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Amica
- Thread starter Velut Luna
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Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! we'll meet again after January 7 ....
Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Amica 43
They’re counting in the tablinum (office) next to the atrium (hall) with the great mosaic of Alexander of Macedon. Lucius and Fannius are reckoning up the silver sesterces and gold aurea they’ve made from betting on the gladiators, lining up piles of coins on the table. But it's not all of their winnings, a good deal has been given as credit to other punters. They record the loan agreements and calculate the interest they’ll derive from these, and the mortgages that are secured against real estate as collateral, and will be registered in the civic record of property.
Here’s where all the wealth of Lucius comes from. He’s the banker of Pompeii, cunning in his lawful businesses, as well as engaging in some that are less respectable – these he assigns to brothel-keepers and managers of tabernae lusoriae (casinos) where they gamble with alearii (dice), which is illegal, but in his case it doesn’t happen to come to the attention of the municipal police! The aediles (baileys, city wardens) are involved too, they get loans from Lucius to finance their electoral campaigns, and the police get spintriae (free tokens) to enjoy a few hours with the girls in the brothels.
I walk away from the door of tablinum, feeling a little puzzled, almost humiliated, to understand how the world revolves around gold - not just gold, even sex, but only the kind you buy with money. It’s a different world from the one that spins on its axis and revolves around the sun, as Eulalia claims.
As I trip with a light step along the colonnade of the peristyle, I meet Udij. Poor Udij all wrapped up in a thick woollen peasant’s shawl, she’s suffering the cold, she’s not accustomed even to autumn, whatever will she do when winter arrives?
A smile, a hug, a kiss on her fleshy lips.
'Don’t stand here like a chilly bird, come on, let's go for a good soak in the steam bath, we’ll skip the cold plunge.'
'In the water? I want to put myself in the kitchen oven ... '
Nude, we wash our wonderful bodies, stroking, rubbing each other's skin with sea sponges and soap of Aleppo, laughing happily, holding each other’s breasts in our hands, pinching the areoles, stroking each other’s thighs and sex, mouth to mouth our tongues intertwine...
'What game are you two playing?'
It’s Fannius, we were too busy in our games and didn’t notice he’d entered. We try to cover our private parts in shame.
'Come to me!' he orders.
Now we'll be punished , how many lashes? Standing side by side, with our eyes to the floor, we await our punishment.
'Well, are you going to just stand here like bitches waiting to be whipped? I’m not going to lash you! Carry on playing, I enjoy your lesbian games.'
We look at each other in surprise, then we come together timidly, beginning to caress.
'Go on! Go on! I want to see something better than that, not just cuddles and little kisses!'
Like we’re shocked by this request, we awkwardly mimic an embrace.
'No, that’s no good, that’s not the way! You! Lie down and spread out your thighs, and you climb on her, top to bottom, with your head between her legs, and lick!'
Red with shame I begin to lick her beautiful, swelling, fleshy pussy. Udij would definitely be red in the face if she were not so black, as she is, she doesn’t reveal it, but I can feel the warmth of the skin of her face between my legs, she certainly isn’t feeling the cold now!
We continue our game with ever more enthusiasm – with moans, small bites, muffled cries, fingers exploring, tongues that fit like snakes in the hollows of our wet sex, we’re panting and wet with saliva and love-moisture. Fannius has stripped naked, he’s holding his penis erect in his hands, jerking slowly as he approaches us two intertwining serpents.
He grabs me by my hair, lifts up my face to his member.
'Come out from under there, you,! Come here! And now suck!'
We look each other in the eye, Udij and I, with a wordless understanding. First one and then the other in turn rapidly licks and sucks. Udij sucks well, she draws her lips inwards to guard her teeth so they don’t irritate the sensitive skin of the glans. Fannius keeps hold of us by our hair, and controls the rhythm of exchange, pulling our heads against his groin to control the sinking of his penis into our throats, then, together, we pass his fiery cock from mouth to mouth.
With a grunt, a jet of hot cum erupts that floods our mouths, and squirts over our faces.
Smiling in gratitude for his precious gift we kiss each other, stealing his semen from our mouths, licking the dribbles from our faces, so as to not lose a single drop of this delicious nectar.
'You’re beginning to warm up, are you? Now I want to see your hands disappear into your pussies and your asses!'
We squeeze up our hands as they sink to our wrists in each other’s furrow, through wet, dilated lips, with moans and groans of endless pleasure. Udij begins a frenzied masturbation in my cunt, up and down, rapidly, looking for the most sensitive point in my vagina.
It’s easy to tell as my pupils dilate when her fingers are clawing the upper wall of my vaginal canal. I let out a muffled scream, I can’t resist any more, I’m ejaculating a jet of my juices onto the face of Fannius who’s come close to enjoy the show.
Udij is alert, she licks his face, I'm still going crazy from the work of her fingers. While Fannius impales her with his dagger of fire, Udij goes on masturbating me like crazy, licking my copiously flowing juices.
And now it’s the turn of Udij to suffer the torment of my hands, while Fannius’s member rises and falls. He thrusts it out and invades me, again and again, and now he goes against nature, dilating my anal sphincter enough to bring real screams of pain.
It’s a wild orgy that lasts for hours without respite, each of us just snatching a moment when we’re abandoned while he lusts after the other girl, and we recover our breath and energy to continue, trapped in a vortex of sensuality from which we cannot escape!
They’re counting in the tablinum (office) next to the atrium (hall) with the great mosaic of Alexander of Macedon. Lucius and Fannius are reckoning up the silver sesterces and gold aurea they’ve made from betting on the gladiators, lining up piles of coins on the table. But it's not all of their winnings, a good deal has been given as credit to other punters. They record the loan agreements and calculate the interest they’ll derive from these, and the mortgages that are secured against real estate as collateral, and will be registered in the civic record of property.
Here’s where all the wealth of Lucius comes from. He’s the banker of Pompeii, cunning in his lawful businesses, as well as engaging in some that are less respectable – these he assigns to brothel-keepers and managers of tabernae lusoriae (casinos) where they gamble with alearii (dice), which is illegal, but in his case it doesn’t happen to come to the attention of the municipal police! The aediles (baileys, city wardens) are involved too, they get loans from Lucius to finance their electoral campaigns, and the police get spintriae (free tokens) to enjoy a few hours with the girls in the brothels.
I walk away from the door of tablinum, feeling a little puzzled, almost humiliated, to understand how the world revolves around gold - not just gold, even sex, but only the kind you buy with money. It’s a different world from the one that spins on its axis and revolves around the sun, as Eulalia claims.
As I trip with a light step along the colonnade of the peristyle, I meet Udij. Poor Udij all wrapped up in a thick woollen peasant’s shawl, she’s suffering the cold, she’s not accustomed even to autumn, whatever will she do when winter arrives?
A smile, a hug, a kiss on her fleshy lips.
'Don’t stand here like a chilly bird, come on, let's go for a good soak in the steam bath, we’ll skip the cold plunge.'
'In the water? I want to put myself in the kitchen oven ... '
Nude, we wash our wonderful bodies, stroking, rubbing each other's skin with sea sponges and soap of Aleppo, laughing happily, holding each other’s breasts in our hands, pinching the areoles, stroking each other’s thighs and sex, mouth to mouth our tongues intertwine...
'What game are you two playing?'
It’s Fannius, we were too busy in our games and didn’t notice he’d entered. We try to cover our private parts in shame.
'Come to me!' he orders.
Now we'll be punished , how many lashes? Standing side by side, with our eyes to the floor, we await our punishment.
'Well, are you going to just stand here like bitches waiting to be whipped? I’m not going to lash you! Carry on playing, I enjoy your lesbian games.'
We look at each other in surprise, then we come together timidly, beginning to caress.
'Go on! Go on! I want to see something better than that, not just cuddles and little kisses!'
Like we’re shocked by this request, we awkwardly mimic an embrace.
'No, that’s no good, that’s not the way! You! Lie down and spread out your thighs, and you climb on her, top to bottom, with your head between her legs, and lick!'
Red with shame I begin to lick her beautiful, swelling, fleshy pussy. Udij would definitely be red in the face if she were not so black, as she is, she doesn’t reveal it, but I can feel the warmth of the skin of her face between my legs, she certainly isn’t feeling the cold now!
We continue our game with ever more enthusiasm – with moans, small bites, muffled cries, fingers exploring, tongues that fit like snakes in the hollows of our wet sex, we’re panting and wet with saliva and love-moisture. Fannius has stripped naked, he’s holding his penis erect in his hands, jerking slowly as he approaches us two intertwining serpents.
He grabs me by my hair, lifts up my face to his member.
'Come out from under there, you,! Come here! And now suck!'
We look each other in the eye, Udij and I, with a wordless understanding. First one and then the other in turn rapidly licks and sucks. Udij sucks well, she draws her lips inwards to guard her teeth so they don’t irritate the sensitive skin of the glans. Fannius keeps hold of us by our hair, and controls the rhythm of exchange, pulling our heads against his groin to control the sinking of his penis into our throats, then, together, we pass his fiery cock from mouth to mouth.
With a grunt, a jet of hot cum erupts that floods our mouths, and squirts over our faces.
Smiling in gratitude for his precious gift we kiss each other, stealing his semen from our mouths, licking the dribbles from our faces, so as to not lose a single drop of this delicious nectar.
'You’re beginning to warm up, are you? Now I want to see your hands disappear into your pussies and your asses!'
We squeeze up our hands as they sink to our wrists in each other’s furrow, through wet, dilated lips, with moans and groans of endless pleasure. Udij begins a frenzied masturbation in my cunt, up and down, rapidly, looking for the most sensitive point in my vagina.
It’s easy to tell as my pupils dilate when her fingers are clawing the upper wall of my vaginal canal. I let out a muffled scream, I can’t resist any more, I’m ejaculating a jet of my juices onto the face of Fannius who’s come close to enjoy the show.
Udij is alert, she licks his face, I'm still going crazy from the work of her fingers. While Fannius impales her with his dagger of fire, Udij goes on masturbating me like crazy, licking my copiously flowing juices.
And now it’s the turn of Udij to suffer the torment of my hands, while Fannius’s member rises and falls. He thrusts it out and invades me, again and again, and now he goes against nature, dilating my anal sphincter enough to bring real screams of pain.
It’s a wild orgy that lasts for hours without respite, each of us just snatching a moment when we’re abandoned while he lusts after the other girl, and we recover our breath and energy to continue, trapped in a vortex of sensuality from which we cannot escape!
Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Amica 44
This evening there will be a theatre play and a show with mimes, even Udij and I will be involved. We’ll be acting in a short scene. When Fannius tells us what we’ll have to do, I’m blushing for shame, but Udij seems amused. We rehearse the opening scene: I'll be Diana the Huntress, rather scantily clad, in fact all but naked. I'll have to shoot a bow and arrow at a stuffed wolf. I’ve never pulled a bow in my life, and I have to practice a long time before I can even manage to direct the arrow in more or less the right direction, I don’t know if I’ll get the arrow to penetrate the poor stuffed wolf!
Here come the paying spectators, they’re entering by the back door of the house, the one that opens onto the Street of the House of the Vettii. The stage is set up in the large peristyle, but there are other small raised platforms, just big cubes, where other girls will perform exotic dances - I should rather say, erotic.
I gasp as I put on my costume for the scene, a narrow band around my right thigh from which hangs a dagger - nothing else! Udij is wearing a black panther’s tail, with a belt from the skin of the same animal, and on her head she’ll wear the skin from the head of the poor panther that’s provided the costume-material for this obscene spectacle.
The first series of atellana (comic sketches) is over, now it’s the turn of the mimes. Through the audience who are seated on wooden benches, I go up on the stage. I stand back in the wing with my bow in hand and the arrow nocked (archery term – set in its notch ready to shoot).
The curtain’s going to open, my legs are trembling at the thought of having to appear naked before the audience. There’s applause, and a push from behind commands me to enter the scene.
The enthusiasm of the audience is shown immediately by the cries of jubilation and other more or less obscene exclamations at my appearance. Trying not to look at the audience lest I panic and run away, I proceed towards the centre of the stage. I act out hunting for the poor wolf, but where is it? It’s not there! Ah, there it is! Someone hidden under the stage makes it rise up from the side opposite me, holding it with a stick stuck in the body.
I put myself in position, down on one knee, my left leg flexed with my foot on the ground in the classic pose of an archer. Everyone’s looking straight at my groin that’s all too clearly visible. I release the arrow. Bullseye! I’ve skewered it! To screams of joy from the audience, I make my way over towards my felled prey. As I grab for a paw, the slave under the stage pulls the stick out of the stuffed corpse, and I drag it back to centre stage. I put the bow on the ground, pull out the arrow, kneel in front of the prey, and from the sheath hanging on my right leg I pull out the knife to flay the skin off the poor wolf.
I haven’t noticed that someone’s already opened the curtain that was hiding Udij, she’s lurking, squatting on a branch of a tree. She leaps on me before I’m aware of anything, the hunter has become the prey for the ferocious panther! Udij brings her mouth to my throat and makes me tremble with fear at the flash of her white teeth that bite into my tender flesh. In the excitement I lose the dagger and I can’t even grapple with her to fight, I’ve been overwhelmed in a moment, flung to the ground while she devours me, issuing fake roars.
The audience is in raptures, and encourages the fierce female to sink the sharp blades of her teeth into the dazzling snow-white flesh of my pubis. Curling her hands like claws she opens the labia and bites my delicate folds, pulling at the inner lips with her teeth. Then with her sharp incisors she chews on my erect clitoris and bites with enough force to provoke sharp pain, but at the same time intense pleasure. She’s kneeling with her legs apart astride me, showing the audience the red meat of her sex that stands out like a wound on the black skin of her feline body, shaking her head as if she’s tearing my flesh.
But how long will this scene continue? It can hardly be more than a matter of a few moments! It’s turning into an endless game, the crowd goes on inciting the panther, who’s not going to abandon her prey... fortunately, Fannius appears, jumping on stage, he grabs Udij, pretending he wants to defend her victim, like a gladiator facing a wild beast in the circus. With a short sword he pretends to stab the panther, who falls to the ground. The victor grabs his prey by the hair and drags us both off inanimate. The curtain falls and the audience roars, they want the scene to carry on, or an encore, but they’re distracted by the beautiful dancers who perform completely naked in an erotic dance accompanied by the beating of drums.
Fannius leads us away, back to his room, where he continues the scene that he stopped on stage. The show ends after a few hours, and it’s time for the banquet. Exhausted from the play that’s driven me mad with pleasure, now I recompose myself to attend the dinner.
Eulalia, as we pass in the triclinium, looks at me sternly and questioningly.
'Well, I see you want to emulate the famous Novellia Primigenia, ex corpore lucrum facere? (to make money from your body?) Whatever was the point of all my efforts to educate you? It would have been enough if I’d just taught you to count all the gold that you’ll doubtless earn with your obscene performances!'
I struggle for an excuse, but I don’t breath a word out of my throat.
I run to lie alongside Fannius, who’s beckoned me to come closer. I stick close beside him so as not to let any other guest or some beautiful dancer take advantage of my distraction and lure him away. Among the diners, I can tell they’re talking about me, I see winks and gestures, I want to sink into the earth so great is the humiliation I feel. I almost can’t touch the food, I’ve a lump in my throat, a knot in my stomach, for shame, but even more for the rebuke I’ve received from Eulalia.
After the banquet I go up with Fannius into his room to spend this last night with him before he goes back to Rome. Then a warm bath, a quick breakfast, hugs, passionate kisses, and farewell to Fannius as he sets off on horseback wearing his beautiful armour – “I'll see you soon!”
All day I try to avoid a meeting Eulalia, her reproach still burns inside me, but when it’s time to go to sleep, where shall I go? Will she still let me in? I sit at the door of our room, I dare not enter – I’ll tell Eulalia I’ll take my few things and go to sleep elsewhere, some cupboard will be empty.
'Ah! There you are! You’ve been avoiding me all day! What do you think you’re you doing sitting there at the door? Get inside!'
'Eulalia, forgive me, I’ll take my things and go and sleep in the closet down the hall, I don't want to bother you if you don't want me with you anymore.'
'Silly, it's cold in the closet, you’ll catch something. There’s been a brazier alight all day in here, I’ve had to keep coming up and adding wood to keep it going, my beautiful slavegirl had other things to think about... I know! And I know Fannius is a rogue, he already was when he was just a little scamp – don’t kid yourself, he’s just having fun with you, while you’re madly in love with him, but as soon as he finds another one to make his head spin, he’ll throw you aside like an old boot. Remember, tibi aras, tibi seris, tibi item metes (as you plough, as you sow, so shall you reap)
Under the covers, we embrace. I feel the warmth of her body warming my limbs, they’re almost frozen, not with the cold, but from the nervous tension that’s built up in me. She strokes my hair, kissing me on the forehead, just as she would with a little daughter.
This evening there will be a theatre play and a show with mimes, even Udij and I will be involved. We’ll be acting in a short scene. When Fannius tells us what we’ll have to do, I’m blushing for shame, but Udij seems amused. We rehearse the opening scene: I'll be Diana the Huntress, rather scantily clad, in fact all but naked. I'll have to shoot a bow and arrow at a stuffed wolf. I’ve never pulled a bow in my life, and I have to practice a long time before I can even manage to direct the arrow in more or less the right direction, I don’t know if I’ll get the arrow to penetrate the poor stuffed wolf!
Here come the paying spectators, they’re entering by the back door of the house, the one that opens onto the Street of the House of the Vettii. The stage is set up in the large peristyle, but there are other small raised platforms, just big cubes, where other girls will perform exotic dances - I should rather say, erotic.
I gasp as I put on my costume for the scene, a narrow band around my right thigh from which hangs a dagger - nothing else! Udij is wearing a black panther’s tail, with a belt from the skin of the same animal, and on her head she’ll wear the skin from the head of the poor panther that’s provided the costume-material for this obscene spectacle.
The first series of atellana (comic sketches) is over, now it’s the turn of the mimes. Through the audience who are seated on wooden benches, I go up on the stage. I stand back in the wing with my bow in hand and the arrow nocked (archery term – set in its notch ready to shoot).
The curtain’s going to open, my legs are trembling at the thought of having to appear naked before the audience. There’s applause, and a push from behind commands me to enter the scene.
The enthusiasm of the audience is shown immediately by the cries of jubilation and other more or less obscene exclamations at my appearance. Trying not to look at the audience lest I panic and run away, I proceed towards the centre of the stage. I act out hunting for the poor wolf, but where is it? It’s not there! Ah, there it is! Someone hidden under the stage makes it rise up from the side opposite me, holding it with a stick stuck in the body.
I put myself in position, down on one knee, my left leg flexed with my foot on the ground in the classic pose of an archer. Everyone’s looking straight at my groin that’s all too clearly visible. I release the arrow. Bullseye! I’ve skewered it! To screams of joy from the audience, I make my way over towards my felled prey. As I grab for a paw, the slave under the stage pulls the stick out of the stuffed corpse, and I drag it back to centre stage. I put the bow on the ground, pull out the arrow, kneel in front of the prey, and from the sheath hanging on my right leg I pull out the knife to flay the skin off the poor wolf.
I haven’t noticed that someone’s already opened the curtain that was hiding Udij, she’s lurking, squatting on a branch of a tree. She leaps on me before I’m aware of anything, the hunter has become the prey for the ferocious panther! Udij brings her mouth to my throat and makes me tremble with fear at the flash of her white teeth that bite into my tender flesh. In the excitement I lose the dagger and I can’t even grapple with her to fight, I’ve been overwhelmed in a moment, flung to the ground while she devours me, issuing fake roars.
The audience is in raptures, and encourages the fierce female to sink the sharp blades of her teeth into the dazzling snow-white flesh of my pubis. Curling her hands like claws she opens the labia and bites my delicate folds, pulling at the inner lips with her teeth. Then with her sharp incisors she chews on my erect clitoris and bites with enough force to provoke sharp pain, but at the same time intense pleasure. She’s kneeling with her legs apart astride me, showing the audience the red meat of her sex that stands out like a wound on the black skin of her feline body, shaking her head as if she’s tearing my flesh.
But how long will this scene continue? It can hardly be more than a matter of a few moments! It’s turning into an endless game, the crowd goes on inciting the panther, who’s not going to abandon her prey... fortunately, Fannius appears, jumping on stage, he grabs Udij, pretending he wants to defend her victim, like a gladiator facing a wild beast in the circus. With a short sword he pretends to stab the panther, who falls to the ground. The victor grabs his prey by the hair and drags us both off inanimate. The curtain falls and the audience roars, they want the scene to carry on, or an encore, but they’re distracted by the beautiful dancers who perform completely naked in an erotic dance accompanied by the beating of drums.
Fannius leads us away, back to his room, where he continues the scene that he stopped on stage. The show ends after a few hours, and it’s time for the banquet. Exhausted from the play that’s driven me mad with pleasure, now I recompose myself to attend the dinner.
Eulalia, as we pass in the triclinium, looks at me sternly and questioningly.
'Well, I see you want to emulate the famous Novellia Primigenia, ex corpore lucrum facere? (to make money from your body?) Whatever was the point of all my efforts to educate you? It would have been enough if I’d just taught you to count all the gold that you’ll doubtless earn with your obscene performances!'
I struggle for an excuse, but I don’t breath a word out of my throat.
I run to lie alongside Fannius, who’s beckoned me to come closer. I stick close beside him so as not to let any other guest or some beautiful dancer take advantage of my distraction and lure him away. Among the diners, I can tell they’re talking about me, I see winks and gestures, I want to sink into the earth so great is the humiliation I feel. I almost can’t touch the food, I’ve a lump in my throat, a knot in my stomach, for shame, but even more for the rebuke I’ve received from Eulalia.
After the banquet I go up with Fannius into his room to spend this last night with him before he goes back to Rome. Then a warm bath, a quick breakfast, hugs, passionate kisses, and farewell to Fannius as he sets off on horseback wearing his beautiful armour – “I'll see you soon!”
All day I try to avoid a meeting Eulalia, her reproach still burns inside me, but when it’s time to go to sleep, where shall I go? Will she still let me in? I sit at the door of our room, I dare not enter – I’ll tell Eulalia I’ll take my few things and go to sleep elsewhere, some cupboard will be empty.
'Ah! There you are! You’ve been avoiding me all day! What do you think you’re you doing sitting there at the door? Get inside!'
'Eulalia, forgive me, I’ll take my things and go and sleep in the closet down the hall, I don't want to bother you if you don't want me with you anymore.'
'Silly, it's cold in the closet, you’ll catch something. There’s been a brazier alight all day in here, I’ve had to keep coming up and adding wood to keep it going, my beautiful slavegirl had other things to think about... I know! And I know Fannius is a rogue, he already was when he was just a little scamp – don’t kid yourself, he’s just having fun with you, while you’re madly in love with him, but as soon as he finds another one to make his head spin, he’ll throw you aside like an old boot. Remember, tibi aras, tibi seris, tibi item metes (as you plough, as you sow, so shall you reap)
Under the covers, we embrace. I feel the warmth of her body warming my limbs, they’re almost frozen, not with the cold, but from the nervous tension that’s built up in me. She strokes my hair, kissing me on the forehead, just as she would with a little daughter.
Last edited by a moderator:
RacingRodent
Consul
Brava Luna, just like Vesuvius brooding in the hills above Amica your writing is on fire 
Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Thanks You All!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
It is we who should thank you....2014 was a banner year of writing for you Luna....Happy New Year! 2015 will be even better (if that's possible)
Damn the Romans were as bad at 'pixelating' as the Japanese are now... I cleaned it up a bit...
Tree
Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Amica 45
My days pass slowly, waiting for the return of Fannius. Eulalia says one day he’ll leave me for another girl who turns his head – well, maybe, but I don’t want to prejudge him...
One evening, while I’m passing along the colonnade in front the exedra (side-room) with the Alexander mosaic, I hear voices from the porch of the large peristyle. It’s three slavegirls, two of them are ones who’ve come here recently, they’re speaking softly. Curious, I approach the window that overlooks the porch, and stay concealed in the shadows, listening. They’re talking in Greek, two of them, and one of them is translating what’s being said by the third in Hebrew.
She’s giving accounts of events that occurred long ago in the land of Palestine, as told by the Judaean girl. Her mother’s mother several times witnessed the wonders performed by a man who, she said, is the son of God. She later became a Christian after he was crucified, she was baptized by his disciples, and at her wish, her daughter, her husband, and their children were baptized.
Then she goes on to tell how, some years ago when she was still a little girl, the Roman legion commanded by Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Nothing was left of the Temple but only a single wall, her family was exterminated, she was captured and sold into slavery. Almost all were killed, and the people of those lands were scattered throughout the Empire. They hug and kiss each other before returning to their cubicles, they will meet tomorrow night to continue hearing her stories.
I remain hidden in the shadows, waiting until they’ve gone before I come out of my hiding place, mystified by the stories I’ve just heard.
The following evenings I follow the movements of this group, and remain always hidden, listening. They are talking about this new religion, the teachings of this man, teachings that are full of goodness. They talk about him with enthusiasm, almost rapt and ecstatic, my heart pounds to hear certain words, '... you are no longer slaves but free men ...'. And then the final miracle, after the man died, he rose again – some women, including the grandmother of the Judaean slave, went to the tomb and found it empty, an apparition of a winged young man told them that they won’t find him among the dead, he was alive.
I go on being very troubled by these stories, but I don’t dare tell Eulalia.
The Emperor Vespasian has issued an edict for a census to be taken of everyone living in the Empire, of all citizens, freedmen and slaves. Every citizen, man and woman, has to go to the palace of the Prefect of their Province, with their documents to attest that they are Roman citizens or freedmen. As for slaves, their masters have to send lists of those they own. For those of the highest rank, officials of the Prefect will be sent to their homes.
So one morning the commissioners in charge of the census arrive. All of us slaves are gathered in the peristyle, we pass in line before the table at which they sit. Each one of us has to say our name, where we were born and when. The officials check the log compiled by Lucius, writing the details in a register of their own, and whoever, going by Lucius’s register, is not yet fully documented has to wait to one side, including me.
'Amica!' I step forward.
'Where were you born, it doesn’t say here...' he asks, glancing sternly at Lucius.
'When I came here I didn’t even speak your language, and I couldn’t tell where I was born. For this reason my master couldn’t write anything, only the name that he’d given to me.'
Surprised by my prompt response they look towards Lucius, who gives a nod of his head.
'Amica is now my name, the one I had before was Kuu, which in our language means Moon, or Selene in Greek, or Cynthia. The name by which you call my land is Thyle, that’s what it’s called by your Admiral, Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, and great naturalist, Gaius Plinius Saecundus (Pliny the Elder). My age, reckoning as my people do, is 200 lunar months, which corresponds to a little less than seventeen of your solar years.'
'How do you know these all things? And how come you can speak Latin so well, and calculate correctly? How do you know the Admiral of the Fleet?'
'Since I couldn’t communicate, my master entrusted me to Eulalia, the Greek slave, she took care of me, taught me what I now know. The Admiral, I met him one day when he came to the Villa of Quarto. I was ordered to be at his service for as long as he stayed. As for the name of my country, the son of my lord discovered that, when he asked me to tell him the story of how I was brought here as a slave. He, remembering what the Admiral has written in his book Naturalis Historia (The Natural History), counted the days of my voyage on the sea and realised that my land, that the Romans have not yet conquered, is the one referred to as Thyle that book.'
They write my details in their register, and also update Lucius’s records, then they fill in a piece of papyrus that they hand to me.
'This is your document, you will need to produce it on any request of the Roman authorities, and for the next census, keep it with care.'
I read, 'Amica, formerly Kuu, Selene, Cynthia, born in the land of Thule in the year DCCCXIII AUC (813 from the foundation of Rome), slave of Lucius Silius Satrianus.'
'The name Thule spelt with a “u” is not correct, you have to write Thyle, with Greek “y” '
They look at each other in astonishment, these two officials of the Imperial Prefect, then they retrieve my document, turn the letter 'u' into 'y' and correct the two registers.
'She’s a very intelligent young woman, my slave Amica, I’m very proud to own such a slavegirl,' says Lucius smugly.
Now they turn to the next slave among those that don’t yet have their documents.
'You, what's your name, where and when were you born?'
'Sara is my name, and I was born in Jerusalem, seven years before the son of your Emperor destroyed it.'
'Of your Emperor, Caesar Vespasianus Augustus is the emperor of all, even the arrogant Jews like you!'
'I am no longer a Jew, I'm a Christian! The Romans and the Jews killed the son of God!'
'Insolent Jewish Christian, how dare you! Bind her to that pillar and flog her!'
Two praetorians of the Imperial Prefect strip off her tunic, tie her to the pillar, and flog her with great violence until poor Sara falls to the ground moaning.
Lucius is obviously annoyed by this abuse of power by the officials of the Prefect in his own house - he can’t stand that Titus Suedius Clemens, 'the inclement', as he contemptuously calls him, or even worse 'the dickhead', but can’t oppose him, he’s too powerful, and to rebel against him would entail some serious risks for his safety and for his fortunes, so he pretends to approve the work of the two officials.
Sara is standing naked between the two prefectural guards, the officials interrogate her but she still refuses to answer, she seems like the man of whom she tells, staying dumb before the Imperial Prefect Pontius Pilatus.
After registering all the other slaves, they erase the name of Sara from Lucius’s roll.
'This poisonous snake, we’re taking away!' they say, and march out of the door with their prisoner.
What pain I feel for this poor girl, about my age, but just too proud and rebellious in this world where might is right, she’s the victim, and 'Vae Victis!' (woe to the conquered!). I feel that I shall see her again, and my heart is swelling in agony at the thought of her tragic fate.
Through the half-opened door I can see other poor prisoners, Sara’s now added to their number, they’re being taken away to finish their days with the most humiliating death that the Romans use against enemies.
'Eulalia! Eulalia! Why? Why such ferocity? Sara told the truth! It was no lie, she was just being proud to affirm and defend her beliefs. Aren’t the Romans tolerant of the religions of the conquered peoples? Haven’t you got your Greek Gods, and even made them become their gods? Why persecute these innocent people who believe in their God? Their prophet has proclaimed a message of love, forgiveness, he said “turn the other cheek”, and “give to Caesar what is Caesar's” when they asked him whether it was right to pay taxes to Rome. They aren’t rebels like Spartacus, they’ve never picked up a sword to kill a Roman!'
'Words are sharper than the edge of any sword. And we must be clear, was Sara was taken away because she’s a Hebrew or because she’s a Christian? Perhaps for both reasons. As you saw when we looked around Pompeii, being a Christian is being among the future enemies of Rome and of the Empire, being Jewish means being among the real and present enemies of Rome. Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed to eradicate their rebellion. But one thing is certain, if they do not respect the gods and temples of the vanquished, the victors will never be safe.'
This phrase resonates in my mind as a prophecy, as if Eulalia, unwittingly or not, had hurled a curse against the tyranny of Rome. I say nothing, I cannot respond after witnessing the expression of the divine word.
My days pass slowly, waiting for the return of Fannius. Eulalia says one day he’ll leave me for another girl who turns his head – well, maybe, but I don’t want to prejudge him...
One evening, while I’m passing along the colonnade in front the exedra (side-room) with the Alexander mosaic, I hear voices from the porch of the large peristyle. It’s three slavegirls, two of them are ones who’ve come here recently, they’re speaking softly. Curious, I approach the window that overlooks the porch, and stay concealed in the shadows, listening. They’re talking in Greek, two of them, and one of them is translating what’s being said by the third in Hebrew.
She’s giving accounts of events that occurred long ago in the land of Palestine, as told by the Judaean girl. Her mother’s mother several times witnessed the wonders performed by a man who, she said, is the son of God. She later became a Christian after he was crucified, she was baptized by his disciples, and at her wish, her daughter, her husband, and their children were baptized.
Then she goes on to tell how, some years ago when she was still a little girl, the Roman legion commanded by Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Nothing was left of the Temple but only a single wall, her family was exterminated, she was captured and sold into slavery. Almost all were killed, and the people of those lands were scattered throughout the Empire. They hug and kiss each other before returning to their cubicles, they will meet tomorrow night to continue hearing her stories.
I remain hidden in the shadows, waiting until they’ve gone before I come out of my hiding place, mystified by the stories I’ve just heard.
The following evenings I follow the movements of this group, and remain always hidden, listening. They are talking about this new religion, the teachings of this man, teachings that are full of goodness. They talk about him with enthusiasm, almost rapt and ecstatic, my heart pounds to hear certain words, '... you are no longer slaves but free men ...'. And then the final miracle, after the man died, he rose again – some women, including the grandmother of the Judaean slave, went to the tomb and found it empty, an apparition of a winged young man told them that they won’t find him among the dead, he was alive.
I go on being very troubled by these stories, but I don’t dare tell Eulalia.
The Emperor Vespasian has issued an edict for a census to be taken of everyone living in the Empire, of all citizens, freedmen and slaves. Every citizen, man and woman, has to go to the palace of the Prefect of their Province, with their documents to attest that they are Roman citizens or freedmen. As for slaves, their masters have to send lists of those they own. For those of the highest rank, officials of the Prefect will be sent to their homes.
So one morning the commissioners in charge of the census arrive. All of us slaves are gathered in the peristyle, we pass in line before the table at which they sit. Each one of us has to say our name, where we were born and when. The officials check the log compiled by Lucius, writing the details in a register of their own, and whoever, going by Lucius’s register, is not yet fully documented has to wait to one side, including me.
'Amica!' I step forward.
'Where were you born, it doesn’t say here...' he asks, glancing sternly at Lucius.
'When I came here I didn’t even speak your language, and I couldn’t tell where I was born. For this reason my master couldn’t write anything, only the name that he’d given to me.'
Surprised by my prompt response they look towards Lucius, who gives a nod of his head.
'Amica is now my name, the one I had before was Kuu, which in our language means Moon, or Selene in Greek, or Cynthia. The name by which you call my land is Thyle, that’s what it’s called by your Admiral, Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, and great naturalist, Gaius Plinius Saecundus (Pliny the Elder). My age, reckoning as my people do, is 200 lunar months, which corresponds to a little less than seventeen of your solar years.'
'How do you know these all things? And how come you can speak Latin so well, and calculate correctly? How do you know the Admiral of the Fleet?'
'Since I couldn’t communicate, my master entrusted me to Eulalia, the Greek slave, she took care of me, taught me what I now know. The Admiral, I met him one day when he came to the Villa of Quarto. I was ordered to be at his service for as long as he stayed. As for the name of my country, the son of my lord discovered that, when he asked me to tell him the story of how I was brought here as a slave. He, remembering what the Admiral has written in his book Naturalis Historia (The Natural History), counted the days of my voyage on the sea and realised that my land, that the Romans have not yet conquered, is the one referred to as Thyle that book.'
They write my details in their register, and also update Lucius’s records, then they fill in a piece of papyrus that they hand to me.
'This is your document, you will need to produce it on any request of the Roman authorities, and for the next census, keep it with care.'
I read, 'Amica, formerly Kuu, Selene, Cynthia, born in the land of Thule in the year DCCCXIII AUC (813 from the foundation of Rome), slave of Lucius Silius Satrianus.'
'The name Thule spelt with a “u” is not correct, you have to write Thyle, with Greek “y” '
They look at each other in astonishment, these two officials of the Imperial Prefect, then they retrieve my document, turn the letter 'u' into 'y' and correct the two registers.
'She’s a very intelligent young woman, my slave Amica, I’m very proud to own such a slavegirl,' says Lucius smugly.
Now they turn to the next slave among those that don’t yet have their documents.
'You, what's your name, where and when were you born?'
'Sara is my name, and I was born in Jerusalem, seven years before the son of your Emperor destroyed it.'
'Of your Emperor, Caesar Vespasianus Augustus is the emperor of all, even the arrogant Jews like you!'
'I am no longer a Jew, I'm a Christian! The Romans and the Jews killed the son of God!'
'Insolent Jewish Christian, how dare you! Bind her to that pillar and flog her!'
Two praetorians of the Imperial Prefect strip off her tunic, tie her to the pillar, and flog her with great violence until poor Sara falls to the ground moaning.
Lucius is obviously annoyed by this abuse of power by the officials of the Prefect in his own house - he can’t stand that Titus Suedius Clemens, 'the inclement', as he contemptuously calls him, or even worse 'the dickhead', but can’t oppose him, he’s too powerful, and to rebel against him would entail some serious risks for his safety and for his fortunes, so he pretends to approve the work of the two officials.
Sara is standing naked between the two prefectural guards, the officials interrogate her but she still refuses to answer, she seems like the man of whom she tells, staying dumb before the Imperial Prefect Pontius Pilatus.
After registering all the other slaves, they erase the name of Sara from Lucius’s roll.
'This poisonous snake, we’re taking away!' they say, and march out of the door with their prisoner.
What pain I feel for this poor girl, about my age, but just too proud and rebellious in this world where might is right, she’s the victim, and 'Vae Victis!' (woe to the conquered!). I feel that I shall see her again, and my heart is swelling in agony at the thought of her tragic fate.
Through the half-opened door I can see other poor prisoners, Sara’s now added to their number, they’re being taken away to finish their days with the most humiliating death that the Romans use against enemies.
'Eulalia! Eulalia! Why? Why such ferocity? Sara told the truth! It was no lie, she was just being proud to affirm and defend her beliefs. Aren’t the Romans tolerant of the religions of the conquered peoples? Haven’t you got your Greek Gods, and even made them become their gods? Why persecute these innocent people who believe in their God? Their prophet has proclaimed a message of love, forgiveness, he said “turn the other cheek”, and “give to Caesar what is Caesar's” when they asked him whether it was right to pay taxes to Rome. They aren’t rebels like Spartacus, they’ve never picked up a sword to kill a Roman!'
'Words are sharper than the edge of any sword. And we must be clear, was Sara was taken away because she’s a Hebrew or because she’s a Christian? Perhaps for both reasons. As you saw when we looked around Pompeii, being a Christian is being among the future enemies of Rome and of the Empire, being Jewish means being among the real and present enemies of Rome. Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed to eradicate their rebellion. But one thing is certain, if they do not respect the gods and temples of the vanquished, the victors will never be safe.'
This phrase resonates in my mind as a prophecy, as if Eulalia, unwittingly or not, had hurled a curse against the tyranny of Rome. I say nothing, I cannot respond after witnessing the expression of the divine word.
messaline
Crucified Amazon
Hum, if I'm not wrong, I think that it was Brennos , a Gaul'chief, who had said that when he had invaded Rome around 390 before JC ...
But, never mind, he was right and Roman people has, later, well shown to the Mediterranean world that they had re-taken this maxime !!!
Mmmmm, it smells well the crosses ....
Velut !
Velut Luna
Sibilla Cumana
Yes Brennos has used this phrase in the 386 BC (not in the 390).Hum, if I'm not wrong, I think that it was Brennos , a Gaul'chief, who had said that when he had invaded Rome around 390 before JC ...
But, never mind, he was right and Roman people has, later, well shown to the Mediterranean world that they had re-taken this maxime !!!
Mmmmm, it smells well the crosses ....
Romans used it against their ennemies.
messaline
Crucified Amazon
I've said "...around 390..." because it's not sure that the exact year was known ...
But dont start an experts'quarrel .....
