GLOSSARY OF TERMS

amicitia Latin for friendship. Upper-class Romans extended an official recognition of friendship to certain persons, recognizing an obligation to assist them and expecting to be able to call on them in a time of need.

atrium The front part of a Roman house (domus). It consisted of rooms arranged around a pool (impluvium) which was originally used to collect rain water through the roof opening. The atrium was the business part of a house, where a wealthy man met his clients each morning.

calendar From the word “Kalends,” the Latin name for the first day of a month. The Romans used the same names for the months that we do, but counted the days in relation to the Kalends, the Nones, and the Ides. The Nones was approximately the eighth day of a month and the Ides was the thirteenth or fifteenth, depending on the month. After the Kalends, all dates were given as “before the Nones.” After the Nones, all dates were given as “before the Ides.” After the Ides, dates were given as “before the Kalends” of the next month.

client From a Latin word meaning to lean or rely on someone. A wealthy Roman (patron) took on as many clients as he could afford, since they were a visible measure of his standing. His clientela were expected to come to the patron’s house each morning at dawn to greet him, receive a small daily allowance, and accompany him as he went to the Forum.

exhedra Given how warm the climate of Italy can be for much of the year, the Romans created outdoor eating areas, especially in the southern part of Italy. These alcoves were usually on the back wall of a garden. The ones in Pompeii and Herculaneum have concrete sloped benches for diners to recline on around three sides, with an opening on the fourth side where servants brought in food.

hours The Romans divided the day into twelve segments, called horae. As the length of the day varied with the seasons, the length of an hour would vary. Even with water-clocks and sundials, precision in timekeeping was impossible.

insula Large apartment house in ancient Rome and other cities in the Empire. The largest stood five stories high and housed as many as two thousand people. They were unheated and had no running water. Wealthy men often owned a number of these tenement houses, which were notorious firetraps. The Romans did not build houses with hallways, so one set of stairs in an insula would lead to part of an upper floor with a few apartments around a landing, while another set would lead to a different part of the same floor and other apartments.

latrunculus A popular board game, a mixture of chess and Othello. The objective was to surround the opponent’s primary piece, the dux (leader).

Necropolis Since the area inside a city’s walls was sacred to a god, the dead had to be buried outside the walls. The tombs could be rather large and were often shaped like houses. They lined the roads outside any city. Families often went out for picnics on the deceased’s birthday or anniversary of his or her death. Messages on the tombs were often composed as though the dead person was talking to passersby. Stepping behind one of the large monuments to relieve oneself was a common practice, as seen in the werewolf story in Petronius’ Satyricon 62.

names Roman nomenclature, among the upper classes, was based on a man’s family name (nomen), along with a first name (praenomen) and a third name (cognomen), e. g., Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Tullius Cicero. When a man was adopted into a family, he kept his biological father’s nomen as part of his name. When Octavius was adopted by his great-uncle, he became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (and eventually Augustus). Pliny’s family name by birth was Caecilius, so when he was adopted by his uncle, Gaius Plinius Secundus, he became Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. A woman was given a feminine form of her father’s nomen. Any daughter born to Julius Caesar was Julia. Younger daughters were sometimes referred to as Secunda or Minor. Among the lower classes, names could vary tremendously, reflecting ethnic origin, place of birth, or numerous other factors. We are somewhat whimsical in our anglicizing of Latin names. Tacitus remains Tacitus, but Plinius becomes Pliny.

October Horse One of the least understood of Roman religious rituals. On October 15 a race was held between two chariots, each drawn by a pair of horses. The right-hand horse on the winning chariot was sacrificed to Mars. Its head was cut off and residents from two districts of Rome fought to see who would have the honor of displaying the head in their district. The tail was also cut off and the blood dripped over a sacrifice to Mars. (It is possible that “tail” is a euphemism for penis, since the tail would not have much blood in it.) The Romans did not typically sacrifice animals they didn’t eat, and they did not eat horses, so this whole ritual stands out as bizarre. It was still being practiced as late as 354.

princeps This term, meaning “chief citizen,” was commonly used by Pliny in his earlier letters to designate the emperor. Imperator was a military term. While that title was given to the emperors from the beginning of Augustus’ reign, princeps was more of a civilian concept, helping to mask the fact that the emperors were military dictators.

raeda An enclosed four-wheeled wagon, the “station wagon” of ancient Rome.

salutatio The “morning greeting.” Clients were expected to gather at their patron’s home each morning to demonstrate, by their numbers, his importance. The poet Martial says he doesn’t mind walking two miles to his patron’s home, but it does rile him to learn that his patron isn’t there that day.

sinus A toga was draped over and around the body in such a way that a “pocket” was created on the man’s left side, between his arm and his ribcage. When Julius Caesar was on his way to the Senate house on the Ides of March, he was given a note warning him of the planned assassination. He dropped it into his sinus to read later.

slave/servant The Romans used the word servus to mean a slave or a free servant. Many servants were freed slaves who remained in their former master’s household. I have not tried to observe a strict rule about applying “slave” or “servant” to any particular character in this novel. In Pliny’s mind, Aurora, for example, was his serva, whatever that might mean.

taberna Obviously the origin of our “tavern,” but in ancient Rome it meant any kind of shop. Many were little more than “fast-food” places with no room to sit down. Others were more like taverns. In Pompeii we find graffiti in tabernae recording how much customers owed, the services available from prostitutes, and other pertinent information.

Tironian notation A system of shorthand devised by Tiro, Cicero’s scribe, to make it possible to take down what a person was saying as he spoke. Tiro’s system used 4,000 signs. The system was modified in the Middle Ages and eventually reached 11,000 signs.

Tyche Goddess of fortune, called Fortuna by the Romans. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods the concept of fortune loomed large, as people’s destinies were controlled by monarchs whom their subjects rarely saw. Temples were built to the goddess embodying the idea of luck or blind chance. The temple of Tyche in Alexandria was one of the largest in the Hellenistic world.

vigiles No ancient city had what we could consider a police or fire department. The vigiles (watchmen) patrolled the streets at night, primarily to awaken people and get them out of a burning building. Over time they took on the functions of a police force.