Tiro had been given three tasks to complete in the morning. He was making his way down Palatine Hill as the dawn slowly illuminated the Roman Forum below him. From the edge of his master’s estate, sitting above the Forum, the wooden and marble-faced basilicas and temples emerged from the grey and casted long shadows along the roofs and ground. Only a few hooded figures could be seen exiting the temples and shrines, probably leaving the first sacrifices of the day in hopes of good fortune.
In his sack Tiro held four letters he was told to deliver. Two of them he would deliver himself later in the day, and the other two he would hand off to his master’s courier of choice, to be shipped by boat to Sicily and Athens. He headed towards the shops in the Basilica Aemilia and handed them off to the half-asleep courier who immediately left running.
By this time, the city had awakened. The noise of footsteps and talking were gradually rising. Incense spread across the Forum, drifting out of the dark temples. A togaed freedmen took his place at a platform in the Forum, and began announcing the latest news. “Caesar victorious in Spain, as he marches...”, he shouts. Tiro leaves for the market, nodding to some familiar faces; servants and citizens who he crosses paths with once or twice a week.
As he passed by the Temple of Castor, where students were gathering in front of a bearded tutor,Tiro heard in the distance the first commotion of the day. Curses addressed to the gods were intermingled with fighting and bickering. He jogged towards the chaos, turning the corner, to witness an unfortunate accident. Four men were waving their arms, blaming each other with pointed fingers. At their feet lay a full-bodied statue, originally bound for a rich estate, but now with a noticeable crack running through the neck, damaged beyond repair.
He checked his list of items and hurried towards the smells of the market.
