Extremely interesting, I'm intrigued at the idea of preserving fragmentary historical accounts by weaving them into a semi-fictional narrative (which I suppose is something that ancient historians themselves frequently did).
> Maximinus and I looked at each other, and I recall that I shrugged my shoulders unhelpfully.
Is the author taking playful liberties with the metafictional "translation" here, or is the gesture of shrugging your shoulders actually attested in Roman times?
The first few episodes of "Vikings" owed a lot to Ahmad ibn Fadlan, but I think the use of source material went steadily downhill from there. "Roma Sub Rosa" correlated well with my classes for the first few books, but I don't know how they've held up in light of any more recent scholarship.
Chirologia/Chironomia are more oriented to hand gestures rather than whole body, but they might have some clues. Roman orators had a set of stock poses (the memes of the day?), so maybe Cicero actually said something about shoulder shrugging in the "delivery" part of De Inventione? It's certainly a gesture that would have read well in the back rows, had they used it.
The only thing I saw that might be about it is in Quintillian, which doesn't interpret it exactly as we would - seeing it more as a servile gesture:
"humerorum raro decens adleuatio atque contractio est; breviatur enim cervix et gestum quendam humilem atque servilem et quasi fraudulentum facit, cum se in habitum adulationis, admirationis, metus tingunt." ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLi... )
"It is, as a rule, unbecoming to raise or contract the shoulders. For it shortens the neck and produces a mean and servile gesture, which is even suggestive of dishonesty when men assume an attitude of flattery, admiration or fear." ( https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilia... )
It's not completely clear to me from a cursory glance if he isn't talking about posture rather than the gesture though shrugs
> Maximinus and I looked at each other, and I recall that I shrugged my shoulders unhelpfully.
Is the author taking playful liberties with the metafictional "translation" here, or is the gesture of shrugging your shoulders actually attested in Roman times?