"Domina"
Domina by island-of-reil
Rating: Explicit
Words: 47,592
Relationships: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Cottia, Cottia/Esca mac Cunoval, Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca mac Cunoval, Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca mac Cunoval/Cottia
Characters: Cottia, Marcus Flavius Aquila, Esca mac Cunoval, Uncle Aquila, Claudius Hieronimianus, Valaria (Eagle of the Ninth), Kaeso (Eagle of the Ninth), Original Character(s)
Tags: Post-Canon, OT3, Infidelity, Child Death, Childbirth, Implied/Referenced Slavery, Original Character Death(s), Mentor/Protégé, Mentors, Community, Inheritance, Implied/Referenced Flogging
Summary: “You shall suffer great griefs, griefs I cannot spare you, but you shall also taste great joys. And all shall know you, and one day remember you: mother, trader, teacher, leader.”
First and above all, I would like to thank tryfanstone for her very fine beta work, as well as suggestions regarding the resolution of the legal case and a few bits of historical detail. I am also indebted to sineala and carmarthen for the copious advice, resources, and moral support they have provided me in the writing of this fic.
The kind people at little-details were of great help as well with the legal plot. To be candid up front, I ultimately decided to handwave some of it for the sake of the story, which has been sitting on my hard drive for far too long. For example, it would have been more realistic for Lucanus to have made his move after Aëtius had his stroke but before Constantia died.
I had originally made Lucanus a legatus iuridicus, more or less an assistant to a provincial governor. It fit the narrative of the story better to make him fiscal procurator (procurator Augusti) of Britannia. (The name of Britain's historical procurator in that era is unknown.) Note that procurators came from the equestrian classes, but "Lucanus" was a British, not Roman, name. I am not certain whether the British-born son of a Roman equestrian and a British mother would have been eligible for the office, especially as procurators were loyal to the emperor and not the province, but I am taking the liberty of making it so and glossing the details over for the sake of this story.
You'll also note from the little-details thread that mentoring younger people outside one's own family was not "the done thing" in the intensely family-focused Roman and Celtic societies, and that spinning took up more time than I have probably allotted for in the story. Women's economic contributions to families were, indeed, vital. However, vaznetti notes that a Romano-British woman might have had "a hereditary relationship of patronage with some local families which she expressed through looking out for their daughters." Again, I have glossed over the relevant details for the sake of the narrative.
carmarthen’s chronology of The Eagle of the Ninth was extremely helpful to me in setting up the timeline of my story.
sineala's post on Roman naming conventions was the primary source from which I learned how Roman names "worked." I supplemented it with lists of praenomina, nomina, and cognomina found on Wikipedia and a variety of other places (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). "Canus" was actually a Roman praenomen, though not a common one. It meant "white" or "grey," connoting the wisdom of old age, but note that canis meant a hound - and Cunowalos, or Cunoval, meant "hound prince."
For native British names I relied on Celtic Personal Names of Roman Britain, The First Thousand Years of British Names, and information on curse tablets of that time and place (1 2 3).
This book was a good primer on ancient Latin endearments, although I primarily ended up using "dulcis," based on Marcus's "Cottia sweet" in the book.
The Iceni goddess Andraste, a/k/a Andred, is described here and here. My description of her is based on this drawing.
This post on ninth_eagle recaps the descriptions of the Aquila farm in The Silver Branch, set nearly two centuries later. For most of my information on crops, I thank carmarthen for sending me Shimon Appelbaum's article "Agriculture in Roman Britain," which I supplemented with other sources (1 2 3 4).
Appelbaum also provides a fair amount of information about contemporary architecture. Other sources of info on Roman villas in Britain: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Oh, and here's a floor plan.
The details of weddings among ancient Romans comes, with some corrections from sineala, from UNRV, RomanoBritain.org, LacusCurtius, and Wilhelm Adolf Becker. This page describes the food at wedding feasts, while these two focus on Roman desserts.
Clothing, hairstyles, and fashion: 1 2 3 4 5 6.
Science in School provides a good overview of Roman perfume/bathing-oil ingredients.
Washing and hygiene: 1 2 3 4 5.
My information on childbirth is mainly drawn from the writings of the physician Soranus. Sources: 1 2 3. I also did some googling on breech birth in general; there were a variety of sources but I am sorry to say I have not retained the links.
Cottia's harvest of the honeycombs is indeed done per Columella's instructions, although I may have combined his advice on meadmaking with that of Sir Kenelm Digby. My other sources were this video on harvesting honey from a skep-based apiary and this article on ancient Roman beekeeping in general.
I did much less with beer brewing than I did with meadmaking, but here are my sources: 1 2 3 4. I meant to write more about cheesemaking, too, but it didn't happen.
Plumbata usually referred to a military dart, but it also meant a flail or scourge with metal (originally lead, I guess) or bone pieces tied into the thongs to increase damage and pain.
Regarding the first sex scene between Esca and Cottia: What is known to us as "the G-spot" was also known to ancient peoples. It is not unlikely that its existence would have been known to an ordinary person with a great deal of relevant sexual experience.
Julianus was a historical figure. My letter from Hadrian to him takes many of its turns of phrase from that which the emperor wrote in 119 to Q. Rammius Martialis, prefect of Egypt, declaring that the children of active soldiers (then considered illegitimate) could inherit from their fathers. It is quoted in Paul J. Alexander's 1938 article "Letters and Speeches of the Emperor Hadrian," published in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Thanks again to sineala for grabbing that off JSTOR for me.
Funeral rites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.
Comments are disabled for this post. Please comment on the fic instead. Thank you for reading it.
Rating: Explicit
Words: 47,592
Relationships: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Cottia, Cottia/Esca mac Cunoval, Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca mac Cunoval, Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca mac Cunoval/Cottia
Characters: Cottia, Marcus Flavius Aquila, Esca mac Cunoval, Uncle Aquila, Claudius Hieronimianus, Valaria (Eagle of the Ninth), Kaeso (Eagle of the Ninth), Original Character(s)
Tags: Post-Canon, OT3, Infidelity, Child Death, Childbirth, Implied/Referenced Slavery, Original Character Death(s), Mentor/Protégé, Mentors, Community, Inheritance, Implied/Referenced Flogging
Summary: “You shall suffer great griefs, griefs I cannot spare you, but you shall also taste great joys. And all shall know you, and one day remember you: mother, trader, teacher, leader.”
First and above all, I would like to thank tryfanstone for her very fine beta work, as well as suggestions regarding the resolution of the legal case and a few bits of historical detail. I am also indebted to sineala and carmarthen for the copious advice, resources, and moral support they have provided me in the writing of this fic.
The kind people at little-details were of great help as well with the legal plot. To be candid up front, I ultimately decided to handwave some of it for the sake of the story, which has been sitting on my hard drive for far too long. For example, it would have been more realistic for Lucanus to have made his move after Aëtius had his stroke but before Constantia died.
I had originally made Lucanus a legatus iuridicus, more or less an assistant to a provincial governor. It fit the narrative of the story better to make him fiscal procurator (procurator Augusti) of Britannia. (The name of Britain's historical procurator in that era is unknown.) Note that procurators came from the equestrian classes, but "Lucanus" was a British, not Roman, name. I am not certain whether the British-born son of a Roman equestrian and a British mother would have been eligible for the office, especially as procurators were loyal to the emperor and not the province, but I am taking the liberty of making it so and glossing the details over for the sake of this story.
You'll also note from the little-details thread that mentoring younger people outside one's own family was not "the done thing" in the intensely family-focused Roman and Celtic societies, and that spinning took up more time than I have probably allotted for in the story. Women's economic contributions to families were, indeed, vital. However, vaznetti notes that a Romano-British woman might have had "a hereditary relationship of patronage with some local families which she expressed through looking out for their daughters." Again, I have glossed over the relevant details for the sake of the narrative.
carmarthen’s chronology of The Eagle of the Ninth was extremely helpful to me in setting up the timeline of my story.
sineala's post on Roman naming conventions was the primary source from which I learned how Roman names "worked." I supplemented it with lists of praenomina, nomina, and cognomina found on Wikipedia and a variety of other places (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). "Canus" was actually a Roman praenomen, though not a common one. It meant "white" or "grey," connoting the wisdom of old age, but note that canis meant a hound - and Cunowalos, or Cunoval, meant "hound prince."
For native British names I relied on Celtic Personal Names of Roman Britain, The First Thousand Years of British Names, and information on curse tablets of that time and place (1 2 3).
This book was a good primer on ancient Latin endearments, although I primarily ended up using "dulcis," based on Marcus's "Cottia sweet" in the book.
The Iceni goddess Andraste, a/k/a Andred, is described here and here. My description of her is based on this drawing.
This post on ninth_eagle recaps the descriptions of the Aquila farm in The Silver Branch, set nearly two centuries later. For most of my information on crops, I thank carmarthen for sending me Shimon Appelbaum's article "Agriculture in Roman Britain," which I supplemented with other sources (1 2 3 4).
Appelbaum also provides a fair amount of information about contemporary architecture. Other sources of info on Roman villas in Britain: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Oh, and here's a floor plan.
The details of weddings among ancient Romans comes, with some corrections from sineala, from UNRV, RomanoBritain.org, LacusCurtius, and Wilhelm Adolf Becker. This page describes the food at wedding feasts, while these two focus on Roman desserts.
Clothing, hairstyles, and fashion: 1 2 3 4 5 6.
Science in School provides a good overview of Roman perfume/bathing-oil ingredients.
Washing and hygiene: 1 2 3 4 5.
My information on childbirth is mainly drawn from the writings of the physician Soranus. Sources: 1 2 3. I also did some googling on breech birth in general; there were a variety of sources but I am sorry to say I have not retained the links.
Cottia's harvest of the honeycombs is indeed done per Columella's instructions, although I may have combined his advice on meadmaking with that of Sir Kenelm Digby. My other sources were this video on harvesting honey from a skep-based apiary and this article on ancient Roman beekeeping in general.
I did much less with beer brewing than I did with meadmaking, but here are my sources: 1 2 3 4. I meant to write more about cheesemaking, too, but it didn't happen.
Plumbata usually referred to a military dart, but it also meant a flail or scourge with metal (originally lead, I guess) or bone pieces tied into the thongs to increase damage and pain.
Regarding the first sex scene between Esca and Cottia: What is known to us as "the G-spot" was also known to ancient peoples. It is not unlikely that its existence would have been known to an ordinary person with a great deal of relevant sexual experience.
Julianus was a historical figure. My letter from Hadrian to him takes many of its turns of phrase from that which the emperor wrote in 119 to Q. Rammius Martialis, prefect of Egypt, declaring that the children of active soldiers (then considered illegitimate) could inherit from their fathers. It is quoted in Paul J. Alexander's 1938 article "Letters and Speeches of the Emperor Hadrian," published in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Thanks again to sineala for grabbing that off JSTOR for me.
Funeral rites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.
Comments are disabled for this post. Please comment on the fic instead. Thank you for reading it.