On the second story of one of the more run-down insula in the Subura, I maintain my small school for boys (and one girl!) in the neighborhood, who wish some small literacy to help them on in life. I was a Greek slave, now a freedman, and the fees from my small school help maintain me. I have two rooms, and I teach in one and sleep in the other! Life is modest, but I am able to eke a living here, whereas living in a more fashionable district would be impossible.

I have come to love the Subura. True, many of my neighbors are poor artisans, butchers, shoemakers, or even prostitutes - they run small shops out of the bottom floors of the insulae, selling fresh vegetables, some spices, cheap pottery lamps and lamp oil - and the smell of fish on a hot summer day is not pleasant. But the Subura is full of Romans, Greeks, Syrians, country Italians who hope to 'make it' in the city, and I like the variety (although I do not so much like the noise!)

Perhaps I am modestly successful because I am a Greek, and to every Roman, a Greek is an intellectual and they envy us our culture even while they insist that Rome is superior.

Do you wish to take a tour of my small school? Perhaps you have a son or a nephew who wants to be able to read or figure? This is a poor neighborhood, and my curriculum is perhaps rather simple, but it suits those who can squeeze the modest amount of my fees so that their children can move up in life.

If you look, you will see a list of the curriculum, and a brief description of how my boys manage their school days. Girls? Oh, no - that would be entirely improper.