I. A Child and a Night Bird
In a narrow house near the Caelian Hill, a baby named Quintus cried at the hour when lamps guttered. His mother, Valeria, shivered as a draft slipped beneath the door. From the roof came the thin cry of a night bird. Old women called it a strix and warned of spirits that sought the warmth of infants.
Valeria's husband, Aulus, set a bar across the door and muttered abou ...