entrance we were greeted by a bald, toothless slave, and at his side stood lame and one-eyed woman. They both knelt in front of my father and called out a greeting which Aunt Laelia had obviously taught them. My father looked embarrassed, patted Aunt Laelia on the shoulder and asked her to go in before us as she was the hostess. The little room was f till of smoke which made us all start coughing, for Aunt Laelia had had a fire lighted on the household altar in our honor. Through the smoke I could just make out our family gods in fired clay, and their yellowed wax masks seemed to move in the swirling smoke. Nervously tripping, coughing and gesticulating, Aunt Laelia began verbosely to explain that according to the traditions of the Manilianus family, we ought really to sacrifice a pig. But as she had been uncertain of the day of our arrival, she had not acquired a pig and could now offer us only olives, cheese and vegetable soup. She herself had long since ceased eating meat. We looked at all the rooms in the house and I saw the cobwebs in the corners, the wretched couches and some other poor furniture, and I suddenly realized that our noble and much- respected Aunt Laelia lived in the depths of poverty. All that remained of Manilius the astronomer�s library were a few rat-chewed scrolls, and Aunt Laelia was forced to admit that she had even sold his portrait bust to the public library below Palatine. Finally she broke down and wept bitterly. �Just blame me, Marcus,� she said. �I�m a bad housekeeper because I have seen better days in my youth. I shouldn�t have been able to keep this household going if you hadn�t sent money from
50
Antioch. I don�t know where the money has gone, but at least it hasn�t gone on luxuries, wine and perfumed ointments. I still hope that my destiny may change any day now. This has been foretold. So you mustn�t be angry with me or ask me for a careful rendering of accounts of the money you sent me.� But my father assured her that he had not come to Rome as an auditor. On the contrary, he deeply regretted he had not sent more money for the maintenance and repair of the house. But now everything would be changed, just as had been foretold to Aunt Laelia. My father bade Barbus unpack and spread the rich Eastern cloths on the floor. He gave Aunt Laelia a silk robe and a silk cloth, hung a necklace of jewels around her neck and asked her to try on a pair of soft red leather shoes. He also gave her a handsome wig, so that she wept even louder. �Oh, Marcus,� she cried, �ate you really so wealthy? You haven�t acquired all these expensive things in some dishonest way, have you? I thought perhaps you had fallen victim to the vices of the East, as Romans so easily do if they stay there too long. So I was uneasy when I saw your swollen face, but it was probably the tears which dimmed my sight. When I look at you with greater equanimity I shall get used to your face, which perhaps doesn�t look quite so unpleasant as I first thought,� In fact Aunt Laelia feared and believed that my father had only come to take over the house and send her away to a life of poverty in the country somewhere. This belief was so deep- rooted that she kept repeating that a woman such as she could not possibly like it anywhere else but in Rome. Gradually she became braver and reminded us that she was after all the widow of a senator and was still a welcome visitor in many of the old houses in Rome, although her husband, Gnaius Laelius, had died so long ago as in the time of Emperor Tiberius. I asked her to tell me about Senator Gnaius Laelius, but Aunt Laelia listened to my request with her head on one side. �Marcus,� she said, �how is it possible that your son speaks Latin with such a dreadful Syrian accent? We must put that right or he�ll sound very foolish in Rome.� My father said in his untroubled way that he himself had spoken so much Greek and Aramaic that his own pronunciation was
50
Antioch. I don�t know where the money has gone, but at least it hasn�t gone on luxuries, wine and perfumed ointments. I still hope that my destiny may change any day now. This has been foretold. So you mustn�t be angry with me or ask me for a careful rendering of accounts of the money you sent me.� But my father assured her that he had not come to Rome as an auditor. On the contrary, he deeply regretted he had not sent more money for the maintenance and repair of the house. But now everything would be changed, just as had been foretold to Aunt Laelia. My father bade Barbus unpack and spread the rich Eastern cloths on the floor. He gave Aunt Laelia a silk robe and a silk cloth, hung a necklace of jewels around her neck and asked her to try on a pair of soft red leather shoes. He also gave her a handsome wig, so that she wept even louder. �Oh, Marcus,� she cried, �ate you really so wealthy? You haven�t acquired all these expensive things in some dishonest way, have you? I thought perhaps you had fallen victim to the vices of the East, as Romans so easily do if they stay there too long. So I was uneasy when I saw your swollen face, but it was probably the tears which dimmed my sight. When I look at you with greater equanimity I shall get used to your face, which perhaps doesn�t look quite so unpleasant as I first thought,� In fact Aunt Laelia feared and believed that my father had only come to take over the house and send her away to a life of poverty in the country somewhere. This belief was so deep- rooted that she kept repeating that a woman such as she could not possibly like it anywhere else but in Rome. Gradually she became braver and reminded us that she was after all the widow of a senator and was still a welcome visitor in many of the old houses in Rome, although her husband, Gnaius Laelius, had died so long ago as in the time of Emperor Tiberius. I asked her to tell me about Senator Gnaius Laelius, but Aunt Laelia listened to my request with her head on one side. �Marcus,� she said, �how is it possible that your son speaks Latin with such a dreadful Syrian accent? We must put that right or he�ll sound very foolish in Rome.� My father said in his untroubled way that he himself had spoken so much Greek and Aramaic that his own pronunciation was
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