The Travel Log of Cato Bruttius

 Today after lunch, Cato The Elder has ordered a senate meeting in which my father and his company had to attend. I also had to come because we were going to work on some destroyed roads afterward. It will be my first time seeing Cato The Elder in person. From what I have heard and from what my father has told me, he is not the nicest guy in the world. When we arrived, I imagined Cato The Elder to be a bigger man, he was small and lanky and didn't really possess the looks of an emperor.  However, when he began to speak my heart dropped off for a second. He had this cold, stern voice that was deep. I looked at my employees and they started giggling, but I was not laughing at all. Cato The Elder ordered everyone in the room to stand up and greet each other and after that started his speech. He began talking about problems within the senate and that there needed to be more taxes raised for the military. Then he started talking about women and what role they were to play in societ...

As a city planner my father always had to take close notes on the laws of the land and if their were no laws in place, he would take consideration and suggestion from the locals. Sometimes when an order is given to start a development, my father tells me that they send him grids on tablets with exact location, measurements, and a list of materials to be used. This development was probably sent out by a political leader and will either be used for patrician residence or some sort of city council building. Most times when my father is working on buildings there is a verbal plan and a list of materials, but most of his building is done organically. Now, he still has to meet spatial and development requirements, but my father can make the dimensions and measurement of the building exactly how he thinks fits best. If there are no laws in place of the town, my father will ask the locals about how they want the new building to be and my father will draw a template of what it could be based on...

 My mother always had fine jewelry since I was a child and most of the time if she is at home with nothing to do she will craft things like bracelets, necklaces, and rings. She sometimes goes into the markets to sell them for extra money, but the pieces that she makes and likes she always keeps. I have never been a big fan of jewelry because I never saw it as being masculine, but my mother keeps selling rings to more and more men. I never really thought beauty and manhood could go together, but times are changing in the city and I see more strong men focusing on beauty. I have friends who don't considered themselves strong men, but rather as receivers, and even they have been noticing that strongmen have been focusing more on what they wear and how they look. Even my father and his employees are dying to find some nice rings, but the ones that my mother makes are too small for the men. So, I thought to myself, if I am getting all of these nice stone and marble materials for my fath...

On the night of July 18th a fire had broken out in the plebian area of the city of Rome. This was considered the market place area and a place where people came to shop. As you can imagine, that means that things were pretty close and stacked up next to one another. This let the fire grow easily and started ripping through the town. The materials used on the roads and houses of this region were flammable and before we knew it a week went by and a city was buried. There was a halt in productivity and public activity for some days. Family members, friends, and homes all lost in the chaotic surge of the horrible fire. My house was close to the inner city so I headed into town to check it out. What I came upon was absolutely miserable. Decent houses that I used to walk by were now leaning over themselves in shambles, kids and dogs flooded the streets as they had nowhere to go, and the entire city was now littered with black ash everywhere you looked. An order was sent out for builders to m...

 My father had been spending weekends in the bayside ritzy area of Rome. This, he said, was where all the stereotypes of high class people dwelled. While my father himself came from a long privilege government background, he has always put forth his hardworking attitude which overshadows his social class. He hates it when people flaunt there wealth over there, but he surely doesn't mind doing work for them and taking their wealth. My father had been building a beautiful bayside home and next weekend he said it would be finally finished. He wanted me to come over and help him deliver materials and wrap up the final touches. What is great about making deliveries for my father is he gives me all the money to go get the materials. Today I gathered beautiful marbles to finish the flooring and my father basically gave me a year allowance which I had to exchange for thousands of precious looking marbles. This house was going to be beautiful when it was finished and even when I arrived it ...

 An order by Vespasian was sent out to all political leaders, city planners, and patricians, stating that the reconstruction of an important temple was to go under maintenance soon. This was the temple of Jupiter and it was an important place for the higher class to practice alternative religion away from the town and out of sight of religious ridicule. Although around 300 families got the letter, Vespasian chose two people to take on the big job. Those two people were my father and his friend, Lucius Vestinius. Now, although my father had done many big jobs for political families and made great buildings for public use, Vespasian ordered the reconstruction of this temple to be a lowkey operation that only be done after the sun went down. Not only was this out of the ordinary for my father, but it was also much extra work for me as I would be bringing carts full of beeswax candles and pottery lamps. What my father did understand though was that the rebuilding of this temple was ris...

Preface: We begin our journey with the introduction of Cato Brutius, a young Roman male citizen like any other, working and going to school in the late Era of the Ancient Roman Republic around 190 BC. His father and family are great city planners and politicians and his mother loves crafting jewelry and keeping up with the home. Cato wants to grow up to be a great city planner and develop significant buildings like his father one day, but to earn the respect of his peers and most importantly his father, he has to work his way up and cover all aspects of construction before diving head first into Roman city planning. His father wanted Cato to get his hands dirty and have opportunities to perform for the family business while also getting an education, so Cato would often follow his father around to learn and help on job sites. Now, we will take a first hand look at Cato's life and the beginning of his construction career. My father woke me up today and told me that I was going to ha...