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Content (Issue 4)
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PETROS CAERULEUS an interview with Petronius Longus
Presenter: (over jaunty nautical music) Thank you for your e-mails about our exciting vigiles project. The lucky winners are Marius and Cloelia, who now get the chance to interview a real life member of the Aventine Watch in Rome... Marius: (holding tight to his dog Arctos) Hello. I'm Marius Didius Famia and I'm eleven years old. I live on the Janiculan Hill in my grandfather's house. Petronius Longus is our friend. He works in the Fourth Cohort of Vigiles, patrolling our old district, which is the Thirteenth Region. Cloelia: (struggling to control another dog called Nux) I am Cloclia Favonia, aged nine. The Aventine is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. It used to be outside the city boundary and is still rather separate. There are several large temples, and in between them lots of ordinary people live. Some of the people are not as good as they should be. I think some, are very bad indeed. Good people rely on the vigiles to protect them. Marius: Petronius Longus, how long have you been in the vigiles? Petronius: (stroking a cat) About ten years. Cloclia: Did you always want to do this work? Petronius: The options for a local lad were to join a craftsmen's guild - my father was a carpenter and it had got him nowhere - or to join up in the legions. I tried the legions first. Marius: You are supposed to serve for 25 years. Were you allowed to leave? Petronius: A small wound unfortunately sent me home. Cloelia: (whispers) Can we ask to see his scar? Marius: (impatiently) No, silly, It was all a fix, Uncle Marcus told me. Petronius: Uncle Marcus wants to keep his mouth shut then. But that was how I joined the vigiles. When I came home they were an attractive proposition and with my military experience they were prepared to take me. Cloelia: Tell us about them please. Petronius: A thousand men per cohort, mainly ex-slaves. Officers are drawn from the army, as I was. In the Fourth, half a cohort each patrol the Twelfth and Thirteenth Regions. Our main station house lies in the Twelfth - tribunal HQ, lock-up, offices, washing and exercise facilities, fire-fighting stores... Cloelia: Why do the vigiles fight fires? Petronius: History. They were established for that purpose and only developed into an anti-criminal force as they patrolled the streets on firewatch duties when they kept running into wrong-doers after dark. We still look out for house fires, but with the addition of burglaries, street disturbances, escaped wild animals, temple violations, gangs. Marius: Your other duties include keeping the lists of undesirables? Petronius: You mean, keepers of bars and brothels, mathematicians and astrologers, Christians and other crackpot cult practitioner's actors, foreigners - and of course informers! They all giggle. Cloelia: It's a hard life? Petronius: The period of service is only six years. Says it all. Marius: So do you like it? Petronius: You mean, abuse from the public, low pay, bad conditions, physical danger, idiot superiors and incompetent juniors? - I love it! It's regular work, you feel you are achieving something, and I've assembled a good team. Cloelia: Danger? Petronius: Don't worry. You make the dangers less when you know what you are doing. Marius: I know we are not supposed to ask you, and you are not supposed to tell us, but if the dangerous people went outside Rome, would you have to chase after them anywhere? Even to a province a long way off, say? Petronius: (grinning) You want theory or practice, Marius? Marius: (seriously) As you say to, suspects, I would like the truth. Petronius: This is the word then. Our jurisdiction extends to Ostia, but as you know, we cannot otherwise pursue vigiles business outside Rome. Marius: I wonder if that answer is fact or fiction Petronius: Ah, you want to be a rhetoric teacher someone told me. Marius: No, that was last year. I want to be an enquiry agent in the vigiles. Petronius: It's no different sometimes! Cloelia: So you couldn't possibly go undercover in Britain? Not even if you had to follow some specially bad criminals? Petronius: The governor of Britain would take a dim view of it. Marius: But he's Julius Frontinus. You and Uncle Marcus know him; you worked with him on that aqueduct case! The one where they found bits of cut up dead bodies - Cloelia: Ugh! Petronius: It's a rule of the vigils, don't rely on past favours - and don't expect to trade on previous acquaintances. Assume nobody has any loyalty and they will not let you down. Cloelia: You don't feel that way about our uncle, do you? He's your best friend. Petronius: If I were going under cover, Falco's the man I would want at my back. I hope he's say the same things about me. We work together as a team when it is appropriate . Cloelia: I'd say you don't always know you're doing it! Petronius: I'd say, you know too much then, Marius. Marius: (groaning to himself) Oh no... Cloelia: A lot Of people want to know about this! Are you going to be our new father? Petronius: (weakly) Your mother might have views in that! I'm just an enquiry chief. How in Hades would know? Marius kicks Cloelia; Cloelia thumps him in return; the dogs wriggle free and run amock,. the cat flees ... Jaunty maritime music intervenes again and the Presenter rushes in with a fixed grin to show us how to make a model trireme mooring out of used parchment, the fluffy bits from your mother's spinning basket, and some cow heel glue.
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