I'd like to tell something about some of the characters in my first Latin book. They are pretty cool.
Lucius Julius Balbus, called Julius, is 32 years old and a wealthy Roman dominus in the 2nd century AD. He lives just outside Tusculum, a small but very wealthy town, situated 17 kilometers south-east of Rome. He is married to Aemilia, 27. They have three children: Marcus, 8, Quintus, 7, Julia, 5.
Julius is very rich but penny-wise, although he married Aemilia, who came from a poor family, out of love. He is proud to be severe but just: "Slaves hate an unjust master but fear and obey a severe but just one". He gives lots of presents to his wife and children, though, and he also gives the slaves fruit when Quintus asks him to do so. He has a pretty sarcastic humor. When Quintus falls from a tree and hurts his foot, after Marcus made him climb it to check out a bird's nest he says: "Quintus can't walk, because he isn't a bird and doesn't have wings. Who wants to fly but is unable to, falls to the ground!"
Aemilia is romantic and easy to fool but likes to joke now and then. She isn't as educated as Julius and often asks when Julius or some friend mentions a poet, philosopher or the like: "Who is that?"
Marcus is a troublemaker but not as stupid as the school teacher and others think he is. When Julius explains about the war in Germania, with typical Roman chauvinism, Marcus says: "But the Germans are only defending their country".
Quintus is good in school but has to stay at home after he hurt his foot from falling from the tree. He is of an inquiring mind and asks questions like why the months have the names they have ("Why does the seventh month have father's name? Why is the ninth month called September? Where is the sun when it is dark?")
Julia likes to sing and pick roses and to play with Margarita, her dog. She is easy to upset though, which Marcus often does for his amusement.
Julius has 100 slaves and 10 beautiful horses. Most of the slaves mentioned have Greek names. The slave Zeno is highly educated and can read and write both Latin and Greek. He writes and reads letters for Marcus.
Syra is an elderly slavewoman. She has an ugly nose and is a bit deaf, but she has a nice personality and cares a lot for the children. When Quintus has fallen from the tree, she tells him old myths from Greece.
Medus is a young and handsome Greek slave with a strong urge for freedom. He steals 90 sestertii from Julius and escapes to his girlfriend Lydia in Rome. Then the two go to Ostia and enter a ship to Greece. Greece is still in the Roman Empire but much safer than Italy proper. At the Strait of Messina a navy vessel follows the ship but in the last minute it turns around and leaves. Lydia is the only Christian person in the book.
Davus is an elderly Greek slave. After Medus's escape he is the only slave that Julius trusts.
Orontes is a freedman of Greek origin. He loves Greek myths and wine-drinking. At a dinner by Julius and Aemilia he gets so drunk that he falls under the table and has to be carried to the bedroom by two slaves. His wife Paula is ashamed of him.
Cornelius and Fabia are also friends of Julius's family. They aren't as rich, though, and have pretty middle-class values. Their son Sextus is the best pupil in school, one of the reasons that Marcus and another boy, Titus, beat him up at one occasion.
The school teacher is a Greek man called Diodorus. He doesn't like to be a teacher and thinks that most pupils are stupid, lazy and disobedient. He whips them so much that his own hand hurts after school is over for the day. He loves his philosophy books, mostly Epicurus and Plato. When he is in the taberna drinking wine, the lightning sets his house on fire, and the house and all books but one are destroyed. Ironically the surviving book is Lucretius's De rerum Natura VI, that is about the forces of nature. Also ironically he is offered shelter by the doctor Symmachus, whom he doesn't really like.
