Townhouse Villa

The Townhouse Villa roof has been finished after some redesign and construction work. The villa has been painted and is now ready for occupation. My Matre De has acquired a suitable house staff and they have been cleaning the villa for the last few days. Tomorrow, the staff will hire a couple of wagons and transfer most of my goods from the waterfront apartment to the villa. I will maintain a smaller apartment at the docks for business purposes, but will actually be living in the villa from now on.

Pictures of the completed villa will follow this message as soon as I can arrange such.

I have finally decided upon a design for the "Seaside" Villa and I have drawn it out in a rough sketch. As soon as a finished drawing has been made of it by the scribes who have undertaken to convert my rough scratches into plans for the villa, then I will put those on this list.

My investments in a new apartment building in Rome are looking good. The building has just been finished and already there are thirty-six families who have rented apartments in the complex. This apartment complex replaces the one which burned six months ago, and is located on the outskirts of Rome. Almost all of the families who were in the original building and survived the fire have returned. I have taken some precautions to reduce the chance of such a conflagration again. I have paid a fee to insure the night watch will pass by the apartment complex regularly, and have contributed to the local fire prevention group to acquire some further equipment which was a real problem that contributed to the loss of the original building.

The two grain freighters "Orpheus " and "Luna" are being made ready for an early voyage to Africa in the Spring, and the Rustic Villa farm which I visited last week has so far this year put away in storage some fifty-two large jars of garum, which will go with "Orpheus" and "Luna" to Alexandria as soon as the storm season on the seas are over. Some twenty jars of wine and thirty large jars of olive oil will also go with the garum, to my company representative in Alexandria.

The exploring ship that I am having constructed is coming along slowly but surely. The problem all along has been the acquisition and delivery of suitable shipbuilding materials to the shipyard, good quality ship lumber for the most part. So, I have hired a new overseer for that project who is himself a ship-master and perhaps that will serve to hurry the construction along. Last week we had received the rope and blocks needed for the ships rigging, and the sail loft assures me that the sails I have ordered will be ready in the spring.