(Domus of Gaius Musonius Rufus’ parents, Volsinii Novae, Iulius DCCV A.V.C. [late July 52])

Gaius’mother was not considered formidable for nothing. She quickly recovered her composure after calamitously mistakenly mixing Britannicus and Titus up with Achilleus and Tyanus, who had remained in Rome with Endymion and Selene, and suggesting that the rather more important pair of boy visitors were my beloved’s catamites.

Gaius’ mother did so by the simple expediency of completely ignoring her previous insult and instead now welcoming Britannicus and Titus with copious attention and gushing affection. After all, one of the boys was an Imperial prince, and prospective next Emperor of Rome, and the other was not only his best friend but also the son of a famed general and recent Consul.

Gaius’ mother appreciated that the honour that her son had bestowed on their family and household by bringing Britannicus and Titus to visit the domus of mere provincial equestrians was considerable. The event would be the main talk of the neighbourhood for weeks, and the Musonii clan would be viewed by local citizenry with greatly increased esteem, as well as undoubtedly much jealousy.

Gaius’ mother was already warming enormously to the resultant celebrity, ensuring that her annoyance at hearing of her son’s circumstances in Rome was subsumed by preoccupation with her young guests. She had been advised about my beloved’s situation in the Imperial capital by the family slave she had sent to him, ostensibly to help with his luggage but actually to make doubly sure that he returned with him to visit his parents in Volsinii Novae.

The slave had also been secretly charged with discovering more about Gaius’ domestic arrangements. The silly man only really knew the ways of staid Volsinii Novae but had heard tales of the supposed regular debauchery of Rome. Without considering the need to double-check his facts, his prejudiced mind had therefore easily but mistakenly fallen prey to interpreting my beloved’s life with four beautiful boys and an equally gorgeous girl as evidence that his master’s son had succumbed to the immoral ways of the Imperial capital.

As mentioned previously, Gaius worried about having to confess to his parents the fact that he had adopted two sons without his own father’s formal consent, which technically actually made the arrangements illegal, and had bought two more slaves to help with the boys’ upbringing. Knowing that Britannicus and Titus were holidaying with Apollinus on one of Rubellius Plautius’ estates on Lake Volsinensis, not far from Volsinii Novae, I therefore suggested a ploy to secure parental approval.

I guessed that Gaius’ father and mother would be so overawed by a visit to their domus by the Emperor Claudius’ princely son that they would approve anything that my beloved had perpetrated. Britannicus of course knew the young man from Volsinii, not least from their mutual involvement in rescuing me from being a galley slave, and was kindly amenable to the plan when appraised about it by Apollinus.

On Gaius’ way to Volsinii, he and Hylas had stayed overnight at the estate of Rubellius Plautus. They had then ventured to my beloved’s own family residence on the next morning with Britannicus and Titus in tow.

In the event, Britannicus influenced issues by not only his presence on a visit but also his lauding of Gaius’ generosity in adopting two poor orphan boys as his sons, and purchase of a pair of worthy slaves to help care for them. The 11 year-old prince was not fully aware of the origins of Achilleus and Tyanus, as their backgrounds as respectively pirate’s son and Alexandrian street prostitute were rather naturally kept secret. However, his ignorance of such matters was both unimportant and probably beneficial.

In the face of such princely propaganda, which was extremely eloquent for one so young, even Gaius’ mother wilted and began to accept that what her son had done was to be praised rather than condemned. Consequently, she suggested to her husband, in Britannicus’ presence, that he confirm and therefore make fully legal a certain pair of adoptions as soon as possible.

Both Gaius and his father appreciated that the maternal suggestion was actually more of an order that could not be defied. However, my beloved’s male parent went through the nominal show of contemplating his spouse’s proposal for momentarily before agreeing.

Gaius was naturally delighted at the success of my plan, at least until his redoubtable mother achieved her revenge.

(Domus of Gaius Musonius Rufus, Subura Quarter, Rome, later same day)

Endymion had worn Achilleus and Tyanus out in energetic play. Consequently, the respectively 10 and 12 year-old boys had retired to bed early, which fatefully gave the two young slaves designated to look after them whilst Gaius was away time to themselves.

(Domus of Gaius Musonius Rufus’ patents, Volsinii Novae, same time)

The coach, or ‘carpentum’, of Rubellius Plautius had recently collected Britannicus and Titus to return the boys to his estate when Gaius’ mother again addressed her son with purpose. "Your father and I," she began, as usual speaking for her cowed husband, who just wanted a quiet life, "have accepted your adoptions. We’d therefore like our new grandsons to visit us as soon as possible, as well as to know more of their backgrounds."

Gaius was not worried about appraising his parents about some elements of the lives of his adopted sons and nor did he intend lying to his father and mother. However, the piratical and prostitution parts of the boys’ stories would remain diplomatically unmentioned. They would simply be truthfully described as orphans from respectively maritime and Alexandrian backgrounds for whom he offered better lives, free from danger and destitution.

Gaius, however, was rather nonplussed as to what to do after his mother next advised, whilst in the process securing her revenge for previous events, "Your father and I would also like grandchildren of our own blood. So then, son, when are you going to marry a nice girl? We have several to recommend to you and a wedding could be arranged and conducted before you return to Rome!"

Gaius immediately realised that he could not deny his loving parents grandchildren of their own blood. He had delayed marriage so far but, if he was not to dishonour his family by failing to propagate the lineage, he would eventually have to wed and, given Roman customs, probably soon.

Gaius later guiltily informed me that the first concern in his mind relating to the disturbing developing situation was ‘How am I going to break this news to Bicilus without distressing him?’

(Imperial villa, Baiae, Campania, Italia, same time)

The wealthiest part of Baiae, named after Baios, Odysseus’ navigator who was supposed to have died there, really does have very affluent residents indeed, because the whole town is renowned as being the seaside playground of the Roman rich. The southern area called the ‘Agri Imperiales’ is so-named because it is the location of the various local villas built by Julius Caesar and then the four Emperors from Augustus onwards.

The Agri Imperiales is located on sloping hills overlooking the sparkling blue waters of the Sinus Baianus [Bay of Baiae], which itself encroaches onto the larger Sinus Cumanus [Bay of Naples]. The Emperor Tiberius died at Baiae and his successor, Gaius Caligula, performed a famous stunt there.

Caligula had been told by an astrologer that he had as much chance of becoming Emperor as he had of riding a horse across the Sinus Baianus. After succeeding Tiberius, he therefore ordered the construction of a spectacular floating wooden bridge, using boats as pontoons and over two Roman miles long, across the bay to the neighbouring port of Puteoli in order to prove the soothsayer wrong.

Caligula’s successor, Claudius, built a magnificent villa at Baiae for his treacherous former wife, Messalina. Nevertheless, despite the associations, he decided to choose his late spouse’s palatial residence, which had remained in Imperial ownership, in order to spend the present summer in the town, where the local temperate coastal climate, beautiful scenery, medicinal sulphur springs and oysters attract many other wealthy luminaries of Roman society. However, for many of the rich, the town’s reputation for offering vice of a superior kind is undoubtedly also a major incentive, despite Seneca’s prudish dislike for such activities.

Claudius was not, of course, looking to spend his time dissolutely. Now being over 60, and feeling his age, the Emperor just wanted to relax in luxurious and picturesque surroundings that were much quieter and cooler than he could expect in Rome.

So that he was not disturbed by regular bureaucratic despatches from the capital, Claudius had been happy to leave the cares of running his Empire largely in Agrippina’s hands. The poor Imperial secretary, Narcissus, previous holder of similar power, was sadly becoming an increasingly under-used and isolated figure after the fiasco at the Fucine Lake.

I have to confess that, despite intensely missing my beloved Gaius, I too quite enjoyed staying in Messalina’s resplendent villa in Baiae. Much of my satisfaction stemmed from the fact that many evenings were spent on a terrace overlooking the beautiful Sinus Baianus in Claudius’ company, although not as the Emperor’s food-taster. I was often his sole dinner guest, as we chatted convivially long into the night, when the bay below us became notable not for sparkling blue waves but instead for the shining lights of moored boats and of the seaside town.

(Domus of Gaius Musonius Rufus, Subura Quarter, Rome, next morning)

The naked Selene would, of course, not immediately know, when she woke up in bed at dawn on this morning with the similarly nude Endymion alongside her, after the pair had made love for the first time on the previous evening, that she was now pregnant. A certain Aetolus would begin his fateful visit to this world in 9 months’ time.

(Pompeii, Campania, Italia, later same morning)

Pompeii, traditionally founded by Heracles and previously inhabited by Oscans and then Samnites, had only succumbed to Roman suzerainty 132 years prior to the horseback visit by Nero and Suffuscus. The fortified city, also located like Baiae on the Sinus Cumanus, was situated on a hill near to the mouth of the River Sarno. However, the metropolis additionally possessed a busy coastal harbour outside the walls, which often supplemented Ostia’s facilities for imports destined for Rome. Landed goods could be readily transported along the Via Domitiana and then Via Appia to the Imperial capital.

On this day, whilst quietly visiting Pompeii incognito under the watchful supervision of Doryphorus and Helius and the prince’s personal slave, Epaphroditus, Nero and Suffuscus experienced one of the occasional minor tremors that affected the city, which resulted in some tiles falling from rooftops and other minor damage. When the curious boys asked about the cause, no-one could provide an answer, although some people did tell them that such events were often associated with strange wisps of foul-smelling gas emanating from crevasses on the nearby Mount Vesuvius, which dominated the northern horizon.

"I don’t know why," Suffuscus commented to Nero, whilst referring to Vesuvius, "but I don’t like that mountain. I think it’s sinister!" The prince looked at the tall natural pinnacle concerned, the lower slopes of which were covered by verdant trees, the locale being excellent vineyard territory, whilst the summit was unusually flat.

Nero then suggested that his friend was being over-dramatic.

(Athens, Roman Province of Achaea, Greece, same time)

The new governor of the Roman Senatorial Province of Achaea in Greece arrived in the provincial capital of Athens to take up his important position. However, Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus had not gained the post by virtue of any great personal merit but rather through family influence at the Imperial court.

To further his political career in Rome, the arriving governor had years previously been adopted as the son of one of his natural father’s friends, Junius Gallio, who happened to be a renowned and rich orator and an associate of the Emperor Tiberius’ notorious powerful henchman, Sejanus. Such adoptions by childless men were not uncommon, especially when the real parents have other male offspring and live more obscurely, and the new heir is ambitious to further his career or inherit wealth or both.

The natural brother of the originally named Annaeus Novatus had now been responsible for his sibling’s elevation to a lucrative governorship. The post brought not only power and status but also the opportunity to accumulate great wealth through the quiet acceptance of bribes for the likes of awarding government contracts.

Seneca’s brother, and Lucanus’ other uncle, Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, was also to prove of significance to a certain missionary of the new Jewish Christian sect, who was currently still scrounging the kind hospitality of Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, in the Achaean city of Corinth.

(Promontory of Actium, Roman Province of Epirus, northwest Greece, same time)

- Plutarch describing, in ‘The Decline of the Oracles’, the mission in life of the Spartan, Cleombrotus, which is actually a reflection of his own

In the neighbouring westerly province to Achaea of Epirus, 12 year-old Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus was sitting on the grassy promontory of Actium, glancing between the narrow sea-strait below him, which led from the Mare Ionium into the Sinus Ambracicus, and the clay tablet resting on his knee. The boy, into whom my beloved Gaius had imbued a great interest in history, had persuaded his father to allow him to visit this historic place from their Greek hometown of Chaeronea in Boetica, which was itself a famous battlesite.

Below young Plutarchus, 83 years previously, the fleet of Marcus Antonius and his lover, Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, which had been trapped in the Sinus Ambracicus, had attempted to break out into the sea. Their vessels had been blockaded in the bay by those of Octavian, the later Emperor Augustus, which were led by his friend Marcus Agrippa.

Plutarchus, who had now learnt much about the subsequent momentous naval battle of Actium in oral form, began to record notes of re-enactment with his stylus on his clay tablet, which, at the tender young age of 12 years, were to represent his own first historical achievement. However, the boy was to introduce some bias into his narrative, as he had no sympathy for Antonius.

During one of his earlier military campaigns in Greece, Antonius had brought much grief to both Plutarchus’ forefathers and the boy’s hometown of Chaeronea.

(Mare Internum, same time)

The captain of the ship on which Cornutus and Servius were sailing to Rhodus, which was called the ‘Hirundo’, or ‘Swallow’, advised his passengers that their vessel was ahead of schedule. The weather and winds had been favourably kind, as they had skirted the western coast of Italia and crossed the Mare Ionium to shadow the rocky shoreline of Achaea in Greece.

The captain declared that, if such conditions were maintained, the ship should next be able to traverse the Mare Aegaeum and reach Rhodus in another week. Cornutus was grateful for such news, as he knew that his younger lover, Servius, actually hated travelling by sea, although not because of associated dangers or stomach upsets.

Cornutus and Servius might have contested Aristotle’s words about swallows. After all, the ‘Hirundo’ was making their summer by seemingly transporting them quickly and safely to Rhodus.

Nevertheless, anyone, who had once, like the 23 year-old eunuch, Servius, served as a galley slave and been castrated on board a ship, would share his dislike of sea travel.

(Imperial latifundium, Campania, Italia, 1 week later, Augustus DCCV A.V.C. [early August 52 AD])

Nero looked at Athenodoros’ naked body with immense admiration. The famed athlete’s frame was not overly muscular but was more akin, in the prince’s eyes, to that of the beautiful mythical youth, Ganymede, who was the beloved of Zeus and whose impeccable nude shape the 13 year-old had often seen in statue form.

Athenodoros and Melankomas were making one final visit whilst in Italia before returning home to Greece. At the request of Agrippina, conveyed through her husband, Claudius, they had undertaken a diversion from their route to the port of Brundisium in order to go to meet young Nero and spend a few days with him.

Instead of going straight down the Via Appia from Rome to Brundisium in the southeast of Italia, the Imperial coach, which had been lent with drivers to Athenodoros and Melankomas, had left this route after passing through Capua to go along the Via Aquilia to Nola. Minor roads then led them through Stabiae to the latifundium on the Sinus Cumanus, where Nero was holidaying with Suffuscus.

Given Nero’s developing passion for Greek culture, the prince had been delighted to meet and host such famed athletes as Athenodoros and Melankomas. The clearly enthusiastically infatuated boy asked them numerous questions about their careers and lives, and the renowned pair was polite, patient and diplomatic enough to provide comprehensive answers.

Nero eventually asked of Athenodoros "How fast are you really?" The 19 year-old athlete had in reply offered to show the prince by means of a practical demonstration, namely racing the distance of a stade against the fastest young workers on the latifundium.

Athenodoros also promised a rich reward to any opponents who reached half the distance before he completed the race. An intrigued Nero agreed to match his largesse. Consequently, the challenge naturally drew great interest amongst the more athletic males on the latifundium and heats had to be arranged before the identity of the fifteen youths and young men, who would contest the challenge and included slaves as well as the free, could be finalised.

The scene for the race was a grassy fallow coastal pasture, overlooking the blue waves of the Sinus Cumanus. Distances were paced out and wooden stakes planted to indicate the start, halfway and finish lines.

News of the event had quickly travelled far and Nero, at Suffuscus’ suggestion, therefore happily allowed visitors to trespass on his vast estate in order to watch the spectacle. The prince also temporarily excused all of the latifundium’s free and slave workers from their toils so that they could watch.

Nero originally thought that, given the large crowd now gathered, Athenodoros might demur whilst in Italia from running in the Greek fashion, namely nude. After all, every one of his opponents and the other runners in the heats had sought to maintain their modesty by at least wearing loincloths. However, the famed athlete was not to be put off by such Roman decorum and stripped naked as soon as he arrived at the scene in order to limber up under the direction of Melankomas in readiness to race.

Initial shock amongst the spectators and opponents at such exposure was quickly assuaged by admiration of Athenodoros’ disrobed physique, especially amongst the females and those males who possessed a certain sexual disposition. Their esteem then only increased when the famed athlete subsequently achieved the feat of running the stade before anyone else had attained halfway.

Such regard was further boosted when Athenodoros delighted at least one of his disappointed opponents by still awarding the young slave who finished the stade in second place a substantial monetary prize. Nero felt obliged to match the sum, although his coffers, which were looked after by Doryphorus and Helius, soon received the cash back, along with that given by the victorious Aigionian.

The young slave had used his monetary rewards to buy his freedom from his owner, who was ultimately Nero. Technically, under ancient Roman law, such manumission was not permissible until the freedman-to-be reached the age of thirty. However, as the likes of the freed Axenius, Arius, Cornutus, Servius, Helius and Doryphorus had discovered, the relevant laws were easily and commonly circumvented by familial adoption or bribing or otherwise coercing the officials who were responsible for legally recording acts of emancipation. Of course, no such bureaucrat was going need cash to refrain from questioning the largesse of the Empress Agrippina’s son.

When Nero later said his farewells to Athenodoros and Melankomas, as they finally set off for Brundisium and home, he expressed a desire someday to visit Olympia to watch the famed runner competing in an Olympiad. Fatefully for me, the prince was to achieve his aim.

(Island of Rhodus, Dodecanese, eastern Aegean Sea, same time)

The captain of the ‘Hirundo’, which was carrying Cornutus and Servius to Rhodus, proved accurate in his assessment as to how much longer their voyage would take if the weather and winds remained favourable. Consequently, the pair of travellers was currently disembarking from their vessel to begin their visit to the island.

Before Cornutus and Servius subsequently left the quayside of Rhodus’ eponymous capital, which is located at the northern tip of the island, to ride on hired donkeys to the farm and vineyard that represented their final destination, they went to look at the ruins of the great Colossus. These monumental bronze fragments still dominate the mouth of the harbour.

Like young Hylas and Achilleus had once happily done when touring in the company of my beloved Gaius, Cornutus and Servius felt obliged to clamber over those ruins that were above the waves. As they did so, they came across the huge bronze genitalia that had belonged to the colossal statue of the sun god, Helius, who had been depicted naked.

Like young Hylas and Achilleus had also once done, Servius was tempted to crack a joke at the sight. "Look, Cornutus," the 23 year-old eunuch jested, "it seems that I’m in good company. The sun god’s been castrated too!"