Chapter 2

Day 3

I left the house before dawn, arriving at the forum as the first merchants were setting up. Once there, I quickly learned something. However I came to be here, I could understand and speak the different languages I’d heard so far. I knew I had been speaking Latin, even though I thought in English. Without even knowing what language it was, I understood and conversed with someone who spoke a different language this morning, probably Greek. Unbelievably cool.

By noon, I had the beginning of my pozzolana business. I hired Janus and Marius, two unemployed freemen who knew carpentry work. I bought the woodworking tools they would need and enough digging tools for ten men. I bought plenty of rope, as well as lots of handmade nails from a blacksmith. Everything went into a sturdy two-wheeled cart I bought, along with two mules to pull it. We added enough lumber for the two men to start making sturdy crates to fill with pozzolana. Two more men, Atilius and Gnaeus, approached us as we were leaving and I hired them, too. I wanted empty crates built so that we could fill them with pozzolana tomorrow. The final thing I bought was a large, shallow, clay bowl.

“This is how much pozzolana I want to load each time,” I told the men, using my hands to show a cubic yard.

“That much pozzolana may weigh too much for some carts,” one of the men warned, getting nods of agreement from the others.

“Perhaps a culeus, even though that’s used to measure liquid,” one of them offered, looking at the others for confirmation. When they agreed, he used his hands to demonstrate what looked to be about two-thirds of a cubic yard.

I agreed. Aside from the weight problem, making my crates a size that the locals would recognize would help.

I asked around to get quotes for a reasonable price to charge for one culeus of pozzolana and was surprised at how high it was. The two men I asked had explained that it was a nuisance to take a cart out there with the crew necessary to fill the cart and then drive back because the process took so much time. Aside from breaking up the pozzolana so it could be loaded, before it could be used, it had to be crushed into powder form, usually by beating it with the flat of a shovel.

When we arrived at the villa, I introduced the men to Celsus, explaining that they would be building sturdy wooden crates to fill with pozzolana. Celsus reminded me that we would need to build a crane to lift the crates into the carts. Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. Janus and Marius smiled knowingly and explained that they had already thought of it and had made sure we had the lumber to make two simple cranes.

I began laying out the lumber, explaining each step so they would understand what I wanted. Once they had the idea, I left them to their work and sought Antia and Tacita.

“We found almost everything you wanted,” Antia said excitedly.

“We bought the maple wood from someone selling firewood. He was kind enough to pull twenty branches of maple out of his cartload,” Tacita told me proudly.

“A man selling game agreed to bring sinew and horn by the villa tomorrow morning on his way to the forum. He has partners who hunt to supplement the pig and goat meat they sell,” Antia explained.

After kisses to thank them, I filled the shallow clay bowl with a mixture of rich volcanic soil and compost and then buried yesterday’s tomato-seed-covered leaf in it. Then I found a likely piece of maple and began carving it. When it was carved the way I wanted it, I immersed it in water to soak it overnight. I used a piece of charcoal and sketched what I wanted the finished bow to look like on a long, wide piece of lumber that I had purchased just for that purpose.

It was nearly twenty years ago when I made my laminated recurve bow. I was ten at the time and wanted a bow to use on the rabbits that constantly ravaged our family’s garden.

My parents are farmers, and with two older brothers and one younger sister, the family couldn’t afford the compound bow I wanted. Instead, I set out to make my own. First, I researched various bows and had to choose between a longbow and a Mongol bow. The decision was made for me when I discovered that there was a dearth of acceptable yew nearby that I could use for a longbow. Maple was common.

At first, my brothers laughed at me, but they stopped laughing when I finished carving a sturdy branch of green maple. Next, I made the frame and forced the green wood into the shape I wanted it to be when it dried.

Dad wouldn’t let us go deer hunting until we were sixteen, but when my oldest brother was old enough, he went with dad that year. Both brought back a deer and let me have the back and leg sinew but made me recover it. It was a good thing we slaughtered and butchered our own animals so that I’d had some experience. I spent most of an afternoon performing surgery on the deer carcasses to remove what I needed, and then I cut the carcasses up. After cleaning and washing the sinew, I hung it in the far back corner of the barn where it wouldn’t bother anyone and let it dry.

After the green wood for the bow dried for three months, I took it from the frame, and it held its shape. I was fortunate that none of my siblings were nearby to witness my excited, twirling, foot-stomping, fist-pumping victory dance. They would have teased me about it unmercifully. The entire time that the bow was drying, I had been lifting weights daily to strengthen my arms.

I took down the dried sinew and ground it into short, fluffy fibers with a poor substitute for an ancient mortar and pestle. I used a flattish rock and a smooth baseball-sized rock. I’d already shaved a piece of horn to the right size to glue to the belly (the part facing the archer) of the bow.

When the glue on the finished bow finally dried, it took two months of daily practice before I was reasonably accurate with the bow at short range. Once I felt proficient, I used it to battle the rabbits that infested our family garden. Within a year, the rabbit population had been greatly reduced. I actually brought down a deer using the bow at age 14. Yeah, Dad took me deer hunting since I was using a bow and not a rifle and could hunt during bow hunting season. It took me half an hour to track the wounded deer to finish it off.

Anyway, once I outlined the shape I wanted, I used a bow drill to make the holes to hold the pegs that would secure the bow in the correct shape as the wood dried. While I was using the bow drill, I knew that I had to make a brace and bit set soon. I managed to drill most of the holes but would have to finish another time.

We spent more time working on the saddle tree and I was surprised at how quickly it was taking shape, despite the lack of power tools. Well, that’s not entirely true. The tools were power tools, but the power source was human, not electricity.

While I ate a late dinner, the women were waiting impatiently for me in bed. They even started without me, probably hoping to entice me to join them, which I did, enthusiastically.

Day 4

Shortly after leaving our quarters this morning, I met the man bringing the sinew and horn. After paying him, I thanked him and warned him that I would need much more in the future. As I finished hitching the mules to the cart, my four employees arrived. Since they had left everything on the cart when they finished last night, we headed out. I had no idea how to drive a cart hitched to mules, and let Janus drive us, like I’d done yesterday. I’d intended to walk and lead the mules. Instead, I sat up front with Janus while the other three men rode on top of the wood and the partially finished crates in the cart. When he realized that I didn’t know how to drive a cart, Janus insisted on teaching me. It was certainly different from driving a car.

I definitely missed the gas and brake pedals, and the steering wheel.

I wasn’t really surprised when I learned that the closest place to quarry pozzolana was barely a mile east of Celsus’s estate. I knew it had to be close.

The men had worked late yesterday and had almost finished making four crates before they quit for the day. The containers were all flattened, ready to attach the sides to the base. The base was like modern wooden pallets except that we had added a second, complete, layer of boards nailed perpendicular to the first layer to give the base more strength and stability. We also wrapped rope around the crate to help hold it together when it was filled with pozzolana. Once the first crate was completed, three of us began filling it while Janus finished putting together the other three crates and Marius built the two cranes.

The normal Roman workday was about six hours, not that they knew what hours were, so we stopped when the sun told me it was about an hour after midday. By then, all four crates were full. I was disappointed that nobody had showed up today for pozzolana. Celsus had made it sound like there were several large building projects underway and I had expected a steady stream of customers. We were working in an area where it was obvious that someone else had recently quarried pozzolana.

I provided lunch for everyone and hitched the mules back up to the cart. Three of the men lived in tents. They had brought their meager belongings with them and planned to stay here. They camped on a grassy rise about a hundred yards from where we were working. Janus was one of the three, and I left him in charge since he knew how much I wanted to charge for each crate of pozzolana. The price included the cost of the crate. If a customer came back for more, we would exchange the crate and they wouldn’t have to pay a second deposit. If they returned an empty crate, we would refund the price of the crate.

I paid the men for two days, yesterday and today, so they would have money to buy what they needed. The forums in Baiae and Puteoli were both about two miles away. When they asked if they could continue working until dark by breaking up the compacted pozzolana layer using picks, I agreed.

Since they wanted to continue working, I had Marius come with me and drive the cart back to the forum so we could buy more lumber, nails, and rope, as well as woodworking tools for the other two men. We had to borrow some tools from Celsus yesterday. Marius was surprised when I bought cheese and a loaf of bread for the men since they had expected to buy their own food.

On the way back to the quarry, I jumped down and walked the rest of the way to the villa when we passed by, and Marius continued to the work site.

After enthusiastic hugs and kisses from the women, I checked on the tomato seeds that I had set out in a sheltered sunny spot this morning, not that I expected to see anything growing for at least a week. I made sure the soil was still damp and took the clay bowl with the planted seeds inside since it was still winter, and the nights were cold, even if daytime temperatures were pleasant.

Then I finished drilling the holes for the pegs on the board that would hold the wet wood for the bow in the shape I wanted as it dried. Once I tapped the last peg into place, I brought the waterlogged piece of carved wood over and bent it the way I wanted it. Now I had to wait and let it dry.

Next, I made sure the sinew I bought this morning was clean, and then hung it to dry. We worked on the saddle tree until supper. I was glad that the hoof glue dried so quickly.

Antia came outside and found me when the meal was ready. “I am so lucky,” she sighed as she slipped her arms around my waist and hugged me. “Roman marriages are arranged and few Roman women ever come to truly love their husbands. They provide him with children, but they only have sex when the husband wants it. Most of them would prefer that their husband have sex with the female slaves.

“I was worried when you told me that you weren’t Quintus because I liked Quintus. Even after such a brief time, I already love you. You treat me with respect, you consider my pleasure when we have sex, you are a strong warrior, and have many good ideas for earning money. I’m very lucky to have you as my husband.”

“And I am very happy to have you as my wife,” I replied. “You are a beautiful woman, you’re pleasant to be around, you keep our home neat and clean, you are a good cook, and the sex is incredible,” I whispered as I teased her still-covered nipples. “You have also been very helpful to me while I learned what I need to know about this time and about living here,” I added.

“You definitely impressed Vibiana,” she giggled quietly. “When we went to the forum together today, she told us what happened to her after your fight. Tacita was excited listening to her descriptions and has been insatiable this afternoon,” she husked.

“My wife seems to be interested, too,” I suggested.

“Your wife is always interested in her husband and he will never have to spank her or tie her up to use her,” she giggled. Dinner was late because I carried Antia off to bed. When we finished, Tacita was eagerly awaiting her turn.

After dinner, when the women were done with me, I lay awake thinking. If this was a dream, it was unlike any dream I’d ever had. No dream I could remember involved every detail of every minute for several days in a row. It was far too enjoyable to be some sort of hell. At least so far. Regardless, since I was able to control the action around me to a significant degree, I decided to continue as if this were real. If it was a dream, I must be in a coma. And even if I was in a coma, the dream would keep me entertained. On the outside chance that it was some sort of hell, I intended to do my best to enjoy it for as long as I could.

Day 5

My meal this morning was a typical ancient Roman breakfast of bread and cheese, along with dried fruit and watered-down wine. I needed to have the Pozzolana business running so I could start a farm. I missed bacon and eggs for breakfast, along with pancakes and a cold glass of milk. I figured that I’d had my last cup of coffee, ever.

After setting my tomato seeds out in the sunny spot again, one protected from the cool breezes, I arrived at the quarry early and found the three men there just finishing their own breakfast and the fourth man was just arriving. They must have worked quite late because they had built four more crates, leaving only two more to build. Janus worked with us filling the crates today, letting Marius build the last two crates. That was actually a good idea, letting the four men rotate which of them worked at building the crates while the rest of us filled them.

It was nearly normal Roman quitting time (noon), and we were filling the tenth crate when a procession of carts approached us. Ten high-sided carts filled with forty men arrived, led by an armed man who looked as if he had once been, or still was, a soldier. Since he rode a horse, he was either a former Equestrian (Roman noble cavalry) or just very wealthy.

“How much longer will you be here?” he asked gruffly, obviously irritated to find us here.

“We will gladly share. I hope to work here for a long time. We’re digging out the pozzolana to sell,” I explained.

“To sell?” he asked. Both his facial expression and tone of voice told me that he was surprised as he looked over our bare-bones operation.

“Excellent, that will save me days of work and allow us to finish the job sooner,” he mused aloud.

“How much are you asking?”

I explained what I expected for one culeus of pozzolana, and about the deposit for the crate. He looked at me as if he were appraising me as an enemy, and then broke into a broad grin.

“I will take all that you have ready,” he exclaimed, adding, “You’re going to need more men than this. Once the other builders find out, they will wear a wide path to you. You will probably sell five to ten crates a day at first, more when they learn about you in Puteoli, where they are building and expanding the docks. When Rome finds out, you may have to fill a ship or two every week.”

“I am Remus,” the overseer introduced himself once I finished with Janus.

“I am Quintus,” I introduced myself in return.

“I know, I lost fifty Denarii wagering against you the other day,” he chuckled.

“Thank you,” I teased. “I earned enough to buy my freedom and to start this business.”

“Then it was money well spent,” he laughed. “Digging the pozzolana we need is my least favorite task during construction. Now that the slaves know they won’t have to do it, they will be in a better mood. You are soon going to be as wealthy as your Patron is.

“Those crates are ingenious,” he continued. “They are off the ground far enough to keep the contents dry and are sturdy enough to lift with a crane. People will copy them once they reach Rome and will use them to transport everything from bricks to wheat. You and your Patron will both gain prestige from your creation,” he commented, nodding approvingly.

I was surprised at how quickly the ten crates were loaded onto their carts using our two cranes.

Once we finished, I sent Janus and Atilius back to the forum to buy more of the supplies we needed, namely wood, nails, and rope.

“If we go to the forum in Puteoli, we can spread word about what we’re doing,” Janus suggested.

“Good idea,” I agreed. “While you’re there, buy food and wine for the four of you for dinner. Also, if you see any men who need work that you feel they will be good workers, hire up to ten more of them. Have them meet us here tomorrow morning. Go ahead and buy enough food for breakfast for everyone and be sure to purchase digging tools for the new men.”

I waved goodbye to Marius as I left with Remus to collect the payment, jogging alongside as he rode his horse. I was surprised that this body was in as good of shape as my old body had been. Once I had been paid, I thanked Remus and headed for the forum in Baiae. Once there, I found the man I bought the first cart from and purchased a second, complete with two mules. I was nervous driving it alone, but Janus had made me drive the cart while he watched until he was confident in my ability. Too bad I wasn’t that confident.

I warned the man with the lumber that we would be buying enough lumber for ten crates almost every day. I had to buy nails from four blacksmiths to have enough and knew what I needed next, my own blacksmith. I piled even more tools for digging on top of the rope and lumber, and even a few more carpentry tools. My final purchase was a chicken, a live one. I hadn’t had any meat with a meal since I found myself here and felt that it was time to change that.

Antia was stunned when I dropped off the chicken on my way back to our workplace. Considering how much money I had with me earlier, I decided that I needed to wear one of Varius’s swords. I took the other two for Janus and Marius to wear since they would be at the quarry when I wasn’t.

Both women were shocked to learn how much money I earned today.

Janus beat me back to the site and had ten new men with him. He explained that they were desperate for work and wanted to work until dark. He thought we might need the finished crates to fill early tomorrow.

“Good thinking,” I praised him, showed him the second cart loaded with lumber for six more crates, as well as tools and all the rope and nails I had purchased.

I also gave Janus and Marius the swords and scabbards before I left. They thanked me since a good sword would cost them several months’ wages. Even though I carried several pounds of silver with me, I felt much lighter walking home today, knowing that my business would succeed and provide me with a good income.

I found Celsus and told him about my success, as well as what Remus had said about the prestige we’d gain when Rome saw the crates. “I wondered what you were building,” he commented.

“Do you have a blacksmith here?” I asked.

“Yes, but he helps with other tasks when he doesn’t have enough work. Why?”

“Does he make nails? We buy all the nails we find when we visit the forum,” I explained.

“Excellent idea. Perhaps I should find a second blacksmith,” he mused.

“I have several slaves who don’t have enough work until planting time. Perhaps you can use them to help make your bows,” he suggested. I agreed, excited to have more help.

I almost choked to death when he told me how much one saltus of land (five hundred acres) cost. I’d have to settle for a centuria (125 acres) to start with, but not anytime soon. I thought I remembered that farmland had been cheap because so many men died in the war against Carthage, but I guess not.

Eventually, I hoped to have a thousand acres or more under cultivation. Aside from my tomatoes, if they grew, pigs and chickens would be first. They reproduced rapidly and provided meat. The chicken shit would make excellent fertilizer. The rich volcanic soil here made for excellent wines, even in modern times, and would be excellent for the grapes I hoped to grow. A few cattle to provide beef, milk to drink, and butter would round out my initial focus, unless Celsus’s purchasing agent brought back rice, the seeds for the fruit trees, and especially cotton.

I spent part of the evening carving another bow, showing Celsus’s slaves what I wanted them to look like. I also spent a few minutes carving part of the ram’s horn I had bought today.

Leaving them, we worked on the saddle tree again, finishing the assembly of the pieces. Then I applied the first coat of shellac.

Remembering what happened last night when I finally got home from the workshop Celsus was letting me use, I grinned as I thought dirty thoughts. Antia had let me know that she wanted a baby and I had agreed. She grinned when she thought about not drinking the silphium tea that women used to help prevent pregnancy, not that the tea always worked. We practiced making a baby in both women before we fell asleep.

Day 6

I was excited when I woke up this morning. A vivid and extremely detailed memory from one of my first vacation trips through Italy had come to mind last night. If I could find it, I knew where to find one of the few coal deposits in Italy, although it was on the east side of the peninsula, just around the southern tip. I also remembered the location of a huge salt deposit on the east side of the peninsula, closer to the heel of the Italian boot. I made a mental note to remind myself when I reached a point when I could take time to search for the two sites. If that worked, I knew of several sites on Sardinia that I had seen when I visited on a different vacation. It was strange that long-forgotten memories were suddenly surfacing, and that the details were so detailed.

After grabbing a quick breakfast and setting my clay bowl with the tomato seeds outside in the sunny spot again, I headed for the pozzolana quarry. All fourteen of my employees were there when I arrived. Seeing how fast they were working, I sent Janus and Marius with both carts for more supplies. I almost shouted with excitement when seven carts arrived mid-morning.

“Are you Quintus?” the man who appeared to be in charge asked. He was obviously from the government as he had four equestrians with him.

“I am. Are you here to buy pozzolana?” I asked.

“I’m Aelius, and yes, I’m here to purchase pozzolana. I was told that I only needed to bring carts to carry your unique crates.”

I explained about my price for the pozzolana, and about the deposit for the crates. “Remus was correct; your idea is unique and ingenious. Soon, the crates you thought up will be in use all across the Republic, carrying everything from pottery to wheat. In the meantime, your new business will make my life much easier and will speed up the construction of the new docks in Puteoli, making me look good to my superiors.”