AureliaNais

My name is Aurelia Nais, and I am the freedwoman of Gaius Aurelius Phileros. When I was a girl, we were both slaves in the household of Gaius Aurelius, though Phileros was much older than I. After Aurelius freed Phileros, he bought me and raised me as if I were his own daughter. I helped him run his shop for imported spices and peppers. He used to call me salsa and joke that there was no better pickling spice than my wit, so I suppose it was only natural that he set me up in my own shop for selling fish when he freed me. I owe him more than one kind of freedom, for he did not require me to take a husband. I have devoted myself to making the business grow, and I had the brilliant idea to start importing fresh fish and seafood from many different provinces just when the demand for more exotic foods was sweeping Rome. Now some of the wealthiest Romans send their slaves to buy fish from me, and the poet Juvenal has just mentioned me in one of his satires (how could I ask for better advertising, and free at that!).

I have an excellent head for business (and a very insensitive nose), so this shop is perfect for me. I have mutually advantageous deals with Phileros to supply me with spices and his friend Lucius Valerius Secundus, another freedman, to oversee the packing and shipping of my fish. In fact, we have commissioned a beautiful cinerary altar to hold our ashes when we die. However, that's not going to be any time soon, because I am having so much fun (and making so much money)!