Saturnalia 2778 - December 20th, 2025

Saturday, December 20th, MMDCCLXXVIII, Approximately 10:00 a.m. - 8:10 p.m.
Participants: Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia
                    Marcus Cassius Julianus
                    Marcus Quintius Clavus
                    Aulus Iulius Paterculus
                    Numerius Octavius Astronomus
                    Titus Ovidius Nonus
   The evening before, on December 19th, there had been a major storm. The power went out in the home of Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia, where our meeting was to take place. M. Cassius Julianus, who arrived after dark, had not been able to call ahead and had seen downed trees along the way, giving some hints of what had occurred. Nonetheless, Sibylla and Cassius had made the best of the situation, going to a nearby restaurant for a dinner of fish & chips that night and out for coffee (and water) in the morning of December 20th.
    M. Quintius Clavus and I arrived around 10 a.m. Quintius was aware of the situation, having checked the power outage map online and spoken with Sibylla by cell phone the previous night. Sibylla and Cassius greeted us outside and led us through the garage to sitting room, where the hearth was blazing. We had a lengthy conversation, which went into the current situation and our daily lives as well as into Roman topics.
    We discussed fiction series: the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough (which Quintius, Cassius, & I loved and which Sibylla had yet to read) and the Karus Saga by Marc Alan Edelheit (of which I had just finished the first book, Lost Legio IX). Cassius recommended the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson as a similar tale of people from a specific historical period being transferred to another world, adding that though the premise sounded a bit silly, everyone to whom he'd recommended it had enjoyed it. I stated that this reminded me of the Codex Alera series, which had been the result of a deliberately silly prompt (Lost Roman Legion plus Pokemon) being given to the author, Jim Butcher, only to become a success.
   Quintius spoke about a nonfiction book, The Inheritance of Rome by Christopher Wickham and its thesis that much more of the Roman Empire survived into the Middle Ages than was commonly thought.
   Contemplation of the fire brought Nero and Crassus the Rich to mind, and there was some thoughtful discussion of them, including whether either might be considered underrated or misunderstood. Cassius and Quintius agreed that Nero was a more complex figure than generally appreciated. Quintius pointed out that Nero's mother had attempted to rule through him while he was quite young and Cassius said that the remnants of Nero's Golden House had the feeling of a profoundly sad place. I argued that having Crassus around to purchase and then save burning buildings was an improvement over having no fire department at all, which elicited what looked like an appalled expression from Cassius, though he conceded some truth to it, at least for those not personally obliged to sell under those conditions.
  A little after noon, the power came back on. We had called N. Octavius Astronomus earlier to let him know that the plan to contact him through Zoom might not succeed due to the outage, but when 1 p.m. arrived and we were able to connect to the internet, we called to see whether he would be able to join after all. Just after he agreed to connect through Zoom and hung up, the power failed again. We called back and spoke to Astronomus on speaker. Astronomus shared his goals with his continuing education at the university, and stated that he hoped to study and possibly one day move abroad. There was some discussion which followed, especially between Astronomus and Sibylla, about learning languages and differences between Norwegian and Swedish. Eventually, Astronomus had to go, in case there was someone who wanted to see the next presentation at the planetarium where Astronomus worked, which were scheduled for every half hour.
  Cassius reported briefly on happenings in Byzantium Novum, noting that they had members as far away as Thailand and that there had been a number of Zoom meetings, with a few offline ones as well, though none Cassius had personally had the chance to attend thus far. Cassius also mentioned that one citizen of Byzantium Novum had attended MithraCon in a previous year.
   This prompted me to ask whether Mithraism had persisted into the Byzantine Period. Cassius answered that it had, and this led into an extended discussion on religion.
   Quintius recounted some events which had transpired during past reenactments, and Cassius recalled that one of the legionaries mentioned in the anecdote Quintius was telling had left behind his armour and some other items, which Cassius had in storage, waiting for some other legionary to take them one day.
   Sibylla and Quintius talked about the SCA. Sibylla shared some activities of members of the SCA in the Navy which had taken place over the years. One such incident involved the U.S. SCA folks appearing on deck in their period garb, thus baffling the Russians known to be spying on them. Quintius described judging the "Artifacts of a Life" contest, which had required creating and using a number of items which would have belonged to a specific person at a specific time and place in history, then describing how these objects illustrated the life of that particular person.
   Eventually, we decided to serve the dates, figs, and almonds, snacking on these items as we continued our conversation.
   We had been checking the driveway periodically, as T. Ovidius Nonus had said he would arrive around 3:00 p.m. He arrived a little later, and joined us next to the fire. He was dressed in a tunic, which was impressively historical-looking. After greetings, introductions (Nonus and Cassius had already met), and a brief tour of the premises, Nonus told us a bit about his interests in permaculture, archaeology (which he hoped might become a career), and religion, as well as his experiences in Nova Roma thus far. Quintius advised that Vindolanda in Britain was always looking for more people to help them excavate.
   The power came back on again around dusk, somewhat after Nonus arrived.
   Nonus served the bread he had brought along. Sibylla brought out some grapes and wine as well.
   Nonus was interested in becoming an augur and was doing an exhaustive reading of primary sources, but had not yet found the guidance for which he'd been hoping on how to pursue this study within Nova Roma. I noted that Nova Roma required holding a more junior priesthood before moving on to a senior one, but  suggested reaching out to Flavius Vedius Germanicus for advice on how to get started.
  Sibylla highly recommended the M. Didius Falco series, highlighting how each novel illuminated a different facet of Roman life.
  Quintius said that the railroad gauge being based on the width of Roman roads (something which we had just discussed during our December MMDCCLXXVIII Remote General Meeting) was an old wives' tale.
   As the power had come back too late for us to do the cooking we had intended, three pizzas were ordered. Cassius very generously paid for the meal, and went with Quintius to retrieve it.
   I asked Cassius about planning for a potential conventus in Maine. Cassius listed what was available in his vicinity: his office, space in his apartment in which a few guests could conceivably stay, the local Oddfellows Hall, and hotels in which people could also rent rooms. Sibylla and Quintius were both somewhat skeptical that this was feasible, but offered some helpful thoughts. Cassius, reflecting on what Quintius said would be needed both (indoor and outdoor space, as well as insurance), said that the best thing might be to rent a private campground during the off-season. Quintius mentioned that Nova Roma expected people to dress in Roman garb, and Nonus suggested having a garment-making workshop as part of the event. Cassius agreed to discuss the topic further with Astronomus and me after the holidays. Nonus asked to be included in these communications as well. 
  Nonus had brought along a game of Yahtzee. (Out of curiosity, someone looked up how Yahtzee go its name. The answer found: it was originally played on yachts!) He had also brought some recreated tesserae, six-sided dice made from bone. He mentioned that they were not balanced, compared to say, the casino-grade dice he had considered bringing. Indeed when we rolled them, they seemed reluctant to roll threes and twos, but they had a nice feeling in the hand, rather different from plastic dice. While Cassius was up checking something, we agreed that the prize to the winner would be the remaining half bag of almonds. Cassius won, and I handed him the prize, which he said he could enjoy on the ride back to Maine. He later commented that when he was told he won a prize, he thought he might have been selected for human sacrifice (a la Shirley Jackson).
  I mentioned that now that there were four relatively active citizens based in Maine, they might have some regio-level gatherings in addition to those they participated in as part of Nova Britannia as a whole (and the conventus we one day hoped to host for Nova Roma as a whole). Cassius was thoughtful and begin talking with Nonus about the possibilities for a casual meeting.
  Quintius and I left soon after the game finished. On the ride back to his house, Quintius told me about a four book series he had been reading set in Roman Britain.

After Action Report: August 2021 Remote Nova Britannia Chat

August 23, 2021, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Participants: Gaius Claudius Quadratus

                       Aula Tullia Scholastica
                       Aulus Iulius Paterculus (Host)
   Once everyone had convened, there was some small talk, particularly about Hurricane Henri, which we suspected of having prevented at least,one additional person from joining us.
   Quadratus started off the Roman discussion with a review of the Arx Mercatura online store. He warned that the goods which they sold took an unreasonably long time to arrive, and in some cases were not even fabricated until they had been sold. He did say that the finished items were of fine quality, however, and showed us an acerra and lararium he had purchased from them in the past.
   Scholastica reported on the status of the election for Nova Roma's Board of Directors. She also reported having received an update on the castrum project undertaken by D. Marcius Vulpes in Maine.
   I asked whether anyone had recently done any interesting research. Quadratus answered that, while he had not recently done much research on Rome, he had done some on World War II. Quadratus summarized an insight or two from this reading, including the conclusion that most Germans were aware of the extent of Nazi atrocities before the end of the war.
   Scholastica stated that two sodalitates were up and running, while another two waited only for new pictures to be added to their front pages. Quadratus asked what would be necessary to form a Sodalitas Numismaticae - Scholastica referred him to the Lex Cassia de creatione sodalitatum, but summarized that a set of internal rules and a method of selecting leaders was needed.
   Scholastica commented on the fact that Quadratus had been instructed to learn a set of Latin texts as part of his augural duties, and offered help in studying if needed. Quadratus stated that his Latin skills should be up to the task, as he had translated the Res Gestae alone, but that he was still waiting to receive the texts in question.

After Action Report: Remote Saturnalia

 Sunday, December 20th, 2020

Participants: Marcus Quintius Clavus (Host)
                     Gaius Claudius Quadratus
                     Aulus Iulius Paterculus
    The meeting started with a few technical difficulties, as I was unable to join the meeting by phone and had to communicate with the other participants by text chat.
    Once it had been established that was how the conversation would proceed, the conversation began with a discussion of the activities of Legio III Cyrenaica, which were at that time being shown on Facebook. Quadratus lamented that no such re-enactment groups were active near Montreal, and he an Quintius discussed whether Quadratus might join some of Legio III's activities in his augural garb. Quintius stated that, unlike some other re-enactment groups, Legio III was very open to those who wanted to portray civilian roles, and both confirmed that it would make sense for an augur dressed in his civilian religious garb to accompany a legion, either to take auspices
before battle or to participate in a parade. Quintius mentioned one past event held by Legio III at which a sacrifice to the gods had opened the day's presentations.
    Speaking of augury, Quadratus brought up the ongoing conjunction of Saturn with Jupiter, which he held to be a very favourable omen, particularly since its most dramatic manifestation would take place during Saturnalia and the Solstice. He stated that this should be visible on the night of the 21st by looking West just after sunset, and that the two planets should appear to be a single object in the sky, except perhaps to someone using binoculars or who already knew them to be two planets and looked very carefully. Quintius commented that light pollution would likely make this impossible for him to spot, and I concurred, saying that we had been told that the Northern Lights would be visible in the state of Connecticut earlier in the year, but had been foiled in spotting them by all the terrestrial lights. Both Quintius and Quadratus recalled past sightings of the aurora borealis, which for Quadratus had been quite frequent and spectacular, as he had lived even farther North at a time when sunspot activity was at a peak.
    Quadratus then redirected the topic to dates, pointing out that many people who should know better - including authors of history books and museum curators - failed to measure the time between B.C. and A.D. dates correctly. Instead of simply adding the dates together, it was necessary to subtract one year to account for the fact that
there was no year zero.
   There was a brief discussion of the suggestion to form a study group in the new year. I asked what topic we should study, and it was agreed that a list of proposals should be sent to the forum to see what garnered the most interest.
   Quadratus and Quintius then moved on to a discussion of Numismatics. Both were collectors of ancient coins. Quadratus showed off two art pieces he had created with ancient coins in poor condition, while Quintius described a coin in his possession which showed an unidentified emperor, including his upper torso (whereas most coins showed the emperor only from the neck up). Quintius agreed to send a picture of this coin to Quadratus by email for a second opinion. We all speculated on the reasons fewer bronze coins had survived to the modern day from Roman times than silver ones.
   This lead to mention by Quintius of the fact that coins containing copper had been located at the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and a discussion of the early shifting of blame by several senators near the time of that event from Varus to the common soldiers, something which Quintius blamed partly on the close relationship Varus had with the imperial family.
  Shortly thereafter, we all signed off, with a "Io Saturnalia!" from each of us and a resolution to hold another such meeting before too long.