The House of Wine

The Cohors Arcana receive a report about complaints from several of the neighbours of Aulus Pinarius Reburrus, a citizen of Thebai (as Thebes is known in Greece) in the province Achaia. The report alleges that the banquets at the house of Pinari- us are getting out of hand, that they go on all night and disturb the peace – and that, strangely, it’s impossible to enter the house or its surrounding gardens by night. The letter describes how the vine- rows become a ‘labyrinth by moonlight’, and that some servants who were sent to complain were attacked by ‘wild beasts’. On the face of it, it looks like the sort of nonsense report the Cohors often get from ordinary citizens – some nobleman loses his sword, and it must be thieving sprites. An unmarried daughter gets pregnant, and obviously it’s something supernatural.