?

Salvete
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My Roman Life

Postby Aldus Marius on Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:22 pm

Avete amici--

...and, umm...AAAGH!! New Thread for the Gracchi--please?

Mi Curio, if you wish to see the Rise of Marius, you need only stand outside my tent in the pre-dawn when the trumpet sounds. It ain't pretty, it ain't anything resembling 'quick' anymore (we oldsters must make allowances), but...it works. >({|;-)

A very good idea of My Roman Life may be gotten from reading the Roleplay thread, especially the earlier bits. I see myself like that: A Roman of the Provinces (Hispania Baetica), a veteran of the Legions (Legio VI Victrix in Britain), socially awkward, unsure what to do with himself after retirement, and free in the meantime to travel for as long as he can stand it. He has led one kind of life for twenty years, and is now exploring others, different ones entirely. He may well wander until his two selves are made one--the Legionary, bound by honor and duty and surrounded by his command structure and his tentmates; and the Wanderer, the explorer, the proto-naturalist, observing all around him, living in wilderness and surrounded only by dogs and hawks and a very special horse.

He has had experiences that he believes few people would understand, even had he the words to describe them; in consequence he has become something of a stranger to his own culture, and even to himself a little bit. Yet while the greater society may not understand his experiences, they can still benefit from them. Marius considers himself an education on wheels, and the rare times when he forsakes his mountain or desert fastnesses are when he thinks he has something to contribute elsewhere.

If Marius were ever to set up in a town, it might very well be as a schoolteacher. He tells wonderful stories, knows a lot about the natural world, and has the gut-urge to explain things, to be useful. OTOH, he's really not good with children--but readiness with the vine-staff is not frowned upon in his day as it would be in later times. The best pupils would be treated like dogs...but to be treated like one of Marius' dogs is about the best thing that could happen to anyone in his income-bracket.

But then, of course, after a year or two, the Road would come calling...again...and Marius, the incarnation of curiosity and wanderlust, would pick up his meager possessions, don his Wolf-cloak, and strike out once again for the horizon, anybody's guess what he sought there...

Time-wise, Marius is a Roman of the Flavian-Antonine persuasion, his Legion having put up the eastern third of Hadrian's Wall.

Space-wise, most of his travels would be on an axis between Italica, in southern Spain (his birthplace) and Eburacum (York) in northern England, with occasional forays as far as Arabia Petrea, but never to Greece or Egypt. (Too many hoity-toity types, people who think they are better than Romans, both places.) He has been to Lepcis.

House-wise, if on his usual route, he stays with friends in town and country (especially those with libraries! --he is a voracious reader, but obviously can't carry many books); otherwise he finds a secluded spot to put up his pup-tent for the night.

Money-wise, he's got some; he must, if he retired with honor; but he doesn't carry it with him, nobody knows where it is, and he ain't sayin'...except that he always seems to have what he needs in an emergency. (Big change from my modern version!)

Ad astram per aspera,
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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Sun Apr 25, 2004 12:23 pm

Salvete!

Staging another trial: excellent idea. I'm not versed into that part of history however, so I would need sources on this if I want to join in.

As a Roman, I probably would have wanted to live during the Golden Age of the second century CE, or, if I had wanted to have a life of challenges, I'd like to have assassinated Commodus in the early days of his reign and take his place. Remember that it all went downhill from there (I'm probably going to get a historical spanking from Piscinus, Lupus or Atticus for this blatant statement).

Valete!
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Postby Victoria Aurelia Ovensa on Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:43 am

Salvete omnes,

I hate to say it, but I probably would have ended up a courtesan or some rich guy's mistress. Never was the matronly type...

:oops:
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Postby Aulus Flavius on Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:10 am

Salve amici,

Animated discussion as always. I’d have to say there is a certain romanticism about the Late Empire for me. I can see myself living in the 3rd and 4th Centuries, and would flatter myself as the son of an aristocratic pagan Senator. Being the eldest son of the family I would have been tutored in both Latin and Greek, as well versed in Cicero as in Homer. A small copy of Virgilius Maro’s Aeneid rolled up in my modest library.

I would have a large house on the Aventine for my family and myself. By this point the Palatine host the magnificent imperial domus. Perhaps a few rustic villas in the country, down Capua way near Neapolis. Born into landed gentry I would have become well versed in rhetoric and encouraged to climb the cursus honorum. Unfortunately I would have lived in a time where my dear Rome was falling apart. Barbarians have spilled across our borders and rule their own kingdoms in Gaul and Illyria. All the while fanatical mobs of Christians led by demagogue priests tear through our heritage.

I would stand side by side with my dear friend Symmachus as I argued for the respect of our ancestors, just as easily as I would have rejoiced in the election and victories of the Divine Julian or delve into the writings of Sallustius.

Being landed Senatorial gentry I know no real power laid in my future. My beloved Senate is impotent for the most part. But we are the Senate, and like the People, Rome would not be what She is without either of us. I would have settled myself into a life of study.

I would watch with trepidation at the empowerment of Honorius and Valentinian II, but be thankful for men like Stilicho and Aetius to keep us safe. I would have beaten my breast and tore my hair at the sack of Rome. I would have screamed, wept and cursed the name of the Visigoths.

I would have married and had children of my own. I would have taught them of the glory and splendour that was Rome. I would have taught them of morals and ethics, and of their obligation to honour the Gods of our great commonwealth. I would have taught them of the duty they have to Rome, and its great traditions.

I would have trembled at the sight of Huns and Goths. I would have watched as Britain, then Gaul and Spain slipped from Roman hands that had nurtured them for so long. I would have been enraged as the Eastern Empire turned its back upon her Western counterpart. I would have watched as all but Italy fell away, and in time even her green countryside would be host to barbarians.

I would have been sadly acceptant of the rising of a young boy to the Purple, and smirked at the irony of naming him Romulus. I would have watched defeated, as Odoacer stripped him of the Purple and sent it East. Perhaps I would have been apart of that delegation sent to the court of Constantinople, and bowed myself to the Eastern Emperor.

“Behold! Rome has finally sicked beyond healing. No longer does the line of Augustus watch over us. Here we present to you the Imperial symbols of the Western Court. No longer are we in the hands of Romans, but barbarians instead.”

All this time I would have watched powerless as Rome slipped into decay. I would have watched as our verdant fields were made barren and as Ostrogoths settled into their new kingdom.

And then what would I have done?

I would have died.
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Roman Lives -

Postby Valerius Claudius Iohanes on Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:32 pm

Salvete, sodales omnes -

This is an interesting question. Re-reading the thread again, and still wondering, and begging your indulgence, I will add my two cents.

In purest fantasy, I would've been an moderate and clear-headed emperor, or one of his canny legates, probing, defending, and outwitting the barbarians. Or, contrarily, in an earlier age, a Gallic noble fighting under Vercingetorix for the freedom of "la belle Gaule".

But then, in a more sober vein, as a Roman at the height of Rome's power? I'd've probably been a clerk or librarian, working in the Tabularium or one of the public libraries, careful to file the volumes correctly, or perhaps, being fairly intelligent and writing-oriented, but less than brilliant and dynamic, I would've been a pedagogue, teaching my charges bad, half-mastered Greek.

It's only too possible that I would've been a slave!

What if I had been of a nobler origin, and had had to go the Cursus Honorum? I would have been the most miserable of junior officers in the military, I'm sure, reviled by my men on the one hand and my superiors on the other; but then perhaps better as a minor official. I would have been proud to be pater familias and to revere the household gods.

I tend to think that in the time of Emperor Claudius, had I been noticed by the Emperor, I might have been recruited for duties in the imperial bureaucracy. Why? Because I feel a kinship with the images of Claudius that I've received - he seems like my kind of guy.

A bit later in time, I think I would have been of Vespasian's party, singing his praises, since he brought an end to civil war and brought much-needed sanity back to government. But what would I have thought of the campaign against the Jews?

In the time of the Constantinian emperors, I would have cheered the Emperor Julian, the innovative philosophic conservative, the emperor who tried to force tolerance on the empire and to support the weakened Religio Romana - or by that time, the Solis Invicti Cultus. For I'm naturally conservative, ever favor the underdog, and long for balance and unity.

And at the last, I can see myself as a harried Citizen of Gothic Rome, grasping at the fading traditions. And then I would have been welcoming Count Belisarius at his amazing capture of the City, less for concrete reasons than for the dream of a return of an idealized, righteous Roman legacy, a hope for its rebirth.

Just my thoughts, amici. Valete bene.
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Postby Cleopatra Aelia on Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:06 am

Very interesting question indeed, esp. since I actually think about it if I had the same role in Roman life I have now as a reenactor, i.e. a (volunteer) gladiatrix.

After reading a lot about gladiators I definitely don't see it in a romantic way, I know that life in a ludus was hard. You had to train very hard every day and when having a bout in the arena it might have been the last thing you did in your life. But on the other hand you got nutritious meals on a regular basis and had a roof above your head at night, you had a home and weren't sleeping on the streets or under a bridge. You even had the amenities of a massage and a bath after every days training session. Also you got good medical treatment.

For a person from a poor background becoming a gladiator surely was appealing, even for a prisoner of war or a slave you were much better off as a gladiator then being sent to the mines or working on fields etc. You even had the chance to buy your freedom with your prize money. In the 1st century AD the chances of surviving your fights were most favorable while in later centuries some emperors liked "sine missione" fights more than others and were willing to pay the lanista for it.
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Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:24 am

It's been a while since I posted here and since the topic is intriging. How much I loved ancient Rome and Greece, I doubt I would have lived very long. Wearing glasses to be able to see good - I don't know if they had glasses back than - but if they didn't. I wondered what would have happened to me. I can't see very far, so perhaps being educated is perhaps out of the question. Perhaps it might be possible to learn how to write and read. Maybe I would end up serving in one of the many temples. I don't know. Preferably, I would to be a priest during those times, one with the heart in the right place, with a beautiful woman at my side, maybe as priest of Jupiter or Bacchus.
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Postby M.Apollonius Silvanus on Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:40 pm

Salvete Omnes!

Hmm I wear glasses too and have since 5th grade..so I probably would have been some form of servant or worked in a market of somesort. Heck might have been recruited by a legion,who knows. But if it were left up to me, I would have had a nice house outside Rome,but within walking distance. Married possibly, and with a few servants to help the wife out and me sometimes. And I would have preferred to live before the collapse of the Republic and the back turning on the Religio.

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Postby cepasaccus on Thu May 01, 2008 12:26 am

I want ... I want to be ... a lumberjack!

In honest, I would like to be the person who built the antikythera mechanism as I am less of a social person. And I would like my own thermae.

And to be even more honest: I am a child of the here and now.

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kitty mea felis dodeviginti annos nata requiescat in pace. me per pleramque meam vitam comitabat. laeta gaudiumque meum erat. desiderio eius angor.
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Re: *Your* Roman life

Postby M Sempronia Pulla on Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:53 pm

Salvete Omnes,

If I were to put this in a realistic context, I probably wouldn't have survived infancy, let alone childhood. I was rather sickly growing up, my earliest major illness happening not long after I was born (whatever it was, it required a spinal tap).

But, for the sake of pretend I could see myself in a few ways:

    The girl that had to wear this collar: Adulterous whore. Take me, because I ran away from Bulla Regia. (Inscribed on a lead collar in Roman Africa source: Women's Life in Greece & Rome). Basically, a bad/rebellious slave if I had been taken into slavery from 12+ on. I have a rebellious streak. If I had been born into slavery, however, I could see myself being very meek as I have moments of meekness as I am now.

    A patrician girl something like Sulla's first wife as portrayed in The First Man in Rome minus the alcoholism and the obsessive stalking and the complete incompetence at parenthood. Well, that doesn't leave much other than a very ...erm amorous and insatiable wife that had been spoiled growing up.
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