Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
In CF-language : a cruxhanger!Cliffhanger!!
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The Archaeologists
- Thread starter Loxuru
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It should be added to the Crux Forums Lexicon (or Loxicon?)In CF-language : a cruxhanger!
I came here to say this, but in my heart I knew it had already been said!
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
6.
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28th 2024.
“Crucified!? Are you sure, Alya?”
“Of course I am, hundred percent! There is no doubt about the cause of the damage! Look! Here, and here! Hey Lox, have you forgotten your lectures in forensic archeology!?”
“What lectures!? We got Archaeology of Ancient Times from a lecturer who was an expert in Ancient Mesopotamian pottery! Potsherds to be exactly! He has always warned us, not to have too high expectations about archaeological fieldwork! Finding more than a few scattered human bones was the best to expect during our whole career, he told us many times!”
“Funny, Lox! And now you find a complete skeleton, in what could be the biggest archaeological discovery of the twenty-first century! Before the civil war, I have followed a course of forensics at the Damascus University! The lecturer was another doctor of the Al-Bashim family! I learned there to recognize traces of violence on skeletons! So, I am fully sure that this skeleton has crucifixion damage!”
“But, crucified? Crucifixion was the way to execute the lower social classes in the Roman Empire. The slaves, the non-citizens. A very painful and humiliating death. Some contrast, with the skeleton in this coffin, with its lavish clothing and accessories, and which had been buried down in the most important temple of the ancient city!”
“It is logic, isn’t it, Lox!?” Alya explained, getting more and more excited! “Zenobia returns to her country, to follow her son, or to take lead of the rebellion, or both! But in Leontopolis, she is stopped, captured, and this time, there is no mercy for her! She is killed by public execution! Intended as a punishment and a warning from the Romans against rebellion! It must have impressed people, that their queen, their empress, was subjected to that fate! After the execution, her followers must have buried her nevertheless with dignity, maybe during a secret ceremony, here hidden in the basements of the temple!”
“Did not Roman regulations protect people of her class against crucifixion!?”
“She got betrayed, Lox! She got betrayed by the people whom she trusted! Whom she thought were on her side! These people did not bother about Roman privileges! That’s my hypothesis!”
“There could be some logic in your thinking! A cruel death, no doubt!”
“Cruel and humiliating! Crucifixion victims used to be stark naked. Often, they were flogged underway!”
“No exception for a queen?”
“Do not count on it, Lox! It was intended to be double humiliation, on top of being subjected to a sentence for slaves! It is even done today!”
“Today? Where!?”
“Here! In this region! The Mahdists have introduced it!”
“On dead bodies, of killed opponents, I have read, and not naked!?”
“That’s the kind of information that probably slipped to Europe! But things have been going a bit more rude here! The Mahdists began to use it as a deterrent, as soon as they started losing grip on their territories and were pushed back. On prisoners, on opponents, on suspected spies and traitors, on criminals of all sorts, on infidels, on all kind of people they did not like! Men and women! My woman warriors if they had the bad luck to fall into their hands! Then, Bashim’s troops and their mercenaries adopted it too!”
“And your’s, Alya?”
“Well, .. occasionally! Mostly on POW’s we had suspected to have carried out such executions themselves! After all, in war, you have to keep up the morale, and to show your determination to friend and foe!”
“Get it! But.. Did you…!? Did your unit…!?”
Alya nodded. “Are you shocked now, Lox!?”
“I guess there isn’t such a thing as a clean war, isn’t it?”
“No! And let me warn you, if you would be wondering : you and me would better stay out of the hands of certain people, otherwise it could happen to us to! Make no mistake about that! That’s one of the reasons, your arrival here angered me in the first place!”
“Yuck!”
“Yes, yuck! Me for obvious reasons! This…” as she pointed to her rank insignia, “…is already more than a reason! You for being an infidel! That’s the kind of people the Mahdists would eagerly like to nail up! Alive, and stark naked under the hot sun! That’s why I honestly had preferred you would not have come over here in the first place! And that’s why I brought this rifle with! Always remember to save the last bullet for yourself! Otherwise, one could be in very big trouble!”
“You mean : someday it could go wrong!”
“Don’t ignore that risk! But first things first! Do you realise what we have here in our hands, Lox!? The mystery of the fate of Zenobia solved! By us! By you and me!?”
“We have it in our hands, Alya, but some way or another, we must bring it out, in a scientifically sound way!”
But Alya seemed imperturbable in her rush.
“Lox!?”
“Yes, Alya!?”
“Have you ever imagined how it must be like, being crucified!?”
“It must be a very cruel experience! I would not like to get subjected to it!”
“Yes! Imagine! You hang there, naked! The sun burning your skin! Thirst! The pain! Knowing that you are doomed and there is nothing left than a horrible death, an agony that lasts for hours! There are terrible insects! And all your ordeal is in public, in front of a mocking crowd!”
“True! You almost sound there is something exciting in it, Alya!?”
“Not at all! But it must be.. something weird to experience! The crucified are still alive, but already in the limbo between life and death, or between life and afterlife, if you believe in it! It is that psychology that wonders me!”
“I see little psychology in it, to be honest!”
“Just realise, Lox, it could have been your fate, if I had not intervened to identify you!”
“Really!? I thought you threatened me to get shot?”
“Mhh! If you come at a bad moment, when my warrior girls have some combat stress to vent, or they just want to make some fun, they could make you crux meat, like they say!?”
“What do you mean!?”
“I hope, Lox, you have taken time to watch my warrior girls!” Alya continued! “They are the fiercest and most determined warriors there are! They keep their ground while male soldiers retire! They fight to the last bullet, and when their ammo is spent, they fix their bayonet and charge! All territory we have reconquered is thanks to their outstanding fighting spirit! But unfortunately, we did not achieve that without losses, often severe ones! And when they get caught, they better kill themselves, since their fate as POW is horrible! Otherwise, they will have to endure torture, rape and mostly, yeah, get crucified at the end! You must understand, that ingrains some radicalism into their minds! Into our minds! It is black or white, you are good or you are an enemy! And they have no mercy with enemies! No wonder! In a normal life, they would have had a family, a husband, children, a home, a job, a social life! All that is denied to them by a civil war they never wanted!”
“Seriously, I do understand that, Alya!”
“Imagine how it would be, for you, Lox! You crucified stark naked in front of a platoon of such undeniably beautiful and attractive Kurdish women!? Some honour!” (Alya said it half joking, but I started to wonder whether there was no kind of hallucinogenic substance in the air, in the tomb).
“I figure, it would be too painful to notice them!?” I replied.
“Not really! All parties here put the emphasis on the humiliating exposure of the captured enemy, over inflicting shear excruciating pain! Those to get crucified get drugged for that effect!”
“Drugs?”
“A mix of tranquilizers and pain killers! A sort of poisonous mixture, actually, but only on the long run, so, still good enough for someone who has to live no longer than a day or so! The crucified should remain aware of his surroundings! That’s important in our society! Call it the three ‘p’ : prudishness, pride and pain. The prudishness is about the humiliation of being publically exposed naked in our society. The pride is about the humiliation of being shown captured alive by the enemy. The pain is obvious, and publically exposing pain is also a humiliating sign of weakness! So, drugging tries to keep those three elements in equilibrium, instead of only inflicting harsh pain. The crucified must feel the humiliations! Crucified are given wine to drink, for the same purpose, and to extend their strength and hence their humiliation. A side effect of the drugging is, that they go with to their cross much easier too! That makes the job of their executioners less a mental burden!”
“Ah!?”
“Good! Think of that, when you would be nailed up!”!”
“Alya! Are you telling me that you are planning to have me crucified by your warrior women, once we are back in Raqqa!?”
“Why should I!?” now it was to her to be surprised.
“Don’t know!? So can have the claim of the discovery of Zenobia’s tomb by your own!? Easy, isn’t it, hmmm?”
“You silly fool!” she laughed.
“Might be possible, mhh? I am sure you would enjoy the view!”
“Or maybe you and me would be crucified together, next to each other, for illegal archaeological excavations, because that is what we are doing here! Imagine that situation, Lox!?”
(I still got more and more convinced that there was some substance in the air of the tomb, although, strange enough, I still felt normal myself).
“You and me, in front of your unit, Alya!?”
“Oh, that would be demeaning for me! Or crucified by one of our enemies! I would be glad, then, you would hang next to me!”
“While we hang on our cross, we both will be realizing that someone else could take the credit for our discovery, or the whole place here would be destroyed with all the evidence gone forever, and our account about this tomb will be erased with our death! Now I understand your point about the psychology of it!”
“You see, Lox!? You got it!”
(to be continued)
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28th 2024.
“Crucified!? Are you sure, Alya?”
“Of course I am, hundred percent! There is no doubt about the cause of the damage! Look! Here, and here! Hey Lox, have you forgotten your lectures in forensic archeology!?”
“What lectures!? We got Archaeology of Ancient Times from a lecturer who was an expert in Ancient Mesopotamian pottery! Potsherds to be exactly! He has always warned us, not to have too high expectations about archaeological fieldwork! Finding more than a few scattered human bones was the best to expect during our whole career, he told us many times!”
“Funny, Lox! And now you find a complete skeleton, in what could be the biggest archaeological discovery of the twenty-first century! Before the civil war, I have followed a course of forensics at the Damascus University! The lecturer was another doctor of the Al-Bashim family! I learned there to recognize traces of violence on skeletons! So, I am fully sure that this skeleton has crucifixion damage!”
“But, crucified? Crucifixion was the way to execute the lower social classes in the Roman Empire. The slaves, the non-citizens. A very painful and humiliating death. Some contrast, with the skeleton in this coffin, with its lavish clothing and accessories, and which had been buried down in the most important temple of the ancient city!”
“It is logic, isn’t it, Lox!?” Alya explained, getting more and more excited! “Zenobia returns to her country, to follow her son, or to take lead of the rebellion, or both! But in Leontopolis, she is stopped, captured, and this time, there is no mercy for her! She is killed by public execution! Intended as a punishment and a warning from the Romans against rebellion! It must have impressed people, that their queen, their empress, was subjected to that fate! After the execution, her followers must have buried her nevertheless with dignity, maybe during a secret ceremony, here hidden in the basements of the temple!”
“Did not Roman regulations protect people of her class against crucifixion!?”
“She got betrayed, Lox! She got betrayed by the people whom she trusted! Whom she thought were on her side! These people did not bother about Roman privileges! That’s my hypothesis!”
“There could be some logic in your thinking! A cruel death, no doubt!”
“Cruel and humiliating! Crucifixion victims used to be stark naked. Often, they were flogged underway!”
“No exception for a queen?”
“Do not count on it, Lox! It was intended to be double humiliation, on top of being subjected to a sentence for slaves! It is even done today!”
“Today? Where!?”
“Here! In this region! The Mahdists have introduced it!”
“On dead bodies, of killed opponents, I have read, and not naked!?”
“That’s the kind of information that probably slipped to Europe! But things have been going a bit more rude here! The Mahdists began to use it as a deterrent, as soon as they started losing grip on their territories and were pushed back. On prisoners, on opponents, on suspected spies and traitors, on criminals of all sorts, on infidels, on all kind of people they did not like! Men and women! My woman warriors if they had the bad luck to fall into their hands! Then, Bashim’s troops and their mercenaries adopted it too!”
“And your’s, Alya?”
“Well, .. occasionally! Mostly on POW’s we had suspected to have carried out such executions themselves! After all, in war, you have to keep up the morale, and to show your determination to friend and foe!”
“Get it! But.. Did you…!? Did your unit…!?”
Alya nodded. “Are you shocked now, Lox!?”
“I guess there isn’t such a thing as a clean war, isn’t it?”
“No! And let me warn you, if you would be wondering : you and me would better stay out of the hands of certain people, otherwise it could happen to us to! Make no mistake about that! That’s one of the reasons, your arrival here angered me in the first place!”
“Yuck!”
“Yes, yuck! Me for obvious reasons! This…” as she pointed to her rank insignia, “…is already more than a reason! You for being an infidel! That’s the kind of people the Mahdists would eagerly like to nail up! Alive, and stark naked under the hot sun! That’s why I honestly had preferred you would not have come over here in the first place! And that’s why I brought this rifle with! Always remember to save the last bullet for yourself! Otherwise, one could be in very big trouble!”
“You mean : someday it could go wrong!”
“Don’t ignore that risk! But first things first! Do you realise what we have here in our hands, Lox!? The mystery of the fate of Zenobia solved! By us! By you and me!?”
“We have it in our hands, Alya, but some way or another, we must bring it out, in a scientifically sound way!”
But Alya seemed imperturbable in her rush.
“Lox!?”
“Yes, Alya!?”
“Have you ever imagined how it must be like, being crucified!?”
“It must be a very cruel experience! I would not like to get subjected to it!”
“Yes! Imagine! You hang there, naked! The sun burning your skin! Thirst! The pain! Knowing that you are doomed and there is nothing left than a horrible death, an agony that lasts for hours! There are terrible insects! And all your ordeal is in public, in front of a mocking crowd!”
“True! You almost sound there is something exciting in it, Alya!?”
“Not at all! But it must be.. something weird to experience! The crucified are still alive, but already in the limbo between life and death, or between life and afterlife, if you believe in it! It is that psychology that wonders me!”
“I see little psychology in it, to be honest!”
“Just realise, Lox, it could have been your fate, if I had not intervened to identify you!”
“Really!? I thought you threatened me to get shot?”
“Mhh! If you come at a bad moment, when my warrior girls have some combat stress to vent, or they just want to make some fun, they could make you crux meat, like they say!?”
“What do you mean!?”
“I hope, Lox, you have taken time to watch my warrior girls!” Alya continued! “They are the fiercest and most determined warriors there are! They keep their ground while male soldiers retire! They fight to the last bullet, and when their ammo is spent, they fix their bayonet and charge! All territory we have reconquered is thanks to their outstanding fighting spirit! But unfortunately, we did not achieve that without losses, often severe ones! And when they get caught, they better kill themselves, since their fate as POW is horrible! Otherwise, they will have to endure torture, rape and mostly, yeah, get crucified at the end! You must understand, that ingrains some radicalism into their minds! Into our minds! It is black or white, you are good or you are an enemy! And they have no mercy with enemies! No wonder! In a normal life, they would have had a family, a husband, children, a home, a job, a social life! All that is denied to them by a civil war they never wanted!”
“Seriously, I do understand that, Alya!”
“Imagine how it would be, for you, Lox! You crucified stark naked in front of a platoon of such undeniably beautiful and attractive Kurdish women!? Some honour!” (Alya said it half joking, but I started to wonder whether there was no kind of hallucinogenic substance in the air, in the tomb).
“I figure, it would be too painful to notice them!?” I replied.
“Not really! All parties here put the emphasis on the humiliating exposure of the captured enemy, over inflicting shear excruciating pain! Those to get crucified get drugged for that effect!”
“Drugs?”
“A mix of tranquilizers and pain killers! A sort of poisonous mixture, actually, but only on the long run, so, still good enough for someone who has to live no longer than a day or so! The crucified should remain aware of his surroundings! That’s important in our society! Call it the three ‘p’ : prudishness, pride and pain. The prudishness is about the humiliation of being publically exposed naked in our society. The pride is about the humiliation of being shown captured alive by the enemy. The pain is obvious, and publically exposing pain is also a humiliating sign of weakness! So, drugging tries to keep those three elements in equilibrium, instead of only inflicting harsh pain. The crucified must feel the humiliations! Crucified are given wine to drink, for the same purpose, and to extend their strength and hence their humiliation. A side effect of the drugging is, that they go with to their cross much easier too! That makes the job of their executioners less a mental burden!”
“Ah!?”
“Good! Think of that, when you would be nailed up!”!”
“Alya! Are you telling me that you are planning to have me crucified by your warrior women, once we are back in Raqqa!?”
“Why should I!?” now it was to her to be surprised.
“Don’t know!? So can have the claim of the discovery of Zenobia’s tomb by your own!? Easy, isn’t it, hmmm?”
“You silly fool!” she laughed.
“Might be possible, mhh? I am sure you would enjoy the view!”
“Or maybe you and me would be crucified together, next to each other, for illegal archaeological excavations, because that is what we are doing here! Imagine that situation, Lox!?”
(I still got more and more convinced that there was some substance in the air of the tomb, although, strange enough, I still felt normal myself).
“You and me, in front of your unit, Alya!?”
“Oh, that would be demeaning for me! Or crucified by one of our enemies! I would be glad, then, you would hang next to me!”
“While we hang on our cross, we both will be realizing that someone else could take the credit for our discovery, or the whole place here would be destroyed with all the evidence gone forever, and our account about this tomb will be erased with our death! Now I understand your point about the psychology of it!”
“You see, Lox!? You got it!”
(to be continued)
Georg
Magistrate
I don't want to break someone else's fantasy, but when conditionally "good" people commit war crimes that in reality they don't even commit unconditionally "bad" ones, this is a moral "sinister valley". An attempt to fit fantasy into a "realistic" political context gives fantasy the taste of ashes, and against the background of real history and politics, fantasy looks ridiculous. I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh in my judgments.
Hmmmm … imagine that!
carloscruz
Governor
It remains me a lot of the drug we were given once, when we were all crucified in Lybia!
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Oh yes, that was a great crux journey!
thecuriousone
Governor
I got the feeling some characters in the story are getting..... crucified.
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
7.
Our crosses stand next to each other! The ends of the crossbeams are hardly ten centimeters apart! Alya, less than two meters from me, hangs squirming to her cross, cursing those who had betrayed her!
She has to pay heavily for driving with me to the Azman site. Leaving her station without permission, use of a service vehicle and fuel for personal issues, jeopardizing security (exposing herself to the risk of capture and interrogation), driving around with a spy (me) across restricted area, and illegal entrance and looting of an archaeological site. It was a patrol that caught us on the spot. Despite Alya’s higher rank, the leader of the patrol arrested her, and me, based on his given authority.
Alya’s commanding officer found the infringements of discipline so serious, that she had her court-martialed. Still in the evening of the same day, Alya and me had stood trial. Her commanding officer acted as prosecutor, and read the charges. She emphasized that there had been too much breaches recently, originating from a false feeling that the war had been won and that leniency was permitted. As it turned out, during our ‘pleasure trip’, three brave peshmerga women of Alya’s unit had been killed, while their vehicle had struck a mine in the frontline zone! A clear and harsh example was needed, to show that no one, even not an officer, was allowed to take intolerable liberties! Only then, any commissioned and non-commissioned officer could keep looking the troopers, of which daily sacrifices were requested, straight into the eyes.
Alya and me exchanged an anxious look, when the prosecutor requested ‘the highest possible sanction’, for her, crucifixion!
And for me, accused of being a spy (because of my illegal trespassing into the region) and a looter of archaeological sites, the same verdict was demanded!
The judge followed the prosecutor. We would be crucified in public, at the entrance of the battalion’s barracks, tomorrow morning, one hour after sunrise!
In accordance to the verdict, the execution had taken place the next day, today, one hour after sunrise. Thirty minutes before the execution, w both had got a portion of the drugs, Alya had told about. She firmly urged me to accept them, or the sentence would become really unbearable! Arrived at the crucifixion site, Alya first had to submit to be dishonorably stripped from her rank, demoted to private, then dishonourably discharged from the army, in front of the women of her battalion, before being stripped of her uniform, by two of her former subordinates. Whereupon, they did the same with me. The T-shaped crosses were lying flat on the ground. We were both tied to them, now stark naked. Then, two execution teams nailed us simultaneously, and despite the terrible pain, which made me writhe wildly and utter unearthly shrieks, I heard Alya’s high pitched desperate cries too. The crosses were then raised, into a concrete foundation, with a square hole in it to receive the pole. The cross dropped on the bottom of the hole with a painful thud, making both of us utter once more cries of pain.
At the level of our neck, there was a ring attached to the backside of the pole, through which a rope had been slung, that past under our armpits and ran in front over our upper chest. Like that, we hung more or less stable, and we could breathe as good as it could, freeing us from the exhausting and painful ‘crux dance’. But still, we had some liberty to slightly move our bodies.
Alya initially started shouting to the onlookers, angered, in a language I neither understood! It sounded like cursing, but all she got in reply was mockery. I had no idea where she got the energy from to sustain it, since I already had trouble fighting the pain and discomfort, exhausting me, giving me cramps and making me sweat. Finally, she calmed down, clearly exhausted too and sweating profusely too. Her breathing was heavy, almost growling, her head and upper chest were dark red due to her anger, and she looked completely devastated.
Her fury had kept me a bit out of the way of the crowd’s attention. Meanwhile, I had nearly most of the time watched her, staring at her naked body that hung so close to me, and yet immensely far out of reach.
Alya had a round, but not chubby, body, with likely breasts. Her sagging belly was hanging with a fold over her totally untrimmed black bush. She clearly never used to shave body hair anywhere. But hell, how excitingly attractive she was, particularly in that vulnerable position! Too bad I could not touch her!
Finally having calmed down, she asked something in that foreign language, to one of the women that stood on guard. She got given to drink, from a sponge on a stick. Then, she nodded her head towards me, talking again to the guard. The latter then presented me some drink on a sponge. It smelled like a sour wine, but it did good, it revived, as far as it was worth.
“Syrian .. wine! Not best.. quality, but…!” Alya said to me.
“Thanks!” I replied.
We would need it! The sun was now really climbing in the sky, and the moderate temperatures from just after sunrise, were now sensibly rising to what announced itself as another blazing hot day in the Middle East!
There were less onlookers already. People got to their work, since there was much work to do in a city that had suffered damages of a civil war. Alya’s battalion had marched off, back into the barracks, apart from a detachment to guard us. There was a nearby war going on, and duties and missions had to be fulfilled. Only a few people kept watching us, chatting and commenting. Passersby slowed down or occasionally stopped for a short while and went on. Cars driving along hooted mockingly.
“Lox!.... I am ashamed!” Alya said to me.
“I understand!” I replied.
“I am… ashamed! I..have dishonoured.. myself! Nailing…! I have cried!...Cried of pain!”
“Alya! That crying… is …normal! Being nailed, is…terribly painful!”
“No! A real ..peshmerga warrior… defies all pain! I .. failed! I deserve this!” she spoke with an exhausted but determined voice.
“You don’t.. deserve this, Alya! You ‘ve been brave and it is all my fault! .. Should not have come here at all” I replied, with effort too. Although we did not have to ‘dance’ on the cross, with the help of the rope under our armpits allowing us to breathe in a hanging position, we always felt an oppressive impact, due to our hanging by our body weight, and due to the rope itself, cutting into our flesh . Any effort, such as talking, quickly created a shortage of breath.
Alya shrugged. “I should have shot you!” she laughed. “No! Should have expelled you! My fault too.. I was as eager for searching the site too!” silence. She had to recover from talking.
A few minutes later, she resumed.
“I liked to work with you, Lox! You … always took me serious!”
“The same … for working… with you!”
“Last night! Entrusted our discovery… to someone I have confidence! It is not lost..yet!”
“Hope so!”
Alya demanded to drink again to the guard, and for me too. I watched is as she leaned forward as far as restraints and pain allowed her, and she eagerly sucked the welcoming sponge. Wine dripped down from her chin, over her breasts and belly downward. It dripped on her legs, it ran from her belly into her bush. Then it was my turn to get to drink. Wine dripped from my chin, chest and belly too, while it trickled down! And I noticed, Alya was watching and scrutinizing me meanwhile, with a look, betraying some lustful eager, most likely for the same reason I just had, when she was sucking the sponge : I wished I could lick the dripping wine from her body!
It got me immensely aroused!
(to be continued)
Our crosses stand next to each other! The ends of the crossbeams are hardly ten centimeters apart! Alya, less than two meters from me, hangs squirming to her cross, cursing those who had betrayed her!
She has to pay heavily for driving with me to the Azman site. Leaving her station without permission, use of a service vehicle and fuel for personal issues, jeopardizing security (exposing herself to the risk of capture and interrogation), driving around with a spy (me) across restricted area, and illegal entrance and looting of an archaeological site. It was a patrol that caught us on the spot. Despite Alya’s higher rank, the leader of the patrol arrested her, and me, based on his given authority.
Alya’s commanding officer found the infringements of discipline so serious, that she had her court-martialed. Still in the evening of the same day, Alya and me had stood trial. Her commanding officer acted as prosecutor, and read the charges. She emphasized that there had been too much breaches recently, originating from a false feeling that the war had been won and that leniency was permitted. As it turned out, during our ‘pleasure trip’, three brave peshmerga women of Alya’s unit had been killed, while their vehicle had struck a mine in the frontline zone! A clear and harsh example was needed, to show that no one, even not an officer, was allowed to take intolerable liberties! Only then, any commissioned and non-commissioned officer could keep looking the troopers, of which daily sacrifices were requested, straight into the eyes.
Alya and me exchanged an anxious look, when the prosecutor requested ‘the highest possible sanction’, for her, crucifixion!
And for me, accused of being a spy (because of my illegal trespassing into the region) and a looter of archaeological sites, the same verdict was demanded!
The judge followed the prosecutor. We would be crucified in public, at the entrance of the battalion’s barracks, tomorrow morning, one hour after sunrise!
In accordance to the verdict, the execution had taken place the next day, today, one hour after sunrise. Thirty minutes before the execution, w both had got a portion of the drugs, Alya had told about. She firmly urged me to accept them, or the sentence would become really unbearable! Arrived at the crucifixion site, Alya first had to submit to be dishonorably stripped from her rank, demoted to private, then dishonourably discharged from the army, in front of the women of her battalion, before being stripped of her uniform, by two of her former subordinates. Whereupon, they did the same with me. The T-shaped crosses were lying flat on the ground. We were both tied to them, now stark naked. Then, two execution teams nailed us simultaneously, and despite the terrible pain, which made me writhe wildly and utter unearthly shrieks, I heard Alya’s high pitched desperate cries too. The crosses were then raised, into a concrete foundation, with a square hole in it to receive the pole. The cross dropped on the bottom of the hole with a painful thud, making both of us utter once more cries of pain.
At the level of our neck, there was a ring attached to the backside of the pole, through which a rope had been slung, that past under our armpits and ran in front over our upper chest. Like that, we hung more or less stable, and we could breathe as good as it could, freeing us from the exhausting and painful ‘crux dance’. But still, we had some liberty to slightly move our bodies.
Alya initially started shouting to the onlookers, angered, in a language I neither understood! It sounded like cursing, but all she got in reply was mockery. I had no idea where she got the energy from to sustain it, since I already had trouble fighting the pain and discomfort, exhausting me, giving me cramps and making me sweat. Finally, she calmed down, clearly exhausted too and sweating profusely too. Her breathing was heavy, almost growling, her head and upper chest were dark red due to her anger, and she looked completely devastated.
Her fury had kept me a bit out of the way of the crowd’s attention. Meanwhile, I had nearly most of the time watched her, staring at her naked body that hung so close to me, and yet immensely far out of reach.
Alya had a round, but not chubby, body, with likely breasts. Her sagging belly was hanging with a fold over her totally untrimmed black bush. She clearly never used to shave body hair anywhere. But hell, how excitingly attractive she was, particularly in that vulnerable position! Too bad I could not touch her!
Finally having calmed down, she asked something in that foreign language, to one of the women that stood on guard. She got given to drink, from a sponge on a stick. Then, she nodded her head towards me, talking again to the guard. The latter then presented me some drink on a sponge. It smelled like a sour wine, but it did good, it revived, as far as it was worth.
“Syrian .. wine! Not best.. quality, but…!” Alya said to me.
“Thanks!” I replied.
We would need it! The sun was now really climbing in the sky, and the moderate temperatures from just after sunrise, were now sensibly rising to what announced itself as another blazing hot day in the Middle East!
There were less onlookers already. People got to their work, since there was much work to do in a city that had suffered damages of a civil war. Alya’s battalion had marched off, back into the barracks, apart from a detachment to guard us. There was a nearby war going on, and duties and missions had to be fulfilled. Only a few people kept watching us, chatting and commenting. Passersby slowed down or occasionally stopped for a short while and went on. Cars driving along hooted mockingly.
“Lox!.... I am ashamed!” Alya said to me.
“I understand!” I replied.
“I am… ashamed! I..have dishonoured.. myself! Nailing…! I have cried!...Cried of pain!”
“Alya! That crying… is …normal! Being nailed, is…terribly painful!”
“No! A real ..peshmerga warrior… defies all pain! I .. failed! I deserve this!” she spoke with an exhausted but determined voice.
“You don’t.. deserve this, Alya! You ‘ve been brave and it is all my fault! .. Should not have come here at all” I replied, with effort too. Although we did not have to ‘dance’ on the cross, with the help of the rope under our armpits allowing us to breathe in a hanging position, we always felt an oppressive impact, due to our hanging by our body weight, and due to the rope itself, cutting into our flesh . Any effort, such as talking, quickly created a shortage of breath.
Alya shrugged. “I should have shot you!” she laughed. “No! Should have expelled you! My fault too.. I was as eager for searching the site too!” silence. She had to recover from talking.
A few minutes later, she resumed.
“I liked to work with you, Lox! You … always took me serious!”
“The same … for working… with you!”
“Last night! Entrusted our discovery… to someone I have confidence! It is not lost..yet!”
“Hope so!”
Alya demanded to drink again to the guard, and for me too. I watched is as she leaned forward as far as restraints and pain allowed her, and she eagerly sucked the welcoming sponge. Wine dripped down from her chin, over her breasts and belly downward. It dripped on her legs, it ran from her belly into her bush. Then it was my turn to get to drink. Wine dripped from my chin, chest and belly too, while it trickled down! And I noticed, Alya was watching and scrutinizing me meanwhile, with a look, betraying some lustful eager, most likely for the same reason I just had, when she was sucking the sponge : I wished I could lick the dripping wine from her body!
It got me immensely aroused!
(to be continued)
I feel like that sometimes. For example I cannot abide a Holocaust setting. Everyone feels different about such things and chooses our own course.
This story by Lox doesn’t affect me that way at all but I certainly can understand how you feel and think it is valid for you to feel that way.
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
8.
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28th 2024.
“Now, Lox, now!”
Alya, sitting on the undamaged cover stone of the sarcophagus, her legs slung around my thighs, my hands around her hips. I thrust into her, and as I feel myself coming, she talks words In a language I do not understand, a sort of excited praying, while looking upward! Then she uttered a long ecstatic roar.
We both relax. She looks into my eyes now. Giggling!
“Come, hold me a bit longer!” she asks.
I glance to my left, where Zenobia’s skull has witnessed our pleasure, after Alya had turned on her crucifixion fantasy. Definitely sure, there was something hallucinogenic in the air! Surprising how Alya had drawn, guided, lured me into that crucifixion fantasy of her! Step by step, she had turned the horror of it into excitement! She, being in full command and control over the situation, over me! And I had willingly submitted to her!
Here we stand, both stark naked, holding each other, having made love in the presence of the skeleton of what we believe is one of the most illustrious queens of Antiquity!
A few minutes, we remain so. Until Alya takes a look at the skeleton, and then looks at me again.
“I am afraid, it is time to go, Lox! We cannot stay here forever!”
We silently put our clothes on again. Soon we were dressed, and she had picked up her rifle.
”Lox! Now you have to promise two things! First! No word about our find here, as long as this site is not safely accessible! Please, even if my fortune in this war would turn badly! Keep it for yourself as long as no sound excavations could be organized here! And in that case, think back of me too! Promise?”
“Promised!”
“And two! What we just did here together, also stays our little secret! What happens in the tomb, stays in the tomb! Right!? Promise me! Please!?”
“Otherwise you’ll shoot me?” I joked.
“Please, just be serious! This was a special moment for me and you, for the two of us! But, just, and only for the two of us!?”
“Do not worry, Alya! I promise! What happened in the tomb, will stay in the tomb! And Zenobia there, she will not reveal anything either!”
“Thanks! I count on you! Now, let’s go back! I go into the passage first! If you get a heart attack therein, I don’t want to get stuck behind you!”
I had already forgotten, I had to go through that scaringly narrow passage again. Suppose it would have caved in, we would be trapped here, die of starvation if we would not be able to remove the rubble. Lots of time for making some more love on Zenobia’s tomb, that’s all that would be left for us!. And then a bullet from Alya’s AK-47 to finish us off.
“That’s very nice of you Alya! But take care not to take down rubble with that rifle!”
“Don’t ‘worry!” she said. She put on her hard hat, took a torch and crawled on her knees and vanished into the passage.
I waited a moment, standing alone now in the tomb. Alone with a skeleton that could be that of Empress Zenobia. I shone a last time with the torch over the bones. I realized, I would never have noticed the crucifixion damage on the bones! Damn, Alya was good in that!
Alya! She and me had just celebrated an archaeological discovery in a most unusual way! In the tomb! After she had turned me on with a crucifixion fantasy involving the both of us.! She had displayed such a lively imagination, that had completely absorbed me! Hard to believe! One could almost say, this could be a new story for Thousand-and-one Nights!
“I am through!” I heard her shout from the other side!
From this side, the passage even looked narrower than from the other side! All right, one does not get pleasure without an effort, so I would crawl again into that scary hole. What else would I do? Stay here with ‘Zenobia’? Little chance she would tell about her crucifixion, leave draw me into her fantasy, like Alya had done!
I put my hard hat on, and with the torch in my hand (after a last time shining on ‘Zenobia’ and a ‘goodbye’ to her) and slid through the hole. It was again an extremely claustrophobic and frightening experience. Writhing my way under debris. Then! Auch! My knee hit a piece of stone! That did hurt! Then, my right foot got stuck behind it, and it moved. To my horror, I noticed dust was coming down from above! Followed by coarser, sandy material! I heard the sound of grating stone cobbles! I got by seized by panic! The heap of debris is moving, and will lock me up here inside!
I moved with my torch to find the exit. Instead! I suddenly looked death straight into the face!
(to be continued)
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28th 2024.
“Now, Lox, now!”
Alya, sitting on the undamaged cover stone of the sarcophagus, her legs slung around my thighs, my hands around her hips. I thrust into her, and as I feel myself coming, she talks words In a language I do not understand, a sort of excited praying, while looking upward! Then she uttered a long ecstatic roar.
We both relax. She looks into my eyes now. Giggling!
“Come, hold me a bit longer!” she asks.
I glance to my left, where Zenobia’s skull has witnessed our pleasure, after Alya had turned on her crucifixion fantasy. Definitely sure, there was something hallucinogenic in the air! Surprising how Alya had drawn, guided, lured me into that crucifixion fantasy of her! Step by step, she had turned the horror of it into excitement! She, being in full command and control over the situation, over me! And I had willingly submitted to her!
Here we stand, both stark naked, holding each other, having made love in the presence of the skeleton of what we believe is one of the most illustrious queens of Antiquity!
A few minutes, we remain so. Until Alya takes a look at the skeleton, and then looks at me again.
“I am afraid, it is time to go, Lox! We cannot stay here forever!”
We silently put our clothes on again. Soon we were dressed, and she had picked up her rifle.
”Lox! Now you have to promise two things! First! No word about our find here, as long as this site is not safely accessible! Please, even if my fortune in this war would turn badly! Keep it for yourself as long as no sound excavations could be organized here! And in that case, think back of me too! Promise?”
“Promised!”
“And two! What we just did here together, also stays our little secret! What happens in the tomb, stays in the tomb! Right!? Promise me! Please!?”
“Otherwise you’ll shoot me?” I joked.
“Please, just be serious! This was a special moment for me and you, for the two of us! But, just, and only for the two of us!?”
“Do not worry, Alya! I promise! What happened in the tomb, will stay in the tomb! And Zenobia there, she will not reveal anything either!”
“Thanks! I count on you! Now, let’s go back! I go into the passage first! If you get a heart attack therein, I don’t want to get stuck behind you!”
I had already forgotten, I had to go through that scaringly narrow passage again. Suppose it would have caved in, we would be trapped here, die of starvation if we would not be able to remove the rubble. Lots of time for making some more love on Zenobia’s tomb, that’s all that would be left for us!. And then a bullet from Alya’s AK-47 to finish us off.
“That’s very nice of you Alya! But take care not to take down rubble with that rifle!”
“Don’t ‘worry!” she said. She put on her hard hat, took a torch and crawled on her knees and vanished into the passage.
I waited a moment, standing alone now in the tomb. Alone with a skeleton that could be that of Empress Zenobia. I shone a last time with the torch over the bones. I realized, I would never have noticed the crucifixion damage on the bones! Damn, Alya was good in that!
Alya! She and me had just celebrated an archaeological discovery in a most unusual way! In the tomb! After she had turned me on with a crucifixion fantasy involving the both of us.! She had displayed such a lively imagination, that had completely absorbed me! Hard to believe! One could almost say, this could be a new story for Thousand-and-one Nights!
“I am through!” I heard her shout from the other side!
From this side, the passage even looked narrower than from the other side! All right, one does not get pleasure without an effort, so I would crawl again into that scary hole. What else would I do? Stay here with ‘Zenobia’? Little chance she would tell about her crucifixion, leave draw me into her fantasy, like Alya had done!
I put my hard hat on, and with the torch in my hand (after a last time shining on ‘Zenobia’ and a ‘goodbye’ to her) and slid through the hole. It was again an extremely claustrophobic and frightening experience. Writhing my way under debris. Then! Auch! My knee hit a piece of stone! That did hurt! Then, my right foot got stuck behind it, and it moved. To my horror, I noticed dust was coming down from above! Followed by coarser, sandy material! I heard the sound of grating stone cobbles! I got by seized by panic! The heap of debris is moving, and will lock me up here inside!
I moved with my torch to find the exit. Instead! I suddenly looked death straight into the face!
(to be continued)
PeterVl
Magistrate
Is there another way to celebrate an archaeological discovery?
Every significant archaeological discovery I’ve made has been celebrated in this way!Is there another way to celebrate an archaeological discovery?
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
9.
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28h 2024.
In a cavity under a slab of stone, just ahead of me, a human skull, miraculously completely intact, lay grinning at me! As if it invited me to its own world. I wonder how it had survived the collapse, but it was there, and it was clear I had taken the wrong way. I realized, I must have missed the s-duct through the debris, and I carefully crawled backwards. Meanwhile, the rubble above my head still seemed to be unstable. I grabbed two sticks, which were coincidentally within my reach, and put one of them under the stone that was most likely to move.
For the moment, I had blocked further motion, but I figured, the stick was rather brittle, so it would not hold long.
Having crawled further backward, I noticed left of me the access to the s-duct. No wonder I had missed it, from this side, it looked even more narrow. I made my way through it, and, as rushing as I could, to finally get out of this claustrophobic nightmare!
At last, I crawled up at the other side! Alya apparently had climbed the ladder already. So I did. I reached the platform of the former temple of Jupiter, and looked for Alya, so I could retrieve the ladder.
I still had that second stick in my hand, I had taken it with me, in case I needed to block more moving debris. In the daylight, I suddenly noticed, it was a piece of human bone. Most likely coming from the ‘owner’ of the skull, I had seen in that dead-ending passage.
I looked for Alya, to show it to her, but..
“Alya!? What…!?”
There was a confusing situation outside. There were some people around our car. Curiously, there were two police vehicles. Old vehicles it appeared, some Opel Omega models from the early years 2000. A few locals had also gathered. They were armed with assault rifles.
I suddenly feared the worst for us, but apparently, there had been some fuzz about Alya having committed overspeeding, according to the locals, the Bedouin nomads, Alya had slowed down for, on our way here.
That’s what one of the policemen explained to me, in good English. Alya was in a strong argument with the nomads. Police tried to mediate when the argument enraged.
“You see, Sir, the vehicle apparently belongs to a leasing company established in Moscow, Russia! So, the speeding ticket will be sent to them. Retrieving it from the user who committed the infringement, is their problem! But those nomads want a bounty for reporting it to us, but that is illegal! So, they request it from your companion, who was apparently driving the car, but she has no money with her. Hence they want another compensation!”
“Which is?”
“They want her to submit to a carnal compensation!”
“And if she refuses?”
“She risks, they call in the Mahdists, if they bid more for her! Which they will, considering her rank. And, unfortunately, you risk to be part of the bargain too, Sir! There are religious magistrates over there, who would be very pleased to judge and execute an authentic infidel”
“Execute? How? Crucifixion?”
“These crucifixion stories, Sir, are most likely propaganda! Although one can never be sure, of course, if they would give an infidel a special treatment! And the major there too!”
“And you, as police, cannot prevent that!?”
“We are highway police, Sir! We have no authority to interfere in acts between the belligerents!”
“Could I ..pay the compensation?”
“Unlikely, Sir! They will not accept it! They will be insulted! They will take the money and then kill you!”
The discussion between Alya and the nomads was heating up! I felt more and more anxiety about the prospect of being delivered to the Mahdists.
Then, suddenly, the nomads backed off and retired from the place.
“Lox! We are leaving! Bring the ladder and get in the car!” Alya shouted.
“You see, Sir, they came to a civilized agreement! But I advise you to leave the place!”
“Thank you, officer! It is anyway strange to meet regular police here!”
“I understand, Sir, our police department has jurisdiction over the eastern and southern surroundings of Raqqa.”
“On both sides of the Euphrates?”
“Sure! It always has been like that! We are based at Al-Akirashi, at the opposite bank of the river!”
“But there is a frontline across that jurisdiction!?”
“I know! But someone has to maintain law and order in this mess, our country has become!”
“Where did you get your English from?”
“Before the civil war, I have been detached to the London Metropolitan Police for two years, in an exchange program!”
Alya and me put the ladder on the roof, we got into the car, and left the site.
“How did you solve that argument?” I asked.
“Easy! I challenged them to settle it by a shootout with our assault rifles!”
“But you were one against four!?”
“I they wanted my body, they would have to kill me! But I would get at least one, maybe two of them! That prospect feared them, especially, since it would be bad for their reputation to have themselves killed by a woman!”
“I got it!”
“By the way? What took you so long to crawl through the passage!?”
“I got lost inside! I had missed the s-duct, came into a dead end, and moved a stone there, which threatened to entomb me myself!”
“Sounds scaring! Fortunately, you found the way out!”
“I found more! In that dead end, I suddenly looked straight into the eye sockets of a human skull! There seems to be a necropolis under that debris pile! Here! I grabbed some bone!”
“Right Lox, that’s a part of an ulna bone! And look here! Did you notice that!?”
“What!?”
“Crucifixion damage, Loxuru! That’s the second time today, you overlook it!”
“I am sorry, Professor Baran!”
“Come, let’s return to Raqqa! I don’t trust these nomads for a dime! Before they give away our whereabouts! Last thing I want is meeting a bunch of Mahdist thugs underway!”
“Mind the speed limits, Alya!”
“Over my dead body, Lox! Unless you want to decorate a cross for real in a Mahdist settlement!”
(to be continued)
The Azman archaeological site, Syria, August 28h 2024.
In a cavity under a slab of stone, just ahead of me, a human skull, miraculously completely intact, lay grinning at me! As if it invited me to its own world. I wonder how it had survived the collapse, but it was there, and it was clear I had taken the wrong way. I realized, I must have missed the s-duct through the debris, and I carefully crawled backwards. Meanwhile, the rubble above my head still seemed to be unstable. I grabbed two sticks, which were coincidentally within my reach, and put one of them under the stone that was most likely to move.
For the moment, I had blocked further motion, but I figured, the stick was rather brittle, so it would not hold long.
Having crawled further backward, I noticed left of me the access to the s-duct. No wonder I had missed it, from this side, it looked even more narrow. I made my way through it, and, as rushing as I could, to finally get out of this claustrophobic nightmare!
At last, I crawled up at the other side! Alya apparently had climbed the ladder already. So I did. I reached the platform of the former temple of Jupiter, and looked for Alya, so I could retrieve the ladder.
I still had that second stick in my hand, I had taken it with me, in case I needed to block more moving debris. In the daylight, I suddenly noticed, it was a piece of human bone. Most likely coming from the ‘owner’ of the skull, I had seen in that dead-ending passage.
I looked for Alya, to show it to her, but..
“Alya!? What…!?”
There was a confusing situation outside. There were some people around our car. Curiously, there were two police vehicles. Old vehicles it appeared, some Opel Omega models from the early years 2000. A few locals had also gathered. They were armed with assault rifles.
I suddenly feared the worst for us, but apparently, there had been some fuzz about Alya having committed overspeeding, according to the locals, the Bedouin nomads, Alya had slowed down for, on our way here.
That’s what one of the policemen explained to me, in good English. Alya was in a strong argument with the nomads. Police tried to mediate when the argument enraged.
“You see, Sir, the vehicle apparently belongs to a leasing company established in Moscow, Russia! So, the speeding ticket will be sent to them. Retrieving it from the user who committed the infringement, is their problem! But those nomads want a bounty for reporting it to us, but that is illegal! So, they request it from your companion, who was apparently driving the car, but she has no money with her. Hence they want another compensation!”
“Which is?”
“They want her to submit to a carnal compensation!”
“And if she refuses?”
“She risks, they call in the Mahdists, if they bid more for her! Which they will, considering her rank. And, unfortunately, you risk to be part of the bargain too, Sir! There are religious magistrates over there, who would be very pleased to judge and execute an authentic infidel”
“Execute? How? Crucifixion?”
“These crucifixion stories, Sir, are most likely propaganda! Although one can never be sure, of course, if they would give an infidel a special treatment! And the major there too!”
“And you, as police, cannot prevent that!?”
“We are highway police, Sir! We have no authority to interfere in acts between the belligerents!”
“Could I ..pay the compensation?”
“Unlikely, Sir! They will not accept it! They will be insulted! They will take the money and then kill you!”
The discussion between Alya and the nomads was heating up! I felt more and more anxiety about the prospect of being delivered to the Mahdists.
Then, suddenly, the nomads backed off and retired from the place.
“Lox! We are leaving! Bring the ladder and get in the car!” Alya shouted.
“You see, Sir, they came to a civilized agreement! But I advise you to leave the place!”
“Thank you, officer! It is anyway strange to meet regular police here!”
“I understand, Sir, our police department has jurisdiction over the eastern and southern surroundings of Raqqa.”
“On both sides of the Euphrates?”
“Sure! It always has been like that! We are based at Al-Akirashi, at the opposite bank of the river!”
“But there is a frontline across that jurisdiction!?”
“I know! But someone has to maintain law and order in this mess, our country has become!”
“Where did you get your English from?”
“Before the civil war, I have been detached to the London Metropolitan Police for two years, in an exchange program!”
Alya and me put the ladder on the roof, we got into the car, and left the site.
“How did you solve that argument?” I asked.
“Easy! I challenged them to settle it by a shootout with our assault rifles!”
“But you were one against four!?”
“I they wanted my body, they would have to kill me! But I would get at least one, maybe two of them! That prospect feared them, especially, since it would be bad for their reputation to have themselves killed by a woman!”
“I got it!”
“By the way? What took you so long to crawl through the passage!?”
“I got lost inside! I had missed the s-duct, came into a dead end, and moved a stone there, which threatened to entomb me myself!”
“Sounds scaring! Fortunately, you found the way out!”
“I found more! In that dead end, I suddenly looked straight into the eye sockets of a human skull! There seems to be a necropolis under that debris pile! Here! I grabbed some bone!”
“Right Lox, that’s a part of an ulna bone! And look here! Did you notice that!?”
“What!?”
“Crucifixion damage, Loxuru! That’s the second time today, you overlook it!”
“I am sorry, Professor Baran!”
“Come, let’s return to Raqqa! I don’t trust these nomads for a dime! Before they give away our whereabouts! Last thing I want is meeting a bunch of Mahdist thugs underway!”
“Mind the speed limits, Alya!”
“Over my dead body, Lox! Unless you want to decorate a cross for real in a Mahdist settlement!”
(to be continued)
PeterVl
Magistrate
(After sex, during which I heard the details of my crucifixion, my encounter with the contents of a mass grave, being crammed into a hole about to collapse, and meeting some paranoid guys checking traffic laws in the bloodiest war zone on the planet, how the fuck did I miss that detail?)
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Well, you captured the irony completely!
You see, @Barbaria1 !? That's an example of reading fine print!
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
10.
Epilogue. Leontopolis, August 26th 274 AD. Execution site outside the gate to Callinicum.
On the second hour after sunrise, Bat-Zabbai got crucified. I did not want to miss the spectacle, wondering how she would behave.
She arrived at the site, escorted by soldiers, and chained the same way as when she had left the courtroom, and also dressed the same way! And also still looking proud the same way.
A bailiff loudly read the court’s verdict : “… for rebellion, conspiracy, taking up arms against the Emperor, treason, breaking of a given word, abuse of power, war crimes, and murder…!”
Bat-Zabbai heard it without emotion.
“Make her ready!”
The soldiers released the chains.
There was a moment of hesitation. Obviously, like all condemned to the cross, Bat-Zabbai should be naked. But apparently, her aura was still so strong, that the soldiers seemed reluctant to strip her. Bat-Zabbai surveyed the crowd as if she was looking for eye-contact, as if she intended to speech. Spontaneously, a woman and her about 20 years old daughter stepped forward from the crowd. Looking like ‘what must be done, should be done’, Bat-Zabbai released the belt of her chiton and gave it to the mother. Then she unclipped the shoulder buttons with one hand, and handed them over to the daughter, while she held up the chiton at her breast level with the other hand. Then she dropped it, stepped out of it, where upon the daughter took it up.
Bat-Zabbai nodded to the mother, who released her breastband, making her breasts fall free. Finally, after a slightly deeper take of breath, Bat-Zabbai detached herself the loincloth, now revealing her total nudity. She stepped forward, kicking out her sandals.
‘By Jupiter and all gods of the Pantheon!’ I thought! ‘From her long black hair, her goddess-like face, her perfect round breasts, her waist and hips, centered into a gorgeous black bush! These legs! Queen Zenobia, either fully dressed or stark naked, what a graceful appearance!’
Bat-Zabbai nodded to the centurion to make clear that she was ready! Soldiers shackled her to a flogging pole. Standing up, she received the thirty lashes, moaning on each stroke! Although, I had the impression, that the whipper did not hit her with the fullest possible force, and that he was neither summoned to do so! Were the Roman holding back, because of Bat-Zabbai’s support in town, or did they spare her at the whipping post, to lengthen her struggle on the cross?
Anyway, in contrast to many victims before her, Bat-Zabbai kept her composure, did not beg for mercy, and kept up some pride. At the end, she showed red stripes allover her back, down to her thighs, but not the welts with trickling blood, as is often the case after thirty lashes, she did not hang almost limp to the pole, and she did not have to be dragged to her cross.
Instead, she could walk to it, a bit uneasy and in pain, but still, she could take the opportunity of having her wrists unshackled, to correct her hair.
“Crucify her!”
Still, there was some hesitation. The mother and daughter, who had assisted Bat-Zabbai with her preparations, helped her lay down on the cross. She thanked them for their assistance. The clothes were to be left on the site, but the women were given the shoulder buttons as a reward for their help.
The executioners started tying Bat-Zabbai to her cross. She was given a mouthpiece of wood to bite on during the nailing.
With the execution imminent, the crowd moved forward, as much as allowed. I lost sight of Bat-Zabbai. The hammering started. I heard her uttering shrieks of intense pain, muffled by the mouthpiece. Even a former empress is not immune for that intense pain! Four times, there was hammering. Moments later, the cross was raised, and I saw her again, her eyes full of pain and fear, as she struggled against the torture now inflicted by her own body weight. Her face was distorted and she uttered uncontrolled shrieks. She looked ten years older than moments before. Her haircut had gone completely wild.
As the cross had been fixed, Bat-Zabbai came to a calm, and let herself hang down by her arms. But not for long! With a tormented roar, she pulled herself up by her arms, and stayed in that position, heavy breathing! It was clearly a heavy effort she had to make.
Just now, some spectators started to mock her! Bat-Zabbai, despite her peril, replied, but with great difficulty. She was clearly already in another world, the world of those who will die, but still are fighting it!
A guard put a ladder against the crossbeam and added a titulus. It mentioned : ‘murder’, ‘high treason’ and ‘war crimes.’ In Latin, Greek and Aramese.
I noticed meanwhile the clothes she had worn, tossed in front of her cross. A symbol that she was no longer among the living, but already outcast of this world. A symbol, she knew very well, and now she had to watch herself it all the time.
While the guard was up the ladder, she exchanged a brief word with him. With the consent of the head of the guard, a second ladder was raised, and both attached a rope under her armpits, easing her breathing somewhat.
“Give the bitch a cornu!” a spectator shouted, receiving approval from others. “Yes! Give her a throne that suits her!” Bat-Zabbai had to endure several minutes of taunting for that rope.
I kept staring at her. At her gorgeous body, that slowly moved up and down, left to right. It was an exciting view, it made me hard. On the other hand, I strange enough felt some pity for her. She was clearly struggling, that was already hard enough for her, but she had to do so in front of tens, maybe hundreds of spectators. Sometimes, she caught the attention of the crowd, sometimes she turned away from it, struggling with her own hopeless agony. She may have been a tyrant as a ruler, responsible for the death of numerous innocent people, she deserved to be executed for that, but in this way? And alone? They should at least have given her a companion, fellow sufferer, next to her, to give each other mutual support.
“Come, Loxurus, let’s go to the boss!” said Quietus, who had accompanied me to watch the execution.
So, we returned to the inn, and went upstairs to our private meeting room.
“So, there goes Zenobia!?” I said to that legionary – in civil clothing – who let me in.
“Not that name here! Bat-Zabbia will do!”
“Is Valabathus not too harsh for her!? She is his mother after all!?”
“Harsh!? Me!? Not at all!” a voice replied. Valabathus’ voice!
Valabathus, her own son, had betrayed her! With the help of the Bedouins that had escorted her to Leontopolis Why? Very obvious! First of all, because he wanted to become the ruler of Palmyra himself. Likely not by rebellion, but by a trajectory that would make him a temporary ally of Aurelian. This would help crushing the current rebellion, in which he had no interest to help succeed. But also his own mother was a competitor he wanted out of the way! Valabathus knew, as long as Bat-Zabbai lived, she would strive to become Septimia Zenobia again! Even though he was the real, official heir, she would always try to take and keep control over him either! He knew that, even if he could seize power in Palmyra, she would always be there to dominate him, and keep him in a subordinate role! He wanted to get rid of her, and of her dominance!
Valabathus had developed a deep grunt against Bat-Zabbai! Most of all, he hated her for having been compelled to march next to her during Aurelian’s victory parade in Rome. He had experienced that as a huge humiliation and dishonouring, and he blamed Bat-Zabbai for that! From the first step of the parade, behind Aurelian’s chariot, Valabathus knew, he would never forgive his mother for having brought him into that humiliating situation! Somehow, Bat-Zabbai had managed to be allowed to march in the parade fully dressed and made up as a queen! A queen, nevertheless with golden chains from wrist to wrist and another one attached to a neck collar, held by some gladiator, whom she had to follow like a pet dog at the leech. The view of her, wearing expensive clothing and jewels, pathetically posing, looking merely like an ornated tart, a fancy trophy, had filled Valabathus with disgust for her! He was of the opinion that she should have killed herself instead, after the fall of Palmyra. He also hated it that she had accepted to live in Rome, thereby even allowing to become the submissive wife of some lewd old pervert senator, who only treated her as a sex toy, one of the many he had, by the way! Valabathus could not live with the idea that his mother had chosen for the easy, wealthy life, meanwhile giving herself to the carnal lusts of that man, anytime he wanted her! Worse, the senator treated him, the heir of the Palmyrene Empire, as a mere servant, and even had abused him also from time to time, without objection by Bat-Zabbai!
Valabathus had already had plans to kill that lewd senator, to stab him to death, and even her too, for the sake of the family’s honour! In his eyes, Bat-Zabbai, once an inspiring example of leadership for him, who had raised him harshly, and always had warned him to never show weakness, had turned out herself to be a weak, submissive creature, hiding her cowardness behind her dominant and arrogant stance! Yet, when the news of the new rebellion in Palmyra had reached Rome, Valabathus changed his plans, and traveled to Syria – but to his horror, he soon learned that Bat-Zabbai had left Rome and was following him.
However, the arrangement she had proposed, sending him to Egypt suited his intentions. If she had really been so stupid to travel to Syria, it would be an opportunity to get rid of her! Instead of going to Egypt, he secretly took contact with Marcellinus, the Roman prefect of Mesopotamia. At the time, Marcellinus pretended to support the cause of Septimius Apsaios in Palmyra, but in fact, he tried to gain time for Aurelian. For Valabathus, Septimius Apsaios was an usurper either, whom he wanted to be defeated, so he choose to join those he could not beat at the moment, the Romans. Everyone of course knew, that this alliance was temporal.
While Aurelian was dealing with the rebellion of Septimius Apsaios, and on the winning hand, Valabathus could gain time too. As soon as he had heard of his mother’s intentions and whereabouts, he had immediately sailed from Alexandria to Laodicea in Syria, and hurried to Leontopolis. There, he arranged her downfall, while she was still underway to the city. It was just a matter of bribing the right people. He lobbied to have her brought to death, and as an ultimate vengeance for the victory parade and the senator, he had lobbied to execute her by the most humiliating and agonizing way : the cross!
“Tell me, Sir!? Is your name Loxurus?” the legionary then asked me.
“Yes, why!?”
“I was on guard, that night, two years ago, after the fall of Palmyra, when her advisors, the so-called Philosophers, had been crucified. There was a Loxurus among them!”
“Coincidence!” I remark.
“These Philosophers!?” Valabathus said, mockingly “with that guy Gaius Longinus!? Such a band of loosers! Pathetic middle aged men, obediently serving Bat-Zabbai, hoping they would have been rewarded with a fuck with her!? Thinking they could build an empire on culture and philosophy? She better had surrounded herself with a council of real men! Perhaps then, the Palmyran Empire would have had a chance to succeed!”
No one replied to that.
“And let us not forget, that she has commanded the murder of my father and my half-brother!” Valabathus added. “That alone makes her deserve the cross!”
“My Lord, may I remark that there is no proof for that!? It is just a rumor!” I cautiously replied.
“Sure Loxurus! Everybody may think his own of the assassination, but I am convinced that she had ordered it! But gentlemen, I am a merciful man! So I have ordered that she will get a decent burial after her demise! Her body must be dressed again with the clothes she was wearing, so I insist, everything must be done to prevent them from getting stolen. Then she will get a tomb in the basements of the temple, where she can rest in peace for eternity! On condition that the burial chamber will be firmly bricked up! You see!? I still care about my mother’s afterlife!”
“Euh.. My Lord Valabathus!?”
“What is it Loxurus!?”
“Before getting crucified, she has given the shoulder buttons of her chiton to a mother and a daughter, as a reward for their assistance with her preparations!”
Valabathus sighed.
“Quietus! Go back there and find these two! Summon some guards if needed, to help you! I want those buttons back!” Valabathus ordered.
“Yes My Lord! That cannot be a problem! I know who they are and where they live!”
“Good! And, Quietus!?”
“My Lord?”
“See to it, that those two women get a public flogging for theft! Stripped! At least twenty lashes each! In front of Bat-Zabbai’s cross!”
“At your orders, My Lord!” Quietus said.
“Just wait a minute before you go, Quietus! Loxurus, about you!?”
“Yes, My Lord!?”
“You did what you were ordered to do in court, as a witness for the prosecution! With good success!”
“Thank you, My Lord!”
“But, euh… after all, you committed perjury, since everything you told there was from hearsay, as you had fled Palmyra already some time, from the first arrests on!”
“That’s true My Lord, but, like we had a deal about that..?”
“Yes, I know, I promised you a reward for that, at the level of the efficiency of your testimony! What had you expected?”
“Honestly, My Lord, with all respect, a certain sum, for compensation…”
“As I understand, Loxurus, you agree to get bribed to commit perjury in court!?
“Yes… No!! My Lord Valabathus, we had a deal…?”
“Quietus! Crucify him, next to her! Then you will be at the level of the efficiency of your testimony! Valabathus always keeps His promises! Enjoy the view and her company! After all, it would be harsh from me to let her suffer alone! You see! I still care about my mother’s wellbeing, even when she is crucified!”
“At your orders, My Lord”, Quietus replied, apparently eager to carry out the order.
“But…”
“And bring her my greetings, Loxurus!”
THE END
Epilogue. Leontopolis, August 26th 274 AD. Execution site outside the gate to Callinicum.
On the second hour after sunrise, Bat-Zabbai got crucified. I did not want to miss the spectacle, wondering how she would behave.
She arrived at the site, escorted by soldiers, and chained the same way as when she had left the courtroom, and also dressed the same way! And also still looking proud the same way.
A bailiff loudly read the court’s verdict : “… for rebellion, conspiracy, taking up arms against the Emperor, treason, breaking of a given word, abuse of power, war crimes, and murder…!”
Bat-Zabbai heard it without emotion.
“Make her ready!”
The soldiers released the chains.
There was a moment of hesitation. Obviously, like all condemned to the cross, Bat-Zabbai should be naked. But apparently, her aura was still so strong, that the soldiers seemed reluctant to strip her. Bat-Zabbai surveyed the crowd as if she was looking for eye-contact, as if she intended to speech. Spontaneously, a woman and her about 20 years old daughter stepped forward from the crowd. Looking like ‘what must be done, should be done’, Bat-Zabbai released the belt of her chiton and gave it to the mother. Then she unclipped the shoulder buttons with one hand, and handed them over to the daughter, while she held up the chiton at her breast level with the other hand. Then she dropped it, stepped out of it, where upon the daughter took it up.
Bat-Zabbai nodded to the mother, who released her breastband, making her breasts fall free. Finally, after a slightly deeper take of breath, Bat-Zabbai detached herself the loincloth, now revealing her total nudity. She stepped forward, kicking out her sandals.
‘By Jupiter and all gods of the Pantheon!’ I thought! ‘From her long black hair, her goddess-like face, her perfect round breasts, her waist and hips, centered into a gorgeous black bush! These legs! Queen Zenobia, either fully dressed or stark naked, what a graceful appearance!’
Bat-Zabbai nodded to the centurion to make clear that she was ready! Soldiers shackled her to a flogging pole. Standing up, she received the thirty lashes, moaning on each stroke! Although, I had the impression, that the whipper did not hit her with the fullest possible force, and that he was neither summoned to do so! Were the Roman holding back, because of Bat-Zabbai’s support in town, or did they spare her at the whipping post, to lengthen her struggle on the cross?
Anyway, in contrast to many victims before her, Bat-Zabbai kept her composure, did not beg for mercy, and kept up some pride. At the end, she showed red stripes allover her back, down to her thighs, but not the welts with trickling blood, as is often the case after thirty lashes, she did not hang almost limp to the pole, and she did not have to be dragged to her cross.
Instead, she could walk to it, a bit uneasy and in pain, but still, she could take the opportunity of having her wrists unshackled, to correct her hair.
“Crucify her!”
Still, there was some hesitation. The mother and daughter, who had assisted Bat-Zabbai with her preparations, helped her lay down on the cross. She thanked them for their assistance. The clothes were to be left on the site, but the women were given the shoulder buttons as a reward for their help.
The executioners started tying Bat-Zabbai to her cross. She was given a mouthpiece of wood to bite on during the nailing.
With the execution imminent, the crowd moved forward, as much as allowed. I lost sight of Bat-Zabbai. The hammering started. I heard her uttering shrieks of intense pain, muffled by the mouthpiece. Even a former empress is not immune for that intense pain! Four times, there was hammering. Moments later, the cross was raised, and I saw her again, her eyes full of pain and fear, as she struggled against the torture now inflicted by her own body weight. Her face was distorted and she uttered uncontrolled shrieks. She looked ten years older than moments before. Her haircut had gone completely wild.
As the cross had been fixed, Bat-Zabbai came to a calm, and let herself hang down by her arms. But not for long! With a tormented roar, she pulled herself up by her arms, and stayed in that position, heavy breathing! It was clearly a heavy effort she had to make.
Just now, some spectators started to mock her! Bat-Zabbai, despite her peril, replied, but with great difficulty. She was clearly already in another world, the world of those who will die, but still are fighting it!
A guard put a ladder against the crossbeam and added a titulus. It mentioned : ‘murder’, ‘high treason’ and ‘war crimes.’ In Latin, Greek and Aramese.
I noticed meanwhile the clothes she had worn, tossed in front of her cross. A symbol that she was no longer among the living, but already outcast of this world. A symbol, she knew very well, and now she had to watch herself it all the time.
While the guard was up the ladder, she exchanged a brief word with him. With the consent of the head of the guard, a second ladder was raised, and both attached a rope under her armpits, easing her breathing somewhat.
“Give the bitch a cornu!” a spectator shouted, receiving approval from others. “Yes! Give her a throne that suits her!” Bat-Zabbai had to endure several minutes of taunting for that rope.
I kept staring at her. At her gorgeous body, that slowly moved up and down, left to right. It was an exciting view, it made me hard. On the other hand, I strange enough felt some pity for her. She was clearly struggling, that was already hard enough for her, but she had to do so in front of tens, maybe hundreds of spectators. Sometimes, she caught the attention of the crowd, sometimes she turned away from it, struggling with her own hopeless agony. She may have been a tyrant as a ruler, responsible for the death of numerous innocent people, she deserved to be executed for that, but in this way? And alone? They should at least have given her a companion, fellow sufferer, next to her, to give each other mutual support.
“Come, Loxurus, let’s go to the boss!” said Quietus, who had accompanied me to watch the execution.
So, we returned to the inn, and went upstairs to our private meeting room.
“So, there goes Zenobia!?” I said to that legionary – in civil clothing – who let me in.
“Not that name here! Bat-Zabbia will do!”
“Is Valabathus not too harsh for her!? She is his mother after all!?”
“Harsh!? Me!? Not at all!” a voice replied. Valabathus’ voice!
Valabathus, her own son, had betrayed her! With the help of the Bedouins that had escorted her to Leontopolis Why? Very obvious! First of all, because he wanted to become the ruler of Palmyra himself. Likely not by rebellion, but by a trajectory that would make him a temporary ally of Aurelian. This would help crushing the current rebellion, in which he had no interest to help succeed. But also his own mother was a competitor he wanted out of the way! Valabathus knew, as long as Bat-Zabbai lived, she would strive to become Septimia Zenobia again! Even though he was the real, official heir, she would always try to take and keep control over him either! He knew that, even if he could seize power in Palmyra, she would always be there to dominate him, and keep him in a subordinate role! He wanted to get rid of her, and of her dominance!
Valabathus had developed a deep grunt against Bat-Zabbai! Most of all, he hated her for having been compelled to march next to her during Aurelian’s victory parade in Rome. He had experienced that as a huge humiliation and dishonouring, and he blamed Bat-Zabbai for that! From the first step of the parade, behind Aurelian’s chariot, Valabathus knew, he would never forgive his mother for having brought him into that humiliating situation! Somehow, Bat-Zabbai had managed to be allowed to march in the parade fully dressed and made up as a queen! A queen, nevertheless with golden chains from wrist to wrist and another one attached to a neck collar, held by some gladiator, whom she had to follow like a pet dog at the leech. The view of her, wearing expensive clothing and jewels, pathetically posing, looking merely like an ornated tart, a fancy trophy, had filled Valabathus with disgust for her! He was of the opinion that she should have killed herself instead, after the fall of Palmyra. He also hated it that she had accepted to live in Rome, thereby even allowing to become the submissive wife of some lewd old pervert senator, who only treated her as a sex toy, one of the many he had, by the way! Valabathus could not live with the idea that his mother had chosen for the easy, wealthy life, meanwhile giving herself to the carnal lusts of that man, anytime he wanted her! Worse, the senator treated him, the heir of the Palmyrene Empire, as a mere servant, and even had abused him also from time to time, without objection by Bat-Zabbai!
Valabathus had already had plans to kill that lewd senator, to stab him to death, and even her too, for the sake of the family’s honour! In his eyes, Bat-Zabbai, once an inspiring example of leadership for him, who had raised him harshly, and always had warned him to never show weakness, had turned out herself to be a weak, submissive creature, hiding her cowardness behind her dominant and arrogant stance! Yet, when the news of the new rebellion in Palmyra had reached Rome, Valabathus changed his plans, and traveled to Syria – but to his horror, he soon learned that Bat-Zabbai had left Rome and was following him.
However, the arrangement she had proposed, sending him to Egypt suited his intentions. If she had really been so stupid to travel to Syria, it would be an opportunity to get rid of her! Instead of going to Egypt, he secretly took contact with Marcellinus, the Roman prefect of Mesopotamia. At the time, Marcellinus pretended to support the cause of Septimius Apsaios in Palmyra, but in fact, he tried to gain time for Aurelian. For Valabathus, Septimius Apsaios was an usurper either, whom he wanted to be defeated, so he choose to join those he could not beat at the moment, the Romans. Everyone of course knew, that this alliance was temporal.
While Aurelian was dealing with the rebellion of Septimius Apsaios, and on the winning hand, Valabathus could gain time too. As soon as he had heard of his mother’s intentions and whereabouts, he had immediately sailed from Alexandria to Laodicea in Syria, and hurried to Leontopolis. There, he arranged her downfall, while she was still underway to the city. It was just a matter of bribing the right people. He lobbied to have her brought to death, and as an ultimate vengeance for the victory parade and the senator, he had lobbied to execute her by the most humiliating and agonizing way : the cross!
“Tell me, Sir!? Is your name Loxurus?” the legionary then asked me.
“Yes, why!?”
“I was on guard, that night, two years ago, after the fall of Palmyra, when her advisors, the so-called Philosophers, had been crucified. There was a Loxurus among them!”
“Coincidence!” I remark.
“These Philosophers!?” Valabathus said, mockingly “with that guy Gaius Longinus!? Such a band of loosers! Pathetic middle aged men, obediently serving Bat-Zabbai, hoping they would have been rewarded with a fuck with her!? Thinking they could build an empire on culture and philosophy? She better had surrounded herself with a council of real men! Perhaps then, the Palmyran Empire would have had a chance to succeed!”
No one replied to that.
“And let us not forget, that she has commanded the murder of my father and my half-brother!” Valabathus added. “That alone makes her deserve the cross!”
“My Lord, may I remark that there is no proof for that!? It is just a rumor!” I cautiously replied.
“Sure Loxurus! Everybody may think his own of the assassination, but I am convinced that she had ordered it! But gentlemen, I am a merciful man! So I have ordered that she will get a decent burial after her demise! Her body must be dressed again with the clothes she was wearing, so I insist, everything must be done to prevent them from getting stolen. Then she will get a tomb in the basements of the temple, where she can rest in peace for eternity! On condition that the burial chamber will be firmly bricked up! You see!? I still care about my mother’s afterlife!”
“Euh.. My Lord Valabathus!?”
“What is it Loxurus!?”
“Before getting crucified, she has given the shoulder buttons of her chiton to a mother and a daughter, as a reward for their assistance with her preparations!”
Valabathus sighed.
“Quietus! Go back there and find these two! Summon some guards if needed, to help you! I want those buttons back!” Valabathus ordered.
“Yes My Lord! That cannot be a problem! I know who they are and where they live!”
“Good! And, Quietus!?”
“My Lord?”
“See to it, that those two women get a public flogging for theft! Stripped! At least twenty lashes each! In front of Bat-Zabbai’s cross!”
“At your orders, My Lord!” Quietus said.
“Just wait a minute before you go, Quietus! Loxurus, about you!?”
“Yes, My Lord!?”
“You did what you were ordered to do in court, as a witness for the prosecution! With good success!”
“Thank you, My Lord!”
“But, euh… after all, you committed perjury, since everything you told there was from hearsay, as you had fled Palmyra already some time, from the first arrests on!”
“That’s true My Lord, but, like we had a deal about that..?”
“Yes, I know, I promised you a reward for that, at the level of the efficiency of your testimony! What had you expected?”
“Honestly, My Lord, with all respect, a certain sum, for compensation…”
“As I understand, Loxurus, you agree to get bribed to commit perjury in court!?
“Yes… No!! My Lord Valabathus, we had a deal…?”
“Quietus! Crucify him, next to her! Then you will be at the level of the efficiency of your testimony! Valabathus always keeps His promises! Enjoy the view and her company! After all, it would be harsh from me to let her suffer alone! You see! I still care about my mother’s wellbeing, even when she is crucified!”
“At your orders, My Lord”, Quietus replied, apparently eager to carry out the order.
“But…”
“And bring her my greetings, Loxurus!”
THE END