by Horatius Piscinus on Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:22 pm
Salve Tiberni Draco
Once, it is true, I led common soldiers, serving as a decurio with the First Cavalry before receiving wounds that forced me to retire. It was not so glorious a career as had some of my ancestors, true, but honorable, and far more profitable, for it was in Asia that I had served first, then on to the rock-strewn plateau of Syria. The cities there were populous and wealthy, the women dark and sweet, and so I returned with a modest fortune. The time I spent healing from my wounds I spent wisely, attaining a respectable education if not quite the finest money could buy, preferring instead to invest in more risky ventures. Fortunes won and fortunes lost. There is little difference. Although it seemed at times that the wiles of Fortuna had taken more often than given, nonetheless my wealth grew, and through hard labor I became prosperous. I first took possession of a small, old vineyard, 40 iugares in ill repair near Nomentanum in the Sabine country. Land was cheap in that region, but responded quite favorably to diligent work. Often it was that I would join in digging trenches about my own vines, being frugal by nature and enjoying the vapors of the earth. An excellent and very profitable vintage I turned out, allowing me to buy another nearby vineyard as well, and from that an olive orchard at Venafrum in Samnium as well. Although another small plot, it was old and coming into full production when I bought it, and it proved to offer the most excellent oil, so that my investment proved most profitable. And with time I inherited a small farm and flocks from my proavus at Ferentium, and apartments at Teateum from an avunculus, that overlooked the Sangrus flowing into the Mare Adriaticum. Thus my holdings allow me to travel through the beautiful valleys of the wild Apennines, enjoying gentle Favonius in early spring as it passes on Marruccinian shores, summers spent hunting in Marsian forests, returning by autumn to oversee the harvest at Nomentanum, and, being only 8 miles from Roma, enjoying the season of the ludi Magni as well.
Mi amicus et commiles in Syria, Valerius, chose to remain in the East with his commercial interests and a local woman he married, while others among our turma settled in Cyrene. When they return to Rome they are my guests, and I in turn enjoy an occasional voyage and a stay in their villas. This too has afforded me no small profit as I have from time to time contributed to their ventures. Valerius is aware of my keen interest in plants from distant lands. His trade in rich perfumes, spices and incense, as well as Eastern wares, places him in a good position to find exotic herbs from India and beyond. I have found that these grow well at my villa at Salernum. My avocation has meant that I am able to supply many medicinal herbs to Valerius? sister, the sacredotus of the Bona Dea, as well as several physicians between Salernum and Roma. It is at Salernum, too, that I keep a scriptorium, transcribing Greek works on medicine and philosophy. This has afforded me a modest biblioteca at Salernum and another in Roma, but it is to Nomentanum I most like to return to enjoy reading in the autumn sun. There beside my piscina or else in the shade of the arborium, sampling the local wine as I pour over Philodemus? De Pietati or some similar work. I am afraid I never did tend to my lessons in Greek, and thus I require my scriptorium to translate Greek works into Latin, and as I am a voracious reader, I keep them quite busy. One house at Nomentanum is filled with tintinnabula in the Campanian fashion. A tasteful but humorous fresco of a silanus surprised to fine his conquest a hermaphrodite greets guests as they first enter, offering them a good laugh, which serves to ward off any evil spiritus . The decoration of other walls includes a galleria of Hercules. There a besotted Hercules is enticed by Auge or wrestles the Nemean lion or contends with Bacchus. It serves me well as a place to entertain. But it is my other house at Nomentanum to which I retire for reflection. It is decorated with fanciful landscapes and scenes of putti in the Blessed Isles while Venus oversees the nymphaeum from Her shell-couch. This latter house is made with an enclosed peristyle, dark and cool for summers, but opens then onto a garden with a panavista of the vineyards. The former has a tetrastyle atrium, its expluvium large, so that it is light and airy as one passes through it on to the garden enclosed by a peristyle. Fashionable but not overly luxurious; again good for entertaining or offering as a guest house.
When I was a younger man I actively participated in the City?s politics, holding some minor offices, but my war injuries in time forced me to take a more reclusive style of life, retiring to the countryside. But there, in accordance with my lineage and status, I serve as a duovir and as a curator of a local shrine, and I have become a patron of various sodales throughout Campania and Vitalia. My knowledge of herbs has led to my advice being sought on the various maladies of plants and animals, while my biblioteca on philosophy and medicine has almost turned me into the local substitute for a physician. I maintain good relations with some of the local women healers, sharing ?trade secrets? as it were. Many of those old women appear to me at times to be strigae, but it never hurts to know a few Marsian carmina to supplement the cures provided by Nature. For their part I provide herbs that are not so readily available and have become the patron of the annual procession held for Angitina, a local version of the Bona Dea. Over the years I have acquired acquaintances in many parts of Italia and the East. Aiding friends and clients with loans at moderate rates, below the 6% permitted and far less than is usually available, so that my true wealth is measured by the number of contacts I have in various parts of the empire. That has often come to serve my friends as I make my contacts available to them, easing their own pursuits, and they in turn have shown their appreciation with gifts or services. Thus, one time while heading to my estate at Salernum, I came upon a dispute between two neighbors on the Via Consolare in Pompeii. The Vettii had just purchased a house and were seeking to expand it by buying two adjacent houses, and this led to a dispute with their neighbor on the other side, with whom they shared a wall. I discovered that the man had an interest in medicines and eased his tensions with a gift of some herbs and a surgical kit, and for the Vettii I provided a loan at only 4% interest that they might hire some better workers, not disturbing the man so much. This proved beneficial for Valerius, and profitable to the Vetii as well, as by my aid they became business partners in supplying Pompeii with perfumes from the East. I in turn was able to set sail from Brudisium with free passage on one of their ships, stopping in Greece where I acquired an interest in another olive orchard near Corinth, before sailing on to Epheseus, a city I have come to much enjoy, and then on to visit Valerius in Antioch.
So while I have left military glory to younger men, and have eschewed seeking honors in greater offices or pursuing wealth in commercial opportunities, I have come to enjoy a moderate life that is carefree and entertaining. It is a life that has been filled with many joys, Venus providing me with many children, oh, and a daughter too, and not a few sorrows as well. Only two of my sons reached their maturity, the youngest now off on campaigns in the East as I had once done, the other in the south carving out his own plot of land. He is filled with plans for planting his own orchards, but has unfortunately taken to sponsoring teams in the Circus and the arena with his limited resources. That artists? colony for which he has become a patron looks promising however. And wives, Annia died young in childbirth, Junia and I parted as friends when I went off to war, taking our daughter with her, and for thirty some years a woman I met while a student has managed to put up with me as husband. So all in all it has been a life blessed by the Gods. I give thanks to the Gods, who have so richly merited it by the richness they have given me. And someday I hope I may be reincarnated in one of my descendants that I may enjoy it once more.
Vale optime
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!