Arminius stood before the Rostra in his shining white toga candida...the chalk with which it had been rubbed tickling his nose. The crowd listened to the speeches of the candidates with only half an ear--it was the same every year: speeches extolling the virtues of each man, whether he possessed those particular virtues or not...and promising to serve the citizens with the purest of motives in the next year--if only you voted for me! The crowd was far more interested in the gifts given out by those hoping to win votes in the elections than in the long-winded speeches of the potential officials.

At a moment when the talking and drinking had died to a low roar, Arminiuis pitched his voice to carry over the heads of the throng. His words would be repeated to those further away by his small number of clientes scattered around the Forum.

"Quirites...you know me as a tribunis plebis last year, and as gladiatorial aedile the year before that--I have been serving this year as quaestor of Sicilia--Now, I am before you again, not to be a candidate for Praetor, which should be my next step on the cursus honorum--but to run once more for the position of Aedile!

"Why not praetor--simple, my friends: I do not wish to give up my factories to enter the Senate officially...for this puts me at a disadvantage with the patricians and their vast land holdings. I have no desire to be looked down upon as an equestrian nothing until I can match estates with the best blue-blood senator....If I can't match his pedigree going back to the creation of the world, at least I can match him in my holdings--but until that day comes, I wish only to serve my fellow eques, and all the other 'lower classes' who are in fact the very people who make our state function!

"I ask for your support this month--vote for me as Aedile!"

In the crowd, as his words were relayed, so too were small tokens good for a cup of wine at the best forum wine shop.

Cost of Tokens: 200 D