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.