Saturnalia 2775 - December 17th, 2022

 

Attendees: Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia (Hostess)

Marcus Quintius Clavus

Aula Tullia Scholastica

Flavius Vedius Germanicus

Aulus Iulius Paterculus

Quintus Valerius Callidus

Marcus Cassius Iulianus

Numerius Octavius Astronomus

Cindy

                Fl. Vedius Germanicus and I arrived at the house of Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia’s house around noon. M. Quintius Clavus and A. Tullia Scholastica had already arrived. Sibylla offered coffee and tea to her guests; Quintius was having an herbal blend which happened only to contain ingredients known to the Romans.

We started to converse on various topics, and more people joined gradually. Q. Valerius Callidus was next to arrive. “Finally, an event!” he said cheerily as he walked through the door. I pointed out that there had been a small gathering at Sibylla’s house in March of that year, but he had not heard about it at the time.

Vedius and Callidus discovered an extraordinary coincidence – the two of them had actually grown up in the same town at the same time, and knew many of the same people, even though they didn’t remember meeting each other before.

M. Cassius Julianus followed soon after. He had brought a few trays of antiquities which some other members of the group helped to carry into the house.

 

N. Octavius Astronomus came just a little later. Sibylla escorted Octavius on a short tour of her house, since he would be staying overnight.

Everyone spent a long time in conversation with others. Cindy, Sibylla’s roommate arrived and participated a bit in conversation as well. Even one of Sibylla’s usually shy cats (the bolder of the two) came by the living room where most people were seated. A spread of snacks brought by the participants, including olives, cheese, and stuffed grape leaves was laid out for enjoyment as we talked.

Scholastica reviewed a bit of Latin vocabulary she had taught her hostess, and shared the names, both Latin & English, of the numerous birds visible from Sibylla’s back window. I told Cassius, Vedius, and Octavius about the activities which P. Aurelius Barbatus, the new governor of America Cismississippiana, had been organizing.

We were so caught up in our conversations with one another, that we lost track of the activities we had planned. However, consul Scholastica eventually noted that time was growing late and called everyone’s attention. We all gathered in the living room, where Scholastica gave a few opening remarks followed by a short lesson drawn from Chapter 1 of Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency by John C. Traupman.

 

Figure 1: Scholastica gives a lesson

After the lesson, we had a Zoom meeting in which we were joined by two friends from abroad, Cn. Cornelius Lentulus in Hungary & D. Claudius Aquilinus in Germany. This meeting was recorded and can be seen at https://youtu.be/9cur16B-6PQ. During the course of that call, I handed out pilei which I had brought. Callidus had to leave around that time.

After the meeting, Vedius donned his augural garb and offered a sacrifice of wine and incense to Saturn.

 

                One of the items included in this ceremony was a Nova Roman banner, which was supplied by Scholastica and which had been blessed by Lentulus in Rome. Cassius discussed the issues which made it prohibitively expensive to print high-quality Nova Roman flags with Octavius and Vedius, suggesting that ordering just one such flag for the province as a whole would be a good solution.

                We then went to the dining room, where we enjoyed a meal of bread, chicken, stuffing, sausage, polenta, as well as the remnants of the Roman snacks which we had been enjoying in the living room. Dessert was cheesecake provided by Quintus.

                After dinner, we took a group photo.

                Vedius had to leave to travel back to New Jersey, so Cassius took this opportunity to give him, and the rest of us, a set of gifts: a Saturnalia card, a medallion bearing Nova Roma’s logo, and a Byzantium Novum coin. Vedius showed Cassius the medallion he was wearing, which Cassius had struck in commemoration of Nova Roma’s founding years ago. Vedius had found this shortly before the meeting, which Octavius suggested might be an omen that this was a new beginning for Nova Roma.

                After Vedius departed, we had a presentation from Sibylla about the Roman spice trade. Sibylla listed specific spices traded from various regions of Asia along with their uses. A book with maps of these trade routes was passed around for our consideration. It was also mentioned that silphium plants, previously thought to have gone extinct during the Roman period, may have been located. In the living room, Sibylla set up a variety of the spices referenced in her presentation for us to smell, including nutmeg, long pepper, galangal, mace, frankincense, and myrrh. A highlight was comparison between cassia (the cinnamon with which we are more familiar today) and true (Ceylon) cinnamon. Sibylla provided plastic bags and invited us to take a sampling of spices as a Saturnalia gift.

                Astronomus, Sibylla, Cassius, and I all signed up to give presentations in 2023. A variety of topics were suggested by the four of us, and each of us chose one or a few topics at random.

                Cassius, in his capacity as governor of Nova Britannia, appointed Octavius as Praefectus Regionis Montis Viridis (organizer and point of contact for Vermont), agreeing to follow this up with an edict to the same effect on Main List.

                Scholastica gave a presentation on clothing in ancient Greece & Rome. Wearing examples of each as she described it, Scholastica told us about the Doric peplos, Attic peplos, and palla; a few examples of men’s clothing were also included in the presentation. She also had recreations of ancient jewellery to pass around and gave each attendee a print of a picture she had drawn herself of a woman wearing a Doric peplos.

                Many thanks to M. Quintius Clavus and Fl. Vedius Germanicus for the beautiful pictures included in this report. Thanks also to Q. Valerius Callidus, Vedius, and A. Tullia Scholastica for reviewing this report: any lingering mistakes are of course my own.

 

New Leadership in Nova Britannia!

    Marcus Cassius Julianus, co-founder of Nova Roma, has been officially appointed as proconsul of the united province of Nova Britannia.

   Knowledge of past efforts by Cassius and the strong support of other active citizens in the province inspire confidence that this administration will be a successful one! 

Comic Review: Iphigenia in Aulis: The Age of Bronze Edition

     This book features an original translation by playwright and author Edward Einhorn of the classic play by Euripedes, accompanied by high-quality black-and-white illustrations by Eric Shanower.

    The play itself is moving and certainly worth reading, although this is likely as true of other translations as of this particular one. The opening scenes are not quite as engaging as those later in the text: it's only once characters with different agendas begin engaging in dialog that the strengths of the author are truly evident. Iphigenia's final speech is particularly effective, but at the same time sounds what feel like at least a few false notes to the modern audience member, which are discussed briefly in an appendix.

    The illustrations are not so frequent as to overwhelm the text but complement it well by allowing one to read the facial expressions of the characters, much as one might in a dramatic rendering. (Of course, this wouldn't be the case in a traditional tragic performance of the play, in which the actors are masked. Somewhat ironically, the supplementary text reveals that this was the path the director took when staging this translation, meaning that viewers would have experienced the work very differently from readers despite the common text.)

    There are a few appendices with details of the stage production and thoughts on the text, as well as a glossary and family tree. These endnotes should probably be taken critically. In particular, the suggestion in the director's notes that 'the mob' is the true antagonist in the play seems dubious to me: I am half inclined to take the (always offstage) protests of the soldiers as merely an excuse for the male characters onstage to act according to their preexisting inclinations. Additionally, I believe that the glossing of "Centaurs" is simply mistaken: modern scholars have hypothesised that centaurs were inspired by horse-riding cultures who interacted with the early Greeks, but within Greek myth itself they were clearly human-horse hybrids.

For the Divine Emperors

When British flags over fair India flew

and an old viceroy demitted to a new, 

the old was honoured for the the service past

with a new title higher than the last.

Just so, it's right that each imperial ghost 

retires to an even higher post

thenceforth receiving honours divine

once the Senate hears the proper sign.

For think what years of toil and pain

make a successful emperor's reign:

to start, you very often need 

to win a civil war ere you accede.

For that, you need to win your legions' love 

to have the favour of the gods above,

and strain your mind for fruitful strategy.

Thereafter calls for still more energy,

for having passed your initial test

you may have little chance to rest.

Soon you could be called to the frontier

where the barbarians draw near,

or else the soldiers want more pay

and willfully revolt to get their way.

The cities are too prone to riot:

free bread must be their steady diet.

Games and gifts you ought to share,

not just in Rome but everywhere.

So your largesse will not be lax,

you'll need to bring in loot or tax,

and while fiscal facts are faced -

take care the coins are not debased!

Your relatives will likely plot

to take themselves all that you've got.

With such chores, if, when you leave,

all the Roman people grieve 

for one who gave them more

than all the strengths they had before,

if you have that skill and nerve

perhaps you thoroughly deserve

your space in many a humble shrine.