Nova Britannia Remote General Meeting Junius MMDCCLXXIX

 

Monday, June 1st, 2026 5:59 p.m. - 7:48 p.m.
Participants: Marcus Quinctius Clavus
Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia
Marcus Livius Maruffus
Titus Ovidius Nonus
Numerius Octavius Astronomus
Aulus Iulius Paterculus

   M. Quintius Clavus and Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia joined the meeting first, and M. Livius Maruffus joined them shortly thereafter, though it took him a few minutes to connect fully. During that time, I arrived also, and had a short conversation with Quintius and Sibylla about their current modern activities. Quintius mentioned that he was re-reading Colleen McCollough's series Masters of Rome.

   We moved on to the topic of Roman food just as Livius was able to join in. Quintius and Sibylla were speaking about their first introduction to liver and how they enjoyed it now as a shared meal. Sibylla commented that the Romans would also have eaten organ meat. I said that I thought that the entrails would be burned when an animal was slaughtered. Quintius replied that this was true of sacrificed animals, but that not all animals eaten would have been sacrificed, though for poorer people this would have been the majority of the meat they ate. Quintius said that especially in Greece, they ate a lot of pork, more than we eat in modern times, because pigs could be turned loose in the woods to feast on acorns, whereas beef was uncommon, because oxen were used to do work.

   Quintius continued to the topic of vegetables common in Roman times, mentioning the asparagus famously enjoyed by Augustus and that spinach originated in central Asia but was used in the Mediterranean by the time of the Roman Empire. It was around this time that T. Ovidius Nonus joined the call. Quintius mentioned that he knew so much about historical vegetables because he had been researching stuffed breads, which seemed to be a dish the Romans would have made.

    I mentioned that I had read recently in Plutarch's Moral Letters (for a philosophy discussion the previous weekend) that brides in a certain Greek city-state wore a garland of asparagus on their wedding day. Sibylla commented that she would prefer to have the asparagus on her plate. Nonus asked what the asparagus was supposed to symbolize. I reported Plutarch's analysis as being that marriage was like asparagus in that there was a long tougher part, like the stem, which you have to get through to reach the more tender part at the end. Quintius commented that it was the expectation, at least among the elites, in Roman times that married couples would grow to like one another over time rather than that they would be in love when they first married.

    We continued speaking about Roman topics. Quintius mentioned that Augustus had wanted to take the name "Romulus", but that he had been talked out of it, both because it was not particularly well-omened, as Nonus pointed out, and because there could only be one Romulus. I mentioned that by some accounts Romulus Augustulus was the last emperor of Rome, so it might be right to say that was a poor choice of name. Quintius added that that Romulus Augustulus had reigned as just a boy (hence the diminutive suffix "-ulus" in his name) and only for few months before he was displaced by the new Visigothic King of Italy.

    Quintius mentioned a documentary, Prophets of Doom, in which he and Mike from Legio III had participated for the History Channel, specifically a segment on the fall of the Roman Empire. Quintius still had a copy of the DVD.
     We talked a bit about Roman roads. Sibylla asked the interesting question of whether each side of the road was reserved for walking/riding in a particular direction, as on modern roads. Quintius said that he did not believe so, and that the roads were narrow enough that it would require people passing in opposite directions to squeeze past one another or for one to give way. He stated that when the army used the road, cavalry was typically on the shoulder so as not to wear out the horses' feet. He added that horseshoes had not been found for from this time period, and that it was unclear the Romans had them, though they had found hipposandals, which were thought to be for oxen (which would have needed to use the roads, since they would have been pulling carts and wagons).

     Quintius reported on some of the Roman roads which he had seen in England, including one case in which he had seen a modern road built atop a Roman one which diverged where the modern road curved away and the Roman one continued straight. Quintius clarified that the Romans could put curves in roads, something they would do to make climb easier on animals. Sibylla brought up the fact that not only Roman roads, but also at least one Roman bridge was still in use. Quintius recalled having heard of such an active Roman bridge in Spain and added that a Mycenaean bridge was still in use in Greece. I asked whether this Mycenaean bridge was built with huge cyclopean stone blocks, but Quintius replied that it was smaller than some Roman bridges. The book Route. 66 A.D. was recommended.

   Sibylla asked whether the Romans had anything equivalent to a bus: a vehicle which passengers could board at fixed stops. Quintius said he didn't think so, but that there were certainly places which would let you hire horses for the day, or a litter if you were in the city, for which a taxi would be a better analogy. Nonus reported that, according to Wikipedia, the Romans had ferries. Quintius agreed that it was possible to hire space aboard ships fairly easily and that this was a major mode of travel.
   Sibylla brought up Roman tourism, noting that people often traveled together in groups to be shown the sights. Quintius brought up Pausanias, whose reports of his touristing were the only record of sights now lost. Maruffus told us that the Romans loved to go see the pyramids and were famous for vandalizing them, though he was unsure whether the graffitti was still there.
   N. Octavius Astronomus joined the call around this time.
   Sibylla stated that the Romans were in general fascinated with things Egyptian and brought up the cult of Isis, which was quite different from the Egyptian cult of the goddess. Quintius replied that this cult represented the Ptolemaic adaption of Isis to Greek mythological and religious ideas. Nonus mentioned having seen a statuette of Isis-Fortuna, which brought us to the topic of the Interpretatio Romana.
    Around this time, 6:39 p.m., Zoom ended the first session of the meeting. Sibylla told us just beforehand that she would be heading to sleep, but the rest of us came back.

    Nonus asked about the latest session of Nova Roma's Senate. We discussed a few of the salient points, one of which was the fact that confirmations were now to be sent notifying citizens that their tax payments had been received.

    Nonus then started a discussion of whether it was worth paying Nova Roma's taxes. I said that the chief advantages were increased voting power and the ability to have official responsibilities within Nova Roma, something in which I thought Nonus might be interested.

    Quintius gave us a comparative view of some of the other organizations with which he was involved and their respective hierarchies, pointing out that each group had its own style of selecting officers.

    We looked over Nova Roma's page of job openings for things which might be of interest to those on the call. The second Zoom session ended, but Nonus & Maruffus came back to continue this investigation. Nonus requested more details on the Senate session, so we went over the transcript item by item, skipping the one under seal.

    We talked about ways about promoting Nova Roma, including some ideas by Maruffus about social media, about filming a commercial for Nova Roma, and about reinstating the "Roma" tag for the Forum Domitium, something Nonus had paid to make possible but which someone else (we were unsure who) would have to actually instate.

    We discussed future meetings for Nova Britannia, including the Latin meeting on June 15th and presentations for future meetings. Nonus said that in July he could give us a report on his trip to Egypt, which would test whether it would be worth expanding to a more detailed presentation for the Sodalitas Barbarica. Nonus mentioned that he had started learning the ancient Egyptian language years ago and might eventually try again.

    We talked briefly about our experience with Latin. Maruffus & Nonus had each studied the language a little in the past. I recommended listening to a reading of the chapter just before where the group had left off in Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata to confirm it was a level at which they were able to understand a fair percentage of the vocabulary and grammar.