Romans and Incubator

But the mosaic was spectacular. It was one of the best we had ever seen and complete. The central picture was of the Judgement of Paris but slightly changed. A male with his back to the viewer faced three scantily-clad women. Under each woman was a name. The overall caption said, in Latin:

"Paris had to choose. So do you."

The three names were Flavia; Sabina; and Tullia. The faces matched those on the wall paintings. Presumably they were the three women available to users of the brothel. The person who had created the mosaic was a master of the art. The women were recognisable and even more detailed than the wall paintings. We had the names and pictures of three actual women from 1,800 years ago.

Around the edges of the mosaic all three women were shown in multiple sexual couplings with anonymous men, perhaps as indications of what services were available. There were a dozen pictures featuring the three women in four poses each.

Rachel added pictures of all the mosaic to the DVD we already had of the wall paintings. She would take a copy to Dame Julia this evening.

It took us a long time to clean up because we were so caked in mud. We didn't have time to attempt to recreate the twelve positions shown on the mosaic.

"I don't want to try one of them," I said as we were walking to the hotel.

"Which one?" Penny asked.

"The flagellation," I replied.

That picture showed the man tied to a cross and having his back whipped. The mosaic showed blood dripping down his back.

"OK. I can understand that," Penny said. "It is a bit extreme but flagellation is a common perversion."

"It might have been common then, and still common now, but I don't want to try it," I objected.

Spoilsport," Rachel retorted. "I'd like to experience it."

"You can - if you're the victim, not the one with the whip," I replied.

"But that wouldn't be femdom, and most of the positions are," Rachel said.

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As before, Pablo and Avril served the meal and drinks before they left us to show Dame Julia the pictures of the mosaic.

She was excited.

"I could use the central picture of the mosaic as the cover for the calendar. I think I will scrap what I have done so far and use the twelve positions from the mosaic for the months, with the Roman original and artistic copies of your four against them."

"Jason doesn't want to the flagellation one," Rachel said.

"I'm not surprised. That looks painful," Julia said. "But it doesn't matter. You don't have to attempt any of them. I have enough from your previous versions for me to produce artistic interpretations."

"That's a relief," I said.

"Are you likely to find any more?" Julia asked.

"That depends on what, if anything, is in the cellar," Hester said. "We have the first two steps of a stairway leading down but it is full of rubble. We found a Roman coin lying on the second step. Its date is 260 AD so the stairway must have been filled at that time or soon after. The coin is virtually perfect. It can't have been minted long or have been in circulation for years. We think, but don't yet know, that the road was built and covered the brothel remains about 270 AD so a coin of 260 might be right.

The wall decoration and mosaic seem from their quality to have been created about 230 AD give or take a decade. We know the Roman legionary garrison left in 245 so the brothel might have closed then. The other archaeological evidence suggests that the town had an economic decline soon afterwards, not becoming prosperous again to about 310. Between 245 and 310 no one could have afforded the quality of work on the walls and the mosaic. If later, the style of the artwork would have been different and cruder. The other indication comes from the rubble we have removed so far. The pottery and a few fragments of glass we have found are high quality and probably couldn't have been afforded after 245 when every remaining piece of pottery found by archaeologists is much cheaper and locally produced and they have found NO glassware at all. Even from 310 and to the end of Roman occupation the town was of much lower status than it had been when the legionary garrison was present."

"So the cellar might be even more revealing?" Julia asked.

"Unless it was just a store room, which is more likely," Hester said.

"Ok," Dame Julia said. "I already have enough for the calendar and my public artwork. Having three named women from that period is amazing. What I will do is make mosaics of each of them in what would be their street clothes. Those can go on the outside walls of the development. The centre of the mosaic can be the cover of the calendar. They have enough clothes for that if too skimpy to be on a wall viewed by the public. Their names will be there for everyone to see."

She asked how long it would take before we could enter the cellar. We thought it might take a week to remove the rubble carefully, recording each layer as we went. We continued to talk for another quarter of an hour before we went back to the site and our mobile homes. We were all tired. Uncovering and recording the mosaic had been hard work. Penny joined me in my mobile home. We had conventional sex before we went to sleep wrapped around each other.

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It took us five full working days before we were at the store room door. The stairs had gone halfway down to a landing before reversing direction. There had been niches for wall lamps down both walls, a lot more than seemed necessary for access to a cellar store room. We were pleased and surprised that the pottery lamps were still in the niches.

The cellar door was decorated bronze with picture of sexual encounters of the Roman Gods. There was a spyhole about five feet from the floor. We had expected it to have a cover to look in, but the closure was on the inside for someone to look out. There hasps on the door for a lock, long gone. I had to use WD 40 and a grease gun on the door's hinges before we could open it. We had brought a bright portable light so we could see in when the door was open.

It took the three women hauling on a rope attached to the door handle and me gently using a crowbar wrapped in cloth before the door moved. I had the first view inside. I dropped the crowbar in surprise. The cellar was furnished.

"Oh Shit!" I exclaimed as the others crowded around me. "Wonderful Things! I'm not Harold Carter but this is unique and far beyond our expertise."

We went in. There were tables, chairs, a bench with manacles attached, a wooden cross with more manacles, whips hanging on the walls along with leather harnesses and other restraints. There were piles of clothing.

"Take loads of pictures! I said, "But don't touch anything. I'll go and get a padlock so we can shut this up for professionals. We can't cope with a find of this magnitude."

The others agreed. I went to the nearby DIY store to get a large sturdy padlock while they took hundreds of pictures. When I returned we heaved the door shut and I padlocked it. I went outside the marquee and rang Gordon. As expected, his response was the same as ours. Leave it alone until we could get professional archaeologists on site.

"Shit!" Gordon had said in an echo of what I had said earlier. "I'll speak to Cathy. She'll be with you as soon as she can."

Cathy arrived within the hour. She still looked tired but the quick look she had of the contents of the brothel's dungeon and the longer review of photos both excited and worried her.

"I will try to get a team of professional archaeologists here but this will be front page news when people know. Not only do we need the archaeologists but twenty-four hour security staff too. I'll have to tell Alan. He won't be happy because this has to be preserved where it is. The development's plans will have to be revised."

We also told Cathy about our talks with Dame Julia and showed her Julia's first mock-up of the calendar, now superseded by the mosaic's design.

"It is a great idea to raise money for an incubator," Cathy said, "and Elaine would not be alive but for the one they have, but..."

"But?" Hester queried.

"But finding the intact dungeon is likely to cause a media storm." Cathy said. "You four could be famous for a nine-day-wonder and although the calendar would probably sell out quickly the sensationalism might be awkward for you, the developers and the university. I'll have to talk to Alan and the developer's publicity agents. Until then, don't discuss the calendar with anyone."

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We were stalled. Apart from tidying up our excavations there was nothing more we could do as amateur archaeologists except classify and clean up previous finds. That didn't take long as we had been doing it for new finds every day and after a few hours' work we were sitting in the dining van over cups of coffee. We were waiting for something to happen and for decisions that were beyond us.

Cathy rang us to say that the local county archaeologist would be with us in an hour. We knew him by name and reputation but had never met him, only seen him on the platform at lectures.

When Simon, the county archaeologist, arrived he was as stunned as we were by seeing a brothel's dungeon untouched for about 1,700+ years. He checked, repeatedly, that we hadn't touched or moved anything, only taken pictures. Simon congratulated us on knowing enough to decide this find was well beyond our expertise. The first of a team of professional archaeologists would arrive tomorrow. Until then we should keep the door locked. We gave him two copies of a DVD showing all our excavations so far and all the pictures we had taken in the dungeon.

Simon established himself in the dining cabin making multiple phone calls and arranging meetings. The four of us retreated to my mobile home.

That evening the three women looked at the pictures we had taken in the dungeon and we all discussed how the equipment and objects would have been used. After our evening meal the three of them decided, despite my objections, that they would experiment. Soon I was tied, naked, on the dining room table. They didn't have the leather or iron restraints that were in the dungeon but they had many pairs of laddered tights. I couldn't move as pairs of naked breasts were brushed over my face and several hands reached for my erection.

Rachel put a pillow under my head before placing her pussy over my face. Hester impaled herself on my erection while Penny used the fingers of my right hand to arouse herself. They swapped positions until all of the three had reached at least one orgasm. I hadn't because I was so uncomfortable, but they relented and carried me, still bound, to bed. They released me before the three of them made sure that I was taken to the edge of ejaculation again and again before Penny clamped herself around me. That was enough for me to react and come into her.

The rest of the night I was under or surrounded by all three of them. In the morning Rachel rode me while the other two made breakfast.

The following week we were only unskilled assistants as the professionals recorded and dismantled all the contents of the dungeon which were taken to a laboratory for conservation. Each night I was the victim of the three women who tried to replicate the bondage that had taken place in the dungeon.

At the end of the week they site director, Alan, Cathy and Simon the county archaeologist held a press conference to announce the discovery of the dungeon and brothel to the media. We were there in our cleanest clothes and had to endure embarrassing praise for our discovery and calling in the professionals.

Dame Julia was there as well to launch the calendar. All 250 copies sold within 24 hours raising enough money for several baby incubators. The site director and the other professionals set up a fund raising site named after Elaine. That added another ten thousand pounds to the hospital's maternity services.

The downside? All four of us were famous for discovering a brothel and its dungeon and for appearing in Dame Julia's calendar even if only as art works not photos. We had too many suggestions about what we had done or should do. It took a month before the storm died down.

However the women decided that some of the suggestions were worth exploring with me as their victim. I didn't mind as long as they listened to my objections when I felt they were going too far with their bondage.

Three weeks later we had finished all we and the professionals could do on site. The contents of the dungeon had now gone. The adult night club would be decorated with copies of the wall paintings and they would have a complete replica of the dungeon and its contents as a feature of the club. The developers had agreed to preserve the brothel and the dungeon as a small covered museum built alongside their development. Once conserved, the dungeon contents would be displayed in temperature controlled cabinets and another set of the replicas would be in the real Roman dungeon.

On our last night on site all three women tied me up so I was completely helpless. All three rode me, with Rachel last.

"Jason," she said. "This is our last night. From now on I am claiming you as my boyfriend and Penny and Hester will only have sex with you if I agree. Your consent is unnecessary. I know you want them but you are mine."

I couldn't answer as her pussy had covered my lips and she has reached downwards to grasp and stimulate my erection before her mouth covered it in a sixty-nine position. While I was completely absorbed by what Rachel was doing, Penny and Hester left.

We resumed our post graduate studies at the university but Rachel, sometimes assisted by Penny and Hester, also used me for practise and study of what had been happening in the Roman dungeon all that time ago.

That brothel, dungeon and Dame Julia's calendar had raised enough for several incubators and other equipment for the maternity unit, even it had made us temporarily famous for historic sexual activity.

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