ROMA, ITALIA 12 DECEMBER 66 AD
“Perel! Where is the girl?”
Abigail was working in the rear yard of the house on the Esquiline Hill when she heard her daughter"s name called. At once she rose from the far side of the well, where she had the master"s toga stretched across a stone to dry as she applied the whitening chalk. “Domina? May I help?”
Spying Abigail, the mistress of the house frowned. “I"m going out,” said Domitia Longina, “and I wish Perel to accompany me.”
Abigail"s expression was one of helpful subservience. But her anger must have radiated, for Domitia"s eyes narrowed as if she"d been rebuked aloud. Abigail lowered her gaze. It would never do for a slave to insult a senator"s wife, let alone the younger daughter of the great general Corbulo.
Domitia had inherited her father
