Assignment #4: Describing Aulus Publius
Alyssa Ogi
Aulus
was flushed when he ran through the atrium to the slaves’ quarters, his dusty
brown hair curling against his forehead. His father had just summoned him from
the Senate, a rare act that could only mean one thing: Caesar was making a
personal appearance. Having been lounging out in the garden all morning reading
the latest court transcripts from Cicero, his thin teenage body was lightly
browned by the Mediterranean sun. Since his ancestors came from Northern Italy,
it was difficult to maintain a tan before his pale skin turned to a red burn.
In the slaves’ quarters were the day’s freshest piles of folded clothing. Aulus
searched through the newly washed garments, pushing aside his father’s striped
tunic with little care. The slaves could just refold them later. His muscles,
corded from training with his family’s guards, flexed as he lifted the togas. As
a senator, Servius Publius was given the full stripes of his rank, and the bold
crimson stood out from the stacks of white.
Finally finding his own unembellished
toga, he pinned it together over a new tunic. When he had turned fifteen a few
months earlier, he had been allowed to forego his youthful toga praetexta and finally wear the toga virilis of a man during his coming-of-age ceremony. Aulus had
been gleeful at the time, since all the girls paid more attention to him, but
he hadn’t expected the added responsibilities. His father regarded him as
another man in the household, and pushed him to be an example amongst his
peers; all he wanted to do was nap and enjoy life. His iron signet ring, a gift
from his parents when he reached manhood, snagged the soft wool of his toga. It
was a little loose on his bony finger, but his father insisted he would grow
into it as he aged. Trying to look presentable, he ran his hands through his
recently cut hair, short for the warmer season. A light blond fuzz of a beard had recently
appeared along his jaw, and his mother had not yet noticed to make him shave it
off. Calling out to his slave to bring his calceī to the front path so it
wouldn’t touch the freshly cleaned marble floor, Aulus looked at himself in his
mother’s polished metal mirror, grumbled at how skinny he was, and left for the
Forum.
