prinus

Updated: May 24, 2025

The ancient world becomes very near when we read, side by side with the election notices, a line from Virgil or Ovid scrawled in a moment of idleness, or a piece of abuse of a neighbouring and rival town such as "bad luck to the Nucerians" or a pretty sentiment, such as "no one is a gentleman who has not been in love," or an advertisement to the effect that there are "To let, from July 1, shops with their upper floors, a flat for a gentleman, and a house: apply to Prinus, slave of So-and-So"; or "Found wandering, a mare with packsaddle, apply, etc." the latter, by the way, painted on a tomb.

T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker - Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul