The Lycian Prince 68 (Penultimate Chapter)

(The eve of the vernal equinox, March 292 A.D. – 1 day before Anthonius’ nullification [?])

Anthonius was again alone in the main amphitheatre, tied naked and spreadeagled to the angled wooden frame before the genital guillotine and altar. It had been a painful week for his seriously endangered sexual organs. The penalslave had, as was customary in the period immediately before potential nullification, been excused penal labours between Priapus’ previous sacred day and the day of destiny. The boy had, after the morning inspection and purification rituals, been kept during the daytime of the first five days in the acute loneliness of his cell to prepare his mind for his possible future existence. However, he had not been redressed after the rites in his usual, now backless, skimpy loincloth. Instead, his excited penis was made flaccid by application of a stinging but otherwise harmless fluid so that a tight fitting leather encasement could be fixed to his genitalia. It consisted of two joined parts, a round jacket that fitted his ball sac perfectly and a laced tubular sheath that did the same, once tied in place, for his softened cock. Both possessed internal metal spikes.

The fitment represented Anthonius’ penance for ejaculating before Priapus during his first night splayed before the god’s altar. After the affect of the fluid had worn off and the penalslave’s cock wished to become agitated again, the spikes came into play and the resulting distress was excruciating. The boy had initially started thinking about some of the many sad events that had occurred in his life to try to alleviate the pain by discouraging erection but with little success. He found that he preferred genital torture to the awful mental torment of some of his recollections.

When the covering was eventually removed so that Anthonius could spend the night in the amphitheatre in the customary state of nudity, he invariably discovered that his quickly expanding tattooed penis also displayed vivid red spike marks, which thankfully disappeared over several hours. Unfortunately, the penalslave did not seem to learn his lesson about preventing unauthorised orgasm and came again during his penultimate night before the Priapic altar. The day before the vernal equinox was therefore not spent alone in his cell.

Anthonius, attired only in the leather genital cover, was taken to one of the temple’s male brothels, closed to the public for the day as no-one other than liturgy could view the penalslave devoid of his loincloth before the vernal equinox. The boy was bound to a post on the entertainment platform in the brothel’s main chamber facing a large group of sitting priestly spectators, being served food and drink by catamites. A group of the prettiest whole young temple prostitutes then danced around the former Prince before two removed their loincloths to make passionate love on the front of the stage. They were to be followed by another couple and two threesomes, all with varying sexual routines.

Anthonius had been ordered to watch all the erotic performances or suffer even worse chastisement. The natural result was prolonged unremitting agony in the boy’s groin. The genital torture that he was to suffer, if he drew the red ball on the following day, had certainly started early, and was exacerbated when he was required to dance for the sacred assemblage to conclude the entertainment.

(The vernal equinox, March 292 A.D. – the day of Anthonius’ nullification [?])

Anthonius’ night had been sleepless before the day that would see his probable nullification dawned. However, the penalslave’s tortured cock, although retaining its throbbing rigidity, had not been insubordinate to Priapus during his nocturnal contemplation of the terrible fate that would almost certainly befall him in the hours to come. The boy had tried to await his undoubted destiny with bravery but he could feel his heart pounding and various parts of his beautiful anatomy twitching in fear. Tears were in his eyes as the Highpriest and acolytes came to release him from the frame to prepare him for the forthcoming events.

Anthonius was returned to the shrine for ritualistic purification, redressing in his loincloth and inspection before being led outside the temple to be tied again to the covered platform stake in the main square so that the general populace could view that day’s genital sacrifice offering. As Ebana had thought, demand for seats at the evening ceremony had been unprecedented but he had reluctantly demurred from charging admission. The King had followed the usual rota procedures for the plebeian population instead, although some of the poorer potential spectators had sold their places, money regrettably being more important to them at that time than the pleasure of seeing the beautiful white boy losing his genitals.

Anthonius was subject to constant rude remarks and insults as he was displayed in the main square, where even many of those who would view the evening’s occurrences came for a close-up view of the offering to Priapus. The children especially delighted in making comments about the penalslave’s uncovered bottom and trying to see how much of the 15 years old boy’s hard cock, ostensibly hidden under the front loincloth flap, they could observe from the side. All were rewarded with a clear outline of the member straining against the transparent net undercloth.

The deeply shamed and very scared Anthonius was eventually released mid-afternoon from his intensely humiliating display to be the centrepiece of a priestly procession to the Nile for purification in the sacred river itself before being returned to the temple for the start of the genital sacrifice ceremony.

At that same moment, the now 15 years old Armillatus was sitting with the now 16 years old Junius outside a tavern on a quiet part of the quayside of the port of Tarraco in Hispania. It was the boy’s first trip outside the environs of his new home village since he had arrived in the province. It had taken all of the lad’s persuasive ability to encourage his adoptive father that it was safe for him and his friend to accompany the adult to the town’s market, where much better prices could be obtained for farm produce by trading directly with exporters than through middlemen.

Although it was now ten months since Armillatus’ disappearance from Diocletian’s palace, and memory of the missing Imperial boy companion and the price on his head should have faded substantially if not been forgotten, the lad’s adoring adoptive father was still worried about taking him to the busy town. However, he had been unable to prevent himself from succumbing to his new son’s charms. The gorgeous pleading brown eyes had clinched reluctant agreement.

Armillatus, in return for his father’s hesitant acquiescence, had accepted that he and Junius would keep away from the most crowded parts of the bustling port and the boys had done so. They were now enjoying a refreshing non-alcoholic drink in warm sunshine when the 15 years old’s lovely complexion suddenly turned white. “What’s wrong?” asked the concerned Junius but his friend was unable to answer. He had experienced an abrupt awful feeling of dark foreboding and was unsure whether it was connected with the group of soldiers who had appeared out of a nearby side street and was advancing down the quay towards the tavern, or something entirely different.

Armillatus’ initial thought at seeing the Praetorians, one much more magnificently dressed than the others, was to leave quickly. However, the two friends had only just started drinking their juice, for which payment had not yet been made. The owner of the establishment, to whom the boys had been introduced by Armillatus’ father earlier, had been an acquaintance of the former sea captain for years and was happy to wait until the lads had finished before charging them. The 15 years old realised that the soldiers would arrive before the transaction was complete and running away without paying might arouse unwanted suspicion as to why he was seemingly afraid of the group.

Armillatus remained where he was, trying to hide his face with his hand and hoping that none of the Praetorians would recognise someone who had been a fixture of the Imperial court for several years. However, if someone did, the boy proposed to try to bluff his way out of the dangerous predicament by suggesting mistaken identity. It was a plan that he thought that he would have to put into affect because the young man in the splendid uniform made straight for him, whilst encouraging his colleagues to sit elsewhere to order drinks. The 15 years old recognised the 20 years old’s face but could not remember from where or when.

“Hello, Armillatus,” the future master of the known civilised world whispered, “I wondered where you’d disappeared to!”

Anthonius, hands bound behind him, was led the lengthy distance through boisterous crowds to the small shrine on the banks of the Nile. The sacred building was roofed and enclosed on three sides, making the rituals inside invisible to the outside throngs, but extended into the river where the fourth side was open. A large black phallus stood in the water several paces from the edge. The penalslave was required to pay homage to a much smaller phallus embedded in the riverbank both before and after being unbound and removing his loincloth. He then had to wade naked towards the large, half-sunken, Priapic edifice and, when he arrived, the cool water was up to his neck. A little duck under the surface to kiss the relevant point on the structure completed this aspect of the rite.

Required purification achieved, Anthonius returned to land to pay his respects again to the smaller phallus both before and after redressing, not in his loincloth but in a tiny red thong emblazoned with black phallus. The garment barely covered the penalslave’s privates, which strained for release against the sparse cover, full aroused outline clearly visible. The shamed and frightened boy was then re-bound and escorted, dripping wet, back through the jeering hordes to the temple. The sun would of course ensure that the lad was completely dry by the time the sinister huge building was reached. As the terrified former Prince passed through the main entrance doorway to proceed to the sacred amphitheatre, he glanced behind at the world outside, wondering what physical state he would be in when he again saw daylight.

“Don’t worry, they can’t hear,” whispered the Praetorian to Armillatus, referring to his colleagues, “and they also won’t know you as their duties did not include Diocletian’s inner palace. I only know you from Germania and attending a few of the Emperor’s banquets but your secret will be safe with me. I realise that you’re a friend of Anthonius and anyone who is a friend of that boy is also dear to me. Let’s talk. My friends will simply think that I’m chatting up a couple of pretty boys, as is sometimes my want!”

Junius was puzzled by some of what was being discussed and Armillatus would have to tell him the truth about his past later in explanation. However the chance encounter, caused because the young Praetorian had been directed by his father, the western Caesar, Constantius Chlorus, to visit as many of the provinces of the west Empire as possible to acquaint himself with the lands that he should rule one day, was to prove providential.

The tremulous Anthonius was escorted into the amphitheatre to resounding cheering, which almost drowned out the opening tones of the music to which the Priapic offering had to dance after he had paid the necessary homage before the altar and had his hands untied. However, despite his terror, the penalslave began his dance and performed proficiently. He did so again after being sodomised by Ebana and after being tortured with clamps, strap and whip. The thousands of raucous watchers thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle as they consumed their many food courses, washed down with much cheap drink.

The red bag with Priapic symbol was eventually presented to the anguished agonised Anthonius, whose moment of destiny had finally arrived. The penalslave looked around at the thousands of expectant black faces as he groped inside, praying to his gods that he would choose the sole white ball and not one of the 63 red orbs. The boy made his choice but then something made him reject it. He therefore gathered another and, with one last silent invocation, withdrew his tightly clasped hand. The former Prince closed his eyes as he slowly released his grip to reveal the colour of the ball that would decide his fate.

The young Praetorian’s parting remark was “Well, if you still want to be soldiers when you’ve reached the age of manhood, look me up. I’ll need good loyal men in my legions.” Armillatus, who now recalled where and when he had first seen the soldier, did follow up the invitation a few years later with Junius. Their leader was to be benefit considerably from their services.

As the Praetorian left the boys’ table in Hispania to rejoin his colleagues, still leaving Armillatus with a strange feeling of imminent danger, the kind Arab’s vessel had almost reached Ebania. The man knew that genital sacrifices did not take place until the evening and hoped that he would be in time to save the young Lycian.

Anthonius knew from the spectators’ celebratory reaction that the ball he had chosen was red. He was never to know that his original selection had been white. The accepted offering’s thong was removed so that he could be viewed naked in public in Nubia for the first time. His soon-to-be lost embarrassingly hard tattooed cock popped humiliatingly into view to many shouted ribald comments. The horrified aghast boy somehow managed to pay homage again by kissing the small phallus embedded in the ground, in front of the genital guillotine to which he would shortly be attached, before the music restarted to indicate the beginning of his first nude dance.

Copious amounts of precum dribbled from Anthonius’ condemned vertical penis as he was later tied spreadeagled to the stakes facing the altar and leather guards were attached to his young shoulders. The anguished boy heard the roar of the eager trained cheetah as it was brought into the amphitheatre, a sound matched by the spectators. The rampant animal was slowly brought up to the terrified lad’s rear but was temporarily prevented from mounting his sexual pray. The impatient creature therefore had to content itself with passing its huge wet tongue over the former Prince’s buttocks, even reaching inside the bumcrack to touch the sphincter. The 15 years old’s erection vibrated wildly at the intrusion.

The pause in proceedings did not last too long as the Highpriest signalled for the next ritual to be fulfilled and Anthonius immediately felt the massive weight of the cheetah as it leapt up to place the trimmed but still dangerous claws of its forelegs on the accepted offering’s shoulders. The boy’s gratitude for the protection of the leather guards was brief as a massive living phallus was aimed by a priest at the lad’s unshielded anus. The former Prince’s scream as the invader forced entry reverberated around the building until, like his immediate predecessor on the winter solstice, the latest genital sacrifice fainted.

When Anthonius awoke, the animal had been satisfied and had withdrawn, with much bloody sperm now oozing out of the boy’s badly ravaged rectum and down his legs. Nevertheless, he was released from his bondage as he had committed himself to further nude dancing. The lad never knew how he found the ability, after what he had just suffered, to fulfil the rite but he somehow did to everyone’s amazement, not least his own.

After his meritorious performance, Anthonius was rebound to the stakes to suffer genital torture. This was in four parts. First, a very short, very thin but multi-strapped whip was struck with venom a number of times across the rigid cock and firm ball sac. Second, a leather strap, from which dangled three chains, was fitted tightly around the base of the boy’s scrotum. The bottom of the chains were attached to a metal ring, to which weights were gradually added to stretch the young sac until the point of tearing had almost been reached. Third, as many tiny crude metal pegs as possible were clamped onto the surface of both cock and scrotum. Fourth, after the removal of the pegs, larger adjustable metal clamps were applied to each testicle and slowly tightened.

Anthonius shrieked and sobbed regularly during this torment but much of the resultant noise was drowned by the spectators’ excited clamour, accompanied by music as temple prostitutes now danced to provide the crowd with secondary entertainment.

The time for the penultimate ritual now arrived and the various instruments of torment were removed from Anthonius’ genitalia so that, after again being released from his bondage and re-performing homage, he could nude dance before being introduced to the genital guillotine. His performance was ragged as could be expected in the circumstances but his display of courage, unknown in living memory, finally quietened the crowd. The boy somehow finished his routine and, after again paying the required prostration and whilst the former Prince’s quaking young body was being attached to the device that should soon nullify him, hardly a sound could be heard.

Meanwhile, the kind Arab’s ship had finally moored at the quayside of the Nubian capital after dark and he and a number of similarly heavily armed crewmen were running down the now deserted wide thoroughfare that separated the wharf from the distant temple. The man hoped that the arms would not be needed as he now represented Nubia’s largest single trading outlet, worth much more to the economy than that provided by the late unlamented obese Arab, and so possessed a certain influence over the King.

Anthonius was bound spreadeagled to the frame of the guillotine and his reddened sore genitalia, with extended ball sac, were squeezed through the chopping hole. The centre of the boy’s body was tied immovably to the contraption and the ringlet of the triggering device attached to the head of his still fully erect cock. Sacred invocations were uttered by the Highpriest before all eyes, including those of the sacrificial victim, turned to the Archpriest, Ebana, sat in the royal box. The King deliberately paused to tease the former Prince.

Anthonius’ eyes, trying to hold back their tears, met those of the smirking Ebana. The boy recognised that no mercy would come from the King and he was right as the man eventually gave a signal to the Highpriest. This resulted in the guillotine safety mechanism being disabled and the little bag containing excited bees being suspended from the former Prince’s hard ivory-like white penis, immediately sending pleasurable vibrations down its whole length.

Anthonius felt his cock quickly expand further and he expected to hear the click that would announce that the trigger had sent the emasculating blade on its way. However, the setting was too expert for that to happen without the expulsion of semen. The accepted white offering looked around at the now silent sea of expectant black faces and felt his groin begin to boil as the vibrations exciting his erection continued remorselessly. An acolyte was already kneeling in front of the boy to collect his final production of semen in a bowl, whilst another dish waited on the ground underneath to gather safely his severed sexual organs. Priests waited nearby to cauterise and otherwise treat the anticipated wound.

The former Prince felt his last sperm accumulating rapidly within his scrotum, ready to burst into daylight. His foreskin soon rode back to reveal the cockhead drooling precum, which was to be replaced imminently with actual cum as inevitable climax approached.

The kind Arab and his men entered the amphitheatre just as Anthonius yelled, his young body beginning to spasm as orgasm began to overwhelm him. A click was then heard.

(To be concluded in chapter 69 – ‘Tondo’)