Gaulish plagues

7

One day Saulina and Lolina visited Taraco, the capital of the Spanish-Roman province Tarraconensis. The capital has around 30.000 inhabitants. The villages around have 20.000 people. This makes the Taraco district populated by 50.000 people. Tarraconensis is inhabited by roughly 2 million people. The province borders Roman Gaul's provinces: the Celtic kingdom Aquitania and Narbonesis at the north by the Pyrenees mountains. It also borders the Atlantic Ocean at the west shores, the Mediterranean Sea at the east, and also the bay of Biscay at the northwest. The Roman province is the biggest of Spain and it has two legions stationed.

In Taraco the two friends stayed at a Germanic hostel, close to a small theater. The owner of the hostel was a former Celtic-German centurion who served at the Rhine frontier. After 32 years of successful service, he was honorably discharged. He moved to Spain where he begun the hostel to have an extra income during his retirement. He also serves in the city council as an adviser on civil policies. He is unmarried, has no children and most of his relatives are deceased (his parents got him at a high age and the fertility rate of his home district is quite low). The hostel has 18 rooms, two baths, one big restaurant and a temple room, with many sculptures of Greek deities. Most of the time veteran is either in the baths or in the temple room. When Saulina and Lolina arrived, the journey by road took them eight full days of walking on the highways, there were 34 guests lodging at the hostel. But they occupied only four rooms. It were a group of pilgrims on their way to Mauritania. The two girls were able to rent a private room for fifteen days. After their payment of two denarii a day (30 denarii in total) they bought dinner in the restaurant.

The meal consisted out two honey breads (usual bread for soldiers), fried chicken (in olive oil), steamed vegetables and two bottles of white wine. The meal costed 12 Asses. The moment they finished eating, a young man entered the restaurant.
"A rice meal with fried fish please"
"Anything to drink?"
"White wine.."
"That's two Denarii and fifteen Asses please"
He paid and received his change.
"You will receive your meal within 20 minutes sure. Please, take your seat"
After he sits down, he picked up a scroll and begins writing. When he's writing, he sees two blonde women drinking when a waitress is cleaning up their table. He also sees a group of five elderly men passing by, discussing politics.
At the wall there are several high quality paintings made by famous artists. Through the window he can see the harbour, filled with cargo ships and salesmen trading commerce. There are around 100 soldiers stationed at the harbour.

After a while a slave girl delivers him his wine bottle and some wine in a wine glass. She also placed a plate with a thin Greek bread, with butter, molded green and dark olives, a small pot with honey and some sliced garlic. At the same time two soldiers enter the restaurant to order some take away meal.