537 ‘Ave Petronius Rufius,’ Symmachus greeted the cloaked and hooded figure that the porter had just shown into the vestibulum of the senator’s house in Ravenna. He instructed the porter to see to the stabling of the visiter’s equipage of currus (light carriage) and pair, and to arrange for the driver to be looked after in the domestics’ quarters. ‘How was the journey?’ ‘Ave Quintus,’ replied Cethegus, allowing the porter to divest him of his dripping cucullus. ‘Journey? Vile weather but apart from that it could have been worse, considering that the old cursus publicus has finally packed up. A few way-stations still operating along the Flaminia, though.’ ‘Come and meet the others,’ continued Symmachus, when his guest had bathed and changed. ‘We’re all agog to hear this news you wrote to us about. Must be important, for you to have come all the way from Rome.’ Symmachus conducted Cethegus, son of Probinus, the leader of the Laurentian faction in Rome, to the triclinium, where lamps had been lit and couches and tables made ready for dinner.
