The Senate and the Circus Ch. 01

Setting: Augustan Rome, ~20 B.C.E

Chapter 1 -- The Roman Forum

The counsellor scanned the stage as he walked through the market district. He wasn't looking to buy any slaves, but the especially pretty ones made excellent political gifts. Today's crop was disappointing. It looked like they were all peasants from the surrounding areas who had sold themselves or whose parents had sold them, probably to pay off debts.

"A young girl from the outskirts of Naples! Young and ready to be trained to any task you desire! ANY task!" The slip of a girl was shivering in fear, her wide brown eyes pleading with the crowd. The crowd laughed at her. A fat woman in unflattering red silk bought her.

"Two brawny men well-trained in handling livestock!" The two looked surly, but went for a premium.

The rest looked unremarkable and disappointing, and the counsellor walked on. He could have taken a carriage or commandeered something, but it was good to get out and stretch his legs in the morning.

Just as he was about to pass out of the district, a crier announced, "A blond temptress from Gaul! Eyes like blue diamonds, breasts like ripe apples. Plenty of spirit to be indulged or broken as you desire!"

The walker turned. Two guards in white were leading a nearly nude woman onto a small corner stage at the far end of the slave market. If anything, the crier wasn't extolling her charms enough. She looked ferocious, and she chose to ignore the crowd, instead staring intently at a older man with once-strong muscles gone slightly to fat who sat in a chair at the corner of the stage. He was almost certainly the slave merchant, and he paid no attention to her. His eyes probed the crowd for a potential buyer.

"Do I hear 100 sestertii? ... 150? ... 200? 200 going once! 250 to the man in the corner! 350 to the Nubian. Going once! ... Twice!"

"One thousand."

He wasn't quite sure what had come over him. The words had just seemed to jump out of his mouth. The price was ridiculous, but he could afford it; he just wasn't sure what he was going to do with the slave girl. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Looking at her on the stage in her wispy shift, he had at least a few ideas about that. Perhaps it would be more sensible to send her off to one of the consuls as a gift, though. A beautiful slave could earn him some very useful political favors, especially if she was obedient and well-trained. That might be a sticking point. It looked like they'd just dragged her out of the slave cage and pushed her onto the stage. Was that mud on her face or a black eye?

"One thousand to Marcus Vulpus! Once! Twice! ... Sold!" The crier gestured to the woman's guards to take her to one side, where an older slave waited with a money box, surrounded by guards of his own.

Marcus strode over.

"Morning, sir! Congratulations on your purchase. She's a beautiful piece of work. And, if I may, I think you'll really enjoy her," the money slave said.

He eyeballed the man. "You may not. Please prepare the slave and have her sent to my villa outside town. A stylus, please?"

The slave grimaced and handed him a stylus, and Marcus wrote a quick note on a wax tablet, then signed it. "Take this over to the banker on the corner of Veritas and Aureus at the base of the Appenine Hill. He'll release the funds to you."

The slave put a cover on the tablet and placed it carefully in his strongbox. "Would you like to inspect her before you leave?"

Marcus nodded. It was honest of the slavers to offer. Some of them tried to pass off defective slaves to buyers by concealing injuries under their clothes, by drugging them, or by various other means. "Yes, let's take a look."

One of the guards turned and gestured for Marcus to follow, leading him back behind the stage to a small building. Unlike most slave cages, the building didn't reek of bodily fluids and unwashed people, but there was still a slight unpleasantness to the air.

"This way, sir." The guard went down to the end of one hallway and stopped at a large oak door. The door was only secured with a simple latch, but it could only be opened from the outside. The guard opened the door and shouldered his way through, scanning the room. Marcus followed him.

The slave girl was sitting on the single wooden bench in the room with her knees crossed over each other. She glowered at the guard as he entered, then gave Marcus an appraising and challenging stare. Marcus almost smiled. She had a lot of spirit for a woman just sold at auction as a slave.

The guard barked at her. "Yer new master's here, girl, and it isn't right fer ya to sit while he's standing. Get up!" She waited a moment and he moved forward to pull her off the seat roughly, but she dodged out of his way and moved to the far corner, still watching Marcus intently.

Marcus sat down on the bench and regarded her.

"Qui etez-vous et ce que voulez-vous avec moi?" She stared at him.

"Je t'ai achete. Ce que je veux est plus complique. Mais, tu dois parler dans une langue civilisee. Sais-tu Latin?"

She frowned at him and gave him a surly look. "Yes ... I can speak a ... little ... Latin."

"Good. You'll have to work on that to make me happy. Now, I'm here to take a look at you and make sure you're healthy. Please take off your shift."

She clutched the wisp of fabric to her body. Her actions didn't do much except to pull the material up higher on her thighs.

"Now, please, or I'll ask this fellow here to remove it for you." Marcus waited patiently. There was always a period of adjustment with new slaves. They had to learn that you meant what you said, and that they needed to respond immediately.

She still just stared at him and shook her head. The guard moved forward and the girl back into the corner, holding her shift even more tightly. He reached out and grabbed her hands and roughly pulled them away from her chest and glowered at her, then reached forward to pull her shift off. The girl suddenly lunged forward and stomped on the guard's foot, which caused him to swear and backhand her. His blow snapped her neck around and she collapsed against the wall.

"Stop!" Marcus narrowed his eyes and stared at the guard. "Did I give you permission to damage my property?"

The guard blinked. "Uh, err..."

"Eloquent. Go stand over there." Marcus gestured to the other side of the room. "When we're done here, I'll be reporting this to your employer." He stood and walked over to the girl and gently cupped her face in his hand to look at the damage the guard had down. There was a red hand-print already forming on her cheek, and her eyes were wet. She looked a bit dazed, too. Marcus took a corner of his toga and wiped her face off, which made her look up at him questioningly. "It's all right. Stand up now, and take off that shift. We'll get you in something better before you leave here anyway. I can't have one of my slaves dressed like that."

The girl slowly stood up, holding on to the wall behind her. She looked at Marcus again and then stared at the floor as she shrugged her shoulders and let her shift fall down to puddle around her feet.

Marcus took a step back and looked at her. He briefly thought about ordering the guard to turn around, but the girl needed to get used to being looked at, and besides, the guard had probably seen her naked before.

Her body was exquisite. Her blonde hair, though a bit dirty, fell past her shoulders and framed a triangular face with large blue eyes marked out with curving cheekbones, though the hand-print was ruining the aesthetics. Marcus felt his irritation at the guard rising. The man was a barbarian to mar beauty like this. Her throat was long and pale and curved into slender shoulders that arced out and down toward her small hands. Her breasts were high and round and tipped with small aureloae the size of an as and dark pink nipples, which sat slightly angled upward on her breasts and pointed toward the ceiling on the other side of the room. Her waist was long and slender, and her abdominal muscles were pronounced just enough to provide extra curves. Ribs were visible on the sides of her torso, but it didn't look like she'd been starved. Her hips curved outward and led smoothly to a long, lean set of legs with toned calf muscles and healthy feet. Marcus's eyes lingered for a moment on the small triangle of delicate blonde hair between her thighs. He could just make out the hint of her lower lips, which looked to be small and compact. The longer he looked at her, the more he thought this purchase had been an excellent idea, impulsive or not.

"You look beautiful. We'll definitely put you in something much more flattering soon. Turn around now."

The girl was still staring at the floor, but she slowly turned around until she faced him again. As she turned, Marcus admired her willowy profile and let his eyes linger for a moment on her tight backside, which was shaped like an inverted heart. There were toned muscles in her shoulders and back, too, and Marcus nodded in approval. Yes, she'd be perfect, even if he hadn't decided what she'd be perfect for yet. Still, there was one little thing missing.

"That's enough. Guard, let's go back to the table."

The guard sullenly led him out of the room, and the girl lifted her head to watch him as he exited, but Marcus didn't see her or the question in her eyes.

When he got back to the table, he informed the slave with the money box that the guard had damaged his property without permission and the slave promised that the owner of the slave business would be notified and the guard punished. Marcus nodded. "Good. Before you bring her over to my villa, I want you to do one other thing for me." Marcus pulled a small pouch out from the inside of his toga and counted out about a dozen gold coins. "There's a jeweler in the Vintner's district south of the Capitoline. Take her there and tell him to give her a full set in electrum. Whatever's left out of these coins, you may keep."