Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

captivity

he often went on strolls on the other side of the Tiber. In Rome, Jews could go wherever they pleased, and Uri, thanks to his grandfather, who had scraped together the money from his work as a slave to pay for his manumission, got married, begot a son, then died straight after—thanks to him, the grandson, Uri, had been born a Roman citizen. Jewish though he was, he was a Roman citizen with full rights, so he did not pay the taxes that were imposed on non-Romans and non-Italians. Indeed, he was given money by Rome: through his patron’s intervention, he was awarded the tessera , which he was entitled to under the law since the age of fourteen, although the magistrate was perfectly able to string this out for years if some big shot did not snap at them. He had drilled a hole in the small lead token

and wore it hidden under his tunic, slung low on his neck so it would not be stolen, and he would feel for it compulsively at frequent intervals. If he showed it at the biggest distribution center on the Campus Martius, he would receive the monthly ration of grain that was due to paupers of unemployed Roman freedmen, the libertines who were capable only of begetting children—plebeians, as they were also called. Meat he would obtain on the right side of the Tiber, at home, as on the other side it was not possible to procure kosher meat; that was also where he drew the wine ration. There were a few taverns on that side that let it be known that they also held stocks of kosher food and drink, but the public was banned from those taverns by the Roman gerousia or synedrion, or

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