Classics 80B
Sapir Ohayon
March 9, 2012
Conclusion
In a
long awaited conclusion to the story of Marcus Julius Antonius, his wife,
Antonia, his son, Lucius and their slave, Flavius, we tell of the final day of
that was mentioned in the last short story.
For a quick recap, we discovered Marcus Julius Antonius’ favorite
holiday and that his excitement had been growing and highly anticipated to
celebrate it on that day. However, just
as the family had finished a delicious meal cooked by Antonia, they were
preparing to leave when suddenly, Antonia’s water broke.
As
the story ended abruptly and leaving readers with a hunger for more, I will now
tell you what happened. Marcus Julius
Antonius fled to find a nearby woman who could help Antonia bear her coming
child. The woman who lived next door was
the most experienced “wet nurse” that could be found, since everyone was at the
festivities in the Roman Forum in the center of town. However, she had only helped give birth once
before and as a young woman, was quite nervous for the experience.
Unfortunately,
the story does not end well. As happens
in many Roman households, the baby does not always make it at birth. There wasn’t sterile equipment and people
were very inexperienced with handling newborn children. To Antonia’s grief, her newborn child’s heart
had stopped beating. The family was in
mourning and had to learn to cope with their new loss. Their son, Lucius was overwhelmed with
emotion, since this would have been his baby sister. He had been very excited to see her and was
tired of being the only child. This even
moreso ignited his passion and desire to get away from the house and the life
of luxury that he considered superficial and fake. Lucius left the house that evening, and never
returned.
