On the occasion of my birthday a small light update set in my city of Brussels, to whom I've given here a fictious name based on one of the city's etymologies... Enjoy !
Brivoluta, Gallia Belgica, July 180
Amnorix had alway been lucky. Son of the villicus of a large domain in the Senne valley, he had spent his earliest days in the house of his father’s employer for his mother had served as wet nurse to the baby of the domina, born two days later than him. This meant she got fed good food to make sure she had enough milk for the young dominus and her own son.
Amnorix’ luck had held as both him and the young dominus survived the sicknesses of youth and turned into turbulent children running all over the domain under the supervision of their nurses, becoming friends along the way.
Later on his friendship with the young dominus meant he had been authorized to attend to the lessons given by the pedagogue of the child. He had quickly shown good dispositions for his studies even if he was not always as attentive as he should be : the pedagogue’s cane was there for the purpose of teaching him discipline…
Beside the formal lessons that taught him how to read, write and do basic mathematics he was taught by his father who showed him the tricks to running an estate, managing slaves, and other skills expected of a villicus.
The family did not live at the domain : their house was a slightly larger than usual house in the small vicus of Brivoluta, alongside the river. Two dozens families lived there, in the marsh, near a ford and in a spot where fish was abundant : most families lived from the fishing and from providing additional labor to one of the three larger domains that controlled the region.
Amnorix had helped cows give birth, could recognize good wood for building, fish with a spear or a net, identify the good plants that helped stay in health, but knew also Homere and Livius, had read the Commentarii De Bello Gallico and some of the great Cicero’s discourses, in other words he was wise beyond his years.
This had not escaped Publius Claudius Matusegos, a prosperous farmer who was not yet rich enough for the equestrian census but was still one of the dominant land owners of the region. Inviting the father and the son in his tabularium on the 16th anniversary of Amnorix, he made them an offer he could not refuse : he’d send the boy just turned man to the school in Augustodunum, two weeks away from Brivoluta. The Maenianae were famous all over Gaul for offering the best education that could be given.
Matusegos would not even send his son there, for young Petrus’ intellect was a disappointment to his father who reckoned it would be better to invest into a loyal retainer that would keep the families’ fortune safe and improve on it thanks to higher learning. Amnorix would not be learning rethorics or any of the higher arts but would instead spend two years learning the basics of medicine, mechanics and improved agricultural methods…