Assignment #5: Historical Details
Alyssa Ogi

Whenever his father got into one of his moods, Aulus would quickly tune out the lectures. He had been minding his own business, sipping Pompeiian wine in the bath and listening to a slave’s high singing voice, when his father burst into the room. Face nearly purple, Publius Severus demanded to know why his only son was wasting time in the bath during the middle of the day. Aulus put on a remorseful expression, but inside, he knew he couldn’t care less.

“How did I raise such a lazy boy? Do you know how hard I had to work to be in the position of power I’m in today?” His toga praetexta billowed around his legs as he paced. Aulus closed his eyes, and sigh grumpily as his father began to retell his political history. 

It was always the same story narrated in the same way: as the eldest son in a poor plebeian family, Publius had to work every day from sunrise to past sunset in the hot alleys of Rome, peddling amphora jars. Unable to afford private tutoring, he learned to read in the dim hearth light late at night. The difficult upbringing taught him the meaning of determination and personal ambition, and had inspired him to run for the quaestor position at the youngest possible age of 32. After a year of reforming commercial finances and creating a positive reputation for himself, he was given one of only ten plebeian tribune titles. It was then that he had risen out of poverty, married Aulus’ mother, and became one of the most respected young magistrates in the city. If he had been able to do all that with the hurdles placed upon him by his lower class, how could his son squander his life with so many luxuries?

Aulus was about to interject, complaining that his father should generate new material soon, when Publius said the one thing that could never be denied.

“You waste life away, while Flavius, who seized every moment, is buried in the ground. You disappoint me.” His father’s reminder of Flavius was like an arrow to his heart. His oldest brother had been his greatest idol, until he was killed two years prior during Caesar’s invasion of Pontus. Feeling sick to his stomach, Aulus only ducked his head, grabbed his previously discarded toga, and fled from his father’s sight.