Bellus Cinaedus Chapter 5
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What This Story Is About
This is a story about a teen living in Eburacum Britannia in the year 100 AD. His father's family died out with him, leaving Quintus Curtius Bellus without a patron other than his poor mother. To survive she married a wealthy freedman in town and the teen Bellus fell under his power.
I have kept the historical details of the story as close as possible to reality without sacrificing the narrative. There is a list of characters and a Latin glossary at the end of the story for those who want or need it.
Author's Notes
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· This story is loosely patterned on the story of Verginia and Appius Claudius from 451 BC.
· I am two chapters ahead of publication on each of the stories in the College Magic Cycle, so I will be posting 1 chapter per week in this cycle until I can pull 3+ chapters ahead again.
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Bellus Cinaedus Chapter 5
Three days working as common slaves wasn't easy for Bellus or Eburnus. Neither boy was used to hard work. On the first day, they were set to work in the garden. After a very small breakfast, Secundus dropped them off with Aras the gardener.
"Keep an eye on them, Aras," he said. "Work them all day. Put Bellus to hard work so he can develop more muscle, but Eburnus gets only light work. Let him fetch water and serve it or something like that. He can also run messages, but I don't want him to get too muscular. He's a soft boy and I want him to stay that way. When your team breaks for lunch, have the boys report to the kitchen. Cook knows what they're allowed to eat. And watch your men around them. They're mine and no one can fuck them without my permission. I'll have any slave castrated if they touch my property without permission. You're the supervisor, however, so you can have them suck your dick if you want."
"Yes Dominus," the bearded Syrian acknowledged. "Can I put them in a chlamys or something? Eburnus especially will burn in the sun."
"I can't have that, Aras," Secundus said. "My father says they're to remain naked and he is the paterfamilias. I can't and I won't go against his wishes."
In the end, Aras had the boys working shifts in the sun followed by shifts under the portico. Eburnus went around with a waterskin and a clay cup to keep the workers hydrated, while Bellus crawled around on the ground picking up weeds when he was in the sun, and he pushed a broom when he was under the portico.
None of the men tried anything with the boys. They took Secundus's warning to heart. That didn't stop them from touching the boys. Their hands were constantly on them, pinching their butts, stroking their scrotums, and even pressing a finger against their little sphincters. Eburnus just laughed and wiggled his butt at them. Bellus had been raised to be more modest. He was embarrassed to have men touching him in intimate places, but Secundus had made it clear to him that he wasn't allowed to tell men no.
His exact words had been, "As a cinaedus, you are a passive being. You will not tell men `No, not even slaves', and you will not resist them or their touch."
"Does this mean that any man can use me for sex, Dominus," I'd asked.
"Men can touch you, but they can't use you without my permission," he'd said. "You don't resist them because a cinaedus accepts whatever a man does to him without question. If someone uses you without my permission, I will handle it."
So Bellus didn't complain, no matter how much he didn't like it. They were resting in the heat of the day, under the portico, eating their meager lunch. They both had puls and posca again. Eburnus was allowed a dessert of sweetened cream that had been beaten until it was stiff. Bellus licked his lips and looked longingly at it.
"Do you want a bite?" Eburnus whispered, holding out a spoon when no one was looking.
Bellus shook his head. "I don't want you to get into trouble, but I'm hungry all the time. I just want to lose this fat, so I don't have to starve every day."
The boys hadn't heard Aras coming over to where they were sitting until he said, "You're not fat, Bellus. You have a little boyish softness left around your middle and on your face, but that will fade with time and hard work."
"Dominus says that I'm fat and he wants me to lose it," Bellus said.
"If Dominus wants you to skip meals, then you'll skip meals," he said. "But don't let him make you feel bad about your body. They chose the name Bellus for you because you are beautiful. Don't forget that."
Bellus hugged the gardener and started crying. "It's not easy Aras," he said. "I'm not used to being exposed like this all the time. I'm not used to men touching me all the time."
Aras sat down on the floor and pulled Bellus onto his lap. "It wasn't easy for me either, Bellus. I was raised in Syria and our people are more modest than Romans. I was only a few years younger than you when I was enslaved. I'd just had my eleventh birthday. My father had chosen the wrong side in a minor uprising and the next thing I knew we were all being shipped off to Rome to be sold in the slave markets.
"My first owner had me trained as a gardener. My father had been a physician, and my uncle was an advocate in the courts, but none of that mattered. I had been raised a modest boy, but I'd been stripped naked and sold on a public stage. My master took my virginity in the courtyard with the household watching. He didn't think I was pretty enough to keep in his bedroom, so he allowed all the lead slaves to take afterwards.
"The gardener kept me naked while I worked, and he allowed the other gardeners to use my mouth when we were on break. And I shared his bed at night. It was like that for several years, but my appearance didn't improve as I aged, so eventually I was allowed to put on a tunic. I had applied myself enough that I learned all that the gardener had to teach and was made his assistant.
"Later I was sold to a man who brought me here to take charge of his gardens. And when Dominus bought the house, I came with it. And so, I am here, holding a beautiful slave boy on my lap while he cries. Given my background, I should be conniving to take you for my own, but all I want to do is dry your tears."
Bellus sniffed and said, "It shouldn't bother me so much. Eburnus has had dealt with it all his life, and your story is so much worse than mine, but I'm having a hard time with the men touching me all the time. It's probably not true, but it seemed like the men were touching me more than they were Eburnus, even though he's prettier than I am."
Aras nodded his head sagely. "They were," he said. "Tell them why, Eburnus."
For the first time in this conversation, the young delicatus spoke up. "When the men touch you, you blush and get upset. That just makes them want to do it more. They can't take you, so the only pleasure they get is to pick on you. When they touch me, I smile at them and wiggle my butt. They laugh, but they get tired of it because it doesn't upset me. I mean it does, but I don't let them see me get upset.
"If I had my way, I would just be touched by Dominus, the young one or his father ... and maybe the nice slaves like Cook and Gardener. But I don't have a choice. It wouldn't make my life any better if I got mad and let everyone know that I didn't like it.
"Two years ago, Dominus held me on his lap and squeezed my nuts until I cried. He told me that he was trying to decide whether to have them removed so I'd remain a delicatus. When he asked me if I wanted to keep them, I was scared. I knew that he'd hurt them so bad so that I wouldn't care if he took them or not. But I decided not to beg or plead. He would do whatever he decided to do, and my own wishes wouldn't matter at all. So, I told him that it was his decision, not mine."
Aras pulled Eburnus down onto his lap as well and he held both boys. He didn't order them to suck his dick, even though he wanted to feel their soft lips and warm mouths on his cock. Right now, he knew that they needed comforting, and so did he. He'd kept his life story secret, never sharing it with anyone who didn't already know. He'd told Bellus because he was so sad and needed comforting, but it had helped him too.
Eburnus leaned against Aras's chest and whispered, "Do you want me to suck your phallos, Aras. Break time isn't over until you say it is because you're the boss."
"Are you sure that you want to suck my phallos, Eburnus?" I won't make you even though Dominus said that I could.
Eburnus stroked Aras's beard and said, "You've been nice to me and my friend Bellus, and kindness is the sexiest thing there is. That's why I like you and Cook so much."
Aras had never been called kind before, but then again he'd never been kind before. He hoped that this was a change for the better and not just a one-time thing.
"Can I help," Bellus asked. "And I want you to know that your old Dominus must have been crazy to say you weren't handsome. I think you're very handsome, and so do many of the other slaves. And I'm sorry that no one was there to tell you what you told me today. Don't let anyone, not even Dominus, make you feel bad about your body."
Eburnus chimed in, "Your lips are very thick. That's not bad. They're soft and they make me want to kiss you."
"And your eyes," Bellus said. "They're deep and dark. I think your first Dominus was being mean because he could. He probably enjoyed making you feel bad, and you've been in pain ever since."
Eburnus wasn't wasting any more time. He slid down and began working to remove Aras's subligaria. Bellus kissed Aras's lips and then joined his companion in kissing the gardener's phallos. The boys worked hard to please him. They weren't in love with him, but they wanted to make him feel good.
The boys had practiced enough on Secundus that they knew how to share a man. Each kissed their way up one side of the shaft, and their mouths met at the head, then they kissed their way down again to meet at his scrotum. Eburnus seized the initiative and moved up to swallow the head, so Bellus concentrated on the gardener's sweaty scrotum.
The boys guided Aras down to lie on his back so they could get more easily work on him. They held hands and bonded over their shred task. They were proud of themselves because they soon had him on edge. They used all their tricks to keep him there for as long as they could. When he came, Eburnus took the load in his mouth, but then the two boys kissed and shared the gardener's seed between them.
They hadn't been so loving with Aras because they were trying to get out of work. They had been moved by his own sad tale. But the fact remained that he gave both boys light work for the remainder of the afternoon. And Bellus tried giggling at the men when they touched him instead of giving them a dark look. It made them even more eager to push his limits.
When he got exasperated, Eburnus whispered, "It will get worse before it gets better. The guys are just checking to see if they can make you upset like they did earlier. They'll stop once they don't get a reaction for a while. Besides, they don't get to have much fun either and touching your sexy butt gives them a lot to think about later ... when they're masturbating."
After working, they were sent to get cleaned up for their dominus. They were clean and splashing around in the tepidarium when Secundus came in to find them. They scrambled out of the bath and knelt at their master's feet.
"Did you miss me boys," he asked with a smirk.
They kissed his feet and then smiled up at him, and cried out in unison, "Yes Dominus!"
They weren't just flattering him. Despite becoming more demanding with them, the boys were both in love with Secundus. His firm youthful body, handsome face and large phallos had them hooked like overly eager fish.
"Then come clean me off so I can join you in the tepidarium," he commanded.
The naked boys followed him into the washroom and oiled his body well before using strigils to scrape the oil and dirt off. Then they laughed as they poured warm water over him to rinse him off before using towels to remove the last of the oil.
Then they all three jumped into the tepidarum and played around like the kids they all were. Trebonius came into the room with Rosarius while they were playing, and he stood there and watched them. The sight of his son's firm buttocks rising above the water as he wrestled both his boys at once was a beautiful sight. Once Secundus had fully dominated the boys, holding one under each arm, he glanced over and noticed his father and his father's beautiful concubinus.
"I'll join you in a moment," the father called out, leading Rosarius into the washroom.
When Trebonius came back into the room, Secundus had each boy on one of his knees, with a finger in each of their butts. They were leaning against him and kissing him gently on the chest and neck. Trebonius kissed Rosarius and led him to the pool where they joined Secundus and his two slaves. Rosarius wasted no time in trying to outshine Eburnus and Bellus in the attention he paid to his dominus, and soon he was straddling Trebonius's lap and settling on his cock, making the older man gasp with pleasure.
"What did you do today, son," Trebonius asked, ignoring the slave who was bouncing gently on his cock.
Deciding that Bellus was still too tight to be fucked without preparation, and not wanting to get oil into the pool, Secundus decided to have the boys take turns holding their breath and sucking his phallos under water instead.
"I had the surgeon in to cut Crispus today," he said. "And I've been thinking about what to do with Flosculus. His face becomes more handsome with each passing day, but he's begun to get hairy. I think we should try to sell him before he becomes even hairier."
"Aras wants him," Trebonius replied languidly, "but the boy thinks he's too good to become a cinaedus for another slave."
Secundus sighed. His phallos was feeling good now as the boys competed to see who would be the one to swallow his seed. Eburnus had just surfaced and was panting to catch his breath. And Bellus was beginning to choke from his need to take a breath. But neither boy would let their master's phallos out of their mouth until the other showed up below the water to take his place.
"The boy thinks very highly of himself," Secundus said. "Aras is good at his job and deserves a reward, but Flosculus is an arrogant little prick and wouldn't be that much of a reward. We could give him to Maddox."
"Maddox wants Glabrius," Trebonius said with a laugh.
"Maddox can fuck himself," Secundus replied. "Glabrius is the most valuable pleasure boy we own except for these three. We can always put Flosculus on a rotation, servicing each team of slaves in the house on a different night until he begs us to give him to Aras. He needs to be broken before he can accept that he's lost his youthful beauty and he'll never be more than a mediocre sphintria."
"That's not a bad idea," Trebonius replied. "I'll explain it to Aras, so that he won't feel hurt. When you pick out the new trainees, get a pretty boy of nine or ten years and give him to Maddox as a bonus. He'd be dissatisfied with Glabrius anyway in a year or two. This way he'll get four years of pleasure before his eyes start wandering."
It was Bellus who was lucky enough to take his dominus's seed, but he was nice enough to share it with Eburnus. The two boys kissed, passing the semen back and forth with each kiss.
The next day, Bellus and Eburnus were lucky enough to be assigned to work with Cook. He was the kindest of the senior slaves and he had a soft spot for pretty slave boys. He gave them hard work, mostly washing the pots and pans and cleaning vegetables for dinner, which meant that the kitchen drudge boy was given the day off to leave the house and spend what little money he had. The two assistant cooks weren't very nice. They liked to smack the boys' butts with large wooden spoons and were always quick to find fault with their work. Cook never stopped them, but he didn't join them in their fun.
Secundus had warned the staff not to let the boys, especially Bellus, eat anything except for meals, so they were hungry despite working around all that food. But at lunchtime, when Cook decided to take his reward, he led the boys into his cubicle and closed the curtain. He pulled off his tunic and subligaria, exposing his aging and sagging flesh. Then he pulled out a bowl with cold custard in it and dipped his knobby cock in it.
"You're going to have to clean my phallos off boys," he said with a grin. He knew that Dominus was keeping them hungry, especially Bellus.
The boys knelt and licked Cook's phallos clean. The custard was rich with minced raisins, honey, and reduced wine. They grinned up at him as he dipped his cock in the custard again and gave them a wink. They liked Cook because he was always so kind, but he was also old and fat; his phallos tasted of stale sweat and urine. But today it tasted delicious, and they licked it greedily. He dipped his phallos again and again into the custard until there were only the bits stuck to the bowl. Then he rubbed the inside of the bowl with his member until it was clean. Of course, the boys cleaned it completely, then sucked on it until it gave them his seed.
At noon, the boys were sent to serve their dominus his lunch. They were told they could find him working in the garden oecus. On the way, they noticed Flosculus on his knees under the portico. He had was sucking the phallos of one of the gardeners, and another was standing nearby awaiting his turn. It seemed that Dominus had followed through on his threat to have him service the slaves of the household. Flosculus was crying openly at the shame of being forced to service the slaves.
Secundus was reading through some accounting records and frowning. He was sure that the old accountant had been skimming money from the household accounts. He was dead now, from a problem with his heart, so there was no way to ask him about the money.
When the boys came into the room, he barely noticed them. When they approached the table with his lunch, they were smiling at him. He put his work aside and pulled his chair back from the table so they could put his food in front of him.
"Here you go, Dominus," they said. "We brought your lunch"
"You boys seem happy, do you like working like a common slave," he asked with a smile.
"No Dominus," they replied, almost in unison.
"We hate it Dominus," Eburnus said, "but Cook is nice."
Bellus poured some wine into a cup with great care. "But we love serving you, Dominus," he said.
"Are you boys feeling fine today?" Secundus asked. "Your behavior is a little strange. What do you want?"
Eburnus blushed, but Bellus spoke up. "We just want you to know that we're happy being your slaves. All we want to do is serve you and make your happy. We don't want to give you any reason to give us away, or to sell us. I know that I have a lot to learn to be a good concubinus, but I'm trying, Dominus. Please give us time."
Secundus ignored his lunch for the moment and pulled both boys onto his lap. "Are you afraid that I'm going to sell you boys or give you away?"
"Yes Dominus," Bellus said. "For several days now, we've noticed that you and Dominus Trebonius have become ... harsher. And it seems like ..."
"... like you don't love us anymore," Eburnus said with his lip trembling slightly. He was thinking of Flosculus and the way he'd been demoted, and also of Lollius who'd wanted him to serve in his brothel.
Secundus squeezed them to his chest and kissed them both on the forehead. "Both you boys are beautiful, but neither of you understands business. Up to now, training pleasure slaves has been a hobby for our family, but it wasn't a part of our business. My father has put me in charge of creating a new business. No one in Britannia trains pleasure slaves, even though the native Britons are highly prized throughout the Imperium. Now that our business includes pleasure slaves, we need to treat it as a business. But you boys are my most prized possessions. I won't sell you, and I won't give you away."
"But Flosculus is now servicing the household slaves instead of serving at the tables," Eburnus said determinedly.
"That's true," Secundus acknowledged, "but Flosculus decided not to be a good slave. He thought he was too good to do the work required of him by his Dominus. Now he's being punished. When he's learned his lesson, he will be given to Aras. He's lost his youthful beauty and he can't work as a pleasure slave anymore. But he'll make Aras happy and that will make Aras more efficient at his job. Do you understand?"
The boys nodded, but they didn't seem sure.
"What should Flosculus have done?" Secundus asked.
"He should have done what his dominus told him to do," Eburnus said. "And he shouldn't have questioned his dominus's wishes."
"Good answer, Eburnus," Secundus said. "And why should he have obeyed without question, Bellus."
Bellus replied, "I think it's because a slave doesn't have a right to say no or to question his dominus."
"That's right, Bellus," Secundus said. "Who does a slave's body belong to?"
"Dominus!" both boys said as one.
Secundus smiled and asked, "Eburnus, if I took you into the forum of Eboracum and told you to surrender your pretty anus to every man who demanded it, what would you do?"
Eburnus didn't hesitate. "I would do whatever you demanded of me, Dominus."
"And would you hesitate or question me?" Secundus asked.
"No Dominus," Eburnus admitted.
"And you, Bellus. If I took you to the market and told you to suck the phallos of goat or a dog, what would you do?"
Bellus hesitated, but he replied, "I would do as you ordered, Dominus ... but I wouldn't like it."
Secundus laughed. "I'm not surprised. I didn't think you would like it, but you would do what I ordered."
"That's because I don't get to make decisions because I'm a slave," Bellus elaborated.
"That's right," Secundus said. "And both of you are happier when you don't question my orders. You will be happier once you learn to obey without even thinking about it."
"But..." Eburnus began, "what about when we lose our youthful beauty and can't serve as pleasure slaves anymore?"
"And that's the real question you had all along," Secundus said. "There's a difference between you two and Flosculus. You boys belong to me. You will always serve me in some way. If I grow not to desire you physically, then I will find a different place for you in my personal retinue. But I doubt that will happen. Both of you are pretty enough that you'll likely stay handsome, even when you age. But Flosculus didn't serve me or my father. He was used to satisfy guests and patrons. They don't get a chance to know the inner beauty of a slave boy; they can only judge by the face and body. He resisted being given to Aras, even though it was a position of honor since Aras is one of our senior slaves. That will never happen to you."
The boys felt better about their futures then. If Secundus was being truthful with them, they would remain his slaves forever. They fed him his lunch of cheese, boiled eggs, olives, bread and olive oil and stewed apples. He allowed each of them to have a single olive as a treat. They were grateful even though Cook had kindly fed them custard earlier. Those olives were a gift from the dominus they loved.
The next day was the worst of their three days as common slaves. The boys were tasked to work for the aged slave Danicus, a sour-faced Greek who must have been seventy years old. Aras was known as the gardener, which was a misnomer, since he was responsible for maintaining everything in the gardens which included the exterior of the house itself. Danicus was his opposite number. He was responsible for maintaining everything inside the house.
Danicus didn't seem pleased when Secundus handed the two naked pretty boys over to him. He didn't react at all to their pleasing appearance. He led them down to the bath and told them to turn valve that allowed the tepidarium to drain, then he had them take brushes and begin scrubbing the tiles on the floor.
"I want this to be done in one hour," he said. "If you haven't finished, I'll beat you until you wished you had worked instead of playing around."
Then he left them alone while the pool slowly drained. Neither Bellus nor Eburnus had ever done work like this before. It seemed physically demanding to them, but not challenging otherwise. They fell easily into banter as they scrubbed the floors. They finished before the end of the hour and were wrestling around on the tile. Neither boy was strong, but Bellus was a couple inches taller and had developed some boyish muscle while Eburnus was still soft and delicate.
They giggled and rolled around on the floor. Bellus was on top of Eburnus and had him pinned. Their naked hard penises were pressed against one another. Bellus leaned down and kissed Eburnus gently on the lips. Eburnus responded in kind and soon they were kissing and touching one another with passion. They pressed their erections against one another, knowing they were breaking the rules, but not caring at this time.
Danicus returned and saw the boys playing. He hated them. He hated everything about them. In his mind, slave boys like Bellus and Eburnus were the lowest of the low. They enjoyed better food and comfortable accommodations, but they did no work. They traded what little dignity a slave can keep for himself for the easy life of being the master's pets. And here they were, shirking their duty so they could play with each other instead. Even when the master had ordered them to wait until their milking day, they couldn't be bothered to obey. All his life, he'd worked hard while the pretty boys around him had enjoyed privileges without responsibility while the diligent slaves who followed the rules and did what they were ordered were rewarded with more work and none of the rewards. And his hatred had grown stronger when dominus's old pretty boy spintria had been rewarded with freedom and would likely inherit the entire estate upon dominus's death.
When Danicus strolled in with his sour face, the boys stopped playing and stood up to await orders. Danicus strolled around the room, inspecting the floors, and looking for shoddy work. The boys were inexperienced, and they had done only a surface cleaning, leaving mold on the grout between the tiles. He turned to face them, and they blanched.
"Come here!" he demanded, pointing to a moldy spot.
Bellus and Eburnus walked over and looked at the floor. They saw the black marks he was pointing to, but neither of them had noticed the marks before.
"This is what happens when you assign useless, pathetic, spintriae to do honest work!" he yelled. "Put your noses here on this black mold and get your asses up in the air!"
Fear washed over the boys. They'd never been yelled at like this, not even by the ornatrix after they spilled the wax. They were shaking and pleading, but they pressed their faces into the tile. Danicus lifted his baculum and swung it savagely through the air and hit Bellus across the buttocks. He yelled and fell forward. Then the senior slave swung the baculum with equal strength and landed a blow on Eburnus's butt.
"Get your asses in the air and hold still or I'll beat it harder!" he yelled.
The boys crawled back up into position and Danicus struck them again. And then again. They tried to get away, but Danicus followed them around the room, swinging his baculum and yelling at them to stop running. When Danicus's assistant Leander saw what was happening, he rushed into the room and tackled his boss.
"Stop, Danicus, you've gone far enough," he yelled. Once he had wrestled Danicus to the ground, he took the baculum away from him. Then he rose and stood over him. "Go! Get dominus!" he yelled.
He looked down at the bloody welts on the back, butt and legs of the boys and went to fetch some fresh water to clean them up. He had no idea what had driven his boss to such a fit of violence. Luckily the damage seemed less severe once he had cleaned the blood. He was trying to calm the boys when one of the other slaves came running into the room.
"I just saw Danicus storming through the house; he wouldn't say what was wrong, but he was upset."
When he saw the boys crying and holding on to each other, his eyes got wide and he ran out of the room, only to return in a few minutes with Battius following closely behind.
"What's going on in here?" Battius demanded, looking from the boys to Leander who was holding the baculum of a senior slave overseer. "Is that Danicus's baculum you're holding?"
Leander held it forth to the maior domesticus and said, "Yes, Battius, it is. I took it away from Danicus when he was beating the young dominus's slaves. There was even more blood then, and I feared for their safety."
Battius examined the boys for damage and cringed a little. Wounds like this could leave scars if not properly treated. "Can you boys walk?" he asked.
Both Eburnus and Bellus stood with grimaces of pain on their pretty faces. Battius sucked in a breath through his teeth when he saw that Eburnus bore a welt across his legs and groin from the front and Bellus had one on the left side of his face.
"Let's go to see dominus," he said. "This matter is beyond my authority."
They were walking slowly. Leander was supporting both boys, one with each arm. In the garden, just before they got to the doors of the main house they encountered Secundus being led by Aras. The gardener had seen the commotion and with it his chance to increase his standing with the young master. He ran to get him so he could deal with the issue.
"Battius, what is the meaning of this?" he growled angrily, fire flashing in his blue Celtic eyes.
"It appears that Danicus may have exceeded his authority in disciplining these slaves," Battius said. "Should I deal with him, dominus?"
Secundus said, "No, Battius. Bring the bastard to me, now!"
Then he turned to another slave in the garden, and yelled, "Go fetch Medicus, now!"
"Aras and Leander, help me carry these boys to my room where we can lay them down on my bed, and then send a slave to find my father."
He helped Aras and Leander pick the boys up and led the way to his room on the second floor overlooking the garden. He cleaned everything off his bed and made space to lay the boys out on it. Then he examined the damage. This was an act of spite. For some reason Danicus had tried to damage these beautiful boys to get back at them – or at him.
The medicus was the first to arrive and he elbowed past Secundus as if unconcerned about the difference in their status. As one of the most privileged slaves in the house, Medicus could afford to violate protocol.
"These are not life threatening, dominus," the physician said after examining them, "but if you want to prevent scars, I will have to treat them immediately. And it will take time and expensive medicines."
"Don't even try to tell me that it won't be worth it," Secundus demanded. "I want them scar free, and I don't intend to be disappointed. See to it, and I'll attend to the prayers at the Temple of Apollo."
The medicus began to clean the wounds with alcohol and to examine them closely. "They aren't deep, Dominus," he said. "I should be able to treat them effectively and keep the scars to a minimum. We caught it early, but I can't guarantee that there won't be some slight scarring."
Secundus leaned over and kissed both boys on the lips. "Did you hear that?" he asked gently. "Medicus can fix you right up. Now tell me what happened."
Bellus cried, "We missed some black stuff in the grout between the tiles and then we were kissing when Danicus came into the room."
"But we were just kissing, Dominus," Eburnus sobbed. "We weren't doing anything bad; we just didn't see the dirt."
"Shh," Secundus said. "No one should have left you to work and expected you to be able to do it perfectly. Cleaning floors isn't your talent. Your talents are pleasing a man's phallos with your mouths or your cute little spintriae."
He tweaked their noses and then kissed their foreheads.
It was then that Battius returned with Danicus. At least the older slave had the grace to look guilty.
Secundus rounded on him. "What in the name of the immortal gods did you think you were doing, damaging my slaves like that?"
"Slaves who do not perform up to standards are routinely punished," Dominus. "It happens every day in this household and in thousands of households across the imperium."
Secundus grabbed him by the neck and dragged him over to the bed and forced him to look at the welts. "You marred their skin," he hissed. "They're not worthless animals like you, Danicus. Either of these boys is worth more than you."
When Secundus looked into Danicus's face he saw a smirk of satisfaction playing around his eyes. He punched the old man in the face. He had a need to hurt this slave as much as he'd hurt his boys. He dragged him over the wall and beat his head against the stone lintel until he'd smeared it with blood. Danicus's head had broken and his brains were spilling out, then he threw him to floor.
He looked at Leander and handed him Danicus's baculum, saying, "Have some slaves clean this mess up. Unless my father says otherwise, consider yourself the senior slave of the domus. You will report directly to Battius."
"Yes dominus," the two slaves said almost in unison.
Secundus turned back to the bed and saw the boys lying there with a look of fear on their faces. Misreading their thoughts, he placed his bloody hands alongside their faces and said, "Don't worry your pretty little heads. That brute will never be able to harm you again. Once Medicus had treated and bound their wounds, Secundus crawled into bed between them and held them tight.
"I can't fuck you until Medicus says that it's safe to do so without slowing your recovery," he said. But I can still hold you and kiss you."
They'd been on the receiving end of violence at the hands of Danicus but seeing Secundus beat a man to death in front of their eyes was even more disturbing, and now he held them with those same hands that had beat a man's brains out. They fell asleep fitfully and slept uneasily.
The next week was a week of recovery. Medicus changed their bandages several times a day and allowed them to go back to light training in a couple of days. The boys' hair lightened as promised by the ornatrix and they remained thankfully stubble free for the week.
Flosculus begged to be allowed to join the gardeners and his wish was granted. He was officially given to Aras and ordered to do whatever he was told. Since Aras couldn't afford to have his hair removed by the Egyptian treatment, he himself used tweezers to pluck all the hair from his anus so he could keep him smooth, and Flosculus at least appeared to be submitting gracefully.
Cripus made sure to show his surgery scars which were healing nicely. He was so happy that Medicus had castrated him that it made all the other boys nervous. He kept talking about how he was going to remain smooth and pretty all his life. He also said that Dominus had told him that he wouldn't it unless he wanted it, and that he had planned to ask Dominus to go under the knife before they'd asked him if he wanted it.
It must have been true that they'd taken the boy's wishes into account because Glabrius was even younger, and they hadn't altered him to preserve his looks. And Glabrius was happy because he didn't have to visit Maddox anymore at night. He was being trained as to be sold and Dominus had told him that he would sell for a lot of money, but he would need much more training before that day came.
Rosarius was still in training, but he now held status like Eburnus and Bellus. He was the concubinus of the elder Dominus and he was proud of his status. All the other boys were genuinely happy for him, and they congratulated him on the fine tunics that he'd been given. Bellus and Eburnus were a little jealous because they had nothing so fine yet.
All the boys had seen Maddox's new slave, a gift from Dominus to celebrate his service as a freedman. His boy was young, but none of them knew how young. Maddox had named him Pullus, which means "young animal", but was a dirty word when used to describe boys. He wasn't as pretty as the new boys the younger dominus had chosen for the training program. There were four of them, but the boys were told that soon there would be more.
Dominus told the boys that there would be a party coming up in another week and that both would be serving the guests. The party was to celebrate Secundus's adoption, and Bellus tried to be happy for his dominus, but sadness overwhelmed him. If he hadn't been enslaved himself, that very day would be his fifteenth birthday and he would be celebrating with his friends. He wondered what his friends would be doing that night.
Characters
· Albus. A Celtic slave belonging to Trebonius. He's four years older than Quintus Curtius Bellus and becomes his mentor in the arts of gay sex. Once he's been adopted by Trebonius his name becomes Albus Trebonius Felix Secundus. Informally he is known as Felix Secundus or just Secundus.
· Aras. A Syrian slave belonging to Trebonius. He is 30 years old, with black hair, dark brown eyes and olive skin tone. He keeps his black beard trimmed neatly. He is the chief of the male slaves who work in the gardens and who repair the house. As one of the supervisors, he has access to the pleasure slaves.
· Battius. The overseer of Trebonius's house. He is in his fifties and is trained as an accountant. He is a brutal taskmaster. He has accumulated enough money to buy his freedom but is hoping that Trebonius will free him as a reward, and he will be able to keep his money.
· Crispus. An eleven-year-old Celtic slave. He has long curly red hair and fair skin with a few freckles scattered across his face and back. He still has a lot of baby fat. He has a soft appearance and large, round butt. He has a high-pitched voice, and he moves his butt in a sexy way. His name means curly hair. He was made into a eunuch.
· Eburnus. A slight and pretty Celtic slave also owned by Trebonius. He is two years younger than Curtius Bellus. Like Bellus, he is a cinaedus, but he has more experience despite his youth.
· Flosculus. A fourteen-year-old pleasure boy in the House of Trebonius. He's of Greek and Iberian ancestry. His hair is almost black, and his skin is very light olive. He has eyes that are dark gray in color. His pubic hair has come in and the master keeps it trimmed. He's sprouted a few hairs under his arms and his calves have already grown hair. His name means little flower. He was given to the gardener Aras.
· Glabrius. A twelve-year-old pleasure boy in the House of Trebonius. He's the smallest and one of the two youngest of the boys. His name means bald, and it refers to his hairless body. He has a penis that's even smaller than the other pleasure boys seem big compared to him.
· Gnaeus Lollius. An equestrian slave dealer in Eburacum and a friend of Trebonius. He is also a decurion in town.
· Maddox. A towering six-foot-tall Celt who was captured in battle as a teenager and trained to be a guard. He's brutal in battle, and even more brutal in sex. He prefers very young boys.
· Marcus Petronius. A decurion in Eboracum and the duumvir (magistrate) in charge of the courts. He's from an old Equestrian family.
· Quintus Curtius Bellus. The child of Aulus Curtius Bellus and his wife Sabellia. He was the last of his family line and had been appointed a decurion in Eburacum in northern Britannia.
· Rosarius. The prettiest of the pleasure boys, Rosarius has Greek, North African and Celtic ancestry. His hair is dark brown, his skin is light brown, and his lips are full. He's 14 years old and about five foot six (making him the same height as the average Roman man). His penis is on the larger side of average. He has a naturally hairless body, with only a few curly pubic hairs. He was named Rosarius (Rosebud) by Trebonius because he thought that the boy had the prettiest anus he'd ever seen.
· Sabellia**.** The wife of Trebonius, the widow of Aulus Curtius Bellus and the mother of Quintus Curtius Bellus. She died giving birth to Trebonius's child. The child did not survive either.
· Titus Trebonius Felix. A Celtic freedman of the legate Marcus Trebonius who freed him and set him up in business as a manufacturer of pottery for the military. He is one of the wealthiest men in Eburacum despite remitting half his profits to Marcus Trebonius, now a senator in Rome. He is Sabellia's second husband and acts as mentor to you Quintus Curtius Rufus. As a freedman he can't hold political office.
Latin Vocabulary
· Baculum. A rod or stick. Although the word had many meanings, in this story it refers to the rod an overseer or tutor carried to show that he had the master's authority over the slaves.
· Cinaedus. The closest latin word to faggot. Refers to a man lacking masculine qualities. Bellus Cineadus is a phrase that can mean "Bellus, the faggot" or "pretty faggot".
· Concubinus. A male slave who shares his master's bed on a regular basis, usually a iuvenis (youth) instead of a boy. A man will often cut the hair of his concubinus and give him other assignments when he gets marries as a symbol of his new devotion to his wife.
· Decurion. An appointed member of the local legislature (like being a senator in Rome).
· Delicatus (Puer Delicatus). A slave boy who is kept for his beauty. They are pampered favorites. If their master doesn't have them castrated, they may eventually find themselves as a concubinus.
· Dominus. The Latin word for master.
· Equestrian (Equites). Roman was officially divided into social orders. The two highest orders were the senators (senatores) and equestrians (equites). Roman citizens whose head of the family (paterfamilias) were members of the senate were part of the senatorial order. Roman citizens whose head of the family (paterfamilias) were members of the equestrian order were part of the equestrian order. In the empire, the emperor could appoint new senators. Families with a certain minimum wealth were members of the equestrian order. Members of the senatorial and equestrian orders were considered to be nobility, and everyone else was a commoner.
· Fellator. A cocksucker.
· Freedman. The lowest social order in Rome were freedmen, those formerly enslaved. They could be wealthy, but they had low social prestige (below proletarians, musicians, and actors).
· Nomen**.** The Roman word for name. In the case of Quintus Curtius Bellus, Quintus is his first name, the name used by family and the closest of friends; Curtius is the name he inherited from his equestrian family, much like a modern last name; and Bellus is the cognomen, the name that specifies that he is from the Bellus branch of the gens Curtia (or Curtius clan).
· Ornatrix**.** Hairdresser. Ornatrices (pl) cut hair, dyed hair, styled hair, trimmed, plucked or sugared body hair and performed other services.
· Puer Delicatus. A slave boy who was distinguished by his beauty and was used by the master sexual gratitification.
· Spintria**.** A male slave used for anal sex. Also, a male prostitute and the vulgar term for the anus.
· Subligaria. Roman word for underwear.
· Tepidarium. A room temperature pool in a Roman bath. Bathrooma at home often had only one pool, usually a tepidarium.
· Toga Virilis. The toga of manhood. A Roman male citizen could wear a toga, a long rectangular cloth that wrapped in a specific manner around his body, usually worn over a tunic. Freeborn boys could wear togas that were specific for them, but the adulthood ceremony involved changing the boyish toga for the adult male toga. It was also time for a Roman boy's first shave.
· Tutor. Latin word for guardian. Usually, only children and women had tutores. The word can also be used to mean the same thing as in English.