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Although I like to think of this as my country home, it is actually my mother's farmhouse! It has been in our family, an old Etruscan one, for generations. To preserve this heritage is the only reason that I sold myself into slavery over thirty years ago. However, that is another story, one which I am in the process of writing. When it is finished, you can read it in the scriptorium of my domus in Rome.
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 | Meet Vigilax, the watchful overseer (vilicus) of my mother's estate in Umbria. He is quite devoted to her and has been a faithful steward for as long as I can remember. He started here as a shepherd when he was just a boy and has remained here ever since. He was manumitted years ago, but this place is the only home that he has ever known. Under his supervision and care, the farm is self-sufficient and continues to thrive. I'm sure that he would be happy to show you more of the place. Just ask him. | Would you care to tour the stable?
Maybe you'd like to see the pantry? How about a visit to the apotheca? Do you want to view the fishpond? |
| This is my mother, Iphigenia, and she is a very proper Roman matrona. Despite her advanced age and three decades as a widow, I think that she has kept the farm running every bit as smoothly as my father. Vigilax has had a hand in that, of course, but she is a wise, shrewd, and intelligent woman. She would be thrilled for you to spend some time here. |  |
Some of the preceding information comes from Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, written by Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins and published in1994 by The Oxford University Press (New York).