The Lycian Prince 53

King Ebana was more than happy to accept the young offering to Nubia’s paramount god. His was the first visit to Rome by a ruler of his ancient land. The trip had been organised to provide Diocletian with formal fealty in recognition of the Kingdom’s status as the Empire’s latest client state, despite the fact that the Romans had no real interest in the country. The Nubians had volunteered their own vassalage in the hope of improving trade, needing desperately to supplement the income from their current main export, black slaves including many young nullified eunuchs. As Diocletian once remarked to Caperius in the palace torture chamber, when the major domo was threatening to cut off Sura’s cock and remaining scrotum, only the Nubians seemed to have the knack of guaranteeing that victims lived after nullification.

The King and his entourage had used the opportunity of their trip to try to discover and learn the secrets of the Empire’s military and mercantile successes and establish better trading contacts, spending two months in and around the capital in so doing. The party also purchased some items to take back but within the constraints of a very limited budget. Nubia had fallen on hard times since the collapse of its main export market, Egypt, into being merely another heavily-taxed province of Rome, an event that had caused prolonged regional economic recession.

The two banquets that Ebana had attended at the beginning and end of his stay in Rome, at which Anthonius had been the star performer, were the formal state welcome and farewell in respect of his visit. Before Anthonius’ arrival at the latter, Diocletian, wanting to be generous in return for the favour that he was to request, had presented the Nubian King with several magnificent farewell gifts. They included chests of gold and precious jewels, four superb white horses and twelve young white pretty virgin slavegirls, all paraded on the entertainment dais before the ecstatic monarch.

Ebana, having a surfeit of black concubines at home, was grateful for the white slave girls for variety, especially as he dare not spend any of his small budget on acquiring his own. His subjects would not be too pleased if he had utilised valuable funds to acquire luxuries for himself, and there were dangerous rivals for his throne. No white people currently lived in Nubia and few had been known to visit. The girls would become the kingdom’s first white residents. However, the King’s immense gratitude in receiving the gifts was at first slightly tempered by the omission of some pretty white slaveboys, who would have represented his preferred sexual tastes. He was therefore even more elated to be presented with Anthonius, who would become the only white male in the distant land.

It did not matter that Anthonius was destined for Priapus as Ebana was the god’s archpriest and, as such, he would have plenty of opportunity to enjoy the boy’s sweet body both before and after the lad’s almost certain nullification. Diocletian had also granted the King a couple of bonuses. Ebana could use Anthonius as he wanted on the voyage home, despite the fact that the former Prince was to remain formally an Imperial boy companion until his anticipated acceptance as a Priapic penalslave, maintenance of such status increasing the honour being afforded to the god. Additionally, on eventual return of the offering’s severed penis, the Emperor had promised to despatch a harem of white slaveboys to the King in thanks.

It is only recently that the magnificence of much of ancient black Nubian civilisation is being fully appreciated. It pre-dated that of the Egyptians and continued long after their northern neighbours had succumbed to direct Roman rule. In fact, the Nubians once conquered Egypt and black Pharaohs ruled both realms for about 100 years around the 8th century B.C.. Archaeological research now suggests that the first city in Africa and the first place of dedicated learning in the world were both Nubian. The Nubians built many superb structures, including their own large pyramids, some of which are extant and can be seen in today’s northern Sudan. Unfortunately, much has also been lost to archaeological study. In a terrible act of cultural vandalism, many of the main sites of Nubian society, including that of the city for which Anthonius was headed, were lost under the vast deep lake formed by the construction of the Aswan Dam in the 1960s.

Nubia’s earlier glories had faded somewhat by the time of Anthonius, exemplified by economic hardship, political instability and the adoption and dark adaptation from Greek culture of the worship of Priapus. This had become the main religion and the temple to the god in the country’s capital was huge and sinister. It was in effect a type of roofed amphitheatre, with steep stone terracing, accommodating several thousand worshippers, surrounding a sunken rectangular area where the ceremonies were conducted. Public entrance from outside was to the top of the terracing via stairwells that led to a long wide encircling corridor, from which steps led down into the amphitheatre. The corridor was also lined with kitchens and latrines, serviced by the temple’s menialslaves. The cooking facilities existed because it was customary for all worshippers to feast slowly whilst watching the long ceremonials, which were the main source of free public entertainment.

Hidden underneath the terracing and in the cellars were the quarters for the priests and acolytes and the cells for the offerings and slaves, as well as some shrines for minor rituals and several free male brothels, each catering for different tastes. The brothels were divided by age of prostitute and into those for men who enjoyed nullified catamites and those who did not. The Priapic religion of Nubia actually promoted homosexuality as a divine practice and most freemen, even those with several wives and large families, indulged, if only for variety.

The whole temple was windowless, being illuminated by many oil lamps, suspended from the ceilings or attached to the walls, and was decorated, inside and out, with many wall carvings of Priapus’ sacred symbol, a huge black phallus. The stone surrounds of the main ceremonial area, plus all of the shrines and the main corridors, were lined with cubby-holes displaying red bowls embossed with the Priapic insignia and containing black genitalia immersed in preservative fluid. Ebana was looking forward to affording a certain white scrotum pride of place amongst the collection.

At one of the short ends of the main ceremonial area was the entrance through which the senior priests, their acolytes and their young charges would enter. Above the entrance was the cushioned royal enclosure. At the other short end stood the altar to the god, the centrepiece of which was a genital guillotine, similar to the one Anthonius had encountered in the obese Arab’s fortress. The device had actually been invented locally many centuries before the eponymous Frenchman claimed credit, although its allegedly humane ingenuity was subsequently lost to history. The Arab, who had conducted some trade with the Nubians, had bought his own copy of the contraption from the Priapic Highpriest.

The Kingdom did not encompass all the Nubian race. There were large tracts of territory to the south inhabited by more primitive but fiercely independent tribes. The Nubian Kings had long ago given up their attempts to conquer these peoples, satisfying themselves instead with sending the army on frequent plundering raids to secure, in particular, slaves for both the domestic and foreign markets, the Kingdom’s economic lifeblood. A carefully chosen selection of these captives would be temporarily presented to the Priapic Highpriest.

They had to be pretty boys who had not yet developed pubic hair but who could nevertheless produce semen. One, attired only in a minuscule red loincloth emblazoned with the Priapic motif, would, after purification in the sacred Nile, be presented every evening to the main altar for the god to decide whether to accept the offer of genital sacrifice. This was determined, after the conclusion of lengthy preliminary rituals, by requiring the usually quaking offering to pull one of 64 small wooden balls from a red cloth bag, also displaying Priapus’ symbol. 32 of these balls would be black and 32 red. Selection of one of the latter would be unfortunate for the boy as he would then find himself hitched naked to the guillotine. His soon-to-be lost genitals would be immovably secured in the chopping hole through which the heavy and exceedingly sharp blade would pass easily without real hindrance, causing the severed organs to fall into a red bowl below. The boy would be permitted one last climax before the ringlet, attached to his cockhead, triggered the catch that released the blade for it would be expertly set to do so only with the expulsion of semen, a technique that, fortunately for Anthonius, the obese Arab had never mastered. The last ever sperm produced by the victims was collected in another red bowl for other ritualistic use. The odds of the draw meant that genital sacrifices occurred on average every other day but excited full houses of appropriately anointed worshippers of all ages and both sexes were always present to observe the outcome. In fact, demand for terrace seats invariably exceeded the number available and a rotation system for the plebeian populace had been established to overcome the problem in a fair way. Royalty and nobles had the ancient equivalent of season tickets. Ebana was already wondering whether he could get away with auctioning seats when it was time for Anthonius to appear before the altar, as he believed that interest would be overwhelming.

The required sacrificial orgasm would be induced by attaching a similar small bag of excited bees to the boys’ cocks, as experienced by Anthonius in the young Prince’s quarters, the victims having previously been subjected to enforced chastity and strong aphrodisiacs. Niachiarus had recommended the crude but effective vibrator to Diocletian’s son as an aid in Anthonius’ humiliation. He was aware of the devise because, like all nullified Nubians of the time, he had suffered his emasculation in this temple at this very guillotine, which was encrusted with dry blood as it had been responsible for nullifying thousands of victims and the external wooden surface was never cleaned, although the blade and triggering system were serviced daily. The Priapic priests had uniquely become experts at ensuring that the valuable new eunuchs lived afterwards so that they could be sold on as slaves, mainly abroad.

Niachiarus had delighted in proposing to Casperius that the same fate that had befallen him should be encountered by the former Lycian Prince, but with a far worse aftermath by also offering the boy as a Priapic penalslave, and had been ecstatic that his suggestion had been accepted by Diocletian. Priapic penalslaves were not generally captured plunder but were usually citizens of the Kingdom. The boys would commonly meet their sad fate not because of any action on their own part but rather because of that of their fathers. Entire families of criminals, dissidents and rebels were invariably condemned to enslavement and any sons that met the required physical criteria were forwarded to the Priapic Highpriest.

The offerings, kept permanently chaste and of whom there were usually several concurrent, had to face the possibility of drawing a ball from the cloth bag twice. The first time, always performed the day after an equinox or solstice, was to see whether Priapus considered the boys’ evil, instilled in their blood by being the sons of deeply sinful fathers, was sufficient for them to deserve to spend the rest of their lives in penal servitude in the temple. If the god decided that they were not, the boys would be sent to the city market to be sold as ordinary slaves. However, if the god decided that they were sufficiently full of iniquity, they became new penalslaves who had to undertake an initial period of penitence during which attempts would be made to expunge their sin.

On the god’s weekly sacred day, the boys would be purified, in a small shrine in the temple cellars, under a shower of sacred water funnelled from the nearby Nile. They would then, so that their bodies could be infused with good essence provided by virtuous seed, either be sodomised or made to perform fellatio before the main altar, in early days by the priesthood, later by noble laity selected by lot. Finally, again before the altar, they would suffer torture, progressively more severe as the days passed, in an effort to purge some of their corruption through the infliction of pain. These rites before the main altar, which formed part of the preliminary rituals for the day’s genital sacrifice offering, were interspersed by dancing from the penalslaves. Temple boy prostitutes danced as part of the sacrificial preliminary rituals on other days.

On the intervening six days between such unpleasantries, the boys would be required to perform penal labours. Sometimes these would be within the temple, such as being part of the team of six slaves allocated to each of the waterwheels that fed the vast complex’s elaborate system of running water. Sometimes the unenviable tasks would be outside, in quarries or on public works, the biggest of which was currently the construction of Ebana’s huge pyramid tomb.

This weekly routine, which Anthonius was to be the first white boy to experience, would last for three months until the next equinox or solstice. The penalslaves, after purification in the sacred Nile, would then be required to submit to the usual ritualistic requirements in front of the main altar before performing the second draw. This draw was to determine whether Priapus considered that the expulsion of the penalslaves’ evil had been completed or whether it had to be expedited through immediate genital sacrifice. If the latter was declared to be the god’s will, the earlier rituals would be repeated. However, the infusion of virtuous male seed into the boys’ anuses would now be provided by the god’s sacred cheetahs, leather guards having to be attached temporarily to the shoulders of the recipients to protect them from the claws of the animals. Nothing would be supplied to defend their rectums from the massive phalluses possessed by the trained eager creatures. The subsequent ritualistic tortures would concentrate on the boys’ naked genitalia.

Regardless of the outcome of the second draw, the penalslaves would spend the rest of their lives in the temple, initially acting as whole or nullified catamites in the brothels until they lost their attractiveness. They then became temple menialslaves. Temple slaves, several hundred in number, rarely attempted to escape and none of those who did were known to have succeeded. They, especially the new penalslaves, were very well supervised by the many lesser priests, who were effectively just guards. When not required for rituals or labours, slaves were always kept in chains, locked in tiny gloomy but clean single cells, devoid of any furnishings or facilities, with daily ablutions and consumption of the one meal of gruel taking place in communal areas.

If an attempt to escape was made, the slaves were not difficult to identify amongst the wider population, and not just because of their sparse but unique loincloth attire. The bodies of all new penalslaves were adorned with prominent tattoos, a pleasure awaiting Anthonius’ delicious white form.

The difficulty in escaping was compounded by the large rewards available to anyone who returned an escaped slave, alive or dead, and the nature of the country. The only viable route out of the Nubian capital was along the Nile for the land all around was arid desert. The fact that returned live slaves had their feet chopped off was usually the clinching factor in convincing them not to try in the first place.

It was now August and Ebana and his entourage would not return to Nubia until well after the autumnal equinox as they were to visit two other locations on the way home. Anthonius, who would pass his 15th birthday in October during the journey, would therefore not make his first draw until the day after the winter solstice in December. The virtually inevitable second draw would be scheduled for the vernal equinox in March. Ebana thought that it was rather ironic that the beautiful white boy would almost certainly be losing his reproductive capacity at a time when nature begins to bloom in celebration of its marvellous cyclical vitality, facilitated by fertility.

The odds that penal offerings were faced with were the same for both ceremonial draws but were much harsher than the 50:50 chance confronting ordinary captives and varied according to their or their fathers’ crimes. Culpability for treason presented the worst opportunity to escape either penal servitude or nullification as the bag would contain 63 red balls and only one black one. However, Ebana, the Priapic archpriest, had decided to make a kind exception for the treacherous Anthonius. The black ball would be changed for a white one.

(To be continued in Chapter 54 – ‘Departure’)