As well as housing the courts, the basilica in the forum acted as an exchange where businessmen and their clients could make deals and contracts. Someone who would have been there often was Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, the son of a freedman who amassed great wealth as a banker or money lender. We know a great deal about L. Caecilius Iucundus' business dealings as archaeologists found over a hundred and fifty partially legible documents on wax tablets stored in a wooden chest in his house. A bust was also found in the atrium of the House of Caecilius, with an inscription below which read 'To the genius of our Lucius. Felix, freedman (set this up).' This bust may have been of Iucundus' father, or of Iucundus himself.
The deals in these documents are worth between 342 and 38,079 sesterces, although only three transactions are worth more than 30,000 sesterces. The records include the name of the seller, that of Caecilius or a slave acting on his behalf, the date, the sum paid, any commission agreed for Caecilius, and a list of witnesses. People 'signed' the document by pressing the engraved stone of a ring into the wax to leave a mark or 'seal'.
The oldest document is from 15AD. It is a transaction by Caecilius Felix, perhaps Iucundus' father, and is for the sale of a mule. You might spot where Caroline Lawrence got some inspiration for our story!
A total of 137 of the documents relate to auction sales. Caecilius acted as a 'middle man' between buyers and sellers, paying a sum to the seller at auction and granting the buyer a set amount of time in which to repay him. He would receive interest and/or commission on the loans. Most of the documents are official records of sellers acknowledging that Caecilius had paid the promised sum and therefore releasing him from the contract as agreed.
Sixteen documents detail agreements between Caecilius and the city itself. These relate to payment of tax on a fullery, leasing a farm from the city, tax collected on land used for grazing animals and on the market (perhaps paid for setting up a stall). Caecilius might have been renting the fullery and farm himself, or he may have been collecting rental payments on behalf of someone else.
Despite some of the records being about deals done by women, none of the records are written by women. This is not, however, because they could not write. A woman could own property and take part in business deals but it was a legal requirement that such deals be authorised by a male guardian or tutor. Therefore a woman would not write in the first person 'I release the banker from this contract...' as she would not have the authority to do so. The example receipts shown include a woman, Umbricia Antiochis, making use of Caecilius' services when selling the contents of a house at auction, and a slave named Trophimus. Her records, like those of other women in these documents, are written by others on her behalf.