Roman Son Number Three

The children of the family were sold as slaves, with the proviso they could be redeemed by their father should his fortunes—dependent on assets he no longer possessed—took a turn for the better. Aelius Vipinas retreated to the country estate of his wife's family to lick his wounds and lament his losses.

The daughters went for virtually nothing as household slaves. But finding someone else to feed them was something. The two older brothers, skilled foundry workers, sold well. Surprisingly enough, bidding was steady on Vitas and he went for a high price too as a household slave, but everyone bidding and watching knew that, with the beauty of his body and his youth, "household slave" didn't fully cover the duties he'd be put to.

And that proved to be the case.

The man winning the bid on him wasn't his owner-to-be. He was an agent. Old African campaign general Claudius Appias Caecus did not go out in public anymore and certainly not to slave auctions. He had a particular need, though, which was to ensure his standing in the city. To do this, he needed to curry favor with those in power. He hadn't existed as long as he had, maneuvering in the volatile political situation of the Caligula rule, without knowing how to curry favor among Rome's elite.

The late-fifties gray, but still of military bearing Claudius Appias Caecus, his wife having died years before while Claudius was on campaign in Africa, had both a personal and a greater use for a fair, perfectly formed young man serving wine at his bachelor dinners. The old general had decided it was cheaper to buy his own male whore to entertain his friends with than to treat them to nights at a brothel.

* * * *

"Come, young man, pour me some wine."

Vitas brought the wine ewer to the narrow couch. The general, Claudius Appias Caecus, clad only in a loincloth, was reclining on the couch. Vitas filled the man's cup as Claudius reached out and cupped the young man's buttocks. The general was well into his cups, but being a long-time military man, he could hold it. Claudius was a man a bit past sixty. His body was military muscular and battle scarred, if going a bit to the heavy from a retirement that included more than sufficient wine and meat and a tapering off of exercise. It was clear, however, that he still went to the gymnasium and practiced the arts of hand-to-hand combat when he was there. He had been a handsome man once. He was graying now, although there was little hair on his head to prove it. It could be seen in the salt-and-pepper matting on his chest, and Vitas would soon see it in the man's pubic thatch.

It was Vitas's first evening in the general's villa. He supposedly was still a virgin—that's what he'd been sold as, and his father hadn't lied about that; Vitas had never told his father he'd been initiated—but the general was about to take care of that.

They were in the sumptuously decorated triclinium, the dining room, of the general's Roman villa. The three interior walls were blood red, with scenes depicted on them that revealed the general's interest—all of the scenes were of men pleasuring other men, all with military campaign backgrounds and armaments. A couple were of notable gladiators in the colosseum. Vitas thought he might recognize one or two of them, including The Nubian, from his own debauching there.

As the young man poured the wine, the general ran a hand up under Vitas's fustanella, the only piece of clothing the lad wore other than a loincloth and the sandals that laced up to his waist. The hand paused long enough to unbind the loincloth, which fell away to the mosaic-tile floor, and then cupped one of Vitas's buttocks cheeks again. The young man faltered only momentarily in pouring the wine, but he did not spill a drop.

"Your name is Vitas Vipinas, is it not?" Claudius asked.

"Yes, master, it is."

"And you are how old?"

"Nineteen, master."

"Felix tells me that you stood out at the slave auction as a saucy young man? Are you a saucy lad?"

"I'm not sure, master. I am who I am."

"A newly designated slave?"

"Yes, master."

"From a previously freehold family—in the honest trades?"

"Yes, master."

"You seem to know how to serve at couch."

"I have been trained in that service. My family had hopes for me—before they fell on bad times."

"The training extended to that of a fully servicing house slave?"

"I think so, master."

"Do you understand what I'm asking, Vitas?" Two fingers of the strong hand the general was squeezing Vitas's buttocks with wandered into the young man's crack and found and began rubbing the newly minted slave's opening. He smiled to find that the rosebud of an opening dilated open for him. He fully owned the young man, so he wasn't taking liberties, and a slave had nothing to say if his master wanted to lay him—or to mistreat him while laying him—but the general was finding it pleasurable that the slave seemed to know what was expected of him. Vitas trembled a bit, but he held in place. The general's other hand was moving over the front of the young man's skirt, finding the young man on the rise through the material of the fustanella. The general was on the rise as well.

Vitas knew where this was going. He knew what attributes of his had been emphasized by the auctioneer in selling him. He had, in fact, been in training for this eventuality. The general was commanding and attractive for his age. Vitas was prepared to make the best of the situation.

"But you're still a virgin? I paid for a virgin."

"Yes, I was trained on how to be and what to do but it was understood that I needed to keep my value." It wasn't true, of course, but Vitas had no idea what the general would do if he revealed what he'd already let men do—and he had never told his father. How would anyone know if Vitas had been schooled in how it would be and how he should take it the first time to make the man think it was real?

"I cannot be so sure of that," the general said. "You open to the touch. That is not virginal."

"My teachers prepared me—but not with the shaft of a man."

"I see," the general said, satisfied with the explanation, which was not uncommon from what the young man had said about his training.

Vitas apparently had been schooled well in how to take it as if the first time, because Claudius Appias Caecus didn't question how he then took it.

The general was a rough military man, but he was a connoisseur when it came to taking a young man's virginity, something he put into practice as often as he could. As he was holding Vitas close to his side when the lad put the wine ewer down on the table next to the narrow dining couch with a beefy hand, fingers now in the young man's channel, clutching Vitas's bare buttocks under his fustanella, Claudius undid his loincloth to show that he was in hard, upcurved erection. He took Vitas's hand and put it on his cock, saying "pleasure me."

Vitas did as he was told as the general leaned over and started playing the young man's chest and nipples with his lips and teeth. The supposed deflowering of the young man transpired with Claudius pulling the young man onto his lap and onto his shaft, first facing away from him, one hand palming Vitas's belly and the other cupping his chin, while Claudius buried his face in Vitas's throat, planted his feet on the mosaic-tiled floor on either side of the couch, and slowly worked the young man with his cock, fucking him as gently, but as totally, as he could in the supposed first taking. Vitas did all of the shuddering, groaning, moaning, and sobbing that was expected when an older male deflowered a young man. The second time Claudius reversed the young man to facing him, and one hand palmed the small of Vitas's back and the other cupped his head, and the two kissed as, Vitas, showing more boldness, fucked himself on the old man's shaft.

"You have pleased me," Claudius said after they were done and before the general took the young man to his bed chamber for continued pleasure taking through the night. "You will serve the purpose for which I bought you very nicely."

"You bought me for some other purpose than this?" Vitas asked.

"For a purpose in addition to this—a more important purpose. I need to maintain my standing in Rome and that is very hard to do in the current reign. There are two young senators, Claudius Appias Caecus and Drusus Gellius Claustus, I wish to keep pleased. I know their preferences and you fit their desires. They are both young and handsome and fit. You will serve them whenever they come here to visit me."

"Yes, master," Vitas answered, lowering his eyes. He had found Claudius easy to take. The man had been more lover than dominator. If these senators were as Claudius described . . .

They were. Claudius and Drusus were both handsome young men. They both were heavenly endowed and they both were delighted to couch Vitas when they came to visit the general. In fact, after Vitas took up his household slave duties in the general's villa, the two visited more often.

The only taxing part of this arrangement was that the two young senators wanted to do everything together. They visited together and they wanted to lay Vitas together, most often with Claudius on his back on the couch, with Vitas straddling his pelvis and sheathing his hard cock and with Drusus snuggled in behind Vitas, running his hard cock inside the young man's channel on top of Claudius's, and the two senators riding the young man hard together.

It didn't take Vitas that long to adjust. He became quite content with the arrangement of one old general covering him as a lover and two young studs working him together, kissing and fondling each other as much as they did the young man.

* * * *

The test of Vitas's contentment came several weeks later when, the gatekeeper off on an errand, Vitas answered a call at the door of the general's villa.

"Father!" Vitas exclaimed. "You're looking well." And, indeed, Aelius Vipinas was looking well-dressed and prosperous.

"May I talk with your master?" Aelius asked.

"What about?" Vitas asked, standing in the doorway so that his father couldn't pass.

"Wonderful news, son," Aelius said. "The ship with our goods wasn't lost. It came in. And we have received payment for our arming of the troops sent to Spain. Our fortunes are saved. I have redeemed your two older brothers and I have come to buy you back. That was guaranteed when you were sold. We can go back to life as it was. We have the villa and the forge again—and our clients are paying their bills."

"My brothers were redeemed?" Vitas asked. "And my sisters as well?"

"Yes, yes. I have bought them all back and they are all back in the home."

Vitas was the last to be redeemed. This wasn't lost on the young man.

"I like it here, Father. I don't wish to be bought back. Being a slave to Claudius Appias Caecus suits me well."

"But, son, I came to . . ."

But Vitas didn't hear the rest. He had closed the door in his father's face. Time was too short to converse with the man further. Claudius and Drusus were expected that afternoon.