Thursday, February 16, 2012

Regina Alvarado Assignment 5: Historical Details


Regina Alvarado
Assignment 5: Historical Details

                Claudia awoke early in the morning, before everyone in the house. This was no rare occasion and just like the other days she lay in bed contemplating the details of her life. She knew that her nurse would be in soon to ask to if her service was needed. Her nurse Tullia was a slave who her father had attained while at war. Being the caring paterfamilias that he is, Claudia’s father gave her an educated woman taken from Greece.  He took Tullia in who had been a prisoner of war of the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey.  She had tried to run away before she came to live Claudia and wore her shame around her neck in the form of a slave collar. Claudia did her best to ignore because it didn’t matter to her since she’d much rather listen to the stories that Tullia had to share. She had many nice things to say about the late dictator Julius Caesar and was quite upset over his assassination.
                As she lay there she began to think of the family pedagogue Rubius, who was a soldier in his home country before he was captured and came to live in Claudia’s home here on Palatine Hill. He was very politically conscious. In the rare afternoons that she got to simply talk with him he would tell her his dreams. He wanted to buy his freedom and move up into the senator class. He felt that the financial responsibilities of Quaestors were an easy first step into the prestigious, elite class. He dreamed of making his way up the political ladder from quaestor, to aedile, to praetor, to consul, and censor. He had served in the army and was an exceptional soldier. He felt that he was exactly the man, who with a bit of power could make a better republic for the citizens of Rome. He never let the notion that he was at the bottom of the political and social hierarchy shun him from his dreams.
                These two people were in Claudia’s everyday life but lived a much different life from her own.  She knew what wonderful human beings they were and didn’t understand why their status as a slave had to limit them so much. She could see her privileges as a member of the elite but didn’t understand why her entitlements weren’t the same for everyone.