The Lycian Prince 55

As Anthonius was being degradingly led away from the Imperial palace in Rome towards his sad destiny, Armillatus was setting out from his new home to hunt rabbits with his latest friend, a pretty tanned lad with dark brown hair and matching eyes, one year older than himself. Armillatus’ new kind adoptive parents doted on him, especially the mother who sometimes unintentionally embarrassed the lad in front of his peers. She was forever making sure that he was clean and neatly dressed, and that his own lovely brown hair was combed properly, a state difficult to maintain in an energetic 14 years old. On this occasion, she fussed over his welfare, demanding reassurances from his friend that he would make sure that they did not get up to mischief or into danger, causing Armillatus to blush.

Armillatus’ new home was a small simple farmstead in a remote part of Hispania, bought by his adoptive father from a retiring relation after he had sold his ship to concentrate on hiding and bringing up his new sweet young son. Armillatus came from noble Roman stock, albeit recently impoverished, and had been accustomed to better accommodation. However, he had never been happier. Armillatus did not miss his widower father, who had been so selfish and uncaring that he had nominated the lad to be an Imperial boy companion. The man had known full well what the role entailed but looked forward to the largesse that would be returned for his son’s service as one of the Emperor’s catamites. He would thereby be bailed out of the financial difficulties that he had fallen into because of his spendthrift lifestyle, which included much drinking, gambling and womanising. He had taken large loans out on the security of his son’s undoubted lucrative future reward for being a favourite Imperial bumboy. However, Armillatus’ fall from grace and disappearance had ruined his father’s plans and he had himself fled Rome and the moneylenders to spend the rest of his life as an itinerant labourer. His son would have welcomed the outcome if he had known.

Armillatus helped his new parents and their small group of well looked after slaves on the farm when not attending school in the local village, where the common language was Latin. His help was not really needed but his parents appreciated his willingness to assist and eagerness to learn about agriculture and husbandry. However, they also insisted that the boy enjoyed at least one day free to himself every week. This was just such a day.

Armillatus’ only problem since his arrival had been encountering the school bully who had recognised the newcomer’s nervousness and natural timidity when he had first arrived. Armillatus had allowed himself to be cowed and, as a result, received a lot of teasing torment during the early days before he gave thought to what Anthonius, whom he missed and worried about constantly, would have done in response. It was shortly after he had managed to overcome his deep-rooted fears to learn to swim, under his adoptive father’s supervision, that he decided to stand up for himself and punched the bully in the nose. Armillatus received a thrashing in return from the older bigger ugly brute, although he confessed only to a fall when the teacher and his parents questioned him about his bruises.

Armillatus was about to receive a second going-over after another confrontation with the bully when a third boy intervened. Faced with two adversaries, and with his own group of sycophants suddenly quiet and seemingly unwilling to come to his aid, the bully backed off, never to trouble Armillatus again for he was thereafter always in his protector’s company.

15 years old Junius, son of a shopkeeper and well known within the school for his audacity and fighting ability, had admired the newcomer’s own bravery in finally defending himself, as well as some other features relating to the 14 years old. He had therefore decided to help put the younger boy’s bullying to an end. Armillatus was deeply grateful and soon the two had become inseparable platonic friends, sitting next to each other in class and spending most of their spare time together. It was Junius who was accompanying Armillatus on the rabbit hunting expedition, although both had a strange premonition that something more profound would be undertaken.

Armillatus and Junius had secured eight rabbits, more than enough to satisfy the cooking pots of their families for now, when they sat in the shade of a tree on top of a lonely hill to enjoy the packed luncheon prepared for them by the former’s new mother. It was a hot summer’s day, the blue sky virtually cloudless. The scenery all around was magnificent. Junius looked down at his friend’s lithe legs, fully revealed below a short sleeveless summer tunic, and could no longer resist temptation.

As Junius placed his right hand on Armillatus’ bare left thigh, the Nubian procession was arriving in the port of Ostia. Anthonius’ delicate white skin had not taken too well to exposure under the unrelenting overhead sun and was painfully reddening after the slow three-hour walk. However, the sunburn had been the least of his concerns as both the Nubian and Lycian parades had been watched throughout by interested boisterous crowds, thinner but still in place as the road from Rome to Ostia became rural. Anthonius seemed to have been singled out for particular abuse from the hecklers, as they perceived one sparsely clad pretty white boy in the Nubian ranks, presumably destined for enslavement, probably of a sexual kind, in a faraway land inhabited exclusively by a black race. Anthonius’ departure from the Empire’s capital was in stark contrast to his arrival and the experience was intensely humiliating as the opprobrious scorn constantly rained down on him.

The two processions headed for two large adjacent oared doubled-sailed galleys on Ostia’s quayside. Anthonius recognised one of them as Lycian and his heart sank with the thought of his homeland, now about to come under his cruel and vengeful half-brother’s rule. The ship for which Anthonius was destined was Roman but crewed by Nubians. The vessel had been lent to Ebana by the Governor of Egypt to transverse the Mare Internum as the King’s own boat, which had brought him up the Nile, was suitable only for rivers. Ebana was delighted when Diocletian told him that he could keep it as another gift for it was capable of taking him all the way home, and would further demonstrate to his people his wisdom in paying fealty to and visiting Rome.

The dismantling of the parades and loading of the galleys took a while and the soreness of Anthonius’ skin increased as he waited to step off the soil of Italia for the last time. As the boy eventually did so, he said a few quiet prayers to his gods, concentrating first on the welfare of others before turning to his own peril. Anthonius was unhitched from the slavegirl and led up the gangplank onto the wooden deck by a young handsome Nubian slave, about 16 years old. The 14 years old was taken below decks to the dark windowless holds, illuminated dangerously by a few oil lamps, where he was incarcerated, hands still chained behind him, in one of the small cages prepared for the young white human cargo.

At the same time, foreplay over, Junius, kneeling behind Armillatus, was about to penetrate his new friend for the first time. The 15 years old had wanted to do so ever since he had seen the beautiful form of the 14 years old but had been reluctant to try his luck at seducing the newcomer in case the attempt was rebutted and their friendship foundered as a consequence. However, his lustful urges had overwhelmed him in the idyllic surroundings of the hilltop and he had, as if in a trance, been unable to prevent his hand moving towards the deliciously inviting flesh of Armillatus’ thigh. Junius was therefore delighted that his action had not been met by reproach but by reciprocation and the two boys were soon naked and in each other’s arms, hard cocks pressing against their respective writhing bodies.

Junius’ genitals, crowned by dark hair, were impressive for a 15 years old but Armillatus quickly overcame the pain of anal invasion to enjoy the sensation of being simultaneously buggered and masturbated by his friend. It was the first time that he had had a cock inside him since Anthonius had made love to him on a galley in Ostia three months previously. The thought produced a pang of sorrow, quickly subsumed by pleasurable passion as the two young lovers came close to simultaneous orgasm. The memory might not have been so fleeting if Armillatus knew that Anthonius was now on another ship in the Roman port, but in much more sinister circumstances than before.

Having made love for the first but by no means the last time, the unashamedly still-nude Armillatus and Junius finished off their half-eaten food before gathering their clothing and their hunting trophies and running to a river at the bottom of the hill. They happily skinny-dipped for a while before desire returned and mutual simultaneous fellatio took place on the riverbank. Afterwards, passions temporarily spent and post-sex melancholy arrived, the two embracing boys, talked about their pasts, about which Armillatus had to be evasive, if only for his friend’s own protection, and hopes for the future.

Junius disclosed that the last thing that he wanted to do was to follow his father as a shopkeeper, declaring that he was determined instead to become a soldier for the excitement and adventure. He did not appreciate that many members of the military actually saw little action in their lifetimes, being engaged more on uneventful garrison duties throughout the huge Empire. Nevertheless, he was to be lucky in his aims because troubles would brew and, after achieving adulthood, he joined a legion that would be at the centre of much action.

As a soldier, Junius would be rewarded for his achievements and outstanding bravery by being promoted to centurion. However, he had been delighted to see his lifelong friend, Armillatus, in whom he had planted the idea of a military career after making love under a tree on the exquisite Hispanian riverbank, far exceed him. The boy’s natural timidity was being gradually replaced by intelligent perceptive boldness, inspired by the example of Anthonius’ unselfish courage and stimulated further by that of Junius’ devoted fearlessness.

Armillatus had daydreamed on that day in his new friend’s arms about becoming a great general, little knowing that his dream would come true.

(To be continued in Chapter 56 – ‘Voyage’)