12 Titus looked at Maximus, wrinkled his nose and paused again. “I don’t know if I should...” “Oh, just get on with it, Titus!” Maximus exclaimed with exasperation. “Stop teasing us! You know you’ll tell me in the end!” Titus pretended to think about it a bit more before he at last spilled it out: “I’m about to take the toga virilis.”1 Maximus’ jaw dropped in surprise. Aghiles, too, had expected anything but that. “The toga virilis?” Maximus repeated, thinking perhaps he had misunderstood. Titus gave a broad smile, delighted with the effect of his surprise. “Yes, my toga virilis!” he crowed proudly. “Isn’t that great?” “Absolutely astonishing...” replied Maximus. In fact, this announcement put his nose out of joint. He was the older of the two, even though he was smaller, for Maximus was quite small and delicate for his age. By rights, it should be he who received his toga virilis before his friend. It was an important rite of passage. The day a boy took the toga virilis, he officially became a citizen, a man in the eyes of Rome. Of course, he remained under the authority of his father, but he was more or less an adult, and considered so by others. It was a real mark of recognition that Maximus had hoped to receive before his friend. Coming in second after Titus, Maximus would not feel the same special something about reaching that milestone. In Rome, the taking of the toga virilis happened when a boy was between fourteen and seventeen. And Titus had only just celebrated his fifteenth birthday. 1. The toga virilis was the clothing worn by an adult male citizen of Rome.
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