The master’s library is famous all over the empire for his collection of Epicurean texts, but there are also works by the Stoic philosophers, those moaners and their obsessive sense of duty.
They are all texts written in Greek. Oh, excuse me? You haven’t studied Greek? No problem; you can go to the Latin section: there is something for everyone… historical works, legal arguments and poems!
There are hundreds and hundreds of papayri (sic, yim) scrolls, neatly rolled up and stored inside beautiful cupboards inlaid with different woods. It is such a precious library that some people call this house ‘the villa of the papyri’!
It’s me who who dusts the scrolls, every day. I have to be very careful, because papyrus is really fragile. Then I put back the ones that my master has left scattered on the table, I tidy up his notes and keep the register up to date… If it wasn’t for me, do you know how many of our guests would have forgotten to bring the borrowed works back? And I don’t mean just anyone, but famous scholars and aristocrats from great families!
Better not to mention names. I am still a slave; I can’t speak badly about the great men of Rome…