Slave 2

Introducing a new slave into a household can be difficult, especially if the slave is to have a position of prominence. The old and wise Daro had always run my household but the first slave to hear my words was usually Neto and over time they had become used to these roles. Now Bara was by my side almost constantly and had he been less wise it could have been disastrous but Bara was wise and naturally self-effacing.

Instead of turning Daro and Neto into enemies, as I would have expected, he turned them into staunch allies and it was indeed Daro who came to me suggesting that Bara be taught to read and write. I agreed, of course. My feelings for Bara had only increased in the few months that he had been with me and it wasn’t only his body that held me enthralled. I found myself sitting and listening to him endlessly as his deep blue eyes flashed and the sun seemed to cause his flawless skin to almost glow.

As enthralled as I was by Bara’s beauty I was equally enthralled by his emerging intellect. In a way he was like a little boy, questions, questions, questions.

Ever since I bought Bara I had been avoiding my parents, and since they and I both lived on the Palatine hill, this was not always easy. Unavoidably the time came when I could no longer dodge a formal dinner with them and the main topic of the conversation, or more accurately my fathers monologue, was marriage…………mine. It was time for me to grow up, or so my father said and it was also time to think of a sound commercial alliance and grandchildren, also not to be forgotten. I, of course, put forth the argument that I hadn’t met the right girl. They countered with the argument that they had met the right girl. I said my house was really too small for a proper family life. They said that my wedding presents would consist of a new larger house. We all knew that in the end as a good Roman son I would bow to the wishes of my father.

Standing in the garden the stars in the heavens were shining more and more brightly as the lights of the city began going out for the day. I heard footsteps behind me and then Bara was slipping a cloak over my shoulders.

“It’s beginning to get cool master.” I turned and pulled him to me and wrapped the cloak around both of us. The smell of braziers permeated the air.

“You can keep me warm, Bara.” It wasn’t an exaggeration, his body radiated an enormous amount of heat.

Naturally everyone in my household was aware of my father’s plans. I had said nothing, but slaves know everything and have ways of communicating that we know nothing of.

“Master?”

“Yes, Bara?” I could feel his breathing quicken a bit.

“Your marriage………..how will it affect things?” It was a good question, one I had been thinking about a lot.

I looked up into his eyes, which were just reflecting the little light available. I spoke very quietly. “It is not going to be the way that I would wish it to be.” I leaned my head on his chest. “We will have to have………..what moments we may.”

“Master, I…………..I had a thought.” He adjusted the cloak more tightly around us. “Perhaps a way that we might still………be together.”

“I don’t know, Bara. I’m not sure that it’s possible.”

“Master, I was thinking that if you kept this house and used it to accommodate the clerks and scribes that you have scattered about the city we might also use it as a type of…………..of…………..”

“Sanctuary.” I said quietly. Little did I know that circumstances would delay my marriage.

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Our fleet of ships is, for the most part, very typical but within this fleet there are two vessels that are not and they contribute a disproportionate amount of revenue.

The smallest of the two, the Hawk, is docked on the Tiber at Rome and leaves as regularly as the stars transit the heavens, every morning one hour before the first hour of the day as the sky begins to turn light. This boat, because it’s really too small and light to be called a ship, is manned by eight rowers. These are not the usual underfed, overworked slaves one usually sees but rather extremely large, well fed and comfortably housed slaves. They are expected to be as ready to fight as they are to row and when they know that they and their families, yes we allow that too, are being taken care of, they will fight very hard indeed. There is simply no way to get from Rome to Ostia faster than aboard the Hawk

Once it arrives at Ostia the Hawk races to the Eagle that rests at anchor offshore. The Eagle is a much larger ship that is designed to carry light cargo but more importantly to be the fastest ship afloat. The unique purpose of these two vessels is to move some cargo but mostly mail of various types and sometimes emissaries in the quickest way. If the Senate needs to get word to a proconsul in Greece with an absolute minimum of delay they use these two vessels. If the need is to transport silver or gold to an unpaid army in the east, the Eagle is the ship of choice.

While the existence of these ships is mostly unknown to the general public, the most important people use them constantly and, more importantly, pay dearly for them. Many times generals and senators have insisted my father tell them the secret to the speed of these ships to which he always replied. “Treat your slaves better!” Of course, they never believed him.

After the death of Pompey’s wife, Caesars daughter Julia, the relationship between the two men began to deteriorate. Caesar was still in Gaul while Pompey remained in Rome and this served Caesar’s enemies well by giving them uncontested access to the Great One’s ear. Everyone in Rome knew that things had changed but only a few had first hand knowledge of how serious the situation had become. My father had become privy to information of this nature when earlier in Caesar’s career Caesar had turned to Crassus for a huge loan and wisely Crassus had spread that risk over a few others, one of whom was my father and while this loan had been repaid the channel of communication remained open.

Our family has for generations been merchants, we trade wherever there is need and want and we are very good at what we do. The most disruptive thing to trade is war and when Caesar’s daughter Julia died my fathers antennae began to quiver.

“It’s all very well to scream for an army to be raised but who’s to pay. And this,” my father was shaking his fist angrily, “this will be a civil war, there will be no loot. I swear Terentius we’ve run out of countries to conquer so like a mad dog we’re chewing on our own leg.” We were in my fathers library and he was pacing back and forth. “It’s the damnable slaves. They’ve turned us into a bunch of leeches living off of others flesh. The only thing that we actually produce is war.”

He raised his hand to his eyes for a moment and then continued more quietly and with deep resignation. “And so we will go through it again.” He shook his head slowly and then turned and pointed at me. “Take a lesson! Only family matters! And now we must be sure that we, not them,” he waved his arms indicating the rest of Rome, “are safe. Well……it won’t be the first time that I’ve had to do it………..and Jupiter only knows how many times our ancestors had to do it.”

He was pacing back and forth and remained silent for several minutes. He stopped and looked at me. “When you return you’ll marry Julia.” He held up his hand to stop my words. “This family needs grandchildren. It’s your duty.” Then waving his hand. “I know, I know.” He smiled quickly. “You have your friend, that slave. I’m told that he does you credit and Jupiter knows that I wouldn’t deny you your youth but first must come your family.”

“Think man! When your wife is with child the last thing she’ll want to see is you.” He came over to me and put his arm around my shoulder. “I’m told that he came up with the idea of consolidating offices. That’s very good. When Julia is pregnant you’ll have a great deal of time to spend with him.”

“Father, I’d like your permission to free him.” This is something that I probably could have done without his permission but I wanted to show him proper respect.

My father tapped his forefinger against his lips in meditation. “That may be a good idea. See how he handles himself on the trip and when you return you can do it. Yes, you’ll have a better idea then if his feelings for you are real.”

We own many things, foundries and warehouses, ships and mines, banks and buildings, and war, especially civil war, can be disastrous to most of these enterprises. Even the foundries that will, during war, be working nonstop making arrowheads, spearheads and swords can all suffer during war because generals become very concerned with delivery but very casual about payment. And worst of all, at least from our perspective is that fleets tend to get commandeered and once a general has taken over one of your ships he becomes very reluctant to give it back.

My father’s instructions to me were simple; all the factories and foundries needed to take their production to the maximum with the excess to be stored in our warehouses at Ostia and at the very secret warehouses, further to the north on the coast. All grain-carrying ships were needed to transport as much as possible as quickly as possible and our standing order with grain brokers were doubled and then doubled again.

Each succeeding generation of our family has added to our underground storage facilities well north of Rome on the ocean. Approached by land all that would be found is our country villa but from the sea, and only if you know the way, you have access to warehouses and granaries that equal what we maintain at Ostia. Over the generations the villa has been assaulted and sometimes burned but the underground tunnels have never been found and have always led my ancestors to the freedom of the sea. Like all of our major facilities my father’s army of fighters guards these warehouses.

Climbing to the deck of the Eagle brought back early memories of trips with my father, the warm breeze off of the surface of the ocean and the salt spray always felt like old friends.

Bara preceded me up the ladder and stood ready to help me if I needed it. We hadn’t had a chance to discuss it but I was quite certain that he had never been on a ship before and behind his enthusiastic smile was perhaps a little concern, but concerned or not he stood like a mountain and his large strong hand steadied me as I stepped onto the deck.

Traveling by sea was nothing new to my bodyguards and they made themselves comfortable wherever they could while the captain began giving orders to his crew to get under way. Once we were well clear of the harbor and of other shipping my men would help the others set up at each end of the ship the huge fixed balista that fired three meter long arrows in pairs. Pompey the Great may have officially eliminated pirates from the seas but there were still a few ships around that performed a good imitation of them. I never heard my father laugh louder than the first time he heard that Pompey was claiming to have defeated the pirates. He maintained that the most important of the pirates either worked for or were partners with Rome’s most prominent families and he was in a position to know.

Fortunately my father had struck an agreement with one of the fiercest of these pirates and he now was the captain of the Eagle. This in return for amnesty and a comfortable and safe home for his family in Ostia, it was of course a given that his family were hostages against a resumption of his past activities. Under his command the Eagle carried a substantial fighting force and was more than able to deal with any likely threat. But of course my father continued to pay the usual bribes to the pirates fleets and since these brigands were the ones that we were most likely to run afoul of on the trip to Alexandria we were relatively safe on this leg of the voyage. Traveling from Alexandria to Spain we would be at much greater risk because the pirates that peopled those waters owed allegiance to no one and because of that we would be picking up additional fighters for the Eagle and two additional ships to accompany us part of the way.

Soon the orders were shouted, the anchors hauled up and then the oars began to move in perfect unison, the ship turned slowly to the southeast and then when free of the activity of the harbor the great sail unfurled and the Eagle began to pickup speed. To be aboard the Eagle under full power was to fly across the sea. Standing on the deck it seemed as if this great ship was barely touching the water but rather flying over it.

I felt like a little boy again and stripped off my tunic and climbed onto the rail of the ship wearing only my loincloth and stood there hanging onto the rigging as the sea spray and warming sun washed over me. The captain looked and me and laughed. Bara hung back but looked ready to lunge for me should my grip appear to fail. My bodyguards had seen this before and glanced at me and then smiled and returned to their activities. They knew that if I died it would cost them their lives but there was nothing they could do about it and they had long since stopped worrying.

I told the captain that I wanted to rest for a while and Bara and I made our way aft to the cabin that dominated the stern of the ship. My bodyguards stationed themselves in front of the closed door insuring our privacy. Bara helped me out of my cloak and tunic and I took off my loincloth and slid naked under that blankets.

Bara was slightly bent over because of the cabin height and had to brace himself by leaning back against the bulkhead as he stripped off his clothing. He was still smiling so apparently the movement of the ship wasn’t making him ill, at least not yet. I was always in awe of Bara’s body. It’s tempting to say that he looked like a Greek statue but he was so much more than that, he was the most beautiful thing that I owned. Bara was the type of man whose sex doesn’t get small when it gets soft and while certainly smaller than when hard, it was very substantial. I loved watching his large penis swinging back and forth when he walked and when looking at his backside one could still see his heavy testicles hanging between his legs.

Bara crawled to me over the bed, the smile on his face just visible in the dim light. So much had happened to him in his young life that it amazed me that he could smile as much as he did.

I reached between his legs and held his huge balls in my right hand as he bent to kiss me and then I drew it slowly forward along the length of his erect penis. When I gripped the head of Bara’s penis he dropped his head to my chest.

He rolled his head on my chest for a moment and then brushing my lips lightly with his said. “Let me be in you, Master. Let me bring you pleasure………….us pleasure.”

His body was so much larger than mine that he could pick me up with one hand if he wanted to but at moments like this he was incredibly gentle and all the more erotic because of it. Moments later he was moving into me, his massive arms were under my back and he cradled me, engulfed me. I had my first orgasm even before he was totally inside of me, so huge was he that even the first few inches of his sex was more than enough to send me over the brink. I never lost my erection though and our lovemaking had just begun.

Over and over again Bara would slowly pull his huge phallus out of me and then move back into me and with each thrust the speed was being ever so slightly increased. My hands were grasping Bara’s upper arms, which were easily the size of my thighs

The following morning we pulled into our dock at Puteoli. Next to Ostia, and of course our massive warehouses in Rome, the warehouses and manufacturing complex at Puteoli was our most important possession. It was into these facilities that the riches of the world poured. The raw material was turned into finished goods by hundreds of slaves and then the finished goods were shipped back to all part of the world.

Across the bay at Baiae my fathers villa could just be seen on the hills. This wasn’t by accident. Even in Rome my fathers home had a direct line of sight to our warehouses and offices on the Tiber, through the use of flags information could be transmitted quickly and often at great profit.

Traxos, the freedman who supervised our complex at Puteoli was standing on the dock waiting for permission to come onboard. Normally on a trip to Alexandria we would stop for a day or a night at the villa but time was not our friend on this trip and I had no intention of getting into extended conversations on shore.

Bara was standing naked in front of me as he adjusted my tunic and ran his hands over my hair in an effort to make me presentable. My lips were on the same level as his nipples and I leaned forward and took one in my mouth. I could feel a shiver run through him.

“Oh, Master!” I reached forward and gently wrapped my hand around his expanding sex. My fingers just barely made it all the way around.

I said. “You better get dressed. Anyone else sees this weapon and they’ll all be after you.” I reached up and putting my hand behind his bull neck pulled his head down so that we could kiss.

As I stepped out of the cabin Marco who headed my contingent of bodyguards came up to me. Marco had been with my family for a long time. When he was young he had been a gladiator for a short time and then a manager of gladiators. My father had freed him ten years ago and then finally sent him to watch out for me. There was no doubt in my mind that he gave my father full reports on what I did, it wasn’t something that I resented but rather expected. Actually we were quite fond of each other.

There was a suggestion of a smile on his face. “Well, Sir, it looks like you have survived the trip so far.”

“Jupiter, Marco, you must have been young at some time in you life.”

“Sir, you might be surprised at what those of us in our forties can still do.”

“I suppose that you’d better let Traxos onboard before he wets himself.”

“Very well but remember, if I raise an eyebrow come and tell me that it’s time we left.”

Marco laughed. “I won’t forget.”

“Very well. Bring me the Greek.”