Characters: Who they are

Marcus
Full name: Marcus Lucius Felix
Age: 10
Favorite color: blue
Favorite activity: Calculi
Favorite foods: grilled boar, fish sauce, olive bread with salty cheese
Least favorite food: stuffed dormice
Pets: wants a dog, may get a monkey soon
Favorite school subject: writing

Hi, I’m Marcus! I’m really glad to meet you—I love meeting new people. Let’s see, what can I tell you about me? Hmm. Well, my nickname is Felix, which means lucky. I really am pretty lucky, you know. I always find cool stuff and even though I fall down a lot I never get hurt. Lucia thinks I should be called Incomptus instead. She thinks she’s funny, but she’s not. I think she should be called Arrogans, but Mother gets mad when I do. I don’t know why—it’s true. Lucia can be really bossy. Anyway Lucia’s boring. Back to interesting stuff about me! Ok, my favorite color is blue and I love to play games. Calculi is my favorite. Have you ever played it? We should play sometime. I’m really good. I also like to practice with Father’s sword from when he was in the army. I’m going to be a soldier someday. And then I’m going to be a lawyer. I’ll have to study a lot, but that’s ok. I like school. I’m really excited to learn Greek next year. And I’m getting really good at my writing. My Magister says I’ll be able to write on papyrus soon instead of the wax tablet. I can’t wait. Lawyers have to write a lot, so I’d better get good at it. I’ll need to learn how to make speeches too. I should be good at that—I like to talk. What else can I tell you? That’s pretty much it. I go to school, I play games, I like to eat, I have a bossy older sister. Oh, I know—Father says he’s going to get me a pet monkey soon! I can’t wait. I really want a dog too, but Father says no. But a monkey’s fun too.

Lucia
Full name: Lucia
Age: 13
Favorite color: green
Favorite activity: helping her father in his office, cooking
Favorite foods: stuffed dormice, snails with leeks
Least favorite food: pigeon
Pets: bird
Favorite school subject: math

Hello, I’m Lucia. It’s very nice to meet you. I see you’ve already met my brother Marcus. We have other siblings too, but somehow everyone meets Marcus first. I don’t know why that is. He’s a nice boy, although sometimes he makes me crazy. Like when he takes Father’s sword to play with without asking! Or when he grinds gross bugs with the mortar and pestle. Ick! We use that to grind spices!! I’m not really very good at talking about myself, but I’ll try. Well, first off I’m going to be married soon. I’m very excited. My husband to be is an important client of her father’s. He’s older than me, of course, but still good looking and much younger than some of my friend’s husbands. Why my one friend Julia just married a man who is 40! So old! I’m lucky. And I can’t wait to getting married and run my own household. I know I’ll be good at it. I’ve learned lots of math in school and father has taught me all about keeping track of the household finances. And Mother has taught me how to run the house. It’s complicated, you know. I have to keep track of how much food we buy and make sure we don’t ever run out of anything. And I have to make sure the servants do what they are supposed to. I’ll have my own hairdresser when I have my house. That will be so much fun. And I can’t wait to throw dinner parties and show off my new house. I hope we’ll be able to have nice things like Mother and Father do. So many of their nice dishes and silver were wedding presents. And then soon we’ll have a family of our own! I’ve had lots of practice with children, so I know I’ll be good at it. I just have to make sure Marcus doesn’t come over a lot—he’s such a bad influence!

Professor:
Full name: The Professor
Age: not telling
Favorite color: dirt
Favorite activity: excavating new sites
Favorite saying: Wonderful!

Oh! Hi, I didn’t see you there. I’m the Professor, of course. I’m sure you’ve heard all about me. I am an expert in Roman daily life. I like to study how real people lived. It’s easy to learn about the emperors and important people, but don’t you think real people are more interesting? I love to find evidence of what they ate and how they spent their time. I think it’s fascinating. It’s remarkable what you can learn from the smallest things. For example a tiny little pot sherd seems insignificant, but if you can find several from one vessel you can reconstruct it, and, like magic you could have a whole amphora! I love finding coins, of course. Did you know that coins aren’t all shiny and pretty when you find them? Metal oxidizes when it’s exposed to air, so coins turn different colors depending on what they’re made of. Silver tarnishes and bronze turns green. Gold is still gold, of course, just dirty. Isn’t it wonderful to find artifacts? I’m so thrilled to have found Fossura. And I am learning so much from Marcus and Lucia! How wonderful that they stopped by to tell me about their house. I want to start excavating the rest of Fossura soon. I hope Marcus and Lucia have some friends who can tell me about other parts of the town!