Monday, September 15th, MMDCCLXXVIII, 6:00 p.m. - 7:02 p.m.
Participants: Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia
Aulus Iulius Paterculus
The evening started with some catching up on one another's activities. Sibylla reported having been busy with the spice trade, which had been busy. I mentioned having begun Medicus by Ruth Downie, a book which Sibylla had confirmed having read in the past. We talked a bit about historical fiction, including the Marcus Didius Falco books and Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove.
Sibylla's roommate Cindy dropped by and shared some Latin quotations that she knew.
We talked a bit about Roman cuisine, naturally including spices. Sibylla talked about the origins of the varieties of pepper (long and black). I recalled a recent interview with Mary Beard (though I don't recommend it too highly) in which there was a brief mention of the enormous amounts of silver mined in Spain and shipped east to buy spices. Mary Beard was new to Sibylla, and I recommended her as an authoress who was both accessible and academically qualified.
We read a bit of Capitulum VI from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata.
We also briefly talked about the Interpretation of Dreams by Artemidorus, of which I had recently acquired a copy.
Sibylla disclosed that the date for our Saturnalia festivities was tentatively set - December 20th-21st. I encouraged her to share this on the list to make sure everyone was in agreement on the dates. Sibylla also mentioned that Cassius had firm dates for MithraCon.
In discussing Saturnalia, Sibylla mentioned that Quintius was planning to bring his fantastic Roman cheesecake. I asked whether there was such a thing as Roman fruitcake. We both felt that there must be, and a brief search revealed this page, with a recipe from Apicius for a pear dessert.
We also tried to brainstorm some ideas for future presentation topics. Sibylla came up with two interesting ones which neither of us knew much about - Roman farming and Roman fishing.
