Zelamir

adapted by Pueros

The Traitor's Son

Chapters 32-40

Chapter XXXII

Marius had never previously been caned. This first experience of such punishment was, to his immensely distressed and pained mind, even worse that he had anticipated.

His lungs having eventually achieved their objective, Marius screamed, whilst sounding like a little wounded animal with his shrill howl akin to that of some small poor beast in extremis. Some of Scyrax's happy guests compared the boy's agonised shriek to that of hare or rabbit, whose hind legs had been caught and shattered by a trap.

Amber fluid subsequently began to flood down Dictys' back, bottom and legs. Marius had shamefully urinated in frightened acknowledgement of the fact that his cruel hurtful caning had truly begun.

Even from his distant perspective, Felix could see the little pool of urine forming around Dictys' feet. The secretary duly noted this indiscretion by Marius on his clay tablet, which was already full of the day's supposed misdemeanours allegedly perpetrated by his master's young slaves, including the errors of the boys serving dinner.

Felix naturally hoped that Marius' inadvertent emptying of his bladder might earn him further punishment at Scyrax's evening audience with his young slaves on the next day. However, the secretary was prepared to accept that the boy's bottom would be too damaged and sore for the return of the cane. He was therefore prepared to recommend that, as with Giton, juvenile feet should instead be the target.

Many people find laying the strokes of a cane or similar implement across the bottom of a boy with complete accuracy surprisingly difficult. The rod, whilst travelling through the air, creates some peculiar aerodynamic effects that might cause it, when wielded by an inexpert hand, to stray from its intended path. Alternatively, the excitement and emotional intensity of the moment can disturb steadiness, perhaps by attempting to hit with too much zeal. The young victim himself, even if firmly held or tied, also rarely remains completely still. He generally clenches his buttocks in anticipation of the impending cut, after receipt of which he usually writhes and twists under the impact, often jerking convulsively, as the instrument bites agonisingly into his flesh.

Consequently, a cool head, skill and some luck are generally required to place the strokes inflicted by a cane exactly where intended. Despite his own personal past experience, Maccius initially encountered a difficulty with his accuracy on this occasion. The youth was aiming, as Scyrax had advised him, to lay ten stripes evenly across Marius' bottom, before inflicting another couple on the very tender crease where the boy's buttocks ended and his thighs began.

The initial stroke was fine, hitting the upper part of Marius' taught buttocks, scoring a white line that quickly darkened to a deep red edged with purple and eventually earning a lovely scream from the young victim. However, the second hit, aimed slightly below, was too high and basically replicated the first, which not only further deepened the hue of the created stripe but also drew some blood.

Such inaccuracy disturbed Scyrax, who had retired to his couch to watch his beloved Maccius cane Marius. The fat man therefore requested, above the young victim's loud screams, sobs and fruitless entreaties, "My dear boy, please try to avoid hitting the same place twice, as I want the brat to be saleable in a week's time!"

Maccius did not like to be publicly reprimanded about his lack of accuracy but he only exhibited his annoyance in his facial expression and tone of voice when he responded by falsely saying "It was the brat's fault because he moved!" Marius had indeed initially squirmed in agony under the impact of the first hit but his body was soon again compliantly motionless and ready to receive the second blow.

"Well, Maccius," Scyrax replied, "please try to take into account the brat's rather natural writhing in reaction to your strikes." "I shall," the youth responded, whilst for a change speaking truthfully, as he did not want the opportunity of caning Marius twelve times to be taken away from him.

Maccius was subsequently unusually as good as his word, despite plying the cane with all his sadistic vigour, whilst poor Marius howled and twisted under each vicious impact. The youth was spurred on by the boy's reaction, revelling in the clear symptoms of his young victim's extreme excruciation, namely the shrieking and writhing, and the obvious damage he was causing.

The bulge at the front of Maccius' rich tunic was testament to his enjoyment. The hardness of the youth's cock was also matched on many of the couches around him, not least that of Scyrax, and more shamefully within the thongs of many serving boys.

The cane, being very malleable, regularly curled round the flanks of Marius' buttocks, with the tip occasionally nicking the boy's flesh there, sometimes drawing more drops of blood. The cute hollows at the sides of the young victim's bottom were consequently subsequently additionally notable for liquid sanguine stripes.

As Marius endured his beating, his acutely anguished mind appeared gradually to shift defensively to another dimension. He felt the extreme excruciation caused by each now carefully delivered blow from Maccius' cane but somehow his mental functions became more detached from the consequences. As a result, by the time that the youth struck his last two hits on the crease between the boy's bottom and thighs, the 11 year-old's reaction had become rather mild, being essentially just muted grunts and a slight twitching of his battered body.

The experienced Scyrax had realised at the very beginning that, for a first beating of a boy just 11 years old, twelve strokes of the cane was too much, and not just for the purpose of having him ready to be sold in a week's time. The fat man also recognised that the hurt from the rod would only be fully appreciated mentally for about eight hits, which was why he had originally recommended that number. However, he had meekly decided to allow Maccius' desire for a longer flogging because he wanted later for starters to suck the youth's cock, which would be made nicely more rampant by being granted his wish.

At last the beating was over but alas not Marius' sufferings. Having finally delivered the permitted twelve strokes of the cane, Maccius manually as well as visually inspected his cruel handiwork, somehow refreshing the boy's senses in the process, causing him to yelp in pain, as fingers touched the wheals on his ravished bottom.

Scyrax scrambled with his usual difficulty off his couch to join Maccius. "You've done a good job on the brat's bum," the fat man subsequently remarked to the youth's satisfaction, as he too inspected Marius' bruised and bloody bottom and whilst earning a similar loud pained reaction from the boy.

Scyrax then addressed Dictys, who had somehow managed to keep Marius steadily in place throughout the boy's flogging despite his own physical and mental distress. The former arose from the fatigue generated by attempting to hold a screaming and writhing 11 year-old on his back for a prolonged period and the latter emanated from his deep sympathy and sorrow for the child.

"Dictys, take our little Mariullus round the dining room," Scyrax ordered, "so that our guests can see what a slave brat's bum should look like after a thrashing!" Consequently, still hoisted on the older slave's back, the beaten boy was taken from couch to couch.

All the guests were clearly excited by the spectacle of Marius' bruised and bleeding bottom. Some even attempted to kiss the curves better, pressing their lips to the damaged skin. Others, less kindly, slapped and pinched the ravished buttocks, realising fresh howls from the boy.

Only after a full circle of the dining room had been completed was Marius permitted finally to dismount from Dictys' back. There was a sucking sound, as the boy slipped to the ground, caused by the breaking of the seal between two bodies that had been created by sweat and urine.

Marius, whose own small cock now proved to be flaccid, subsequently stood for a moment unsteadily on his feet. The relative hush that had earlier fallen on the dining room during the boy's flogging now dissolved in a clatter of laughter and talk at the sight of the obviously distressed and still tearful child.

"Take the brat away," Scyrax, who had returned to his couch with the happy Maccius, next commanded of Dictys, "as we've have had our fun with him." The youth complied.

"Now for the next entertainment," Scyrax subsequently shouted to his guests, many of whom had returned their lewd attentions to the naked boys sharing their couches, "which should be the highlight of the evening." Addressing his secretary, the fat man then ordered "Fetch Nisus!"

"My friends," Scyrax next happily announced, whilst producing a sharp knife from under his couch, "the next act actually stars me, as I personally castrate a boy!"

Chapter XXXIII

Neither also had any inkling about Scyrax's wicked plan. Consequently, Dictys would not learn about Nisus' fate until he returned to the dining hall, which he could only do after he had washed himself. His very handsome body was still besmirched from the sweat and urine that had despoiled his form whilst he held Marius in place so the younger boy could be caned by the sadistic Maccius. His master only liked to be served by pristine slaves.

As Dictys and Marius left the dining hall, Sulis had stepped forward from where he had been lurking in the shadows. He had dangerously taken an unauthorised break from his kitchen dishwashing duties to spy on events at the party.

"Shouldn't you be washing dishes?" Dictys asked of Sulis, who had been appalled to observe his new friend, Marius, being beaten. In answer to the question, the boy now simply blushed silently.

"I thought so," Dictys responded, without needing a verbal reply, "and you'd better not let Scyrax or Felix see you shirking or it'll be the cane for you again!" Sulis' blush immediately disappeared in fright, as the youth reminded him of the possible consequences of temporarily abandoning his dishwashing. The boy's pretty face instead became ashen in hue and, still without saying a word, he turned, intending to run back to the kitchen to resume his duties there. However, he was prevented from doing so by a shout of "Wait!"

Fortunately for Sulis, the shout emanated from Dictys' rosy lips. "Instead of washing dishes," the youth went on to suggest, "you can help me by washing Marius here. I also need to bathe but quickly, as Scyrax will want me to return rapidly in a clean state to attend to him and Maccius. Your aid will help speed the process."

"Poor Marius lost control of his bladder whilst I held him for his caning," Dictys advised, "and so both of us need to bathe. Afterwards, fetch a cloth soaked in cold water and lay it on his bottom to help take the bruising out. Also, don't come back here again. If you're spotted, you could be severely punished yourself and I don't want to find myself attending to your bum again!"

After handing Marius over to Sulis, Dictys rushed off to the slave's bathing amenity, knowing that if he accompanied the younger boys, one of whom could barely walk because of his recent caning, he would take much longer to reach his objective. The youth wanted to wash himself as quickly as possible and hurry back into the noise and glare of the dining hall. Scyrax was not a man who liked to be kept waiting for service.

Now guided by Sulis' hand, Marius stumbled slowly along the ever narrower and darker passageways that eventually led to the slaveboys' dormitory. As he did so, he was conscious of little beyond the burning pain, which emanated from the rather raw bleeding flesh of his bottom but somehow appeared to sear his whole body.

As the two boys advanced, Sulis was for once silent. He had been thoroughly shocked by the sight of his new friend's lacerated bottom, which was in a far worse state than his own had been after his recent caning.

Before Sulis eventually managed to guide Marius to the slaveboys' baths, they discovered Dictys rushing along a corridor from the other direction towards them, having successfully accomplished the rapid re-cleansing of his body in order to return to the dining hall. The still naked youth did not dally on seeing the youngsters but instead rushed past them in his hurry to resume his duties, although he did give the pair a comforting smile as he proceeded.

Little did Marius and Sulis know that the occasion would prove to be the last time that they would ever see Dictys' handsome smiling face in the house of Scyrax.

Chapter XXXIV

Sulis woke at dawn. The boy discovered that Marius' tearful blue eyes were already open and looking at him.

Sulis could not then resist the temptation to rise and check whether the cold rag had helped to draw some of the bruising from Marius' bottom. He therefore subsequently gently lifted the cloth from his new friend's ravaged rear.

Marius, who remained lying quietly and compliantly as Sulis proceeded, next heard his new friend draw his breath in sharply. "That bastard, Maccius, really did beat you badly, Mariullus," the slightly younger boy then commented in awed tones.

"Remain still, while I bathe, dress and then go try to find some ointment," Sulis added, rather needlessly as Marius had no wish to embark on any movement that would worsen his distress. There was then a general bustle in the long dormitory, as Scyrax's other slaveboys roused themselves to prepare for another day in the service of their master.

A number of the slaveboys paused to inspect Marius' ravaged bottom on their way to the adjacent baths. Some even knelt beside him, speaking in low voices as their fingers lightly touched in curiosity the livid welts that ribbed his flesh. However, their sympathy for the young victim of the previous night's caning was mixed equally with grudging fearful respect for the youth, the sadistic Maccius, who had inflicted such a vigorous and severe thrashing.

Eventually, the dormitory became empty and silent, after the other slaveboys had washed, groomed, dressed and gone for breakfast. The quiet and his own personal exhaustion now finally brought some more relief to Marius because he fell asleep, only to be roused by a loud wailing.

The wailing was unmistakably a cry of distress but not of a sort that Marius could recognise. He did realise that the shrieking was certainly not the blubbering of a freshly caned boy, a sound common enough in the house of Scyrax to be one with which he was therefore now very familiar.

Marius did not immediately know but the wailing was actually not a cry of physical pain at all but of spiritual distress. The shrieking was that of creature bereft, raging against the cruelty and injustice of life.

Marius somehow heaved himself painfully to his knees and stared about him. At that same moment, Sulis, attired in just the usual tiny thong, appeared, moving in a strange stumbling run, his knuckles pressed to his weeping eyes. The boy was bawling his misery to the world with all the strength and volume that his young lungs could muster.

Marius, forgetful of his own injuries in his concern for the misery of Sulis, scrambled to his feet and stumbled towards him. Soon afterwards, his arms were full of howling boy.

Marius stood looking down at the top of the slightly smaller boy's head, feeling his face, wet with tears, pressed against his own bare chest. He had never seen Sulis in such a state before and wondered what the cause could be.

Sulis, of course, cried when he was beaten, as what child did not? However, like boys in general, he was a resilient little youngster and when his bottom was not freshly striped he was generally cheerful and lively.

Marius glanced further down Sulis' rear. He soon confirmed that his new friend displayed no signs of a fresh beating.

Marius naturally wanted to ask Sulis what was wrong. However, he somehow sensed that the slightly younger boy was not yet ready to answer.

The pair therefore just stood as they were, although Marius tightened his hugging of Sulis in an attempted act of comfort. He subsequently allowed his younger friend to continue his weeping and howling of his misery to the world, with his tearful head still pressing against the older boy's bare chest.

Even at this caring and rather solemn moment, though, Marius' body both betrayed and shamed him. The feel of the younger boy's cool and silky skin pressing against his own somehow excited him and his cock jumped to attention.

Sulis, however, appeared oblivious or uncaring of this development and instead gradually calmed to allow the reason for his acute distress to emerge slowly from his stuttering rosy lips, frequently interrupted by renewed bouts of sobbing. On hearing the news, Marius was equally shocked and unhappy but, being slightly more mature and less closely attached to the youth concerned, managed to avoid degenerating into tearful wailing too.

Sulis advised that he appreciated that he should have gone to Felix to ask for the ointment he wanted for Marius' bottom but the eunuch secretary was a very cruel man, renowned for taking delight in hurting boys. Consequently, he had instead looked for Dictys.

Sulis suggested in explanation that he considered Dictys to be good, kind and brave, and someone who would do anything he could to help him. However, Marius also astutely perceived that there were other reasons for his new friend's affection for the youth and why he regularly sought him out in such circumstances.

Dictys had clearly demonstrated in the past, before the advent of Marius into the house of Scyrax, that he was the only person in the whole of the world who really cared for Sulis. As a result, the younger boy had developed a loving crush for the youth, who to him was not only a paternal figure but also a hero.

The perceptive Marius was additionally sure that Dictys was attracted both to the personality and body of Sulis too. However, in the house of Scyrax, such emotions had to remain passive and go unrequited.

Sulis broke down again at this point but eventually recovered and went on with his tearful story. He had looked everywhere about the house for Dictys and in the end he had gone to the dining hall to see if the youth was helping to clean the place up after the party.

Being one of the senior slaveboys, Dictys' normal duties did not normally involve such menial work. However, the dining hall was often in a terrible mess after one of Scyrax's parties and it would be characteristic of the considerate youth to turn up to help.

Here the narrative was interrupted again by another bout of voluminous crying, as Sulis stuttered his remembrances of the many virtues and kindnesses of his hero. However, with a couple of loud sniffles, he eventually again continued with the main storyline.

The dining hall had been in a particularly awful mess, with broken plates, spilt food and wine and vomit on the floor. A team of slaveboys was employed in cleaning up the comprehensive disarray but Dictys was nowhere to be seen.

Sulis therefore asked one of the other slaveboys where Dictys was and the answer he obtained had initiated his current distress. However, Marius had to wait awhile to hear details because his new friend dissolved into more tears before his voice became able to relate the reply that he had received.

The full horror of Sulis' story then finally emerged. On the previous night, the still naked but washed Dictys had returned to the dining hall to discover Nisus being dragged into the room by some of Scyrax's adult slaves. The men were all eunuchs and were very pleased that the very handsome 15 year-old was about to become one of their own kind.

For his role at the party, Nisus had been dressed in a clean brief tight-fitting white tunic, extending to just below his groin, with matching minuscule loincloth underwear. Scyrax had wanted to present his imminent young victim initially to his guests in his normal attire, as if castrating one of his slaveboys for party entertainment was commonplace.

The adult slaves had already placed a sturdy low wooden table in the middle of the dining hall, to which they anticipated tying a naked Nisus face-up and spreadeagled to await the loss of his balls to Scyrax's knife. The first part of this process now went relatively smoothly, as the eunuchs managed to remove first the boy's tunic and then his loincloth, despite his desperate struggles and to the delight of most spectators.

Despite the serious danger of his position, Nisus' revealed cock proved to be erect, again much to the delight of most spectators. Such penile hardness was actually a symptom more of the recent denial of sexual relief afforded to his raging young hormones, which had caused him to be in his current desperate predicament in the first place, than any perverse excitement over his situation.

Whilst the newly returned and appalled Dictys watched, the eunuchs subsequently made moves to bind the still fruitlessly struggling Nisus to the waiting table. Their efforts were accompanied by laughter from Scyrax and his guests, especially Maccius, who were amused at the boy's useless attempts to avoid his fate.

Dictys, however, was not amused, just horrified at what was about to be inflicted before him on Nisus, which was obvious from the sentence passed on the boy weeks earlier and the current arrangements, including the knife in Scyrax's hand. The brave youth therefore suddenly decided that he could not watch idly but instead had to attempt to stop his master's clear intent.

Despite the clear danger to himself in taking such action, Dictys rushed to Scyrax and fell to his knees before the surprised man, being unafraid and instead rather accustomed to debasing himself in such a manner. "Please, Master," the youth then begged, "please don't castrate Nisus. Punish him in some other way, like whipping him again, but don't destroy his masculinity!"

The guests in the dining hall, who were perversely looking forward to seeing a pretty boy lose his balls, were naturally displeased about Dictys' action in case Scyrax decided to respect the entreaty and cancel the proposed entertainment. The eunuchs present were also unhappy at the possible prospect of the 15 year-old not becoming one of their number after all. All worried that the fat host might have deliberately orchestrated the youth's action because in cruel jest he never really had any intention of gelding one of his valuable young slaves.

Scyrax, however, quickly demonstrated how unfounded such worries were because, apart perhaps from Maccius, his outrage at Dictys' unprecedented act of insubordination was the greatest in the dining hall. The fat man revealed his attitude when his face turned purple in fury and he lashed a hand violently at the youth's face.

The violent smack caused Dictys to fall to his side on the floor, where Scyrax subsequently began to kick him harshly. At the same time, the fat man angrily shouted "How dare you be so impertinent to question my decisions by begging for the salvation of Nisus' miscreant balls!"

Maccius simultaneously stood up from the couch, which he had been sharing with Scyrax, and yelled encouragement to his obese paramour by suggesting "Kick the brat's own balls to pulp!" "I think I will!" the still enraged fat man replied. However, Dictys decided not to give him the opportunity.

Grabbing Scyrax's kicking leg, Dictys pulled and brought the fat man tumbling to the floor next to him in a loud crash. Jumping nimbly to his feet after grasping his master's spilt knife, the youth then approached the eunuchs restraining Nisus and, using the blade as a threat, ordered them to release their grip on the boy, which they immediately did.

"Come with me," Dictys subsequently suggested to Nisus, who did not hesitate to obey. The two naked young slaves then ran rapidly from the dining hall.

Dictys' rebellious action had been so surprising and quick that no one else in the dining hall had the calmness or speed of mind to prevent him and Nisus escaping from the room. The facts that no guest or servant was armed like the youth or, most being inherently cowardly, desired anyway to confront such an obviously dangerous young slave aided the lack of resistance to what had happened.

Such passive attitudes were also boosted by a realisation that surely two naked young slaves, armed only with a knife, could not remain at liberty for long, even if they managed to escape the house of Scyrax, which was walled on the perimeter like a mini-fortress. There was additionally some quiet sadistic pleasure at the thought that, once recaptured, the punishments for the pair would be extreme.

Regardless of market value because examples needed to be made to deter others, recaptured escaped slaves were generally beaten and tortured and inevitably later executed, either by crucifixion or being fed to wild beasts in the amphitheatre. Such a gruesome fate surely now awaited both Dictys and Nisus.

The shocked Maccius had eventually rushed forward to try to help the equally stunned and now moaning Scyrax to regain his feet. However, four eunuchs slaves were also eventually needed to achieve the feat of raising the fat man.

As the eunuch slaves subsequently brushed and straightened with their hands their master's dishevelled robes, Scyrax loudly ordered his adult servants to conduct a search for the young escapees. He also confirmed to his guests his intent of what he proposed to do with Dictys and Nisus once they were recaptured. "As part of their penance," he declared, "I'll have their whole genitals cut off before having them publicly crucified!"

"Oooh," a calming Maccius then asked, realising that the situation promised happy times for him, "can I help torture them?" "I rather fancy seriously hurting and slicing off the genitals of two such pretty but naughty boys," he added, "and I promise, my dear Scyrax, that I'll be especially nice to you in return!"

Scyrax, also now calming, could not resist such a promise. "Of course you can help, my sweet Maccius," he answered, "and, in fact, you can take the lead in torturing the bastards. I rather look forward to watching you!"

The thought of what Maccius might do to the similarly aged Dictys caused Sulis to dissolve into tears again, once more interrupting his recounting to Marius of what had happened on the previous night. The slightly older boy therefore just continued patiently to stand and hold his younger friend close until the child calmed, whilst his cock remained shamelessly stiff.

Marius was naturally eager to discover whether Dictys and Nisus had been recaptured. He could not believe that they could possibly escape the house of Scyrax or, if they did, spend long in their naked state in the adjacent streets of Rome without being quickly apprehended.

Marius too was now near to tears but he realised, with all the maturity and responsibility that an 11 year-old could feel for a friend twelve months younger than himself, that he must not give way to his own unhappiness at what had happened. His current job was to comfort Sulis and he could not do that if he too was crying.

"What is this abominable noise? Why are you two sluts idling your time away here? Why aren't you now both working?" These three consecutive questions were suddenly uttered from the dormitory doorway. Neither Marius nor Sulis had to look to see who was making the enquiries, as the rather effeminate vocal tones in which they were related easily revealed the identity of the person concerned.

Nevertheless, both boys looked towards the dormitory doorway to confirm that the dreaded Felix was standing there. The eunuch had entered the room unheard and was now thoroughly enjoying discovering two supposedly idling boys.

Felix's enjoyment stemmed from the fact that he gained immense pleasure in identifying and persecuting for painful chastisement boys of Scyrax's household. Being a eunuch, the thrill he gained from his successes was not sexual but instead entirely due to pure undiluted sadism.

"I'm sorry, Sir," Marius answered in panic, whilst he released his tender grip on new friend and his cock quickly returned in fright to flaccidity, "but Sulis is upset about what happened last night and I was just trying to comfort him." However, as soon as he had spoken these words, the boy recognised that he had made a mistake.

Scyrax next asked a quick question directed at Sulis. "For whom are you upset, brat?" the eunuch secretary enquired.

Marius recognised the trap inherent in the question but was too late to prevent Sulis blurting out "Dictys, Sir." Felix was delighted by the answer but feigned anger.

Felix approached and grabbed Sulis by the arm and spun him round. Swinging the thick leather strap, which he always carried to the constant fear of all the young slaves in the household, the eunuch then began to flog the boy.

"You're an ungrateful brat," Felix simultaneously screamed shrilly, "as you choose to ignore your duty to Scyrax, who out of the goodness of his heart feeds and houses you, to spend time instead crying about a wicked rebellious slave. For your lack of concern for your Master, whom Dictys attacked last night, I'll give you something to really weep about!"

The sound of hard leather painfully and pitilessly hitting young tender flesh, accompanied by an anguished yelp from the victim of the flogging, was followed by the announcement from Felix "I'll teach you and make you squeal!" The eunuch subsequently fulfilled his promise.

Whilst a helpless Marius looked on, leather continued to crack harshly against young flesh. Sulis squealed, as he twisted and leapt in Felix's firm grasp whilst vainly attempting to evade the cuts that the eunuch mercilessly rained upon his bare back and bottom.

Blow after blow slashed down across Sulis' tender rear until Felix eventually became short of breath and stopped. Panting, the eunuch now released the thoroughly thrashed boy, who collapsed sobbing to his knees on the floor, his fears for his hero, Dictys, temporally forgotten amidst his own physical agony.

The horrified watching Marius felt very cowardly at not intervening. However, he realised that there was really nothing that he could do to help Sulis.

Any attempted intervention would undoubtedly incur Felix's wrath and his own beating. However, more importantly in the naturally brave boy's mind was the thought that any such action might also induce the eunuch to thrash Sulis even harder.

Marius' mental processes could also not forget the undoubted terrible fate awaiting Dictys. He had also intervened to aid a fellow slave, and now he faced torture, nullification and crucifixion, along with the boy he had attempted to help.

"Off with you," Felix later shouted, whilst planting a kick on Sulis' bare bottom, "and do something to earn your keep. There's still plenty of cleaning to do after the party last night. I'll also be reporting you to Scyrax, who'll undoubtedly want you caned later for being more concerned about the welfare of the wicked Dictys than that of your kind master!"

"And you go too," Felix, turning towards the white-faced Marius, commanded, "because you can't spend your day lazing around just because you received your own thrashing from Maccius last night. Move, or you'll have a taste of my strap too!" However, despite the eunuch's threat, the boy initially briefly hesitated to comply.

Such disobedient delay again caused Felix to raise his strap menacingly. However, Marius had hesitated because he had not performed his normal morning ablutions. He had also not redressed in his usual loincloth. Consequently, before the eunuch could strike, he therefore quickly asked "Do you want me to bathe, groom and attire myself first, Sir?"

Felix was actually rather surprised to learn that Marius had not yet bathed and groomed himself because, despite his recent tears and harrowing night and apart from his comprehensively beaten rear, his appearance looked pristine. The eunuch also momentarily sadistically considered rewarding the boy for his delay in performing his morning ablutions with a few blows from his strap. However, two considerations stayed his hand and caused him to lower his leather implement.

First, after the type of serious beating that Marius' bottom had endured on the previous night, Felix appreciated that Scyrax customarily and, rather out of normal character, generously excused his young slaves from at least the following morning's duties. Consequently, the boy could be expected to remain in his dormitory and not to indulge in his ablutions until later.

Second, Felix remembered that Marius was scheduled to be sold at the slave market within the week. Consequently, Scyrax might not appreciate further injury being inflicted on the boy's undoubtedly very valuable but already damaged virginal form.

Nevertheless, Felix's sadism had encouraged him on this occasion not to allow Marius to be excused work on this morning. The eunuch also wickedly conceived a reason not to allow the boy the modicum of modesty, provided by Scyrax's choice of sparse clothing for his young slaves, whilst he performed his menial chores.

"No," Felix said in reply to Marius' question about bathing, grooming and dressing, "as you've already wasted enough time. I also want you to remain naked, as a rear loincloth flap might exacerbate the hurt to your bottom and interfere with healing. So, proceed to your duties as you are, immediately without further ado!"

Marius disliked this answer, although not in respect of his ablutions, as Sulis had, after all, supervised his post- party cleansing just before they went to bed in their dormitory on the previous night. The boy was instead unhappy at the notion of having to perform his chores whilst humiliatingly naked when all of the other young slaves would be attired in some way, even if only in minuscule thongs.

Nevertheless, Marius appreciated that he dared not disobey Felix. Consequently, with his hands attempting to cover and thereby defensively protect his still hurting bottom from the eunuch's strap, he scuttled past the secretary as fast as he could, given his hurt, to follow the already departed sobbing Sulis.

As Marius did so, he recognised a truism about himself. He was reduced once more to a frightened, naked little slave brat, with his role as the comforter of Sulis lost, at least for now.

Marius also sorrowfully wondered what was currently happening to poor Dictys and Nisus, as surely both would have been recaptured by now, probably very shortly after attempting escape from the house of Scyrax. The boy shivered at the terrible thoughts that subsequently invaded his mind about the types of tortures that the young slaves might now be suffering at the very cruel hands of Maccius.

Marius, who, despite his previous recent experiences of being in such a humiliating state, was still rather conscious and ashamed of his nudity, subsequently found himself sent to the dining hall, where he joined Sulis and the team of young slaves scrubbing the floor. For a time, he and his new friend worked side-by-side on their hands and knees in a silence broken only by the occasional loud sniffle from the younger boy. The 10 year-old's mental pain, emanating from his deep concern for Dictys, had been exacerbated by the thought of being caned later, as well as by the physical anguish induced recently by Felix's strap.

Marius was eager to ask Sulis for the latest news about Dictys and Nisus. However, Felix had followed them to the dining hall and he dared not talk whilst that particular eunuch was around for fear of being beaten by his strap for slacking.

In the event, though, Marius did not have to ask Sulis for news of Dictys and Nisus. Scyrax instead appraised the boy about the current situation regarding the young escapees.

Scyrax did so when passing through the dining hall with Maccius. The obnoxious youth had obviously stayed the night with the fat man to pay his price for the pleasure of caning Marius.

"The bastards are definitely not in the house," Marius overheard Scyrax inform Maccius, "as everywhere has been comprehensively searched, including the basement, roof and gardens." "But how could they escape from your residence," the obnoxious youth asked in incredulity, "as your perimeter walls are so high and your gate is always guarded?"

"It appears," Scyrax answered angrily, "that my walls aren't high enough." "But then surely two naked slaves should have been easy to find amidst the local streets," Maccius commented.

"You forget," Scyrax replied, with anger still evident in his voice, "that it was night and the streets were dark. The bastards appear to have disappeared into the shadows, from where they've not yet emerged in daylight."

"Nevertheless," Scyrax continued, "I'm sure that the bastards will be caught eventually. My adult servants, even my cook, are scouring the streets for them, asking questions of the locals and offering rewards for their recapture."

"I also know the tribune of the local vigiles," Scyrax added, referring to the organisation that was the strange combination of being Rome's firemen and police, "and I've offered him a substantial reward if any of his cohort recapture the bastards. Surely two naked brats can't remain at liberty for long in such circumstances!"

Scyrax and Maccius then left the dining room but Marius had gained the news that he wanted. He immediately wondered how Dictys and Nisus had achieved the remarkable feats of not only escaping from Scyrax's house but also subsequently disappearing amidst Rome's crowded streets whilst naked and despite the bounty on their heads. Surely their nudity alone would make them stand out.

Marius also wondered whether Scyrax's belief in the inevitable recapture of Dictys and Nisus was realistic. The pair obviously possessed guile to evade their pursuers so far.

Marius therefore next prayed to the gods that the guile of Dictys and Nisus eventually proved Scyrax's belief to be unfounded. The notion that the deities might actually grant his wish even caused him to smile.

Meanwhile, the sniffles from Sulis, who was still scrubbing the floor next to Marius, disappeared in apparent shared optimism.

Chapter XXXV

As Felix had once joyously done before, the secretary answered "Sulis, Sir!" In response, and as Scyrax had also once equally happily done previously, the fat man commanded the relevant boy to him.

Sulis, however, did not act as he had once done before, on the first occasion that he had been caned at the evening assembly, namely like a terrified panicky rabbit caught in a snare. The boy, who was as usual just wearing his minuscule white thong, did not stand and approach Scyrax with slow stiffness, whilst utter terror pervaded his pretty face. Although as equally reluctant as previously to obey the fat man's summons because he fully appreciated what the painful result would be, he complied with speed and a look of brave acceptance of his imminent destiny.

Sulis' remarkable change in attitude towards his forthcoming penance, which was particularly praiseworthy because the kind-hearted Dictys was no longer present to help him face his fate, did not result from any complacency about being beaten because he had become accustomed to such punishment. In fact, his previous acute suffering only confirmed to him how awfully agonising his imminent caning would be.

Sulis' bravery instead resulted from the fact that he secretly wanted to honour Dictys somehow and he believed that facing his imminent caning courageously would have made his missing friend proud of him. In doing so, the boy was subliminally almost treating the young runway slave as already dead, which was perhaps appropriate because he considered his recapture with Nisus and subsequent execution by terrible means to be inevitable.

As was customary, Sulis was soon respectfully dropping to his knees before his master and dutifully pressing his lips to the golden plaque embedded in the floor, at the same time elevating his curvaceous bare bottom invitingly in the air. Scyrax simultaneously asked, whilst looking down at the boy at his feet, "Felix, tell me what has this brat been up to?"

"He exhibited a disgraceful lack of respect for you, Sir," Felix announced, "by showing, through being upset and shedding tears, more concern for the welfare of the wicked Dictys than for that of his kind master!" "Disgraceful!" Scyrax raged in response in clear sudden anger.

"I'm normally a fair man," Scyrax thundered, "who before I flog a boy always give him an opportunity to tell his version of events. However, this offence is too heinous to be defended."

"Sulis," Scyrax continued, now addressing the boy still on his knees at his feet but now looking up at him, "lie across the caning bench in the usual manner. I'll teach you to lose your compassion for wicked runaway slaves and instead instil a sense of duty and gratitude towards your kind master!"

Sulis realised that he was now going to receive a severe beating, undoubtedly much worse than the six strokes inflicted on his nicely rotund bottom on the previous occasion that he had lain over the caning bench. Nevertheless, the boy obeyed Scyrax's enraged command rapidly, as he was still determined to act bravely and so honour Dictys, who would definitely have been honoured by and proud of his subsequent display of courage.

The angered Scyrax now furiously attacked the vulnerable prone Sulis with his cane with all his might, and not just whilst targeting the boy's bottom. The whole of the child's rear, from his neck down to his ankles was savagely hit.

Scyrax had in his rage apparently not set a number of strokes to inflict. The fat man also did not follow his other normal practice of delivering the thrashing with slow deliberation so that his young victim could fully appreciate the excruciation of each blow.

Meanwhile, amidst this venomous attack on his prone form, Sulis just lay relatively still, enduring the intense agony of his suffering with immensely brave restraint. The boy did, of course, rather naturally cry and shed tears, whilst the vicious blows rained down remorselessly on his rear and Scyrax added many more nasty stripes to those already present as a result of Felix's earlier informal beating. However, the sobbing was commendably muted and the lachrymation courageously discreet.

Marius, helplessly looking on in horror from the rows of other slaveboys, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Scyrax, could not help but greatly admire Sulis' newly found fortitude.

Chapter XXXVI

Marius obediently stood up from his place among the rows of cross-legged slaveboys. As he rose to his feet, he touched Sulis lightly on the head.

Sulis' normally pretty form was currently besmirched by a rear displaying deep brown bruises virtually from neck to ankle. His comprehensive beating by Scyrax of three days earlier had only come to an end when the fat man had eventually wearied, by which time there was almost no part of the boy's back, bottom and behind his legs that had not been struck viciously by the cane.

Three days later, Sulis was still unable to move without his rear hurting badly somewhere. However, he had gained further admiration from his fellow slaveboys by continuing to display brave fortitude, despite some understandable but muted wincing in reaction to the pain, and somehow performing his allocated chores around Scyrax's house with sufficient efficiency to avoid more punishment.

Sulis responded to Marius' touch with a quick squeeze of his friend's shin. Both boys realised that these discreet furtive acts were the only farewells that would be allowed them, as they had also perceptively recognised that the summons to approach Scyrax at this point during the assembly meant that a certain young slave's resale at market must be imminent.

Marius arrived in front of Scyrax and reverently performed the required homage to the golden plaque, whilst feeling his master's eyes fixed on his lithe and highly alluring young body. As a consequence of this appreciation that the fat man was currently carefully scanning him, and despite his best efforts to prevent such a shameful reaction, the boy's cock instinctively hardened, producing a noticeable bulge in the small front flap of his sparse white loincloth.

On noticing the bulge and thereby perceiving his blushing young slave's sudden arousal after giving him permission to stand again, Scyrax happily chuckled. The fat man then announced "You're a sweet and lively boy, Mariullus. I believe you'll sell well."

"Now, remove your loincloth so that I can confirm how sweet and lively you are," Scyrax added to Marius' increased shame. Nevertheless, despite his intense embarrassment, the boy appreciated that he had no option but to comply with his master's command.

Consequently, Marius' loincloth was soon around his ankles, whilst his revealed erection pointed proudly towards Scyrax, who again happily chuckled at the sight before commenting "You really are lively today!" On hearing this humiliating remark, the boy's facial redness intensified.

"Now turn round, Mariullus," Scyrax next ordered, "so that I can judge whether you look as nice from behind as you do from in front." The boy again obeyed and the fat man smacked his lips appreciatively on now carefully viewing his young slave's rear.

Marius possessed a particularly delicious bottom, which was alluringly firm and curvaceous. The deep dimples at the sides added to the considerable attractions.

Marius shivered when he next felt Scyrax run his hand up the back of his thighs. The wheals left by Maccius' cane had largely healed and only a light bruising remained to mar slightly the boy's exceptional beauty.

Scyrax eventually carefully ran a podgy finger along one of the fading lines scored by Maccius' cane across the smooth curves of Marius' bottom. The boy simultaneously felt his master's warm breath against his back.

Marius' shameful thrill at being visually and manually examined in this delicate intimate manner was evident by a visible quivering of his erection. The boy also could not repress audible proof because he whimpered in excitement, causing Scyrax to chuckle once more.

"I believe that you're really ready for it, Mariullus," Scyrax subsequently commented, "and I'm also sure that you now won't have long to wait for it!" What the boy's master was referring to by use of the word 'it' was, of course, fully appreciated by the young slave and all other listeners to the fat man's remarks. A certain exposed erection provided ample evidence of the child's apparently eager readiness to be the sexual plaything of a new owner.

"However," Scyrax continued, "we don't want any accidents overnight before you go to the slave market in the morning, do we, Mariullus? We want you to be really hot tomorrow so that you'll display yourself in your full aroused glory to the gentlemen and ladies who might contemplate buying you!"

"So, turn round again and face me, Mariullus," Scyrax commanded, whilst picking up a narrow leather cord from the small table beside his couch. After the boy had obeyed the order, his master momentarily once more admired his smoothly hairless and pleasantly excited genitals.

As Scyrax did so, he contemplated what a shame it would be if Marius soon lost his balls because his next master wanted a young eunuch. The fat man believed that castration would spoil the genital scenery, with the boy's sweet scrotum definitely deserving a better fate.

Despite Scyrax's outward appearance as a rather gross effeminate character, he was an expert in his profession, which was that of identifying and buying cheaply attractive slaveboys, who could be groomed for much more lucrative resale. He therefore fully appreciated that young pretty eunuchs were becoming increasingly popular in rich Roman households, being attractive servile ornaments who were no sexual threat to the females and children present.

Scyrax also knew that castration was generally confined to pre-pubescent boys, whose genitals could be more safely gelded than the more mature sexual organs of older male slaves. Marius was therefore of the right age to be chosen to become a eunuch and the fat man calculated his chances of losing his balls, as a result of his imminent resale and in current market conditions, at about three to one against.

Marius was therefore more likely to keep his balls than lose them. However, if the boy knew the odds, he would probably worry that he might become an unlucky one in four who was converted into a eunuch.

Having briefly contemplated Marius' lovely genitals and their prospects, Scyrax eventually leant forward to grab them gently. The fat man subsequently slipped his leather cord behind the boy's smooth scrotum.

Marius instinctively reacted by attempting to move backwards. However, Felix, who had crept up unnoticed behind him, caught his shoulders to prevent his retreat and instead hold him firmly in place. The eunuch secretary also growled at the boy, commanding him to be still.

Scyrax subsequently twisted the two ends of his leather cord together and drew them firmly around Marius' relatively small cock and balls before knotting the narrow strap tightly in place. The boy's penis, now deprived of the normal blood-flow, reacted by immediately drooping to sad flaccidity.

"The brat's genitals are so little that such precaution hardly seems worth the bother, Sir," sneered Felix, who always looking for an opportunity to humiliate his master's slaveboys, whose sexual wholeness he secretly envied. "Better to have small balls than none at all," Scyrax answered back to his eunuch secretary with careless cruelty.

Felix flushed and, not daring to challenge his master's cruelty, bit his lips in silent anger. He instead sadistically focused his verbal vengeance on Marius by commenting, whilst actually hoping that the scenario happened, "Perhaps, Sir, the brat mightn't keep his small balls for much longer!"

Marius, of course, did not welcome this cruel reminder that castration as a result of his imminent resale at market was a possibility, and clear concern immediately invaded his face, which made Felix happy. However, Scyrax was also displeased with his eunuch secretary's remark and reprimanded him, albeit mildly.

"Now, Felix," suggested Scyrax, whose eyes were currently completely focused on Marius' cute genitals, which were actually perfectly proportioned for an 11 year-old on the brink of puberty, "you know that I don't like my boys to be frightened about being resold at market. If they appear on the auction block in a distressed and petrified state, their charms might not be so obvious and so the price that I obtain for them might be reduced."

"I'm sorry, Sir," apologised Felix, although he actually was not, having secured what he wanted to do, namely scare Marius. The evidence for his success was still evident on the boy's obviously worried face.

"Now for the seal," Scyrax changed subject by next suggesting. Consequently, Felix produced a stick of wax and another adult slave stepped forward with a lighted lamp.

Marius subsequently felt the heat of the lamp's flame close to his belly, whilst Felix dropped some molten wax onto the knot of the leather cord. A globule also fell on the delicate bare skin of the boy's scrotum and he briefly cried out in pain.

Felix had deliberately provoked the 'accidental' droplet. The eunuch commonly found sadistic ways of taking out his resentment at his emasculated condition on the boys subject to his attentions.

"Don't make such a fuss, Mariullus," Scyrax chided, whilst pressing the signet of his ring into the soft wax. "Now, I want to see that seal unbroken in the morning," the fat man ominously added, "because, if it isn't still correctly in place then, I assure you that I'll reduce you to the same genital state as Felix!"

"Now take the brat away and secure him for the night," Scyrax then commanded, whilst turning the still naked Marius around and dismissing him from his presence with an open handed slap on his curvaceous bare bottom. The adult slave, who had supplied the oil lamp, complied and took the boy by the hand and led him out of the courtyard.

Marius was acutely ashamed that the last sight most of the other slaveboys of Scyrax's household would have of him would be seeing him naked and with his genitals humiliatingly encased tightly by leather cord, with a seal dangling under his scrotum. The very notion caused his facial blush to reappear fiercely as he passed them.

Nevertheless, Marius still had the presence of mind to give Sulis a brief farewell smile. He did so despite the fact that his heart actually secretly sank at the reality of both the loss of such a friend and the knowledge that the boy had been chosen by his master to remain in this unpleasant household.

Marius was taken to a small cell at the back of Scyrax's large house, which was rather isolated and well away from much of the domestic activity. Inside, the boy's ankle was attached by a long chain to a ring set in the floor.

This was the first time that Marius had been chained since he had arrived in Scyrax's house. The fat man, being very experienced in the handling of slaveboys, appreciated that many might panic and some might even stupidly attempt to run away when facing alone the unknown fate represented by imminent resale at auction.

Scyrax never took any chances. Boys due for resale always spent their last night in his house chained in this small cell with the door locked.

The small cell was illuminated only by light coming in from lamps in the outside corridor through the only window, which was barred and formed part of the door. The place was also completely devoid of furniture apart from a single straw mattress, upon which the still naked Marius initially sat, with his back against a wall, after the adult slave, who had brought him there, had left.

Marius' only consolation for being left nude in such sparse isolation was a bowl of steaming pork and bean stew and a chunk of black bread, with which the adult slave later returned. Scyrax's young slaves were rarely given meat in their diets but boys on the eve of their resale were always well fed in preparation for the next day's venture to market.

Scyrax hoped that the cell's quiet isolation from the rest of the house would also aid rest in readiness for the big day ahead. However, the young inmates were often too concerned about their destinies to gain much sleep, which was why the fat man ensured that the pork and bean stew additionally contained a secret ingredient.

After eagerly consuming the stew, Marius was soon sound asleep, now stretched out on his straw mattress, with his surrender to slumber considerably aided by the secret potion contained in his last meal in Scyrax's household.

Chapter XXXVII

Marius had slept well and been reasonably rested. Having also eaten well on the previous evening, the boy now really only needed to be washed and groomed to be ready for market.

Marius sat up on his straw mattress and the chain about his ankle rattled as he did so. He resumed his sitting position and listened for the noises of the similarly awakening household in the distance.

As Marius listened, he felt some discomfort in his groin and glanced down to attempt to ascertain the cause, which he discovered straightaway. The cord tightly binding his genitals was making the delicate flesh against which it rested sore. The boy's restricted sexual organs were also darker in colour than normal because of the reduced blood- flow, although thankfully they remained relatively healthy and were not black, which would have meant that they were dead and he had been castrated.

Marius was briefly tempted to remove the cord to bring some relief from the soreness. However, the idea was quickly dismissed. Such an action would break the seal, which Scyrax had taken trouble to affix, and the fat man might actually make good his threat to convert the boy into a eunuch for his disobedience, or at least otherwise punish him severely.

As Marius sat in his cell, naked and alone, enduring the discomfort in his groin, he next contemplated the fact that the day ahead would probably determine the whole course of his future life. He was going to be taken to market and sold to the highest bidder like any other item of livestock. His purchaser would own him and could do anything with him in just the same way as his dogs, horses or cattle.

Marius did not feel any great resentment in being treated in such a way. After all, the institution of slavery was an integral part of Roman life.

Marius naturally wished that he was not a slave and he was fearful of what was to come. However, he generously and philosophically considered that his current servile status was as a consequence of misfortune rather than injustice.

Marius believed that being a slave was the price that the gods were insisting that he must pay in return for not letting him be killed like his older brother and sister. The boy considered that lamenting or complaining about the divine judgement was not sensible but sacrilegious. He instead simply thought that he must make the best out of what the deities had now gifted him in life.

Marius did profoundly hope that the gods might now still have sufficient remaining consideration for his welfare to ensure that he was imminently delivered into good hands by being bought by a kind master. The boy's pride made him prefer the idea of having in such a paternalistic society as Rome another male owner. His stance was also enhanced by the fact that his chances of being castrated would certainly be increased considerably if he was purchased by a female.

Marius fully appreciated that Scyrax only dealt in exceptional boys, who were regarded as expensive luxury speciality goods for the discerning rich. He also realised the nature of some of the services that he might be required to provide to a man.

Marius knew too, genuinely without exaggeration or personal hubris, that he was truly a very pretty boy, as Scyrax only traded in such lucratively outstanding juveniles. His body, especially his unruly cock, also told him that he was ready to endure and perhaps enjoy a new role in a pederast's service.

Lying naked, alone and apprehensive in the small isolated cell, Marius even now attempted to imagine what some aspects of his life might be like with such a new master. The boy's thoughts were of such intensity that he could almost feel the man's arms about his nude body, the adult's smell in his nostrils and his taste in his mouth.

Marius' preparation for resale by Scyrax had not just comprised manners and domestic duties. Instruction in how best to pleasure a man was also included, which indicated the fat man's thoughts about the most likely ultimate destiny for his special young slaves.

The relevant lessons were taught through practical demonstrations, generally comprising two of Scyrax's older and experienced slaveboys, with one compelled to suffer sodomy and the other forced to perform fellatio. The relevant youths were usually in two minds about their involvement.

The youths generally disliked the public nature of their demonstrations, especially as most of the spectators were younger than them, and the fact that their acts were frequently slowed and even stopped so that Scyrax could point out certain key issues to the class. They were also averse to the regular criticisms levied at them from their master for any perceived ineptitude, which was often undeserved but which the hypocritical fat man nevertheless liked to deliver to satisfy one of his cravings, namely to humiliate. However, they additionally did usually gain some pleasure, given that the occasions represented the only time that the boys of the household were allowed to have sex with each other, apart from when such deeds formed part of their owner's personal entertainment.

The rare virgins, like Marius, amongst Scyrax's young slaves were, of course, not allowed to participate in such demonstrations, other than as invariably intrigued spectators, in order to protect their valuable purity. Other younger boys were also generally excluded but not because of likely ineptitude.

The age of such boys instead usually meant that their bodies had not been molested too much, and their anuses in particular had not suffered regular penetration, or Scyrax would not have bought them in the first place. Their master prided himself on sending juveniles to market whose rectums, even if they were no longer virgins, were still nicely sufficiently tight to provide their new owners with immense pleasure if they were so inclined.

Marius had been as intrigued as most of his fellow young slaves when watching the homosexual demonstrations, in which the foreplay required to provide a man with the greatest pleasure was given as much prominence as the sex acts themselves. The boy's loincloth frequently bulged to provide evidence that his unruly cock was equally enthralled.

Marius now told himself that he would indeed try hard to be a good slave and to please his new master in any way that he wanted, whilst optimistically dismissing the worrying idea from his mind that his new owner might be female. Apart from the obvious motive, namely that he might be punished if he was not competent, another more subliminal reason for the boy's attitude was that, having been brutally wrenched from his family, he was in desperate need of affection. He wanted to love and be loved.

Marius next contemplated who his new master might be. He pondered whether he might be a Senator or at least a rich equestrian.

Perhaps, after many years of loyal service, Marius' new owner might grant him his freedom, and subsequently he would be able to find Pannnychis, the slave girl who had suffered so much for helping him, whom he would buy and set free. He would also purchase Sulis from Scyrax and they could then all live happily ever after together. The girl could cook and look after the house, whilst the boys worked to earn money.

For a while, Marius sat happily dreaming such thoughts but then his recall of Pannychis reawakened nightmare memories of the last few weeks. He remembered Echios, his father's steward, who had suddenly changed from obsequious servant to insolent and cruel gaoler.

Marius recalled his imprisonment in the farmhouse cellar and the inherent darkness, squalor and hunger, relieved only by the scraps of food smuggled to him by Pannychis. He remembered the terror that had overcome him when the girl eventually did not come again and he was left to lie there in his own filth, with his increasing starvation gnawing at his guts.

Marius recalled the sudden appearance of Crastus, who informed him with casual brutality that his father had been executed as a traitor and he had personally killed his older brother and sister. He remembered his own shame at the way his body had been humiliatingly aroused by the touch of this sadistic butcher.

Marius recalled the brutalities committed by Crastus and his men during their stay at his late father's farm, including the whipping of Echios' favourite boy, Pulchellus, and of his own protector and friend, Pannychis. He remembered the horrors of the long and painful march to Rome.

Marius recalled his sale to the slave dealer, Scyrax, and the cruelties he had witnessed and endured in his house, including the needless flogging of Nisus, Giton, Sulis, Lysias and dozens of other frightened and defenceless young slaves. His mind heard again the sound of cane and leather cracking against bare flesh, and of boys screaming as the harsh blows hit and tore their tender bodies. He remembered his own agony, as Maccius had beaten his quivering bottom.

As a consequence of such horrible recall, terror of the future suddenly replaced hope in Marius' mind. He therefore curled up in a small ball of naked misery, sobbing quietly to himself. However, in time, renewed sleep eventually brought him momentary release from his fears.

Chapter XXXVIII

Marius was subsequently led out of the cell and along a series of corridors to a large room with a high ceiling and windows overlooking the central courtyard. The bright sunlight that pervaded the place brought out the brilliant colourings of the frescoes that covered the walls, which portrayed scenes of the most debauched but also rather refined depravity. Beautiful children of both sexes were pictured catering to the perverse tastes of various gods and other creatures. The artist had combined cruelty and sexual licence to create a masterpiece of eroticism.

The beauty of the boys pictured was, however, rivalled by that of the scantily attired variety, who hurried on bare feet about the room, bearing trays laden with food, drinking cups, ewers of hot water, towels, mirrors and all the other paraphernalia of a luxurious breakfast and toilet. In the centre of this activity stood the gross figure of Scyrax.

At the moment when Marius was brought into the room, Scyrax was standing naked by a couch, with his huge belly bulging before him. The fat man was urinating into a silver bowl held for him by a small black slave with the sweetest round bottom, which was fully revealed because the boy only wore the minuscule white thong appropriate for his tender age. The child knelt respectfully on the floor while his master directed a stream of pungent amber fluid into the dish, which was held dangerously close to his face.

The adult slave left the still naked Marius standing just inside the entrance into the room. The boy immediately experienced a feeling of great horror because he now saw that Maccius was lounging on the couch close to Scyrax.

Maccius was also naked but, while Scyrax's body was obscenely fat and covered with a mat of dark hair, the youth was slim, with the only hirsute patch being a little tuft above his genitals. However, regardless of how lithely smooth he was, he disported himself with such arrogance that no one could confuse him with the slaveboys who hurried nervously about the room.

Maccius was playing with a dagger with an ivory hilt, which was a gift from Scyrax and the pommel of which was set with a single large ruby. The sunlight glinted on the slim blade as the youth toyed with the weapon.

Whilst Marius watched, Maccius lent forward and, smiling wickedly, rested the point of the dagger against the side of the little black slave's thigh. The boy instinctively tensed, as he felt the touch of the sharp cold metal against his bare flesh.

Maccius' smile broadened as he increased the pressure on the dagger. Marius then saw the point of the blade sink into the boy's taught thigh, causing a bead of blood to form on his dark skin and begin to trickle downwards. The child's chest clearly heaved, as he felt the resultant pain but he still somehow held the bowl steady, as proof, if any were needed, that discipline in the abode of Scyrax was firm.

The stream of urine finally dwindled to a trickle and Scyrax shook the last few drops from the tip of his cock and wiped his hands on the young slave's tight black curls. The fat man subsequently gestured and the boy rose to his feet, bowed deeply and backed away, still carrying the bowl with the obnoxious steaming contents.

As the black boy passed Marius, the latter noticed that the side of the young slave's leg was glistening darkly with fresh blood. Meanwhile, Maccius laughed and licked the tip of his dagger.

Scyrax glanced around and, observing Marius, beckoned the boy to him. The 11 year-old obediently moved forward but on leaden legs and with his fearful eyes fixed on Maccius. The youth said nothing but smiled coldly at the advancing child, whilst testing the point of his dagger on his thumb.

"I think the brat remembers you, darling," Scyrax remarked before giggling softly, whilst reaching out to draw the reluctantly arriving Marius to him. Seating himself on the couch beside his youthful lover, he subsequently bent forward to examine the wax seal on the cord still knotted tightly around the boy's now sore genitals.

"So, Mariullus, you've been a good boy," Scyrax commented, "and not done any of that nasty playing with yourself. I knew you wouldn't be naughty."

Scyrax subsequently turned towards Maccius and requested "Darling, please be very kind and cut the cord off our dear sweet Mariullus." The youth giggled and, leaning over the fat man's gross thighs, pressed the blade of his dagger across the base of the boy's cock. The young slave immediately shuddered and instinctively closed his eyes.

"Stand very still now, dear sweet Mariullus," Scyrax gently and wisely counselled the alarmed boy, "as I wouldn't want Maccius making a mistake. A pretty little thing like you would be worth much less if he cut too far and sliced your little prick off!"

Maccius again giggled and the deeply apprehensive Marius then felt the sharp blade of the dagger drawn lightly across his cock, which amazingly suddenly snapped upright. Such unruly behaviour was proof of both the boy's renewed shameful arousal and the fact that the cord and not his penis had been neatly severed.

In reaction, Marius uttered a loud sigh of relief, which caused both Scyrax and Maccius to laugh, whilst the boy glanced down towards his released and rapidly reinvigorated genitals. He noticed that the cord had left a red mark around his scrotum that was already thankfully rapidly declining in soreness and intensity of colour.

Marius was encouraged to look up again from his genitals when he next heard other people entering the room. The boy subsequently saw that Felix had appeared, carrying a tray with a variety of objects on, including a strange canvass tube with a bronze nozzle at one end and a wide funnel at the other.

Felix was followed by two young slaves, one carrying a large empty earthenware bowl and the other a pitcher full of steaming soapy water. "Now, Mariullus, we have to ready for today's auction," Scyrax advised and, after taking hold of the boy by his wrist, pulled him face down over his knees.

"As part of the process," Scyrax next informed Marius, "we must have you clean inside and out." The fat man subsequently rested one hand gently on the boy's bottom.

Marius shamelessly wriggled appreciatively under Scyrax's touch. The boy felt strangely content lying across his master's fat thighs, with his bare bottom being visited by the man's hand. He somehow experienced no shame, just a feeling of acceptance and surrender, plus a rather perverse sense of pleasure.

"There's a good boy," Scyrax next murmured softly, whilst patting Marius' naked bottom. "Now push that pretty little bum of yours as high as you can," the fat man subsequently instructed, "and spread your legs."

"There's a good boy," Scyrax then repeated, as Marius complied with the instruction. "That's right," the man fat added just before causing his young slave to gasp and wiggle slightly because he now carefully and gently pressed freshly grease-coated fingertips into the child's virginal anus.

Marius' gasp and wiggle had not resulted from any pain. The boy's audible and physical reaction had instead emanated from the sudden surprise of the intimate intrusion, plus some guilty pleasure.

Marius' little erection, which was currently pressed against Scyrax's thighs, simultaneously quivered, which was a reaction that his master felt. With the other evidence of the boy's apparently delighted gasp and wiggle to support his conclusion, the fat man remarked "You really are hot for it, aren't you child. Well, be happy in the knowledge that I think that the odds are that your new owner will quickly give you it!"

Scyrax subsequently returned his attention to the task literally in hand by carefully withdrawing his fingertips from Marius' now greased anal entrance and collecting the strange canvass tube with a bronze nozzle at one end. The boy was soon to discover to what purpose the contraption was put.

"I'll just make the nozzle a little warmer so it doesn't make you jump so much when I push it in," Scyrax said in explanation as to why he was now rubbing the bronze tip between his fingers, whilst also providing a hint as to the contraption's use. Soon afterwards, Marius caught his breath again in response to a gentle anal intrusion.

On this occasion, however, a tip of bronze rather than of a finger was the invader, followed after a slight pause by the initially pleasant sensation of warm soapy water flowing into his innards. However, this early feeling of wellbeing soon turned first to discomfort and then to positive pain, as the pressure of the fluid inside him increased.

Marius began to murmur a protest, whilst he now started to wriggle uneasily on Scyrax's lap. In response, the fat man cooed "There's just a little bit more to go in, dear sweet boy. So please lie still."

Marius somehow obeyed and, just as he thought that his insides might burst from the pressure, the nozzle was withdrawn from his anus, and Scyrax instructed "Now, stand up, little one, and hold the water inside you until Maccius counts to twenty." The fat man reinforced his command with a sharp slap on the boy's bare bottom.

After Marius had returned extremely uncomfortably to his standing position, Maccius began to count very slowly, deliberately leaving long pauses between each number and drawing each word out for as long as he could. "Oooone……..twoooo……..threeee……..," the wicked youth started.

Marius whimpered and clapped his hands on his curvaceous bottom, attempting desperately to clamp his buttocks together to hold the liquid inside him. He also began to jig about on his bare feet in order to try to find some relief from his anguish, whilst his two tormentors lent back on their couch to watch him and enjoy his discomfort.

Marius' severe discomfort had not, however, returned his cock to flaccidity. The boy's shameful unruly erect penis instead wobbled around in line with his jigging.

"Fourrrr……..Fiveeee……..Sixxxx……..", Maccius happily continued to recite with purposefully slow deliberation, whilst Marius proceeded with his distressed jig to accompanying chortling from the pair of amused spectators. Felix also looked on merrily, thoroughly enjoying the boy's misery and hoping that the child would not be able to prevent expelling the fluid from within him until the sadistic youth's count had reached twenty and so earn painful chastisement. However, the eunuch secretary's wicked wish was to be thwarted.

By the time that Maccius counted "Twentyyyy", Marius had somehow still not expelled the fluid within him, although he was immensely relieved when he subsequently did so into the empty earthenware bowl. The boy had to squat degradingly over this container for the purpose of emptying himself.

The smiling Scyrax watched Marius perform the demeaning deed, whilst the busy bustle within the room carried on around. Despite the other recent bad experiences that the boy had endured, he nevertheless fully felt the indignity and shame of his current situation.

Marius subsequently had to suffer another similar distressing enema but, as the fluid that he expelled from his innards was on this occasion clear, indicating that his insides were now clean, Scyrax did not require the boy to undergo a third. The fat man instead summoned the delivery of a large wooden tub.

The tub was carried into the room by four of Scyrax's older slaveboys, who also filled the bath with warm scented water. Marius was subsequently required to kneel inside, whilst his master personally sponged him down.

Scyrax later lifted the diminutive and therefore light Marius out from the tub and used a towel to dry him. Scented oil was brought and the fat man's plump soft hands again strayed over the boy's delectable body, this time kneading and stroking, leaving no cleft or cranny of his young form untouched and uncovered by the perfume.

As Scyrax worked, he spoke softly, almost hypnotically, to Maccius of the experiences that Marius might face with his new master, including the sexual pleasures that he might have to provide and possibly enjoy. The fat man referred in particular to the undoubted immense attractions of the boy's body and the uses to which some bits might be put, whilst apparently being very proud of the latest goods that he was sending to market.

"Look at these legs, Maccius," Scyrax proudly requested of the youth, whilst pointing in admiration at the relevant parts of Marius' anatomy, "as they're so slim and elegant and yet so strong. Look, his thighs are firm and smooth, and his bottom is so wonderfully pert, so well rounded, with those cute dimples there……..and there!"

"Look at the nicely tight cleft of his bottom," Scyrax recommended, before ordering Marius to "Just bend forward a little, my child, so that Maccius can see." After the boy, who was experiencing a strange mix of humiliation and pride at being discussed and ogled in such a manner, obeyed, the fat man crudely suggested "Don't these delicious curves simply appear to crave to be fucked by a man's big virile cock!"

"Talking about cock," Scyrax continued, whilst turning Marius around and placing one of his stubby fingers underneath the boy's still resolutely stiff penis, "doesn't this prove how hot and desperate he is to have sex and be fucked. I'm sure that the discerning customers at the market later will be of the same opinion, and they'll want either to oblige him or castrate him to terminate his lusts!"

In reaction to Scyrax's touch and words, Marius' cock visibly quivered again in apparent shameful masochistic excitement, with the shaft even rising from his master's finger, which caused the fat man and Maccius to chortle once more. However, underneath the amused façade, the clever and perceptive merchant in special boy flesh realised that his young slave was truly ready for something else apart from sex.

Scyrax was an expert at readying his young slaves for resale at market. He cleverly appreciated that, in order to obtain the best price for a boy of the sort in which he traded, the child concerned should be sent to the auction block in a high state of sexual excitement. Such a condition generally enabled them to show off their liveliness to best effect, in particular one of their principal physical assets, namely a proudly aroused and erect cock, which many customers appeared to like to view.

All of the pederastic customers enjoyed the spectacle as evidence of how lively the boys were likely to be in their beds. Some others, including most females, were frequently just happy to see proof of the need to have the young slaves castrated to prevent them being a sexual danger.

Boys so aroused and displayed on the auction block also often seemed to develop a kind of energised physical pride, which overwhelmed any shame resulting from their situation and was additionally somehow very attractive to many customers. The mental state of the young slaves could often be ascertained by a glazed gleam in their eyes, which was another factor in drawing prospective purchasers to them and thereby increasing their value.

Scyrax eventually finished oiling Marius' naked body, which was now standing before him, burnished and glistening. The fat man subsequently neatly combed the boy's fair hair and stepped back to ask of Maccius "Have you ever seen anything nicer, with his little proud cock all stiff and hard, ready and eager for his new master? He'll definitely fetch a good price at market today in this state!"

"I'd like to have the brat," Maccius disturbingly revealed in reply, "to torment and hurt whenever I want." The sadistic youth subsequently briefly paused in responding, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Why is it that I so enjoy harming, even destroying, beautiful boys?" Maccius then suddenly queried, as if philosophically debating in his cruel mind why he was such a nasty sadist. Meanwhile, Scyrax momentarily worried that the youth was actually asking that he give the precious young slave to him, which he considered was too much to request, given the child's undoubted auction value.

In current market conditions, young pretty boys were far more expensive than any other kind of slave, even their female equivalents. A lot of rich men, even those who were not pederasts, and women possessed a fashionable taste for them, with many of them considering them nice ornamentation in their households.

Wives were also often more happy to allow bisexual husbands, who displayed their tastes more commonly, openly and tolerantly in the ancient era than in apparently more sexually hung-up modern times, take boys to bed than girls. Jealousy was somehow reduced if the object of passion was not another female and the danger of inconvenient unwanted pregnancy was eradicated.

In order to protect his valuable investment, Scyrax declared to Maccius "Well, dearest, I'm afraid that you can't have this boy, as he's going to make us lots of money. Aren't you Mariullus?"

Scyrax subsequently took the boy's chin between his finger and thumb and tipped his beautiful young head back so that he could look down into his face. "You see, Mariullus," the fat man then suggested correctly, " the value of a slave brat like you is your only protection. The more you cost, the more your new master will surely look after you. So, if you try your best to fetch a high price, it'll be good for both of us!"

Scyrax next paused and, whilst smiling, ran a podgy finger along Marius' rosy lips. The fat man subsequently announced "And just to make sure that you try really hard to fetch a high price at the market, I'll put a nice big reserve on you. If you do not achieve that valuation, you'll be brought back to me and I will then give you to Maccius for him to play with!"

"So you will try hard, won't you Mariullus?" Scyrax added. In response to the sinister threat, the boy whispered in fear "Yes, Master!"

Scyrax proceeded to advise Marius of the reserve price that would be set, and Marius' heart sank. The valuation was not just big but huge, certainly enough to buy about a dozen strong and experienced agricultural workers, which was the only slave market about which the child possessed knowledge because he had spent the bulk of his early life on his late father's country estate.

Marius wondered who would possibly pay such an enormous sum for a mere 11 year-old boy. He did not believe that such a scenario could possibly arise and his face immediately displayed his clear misery at the thought of being returned unsold from market literally into Maccius' cruel hands.

Scyrax noticed the boy's miserable facial expression and laughed. "It is a high price, Mariullus," he subsequently chortled, "but I'm sure that a little pretty virgin like you could achieve the valuation on a good day, especially if you display yourself to best effect. You'll therefore just have to try hard and hope there's a very rich buyer who fancies golden boys like you!"

The fat man laughed again, whilst Maccius simultaneously lent forwards to rest the sharp point of his dagger against Marius' bare chest, just below his rosy left nipple. "Do let me have him, Scyrax, please," the wicked youth then pleaded, "as I would like so much to make his blood flow and to hear him scream!"

Marius felt the cold sharp blade press against his vulnerable skin and glanced across terrified into Maccius' devilish black eyes, which were sinisterly stern and glittering with libidinously cruel intent. The boy also believed that he could perceive sadistic madness in the youth's returned stare.

Marius additionally noticed a small fleck of lustful saliva appear at the corner of Maccius' painted lips, which essentially represented a scarlet slash in the youth's cruel pallid face, and subsequently begin obscenely to trickle down his chin. As a result of the sight that was this nasty sadistic visage, the boy could not prevent himself from instinctively whimpering in terror.

Marius initially did not know whether Maccius' plea to Scyrax to give him to the youth to be tortured was genuine or fake, designed just to terrify him. Whatever the motive, the entreaty certainly did acutely frighten the boy, so much so that his persistent little erection disappeared, with his cock disappearing to scared flaccidity.

Scyrax, witnessing the sudden loss of Marius' erection, admonished Maccius, albeit again gently, by saying "Now look what you've done, dearest. The brat's prick has softened when I wanted it nice and hard for display at market. You shouldn't tease him like you've done, knowing full well that I won't give him to you unless he fails to achieve his reserve price at auction."

Maccius had indeed already reluctantly accepted that Marius would be sent to market instead of immediately being delivered into his cruel hands. He fully appreciated that Scyrax needed such lucrative sales to maintain his lifestyle, which, of course, included lavishing all sorts of treats on the youth.

Maccius therefore recognised the necessity, not least for his own quality of living, for Marius and his like to go to market in pristine condition, which earlier being badly damaged by him might preclude. However, the youth had for some unexplained reason felt an especially strong sadistic attraction to this particular boy, whom he wanted intensely to harm. The previous caning that he had inflicted on the beautiful child not only had not been enough but also had conjured a deep desire for more such hurtful action.

Maccius' motive for making his request to Scyrax had actually faced reality by being mainly a tease designed to frighten Marius, fully knowing that the fat man would still send the boy to market. However, the youth did develop a furtive hope that the scare that he had induced in the child might also make him sulkily sullen at auction and consequently perhaps less attractive to prospective purchasers and more liable to fail to meet his reserve price.

In such circumstances, Maccius did anticipate that Scyrax's easily stirred anger would facilitate Marius being given to him to receive comprehensive punishment. However, the youth was still realistic enough to know that the fat man would even then not want the boy to be permanently harmed.

Once Scyrax's bad temper had calmed, he would undoubtedly decide that he wanted to try again to resell such a valuable asset as Marius. Certain limitations would therefore be placed on how far Maccius could go in punishing the boy to avoid permanent damage. Nevertheless, the youth would still enjoy reaching these painful parameters and perhaps even beyond, whilst falsely claiming such misfortune was an accident, which he was sure that his charms could persuade the fat man was true.

Such wickedly cunning furtive planning had pervaded Maccius' mind at the very time that he had been teasing Marius with his dagger and plea to Scyrax. The boy' reaction, namely the look of terror on his face and his sad return to genital flaccidity, also suggested to the youth that his hope, that a certain reserve price would not be attained and consequently the child would be returned to him, might yet be achieved.

Scyrax now gestured to one of the young slaves who were attending to the morning toilet of their master and his guest, Maccius, as well as helping with Marius' preparation. The boy obviously already knew what he was supposed to do and brought forward a freshly laundered sparse white loincloth.

The young slave subsequently helped Marius to redress in this sparse loincloth, afterwards carefully looking from all angles to ensure that the brief attire was perfectly positioned. The front flap just about concealed the inherent underlying minuscule thong that covered the wearer's groin. However, the rear was not so efficient, folding down the sweet curvature of the boy's bottom but leaving the very lowest part of his bumcrack just visible, in line with Scyrax's tastes. Meanwhile, apart from where the thin cord that held the skimpy garment in place was resting, the sides of the child's buttocks and thighs, including the cute dimples present, were completely exposed.

Scyrax next gestured to his huge muscled black eunuch, whom Marius now knew was named Alseus and who had been summoned to the room to collect the boy. The African slave subsequently advanced towards his master and the child, whilst carrying a slim metal ring with a light chain attached.

Alseus subsequently snapped the light manacle tightly around the right wrist of the boy, who was slowly becoming more relaxed now that Maccius' plea was clearly not going to be met, at least yet. "Take him as arranged to market," Scyrax then commanded of the black eunuch, whilst mentioning the required reserve price.

The boy next felt his wrist-chain being gently tugged, forcing him to turn to follow Alseus out of the room. Behind him, he heard Scyrax say "Farewell, Mariullus, and don't forget to ensure that you obtain a good price, for the sake of both of us!"

Marius also heard Maccius declare "But I hope that you don't so that you can be returned to me!" The wild laughter of the wicked youth subsequently again reverberated shrilly around the room.

"You're being naughty again by trying to frighten Mariullus, dearest," Scyrax once more admonished mildly. "Will you forgive me if I kiss you?" Maccius enquired in response.

Marius then heard two sets of lips smacking together. The boy was too disgusted to glance around for what he now sincerely hoped would be a final sight of Scyrax and the dreadful Maccius.

As Marius was later being led by Alseus along the great colonnaded entrance hall of Scyrax's house, decorated by lewd elaborate floor mosaics and brilliantly frescoed walls, depicting other perverse scenes, Sulis darted out from behind a pillar. The departing boy immediately surmised that the other child must have been dangerously hiding there much of the morning, hoping to catch a last glimpse of his friend.

Alseus immediately stopped his progress down the colonnaded hall in surprise. He was rewarded by the sight of Sulis rushing out of his hiding spot to place his arms tightly around the neck of Marius.

Sulis' fast action was achieved despite the fact that bodily movement still hurt because of the recent comprehensive caning of his rear by Scyrax. In his eagerness to see Marius for one final time, the boy had momentarily overcome the anguish by simply somehow forgetting the pain.

In response to Sulis' action, Marius looked down into the slightly younger and therefore shorter boy's face. The cheeks of the 10 year-old were wet with tears and his lips were trembling.

Marius subsequently instinctively carefully held the sides of Sulis' shoulders, where Scyrax's cane had not caused harm, and bent his head to kiss the boy hard on the mouth in an act of both affection and attempted reassurance. Alseus simultaneously laughed at the sight of the two almost naked children embracing in this manner.

Sulis knew that he was taking a dangerous chance in escaping his household chores, hiding and subsequently revealing himself to hug Marius in farewell. However, his bravery or recklessness had been aided by seeing Alseus leading his friend.

Alseus was enthusiastically competent at thrashing boys at the evening assembly when Scyrax so ordered, but mainly out of a sense of duty to his master, plus a fear of his owner's displeasure if he spared the rod somewhat, rather than from inherent cruelty. The black eunuch was not a sadist like the white version, Felix, and also tended not to report observance of minor misdemeanours by the younger slaves, such as that currently being perpetrated by Marius and Sulis.

After all, Alseus considered, he too was a slave and consequently he felt some sympathetic rapport towards the boys of Scyrax's household. Both Marius and Sulis were also aware of the black eunuch's gracious general attitude.

Sulis had therefore taken the chance that Alseus would not seek retribution for the boy's brief farewell gesture. His risk was rewarded when the black eunuch eventually simply said to him and Marius, as they continued to cling to each other, "Now, that's enough, you two!"

"Go back immediately to your duties, which I'm sure that you've evaded for too long, Sulis," Alseus continued, "and I won't report you for this interruption to my own task at hand. However, I'll have to appraise the master about your foolhardiness if you make me arrive too late in the slave market to sell Marius, as I wouldn't want to suffer punishment for your recklessness!" However, despite this warning, the younger boy momentarily continued to exhibit some reluctance in releasing his slightly older friend.

Sulis had just suffered the loss of Nictys. The imminent disappearance from his precariously unhappy life in Scyrax's household of his newly found soul-mate, Marius, was almost too much for him to bare, as was evidenced by his dangerous desperate desire to wish his friend farewell.

Marius instead felt compelled to end their embracing for the sake of Sulis' welfare. Still looking down at the slightly younger boy, he suggested "You'd better do as Alseus says before we're delayed too long or someone else sees us."

Marius subsequently forced the younger boy's reluctant arms away from his neck and let Alseus tug again at his chain to lead him away. "May the gods always be with you, Sulis," he then wished. However, his words appeared to be of little comfort.

Sulis' emotions broke completely, as he observed Marius being lead away to meet an unknown destiny, in the course of which they would probably never meet again. However, the younger boy did not follow down the hall. He instead just stood his ground, sobbing pitifully.

A last sight of Sulis in such a state was not what Marius wanted to see on leaving Scyrax's house and that is not what was actually achieved. The scene instead soon became much worse.

Bad luck caused Felix to choose this moment to enter the hall and suggest that the gods would not always be with Sulis. The astute eunuch secretary assessed in a glance what was happening and immediately drew out the metal tipped strap, which he always carried, and advanced on the boy, whose bottom was fully exposed because he only wore a thong and offered a very attractive target.

The fact that the rear of Sulis' body already bore the marks of a recent comprehensive beating by Scyrax was no obstacle to Felix's cruel intent. The hall was therefore soon echoing with the crack of leather and the squeals of a boy in deep distress.

On observing this dreadful scene, Marius checked again. However, Alseus pulled firmly on his chain and he was led out from Scyrax's house, with the unmistakable sounds of a helpless younger child under correction ringing in the boy's ears.

Such last sights and sounds were definitely not what Marius wanted to see and hear on leaving Scyrax's house but they were what were actually achieved. Their regular remembrance was to haunt the boy for a long time, although they were now briefly forgotten.

The sights and sounds of juvenile misery were instead quickly displaced in Marius' mind by those of the busy Roman street outside Scyrax's walled abode. Men, women and children chatted, laughed, shouted and cursed, whilst barrows rumbled noisily past, pushed by those delivering goods. Horse or ox drawn vehicles were only permitted in the Imperial capital, by decree of the Emperor Augustus, at night for safety reasons.

Marius had, of course, experienced Rome's busy streets before but long weeks spent confined to Scyrax's house had made him temporarily forget and consequently be unprepared for the crowds and din, plus the scenes and the smells that now assaulted his senses. The sudden shocked excitement of being out in the teeming thoroughfares therefore drove all thought of Sulis' sad sufferings from his mind.

Marius' excitement was substantially heightened by the fact that he was himself a subject of much interest and admiration. On the previous occasions that he had been out on the streets of Rome, few had taken any notice of him. The boy had then been just a naked but filthy and half-starved young slave, whose appearance was too disgusting for anyone to spend much time ogling. However, now the situation was very different.

Marius had now been carefully tended, fed, washed and groomed with as much care as if he was a thoroughbred horse. The boy's hair and oiled skin glistened with health.

Marius was now a highly desirable object of great beauty. Consequently, many men and women turned to look at the almost naked honey-skinned boy with the dusty gold hair. The majority of them smiled at the sight of his barely covered slim young body, with the deeply dimpled sides of his curvaceous bottom open to full view.

Quite a few men and women actually called out words of admiration, or offers of money to Alseus if he would only let them briefly enjoy the boy's obvious attractions. Some even tried to touch him but the muscular black eunuch was sufficiently big and fierce to cause most of them to fall back when he turned on them.

The chain around Marius' wrist was actually present not to prevent the boy from running away, as there was nowhere in reality for him he escape to, but to help Alseus prevent him from being molested or even stolen. The black eunuch accordingly often yanked his young charge closer to him to avoid the attentions of more persistent admirers.

Alseus was invariably entrusted with the task of taking Scyrax's precious young slaves to market. The black eunuch had acquired such proficiency in delivering the boys safely, and with equal skill and security returning with the coinage gained for their sale, that he had never let his master down yet and he did not intend to do so now.

Meanwhile, the various flattery directed at him had caused Marius' excitement to revert to including a thrill other than that gained by being reacquainted with Rome's busy streets. The identity of this particular variety became evident when the front flap of the boy's skimpy loincloth began to bulge once more.

Marius would therefore perhaps, after all, arrive and remain on the auction block in as sexually excited state as Scyrax had desired and Maccius had attempted to sabotage.

Chapter XXXIX

The emporium was not one single market but a number of separate ones. Some were competitively similar to each other, whilst others were unique in the specialities offered to prospective purchasers.

In respect of human merchandise, there were several markets, including one specialising in eunuchs. The particular type to which Marius was destined dealt just with the choicest of young stock, comprising the most beautiful and best prepared of largely unsullied boys and girls. However, the amenities were very basic. They comprised only an open-sided paved area, shielded from the overhead sun by a large tarpaulin, in the centre of which was a large raised platform, accessible through steps at both sides, with a table towards one edge and a small solid wooden block in the middle.

When Marius and Alseus arrived, the auctioneer was sitting to the side of the table and was engaged in allocating random lots to the items to be offered for sale that day. A queue of sellers with their young merchandise had already formed for the purpose, extending from the paving up the adjacent flight of stairs.

Marius and Alseus joined the tail of this queue. They subsequently shuffled slowly forward, as one by one the children were submitted by their sellers to the auctioneer for scrutiny.

The auctioneer had to inspect the goods on offer to ensure that they met his stringent requirements for this particular market. If satisfied as to their physical quality, he would allocate the children lots, which would determine the order in which they would be sold. He also recorded the background details of the young merchandise in order to appraise prospective purchasers of the relevant facts during their sale.

The auctioneer was highly experienced, having over many years sold many thousands of children in this market for his usual commission. He therefore worked expertly, including being quick and decisive in his scrutiny of the relevant young merchandise.

The auctioneer would strip clothed children. He subsequently performed a rapid but nevertheless expert thorough examination of their physical charms. He would then ask a few concise questions of the sellers about the age, origin, skills and so on of their offerings, enquire about any reserve price and finally allocate the boys or girls neck- tags indicating their lot numbers.

Not all went smoothly because sometimes arguments arose. Such disputes mainly occurred when the auctioneer declared that children were not suitable for his particular quality market on the grounds that they were insufficiently beautiful or in some way too tarnished, usually as a result of previous clear physical and sexual abuse. However, there were also occasional quarrels over reserve prices that he judged were set too high and so were likely to waste everyone's time, as well as over lot numbers.

Lot numbers were important because everyone recognised that the most lucrative time to sell was usually in the middle of an auction. Children brought earlier to the block might miss late-arriving prospective purchasers, who might have bought them for a higher price. Those sold towards the end might similarly be undervalued because buyers had already spent their funds.

When disputes arose, sellers would often rant and rage but generally to no effect because the experienced auctioneer, who had handled many similar quarrels previously, had highly effective set counter-arguments. He just drawled them out in his customary rather mannered contemptuous way.

The effectiveness of the auctioneer's counter-arguments was actually aided by his rather disarming superciliousness. The remainder of the waiting queue, which would inevitably be muttering complaints, invariably targeted at the seller, and be jostling impatiently at the delay caused by the dispute, also helped. However, the most common reason for his usual victory in the quarrels was the nearby presence of his 'minder', a huge and strong brutal-looking slave, from whose belt dangled a nasty leather crop and an even more worrying cudgel.

This servant was mainly present to assist the auctioneer with the sale of his fellow but much younger and diminutive slaves. His primary duties entailed ensuring that the children displayed themselves obediently as required. However, his mere advance towards his master's side usually quickly terminated any arguments in favour of his own owner.

Most sellers were professionals such as Scyrax, who had acquired their highly lucrative specialist merchandise from all over the Empire and beyond. The children concerned had generally been bought cheaply and originated from three main sources.

First, formerly freeborn children became available because of wars. Second, some of similar previous standing were sold by desperate parents to raise money to settle debts or for other purposes. Third, some were the progeny of existing slaves, whose owners had decided for whatever reason to separate them from their fathers and mothers and sell them.

The second source was occasionally the cause of some distress in the market. Sometimes parents might not use middlemen to offload their children, who under paternalistic Roman law were essentially considered to be the property of their fathers, but would do so themselves to maximise their return.

One poor father, who was selling one of his sons to pay his debts, broke down. He wept and hung on to the boy to prevent him being taken away by his new owner, who was a notorious rich pederast.

The normally calm auctioneer had then lost his temper and berated the wretched father, telling him that it was his own fault that he had to sell the boy and that he had no right to disrupt the auction in such a manner. He added that he was slighting his market's reputation and endangering the earnings of honest men like him, as well as breaking his contract.

The auctioneer explained that, once children had appeared on the auction block and been subject to a completed bidding process with the reserve price met, they were automatically, under Roman contractual law, the slave of the highest bidder, subject only to payment. He also threatened the father that he could therefore be sued for breach of contract if he did not allow the boy's purchaser to take him away.

The auctioneer's main motive for the rebuke and threat had, of course, actually little to do with the good reputation of his market, which would easily survive such an incident unscathed. He was instead much more concerned about the possibility of losing his commission on the sale, particularly as the exceptionally beautiful virginal boy had fetched a very high price because two lecherous wealthy pederasts had bid against each other for the delight of owning him.

The auctioneer's commission eventually proved to be safely forthcoming when the father, in response to the rebuke and threat, reluctantly finally released his son. The boy, still naked as a result of his appearance on the auction block, was subsequently led away by his very happy new owner, who was already licking his lips at the prospect of the night to come.

As the boy was led away, with his shoulders stiff in apprehension and his face still blushing because of his public nudity, he had bravely attempted to prevent himself from breaking down too. He selflessly did not want to add to his father's grief.

Such unsavoury incidents were, however, rare. Those parents who cared for their children generally, despite the reduction in profit, used middlemen to sell them to avoid the grief of actually seeing their offspring being auctioned. Others, who had no such regard and were perhaps actually happy not only to gain some cash but also to have one less mouth to feed, were naturally usually unmoved by the plight of their sons or daughters.

Few of the children being sold in the particular market to which Marius had been taken would have been subjected to much previous sexual molestation, or they would not have passed the scrutiny of the choosy auctioneer. He prided himself on specialising, if not entirely in virgins, at least in beautiful boys and girls whose orifices had not been overused and were therefore still sufficiently tight to provide new male masters with great pleasure if such owners were so inclined.

Marius and Alseus eventually climbed the stairs to reach the front of the queue awaiting the auctioneer's attention. By this time, the platform was filling up with scared and deeply abashed naked young children of exceptional beauty, all wearing their tags denoting their lot numbers.

The individual children had been placed in position by the auctioneer's slave, who had warned them to stay put and keep quiet and still with their arms at their sides. He added that no attempts at flight or to talk or hide their most private parts behind their hands were to be made or they would be flogged with his strap.

Few children ever considered attempting to escape for two reasons. First, few had anywhere realistic to flee to, especially in a naked state, and so had reluctantly accepted their sad lot. Second, most were too ashamed and traumatised even to contemplate the notion.

The hands of some of the children did, however, occasionally instinctively stray from their sides to the protection of their exposed genitalia. A glance of admonishment from the auctioneer's fierce slave generally cured such an unthinking misdemeanour unless the boys or girls concerned were too traumatised to realise their error.

A slash of the leather crop of the auctioneer's slave across vulnerable bare bottoms and a verbal admonishment were therefore occasionally required instead to cure such mistakes. However, the relevant hit was usually relatively light, as the goods on display were not to be marked too badly before their appearance on the auction block.

"Hmmm, you appear to have brought another exceptionally good-looking lad from Scyrax, Alseus," the auctioneer immediately commented on eventually first casting a connoisseur's eye over Marius. He knew the black eunuch's name and provenance from many previous similar transactions in his market.

The auctioneer also particularly welcomed Scyrax's business. Of all of the professional dealers in select boy flesh with whom he dealt, the fat merchant generally provided the choicest and therefore most lucrative specimens, which would be happily reflected in higher than average commissions for himself.

The auctioneer admired not just the invariable valuable exceptional beauty and relatively undefiled state of the boys supplied by Scyrax but also the accomplished way in which they had been prepared and trained for their anticipated functions with their new owners. He had never yet received any complaints whatsoever from purchasers about the later behaviour and performance of the young slaves in question, and he ascribed this to the quality and stern discipline of their earlier grooming in the fat merchant's house in readiness for their impending roles.

"Let's see if the hidden bits of him match the beauty of the already exposed parts," the auctioneer went on to remark. Without further ado but with well-practised ease, he subsequently pulled on the little bow on the cord at the side of Marius' skimpy loincloth, which held the boy's sparse sole garment in place.

Marius' released loincloth then quickly succumbed to gravity and dropped to the ground, with the wearer knowing better than to try to prevent this embarrassing development. The boy also appreciated from his harsh training at Scyrax's house that now hiding his suddenly humiliatingly publicly exposed and still aroused genitals behind his hands would neither be tolerated or wise.

On noticing Marius' little erection, the auctioneer laughed and commented, to the boy's further embarrassment and worry, "He's certainly a little hottie. I'm sure that there'll be several lustful gentlemen here who'll want to buy him for their beds!"

The auctioneer next cast another connoisseur's eye over the rest of Marius' now completely naked body. As part of this process, which was, of course, deeply humiliating for the young recipient of such visual scrutiny, the man slowly turned the boy around.

"You'll note," Alseus suggested when the auctioneer had come to examining Marius' curvaceous bottom, "that the boy's still a virgin." "Really!" was the initial delighted reply.

The auctioneer subsequently instructed Marius to spread his legs before placing a hand on the boy's neck and pushing his head gently, thereby bending him over. He then moved his other fingers to the young slave's bumcrack to prise his buttocks apart to check the supposedly virginal sphincter.

The auctioneer, being as expert in his profession as Scyrax was in his, immediately recognised an unsullied virginal sphincter when he saw one. He therefore happily advised Alseus, whilst estimating in his mind the increased commission that he could anticipate from selling such pleasant and lucrative purity, "You're right, although I doubt that he'll continue to be for long after we've sold him!"

The auctioneer subsequently repeated his earlier comment about Marius, namely "He's certainly a little hottie!" He had just observed the boy's degradingly maintained erection, which was clearly visible, dangling between the bent-over child's currently splayed legs, quiver in apparent pleasurable reaction either to the gentle manhandling of his cute bottom or to the man's words.

The auctioneer later stood Marius back upright and resumed turning him slowly around, whilst still carefully visually scrutinising him. Once he had finally returned the boy to his original position facing him, the man next began a brief manual scrutiny of his exposed and demeaningly fully aroused genitals.

The auctioneer first cupped Marius' small smooth light rotund scrotum in one palm before gently using the fingers of the same hand to explore for the tiny testicles within. "There shouldn't be a problem extracting these," he then suggested to Alseus, "if his new owner wants a young eunuch, although it would be a pity to inflict such damage on such a beauty!"

Marius' erection again visibly quivered in perverse reaction, whilst his abashed facial redness intensified, causing the auctioneer to laugh once more. However, on this occasion, the man did not comment but instead began to use a fingernail to tickle the underside of the boy's hard penis.

Marius was immediately instinctively drawn to close his eyes, as he began to feel a sensation of immense pleasure starting to well up in his excited groin. The boy also clenched tightly the hands still at his sides, as the man's touch tempted him towards enjoyment of his first-ever sexual climax.

Such a sensation did not, however, continue for long because the auctioneer expertly ceased his teasing of Marius' cock just before he would have experienced his first dry climax. The man never had any intention of bringing about such an orgasmic denouement. He was instead exercising his extensive experience of readying children for imminent auction by skilfully intensifying still further the boy's clear arousal.

The auctioneer knew, as Scyrax did and for the same reasons, that, if such acute arousal could be maintained all the way to Marius' appearance on the auction block, the boy was likely to sell for a higher price. The man liked to maximise his commissions.

Instead of bringing Marius to rather public first orgasm, the auctioneer now withdrew from a large pot a bronze tag with leather cord and used the latter to hang the boy's allocated random lot number, which happened to be 'VIII', around his slim neck. He next questioned Alseus about the young slave's name, age and background.

The auctioneer recorded details of Alseus' answers onto a large wax tablet, which already contained similar information relating to the other naked children now displayed on the platform awaiting their sale. "His name is Marius, Sir," the black eunuch subsequently advised, with the usual respectful politeness that he, as a slave, afforded free citizens, "and he is 11 years old."

"He's a former farm slave," Alseus continued before advising the auctioneer about the training that Marius had received in Scyrax's house and what competence levels in terms of obedience and skills the boy had achieved. "Naturally," the black eunuch informed as part of this process, "his abilities to pleasure a man sexually can only be estimated because, being a rare virgin, both of his main orifices have been kept pure."

"As usual, and as Marius himself would verify," Alseus added, "my master does not send counterfeit virgins in respect of either orifice to market. Consequently, the enjoyment to be gained from being the first to impregnate the boy's mouth and rectum with manly seed has been reserved for his new owner, if he so desires such pleasures."

The auctioneer did not doubt Alseus' word and therefore saw no reason to ask Marius to verify the situation regarding his oral and anal virginity. His stance was reinforced by not only having already checked the boy's sphincter but also a snooty dislike of talking to slaves other than when issuing orders.

The auctioneer was aware that he had spent longer with Marius than with any other child so far on this day, mainly because he was himself rather attracted towards the boy, as was evidenced by a cock secretly throbbing within his own loincloth underwear hidden beneath his tunic. However, he also appreciated that the price that the child would reach would probably be beyond even his own not insignificant financial resources.

The auctioneer additionally realised that this longer-than- usual dallying over inspecting Marius' delectable form had caused some unrest amongst the remaining queue. He therefore now quickly concluded his dealing with this particular boy by asking Alseus about the reserve price that Scyrax had set.

On discovering the relevant substantial figure, the auctioneer whistled in surprise. "That is asking a lot," he subsequently commented, "even for exceptional boy flesh as this."

On hearing the auctioneer's remark, Marius immediately began to fear even more that he would not be sold but would instead be returned into Maccius' punitive grasp. However, the boy relaxed a little after the man added "But Scyrax certainly knows his business and his judgements are rarely wrong."

"Remove the boy's wrist manacle, Alseus," the auctioneer subsequently asked, "and take his loincloth away too. I'm sure that, as usual, Scyrax will find another brat to fit the garment."

The auctioneer next advised Marius directly "Certainly you're no longer due the cover provided by the loincloth, as what you'll wear in future, if anything, will have to be supplied by your new master." The boy's facial blush immediately intensified at the worrying notion that his prospective owner might want to keep him permanently naked.

Marius also worried that, if permanent nudity was not required, his new master might nevertheless not have brought any clothing with him to auction. The boy did not consider the possibility of returning to his prospective owner's home through the busy streets of Rome whilst completely naked to be pleasant.

The auctioneer then finally finished dealing with Marius by nodding to his own slave, who approached to collect the naked boy and position him, with the usual instructions, amongst the other nude children readied for sale. The latest addition to the young goods on offer was afforded a place in line with his tag number.

Chapter XL

The genuine prospective purchasers generally comprised individual men or women being counselled by a male adviser. Females never visited slave auctions alone because Roman decorum considered such attendance to be exceedingly unseemly.

Paternalistic Roman law also precluded most women from owning property, including slaves. Such a prerogative was instead generally the exclusive preserve of men. Even what might otherwise be considered to be the assets of single or widowed females were usually legally held by a male guardian or trustee.

In practice, though, women did usually control their own assets, with the guardianship or trusteeship positions being nominal. Nevertheless, males still legally had in public situations to buy property, such as slaves, on behalf of females.

Consequently, the women attending today's slave market might be wanting to but a new young servant and would in respect of this intent choose which children to bid for and decide the maximum price that they were prepared to pay. However, their male advisors would actually have to perform the bidding.

Such niceties of custom and law were, of course, not currently at the forefront of Marius' shamed and worried mind, as he stood embarrassingly naked and humiliatingly still erect amongst the other nude children on the platform. The boy's abashment was intensified by recognising that he was now being visually ogled by the prospective purchasers and paedophiles who had arrived early and invariably strolled slowly around the wooden dais to gain an appreciation from all angles of the nude goods on offer.

As well as his deep sense of humiliation and shame, Marius' mind focused mainly on his concern that one of the women might secure his purchase, which made subsequent castration very conceivable. The boy also worried that some of the individual men might additionally be seeking young eunuchs for their households.

Nevertheless, Marius' mental concerns did not reduce the debasing resolute hardness of his cock, which stood out proudly from his body, as if at horizontal attention. The boy also detected, from the tingling sensations, which he was constantly experiencing throughout his body, especially in his groin, that the penile phenomenon was somehow perversely exacerbated by his current degrading situation.

Appreciation of his shameful aroused public nudity, with many adult eyes regularly focusing on him, was somehow instigating such tingling and stimulating his unruly genital excitement. The fact that his sexual organs were also in some danger had amazingly not lessened the phenomenon but appeared masochistically only to increase the strange thrill pervading his form.

Marius' confused mind was still focusing on such a diagnosis when the auctioneer's queue finally disappeared and he stood up from his chair to announce the commencement of the auction. By now, the paving around the platform was crowded with prospective purchasers.

Marius' acute sense of humiliation and shame was subsequently compounded when his mind now focused on the crowd, whilst wondering who, if anyone, of those present might soon purchase him. By examining the people surrounding the platform, the boy finally realised that some of the prospective purchasers had brought young sons with them.

To Marius, being publicly displayed naked and aroused in front of such boys was somehow much more humiliating and shameful than being exhibited just in front of adults. The other children, even the girls, on the platform, had not counted, as they shared his debasement and trauma and would therefore not be paying too much, if any, attention to his nude form.

Marius' sense of degradation was intensified further when he noticed that some of the boys in the crowd, whom he was now beginning to resent because, unlike him, they were clothed and were of undoubtedly comfortable and privileged free status, were laughing and pointing at him. His maintained erection appeared in particular to be the focus of their amusement.

Marius' only consolation in being the cause of such juvenile hilarity was the fact that he was not the only young naked male slave on the platform towards whom the boys directed their attention. When he followed some of the pointing fingers, he noticed that other exposed quivering erections were displayed around him.

"The first child for sale is a girl aged ten named Enyo," the auctioneer now declared. He subsequently nodded to his adult slave to take the young female concerned down the stairs of the platform to the waiting crowd.

The auctioneer then proceeded to relate Enyo's background and skills, whilst below him prospective purchasers, or those who just wanted to fondle a young girl's body, both visually and manually inspected her, including the most intimate recesses of her pretty form. The watching Marius was shocked.

Marius had naively not realised that part of the auction process would involve such intimate public examination by strangers. The boy's mind was also not looking forward to his turn in facing the demeaning process. However, his unruly cock appeared to possess a different attitude, as his still resolutely rigid penis again visibly quivered in seeming excited anticipation of the prospect.

The auctioneer's slave tried his best to ensure that Enyo was only subjected to the intimate attentions of genuine prospective purchasers, although not out of consideration for the girl, as he was more concerned about speeding the auction along. However, apart from the obvious paedophiles present, who were known from frequently being present and wanting to fondle the children but never buying because they could not afford to do so, his efforts were tempered. He was not able to recognise the true motives of other men who had rarely or never attended the market previously.

The auctioneer's slave suspected many such men of base voyeuristic motives, whilst they fondled Enyo with clear relish. However, he also had to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were genuine prospective purchasers, as he appreciated that rich paedophiles would form a significant proportion of the possible buyers.

Enyo reluctantly passively allowed many men to inspect and fondle her and her compliant attitude did not just arise from the mental trauma that she was suffering. The girl was fully aware that any resistance on her part would certainly be quickly overcome by a blow from her escorting slave's leather crop, which was no longer dangling from his belt but was now threateningly held in his hand.

The deeply blushing Enyo eventually emerged from the crowd back onto the platform, where her escorting slave now stood her on the auction block. His master subsequently invited bids for her purchase.

Enyo was finally bought for a substantial sum. However, her valuation fell far short of the reserve price that Scyrax had placed on Marius, which re-ignited the boy's worries about remaining unsold and being returned to the undoubtedly gleeful Maccius.

Children with tags numbered II, III, IV, V, VI and VII were next inspected and auctioned in a similar manner to Enyo. The process for each took about a third of an hour.

Consequently, the still amazingly erect Marius finally found himself descending the steps at the side of the platform towards the eagerly awaiting crowd after a further wait of about two hours. The boy was actually initially pleased to be moving because standing relatively still for so long had become distressing. He even felt sorry for the children whom he was leaving behind because they would have to maintain their increasingly stressful postures for longer unless the auctioneer let them sit.

Such considerations, however, soon became secondary when Marius noticed the lecherous looks in the eyes of many people in the waiting crowd, even those of some of the women, plus the continued amusement at his predicament of the boys present. The disturbing sight actually caused the naked 11 year-old to pause on going down the steps but his escorting slave soon put an end to such misbehaviour through the simple expediency of pushing him in the back.

The push catapulted Marius forward and he was fortunate not to tumble the rest of the way down the steps. The boy was instead lucky enough to maintain his balance somehow and this feat safely delivered him to the paving whilst still standing, with his escorting slave quickly and protectively arriving at his side.

There was an initial rush forward by several men, all wanting to have the privilege of being the first to be allowed to examine Marius most intimately. However, the auctioneer's slave rapidly put an end to such unseemliness, which had not happened previously with the children who had preceded the boy.

"Please, Sirs," the slave requested, "let us have some calm. Only one of you at a time can examine the boy and so kindly allow me to decide the relevant order!" He also raised his crop intimidatingly and Marius could never later decide whether the man's words or the threat of being hit now caused the rush forward to halt and greater tranquillity to return to the scene.

The auctioneer's slave had already identified the known pederasts present, who were there not to buy but to see and hopefully fondle the invariably exceedingly pretty boys being offered for sale in the full glory of complete nudity. He would therefore as always seek to disappoint their obvious aspirations to manhandle systematically his undoubtedly exceptionally beautiful young charges by denying them a formal opportunity to do so. However, he was also realistic enough to realise that, as usual in the crowded circumstances, some successful furtive casual groping by unwanted and unauthorised hands would take place.

The auctioneer's slave actually did not particularly mind such unauthorised groping. He was realistic enough to recognise that he could not prevent such occurrences and anyway his main considerations were to prevent the auction from being disrupted and delayed and to guard the children from real harm and attempting to run away. Protection of their sensibilities was not in his remit.

"You can be first, Sir," the auctioneer's slave announced, whilst pointing with his crop to an elderly fat man, who despite his age had been one of those forceful enough to be eagerly present at the front of the recent rush forward. His reasonable wealth was evident by his well-tailored tunic and his pederastic tendencies were obvious from the lecherous look on his rather ugly face. However, the sexagenarian was known to be a genuine buyer because he had purchased boys in the market previously, although he was rather parsimonious and never overpaid. He instead always tried to secure bargains.

The elderly fat man now rushed alone up towards Marius, who instinctively for the first time in the market drew his hands protectively over his still amazingly aroused genitals. However, his action was noticed by the carefully supervising escorting slave and was rewarded by a light tap of the crop on his bottom, with the simultaneous whispered but nevertheless authoritative command to "Return your arms to your sides, boy!"

Marius reluctantly complied, just as the elderly man arrived immediately in front of him and, despite his age and some consequent infirmity in his legs, squatted. The prospective purchaser subsequently initially lifted the boy's chin slightly upwards in order to acquire a better perspective of the exceedingly fine features present before gently forcing his head to turn slowly from side to side to view the sublime scenery from other angles.

After prising Marius' lips apart to check the pristine white teeth beyond, the elderly man's manual attentions then ventured upwards to ruffle the boy's neatly trimmed silky golden hair before returning in a downward direction to his neck and chest. Two hands now gently explored the front of the child's upper torso, comprehensively feeling the sweetly perfumed oiled skin, including fondling the rosy nipples and allowing a fingertip to venture into the cute navel.

The elderly man's hands eventually gradually wandered further downwards, inexorably towards Marius' humiliatingly aroused genitals, where, shamefully because of the gentle manual attention being afforded by the prospective purchaser's fingers, the boy's cock was harder than ever, having adopted an almost ivory-like statuesque appearance. The child again instinctively closed his eyes, as he once more felt the slow evolution of potential sexual climax.

Marius next felt his scrotum and then his actual erection being gently fondled, which caused his cock to quiver visibly again. In response to this reaction, his elderly scrutiniser finally broke his silence, having not said a word since he had begun to examine the boy most intimately. He had instead occasionally uttered a rather satisfied grunt, whilst also appearing to be carefully listening to the auctioneer, who was relating the child's name, age, background and skills from the elevation of the adjacent platform.

The elderly man commented in a whisper, whilst closely inspecting Marius' aroused genitals and observing his erection quiver, "You're certainly a lively boy, which is an attribute that I definitely like to see in my young slaves. I think that we could have a lot of fun together!"

Marius could guess what the elderly man meant by fun. However, although he was now resigned to the real possibility that he might be required in future to have regular sex with a new master, he had hoped to do so with an owner who was younger and more handsome. On the other hand, the remarks made by this particular prospective purchaser suggested that the boy's balls were literally safe in his hands, with the prospect of subsequent castration eliminated if purchased by him.

The elderly man persevered with fondling Marius' genitals for rather too much time, which was a common occurrence in the market when pederasts were amongst the genuine prospective purchasers. The auctioneer's slave was therefore accustomed to such incidents and so possessed a well- practised polite request in his verbal armoury to spur possible buyers to end their dallying.

"Please, Sir," the auctioneer's slave politely requested, "can you move on to other parts of the boy's anatomy. There are obviously many other people waiting to examine him and time is pressing, as there are also still other children to be auctioned."

The elderly man reacted positively to the slave's request and effectual rebuke by apologising. He also did indeed move his intimate examination of Marius' wondrous form to other parts of the boy's anatomy.

Marius was initially and rather shamefully unsure as to whether he wanted this development to happen. Despite the degrading public circumstances, he had again been unable to prevent himself from beginning to enjoy the intimate manual attentions being afforded to him and the associated slow inexorable approach of sexual climax. He even started seriously to want to experience his first orgasm but such a desire was thwarted when the elderly man had finally stopped fondling the boy's erection, which subsequently visibly throbbed in frustration at his unsatisfied need.

The elderly man was aided in choosing what to inspect next when the auctioneer finished his loud description of the goods being carefully scrutinised. In line with his common practice of keeping the best news for last, he announced in conclusion "The child is that sadly too rare these days and therefore very precious commodity, namely a virgin!"

The elderly man was now exceedingly keen to check the auctioneer's assertion by turning Marius around and encouraging him to spread his legs and bend over. The boy then felt his sphincter being carefully and gently probed again and, whilst his dangling cock visibly throbbed once more, he also heard his scrutiniser compound his humiliation by loudly declaring, for the benefit of other prospective purchasers, "He is indeed a virgin!"

An ironic cheer echoed round the market in reaction. To Marius' increased shame, his perceptive sense of hearing suggested to him that this response had been produced by juvenile vocal chords, indicating that the free boys present were particularly enjoying his humiliation.

The elderly man eventually began the conclusion of his thorough intimate examination of Marius' undoubted exceptional charms by initially running his fingers carefully over the smooth delectable curvature of his bottom. As he did so, he commented "There are signs of a recent beating, so you must occasionally be a naughty boy." He subsequently added menacingly, which rather belied his outward benign façade, "I assure you, child, that, if I buy you, you'll very much regret being ill-disciplined in my household!"

Marius would have liked to advise the elderly man that Maccius had actually caned him for no reason other than to satisfy his sadism. However, the boy had been taught at Scyrax's house never to talk without permission and so remained silent.

The elderly man next finally did conclude his thorough examination by gently but sinisterly kneading Marius' buttocks, as if to assess the capability of the pleasant fleshy coverage to endure a beating. Afterwards, spurred by the auctioneer's slave and some impatient comments from those waiting to examine the boy too, he reluctantly stood back up, with a care and slowness that was testament to the infirmity of his legs.

Another man, this time much younger, although still as ugly, was next summoned by the auctioneer's slave to come forward to examine Marius and he did so more speedily but just as comprehensively. The boy was subsequently led on a mazy tour of the market, gradually circling the platform in a haphazard way, whilst frequently stopping for further intimate inspections by many keen eyes and hands.

Assisted by his comprehensive experience of such situations, the auctioneer's slave managed politely to encourage most of the performers of these further inspections to conclude their examinations with concise swiftness, despite the obvious attraction for many to linger for longer. He also succeeded in keeping the known time-wasting pederasts away from Marius, except for forgiving the regular brushes of straying hands against the boy's bottom.

Nevertheless, the time consumed by the intimate customer examinations of the clearly very popular Marius took far longer than those of any child in the market before or after on this day. Two thirds of an hour elapsed before the comprehensively visually and physically probed and thoroughly humiliated boy was returned to the platform and finally stood on the auction block.

Because of the time consumed and the popular attention being paid to Marius, the auctioneer had by now allowed the remaining as yet unsold children on the platform to sit, for which small mercy they were immensely grateful. Some of the boys and girls had been trying to stand still for so long that they had been on the brink of collapse.

The auctioneer's mercy did not, of course, emanate from any personal concern for the welfare of the children. He had granted them permission to sit only because he wanted them to remain physically capable of later enduring what Marius was now experiencing.

Marius' cock remained resolutely hard, as he was introduced to the auction block. The boy's recent comprehensive manhandling had ensured no retreat to meek flaccidity.

As Marius now stood naked at the elevated height of the auction block, he could not help but notice the faces in the crowd below of some of those who had expressed an interest in him by intimately examining him. Some of the relevant façades recalled particularly humiliating aspects of the boy's recent debasing experience.

Marius saw the face of a rich well-dressed woman who had broken convention whilst her male adviser was examining the goods intimately on her behalf and making his views known to her. She had scandalously touched the boy by reaching out to feel his scrotum and the testicles within when her companion had commented about the safety of castrating the child.

By breaking convention in this manner because only her male companion should have touched Marius, the woman had earned a few disgusted comments from some shocked witnesses of the incident, not directed straight at her but at others in such a loud way that she overheard them. There were also some audible tuts of similar umbrage from other sources, as well as a look of surprised displeasure on her own adviser's face.

The woman also earned an alarmed gasp from Marius, who was already acutely apprehensive at the idea that she might buy him. The boy appreciated from her conversation with her adviser that she proposed to castrate him if she secured his purchase.

Marius was also aware that convention dictated that no woman should touch even a young naked male slave at auction in any way, especially his most private parts. The boy immediately felt that his shame could not become any worse. However, his opinion was soon to be disproved.

In response to the general negative reaction to her breaking of convention, the woman apologised but not to Marius. Mere slaves did not qualify for any expression of regret regarding anything perpetrated against them.

The woman instead apologised to her male adviser, sufficiently loudly so that the follow-up regretful excuse could be overheard by those who had earlier in some way expressed disgust. "I'm sorry," she explained, "as my touching of the boy was just an unthinking instinctive reaction to your comments about castrating him. I know that I shouldn't have done it. Please forgive me!"

The woman was indeed quickly forgiven for breaking convention. The incident was also rapidly forgotten by everyone except the female perpetrator and the young male victim.

The woman's excuse had actually been a lie. Her desire to touch Marius' scrotum, the welfare of which would be seriously threatened if she bought him, had not been as a consequence of an unthinking instinctive reaction but had instead calculatingly resulted from a strong desire to fondle the smooth endangered flesh.

The woman knew that she would outrage witnesses, plus the slaveboy, whose disgust anyway did not count. She had therefore pre-planned her apology, which was designed to attempt to deflate any disgust at her perpetrating something that she felt compelled to do.

The woman had secretly enjoyed an immense sexual thrill at fondling Marius' endangered scrotum and the little testes inside, especially whilst his pretty face exhibited clear humiliated disgust at her touch, plus horror at the thought of possible castration. She also looked forward to gaining similar pleasure from watching the particular boy whom she did buy today later being gelded on her orders.

The next face that Marius noticed in the crowd below him, whilst standing on the elevated auction block, was that of another boy of similar age to himself. However, this child was clothed and free, with his expensive tunic denoting the relatively wealthy middle-class equestrian status of his family.

The boy also exhibited a maintained broad smirk on his face. This sneering grin had first appeared when he been allowed by his father, who had been one of the prospective buyers permitted to examine Marius, to inspect the young slave intimately too.

The father was actually seeking to purchase for his son a servant of similar age and had been happy to agree to the boy's request to be allowed to check the goods on offer as well. The relevant examination was anyway a useful educational exercise for when he became a man, responsible for maintaining his own retinue of slaves.

The father had actually directed his son through the examination process. The extra time spent rather displeased the auctioneer's slave but, as the prospective purchaser maintained a large household with plenty of servants and was a regular well-paying customer, he did not want to upset him by asking him to desist or hurry.

Consequently, Marius had to endure the father instructing the son to do likes of "Feel the texture of his hair" and "Check his teeth". The boy gleefully obeyed, fully knowing how intensely he was humiliating the subject of his attentions.

The most degrading aspect of the examination began when the boy was told to "Weigh his genitalia in your hand and inspect them whilst they're there to satisfy yourself that there's nothing wrong with them. We might want him to breed other slaves when he's older to curtail the cost of buying them at market and so we don't want his sexual organs to be defective."

Marius was relieved to learn from these words that this particular prospective purchaser had no intention of castrating him but was in fact considering essentially the opposite, namely the future possibility of using his sexual organs for procreation. However, he also believed that having his naked body intimately inspected and fondled by a boy of roughly his own age was somehow truly the nadir amidst the various humiliations that he had already suffered. He considered the situation even worse than when being subjected earlier to scrutiny and touching by a woman.

Marius' shame intensified further after he was again forced to turn around, spread his legs and bend over. The father subsequently gave his son practical instruction on how to ascertain whether a sphincter was virginal or not and the feel of the boy's light touch on the relevant aperture caused the young slave's unruly cock to wobble excitedly one more.

Marius might have in other circumstances have welcomed becoming the slave of another boy. He could imagine companionship but, with this particular clearly nefariously natured child, he perceptively recognised that life would be hellish and he therefore hoped that the father would not succeed in buying him.

The market was a noisy place when an auction was being held, with many prospective buyers and sellers chatting amongst themselves or to companions about the young goods on offer or other more general matters. The one exception to the normalcy of such clamour was when the actual bidding process took place.

Silence usually reigned during the actual auction of a child, apart from the voices of the auctioneer and bidders. Marius' sale was to prove no different.

The auctioneer had now established sudden quiet by rapping on his table with a gavel. "Well, ladies and gentleman," he subsequently announced whilst pointing with the wooden implement at Marius, "we finally now come to lot eight, who appears to be very popular given the extraordinary number of you who wanted to examine him." His comment drew a few laughs from his audience.

"As usual," the auctioneer continued, "we have a wide selection of the highest quality young livestock for sale today because my policy is always only to retail to the discerning connoisseur the choicest young slaves who become available within the whole Empire and beyond. However, the naked boy now on the block is perhaps truly exceptional, definitely amongst the highest echelon of such supreme goods, and I'm therefore looking forward to this being accurately reflected in the price that he attains!"

"Now, as a final reminder of the marvellous assets on offer," the auctioneer added, "I'll have the boy place his hands on his head and turn slowly around." He proved as good as his word, and Marius endured another humiliation, namely having to comply with the man's instruction to allow his prospective purchasers and pederastic admirers to have further sight of his naked body from all angles.

As Marius turned slowly, his unruly erection again visibly quivered. The auctioneer noticed and commented, in line with the opinion of Scyrax and many others, "As you can see he's hot for something. I also think that his new owner might either give it to him or deprive him permanently of his obvious want!" For this quip, he earned some further laughter, plus a deeper reddening of the boy's already blushing face.

For Marius, the worst aspect of the chortling was that the similarly aged boy, who had examined him so intimately and humiliatingly, appeared to laugh loudest and longest, with such prolonged reaction seemingly being deliberately designed to intensify his shame. The fact that a certain watching woman also clearly displayed a strong desire to fulfil the auctioneer's quip that his new owner might want to 'deprive him permanently of his obvious want' was additionally not helpful to his sensibilities.

After Marius had performed the requisite humiliating slow revolution and returned his arms to his sides, the auctioneer finally invited bids for the boy, who had already, from the quick auction of the seven children preceding him on the block, noted how rapidly the actual sale procedure generally concluded. Serious purchasers had invariably speedily established their credentials by tendering amounts that most others were not prepared to match, thereby swiftly confining the relevant contest to just a few bidders.

Marius' sale, which he appreciated would determine the whole of his future life, was no exception and he was pleased to see a certain elderly man and a certain father drop out of the proceedings relatively early. The former was still only seeking a bargain, whilst the latter might have wanted a slave for his son but he was also clearly not prepared to overpay.

After both of these men had dropped out of the process early, the sale continued and the bids for Marius eventually began to reach enormous proportions, far superior to those attained by the children who had preceded him on the auction block. The boy was grateful that Scyrax's reserve price was easily surpassed, providing him with relief at not now facing the prospect of being returned into Maccius' sadistic hands. Despite the serious shame created by his current situation, he also started to feel some pride that he was proving to be so valuable.

Marius, however, additionally felt acute fear because one of the two remaining bidders was the adviser of the woman who clearly planned to have him castrated. The other was a middle-aged bearded man whom the boy had taken little notice of when he had been circulated around the crowd for intimate examination.

This particular unexceptional man had inspected Marius carefully but quickly and so the boy had taken little notice of him, particularly as he did not appear to be the type of rich, handsome and caring master aspired by him. However, the young slave now did afford him serious consideration because he seemed to be the only person in the world who could prevent the 11 year-old losing his testicles, although even that was not certain.

The woman's adviser eventually bid a huge price, which earned some surprised gasps from the crowd around her. The other man then pondered the situation, clearly wondering whether to stay in the contest.

The delighted auctioneer, who was already relishing the bigger than anticipated commission for auctioning Marius, practised his expert sales technique by allowing the bearded man a few moments to consider the situation. However, he eventually asked "Would you like to make a counter-bid, Sir?"

Marius' heart beat heavily in trepidation, as he awaited the bearded man's answer. If the prospective purchaser now replied "No", the boy knew that his young testicles would be forfeit. However, his amazingly maintained unruly erection did not appear to care but instead seemed to be excited by the prospect, as his penis visibly wobbled once more.

Marius felt that an eternity was passing, as he awaited the bearded man's answer to the auctioneer's question. The boy's very troubled mind also subsequently appeared to be watching events unfold in slow motion, as he finally observed the adult's mouth open.

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