Nova Britannia General Meeting: Decembris MMDCCLXXVII

Monday, December 1st, MMDCCLXXVIII, 6:00 p.m. - 7:21 p.m.
Participants: Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia
Numerius Octavius Astronomus
Aulus Iulius Paterculus
    Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia and I were the first to join the meeting. We were both hopeful that others would join to help work out the details of the Saturnalia gathering on December 20th, but we started hammering out those details we could while it was just the two of us. I confirmed those transportation arrangements with which I was involved, and we each spoke about what we would be contributing towards the potluck. It was estimated that arrival would be 10 a.m. the morning of December 20th.
    Sibylla also noted that Cassius had reserved rooms for MithraCon, which would take place on April 24th, 25th, & 26th. We discussed who might be attending.
    We discussed Roman roads, and Sibylla shared that the gauge on most modern railways, with the odd exception of those in Russia, were based on the spacing of grooves for wagons on Roman roads. This lead into a brief discussion of railway travel. We also discussed other aspects of Roman transportation and compared with what we knew of other contemporary societies (which was not very detailed knowledge for either of us).
    I reported that another Nova Roman, Cn. Aurelius Carolus, had shared plans in the Forum Domitium to build a hydraulus. I suggested that we invite Cn. Aurelius to present the results to us once the project was farther along, knowing that we had multiple fans of the organ in our province, and Sibylla was enthusiastic about the idea.
    Soon after, N. Octavius Astronomus joined the call. Astronomus told us about his schedule and conflicts which could potentially prevent him from attending Saturnalia in-person, though he wanted to if it was possible. If not, he suggested incorporating an hour-long Zoom call into the meeting for remote attendance.
    Astronomus shared a book on science in antiquity which he thought he might have acquired during MithraCon. There were chapters on science in a number of ancient civilizations. We discussed the fact that the libri fulgurales divided the sky into 16 sections rather than the more usual 12, and whether this might have some relation to the origins of the Etruscans.
    Astronomus shared a video on ancient timekeeping from Luke Ranieri's Polymathy channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSV0Amt0GC8).
    Astronomus said he would reach out to Marcus Claudius Pupienus Maximus and Tyler to see whether they would be coming down to Connecticut for Saturnalia. Astronomus reported that Pupienus had been occupied with publishing his book on Roman numismatics and related history. He also said that Tyler had been making a study of ancient philosophy. Sibylla said she would reach out to M. Cassius Julianus to clarify whether he was coming down for Saturnalia also and asked me to send an email to the Main List to invite Novi Romani from further afield.
    Astronomus stated that he would be heading back to Toronto next summer and would be meeting with Corvus again, and possibly other Nova Romans in Canada. We discussed whether he could get a message to Canada's provincial forum letting the local citizens know he would be interested in meeting them.
    We discussed the future remote meetings for the month: a Latin meeting on December 15th, which we decided should probably begin with 10 minutes or so in English to finish our planning for the 20th, and the 29th, which might be a good time for someone to give a presentation.