A Mother's Love is Unconditional
Back in Creta, Eugenia was the oldest of ten siblings, the
daughter of an unsuccessful sculptor, and destined to go nowhere. She shared a
single room with all her siblings along with both her parents and grandparents.
It was her responsibility to watch after her siblings, while she also learned
what she could from her mother and grandmother about keeping house. In her new
home in Rome, Eugenia worked in the medical field, had authority over others,
had some liberty in how she did her job, and was given her own housing-quarters.
While the servus was on the bottom of
the hierarchal chain of Roman society, Eugenia liked to be optimistic. She was
no longer stuck following in the footsteps of her unfortunate family, but given
the opportunity to start anew and potentially become an independent
working-woman if she played her cards right –which was her ultimate goal.
Living in the growing city of Rome, Eugenia became
the nurse for the household of the Quaestor Numerius Sergia Silus. The God’s
must have been shining on her the day she was sold because she could not have
landed in a better household even if she prayed for it. Her standard of living significantly
raised and she was often given extra coins to spend on herself, of which she
all saved for the day she would eventually become a freedman.
So for her, she only temporarily
worked as wet nurse and slave. In fact, taking care of the children was only a
matter of routine for her; they came and they went. This come-and-go policy worked
well for her until she began to raise the first child of the Quaestor’s second
son Titus Sergia Silus. Was her motherly love and growing attachment to this
child powerful enough to stop her from achieving her dreams?
