Under Orders

We have our heads down in mid-refurbish, also known as painting over the cracks. It's going well, but not in a blip-yielding way - yet. It means we have sacrificed the opportunity to enjoy bright days outside, but bright light is useful when you are painting ceilings. We immersed ourselves in podcasts about the Romans. Was Rome "a slave society?" "Yes", answered Mary Beard, unequivocally

At its height, 20% of the population of Rome were slaves. The success of the empire was built on the aquisition of slaves as part of the bounty of conquest. As the civil, legal rights of citizens became more and more clearly defined over the centuries, non-citizens - primarily slaves - became increasingly deprived of any rights or protections, deprived of their personhood, their names. Whenever an archaeological dig discovers manacles or fetters, there is always a discussion about whether they were for slaves or animals - the point is, you can't tell the difference

The picture looks like chaos; it's actually me left temporarily in charge of supper. Nevertheless, it was pretty good: ribollita - 'reboiled' in Italian - an ancient Tuscan peasant dish, but not as ancient as the Romans. The ingredients are pretty flexible, but should include beans, kale, celery and onions, all of which we had - it's also supposed to include stale bread, but we ate the last of that for lunch (the bread at the back of the picture is a fresh-baked loaf we were not prepared to sacrifice), so left-over potatoes and cauliflower had to take its place, which seems to be in the spirit of the thing

There is a theory that the inclusion of bread dates back to the days when rich people's meals were served on thick slices of stale bread that were not themselves eaten. Servants took home the bread and reboiled it with whatever they had to make a meal. It brings to mind the recent case of a cleaner who was fired for taking home uneaten tuna sandwiches from the meeting room of a city law firm. Of course, it's not slavery, but it's in the spirit of the thing