Nero 40

By Pueros

Chapter XL – Colossi

(Dacia, Iulius, DCCCLIX, in the 8th year of the reign of the Emperor Trajan [July, AD 106])

‘Quid enim est stultius quam incerta pro certis habere, falsa pro veris?’

(‘What is truly more foolish than to have uncertain things for certain things, false things for true things?’)

- Cicero

One of the reasons for my worthy scribe agreeing to write down my lengthy remembrances is so that he can correct, from my recollections, his own histories as appropriate. I have already pointed out to him some of the mistakes in his drafts. For example, when he records the arrival of Caratacus in Rome, from another supposed eye-witness’ account because the event occurred 5 years before his own birth, he correctly mentions the parading through the streets of the King and his wife and brothers but peculiarly includes only one daughter. I know, because of my own involvement in the occasion, that four other young children, three boys and another girl, were also displayed, as they walked in chains to their executioner.

As some of my scribes’ drafts are already in circulation, I hope that posterity will benefit from the corrected texts of his histories and not the earlier flawed versions.

(Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor, December, DCCCIII A.V.C., in the 9th year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius [AD 50])

‘Jesus said: “The kingdom of the [Father] is like a certain woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking [on the] road, still some distance from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her [on] the road. She did not realise it. She had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she set the jar down and found it empty”.’

- Gospel of Thomas (97)

Gaius’ interesting visits to the Asia Minor cities of Ephesus and Thyatira were still regular topics, as he, Hylas and Achilleus remained guests of Melankomas and Athenodorus in Halicarnassus. My beloved and his two 8 year-old companions were awaiting the return of the sailing season in spring before intending to cross the Mare Internum to see the colossal wonders of Aegyptia, especially the Pharos of Alexandria, the Pyramids of Giza and the great temples and other monuments at Karnak.

Gaius had politely excused himself from returning with his hosts in spring to Corinth, where Athenodorus would be competing in the local biennial Isthmian Games, held in honour of Poseidon. He instead agreed to be present later in the summer for the quadrennial Pythian festival at Delphi for Apollo. If the beautiful athlete was successful in acquiring the pine wreath at the former, he would be competing for the laurel version at the latter to become the youngest-ever ‘periodonikes’, winner of the four most important pan-Hellenic Games, or ‘periodos’. Such a victorious occasion was obviously one not to be missed. The trip would also enable my beloved to visit the local sacred oracle, which is the world’s most important. However, during this early part of the interim period, he intended to intersperse the very pleasant stay with the renowned lovers by taking a chance and making the short sea trip from the mainland of Asia Minor to the island of Rhodus to view the ruins of the Colossus.

Meanwhile, conversation at dinner again focused on the apostles of Jesus, the Jewish reformer, in particular Paul and Thomas. The latter was also Christ’s twin brother.

“How could Jesus be born of a virgin, as Paul preaches,” Melankomas asked of Gaius, “if he had older brothers and sisters, and how can he be of divine birth if he has a mortal twin brother? Also, how can he say that Christ was born in Bethlehem in startling circumstances if Thomas is firm that he and his twin sibling both arrived in this world in a normal manner in Nazareth? ”

“Good questions,” Gaius suggested in reply without attempting to answer them, but whilst instead adding a query of his own. “How can Paul,” my beloved enquired, “who never knew Jesus, declare that Christ was responsible for many miracles, and was also resurrected from the dead, when those who truly knew him, such as his brothers James and Thomas, deny all knowledge of such happenings?”

“It seems to me,” Athenodorus intervened to comment, “that Paul, aided by his followers, is fictionalising Jesus’ story in order to promote the ethics of a new faith that suits his own revised beliefs. I hope people aren’t foolhardy enough to take what he says seriously. If they really want to follow Christ’s preachings, they should surely instead read Thomas’ version of events in the gospel you say he’s written.”

“Thomas told me that he met Paul once,” Gaius informed, “only to be labelled by him a heretic for doubting the divinity of his own twin brother, Jesus!” “The impertinence of the man!” Melankomas remarked in response.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Gaius replied, “especially as Paul condemned Jesus’ twin by mischievously calling him ‘Doubting Thomas’.” “Impudence!” Athenodorus declared.

“I just hope,” Gaius continued, “that when Jesus’ life is eventually chronicled in some great book, as I’m sure that it will be, the compilers include, alongside that of Paul, Thomas’ gospel. The latter comprises his twin’s history plus 114 other linked entries of several types, including proverbs, parables, prophecies and rules for living. Readers can then judge for themselves whose versions of events and theology are most truthful!”

(Island of Rhodus, Februarius, DCCCIV A.V.C., in the 10th year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius [AD 51])

‘Few people can get their arms round one of its thumbs, and its fingers are bigger than most statues.’

- Pliny the Elder (referring to the ruins of the Colossus of Rhodes)

Fortunately, the short winter sea trip to Rhodus from the mainland of Asia Minor was uneventfully successful, mainly because it was undertaken by Gaius, Hylas and Achilleus on a bright sunny day, when both the wind and waves were calm. Having booked into a decent residential inn, or ‘caupona’, on the harbour-front of the island’s eponymous capital city, my beloved and his boys then went to view the nearby ruins of the great Colossus.

The still wonderful debris, adjacent to the harbour-mouth, had been created about 300 years previously when an earthquake had brought the great statue of the sun god, Helius, crashing down. As was previously common when frequenting such tourist places, my beloved hired a guide to describe the scene and the associated history.

“The Colossus was a thanks offering,” the local guide proudly explained, “for the city’s deliverance from an attack by the ruler of Syria, Demetrius Poliorcetes. That King’s surname meant ‘Besieger’ but here in Rhodus he met his match. When he eventually withdrew in unsuccessful frustration, he was forced to leave his great siege engines, which the victorious islanders promptly sold to finance, in celebration, the construction of a huge bronze statue, which, contrary to some rumours, did not straddle the harbour mouth. Instead, the edifice, which was over 33 paces high, was columnar, depicting the naked Helius with feet together and one divine hand raised upwards holding a blazing torch, whilst the other was at his side. The structure was situated on a plinth adjacent to the entrance to the port to impress visiting seafarers. Glistening in the sunlight and towering over neighbouring buildings, it cannot but have stirred such visitors!”

“The Colossus was such a wonder,” the guide advised, “because of not only its vast size but also the incredible achievement of casting and putting in place so much bronze. Chares was put in charge of the project and designed Helius wearing an aureole crown of pointed flames fitted on top of curled locks of wind-blown hair. The lips on the sun god’s cherubic face were slightly parted, just as he is portrayed today on coins.”

“Helius’ bare bronze genitalia,” the guide now disclosed, whilst displaying a mischievous smile, “were so impressive that childless couples made pilgrimages to the Colossus. They prayed and made offerings to the statue, begging that they be granted some of the god’s undoubted fertility!”

“Naturally, the immense size of the Colossus,” the guide informed, “meant that parts had to be carefully moulded and cast nearby before being assembled. The latter was achieved by working up from the feet, which were placed on a base of white marble. The hollow structure was supported by an iron framework, with horizontal crossbars, weighted by blocks of stone. As the edifice grew, a surrounding mound of earth also rose to provide a platform for the next stage. Chares’ skill was emphasised by the fact that he therefore never saw the developing statue in all its glory until the last bit was put in place and this earthwork was removed. However, the whole project only evolved slowly, being restricted to a growth of only about 2 paces in height per year after Rhodus ran out of natural tin to make the enormous amounts of bronze required and consequently had to import the metal.”

“Alas,” the guide concluded, “after eventually taking over a decade to complete, the Colossus was toppled by an earthquake half a century later, producing the half-submerged ruins that you see now!”

As the guide spoke these words, Gaius was keeping a careful eye on Hylas and Achilleus, who were clambering all over the visible ruined remains of the Colossus. My beloved did not want the two young energetic and enthusiastic explorers to hurt themselves.

As Gaius watched the boys, he could hear them shouting at each other in awe about their latest discovery, with one such exclamation bringing a broad smile to his handsome face. “Look,” Achilleus had announced in appropriate wonder to Hylas, “at the size of that cock and those balls!” It was clearly evident to my beloved what part of the huge bronze statue the former infant pirate had come across amongst the colossal remains.

Later, expedition to the highly impressive harbour-mouth ruins completed, and with Hylas and Achilleus showing signs of hunger, Gaius led his boys to the decent inn, in which they were staying nearby, for lunch. He intended to continue his local sightseeing later by visiting the impressive local acropolis.

The unusually unfortified acropolis of the city of Rhodus, which is of similar age to the ruined Colossus, dominates the highest western part of the capital. It consists of well manicured flowery fields and groves, interspersed by a number of magnificent large Hellenic temples, public buildings and popular amenities, plus sacred sanctuaries, including underground facilities used by various cults. The combination of natural and man-made beauty is typically Greek.

The buildings are situated on stepped terraces, supported by strong retaining walls. They include, on the northern edge of the acropolis, a monumental Doric-style temple of Athena and Zeus, possessing a columned portico on all four sides. Inside, the Rhodians keep the texts of their treaties with other states. Meanwhile, the smaller temple of Pythian Apollo stands on the southern part of the hill, on the western side of a large rectangular terrace.

The temple of Athena and Zeus is bounded on the east by a stoa, an impressive public hall with imposing façade, visible from the lower town and harbour. On the north-east side of the same terrace is the ‘Artemision’, scene of the worship of the cult of Artemis.

South of the stoa’s walls is the ‘Nymphaia’, used for recreational meditation and cult worship, and consisting of four subterranean cave-like constructions, with entrance steps and communicating passageways cut into the rock. Each has recesses in the interior walls for sacred statuettes. Water cisterns and lush vegetation complete the picturesque scene.

The stadium is on the south-easterly side of the hill. It is the customary one stadion, or about 200 paces, in length. The narrow athletic amenity is of traditional design, with ‘sphendone’, rounded ends with turning posts, and, in the middle of one of the long sides, ‘proedries’, the seats for officials. The usual starting mechanism, from which the naked Athendorus had once successfully launched himself, was also present.

Northwest of the stadium is a small marble ‘odeion’. It holds an audience of about 800 and is used either for musical events or exhibitions and lessons in rhetoric given by famous Rhodian orators.

The large square gymnasium, measuring about 200 paces on each side, is east of the stadium, and has part of its western side uncovered. The amenity is noted for its splendid works of art, including statues, frescoes and paintings, invariably depicting handsome naked gymnasts and athletes. Nearby is a fine library, containing particularly notable original copies of Greek manuscripts in rhetoric and philosophy.

It was to the library that my beloved Gaius now came. Having seen the other sights on the acropolis, and with Hylas and Achilleus now finally sufficiently tired to guarantee him a period of quietude before dinner, my beloved was keen to read some of the stored scrolls relating to Greek philosophy. However, he was diverted by a notice, which was displayed on an entrance wall and announced the auction in a few days of a local farm, where much of the land was devoted to viniculture.

(Domus of Titus Flavius Vespasianus, Rome, same time)

‘Sexual intercourse cures pains in the lower regions, impaired vision, unsoundness of mind and depression....Democritus dismisses love-making as being merely the means by which one human being springs from another, and says that the less it is indulged in, the better!’

- Pliny the Elder (‘Natural History’, XXVIII.58)

Titus Flavius Vespasianus had diplomatically maintained a relatively low profile in Rome since Agrippina had become Empress, as he was well-known as a friend of her enemy, Narcissus, who had sponsored the renowned general’s early rise to prominence.

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was due to dine discreetly with military friends that night and so decided to make love to his devoted wife during the afternoon. This particular bout of marital lovemaking was to have significant consequences for the future of Rome, as well as for myself.

(Island of Rhodus, a few days later)

‘Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumbbells? To dig a vineyard is worthier exercise for men!’

- Martial

Gaius had thought of the parents of Apollinus and Helius as soon as he had seen the notice advertising the imminent farm auction. Knowing Palaemon as he did, but not appreciating that the man was dead, he believed that his renowned, very wealthy and benevolent former teacher would look kindly on acquiring land on Rhodus and releasing his Umbrian vineyard managers to return to perform a similar function on their native island. After all, the running of the north-east Italian estate could be assumed by the very able Servius.

Gaius therefore proposed to use his own not insubstantial resources to try to purchase the middle-sized farm, place the land under temporary local management and send a letter to his former teacher detailing what he had done. Having viewed the highly picturesque seaside estate, on an island famed for its luscious natural flowers and other vegetation, my beloved’s intention was strengthened. However, he was sensible enough to secure a professional estimate as to the value of the property and place a financial limit on his ambition, even if he expected to be fully reimbursed the cost by Palaemon. The latter, having no family except the adopted Axenius, was always very generous to his friends and servants.

Gaius obtained the necessary credit from the local banker charged with supplying him with his latest familial allowance, and who was fully aware that the young equestrian of rich background possessed access to more than sufficient money to settle the account later with interest. In the event, my beloved’s maximum limit was subsequently not reached and he was soon the new temporary owner of a lovely Rhodian farm, an action that would have significant consequences, and not just for the parents of Apollinus and Helius.

(Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor, a week later)

‘What is pleasanter than the bond of host and guest?’

– Aeschylus

“You have this habit of amazing us,” Athenodorus declared to Gaius, whilst his beautiful face displayed a broad smile and they again dined in Melankomas’ luxurious domus in Halicarnassus, “with the souvenirs you bring back from your trips. First, your aborted visit to Olympia produces the lovely Achilleus here. Now, a completed voyage to Rhodus results in your return as the proprietor of a farm on the island. We can’t help but wonder what your imminent journey to Aegyptia will generate, perhaps your own pyramid?”

Although everyone present laughed at Athenodorus’ joke, the grin exhibited on Achilleus’ very pretty face was wider than that of anyone. The brown haired and eyed boy, who was celebrating his 9th birthday on this day, although he did not appreciate this fact, could not recall ever before being termed ‘lovely’.

(Imperial palace, Rome, same time)

‘Maxima debetur puero reverentia.’

(‘The greatest respect in owed to a child.’)

- Juvenal

One boy who did realise that this day was his birthday was Britannicus. However, Agrippina ensured that her stepson’s 10th anniversary was observed in a very muted manner, compared both with earlier years and the celebrations afforded to her natural son 2 months previously.

Nevertheless, Britannicus was not too concerned, as he had never particularly enjoyed the grand formal events that had been arranged by his later mother, Messalina, and he was still in the company of his best friend, Titus. The new 10 year-old’s only fret related to the implications of the celebratory downgrading on his status and therefore his future. However, his Imperial slave, Apollinus, ever-present at the boy’s side during the prince’s waking hours, had successfully managed to reassure his young charge that there was nothing about which he should be too worried.

In reality, Apollinus was frequently praying to the gods that he would be proved correct in such an assumption, as he was unsure that he was telling Britannicus the truth. Nero, under Suffuscus’ current influence, was apparently now harmless and Seneca was involved in trying to ensure the genuine long-term welfare of both young princes, within his overall plan to secure the wellbeing of Rome. However, it was obvious to many, perhaps even her husband, that Agrippina’s ambitions for herself and her natural son knew no bounds.

(Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor, 1 month later, Martius, DCCCIV A.V.C., in the 10th year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius [AD 51])

‘One word

Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:

That word is love.’

- Sophocles (‘Oedipus at Colonus’)

By now, dear reader, many of the key personages in my life, not least myself, had passed another birthday, although not all of us knew precisely when this had occurred. Please do not be surprised therefore if hereon I have added a year to the ages of certain characters.

Gaius, now 21 years of age, and 9 year-old Hylas and Achilleus said their farewells to 18 year-old Athenodorus and 22 year-old Melankomas on the harbour-side of Halicarnassus before boarding their merchant ship. This vessel would take the trio, at the beginning of the sailing season, across the Mare Internum to Aegyptia. The fivesome agreed to meet again later in the year at Delphi, where the Olympic stade champion would be competing to become the youngest-ever ‘periodonikes’.

Later, as Gaius watched Halicarnassus slowly disappear from view, whilst his ship ploughed the blue waves of the Mare Internum, he hoped that, on this occasion, his boat would not meet another piratical craft. He did not expect that such an encounter would produce the same sort of very pleasant outcome that had resulted from his previous meeting with such a vessel, represented by the delightful form of Achilleus, currently engaged in energetic, happy play on deck with his new similarly aged friend, Hylas.

Gaius’ bright, highly intelligent mind then returned to the sad news of Palaemon’s demise that had finally caught up with him, via the letter I had sent. He told me later that tears had now begun to flow from his eyes, although not entirely in mourning for his late teacher.

My beloved Gaius later kindly advised me that some of his lachrymose flow stemmed from the fact that he was missing me so very much.

(Imperial palace, Rome, same time)

‘Nam curiosus nemo est, quin sit malevolus.’

(‘For nobody is curious, who isn’t malevolent.’)

- Plautus

“Thank you for coming to see me during your time off from attending my husband,” Agrippina politely said to me, as I obeyed her summons to visit the now 36 year-old in her luxurious private quarters in the large Imperial palace, atop Rome’s Palatine Hill. Naturally, our discreet appointment could never be misconstrued by anyone as anything other than on court business, as, despite my still immensely pretty exterior appearance, my lack of balls made me unattractive to the Empress. She liked males who were capable of developing huge erections to be her sexual servants. Although careful attention from Gaius could occasionally induce my slender cock miraculously to lose flaccidity and my loins to experience genital orgasm, the Augusta did not possess the loving patience necessary to solicit such responses from eunuchs.

“I am honoured to be summoned,” I lied in response to Agrippina’s greeting. I too had passed a birthday, and was now 19 years of age, although many people expressed surprise to me that I was older than 16.

Agrippina then indulged in other inconsequential pleasantries before eventually reaching the reason for our meeting, which I had long expected because she had already subverted the other members of her husband’s small retinue of closest servants to her cause, using a mixture of fear and bribery. I supposed that I was the last to be approached because of an earlier association with Narcissus. However, as the Imperial secretary and I had hoped, this concern regarding my loyalty was seemingly now overcome by my affair with Burrus.

“You often attend my husband,” Agrippina commented, “whilst he’s in the company of his closest friends and when he’s alone.” I could not deny this fact, as Claudius appeared to consider me to be his most efficient, pleasant and discreet eunuch food taster. The Emperor therefore tended to employ me most, especially at those times when he expected to lower his psychological defences to become intimate. Alas for my own physical clock and sobriety, this often necessitated working overnight, whilst sampling much wine.

“I want you to brief me daily on what is said at such times,” Agrippina then bluntly announced. However, the Empress tried to mitigate her very direct demand for information by promoting a false alibi. “You see, Bicilus,” the Augusta suggested, “I know that, on such occasions, copious wine can make my husband say unfortunate things, which is something that can be very dangerous for an Emperor to do. I therefore believe that it’s part of the role of a dutiful Empress to learn about such utterances and then take action to rectify any potential problems that might result.”

Agrippina then reverted to condescension in an effort to secure the fullest of future briefings from me, rather than edited highlights restricted to what I might consider to be ‘unfortunate’ words uttered by her husband. “Of course, Bicilus,” the Empress instructed, “you’ll need to provide me with a very comprehensive, almost verbatim, report of what’s said. You see, I’ll be able to recognise the problems caused by the Emperor’s chatter, whilst you will not have sufficient knowledge of the wider scope of Imperial affairs to make such a judgement.”

Agrippina now unveiled her threat, designed to induce fear in me. “An omission on your part could lead to disaster,” the Empress declared, “both for others and also sadly yourself.” However, the Augusta quickly followed this up with her bribe. “Naturally, Bicilus,” she informed, whilst an undoubtedly insincere smile appeared on her very attractive face, “you’ll be well rewarded for the extra work you undertake on behalf of the Principate, about which you’ll tell my husband nothing, as you don’t want to be the cause of marital disharmony, do you?”

Without waiting for an answer to this question, Agrippina then proceeded to give me a tiny cloth bag. The noise from and weight of this object in my palm clearly indicated to me that there were several gold coins within.

“You’ll receive the same,” Agrippina told me, “when you provide me with your report after fulfilling your duties for my husband every day.” The Empress subsequently peered into my sky-blue eyes to ascertain my understanding and compliant acceptance of all that she had commanded. Having observed what she wanted to see, the Augusta then exclaimed “Good!” before dismissing me from her presence with the words “You may now go, Bicilus, but I’ll expect to meet you here again in the morning!” I bowed, turned and advanced towards the door of her chamber as fast as courtly decorum allowed.

I emerged from Agrippina’s quarters without having said a word during my audience with the formidable woman but with several gold aurei in my quaking hand and fresh orders that had to be furtively obeyed, or I was sure that I would be quietly disposed of, probably by poison.

(Main slave market, Rome, same time)

‘Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.’

- Publilius Syrus (‘Maxims’)

The Chatti uprising in Germania had produced a fresh crop of captives for subsequent enslavement in Rome, with the latest consignment now being sold in the city’s main slave market. Currently being exhibited naked and consequently deeply ashamed on the auction block were the prettiest of the boys amongst the latest shipment, who were expected to fetch the highest prices.

In the Roman Empire, beautiful virgin boys always prove to be the most valuable at slave auctions, easily beating their female counterparts, as well as the most attractive of women and skilled of men. The high prices obtainable for such young male slaves results from them being particularly fashionable for the rich to flaunt as servants, as well as their popular usefulness in brothels, resulting from the fact that their continuous, lucrative, productive use can never be disturbed by unwanted pregnancy. The fact that younger minds are also more pliable and so more easily moulded into Roman ways, compared with more mature people, additionally boosts their monetary worth.

For all batches of beautiful boys sold, however, genital and not mental remoulding should be at the forefront of their worries about their immediate futures. Nearby, the market castrators would be polishing their tabletops and sharpening their tools in readiness for the work that would now undoubtedly soon come their way. A goodly proportion of buyers would require their new purchases to be converted into eunuchs, especially if the new young slaves were destined to serve females. I, of course, had already experienced this common practice in this very place almost 5 years previously.

As 10 year-old Arminius stood naked and ashamed on the auction block, his hands were at his sides because his curvaceous bottom had already felt the lash of a market supervisor’s whip for trying to hide his most intimate and currently embarrassing physical feature. The latter was his incongruously erect slender cock, which had grown to rigidity after his sublime, completely smooth, nude body had been exposed to the ogling of the large crowd of prospective purchasers and voyeurs. The unruly member had even become vertical rather than horizontal when his gorgeous form was presented for closer visual and manual inspection, including the careful probing of his virgin anus, by serious contenders for his ownership.

The bidding for Arminius, who had been proudly named after the Chatti’s infamous former chieftain, was eventually contested by two very rich people, one of whom wanted to buy the 10 year-old for his wife. Naturally, if this man succeeded in acquiring the young blonde, blue-eyed beauty, the boy’s balls would not remain part of the youngster’s impeccable body for much longer.

(Imperial palace, Rome, same time)

‘Vestigia terrent.’

(‘The footprints frighten me.’)

- Horace (from a story in ‘Epistulae’ about a fox who saw footprints lead into but not out of a lion’s den)

My hands were still shaking when I secretly reported the details of my audience with Agrippina to Narcissus. However, the Imperial secretary exhibited delight at the turn of events.

“Excellent,” Narcissus declared, “as it now seems that my plans to have two double-spies in Agrippina’s camp have succeeded!” The other espionage agent was, of course, Doryphorus, who, at other times, was making his own regular furtive reports to the Imperial secretary in respect of his dealings with the Empress.

“Should I tell her what she wants to know?” I then asked of Narcissus. “Yes,” the Imperial secretary answered, “because we mustn’t let her ever have cause to think that you’re holding information back, as that could be fatal for you.”

“But isn’t that being treacherous to Claudius?” I protested, not wanting to be disloyal to a man whom I had come to like, despite his faults. “No,” Narcissus replied, “as long as you tell me what you tell Agrippina and occasionally embellish your reports to her with items I want included. You know that I have the interests of the Emperor and his natural son at heart.”

I did know this but I was not fool enough to believe that Narcissus’ devotion was selfless. The Imperial secretary fully appreciated that his own survival depended on the continued wellbeing of Claudius and the ultimate accession to the purple of Britannicus as opposed to Nero.

As I left my second secret audience of the day, this time with the Imperial secretary, my hands were still shaking. I was beginning to dislike being involved in such dangerous courtly intrigue, not least because I recognised that, amidst it all, I was expendable in the eyes of both Agrippina and Narcissus. I was, after all, only a young barbarian eunuch slave.

(Main slave market, Rome, same time)

‘There’s the good goddess, whose rites and mysteries scarcely are secrets, not when the flute music stirs the pelvis and there they come sweeping, carried away by the horns and the wine, Priapus’ maenads, tossing their manes and howling, craving in absolute frenzy, the beast with two backs, the gymnastics of lust, and their limbs fairly oozing passions....’

- Juvenal (referring to gallae neophytes of Cybele, dancing in street parades on their way to castrating themselves)

The castration of the beautiful 10 year-old blonde, blue-eyed boy was coincidentally to take place in the same room, on the same table, with the same tools and by the same craftsman as when the deed had been perpetrated on me.

The castrator’s two slaves, sturdy middle-aged men, attired, like their older master, only in loincloths to avoid unnecessary soiling of more fulsome garments by spurting bodily excretions, fixed the struggling boy to the large heavy wooden table. They used the strong leather ties firmly embedded to each corner of the smooth surface, which was discoloured by much blood spilt over the years.

A smaller table was adjacent, accommodating the necessary readied, freshly re-sharpened knife, sturdy leather chew, sewing apparatus and clean rags, along with a bowl to house the boy’s extracted balls. Nearby was a lit brazier, with small iron roasting in the glowing coals in case cauterisation instead of sewing was deemed appropriate to mend the genital wound that would soon be inflicted on the beautiful 10 year-old.

Despite the boy’s tender years, he had guessed what would happen to him in this terrible place, causing him to struggle vainly against his fate, just as I had done in the same location almost 5 years previously. However, the 10 year-old’s ability to continue his associated loud and fruitless verbal protestations, which no-one else present could understand anyway because they were uttered in the Chatti tongue, was lessened, if not entirely eradicated, when the leather chew was placed between his teeth. The gag was used both to reduce the young eunuch-to-be’s screams and to protect his tongue.

The castrator then inspected his latest young victim’s completely hairless and endangered genitalia, which included a relatively small but incongruously hard slender penis, throbbing in the direction of the boy’s cute navel. The craftsman first took interest in the uncut foreskin, which still hid most of the cockhead despite the fact that the excited member had achieved maximum growth.

The castrator, just as he did with all of his invariably young and pretty victims, including me, gave the full length of the vibrating, ivory-like penile surface several strokes before moving his attention slightly downwards. He then carefully felt the contents of the boy’s smooth scrotum to confirm the nature of the little objects to be extracted. As he did so, the 10 year-old’s cock quivered, as if he were on the brink of orgasm.

The castrator then bound the boy’s ball sac tightly with leather cord, firmly constricting his latest young victim’s scrotal orbs and making them stand firmly upright, as well as begin to darken as the blood supply was terminated. The craftsman subsequently chatted with his slaves, whilst the crude genital tourniquet proceeded with its task.

The castrator eventually returned his attention to the boy’s hurting ball sac, which was now bright purple in colour, and, after giving each scrotal orb a final delicate fondle, picked up his knife, responsible for gelding thousands over the years, including me. He then protectively held the 10 year-old’s still throbbing cock with one hand whilst presenting the sharp tip of his blade to the vulnerable genital flesh just below.

The boy fruitlessly used all his might to try to extricate himself from the ties that kept him fixed to the table but the castrator ignored these common desperate actions and continued muffled entreaties, and instead pierced the young smooth sac. The 10 year-old’s transformation into a eunuch was now to be relatively swift.

The castrator carefully and gradually increased the length of his shallow incision downwards. Meanwhile, his young victim’s head thrashed violently from side to side, trying to beg ‘No!’ whilst enduring anguish currently more mental than physical. However, the boy’s reactions to the cutting then changed, whilst something that had never happened before to him now occurred. His slim stomach rose and fell rapidly in line with his thumping heartbeat and some clear fluid oozed from his throbbing cockhead, as previously unknown sexual ecstasy overwhelmed his loins.

Nevertheless, the castrator, accustomed to such genital phenomena whilst working, managed to keep his own mind on the task literally in hand. His incision along the centre of the boy’s scrotum was now sufficiently large to begin the search for the small white oblongs hidden within. The sexual reverie of his young victim was therefore soon terminated when the 10 year-old experienced the anguish of having his left testicle skillfully manipulated into daylight.

As was his custom, the castrator looked into the boy’s eyes before smilingly using his knife to sever the first spermatic cord. The craftsman then lifted up the little white spheroid that represented half of the 10 year-old’s masculinity, in order to examine it briefly before placing it in the waiting bowl.

The castrator’s expert, well-practised fingers subsequently returned to the boy’s half empty scrotum to complete the gelding process. The 10 year-old soon felt his remaining testis, the last vestige of his true maleness, being quickly located and exposed.

The castrator then said something that he always uttered to his invariably young and pretty victims, including me 5 years previously. I have never forgotten the word, although I did not know what the Latin meant at the time.

“Miserandus” [pity] the castrator declared, as he cut the boy’s second spermatic cord.

(Domus of Axenius, Rome, shortly afterwards)

‘It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.’

- Aesop (‘The Jay and the Peacock’)

Axenius introduced his new young servant, freshly acquired at Rome’s main slave market, to his household, including his younger twin brother and sister.

“My new slave boy’s name is Arminius,” Axenius announced, whilst displaying a broad smile on his handsome face, “but we’re going to have to change that both for his own safety and to salve Roman sensitivities.”

(Domus of Petronius, Rome, same time)

‘If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.’

- Herodotus (‘Histories’)

Petronius’ vibrating cock spurted the accumulated contents of his ball sac down his young eunuch slave’s throat. After subsequently recovering from this delectable sexual high and removing his softening penis from the oral orifice, the ‘elegentiae arbiter’ announced, not for the first time in respect of his new, now 20 year-old servant, “I’ve never known anyone, either male or female, to be so good with their mouth and tongue!”

Not for the first time in respect of his new master, the young eunuch slave responded, whilst wiping extraneous cum from the sides of his lips and with blatant untruthful flattery, “I’ve never known such a delicious cock to service before!” However, the obsequiousness of Petronius’ new servant was well meant, as he had truly fallen in love with the 27 year-old ‘elegentiae arbiter’, who had rescued him from an abysmal rural existence and brought him to live in a luxurious urban residence, amongst the decadence of Rome.

(Domus of Axenius, Rome, same time)

‘We must have richness of soul.’

- Antiphanes

Axenius would have liked to buy all of his fellow Chatti, who were being sold at Rome’s main slave market, but even his new-found wealth could not extend to such an ambition. The 21 year-old, following Palaemon’s dictum that he should try to enlist into a vacancy in his service someone whose lot he could better, had been forced to restrict his purchase to just one, albeit very expensive, boy.

It had been obvious to Axenius that, if his rival for the purchase of Arminius had succeeded in buying the boy, the beautiful 10 year-old would not have kept his balls for long. The 21 year-old somehow did not want this particular youngster to suffer what had been perpetrated on him, at Caius Silius’ behest, over a decade earlier.

Axenius realised that he could not prevent some of the Chatti boys being sold to people who would have them castrated. He also did not know why he had chosen to save Arminius in particular from such a fate. He did not even appreciate at the time of the boy’s auction that the 10 year-old had been named after the 21 year-old eunuch’s grandfather.

In the event, the next beautiful blonde, blue-eyed boy to appear shamefully naked on the auction block had been bought and then genitally transformed by the man outbid by Axenius for young Arminius, who happily therefore still possessed his balls. The salvation of these particular Germanic regenerative orbs was to have happy consequences for the future.

(Alexandria, Aegyptia, 1 month later, Aprilis, DCCCIV A.V.C., in the 10th year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius [AD 51])

‘Pharos is an oblong island....and has upon it a tower that is admirably constructed of white stone with many storeys and bears the same name as the island.’

- Strabo

The advent of the world’s second largest city, Alexandria, on the horizon was evident to Gaius and the immensely excited Hylas and Achilleus by the colossal structure of the Pharos, the lighthouse that had taken 15 years and the enormous sum of 800 talents to build. Alexander the Great’s illegitimate half-brother, Ptolemy, who had become Pharaoh of Aegyptia after the break-up of the huge Macedonian empire subsequent to the untimely death of his King, had inaugurated the construction. His son and successor, Ptolemy II, had dedicated the completed structure over 330 years before the visit of the young man from Volsinii and his slave boys to the great metropolis.

As Gaius was to show the fascinated Hylas and Achilleus, the 3-tiered Pharos, whose light can be seen at night over 20 Roman miles away, is built of local white limestone, bolstered by granite at key points. The huge structure stands on an eponymous rocky island at the entrance to Alexandria’s ‘Megas Limen’, or ‘Great Harbour’, which is the biggest in the known world. The tower is about 135 paces high and has a square base, inside which is the accommodation for the lighthouse’s permanent garrison and its animals and supplies.

The elevated entrance is reached by a long stone ramp, and inside the lighthouse’s lowest level there are further ramps, spiralling up to the higher reaches of the Pharos. The middle tier is narrower and octagonal, and above this there is a colonnaded circular section, surmounted by a statue of Zeus on the domed roof.

Alexandria really forms part of the Greek as opposed to the Aegyptian world, and this is reflected in the architecture of the Pharos, which is largely Hellenistic, although many statues in the local style also decorate the site. The latter include colossal depictions of Ptolemy I and his Queen, located on a paved area in front of the lighthouse.

The perpetually lit lighthouse fire is situated in the colonnaded third section of the tower. Fuel is carried up the spiral ramps of the lower level by pack animals and then hauled up the octagonal middle tier by clever lifting devices. A movable giant reflector of silvery polished metal helps to magnify and direct the light far out to sea.

Alexandria itself is positioned on a long strip of land, whose main dimensions run from east to west. The locale is bounded on the north by the sea and on the south and west by the large brackish Lake Mareotis, which is strewn with reeds, teems with birds and fish and is linked to the mighty Nile by the easterly Canopic Canal.

The blue Lake Maeotis itself is lined with vineyards, with associated villas. The local climate and irrigation make the area ideal for the growth of huge crops of grapes and thereby the production of vast amounts of wine, aided by using much bigger presses than are normally utilised elsewhere.

Like the best Greek vintages, Aegyptian wine is usually aged and only drunk after several years. Its production also causes one of the biggest local industries to be the manufacture of amphorae.

Because of the canal link to the Nile, Lake Mareotis possesses its own docks, which supplement the immense northerly harbour. The latter is used mainly for sea-going traffic, with internal imports and exports between Alexandria and the rest of the world on one hand and Lower and Upper Egypt on the other using the southerly port facilities.

After viewing the Pharos and some of the other sights of Alexandria, intending to see more on their return, Gaius and his boys took a large tourist barge from the docks of Lake Maeotis to see the true Aegyptia, which is not really represented by the Hellenic city. This vessel would first travel down the Canopic Canal to the eponymous and sedate branch of the flat, green Nile delta, before venturing deeper into Lower and eventually Upper Aegyptia.

(Giza, Aegyptia, 1 week later)

‘Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura.’

(‘Rest without reading is like dying and being buried alive.’)

- Seneca the Younger (‘Epistulae Morales’)

The Canopic Canal is lined by the resplendent summerhouses of the Alexandrian Greek metropolitan elite. Most of these residences possess large ornate gardens, full of exotic trees and bushes and expensive statuary. To the delight at the time of Hylas and Achilleus, some also sport aviaries and menageries. Immense crocodiles, chained by one leg to immovable posts, are amongst the most common of the invariably African creatures on display.

After the delta eventually gave way to a single broad river valley, the tourist barge, with its decent accommodation, continued its southerly journey, with professional oarsmen supplementing the large, single, triangular sail to counteract the gentle downstream current. The first main tourist destination was to be Giza, where, for once, Hylas and Achilleus were still and quiet and not up to their usual energetic play. The pair of cute 9 year-olds was simply too over-awed, by the sights on the local plateau, which has a commanding position above the easterly Nile valley, to be anything else at present. Naturally, the main attention of the two delightful boys was towards the colossal Pyramids, whose bright white limestone cladding glistened brightly nearby in the hot sunlight.

The temples surrounding this particular trio of Aegyptia’s 80 or so pyramids, all of which were built over a period of about 1,000 years, were splendours in their own right. However, having now seen some of the other man-made wonders the world had to show off, Hylas and Achilleus could not deny that the enormous pyramidal constructions they were now viewing were the most impressive of all. Their opinion was shared by their master and de-facto surrogate father, my beloved Gaius, who was not someone prone to awe except, he occasionally kindly said, in respect of the magnificence of my own body.

Apart from the attentions of his right hand, Gaius had so far remained chaste and loyal to me during his travels, despite the many temptations he undoubtedly encountered. These would include the pretty girl and boy servants invariably to be found in inns throughout the Empire, who are willing to sell their bodies for a paltry coin, as well as the numerous brothels and street prostitutes, offered by all cities and catering for all tastes.

Given my beloved’s particular tastes, I also have no doubt that the very pretty forms of Hylas and Achilleus must have secretly tempted him at least occasionally. However, Gaius was never one to betray any trust, and he knew that the boys looked up to him not as their master but as their parent. Consequently, he never made any sexual approach towards them, being instead contented by their life-enhancing presence in his own existence.

Gaius later suggested to me that the construction of the Pyramids of Giza must be considered to be one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of mankind. They were built by three Pharaohs of the 4th Dynasty, Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.

The pyramid of Khufu, erected about 3,000 years before the visit of Gaius and his boys, is the biggest of the three and, at approximately 150 paces high, remains the tallest structure in the whole world. Each side is about 230 paces in length and it is estimated that 20,000 conscripted, as opposed to slave, workers took over 20 years to put into position the 2,300,000 massive blocks of limestone and granite, amounting to a volume of 2,600,000 square paces. Even bringing the stone from the quarries must have been an enormous undertaking, especially as the granite came from Aswan, 600 Roman miles to the south along the River Nile.

“What are the purpose of the pyramids?” the ever-inquisitive Hylas asked of Gaius, as they and Achilleus reached the base of Khufu’s great, dazzlingly white edifice. “They’re royal tombs,” my ever-knowledgeable beloved answered, “whose size and shape are symbolic, being associated with the primeval mound, which, according to Aegyptian belief, emerged from the waters of chaos at the time of creation, and also representing a ramp to assist the deceased King’s ascent to heaven. Their arrangement, with each side accurately aligned with the four cardinal directions using the stars, is also significant, as is their location, with the west of the Nile being linked to the daily demise of the setting sun and therefore death.”

“As you can see,” Gaius added, “each pyramid is only part of a larger burial complex. Each stands in an enclosure, with its own mortuary temple on the eastern side and another near the banks of the Nile, which were once linked by long causeways. The latter were decorated with stone reliefs and the Greek historian, Herodotus, during his own visit here four centuries ago, described them as being almost as impressive as the pyramidal tombs they served. However, they are sadly now just ruins.”

“What’s that over there?” Achilleus now interrupted to enquire, whilst referring to a colossal head sticking out of the desert sands nearby, seemingly guarding Khafre’s smaller pyramid. “Ah,” advised Gaius, “that must be the great sphinx, which is supposed to combine the head of the Pharaoh with the body, denoting power, of a lion. Unfortunately, the massiveness of the statue is not properly evident because, as you can see, much of its form is hidden under wind-blown sands, usually that generated by the local storms of early summer. Sadly, no-one now appears bothered enough to dig away the cover to reveal the manifestation of the Aegyptian sun god, Horemakhet, or ‘Horus-of-the-Horizon’, in its full glory.”

“How do you know all this,” Achilleus then asked, “as you told me you’ve never been here before?” However, it was Hylas not Gaius who responded to the question.

“The same way,” the smiling Hylas astutely advised his fellow 9 year-old, whilst displaying clear admiration in his sweet young voice, “that he knew all about the Pharos without needing a guide. I’m also sure he really didn’t need similar escort services when visiting the other wonders of the world he’s taken us to see, such as those at Halicarnassus, Ephesus and Rhodus. He reads all about the places we’re travelling to before we arrive!”

“My secret’s been found out!” a similarly grinning Gaius suggested. He then used the occasion to reiterate the importance of literacy to Achilleus, whose natural boyish energy had sometimes made him a reluctant scholar. “You can find out all about the wonders of the world,” my beloved declared, “and not just those of stone, by reading. It’s the key to wisdom, as long as you don’t restrict your choice!”

Achilleus returned Gaius’ grin. The boy knew full well when he had been subjected to another worthy lesson about life.

After visiting the Pyramids of Giza and their associated temples, Gaius and his boys resumed their tourism voyage south along the mighty Nile. They were intent on seeing the great riverside cities, both ancient and Aegyptian and modern and Greek.

(Thebes, Upper Aegyptia, 2 weeks later)

‘City of 100 gates’ – Homer (‘Iliad’, referring to the many temples in Egyptian Thebes)

The largely ruined city of Thebes is over 300 Roman miles up the Nile from Giza. It began to develop in importance in during the 11th Dynasty, eventually becoming the capital of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties and the centre of worship of Amon.

When the ‘New Kingdom’, represented by these latter Dynasties, began to decay, Thebes started to lose much of its importance. The Assyrians destroyed the city over seven centuries before the visit of my beloved Gaius and his boys, with the Roman legions of Octavian perpetrating the same just 80 years previously, after the metropolis had exhibited reluctance to submit to the nation’s new overlord.

Thebes never recovered from the devastation inflicted by the Romans and, by the time of Gaius’ excursion, the city had become just a shadow of its former glorious past, amounting to little more than a collection of poor villages. However, the splendours of those local temples that were still used and some of the other sacred sites were still evident to the tourist.

As Gaius led Hylas and Achilleus along the western banks of the Nile to the vast complex of temples, which are located in Karnak, just to the north of Thebes, he pointed out a long, tall ridge of rock further to the west. Also visible in the same direction and vicinity was a pyramidal mountain peak. “I believe,” my beloved told his boys, “that beyond that escarpment is a sacred gorge, called the ‘Valley of the Kings’, where many of the later Pharaohs were entombed.

Karnak possesses many temples, ancillary religious structures, storage warehouses, service quarters, workshops, gardens and ornate processional routes grouped into and around three high, mud-brick walled enclosures. The most important of these is the massive trapezoidal complex, each side of which is about 500 paces in length, dedicated to Amon-Re, the main state god of Aegyptia from the Middle Kingdom onwards.

The walls alone are a wonder. The sun-dried mud-bricks, set in mud mortar and reinforced with reeds and timber lacing, of the main central enclosure, about 2000 paces long, 25 high and 12 wide, are said to number 70,000,000 in total. They are laid in alternative concave and convex sections, which create a distinctive wavy effect and are both symbolically representative of the primeval waters and efficiently protective against earthquakes. However, perhaps the most stunning of all the features is the great hypostyle hall, measuring 100 by 50 paces. The building, which was begun by Seti I and finished by his son and successor, Ramses II, contains 134 massive, tapered columns, over 20 paces tall and with capitals sculptured in the form of plants. These support a roof with clerestory grill windows, painstakingly carved from sandstone.

Gaius explained to Hylas and Achilleus that each Pharaoh had considered it his sacred duty to aggrandise the temples of the gods and that the importance of Amon-Re had ensured that most Kings of the Middle and New dynasties had left their mark somewhere at Karnak. Consequently, the small original shrine to the paramount deity had, over the centuries, expanded outwards, acquiring grand, pyloned gateways, columned halls and subsidiary places of reverence and worship, all adorned with splendidly carved, ornate relief decoration and hieroglyphs, colossal statuary and tall obelisks.

“It must have been a building site for much of the two millennia during which improvements were conducted,” Gaius added, as he and his boys began to venture inside, “with even these latest main entrance pylons sadly remaining incomplete today. Nevertheless, as you both can see, what has been finished is mightily impressive!”

(Banks of the River Tiber, near Rome, same time)

‘Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.’

- Homer (‘Iliad’)

Despite the facts that the river, shallow in this quiet countrified setting, was still wintry cool, and she was no longer of a youthful age, Pomponia Graecina bravely waded into the Tiber until the chill water reached her slim waist. Meanwhile, Cephas awaited the patrician matron’s arrival.

Pomponia Graecina was about to be baptised into the new Christian sect, an event that she was keeping secret from her husband, the renowned general, Aulus Plautius, because of his conservative attachment to the ancient gods of Rome. She did not want to argue with her spouse about her own new devotion, to which she had finally been converted by the persevering Cephas. She thought that domestic disharmony need not be risked by disclosure of her revised personal beliefs, which she did not propose to try to press on others, including her sons.

Pomponia Graecina’s secret was to be kept successfully discreet for several years. When Aulus Plautius did eventually learn of his wife’s conversion, the renowned general was ultimately to surprise his spouse by his reaction, although, on reflection, she recognised that she should have known all along how he would take the surprising news.

(Thebes, Upper Aegyptia, same time)

‘She [Hatshepsut] made as her monument for her father Amon....two great obelisks of enduring granite from the south, their upper parts of electrum....Their rays flood the two lands when the sun disc rises between them at its appearance on the horizon of heaven.’

- inscription on obelisk of Hatshepsut, Karnak

I suppose that obelisks are the most recognisable of Aegytian monuments, being massive monoliths, some over 40 paces high, square in section but tapering to points at pyramidal summits, which are often capped with gilded sheet-metal to reflect the rays of the sun. Their smooth, polished surfaces are covered with hieroglyph inscriptions, and they are sacred to the sun god, Re, being found at sites associated with the worship of the solar deity, most often in pairs flanking the pylon gateways to temples.

Obelisks are produced from very hard stone, which can be carved into the necessary colossal slender proportions and withstand subsequent transportation and manhandling, not least into the final upright positions, without cracking. Granite from Aswan, about 140 Roman miles south of Karnak, is by far the most popular material, especially as the pink and red varieties share solar colours.

Being very hard, granite cannot be cut using relatively soft metal tools. Ball-shaped dolerite pounders are therefore utilised, initially to dig a trench, just wide enough to accommodate a quarryman and deep enough to undercut the obelisk, around the outline of the proposed monolith, previously marked on the stone. About 150 workers simultaneously perform this task under the harsh sun, although, in the age of the Pharaohs, none were slaves or convicts, just conscripts embarked on sacred work for their King and nation.

The obelisk is eventually split from its base by levers and jacked up beyond the level of the surrounding stone using wooden struts, before being manoeuvred onto a wooden sledge for transport along a level embankment to the nearby Nile. A team of about 1,000 men was needed to haul Hatshepsut’s obelisks, each of which is about 30 paces long.

My friend, Pliny the Elder, describes, in one of his encyclopaedic works, how the obelisks, a few of which are still manufactured in my era, are then loaded onto massive, broad barges for transport along the Nile. These huge unwieldy vessels have four rudders at the stern, each controlled by a helmsman, and are steered in direction by a number of rowboats, although the river current provides most of the downstream propulsion.

The barges are apparently moved into a narrow canal near the quarry and weighted down with blocks of stone, whose cumulative weight is heavier than that of the obelisks. The monoliths are then dragged across the canal and the vessels unloaded of the heavy temporary cargo until they rise up and take the weight of the edifices. The latter can then be rotated with relative ease until they rest along the centre of their river transport.

A reversal of the loading technique enables the obelisks to be unloaded at the destination. After then being dragged to their final location, with their feet finally resting against grooves in the waiting plinths, the monoliths are lifted upright by being jacked upwards by levers and wooden struts until the angle is sufficient for the edifices to be pulled by ropes into position. However, this technique does not always work to perfection, as is proven by some ‘needles’ misplaced on their bases.

The obelisks are normally then finished off in situ, with the whole process from early quarrying to ceremonial inauguration taking over 6 months. Their surfaces are polished to a high shine using stone grinders and fine quartz powder. Artists subsequently draw the hieroglyphs and other decoration, for sculptors to carve. Finally, colourful paints complete the pictures, whilst metalworkers top the monoliths’ pyramidal peaks with silver-gold capping, hammered into hewn grooves.

Their distinctive shape and ancient religious symbolism has made obelisks popular with Roman Emperors, after Aegyptia’s loss of independence and annexation into the Empire. Augustus was the first to transport such monoliths to Rome, doing so about 60 years before the visit to the east by Gaius, Hylas and Achilleus.

I suspect that consequently, one day, there might even be more obelisks in Rome than Aegyptia. However, such a thought was far from Achilleus’ mind as he whispered something mischievous to Hylas and both 9 year-olds began to giggle loudly, as they viewed Hatshepsut’s monoliths at Karnak.

“Care to tell me what’s so funny?” Gaius smilingly asked, keen to be included in the amusement. As usual, it was Achilleus who possessed the temerity to appraise his master of the joke, whilst displaying an inherent audacity that would underpin his worthy adult future.

“I told Hylas,” the still grinning Achilleus advised boldly and without displaying any sign of abashment, “that I thought the obelisks looked like male erections!” Gaius was at first stunned by the answer, having previously assumed that the 9 year-old ex-pirate would be too young to be aware of such phenomena, although, of course, Hylas would, as he had been forced to service a number when a Bacchanalian eunuch catamite. My beloved was also unsure whether now to admonish the boys for their verbal moral laxity or join in the laughter.

In the end, Gaius chose the latter option, being unable to resist the temptation to prolong the beautiful, disarmingly cheeky smiles exhibited by his two young slave boys.

(Noviomagus, south coast of Britannia, same time)

‘Aquila non captat muscas.’

(‘The eagle doesn’t capture flies.’)

- ancient Roman proverb

I have to confess that the Romans brought meritorious and wide-ranging aspects of their civilisation into Britannia. They imported benefits as diverse as literacy, more than one room in houses, public toilets and the use of courts not weapons to settle disputes. However, the conquerors of my homeland were also responsible for a great national loss when they exported a certain regal family back to Latium.

Caratacus, accompanied in chains by his wife and five young, very pretty children, comprising three sons called Cyllin, Lleyn and Cynon and two daughters named Eurgain and Gladys, was finally being boarded onto a boat. The ship would take the family across the narrow but treacherous channel that separates my homeland from Gaul. The ultimate destination for all seven of my compatriots was to be Rome and the expectant Emperor Claudius, as well as the Princeps’ waiting executioner.

(Thebes, Upper Aegyptia, same time)

‘Hail to you gods, on that day of the great reckoning. Behold me, I have come to you, without sin, without guilt, without evil, without a witness against me, without one whom I have wronged. I am one pure of mouth, pure of hands.’

- ancient Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’ (‘Address to the Gods’)

My perfect Gaius, along with Hylas and Achilleus, had now walked over to western Thebes to view the colossal statues of various Pharaohs, depicted as seated, crowned gods and located outside their mortuary temples. The largest is that of Ramses II, which is about 20 paces tall and was, at the time of my beloved’s visit, almost 1300 years old.

The statues were carved, polished and painted in situ from single huge blocks of red granite or yellow quartzite, colours deliberately chosen because of their obvious solar affiliations. These stones had to be dragged, by up to 12,000 men over many months, the hundreds of miles from their distant quarries, as they were too heavy to transport by river barge, although they somehow had to cross to the western from the eastern side of the Nile somewhere.

One of the colossi of Amenhotep III is the most famous, being nicknamed the ‘Vocal Memnon’, after the Homeric character who sang to his mother, Eos, goddess of the dawn, because the statue also sings every time the sun rises. My friend, Pliny the Elder, was later to debunk any idea I might have accrued, from Gaius’ description, about divine inspiration for such an amazing phenomenon.

Pliny told me that the ‘Vocal Memnon’ had been damaged in an earthquake, 78 years before Gaius’ visit, and that the eerie dawn chorus is caused by moisture, which accumulates in a large crack during the cold desert night and subsequently warms and expands in the hot morning sun. I have to confess that I preferred the link to the almighty gods.

The ‘Vocal Memnon’ was the last sight for Gaius and his boys to view in Thebes before their return to their tourist barge and later Alexandria. My beloved would have loved to journey further down the mighty Nile, especially to see the great, remote temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel. However, this colossal edifice lies in Nubia, beyond the traditional southern boundary of Aegyptia and current Roman control, and was therefore too dangerous to attempt to reach.

Nevertheless, my beloved Gaius and his boys were to retain in their memories until old age the magnificent sights they did manage to see in Upper and Lower Aegyptia. The timing of their gradual return to Alexandria, via more riverside tourist attractions, was also to prove highly significant for them and many others, because a completely unexpected but fateful encounter awaited them in the second city of the Roman Empire.

(Alexandria, Aegyptia, 7 weeks later, Junius, DCCCIV A.V.C., in the 10th year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius [AD 51])

‘I have found power in the mysteries of thought,

Exaltation in the changing of the Muses.

I have been versed in the reasonings of men,

But Fate is stronger than anything I have known.

- Euripides (‘Alcestis’)

Gaius, Hylas and Achilleus were back in Alexandria and again strolling around the city’s crowded main thoroughfares, intent on seeing, during their last days in Aegyptia, the sights that they had missed previously in favour of an early expedition up the Nile. Their sightseeing tour proposed to take in as many as possible of the fine attributes of the second largest city in the world. For example, the ‘Megas Limen’, or ‘Great Harbour’, which is lined by sparkling white marble, does not just boast the Pharos as one of its splendours. There is also the ‘Heptastadion’, or long mole, that links the slip of an island on which the lighthouse stands to the mainland. There is the view of the colourful and massive former royal palace on the high easterly Lochias promontory, now the Roman gubernatorial dwelling but whose last regal residents 80 years previously had been Cleopatra VII and her children, including her eldest son, Ptolemy XV Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar. After losing the Civil War, the Queen had followed her lover, Mark Antony, and committed suicide, albeit in her case with the aid of an asp. It is said that the victor, Octavian, subsequently the Emperor Augustus, had then had the 16 year-old King, captured through the betrayal of his own tutor and dangerous because of his lineage, murdered. However, there are also other, strong rumours that suggest that the new master of the known civilised world had shown clemency because of the boy’s superb character and had let him and some friends escape into secret exile in a faraway land, having feigned their deaths. Whenever I think of the options, I always romantically wish that the latter version of the story could be true. Perhaps someday, someone will recount what did really happen.

Gaius also intended to lead his boys to see facilities unmatched in Rome, namely the Library of Ptolemy II, the largest in the world with over 50,000 volumes stored, and the associated Mouseion, the renowned centre of learning with comfortable arcades and dining hall. There were additionally at least some of the city’s 200 or so resplendent temples to view, including the one built by Cleopatra VII for the murdered and deified Julius Caesar, which was later improved by his official heir, Augustus.

There was the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra, located adjacent to the temple of the goddess, Isis, with whom the late Queen associated herself, to see. My beloved then intended to conclude the day’s activities by visiting the crystal sarcophagus of Alexander the Great in the King’s magnificent mausoleum, located in the royal necropolis, which is situated just to the north-east of the city centre intersection of the metropolis’ main thoroughfares, Soma Street and Canopic Way.

The last Queen of Egypt had been denied the right to rest for eternity alongside her immediate ancestors in the royal necropolis because she had insisted on being interred with someone who was not only not of her dynasty but also a barbarian Roman. However, the privilege was supposedly extended to her eldest son, as there is a small tomb containing a large porphyry urn, which officially accommodates Caesarion’s ashes.

During his walking tour of the great city, Gaius tried to avoid some of Alexandria’s less salubrious areas by sticking to main thoroughfares, such as the broad Soma Street, the main north to south avenue, and the Canopic Way, the principal east to west route. These paved roads are both divided into two by lines of central decorative ponds and fountains, useful for the refreshment of people and animals or simply to sit idly by. There are also many shops on either side, fronted by colonnaded porticoes and open in the mornings and evenings, whilst closing during the often unbearably hot afternoons.

Gaius’ intent regarding his route did not just concern his own safety, and that of Hylas and Achilleus, but additionally a desire not to be accosted by hawkers. The latter include sellers of human flesh, in the form of street pimps and prostitutes, whose role is easier to perform in the narrower minor roads. However, some traders still managed to approach my beloved to tender him their wares. One of these was an 11 year-old boy, whom he had spotted standing close to a side alley.

The boy’s natural underlying facial beauty was somewhat disfigured by sporting cheap blue mascara around his eyes and rouge on his lips and cheeks, although his tight, very short tunic, which did not accommodate any underwear below, pleasantly advertised other parts of his delectable anatomy. The 11 year-old was obviously offering his own body for hire, an aim from which he was not deflected by the sudden giggling indulged by his latest target’s 9 year-old companions.

Gaius, who spoke excellent Greek, which was the principal language of the Aegyptian capital, declined the offer firmly but politely, despite a sudden dryness in his throat, and moved on. However, as he did so, he wondered why the boy street prostitute had chosen to approach him of all current passers-by, whereas to the 11 year-old the decision had been due to an obvious fact, which his trade had caused him efficiently to recognise. My beloved’s sensuous hazel eyes had exhibited clear attraction towards the young male whore.

(Rome, same time)

‘A friend of Emperors.’

- Tacitus (referring to Poppaeus Sabinus)

The eyes of Marcus Salvius Otho were also displaying unrequited lust. However, in the case of the 19 year-old, such longing was currently in respect of a beautiful young female form.

Otho was in Poppaea’s family home, because he was currently being wed to this gorgeous amber-haired 18 year-old. The girl was the granddaughter of the late Poppaeus Sabinus, who had been a Consul 40 years before and later gained triumphal insignia for campaigns in Thrace, as well as being Governor of Moesia for a remarkable 2½ decades.

Poppaea’s homonymous mother, renowned for her own beauty, had sadly committed suicide 4 years previously, after being accused of having an adulterous affair with Valerius Asiaticus. The latter had been destroyed in the same year by Messalina, partly for the splendid gardens he owned, in which he took his own life and where, ironically, that same Empress was also to meet her death.

Poppaea was actually rather older than many females involved in such ceremonies, as the feminine gender is considered to be of marriageable age from about 13. However, her ambitions for her own future were matched by her widower father, and they had been content to wait for the long identified and betrothed patrician candidate for husband to be finally considered mature enough to gain a spouse.

Despite not emanating from a particularly old or noble lineage, the groom’s family was regarded as being distinguished. Otho’s father had won high praise and important promotions from the Emperor Claudius for uncovering a dangerous plot early in the present Princeps’ reign, and he continued to enjoy Imperial favour.

On the day before, Poppaea, perhaps rather belatedly, had ritually surrendered her childhood toys and clothes to the household gods. During the course of the present morning, she had then been dressed in a hemless ‘tunica recta’, secured at the waist by a woollen girdle, or ‘cingulum herculeum’. Over this she wore a saffron-coloured ‘palla’ and orange veil, or ‘flammeum’, on top of hair fixed, using the customary bent iron spearhead, in the traditional six strands.

The month of Junius is the favourite for weddings, which begin in the morning in the bride’s home, after the arrival of the groom and his family and friends. The matron of honour first performs the ‘dextrarum iunctio’, or the ceremony of the linking of the couple’s right hands. Sacrifices, usually of pigs, are then made and the marriage contract, including confirmation of the bride’s dowry, signed. These rituals are followed by a feast, paid for by the groom and involving much food, music and dancing. The ever-frugal Emperor Augustus limited the cost of such festivities to 1,000 sestercii, a law that is still current but regularly flouted.

After the wedding banquet, all the guests accompany the bride to her new domus, generally that of the groom. She is traditionally escorted by three young boys, two holding a hand apiece whilst the third walks in front carrying a torch lit from the hearth in her own home.

As the procession approaches the groom’s domus, the torch is cast aside towards the eager guests, for whoever catches it is supposed to be promised long life. The bride then smears the door-posts of her new home with oil and fat, and wreaths them with wool. She is then carried across the threshold, in a gesture relating back to the Sabine women, and, once inside the house, symbolically touches fire and water before being led to the bedchamber. Here, females who have been wed only once help to prepare her for bed before her new husband is finally admitted.

The culminating sex act is, of course, highly important, and not just to satisfy the accumulated lusts of the likes of Otho. After all, the standard Roman marriage contract explicitly states that the purpose of wedlock is for the procreation of children. However, as the latest, happy and very keen new groom penetrated the now similarly naked Poppaea’s virginal vaginal defences for the first time, whilst kissing the girl’s rosy lips and fondling her curvaceously buxom breasts, I doubt that he gave much thought to this legal obligation.

(Alexandria, Aegyptia, same time)

‘You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man’s actions are, such must be his spirit.’

- Demosthenes (‘Third Olynthiac’)

Having completed their sightseeing objectives for the day by viewing the apparently eternally youthful Alexander the Great, through the crystalline cover of his sarcophagus, Gaius, Hylas and Achilleus were embarked on returning to the decent harbourside inn in which they had taken a nice room with an even nicer view. The trio was now hungry and looking forward to cena. However, there was to be an unexpected delay in eating dinner that evening.

Gaius had bought several souvenirs of Alexandria, including some expensive pottery replicas of the Pharos, but he was now to acquire another memento of his visit to the great city, which would prove the most precious of all. As the 21 year-old young man from Volsinii and his two boys passed the side alley, alongside which the young male whore had earlier been standing, none of the trio could spot the 11 year-old prostitute.

Gaius was disappointed at this lack of sighting of the boy but not because he now intended to hire his services, as my beloved’s moral attitude prevented him from wanting to benefit sexually from someone’s poverty. Instead, feeling a little guilty about his earlier brusque dismissal of the street prostitute, the young man from Volsinni had hoped charitably to give the 11 year-old a coin of significant worth that might help, temporarily at least, to help alleviate the youngster’s plight. The fact that similar kind largesse had changed the fortune of the delightful Suffuscus had not been forgotten by those people privy to the secret.

As Gaius slowly passed the side alley, relevant coin in his palm ready to give to the boy, he began to believe that his kind intent was to be thwarted, as there was no sign of the street prostitute. My beloved therefore started to conclude that the young male whore must have a client somewhere, moved to another pitch to ply his wares or earned enough to retire for the day. However, his burgeoning assumption was interrupted by the sound of low whimpering emerging from the shadows of the narrow alleyway, onto whose floor sunlight rarely penetrated, providing the local activity indulged with suitable privacy.

Despite undoubtedly sage advice from Hylas and Achilleus that he should not venture into the alleyway to investigate the noise, Gaius began to walk into the shadows. He was reluctantly accompanied by his two boys, each of whom held one of his hands, mainly in an effort to reassure themselves rather than their master.

The whimpering became louder but passage along the dark alleyway also became easier, as eyes accustomed themselves to the gloom. Then, Gaius discovered the source of the blubbering, in the shape of a naked boy crouched at his feet.

Gaius knelt and came face-to-face with the boy prostitute he had encountered earlier. However, the 11 year-old’s mascara had further besmirched his lovely face, after tears had caused the blue substance to run down his cheeks, one of which was evidentially, despite the pervading gloom, also bruised. My beloved could also detect the strong smell of urine, and wondered whether the youngster had wet himself.

The boy’s initial reaction to Gaius’ arrival was to try to hide his sobbing face with his uplifted knees in a mixture of shame and fear. However, my beloved calmed him by announcing “Don’t worry, I’ve come to help not harm. Now, tell me, what happened?”

The boy was then influenced, as I have often been, by the tender and obviously benevolent tones inherent in Gaius’ speech at such times and lowered his knees slightly to reveal his tearful face once more.

“A client not only refused to pay me for the service I’d just provided for him,” the 11 year-old then began quietly to confess between sobs, “but also robbed me of my earlier earnings. He hit me when I tried to resist, and also urinated over me once he’d forced me to the floor. He then took away my tunic, my only clothing, probably out of spite. To make matters much worse, my father will now beat me mercilessly.”

“Your father!” Gaius repeated incredulously before asking “He doesn’t send you out to sell your body, does he?” “He’s not really my father,” the boy answered, “but my stepfather. My mother’s dead and I have no other family. Yes, he does send me out to earn both of us a living, as it seems that what I obtain for what I do provides him with an acceptable existence without the need for him to work, although he spends most of the money in the taverns.”

This reply appeared only to heighten the boy’s acute misery, at not only his current predicament but also the reality of his life. As his slim body began to quake, he hid his face again with his knees to allow the accompanying increase in tears to flow unseen.

Gaius looked at Hylas and Achilleus, standing at his crouched side. The 9 year-olds were no longer giggling at the desperate offering of bodily allures by a young male prostitute but were displaying facades clearly expressing great sorrow for the 11 year-old’s plight.

Such a sight actually gladdened my beloved’s heart, because it helped him to make up his mind as to what he had to do.

(Imperial palace, Rome, 1 week later)

‘There is seldom safety for the unfortunate, and Caratacus, seeking the protection of Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, was put in chains and delivered up to the conquerors....His fame had spread thence, and travelled to the neighbouring islands and provinces, and was actually celebrated in Italia. All were eager to see the great man, who for so many years had defied our power. Even at Rome the name of Caratacus was no obscure one, and the Emperor, while he exalted his own glory, enhanced the renown of the vanquished. The people were summoned as to a grand spectacle. The Praetorian cohorts were drawn up under arms in the plain in front of their camp. Then came a procession of the royal vassals, and the ornaments and neck-chains and the spoils which the King had won in wars with other tribes, were displayed. Next were to be seen his brothers, his wife and daughter; last of all, Caratacus himself. All the rest stooped in their fear to abject supplication; not so the king, who neither by humble look nor speech sought compassion.’

- Tacitus (‘Annals’, XIV.29)

I was once again attending to my Imperial master, Claudius, as he drank into the dark hours of the night with his friend, the renowned general and early conqueror of Britannia, Aulus Plautius. I stood nearby the pair, discreetly in the shadows, ready to taste any fresh flagons of wine served by other slaves.

“Is e....e....everything ready for the p....p....parade?” Claudius asked of Aulus Plautius, who had been given the responsibility for organising the processional arrival of Caratacus and his family into Rome. The ageing Emperor considered it appropriate to bestow this honour on his friend, who was similarly advanced in years, as the King of the Catuvellauni had caused the general so much trouble during his early conquest and governorship of my homeland.

“Yes,” answered Aulus Plautius, “the captives will be paraded in their chains through the streets, with the procession finishing as agreed at the Praetorian barracks, where Caratacus and his kin will be executed. The King and his brothers will be beheaded, whilst his wife and children will be strangled.”

I already knew, from Imperial couriers conveying messages to Claudius, and undoubtedly furtively to Agrippina too, that the captured King of my people and his extended family were at the outskirts of Rome. However, this was the first time that I had learnt about the reception that awaited them in the capital. I was naturally horrified.

Although I had never seen, let alone met, Caratacus, or any of his family for that matter, I owed him allegiance. He was, after all, my King, the son of the great Cunobelinus, his late father being known to some as Cymbeline. Such loyalty was now to expose my life to mortal danger.

Claudius was not, in the context of the times, a harsh ruler, although he did, like many others, occasionally exhibit a cruel streak when confronted with treason and when watching the bloody spectacles in the amphitheatre, which, after all, were presented for his enjoyment and that of the public. The parading and execution of famous troublesome captives in Rome was also not unusual. Julius Caesar had kept the heroic Gallic warrior, Vercingetorix, imprisoned in the city’s Marmertine prison for 6 years until the Dictator was ready to celebrate his triumphal parades, after which he had the regal Gaul killed.

Nevertheless, despite the inherent dangers arising from any display of impudent presumption on the part of a mere eunuch barbarian slave, I knew that my heritage required me to do something to try to save Caratacus from a fate similar to that suffered by Vercingetorix, and do so quickly. If I had been calmer and more logical, I might have embarked on a wiser course of action to that actually undertaken.

Impetuosity instead overcame sense within my appalled mental faculties and I did something that no slave should do unless invited, especially if his master is the Emperor of Rome. I addressed Claudius without sanction, stunning both him and his guest in the process, despite my attempt to perpetrate the deed politely.

I emerged from my discreet position in the shadows to request “Sire, may I please speak?”

Aulus Plautius eventually broke the subsequent momentary silence by turning to scowl at me, and then expressing his disgust at my lack of etiquette by coughing gruffly and loudly. However, Claudius managed to recover from his shock at my action by glancing at my obviously scared face and patiently replying to my verbal petition “You m....m....must have s....s....something very important to say, B....B....Bicilus, to cause you to disturb us with such a r....r....request. I therefore grant you the opportunity to s....s....speak!”

“Sire,” I then announced, with as much bravery as I could display, but with clear nervousness in my voice, “I wish to plead for the life of my King, Caratacus, and his family!”

“Treachery!” Aulus Plautius immediately shouted in intervention. “Let me call the Praetorians, Claudius,” the renowned general then requested, “to take the traitor away. I suggest that, if the slave brat’s still loyal to his King as opposed to the Emperor of Rome, he should be allowed to die with him tomorrow!”

(Mare Internum, same time)

‘....how much better to take some boy-bedfellow, who would never wrangle with you o’nights, never ask presents of you when in bed, and never complain that you took your ease and were indifferent to his solicitations!’

- Juvenal (‘Satire’, VI, ‘The Ways of Women’)

“You don’t have to do this,” Gaius declared, as he looked up at the boy facing and astride him.

“But it’s what I’m best at,” the boy replied, “and I also....” The 11 year-old then curtailed his intended comment, out of embarrassment, until Gaius gently and skilfully encouraged him to complete his sentence.

“I also truly enjoy doing it,” the naked boy confessed, as he looked into Gaius’ glazed hazel eyes and began to sit on his nude and prone master, whilst carefully guiding the young man from Volsinii’s rampant cock into his 11 year-old rear orifice. Meanwhile, his own relatively small penis was also fully erect, and beginning to drool some clear fluid.

Later, as the boy gently rode Gaius’ cock, bringing them both slowly towards delicious climax, in the cabin of the boat taking them to Greece and whilst Hylas and Achilleus slumbered in a separate bunk nearby, he could hardly believe his change in fortune. As a result of both this happy circumstance and his current pleasurable activity, his beautiful face also displayed a look of enraptured contentment.

The boy’s wonderful visage now needed no make-up. His natural 11 year-old attributes, including sensitive brown eyes and similarly coloured silky straight hair, truly required no false decoration to impress.

As Gaius eventually filled the boy’s rear with copious white creamy cum, whilst the 11 year-old’s ejaculate was both sparser and transparently colourless, it might have seemed at first sight that I had acquired a dangerous rival for my beloved’s affections. In fact, as with Achilleus, the young man from Volsinii would eventually simply be responsible for importing someone into Italia who would be of significance to future history.

The loss to Alexandria of a gorgeous 11 year-old boy whore was ultimately to prove of great benefit to the eternal city that is Rome.

(Praetorian Barracks, Rome, next day)

‘When he was set before the Emperor’s tribunal, he spoke as follows: “Had my moderation in prosperity been equal to my noble birth and fortune, I should have entered this city as your friend rather than as your captive; and you would not have disdained to receive, under a treaty of peace, a King descended from illustrious ancestors and ruling many nations. My present lot is as glorious to you as it is degrading to myself. I had men and horses, arms and wealth. What wonder if I parted with them reluctantly? If you Romans choose to lord it over the world, does it follow that the world is to accept slavery? Were I to have been at once delivered up as a prisoner, neither my fall nor your triumph would have become famous. My punishment would be followed by oblivion, whereas, if you save my life, I shall be an everlasting memorial of your clemency.”’

- Tacitus (‘Annals’, XIV.30)

After the conclusion of the humiliating parade through the streets of Rome, Caratacus and his family were displayed in their chains in front of the barracks of the Praetorians. Here the King of the Catuvellauni was given the supposedly customary, but actually rarely granted, right of condemned enemy captives to address the Emperor before execution.

I prayed to the gods that Caratacus spoke well, although my motive was associated solely with concern for his honour and that of my people. I knew that Claudius had already decided the fate of the King and his family, including his five young, very pretty children, as well as that of a certain impertinent Imperial eunuch food taster.

Meanwhile, the public executioner waited impatiently nearby, sharpened axe and sturdy garrotte at the ready.

(To be continued in chapter XLI – ‘Corinth’)