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| Threptus by Dr Helen Forte |
Although I have never kept chickens, I will always remember something the late A.A. Gill once wrote: ‘It is virtually impossible to hold a hen and not smile.’
Recently I heard a scholarly talk claiming that in Roman Britain, chickens were so rare that they were cherished as pets rather than used as food. That’s why we find some early and exotic chicken bones at Fishbourne Roman palace.
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| Westbourne House School, Chichster |
I was talking about my four Roman Mysteries spinoffs, The Roman Mystery Scrolls, which feature a beggar boy by the name of Threptus who lives in the Roman port of Ostia. I told them how I came up with the characters and their world.
After writing The Roman Mysteries I thought it would be fun to write a spin off series with ‘less blood and more poo’ for younger kids.
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| Roman tombstone of 13-year-old Threptus |
I was also inspired by a fan of Italian ancestry with a sweet face named Marco.
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| Mark Benton as Floridius in The Roman Mysteries |
One of the best things about Floridius is that he keeps sacred chickens.
Not knowing the least thing about keeping chickens, I read some books, watched some YouTube clips and called on the services of one of my former pupils, a boy named Ben Udy who kept exotic hens. Working with Ben, we came up with a lexicon of chicken speak.
1. BROODY PURRING/VERY CONTENT
a) Brk-brk, brrrrk (very soft)
b) Wrr, wrrk, brrr (very soft)
c) Wrrroooww (very soft)
2. CONTENT/FEEDING/EXPLORING
a) Buuuuurk! (frog-like croak)
b) Buuurk, buurk-buurk (whiny)
Body language: loosely feathered, ambling inquisitively but not purposefully, stop to preen, cluck gently.
3. INQUISITIVE
a) Brp, brp! (when not moving)
b) Bweerp, bweerp, bweerp (when moving)
c) Beweerp!
4. MEDIUM/COMMON ALARM
Bk-bk-bk... (varying repetitions)
5. HIGH STRESS, POST-DANGER
a) Bk-bk-bk, B’KAK!
b) Bk-bk-bk, b’kak!
c) Bk-bk-bk, bkaaaah! [sometimes forget final K]
d) Bock-bock-bock-bock-bock, begowwwwk! [big ]
6. HIGH STRESS, ‘DANGER’ STILL PRESENT
a) Bk-bk-bk, B’KAK!
nb) BK-BK-BK, B’KAK! [small hens]
c) BOCK-BOCK-BOCK, BEGOWWWK! [big hens]
I introduce Threptus and the Sacred Chickens in my volume of Mini-Mysteries, The Legionary from Londinium.
The sacred chickens appear in all four Threptus books, which we’ve called The Roman Mystery Scrolls, but they really come into their own in the third book of the series, The Thunder Omen, set during Saturnalia. It starts out like this:
Threptus has made each chicken a small conical hat called a pileus. Minimus illustrator and Latin teacher Dr Helen Forte made me a special colour plate showing seven of the sacred chickens plus Felix the kitten. They are all wearing the pileus, the freedman’s cap, to show that normal rules don’t apply.
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| Dancing sacred chickens by Dr Helen Forte |
Long live the sacred chickens...
... and Yo, Saturnalia!