2.
"On your feet!" screams the Optio, veins bulging on his forehead. Several legionaries spring forward brandishing whips, in case there might be any resistance.
I rise to a standing position ... partly on my own, partly yanked to my feet by the coffle rope around my neck as the man next to me rises more quickly. Someone down the line grumbles a protest and is dealt with quickly and harshly.
I look away from the violence, directing my gaze down the road. Everything appears nearly ready for us. A detail of soldiers have just finished unearthing and lifting the heavy crosses and laying them down on the ground ready to receive their next victims. Another detail has just arrived on the scene ... our executioners ... a rather grim-looking bunch, abundantly equipped with bundles of rope, hammers and leather pouches bulging with nails.
I am approached by two of them, young and strapping, grinning broadly at the prospect of what they are about to do. I recognize the first, and turn my head in the hope that he might not recognize me.
"You again!" He snarls.
Apparently he hasn't forgotten who kneed him the night before, nor the humiliation he must have felt as he watched, doubled over and holding his groin, while his comrades-in-arms enjoyed having their way with me and the other women. As they took turns, yelling lustily and joking among themselves, they needled him mercilessly for allowing a mere slave girl like me to get away with such an obvious and debilitating trick.
"I'll handle this one!" He announces to his mate as he grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me toward him. "You get the other bitch."
Holding me upright and in place by my hair, he uses his free hand to remove the coffle rope from my neck and strip me to the waist. He then proceeds to maul my bared breasts, pinching and mashing them, until his comrade returns with the other girl in tow. I grimace and hold my breath but resist the urge to react in any way.
"What say, Lucretius," roars his friend, his face mirthful. "You are going to make that one pay dearly for what she did to you last night, by the looks of it."
"Yes, as the Gods be my witness, Markus! This cunt will rue the day she tangled with me before this day is over!" he replies, pulling and twisting my nipple viciously between finger and thumb until I gasp and cry out in pain, despite my resolution to be stoic and not react to whatever he may do to me.
"See! She likes it!" shouts Lucretius, looking around for his audience, but finding only the Optio standing nearby. His face falls, and he releases his grip on my nipple.
"Stop messing around!" snarls the Optio. "You know your assignment. The next time I look, I want to see those two dancing together on a cross."
"Right, move you two!" growls Markus, taking charge and giving me and the other girl a shove out onto the road. "Come on Lucretius. Let's go find a nice sturdy cross to crucify the two of you together on, shall we? A challenge, wouldn't you say? A bit out of the ordinary, what? Just how does one go about nailing a pair of little whores like these two to the same cross, anyway? Any ideas?"
TO BE CONTINUED
De architectura is important for its descriptions of many different machines used for engineering structures, such as hoists, cranes, and pulleys, as well as war machines such as catapults, ballistae, and siege engines.
