Triumvirate During Octavianus's Rule

Triumvirate During Octavianus's Rule is the historical setting named at the opening of Fiammetta's story of Titus and Gisippus. It anchors their friendship in a particular political era: Octavianus Caesar ruled the Roman Empire in the office called the Triumvirate, before he was styled Augustus. The narrative uses that dating to place a private story of study, friendship, and loss within a past distinct from the Decameron company's own time.

Historical designation

The account identifies Octavianus by his earlier name and title, explicitly noting that he had not yet been styled Augustus. It describes his rule as exercised through an office called the Triumvirate, but supplies no calendar date or further account of that office. The time reference therefore establishes the story's historical horizon without attempting a fuller chronology.

The story set in this era

During this rule, the Roman gentleman Publius Quintius Fulvus sent his son Titus Quintius Fulvus to Athens to study philosophy. Titus lodged with Chremes, an old friend of his father, and studied alongside Chremes's son, Gisippus, under the philosopher Aristippus. The era marker thus leads directly from the Roman setting to the young men's education in Athens.

Titus and Gisippus studied together for three years, advancing in philosophy and forming a friendship so close that the narrative presents them as sharing one another's fortunes. At the end of those years Chremes died, and both young men grieved him as a common father. This sequence gives the historical setting a concrete narrative span: it frames the beginning of their bond and the first major loss they endure together.

Place in the narrative frame

Fiammetta introduces this episode as a story about the magnanimous dealings of two citizens and friends, following discussion of the praiseworthy conduct expected of kings. The setting in Octavianus's age lends the tale an explicitly historical past, while its first scenes shift attention from imperial rule to the household, study, and chosen kinship. The Triumvirate is therefore a chronological frame rather than the story's subject: its importance lies in locating the friendship whose endurance the narrative will trace.