A quick glance at the call-sheet:

BACKGROUND ARTISTS

1 slave, (whitewashed)
4 Barmaids
4 Whores
5 Gallic gang members
6 Male clients, (of whores)

ANIMALS

Rats x 10, (for repeats) @ 7.30am

Business as usual in other words. God, I love this show.

On the way across the lot I get a call from April Ferry, the Costume Designer. We're making a new cuirass for Mark Antony. Anything that springs to mind as decoration? Yes, I say. There's something at the back of my mind, but I need to check. Back to the office for a look in Plutarch's Life of Antony. (Plutarch is the Greek historian and biographer who gives us so much detail on our period, the end of the Roman Republic. Admittedly he's writing a good hundred and fifty years after that time, but doing so much more reliably than most.)

Here it is, Plutarch's Life of Antony, Chapter 4. "There was an ancient tradition that the blood of Hercules ran in Antony's family since they claimed descent from the sons of Hercules, and Antony liked to believe that his own physique lent force to the legend. He also deliberately cultivated it in his choice of dress...".

Not bad at all. I call April and we agree. There'll be an emblem of Hercules embossed on Antony's new cuirass, just a matter of finding a good image for reference. A profile would be best so a contemporary coin would be the way to go. There's a coin section in the catalogue for the Palazzo Massimo Museum here in Rome, and I've got the catalogue in my office. Should all be done in time to go to La Cascina for rigatoni amatriciana on the way home. Did I say I loved this job?

Incidentally the slave on the callsheet is whitewashed because slaves, or at least their feet for certain, were chalked for auction. We know this for a fact. Can anybody tell me how?