The Roman Read Online Free PDF Page B

consultation about my future. �Let us begin by fortifying ourselves with wine. Wine loosens the tongue, and we need all the good advice we can get.� He did not sprinkle wine onto the floor, but Barbus was not frightened by this atheism. He made an offering to the gods
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    instead and pronounced the greeting in a loud voice. I followed his example and the freedmen too sprinkled at least a drop of wine onto the floor with their fingertips, even if they said nothing aloud. My heart swelled with love when I saw them all, for all of them had done their best to spoil me and wished that I should grow up into a man with whose reputation their reputation too would grow. They expected nothing more from my father, for they had already become used to him. �When I had bought your freedman�s staves,� my father continued, �I let you drink of the wine of eternity from my late wife�s wooden goblet. But you never began to assemble your riches, save for the mundane things of this world, which can come to an end at any moment. Yet that is only as it should be, for I should be tormented by my satiety and my wealth and the many useless works which I do not value at all. I wish for nothing but to live quietly and humbly.� The freedmen hurried to assure him that they too tried to live as quietly and humbly as was possible for successful businessmen. Boasting about one�s wealth only led to increases in tax and obligatory donations to the city. And none of them wished to boast about the past when they had been slaves. �For your sake and because of the obstinacy of my son Minutus,� my father said, �I cannot go the new way, which has now been opened to the uncircumcised, both Greeks and Romans. If I admitted to being a Christian, as this way is called, as distinct from the Jewish faith, then you and all my household would be forced to follow suit, and I do not believe that any good can come of this. I cannot believe, for instance, that Barbus would participate with any spirit, no matter who laid hands on his head and blew on him. Not to speak of Minutus, who lost control of himself to the extent of screaming at the very thought of it. �Therefore,� my father went on, �the time has come to talk about my family. What I do, I do thoroughly. Minutus and I will travel to Rome and there I shall retrieve my rank of knight in conjunction with the centenary festivities. Minutus will receive the man- toga in Rome in the presence of his family. And he will receive a horse in place of the one he has lost here.� For me this was a surprise of which I had not even dared dream. At the most I had thought that sometime, thanks to my boldness
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    and talents, I should be able to return to my father the honor he had lost through the Emperor�s whim. But it was not news to the freedmen. From their behavior, I realized they had long been putting pressure on my father in this direction, for they themselves had honor and benefits to gain from my father�s regaining his knighthood. They nodded now and explained that they had already been in contact with the freedmen of Emperor Claudius, who looked after important matters in the administration of the State. My father also owned property on Aventine and land in Caere, and so more than fulfilled the conditions of income demanded of the rank of knight. My father bade them be silent and explained. �All this is of less importance;� he said. �The essential thing is that I have at last succeeded in acquiring the necessary papers on Minutus� ancestors. This has demanded a great deal of judicial knowledge. At first I thought I should quite simply adopt him on the day he came of age, but my counsel persuaded me that such a measure would not be favorable. In that case his legal Roman descent would have been in doubt forever.� After unfolding a mass of papers, my father read aloud from them and explained them more thoroughly. �The most important of these is a marriage contract between Myrina and