The emperor makes a joke at the cost of the peasant's mother - that she was in Rome at some point and was impregnated by the emperor's father. The peasant's clever answer implies that his own (peasant) father had sex with the emperor's mother and that the emperor is therefore the son of a peasant.
I think the emperors joke was that he himself impregnated the peasants mother not his father. because if it was his father, that would make the peasant his brother and would make the matter serious with regards to the claim for the trone. My understanding is at that time peasants would marry and have children at age 13 and emperors having sex with thousands of women was not morally inadequate
> that would make the peasant his brother and would make the matter serious with regards to the claim for the trone.
This is not how Roman succession worked. Especially at this time. This is a joke about the first Emperor Augusts. His biological father, whilst being pretty important politically, was not the reason he was able to turn himself into Emperor. A very basic explanation was that he got much of his power base from Julius Ceaser, who had adopted him, when he died.
So his biological father having any other children (which he in fact did have, an elder sister, who's own Son entered politics) would not matter at all. As the relationship with his maternal Uncle was where he drew his power.
This is all simplified, and I am no expert. But it is all much more complicated, and interesting (and always has been) than some simple rule of eldest son gets the throne.
> Soleo in Augusto magis mirari quos pertulit iocos quam ipse quos protulit, qui maior est patientiae quam facundiae laus, maxime cum aequanimiter aliqua etiam iocis mordaciora pertulerit. Cuiusdam provincialis iocus asper innotuit. Intraverat Romam simillimus Caesari et in se omnium ora converterat. Augustus perduci ad se hominem iussit, visumque hoc modo interrogavit: Dic mihi, adolescens, fuit aliquando mater tua Romae? Negavit ille, nec contentus adiecit: Sed pater meus saepe.
In August I am always more surprised at those jokes he bore than those he himself uttered, who has greater praise for patience than for eloquence, especially when he bore with equanimity even some of the more biting jokes. A rough joke of a provincial became known. He had entered Rome, most like Caesar, and had turned the mouths of all on him. Augustus ordered the man to be brought to him, and it seemed as if he asked in this manner: Tell me, young man, was your mother at any time in Rome? He denied it, nor was content with it, but added, "But my father often."
Google latin translate was awful like two years ago, but has gotten ridiculously good (compared to what one would except of a mostly dead language). I haven't learned out by virtue of what effort, but someone clearly has put good work into getting it working. I assume it involves digitisation of medieval latin manuscripts (of which there are many). I wonder how it does/could do at Sanskrit, where the surviving corpus is truly immense.
> that she was in Rome at some point and was impregnated by the emperor's father.
I guess it depends on the age difference between the man and the emperor but I assumed the emperor was referring to himself and the joke was about the emperor's wife or partner.
And technically his family, the gens Octavia, was a plebeian family, albeit his branch was rather wealthy by the time of his birth.
Speaking of his mother Atia though, she was the niece of the Gaius Julius Caesar, himself from a patrician family.
The formal distinction between the family orders waned in significance over the centuries preceding the fact. That said, people always find new ways to feel superior to other people so it's not like there were no class distinctions, but the term plebeian was quite more complicated and nuanced than our modern re-interpretation of the word.
The question implies that his Mother may have had sex with the father of Augustus.
The answer suggests that it was his Father that had sex with the mother of Augustus.
It's funny because there's a lot more tension associated with the current Emperor having been fathered by the "wrong" person than, under the original assumption, that some rube from the country was fathered by the Emperor's father.
The joke as presented here doesn’t work at all due to the emperor addressing him as “young man,” which makes it impossible to avoid the interpretation that the emperor is concerned that he himself could be the father of the young man.
EDIT: Apparently the emperor is asking to see if they share parents, and not to see whether the emperor is his father, as I originally thought.