Tales of Ancient Rome

              Tales of Ancient Rome

                        by

                        TG

Synopsis: In ancient Rome, a noble woman develops a taste for torture.  There’s a wee bit of “tongue in cheek” humor toward the end of the story.  31 pgs.

Story codes: F/M, BDSM, NC, Slavery............Oh, Hell…..Just know a lot of bad stuff happens to some guys, and they're very unhappy about it......But they're the only ones who feel that way.

                        Chapter 1

                 Time to Go on Vacation

    "God damn that skinny son of bitch.  If any of the men had half the balls their fathers had, they would have slit the throat of that bastard long ago.  I have more balls than they do.  If I could get past his damn Germans I'd cut his throat myself and enjoy every moment of it."

    "We're here, M'Lady."

    She leaned out of the palanquin and called, "Talig!  Talig!"  A boy outside the house scurried up the stairs of the house to get the man.

    "M'Lady?"

    "I have need of a sword.  A year or two.  Will you take your wood sword and be the sword I need?"

    Without hesitation, he bowed his head and said, "I am your's onto death, M'Lady"

    "I use to bet on you and you never let me down, and now I can still trust in you to be my dependable Talig.   Be at my place tonight, and be prepared to leave tomorrow."

    "Of course, M'Lady."

    Of course he jumped at her offer.  A job meant coins in his purse on a regular basis that he could depend on instead of the pittance that was doled out to him from patronage. That was never dependable.  And 1 yr. with a Patrician meant gold coins he could live on for 5 yrs.

    The wood sword (Rudis) she mentioned was a symbol of honor.  A wood sword was awarded by the Emperor to gladiators who were so outstanding in the arena that they were granted their freedom.  It meant that they no longer had need of an iron sword; they would not have to fight anymore. Talig had survived 34 pairs to earn that sword.

    Talig was unique among ex-gladiator: he actually wore his rudis. Other men like him treated their wood sword as symbols and they carried iron at their sides.  When he was in the service of Salidia he would wear a regular sword to properly satisfy his duties, but when he walked the streets on his own the wood was on his left and only a thin dagger was on this right.

    In the world of ancient Rome, gladiators were like rock stars and fans would scrawl their names on walls, and women sought them out at night.  If any of the criminals who swarmed over Rome's wards and alleys saw the man with the wood sword, they knew that man was Talig.

     Salidia was fleeing.  Fleeing was both the correct word and the wrong word.   With her heart in her throat she had gone up to that bastard and asked his leave to go to her country estate on a pretext and he granted her permission.  So no one would be pursuing her after she left Rome.

     But Salidia was fleeing Rome to escape Caligula before he killed her like he had fifth of her peers.  In a pique of anger, Caligula had an entire political faction of Patricians, who believed in traditional values, rounded up in the middle of night, and then had them killed.  The group included Salidia's aunt, several uncles and other relatives, as well as their allies.  Salidia was now alone, without allies or family.

       She escaped the carnage by a fluke.  Her best friend since childhood was another Patrician, Selenius.  He had a lover, Taira, an Egyptian High Priestess, stationed at the Roman court.  Simply as a favor to Selenius, Taira intervened to protect Selenius's best friend.  She reminded Caligula that Salidia's estate supplied the food used by the soldiers stationed in Rome, like the troops who manned the Jail, and the Praetorian Guard.  If she were killed, it might take several weeks to get new suppliers, and there was no way to know if the new purveyors would be dependable or have good quality produce.  Rather than gamble that his troops might be without supplies for a few weeks, Caligula let Salidia live.

    "That skinny bastards needs to be cut open, and I'd do it myself if I could get past those German guards," Salidia thought.  She was not going back to the Hill until after he was dead.  After a few weeks, she told him she was going to her estate in Tuscany, but she would just stop there to give the steward instructions, and then keep going until she was in the provinces.  That lame-brain would forget she ever existed in 3 days if he didn't see her at court.  She would stay in the provinces until he was dead.  She was going to Aballo (Avalon, France).  Selenius had his Legion garrisoned there, two months before all this happened, and she would stay with him.  She had sent him a message to buy the best villa he could find for her.

    "Talig, I'm going to Gaul with 3 chests of coins.  I don't want to attract attention with a big procession surrounded by a cohort of men.  I want 3 carts and my carriage.  I want you to go to your friends and get men you can trust.  I want good men who can kill 2,3,4 men on their own.  Men like yourself.  Get as many men as you think we'll need but remember I want this small.  We leave tomorrow night.  You can bring your boy if you want but I want the other men single."  He saluted, bowed, and was gone.

    They met the following night.  Twelve men, three owned wood swords, the rest were veterans of the Legions or mercenaries.  They arrived at her estate by afternoon, and as soon as they rested, were off to Aballo.   Salidia told her steward that Talig would be sent twice a year to pick up her revenue instead of sending it to Rome as usual.  Salidia went to see Selenius as soon as they got to Gaul.

    "Salidia, I did the best I could," Selenius told her.  "This isn't a resort town like Capri or Pompeii where everyone goes in the summer to escape the heat of Rome.  You are looking at the only other Patrician in the area.  All of the villas you passed coming up here are own by only local chiefs or rich merchants.  The town doesn't even have all the amenities.  There is no amphitheater, only a bath and arena.  And the bath is small and the walls inside are only painted white.  The place I picked for you is the only one in the area with it's own bath.  It belonged to a retired centurion who came up here to claim his free land.  It's small but he had the good sense to put up good strong walls in case any of his Gallic neighbors got unpleasant.  It is a soldier's idea of a good place to live when your neighbors aren't trustworthy."

     "It's not your fault, Selenius.  I knew where I was coming.  It's the reason I came here.  It's that bastard’s fault I'm up here."

                      Chapter 2

                   Home, Sweet Home

    From the outside the place looked bigger than it actually was inside.  When she got inside she realized the centurion had moved everything within the walls: stable, farm sheds, courtyard, bath.   The villa itself was small, and the atrium actually opened up on one side to the courtyard. The slaves the centurion had used to run the place were sold with the property.  Salidia was disgusted and angry that she would have to spend a year (maybe more!) here.

    The next day was Sunday, a day traditionally set aside for market day and public entertainment.  When Salidia got to the town she saw the bath was so small she doubted it had more than 4 rooms.  There would be no lounging the day away talking to friends there.  She also realized that since she was the only Patrician in the area, there was nobody here she would be able to visit and talk with.  For Salidia there was no place to go during the day and no place to go at night.  She would be alone within the walls of the villa with nothing to do.

    Her mood darkened more after the market.  Little there to buy, and what there was shitty quality.  Finding out that the only public entertainment for the week was four pair in the arena, and that only one of those was to the death (munera sine missione) changed her mood to black.  Salidia entered the arena with a scowl on her face, hating the place which was to be her prison for a year or whatever time it would take.

     As the only Patrician in the province Salidia was shown to the box of honor (cavea) over seeing the arena.  The decision of life or death for the gladiator would be deferred to her.  The first 3 pairs were buffoons, hardly more than farmers convicted of theft, and sold into the arena for punishment.

    Salidia was disgusted and dissatisfied by the garbage presented for entertainment.  She glanced up at Talig.  He had a look of aloof contempt.  Seeing her looking at him, Talig shrugged his shoulders and said, "M'Lady, if the trainer were any good, his men would be good.  If his men were good, he could take them to a bigger city and make more money.  In small towns like this the only thing you will find are trainers and men who aren't good enough to be anywhere else."

     Salidia was unsatisfied with the clownishness presented instead of skill, and unsatisfied that there wasn't even the drama of a kill for the first 3 pair.  The closing finale for the show was the pair to death, but that was as bad as the first three pair.  Worse, the loser had shown fear during the contest.  He lay now on the area sand, with the winner standing over him, sword held over his throat.   Everyone looked to Salidia to see if the man would live or die.  Salidia raised her arm and held it motionless pointing to the rudarius (literally, umpire) standing on the side.  Then, with a look of anger and contempt, she swung her arm to point at the gladiator on the sand.

   The rudarius was the "Sergeant at Arms" for the arena.  He made sure the rules of the arena were obeyed.  If someone refused to fight, the rudarius would whip him out on to the sand.  If the loser of a contest ran away in fear, the rudarius would cut his throat.  If the dying lingered on to life at the end of a show, the rudarius would kill him so the body could be cleared from the arena.  The rudarius was the "enforcer".

   The rudarius walked out to the gladiators and signaled the winner to hoist the man on to his feet.  Grabbing the man from behind, he reached up and cut his throat.  Convulsing, the man fell to the ground and died.

   Salidia enjoyed that part immensely.  She had identified with the rudarius.  He was the power over his world as Salidia was the power over her world.  She was a Patrician and it was Patricians who ruled the world. They filled the Senate.  The Emperors came from their ranks.  And when you understood the plots and intrigues and secret alliances, and assassination, they ultimately ruled Rome.  And when the rudarius killed that miserable coward, it symbolized what Salidia wanted to do to do to this miserable place.  Kill it for all the suffering it had put her through.  All her hatred for what had been done to her was directed at that slave.  And when the rudarius cut the throat of that slave, Salidia was cutting the throat of Caligula.

    "Talig!  Tell the Lanista I want 2 matched pairs tomorrow afternoon. Sine Missione!"  (Lanista, the owner/manager/trainer of the gladiators.) (Sine Missione - literally, without mercy.  To the Death)

 

                      Chapter 3

           Getting to know the Neighbors

                         or

         That's a Good Idea You Have There

    Salidia didn't care that these men were unskilled.  It was the kill she enjoyed yesterday, with all the relish she would have felt if it was Caligula.   She had wanted to kill since Caligula had the 50 of her friends and relatives killed.  Dying was the same in Rome as it was here.  Gladiator couldn't be taught to die.  You could train them to dodge and parry and strike with a sword, you could shout trite slogans at them, but it was a man's heart which determined how he died.  The brave died bravely and the cowards died in fear, and that was the same here as in Rome.  The men here could not fight as well as the men in Rome, but they died as bravely or as badly as anywhere else in the world.  So when Salidia walked into that ludus (Gladiator school where gladiator were kept and trained.) she knew the deaths would be a good and satisfying as yesterday.

    Salidia walked past the lanista's villa, to the ludus which was set up in the back.  She was shown to a booth over the arena with wine and fruit set out for her.  The first pair was as clumsy as yesterday's pairs.  A lot of cuts to arms and legs, a lot of blood, but neither man had the skill or speed for a killing strike.  It was more like they ineffectually stood a distance away from each other and flailed away at each other arms and legs, never finding the heart or throat.  When they cut each others arms and legs, she thought, "Good! They should suffer for being so bad."   Eventually after much pain and suffering from cuts to arms and legs, one man fell and the other stood over him with the sword over his neck.  They look to Salidia.  She stood up and yelled, "Chest!", and then she turned her thumb down.  She leaned on the balustrade so she could be a little bit closer and see a little bit better.  The winner swung his sword down to the heart of the other man and leaned down on his sword.  This time the man's convulsions were much more pronounced as the heart was pierced and he bled to death in moments.

    As Salidia watched in rapture the man's convulsions, she squeezed her legs together, feeling a sexual tension, and climaxed.  The convulsions and shudders the man's body went through always reminder her of the mini convulsions and shudders bodies experienced during climax.  Whenever she saw men shuddering or twitching in pain as they died in the area it always sexually aroused Salidia because it evoked in her mind images of men and women shuddering and twitching during climax.  The two images were intertwined in her mind and as satisfying to her.  Satisfied, both sexually and emotionally as if the man killed had been Caligula, she sat down and waited for the next pair.

    Every pair in this man's ludus was the same.  Skilless.  They flailed at each other, cut arms and legs, hitting every thing but the heart or throat.  Angry at them for being such putts, she was impatient for them to get to the good part, the kill.  She was angry at them for depriving her of the excitement and convulsions of the kill.  "Come on! Show me the kill," she thought.  Finally, one man was down and they look up to her.  She stood up, turned on her heels and strode out of the booth and out on to the sand of the arena.

    She stood over the man, at his shoulders, looking  into his face.

       The man's face was contorted in fear, his eyes filled with terror.  She wanted to see Caligula's face like that.  She wanted Caligula to suffer like that and feel the same fear.  The victor was standing at the loser's hip, his sword pointed at the loser's throat.  She point to the sword at the man's neck, and slowly swung her arm down the man's torso and then she pointed to the man's stomach.  She looked in to the victor's face and in a low, guttural voice, snarled at him. "Slowwwww."   The victor slowly pushed down on the sword and gradually lean forward until, eventually, all his weight rested down on the sword.  The loser frantically grabbed the sword with both hand and gripping it, tried to pull it out of his stomach, as it was slowly pressed onto him.  As he ineffectually tried to pull the sword out of his stomach, his fingers and palms were cut to the bone by the sharp edges of the blade, and the blade became slippery with blood.  The man pushed and pulled the sword, but his hands just slipped up and down.  Salidia watched his face in rapture, as if it were Caligula's death she was watching.

    When the sword had pierced the torso, Salidia turned again to the victor, and she took the victor's hand and pushed it to the side, so that the blade would cut a second, different path through the man's abdomen as it was withdrawn  In a slow, soft voice that seemed to pulsated and resonate to the beat of a beating heart, she said, "Take it out the same way."   When the victor began to slowly pull the sword out of the man, Salidia stooped down to kneel at the man's head.  She grasped his hair with her fingers and tilted the man's head to look in her face.  With her hand in his hair she held his face so she could see the waves of pain and suffering roll across his face, and see the aguish and pain in his eyes.  It seems so satisfying to see him dying and she felt peaceful and calm.  To her, this was Caligula dying in pain and agony.

    Stomach wounds are agonizing and take a long time to kill.  The men would take hours to bleed to death. Salidia knew that when she instructed the victor to push his sword through the stomach, and she knew that when the victor withdrew his sword, the loser would still be alive and would suffer for hours.  She adjusted her grip so that she held the head in the middle with her left hand.  She took out the small, thin dagger at her waist with her right hand, and put it to his neck, and pushed it in at a moderate speed, then stopped, then continued at a slow speed.

       This was the first time Salidia had stabbed a man and she didn't know that when you stab someone the knife comes alive and seems to have life of it own.  The knife feels like a living thing in you hand.  When the knife wiggled, it surprised her, and she stopped to make sure that the knife was moving on it's own.  She enjoyed the feeling, it excited her, and she continued to press down slowly so she could savor the feeling of the knife moving on it's own.  Toward the bottom she stopped so she could just let the knife quiver for a while in her hand and she could enjoy it.

    What happens is that as a knife is pressed into muscle, the muscles twitch and convulse from the pain, and the knife moves with the muscle it is embedded in.  Since most place have different layers of muscles, designed to move in different direction so the body can turn, twist, rotate, etc, the different muscles will twist and pull in different directions.  A deep muscle could pull to the left, while an upper muscle could pull up, and the knife jerks one way.  As different muscles twitch, pull, quiver, the knife seems to start twisting left, right, up, down, quiver.  It seems to take on a life of it's own.  Not as dramatic as a Mexican jumping bean, but if you wrap you hand around the knife, you can feel it twist and pull on it's own as the muscle around it quivers.  Salidia found it deeply satisfying and exciting.  Maybe there were subliminal identifications with holding a penis or touching genitals, or whatever the reason Salidia found it both gratifying and exciting to hold a blade while it was in a man.

    Then, whatever the cause, the man made a few big convulsions, and died. That too was deeply satisfying.  The tingling of the knife were exciting and pleasurable to her, on scale of intensity like masturbating.  But the death throws were the most exciting, like a climax, and she felt deeply satisfied by it.  Of it all, it was killing the man with her own hands was the part she enjoyed the most.  She had wanted to kill since that night her friends and relatives were killed.  When she watched the gladiator kill man, she vicariously enjoyed it and it felt like watching Caligula die.  But when she did it with her own hands, and felt the knife twitch in her hand it added a sexual excitement to it and a deep, peaceful satisfaction.

    She felt very satisfied that she had these men killed.  She turned, and strode out of the ludus without saying a word.

    On the way home, all the different feeling and sights of the past few days played across her mind.  Her anger and frustration at the gladiators in the arena yesterday who took so long in giving up to her the pleasures she wanted in the kill.  They just puttzed around banging at each other, taking forever to get to the good part.  She wanted her satisfaction faster.  Left in hands of the men, they took forever to deliver to her what she wanted.  As her carriage jerked and bumped along the potholed road of this miserable poor village, her anger over yesterday came back to fill her up.  She was angry and frustrated that they took over an hours of ineffectually swatting at each other to get to 1 kill.  She was never going back there again.

    When she had walked past the lanista's villa and stood up in the balcony over the sand, she thought of how much better it was to stand over this private little arena in the ludus and order that the match be to the death.  No waiting through 3 warm up matches to get to one kill.  When she was in charge of what was happening, she could go directly to the kill.

   But then she thought how much better it was to stand in the arena than stand on a balcony way above.  She could smell the smells, and feel the sand under her feet, and hear the little whimpers of the men she couldn't hear from the balcony.  And how much better it felt to hold the man's head in her hand and feel the twitches and shakes of his body as well as just watch it.  And being able to look into his eyes from inches away.

     But most of all, it felt best to be able to do it herself.  To feel the little, exciting quivers of the knife in her hand.  And have her hands on the body and feel the big convulsions with her own hands.  It was like feeling a lover's body shiver and convulse during climax as they made love together.  She was not going to settle for just watching from a balcony 40' away (12M) anymore.  She wanted to do it herself.  To feel the knife in her hand and feel it come to life inside the man.  And feel the convulsions of his body through her hands rather then just look at it from a distance.

    When she got to her villa, she felt certain in her decision.  She strode with purpose into the court yard, and waved Talig to come up to her.  She raised her arm and swung it across the courtyard to the stable and shed  "Talig, build me a ludus."

   "I don't want a full school.  Don't get the equipment to train them to fight.  Get only the equipment you need to make them strong.  You are not to train gladiator.  You are to train men to be strong and healthy.  But I want everything else.  I want the walls, the cells, the fence, and I do want the sand arena used for matches.   Have the steward here get the workers, you over see him to make sure every is done right."

    "Steward.  Send the boy to town.  Find out when they have the next slave auction.  Brivas is close enough, and I understand that Calaro is less than a days ride away.   Find out if they have any auctions, also."

                    Chapter 4

             Setting up the new Digs

                              ****************************************

  (Skip down below this if you are just into the good SM stuff.  I just want to cover some background stuff so the character's actions seem a little more reasonable.

    I'm not an historian, or even a dedicated amateur.   Being into SM I did pick my ears up when certain topics were cover on the History channel.  To the best of my knowledge here is some historical information about the period which is true as best I know it.

   The Romans were to my knowledge the only people who engaged in murder and torture solely for it's entertainment value.  Other group found entertainment in it, but that is not why they engaged in it.  The Incas and Mayans made it a public party when they killed a few hundred of their enemies, but the reason they killed them was religious.  Medieval Europe made public executions a public occasions that everyone seemed to enjoy, but the executions were done for the judicial reasons operative at that time.  American Indians got a hoot out of torturing their enemies, but again, they were killed because they were enemies.

    The Romans did it for entertainment only, and private weddings or funerals frequently were highlighted by a few matched pairs to entertain the guests.  They may have targeted certain groups like the Christians, but that was a  "Kill two birds with one stone" philosophy.  Eliminating an unwanted political group and filling up the arenas with fodder for their games.

   I've read some things by people like Marcus Aurelius, Tacitus, Seneca, etc. and found a slight distaste for torture, but not for the ethical reasons of it's injustice or inhumanity.  It seemed more economic!  They seem to condemn it as a waste of good property.  Killing slaves to entertain the masses was OK.  It was politically useful to entertain the masses and killing slaves to entertain the masses was money well spent.  "Bread and Circuses," was the motto of the day.  But going behind closed door and torturing someone to death was just a waste of good money.  Killing was OK. They made killing a "Morality Play," a display that embodied their values.  Killing and dying should be done bravely and well, or condemned if badly done. Public murder was a display that embodied the cultural values of their society.  To die with dignity was something they approved of. They drew a moral distinction about dying with dignity or dishonor.  It was how people died that was a moral lesson for them, and a brave death was a good thing in their eyes.  It taught people the right way to face life in a dangerous world.  Private sadism involved no death and no practical value, so what good was it?  It just wasted property (a slave) with no redeeming value. It was viewed as a slightly wasteful activity.  I personally view such people as working like contemporaries who are "In love with love,"  but not with marriage.  They want the chase and not the end result.

      Several important people engaged in sadism, and it seemed to be treated as slight moral excess, like someone who drinks a little too much today or someone who tells crude jokes in mixed company.  "Not good, but what are you going to do?  Some people are just like that."  When it was an Emperor or noble involved everyone kept their mouth shut and acted as if were fine.  The Emperor Tiberius had a summer retreat which had several rooms devoted to the torture of boys and girls.  (I don't remember which Emperor it was.  It was one of the guys with "T" for a name.  He didn't like Rome and set up shop on a little island off the coast.) He seemed to have a preference for prepubescent children.  He hosted delegations from the Senate and members of the court there while he engaged in his sport.  Caligula had a preference for public torture and delighted in thinking of new and entertaining ways to kill anyone he could throw into the Coliseum.  And, of course, the more the merrier.  Drusilla, as well as bevy of other notable Roman women, kept a stable of good looking young studs to satisfy her sexually; and both she and her brother were known to have occasionally gotten a few of these slaves behind closed doors and tortured them to death for the fun of it.  Several notable Romans were known to enjoy sadism.  At worst it seem to have been known publicly, but people tried to keep it hushed up.  About the same as we do as having a mistress today in Europe.  You knew so and so did it but we don't talk about.

   My character Salidia is about to become a sadist.  I honestly don't think at that time and place men like Talig or Selenius would have been very surprised.  At worst treating it as a minor moral slip, about the equivalent of saying, "Hey, the lady sure likes to have a few drinks on the weekend, don't she!  Ha. Ha."  And the more jaded ones wouldn't have been surprised at all, sort of like New Yorkers walking past Hellfire and not batting an eye.

   And I don't think Talig would have an once of compassion for the slaves.  My guess he would identify with being a Freeman, and feel he never really belong to the slave class but was destined from birth, by innate qualities, to rise to the class he truly belong to.  My guess is that he would have identified himself as a Freeman, and thought he was accidentally and erroneously put in the slave class; and that he rose to claim the caste he rightly belong to. He never really was a slave.  From birth he was born to better things.  That's a conclusion I deducted not from his personality.  It's my understanding of how immutable they viewed class, and the predestination which assigned people their rank in life.

    So Salidia is going Sadist and I don't think Talig or his boys are going to think anything of it.  My best guess it that his reaction to her would be the modern day equivalent of "Hey, I got a few thousand dollars doing nothing.  I think I'll go down to Atlantic City and piss it away at the tables."   Back to our story.)

        ********************************************

    When Salidia left the ludus, she knew she wasn't going to wait for the weekly set of public games and sit through 3 dud matches to see 1 kill.  When she order the 2 matched pairs to the death, she knew this is what she wanted, to be able to order up a kill when she wanted it.  The lanista had his ludus set up behind his villa and when Salidia saw the little patch of sand of the arena behind the lanista's villa, she said to herself, "This is what I want: to be able to walk out my back door and find a patch of sand where I can order up a kill anytime I want." (Arenas for fights were always made with sand so blood could easily be raked away)

       At that moment Salidia knew she would build the ludus behind be atrium door so she could walk out the door whenever she wanted and have a slave pulled out and killed.  She told Talig to skip the weapons training because she didn't want to train gladiator.  She wanted to pull a slave out and plunge a dagger into his throat herself, whenever she wanted.  She told Talig to make them strong and healthy looking so her sexual titillation would be greater.

    When Salidia killed the first gladiator with her own hands, she knew she wanted to do it with her own hands thereafter, and feel the knife quivering in her hands and feel the bodies convulsing under her hands as well a see their face right in front of her.  She wanted to hear the small gasps and moans she could not hear from 30' feet away.  She wanted to see the small quivers around the mouth.  She wanted to be inches away from the slaves face to watch the agony in his eyes. 

    Now that she had killed someone with her own hand, she personally understood what Tiberius did on his island.  The stories that they whispered about Drusilla and the screams that came from her apartment at night: now she understood them.  And she understood why Drusilla had kept her stable of good looking cocks.  Not for the same reason Claudius's wife kept two or three good looking studs, Claudius's wife could use her studs over and over.  When Drusillia used and destroyed her studs, she needed a new replacement.  Salidia now had new insights into some of her friends at court.

    Salidia was a Patrician.  She knew the cost of slaves.  It was her class that put on the games for the masses.  She knew the richest among them could afford to host a game of a 100 pair once a year.  Most of them could aspire to 25 pair in a year.  Only the Emperor had an had the entire city jail to fill up the Coliseum  Only the Emperor had Legions to sent him boat load after boat load of prisoners of war.

 

    She knew that if she bought two pair in Rome it would have cost her a month's worth of spending money.  Gladiators in Rome were expensive.  They were the best in the world!  These were cheap slaves.  She could have bought a dozen for less than the price of a Patrician's dress.  Nevertheless, she could not afford to do what the Emperor did.  She would have to use her slaves sparingly and get her moneys worth out of them.  Yesterday the slaves had screamed for a few minutes and then died.  Salidia would take a page out of Drusilla's book and go her one better.  They said the screams from Drusilla's room would go on all night, and sometimes for days.  That's what Salidia wanted to do.  And Salidia wasn't the Emperor's sister like Drusilia.  She would have to reuse her slaves.  Only occasionally could she afford to kill them.

    Once she bought a dozen slaves she would have to feed them for a year, and hire permanent guards, cooks and scullery maids for them.  She could buy a dozen slaves and afford to keep them for a year, but she could not buy a dozen, kill them, and replace them with a dozen more, time and again.  She would be out of slaves and money before the year was out.  Salidia was a member of the ruling class who understood the costs of slave ownership and the practical aspects of buying and keeping slaves.  Salidia understood all this as a ranch owner's daughter would understand buying and keeping cattle today.  And Salidia understood that she couldn't get her thrills by killing a slave every week.

    The steward came back.  He said there was one slave trader who came through once every two months and he went through all three towns one after the other.  Salidia then set him to Selenius to see if he could lend her some chains and shackles until her slave quarters were complete.  And to ask him where was the nearest place she could find a good selection of slaves.  Later that day she learned there was a decent seaport a day and half down the coast where the traders plied their routes constantly.

     Salidia then began to search around for things she could use for torture.  It was holding her thin dagger that had gotten her into this desire to use her hands for this, but she didn't want to use that anymore.  That killed.  In her day and time wounds kill quickly, slowly or very slowly.  A knife would kill very quickly or the person would slowly die of loss of blood or the person would get an infection and die a long, draw out death.   As much as she had come to appreciate the magic within her thin dagger, it was too much.  She held it in her hand thinking it was too much.  And then..........she got up, went to her things, got 6 cloak pins and found the kitchen boy.  "Take these to the blacksmith and tell him I want them pounded as thin and narrow as possible into 1' pins and yet have strength.  Excess metal make into additional pins. Temper and sharpen one end."  In the tool shed she found pliers, 3 braziers, a poker with the hook broken off, a hammer and tacks, two augers and twine.  The tack shed yielded her carriage whip, a bullwhip, rope, and 2 hobbles.  The wagon shed held a wagon and plow, neither of which she need because she planned no farming, but she thought of a use for the shed, it's table and broken wagon wheels.  And a bird cage of woven wire, wicker style.   Which she thought about for a long time, and then picked it up and added it to her pile of future torture tools.

   She found the steward's man and told him to begin cleaning out the wagon shed.  She found Talig and told him she wanted the whole shed strengthened, and the wagon wheel securely fastened to the wall.  She got the table and auger and marked out locations she wanted holes made.

    When the boy returned from the blacksmith, she got the bird cage and told him, "Catch me a rat.  Alive."  

                      Chapter 5

    Going Shopping and Kicking off the New Life

    The following week the slave trader came through, setting up shop in the arena for the day, and Salidia went.  She knew she was going for slaves purchased just for torture.  The gladiators who had titillated her were strong, healthy men who spent hours every day developing their bodies.  They were eye candy for Salidia and that's what she had in mind.  The local slave trader had stable boys, fat cooks, young girls, and nothing that looked like a gladiator.  But Salidia was impatient to start.  Simply put, she was horny, and willing to lower her standards. The closest the trader came was a wheelwright apprentice around 16.  Not muscular, but he had his youth to recommend him.  He would not be strong enough for the tortures she had in mind, but she did have a use for him.  But first she wanted to know if he would be fun to torture.

    As was the tradition, nobles like Salidia were provided a booth separate from the other buyers, cover by a curtain. When the noble was interested in the slave, the slave would be sent up to the noble for inspection.  The last time Salidia was in this cavea, she was frustrated waiting so long for the men to deliver the entertainment she wanted in the arena below her.   This time a slave was being delivered right into her hands to see if she would enjoy torturing him, the moment she signaled the slave trader she wanted to see a particular boy.  The trader and other buyers didn't know that was her reason for seeing the boy was for torture, but she did.

    The boy was brought to the booth.  Talig met them at the door.  He pulled the boy in and closed the door.  Salidia had spent her life at the games watching men die bravely and men die blubbering in fear.  She knew what she wanted, men she could torture without killing them.  "Hold him," she said to Talig.  Talig grabbed his arms and held him from behind. One of her main pleasures she had gotten last week was being inches away the face of the dying man and looking in his eyes as she thrust the dagger into his neck.  She had picked a taste for it.  She stood inches from the boy's face, then grabbed his cock and squeezed as hard as she could, cutting her nails into his skin, causing the cock to bleed.  She watched his face.

    His eyes did not flash with anger and resentment.  A man like Talig would blaze with anger and resentment.   She did not want a man like Talig.  You could run Talig through with a sword, and he would die with a stoic face that denied any pain.  The boy's eyes did not fill with fear.  She did not want a man who blubbered with fear.  The boy tried to remain stoic but little quivers in his face showed he was close to breaking.  This is what she wanted.  She did not want a strong man who would require brutal torture to break.  That kind of torture would kill him in short time.  She wanted a man who required only mild torture to break so he could be tortured week after week without the torture killing him.  But she didn't want him blubbering.

    "Buy him." she said to Talig, handing him some coins.  She had bought her first man for torture.  She looked in his face and smiled, thinking "Now I have my plaything, and I can begin."  She intended to torture all he men she bought including this one, but torture was not the reason she bought this boy.  He was too small for what she had in mind.  But he could satisfy her sexually by eating her.  She liked his small size.  Unlike the strong grown men she wanted to torture, she felt like she could control this small boy better, and that appealed to her.  Salidia had, in effect, done the modern equivalent of buying her first vibrator.  Unfortunately for the boy, but eminently satisfactory to her, the boy would have to fill in for the men, until she got the big men she intended to torture.

    They took him home with them.  She had been planning this for weeks now and was impatient to begin.  The wagon wheel had been secured to the wall of the wagon shed - now strengthened to a room- and she had Talig tie the boy to the wheel, and then tie his legs, hip and torso to the spokes of the wheel so that he could no longer move them.  She told Talig to leave.  She did not want anything or anyone to distract her.

    She had a different purpose planned for this boy, to use as a small sex toy, and that did not require the amount of torture she intended for him this night.  She could extract what she wanted from the boy with much less torture.  All that she really had to do with him was scar him a little so he would work diligently and fervently at his job.  A little slapping around would have scared him enough to ensure he did a good job.  But she didn't care.  She had waited a long time for the torture and she wanted to - no - was going to begin it tonight.  Again, she said to herself, "I have no good reason to torture this boy a lot.  I can get what I want with much less.  But I'm going to start tonight and you are what I have."  Without explanation to the boy for why she was doing this to him, but with a happy, expectant look in her eye, she began.

    Salidia didn't feel squeamish at all about what she was about to do.  Regular fare at the games in the Coliseum with such things as chaining a women spread eagle between two posts and releasing lions to tear her apart while she was held unable to escape or protect herself from their teeth or claws.  Simply held there unable to move so they could ripe their claws across her body and disembowel her, and bite and ripe chunks of flesh off her screaming body.

    Salidia pushed a table up to the boys hips and got the hammer and tacks, and pliers.  She grabbed the tip of the foreskin of the penis (at this time in history, the only circumcised men lived in Judea) with the pliers and pulled the foreskin as far forward as her strength would allow.  Using one hand she started the tack through the foreskin at it outer most point, then hammered the tack home.  She repeated it on the other side. Letting go of the pliers, the foreskin was now pulled out as far ahead of the penis as possible, and held in place by the tacks.  She felt back along the foreskin until she felt the bulge of the penis.  She hammered a tack through the foreskin, on either side, where the penis begins.  The foreskin was now stretched out in front of the penis and tacked down upon the table.

    The boy had a bewildered, pleading look in his eyes.  He didn't understand why this was being done to him or what would follow next.  Wonderful, thought Salidia.  I love this.  The look in their eyes is half the reason I do this.    .......And the other half is the screaming and how the body shivers and quivers."

    Salidia stopped for a moment.  She thought, "I did picked well.  The boy isn't blubbering.  If he were blubbering, I would have missed that wonderful bewildered, pleading look in his eyes that was so enjoyable.  He has a little courage, which kept him from blubbering. Just the right amount.  But not enough.  Fear fills his face and pleads with me to release him.  He knows something terrible is about to happen and he wants to escape, and it is all written on his face.  And now I will dash his hopes of escape and throw him into terror.  Now I'll have the screaming and quivering and pain and suffering from him."  She loved dashing their hopes, instead forcing them into the pain they feared.  She smiled to herself, pleased that she had made the right pick in choosing a boy who would act as she wanted.  A little courage but not too much.

   She had known the slave trader was coming today.  In the hope that she would be successful, she had stopped feeding the rat four days ago, and the rat was now ready for whoever she happened to bring home today.  She now went to the corner and got the wire wicker woven bird cage with the rat in it.  She smiled a happy smile at the boy because she was about to do something he she had planned and anticipate for a long while.  She placed the bottom of the bird cage on top of the foreskin and carefully pushed it forward so the side of the bird cage butted the tip of the penis.  Then she stood to the side and watched and listened.

    At first the rat was scared of the two humans by the cage and he huddled in the far corner.  But his hunger was driving him crazy.  He smelled meat.  He darted forward and saw the meat underneath the grid of the floor.  He leaned down and started to eat, but a scream from the boy startled him and he ran back to the corner.  He saw the boy wasn't moving so he went back to his meal.  He soon learned that the boy may scream, but he was staying in one place and did not come toward at the rat.  The rat settled down to finishing his meal, and didn't pay any attention to the screaming boy.

    Salidia saw the rat had a easy time eating the flesh that was exposed between the grid, but because the grate was fine and small, the rat could only eat small pieces at a time.  This was a pleasant, unexpected development because she knew the boy would be tortured for a long time.  It would take the rat a long time to eat the foreskin because he could only eat it a tiny piece at a time.  Then she noticed the rat twisting his head to the side and pushing and twisting at the grate, and she realized the wires were resting on top of some of the skin, and the rat couldn't get to the skin underneath the wires of the grid.  She searched on the floor and found some stones to prop up the edges of the cage.  With the bird cage raised, the rat could now get the skin underneath the wire as well as the skin exposed between the grid.  It took the rat about 10 minutes to eat all the foreskin of the boy, in little bites at a time.  The boy stood screaming against the wheel, watching the rat eat his foreskin bite at a time, and Salidia watched them both.

    At the sand of the arena Salidia hadn't been able to do this but here she could.  She put her hands on the boy’s hips and ran them around. As the rat bit off a fresh piece here and there the boy would shudder and shiver and jerk, and it excited Salidia to feel his hips quivering and shuddering underneath her hands.  Feeling his hips quiver and shudder and hearing the moans and grasps and whimpers of the boy, Salidia became more and more excited. She pushed her hips against the side of the boy’s hips.  The boys hips, pressed against Salidia, quivered  and shuddered against her clitoris until she climaxed.  She leaned against the boys body and enjoyed waves of relaxed and contented feelings flow over her.  She was content to wait until the rat finished eating the boy’s foreskin.

    She had a little speech she had planned.  She had planned to tell the boy as the rat ate his foreskin, "This is an OBJECT LESSON!  If you ever disappoint me, I will put your cock and balls in the cage and let the rat eat everything bite by bite."   Now, she couldn't be bothered with her little speech to the boy.  She was having so much fun she just wanted to jump on to the next thing.  She had intended to begin the second part of the torture by saying "And this is a reminder!"  She wasn't going to waste time with a speech.  Now she was just going to push the boy from one torture to the next so she could enjoy it.  She understood the point of the evening was to torture the boy one way after another.  The crap about the speech was just horse shit.  From now on she would just bluntly put down one torture device and pick up the next.

    Out of plan, she looked at the penis.  The eaten off foreskin had left a broad band of raw flesh circling the penis where the foreskin had been.  Thoughtfully she reached down and stuck her finger tips into the raw flesh and squeezed.  Pain flashed across his face.  It made her smile.  She raked the nail of her right index finger across the raw wound, digging down into it hard, and watched the pain in the boys face.  She dragged her nail across the raw flesh some more, digging in each time, watching the boy.  I gave her a feeling of power to control the boy’s pain or inflict it when and how she wanted.  She felt very powerful, strong and in control.  She was very glad she had the boys flesh eaten off so she could feel this feeling of power and control.  All her torture sessions in the future would repeat this experience.  The feeling of power and strength and control would come to fill her in the future every time she would walk into her torture chamber, and it would addict her to this lifestyle forever.

    Feeling deeply satisfied, she decided to take a break and returned to the house for some wine and cheese.  Sitting there finishing the cheese, thoughts of the impending round of torture filled her mind with images of how she thought the boy would act.  She thought this might be humorous and she was impatient to get back.

    As she pried off the two tacks which still held the penis to the table, she visualized how the boy would react.  She was sure the boy would be funny, and it tickled her sense of humor picturing what the boy was about to do.

   She started to have a naughty and wicked feeling as if she were a little girl again, doing something Mommie forbid.  She hadn't felt that way since she was a little girl, and it felt so naughty and forbidden and fun.  She felt giggly, like she was a little child again.   Later, when this was all over, she would realize she hadn't had this much fun since she was a little girl.

   The next part was going to be like when she pushed the dagger into the gladiator's neck but this time is was a soft warm penis she would hold in her hand and she expected it to make all those little quivering movements and jerks that she had come to love since the dagger first came to life in her hand.

   She moved the rat cage a little closer and grabbed the penis.  It was a little slippery from the blood, but she didn't need to grasp it that hard and her grip was fine.  Tilting the penis just a little bit, she pushed the tip against the side the cage.  The skin just to the side of the pee hole pushed between the wire grate, and the skin bulged into the cage.  The rat saw the meat sticking inside his cage but he was afraid of the human - but he was hungry - but he was afraid - but he was hungry.  The rat darted toward the meat, than lost his courage as he got near the woman's hand, and he ran away.  Back and forth the rat went, each time getting closer.  Salidia knew the rat would eventually get to the penis, but she didn't know which rush of the rat would end with a bite on the boy and a bloody penis tip.

       Salidia giggled in anticipation.  She wondered what it would feel like in her hand as she held the penis pushed against the cage.  Would the rat sink his teeth deep in the boy's penis and tug and pull at the flesh while he tried to pull a bigger piece of meat into his cage?  (Which is what Salidia hoped for so she could feel the tugging on the penis in her hand, and she thought it would make a long, drawn out comic scene as the rat tugged and pulled at the penis; or would the rat make a quick clean nip, leaving a clean hole in the tip of the boys penis which Salidia would hardly feel through her fingers.  Which Salidia didn't want because it would be over to quickly and she wouldn't feel anything).  She knew for sure the boy would quiver and jerk and scream when the rat bit into his penis.  She waited for the moment to come..........  She stopped!    "Oh, this would be so much better if it surprised him!  She hunted around the room for scraps of cloth for a  blindfold, found some, blindfolded the boy, and rushed back to pick up the penis and push the tip of the penis back through the grate of the cage.

    The rat did his little dance, back and forth.  And Salidia started to giggle as the anticipation rose and she waited for the DRAMATIC MOMENT!  Finally the rat ran up to the penis, and without hardly looking, snapped, and turned and ran away.  Salidia was so disappointed in the rat, but the boy was so funny she must have laughed for 5 minutes.  The boy was tried and was standing with slumped head and shoulder, and suddenly his shoulders snapped back, his head shot up, and his mouth opened in a big "O".  "OOOHHHHHH," he screamed.

    Buoyed by the funniness of the boy, Salidia was ready for the next pass: the other side of the penis.  She picked up the penis again, tilted it to the other side, and pressed the tip into the wire mesh for the rat to eat.  She stared with rapt attention, and a wicked smile, at the rat as the drama began to unfold.  This time the rat was better and the boy was better.

    The rat was getting braver.  The humans didn't appear to be dangerous.  They made a lot of noise but they never came after him.  He could steal meat from them right under their noses and they never did anything.  He was beginning to think this was as safe as walking around a bunch of sheep.  Sheep made a lot of noise, bleating to each other, but they never hurt him, and the humans appeared to be the same.

    Salidia saw the rat was getting braver.  He made one feint, and then, instead to the quick run he made first time,  he start a slow, low, slinking walk toward the penis with his shoulders hunched down and neck low and extended, starring at the penis tip the whole time, as if he intended to pounce on it at the end.  Instead of the quick chop of the first time, he stopped, seem to adjust his position better - this time Salidia got to see the whole thing because he was slower - he opened his mouth WIDE showing the long, yellow, narrow pointy teeth on top and bottom and the red tongue and cheeks inside, and the deep black cavern that reach back into his throat, and then he reached forward to get a deep, long, curving bite, far back into his mouth, so he could get a lot of meat. He didn't bite immediately, but extended the lower jaw forward with the teeth pointing up, and he pulled his lips back on the top with the long yellow teeth pointing down over the penis.  He held his long, yellow teeth over the meat until he had the meat deep and far back into his mouth, and when the meat was far back in his mouth, he suddenly drove his teeth in to the boy's flesh with a fast, hard snap.  And with a hard jerk to the side, he tore out a chunk of meat from the penis, leaving a deep hole that reached far into the boy's penis.  It really was a dramatic moment, as good as anything in the Coliseum.  The rat stood a moment.  Salidia could see him swallow.  And then the rat scurried back to the corner.  Salidia was breathing in short, quick little breathes, her heart pounding, unable to take her eye off the scene.  And then she let out her breathe in deep puff.

   The boy was better too!  He was tied tightly to the wheel and couldn't move, but he started jumping up and down as if he could jump off the wheel, but going nowhere, and let out the this long "OOOOOO!!!ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooaaaaawwwwwh"

    Salidia was laughing, while at the same time her heart was racing with tension.  Immediately, images of other funny AND SCARY things she could do popped into her mind.  Twelve men, each with their cocks stuck into a long box, and one rat let lose in the box.  Other animals to use: a cat with his claws embedded in a man's balls and hanging down between his legs and the man trying to shake the cat off - with his hand tied behind his back.  This was as good as the lions at the Coliseum, but funnier.

    As funny as that was, she wanted to see that rat tugging and pulling on that cock, trying to pull it into his cage.  She imagined a dog tugging and pulling at a rope, then a man pulling the rope up, hoisting the dog up into the air as the dog held on to the rope.  She imagined a man standing with his legs spread over a box filled with rats, with the rats jumping up and holding on to the penis with their teeth.  Would they shake their bodies like a dog would?  If the box were raised or lowered, would it make a difference?  Would they jump and take a bite and then fall back down at one height, and jump up and hold on at another height?  If she starved the rats 10-12 days instead of 4, could she get them to jump like that?  Would mice be better for the foreskin because the could only take small bites, and the torture would last longer, and make many small little cries instead a fewer big one.  What about a bunch of mice, all at once biting the penis in many places after the penis had been shoved full and deep into their box?  Or better yet, put the penis deep inside a box, and then let a bunch of mice loose on it.  She wanted to try 2 mice on the foreskin of the next slave so the smaller bites would take longer, but there would be more of them.  And she wanted to get a lot of mice.

     She wanted to see that rat hanging on that penis, pulling and tugging at it like a dog would pull on a rope.  She improvised on the spot. The door to the cage was in the middle, but the table was too high.  She pulled the table away.  Now, she needed something the right height.  She looked around and had to go next door before she returned with a milking stool, which she put between the boy's legs.  The stool and a small slab of wood put the cage at the right height against the boy.  She wanted the penis in the cage as far as she could get it and the door pushed back so the rat couldn't escape.  She got string to tie the door back down.  She opened the door and pushed the cage against the boy’s hips.  He still had the blindfold on.  She was having trouble getting the penis to extend deeply into the cage.  It kept moving around and getting pinned at a halfway point by the door on one side and the cage on the other.  She wished she could just reach in from the other side and pull the cock into the cage for it's full length.  Some pushing, shoving and pulling the cage around the boy's hips (which cut his hips and penis shaft) finally got the penis in as much as it would go, but the pressure had pushed the door down out of alignment.  She tied the door down.  Now the problem was that pressed between the door and the bottom of the opening, the penis was sticking straight up.  She got a stick and settled in to watch the fun.

    She pushed the penis down with the stick.  The rat had already learned that wherever the lady was there was meat.  He saw the meat sticking into the cage at the middle of the cage wall, and he circled around below it.  In no time, he jumped up to get the meat.  It was hard to tell because it all happened so fast.  It seemed the rat tried to nip out a piece but started to fall backward too fast, and his teeth pulled out before he could get a good bite, leaving teeth marks but no gaping hole.  The long, yellow teeth had cut into penis from both sides, just leaving deep holes in the penis but it didn't take out a chunk of meat.  This was interesting enough.  She let it continue.  The boy screamed with each bite but the rat was more interesting and she watched that.  The rat made five jumps before he decided the meat was too high and gave up.  Only 1 time did he pull the penis down, but Salidia decided his teeth just got caught because the rat just jerked loose when the penis jerked to a stop.  That made the hole a little bit bigger than the others and the boy screamed louder.  The rat was covered in drops of blood which were dripping down on him from above.  She wanted to reward her pet for his hard work, and wanted to push the cock lower so the rat could get some bites of meat, but the stick was too short.

    She went outside and broke a branch off a tree that provided her a "Y" fork at the end.  She wanted the boy to watch as the rat ate his cock, so she removed the blindfold.  She pushed the cock down to the rat, intending to split her attention between boy as he watched what was going on in terror; and the rat, who watched what was going on with hunger and greed for more of the boy's penis.  The rat was getting very greedy about the penis, thinking it was his "meal" for the day.

       But the boy was crying now and saying, "No, please don't!  Please don't! Don't let him bite me anymore!  Don't let him bite me.  It hurt so much, Please!  Not my penis!  No!"  She got up and faced the boy, pushing the stick down behind her without looking.  She didn't know how much to push the cock down so the rat could get some bites that would give him chunks of meat from the boys cock, but she didn't think much since the rat was just missing by a little bit before, and she had a longer stick now.

       "I want to reward my pet, and I want you to give him your cock so he can eat it.  Now give the nice rat your cock so he can bite it."  She coordinated pushing the cock down behind with her conversation, and could tell when the rat took a bite out of the cock by the flashes of pain in the boys face and his screams.  "OH! That's a good boy!"  She let the cock up.  "Now, let’s give my rat some more to eat!  He's very hungry and he wants to bite you.  We're going to give the rat what he wants and not what you want.  Now he wants to bite you and we're going to let him continue to bite you.  Now give him you cock to bite! .....................Ho!, Good Boy! ..................... ......OOOH!, Gooooood."  She let his cock up.  "Don't be stingy.  Share your nice cock with the rat.  Now give your cock another time to the nice rat to eat some more.   Oh!  Good!    Good!   Yes! ........ Let him eat.  Stay down there.  Let him bite you.  Uhmmm! Yes!."  She let it up.  "Does it hurt?  It must be so sore.  It must hurt so much to bite you penis.  But we must let the rat bite your penis.  We must let the rat bite you so he can eat.  You must push your penis down for the rat to bite again.  Now I want to you to push your penis way down in front of the rat so he can get to that nice sensitive tip of your's and let him bite you there!  Let the rat bit you on the tip!"

       She turned to watch what she was doing and pushed the cock down low for the rat.  When the rat jumped up and got a bite of the penis, she said.  "Auhh.  That's better.  Mr. Rat got something to eat.  That was good to let the rat bite you, wasn't it.  Aren't you glad the rat bit you.  I'm glad the rat bit you.  I want the rat to bite you some more.  And I'm sure the rat wants to bite you some more."  She turned to face the boy again, pushing down on the stick behind without watching it.   "Now, instead of just one or two bites here and there, let's let the nice rat just munch a while on your cock.  You just hold your cock down there for a long time so he can bite you many times and you have to give him plenty of time to eat his fill of your cock without rushing.  You just hold your cock down there for him a long time so he can eat his fill.  Let him bite you many times for a long time! Now!! Give him your cock!!!"  Salidia pushed hard down on the stick forcing the cock straight down, with the head of the penis closest it had yet to be to the rat.

       This was the lowest Salidia has pushed it and she pushed it down hard, leaning her weight on the stick till it hurt her hand.  She expected the rat to be able to reach it easily.  She expected the rat to reach up and take big, fast bites of the cock tip, eating a lot of the tip.  Maybe the rat might even be able to stand up on his hind leg, and grab the cock with his paws, holding it in front of him as he ate it.  She thought it would send the boy into a frenzy of agony and be a fitting climate for the night.  Actually, this didn't turn out to bad for the boy.  Fortunately, the rat was getting tired from jumping, and only managed four bites into the head of the penis in spite of the fact that Salidia held the cock down close to the rat for quite a long time.  And the rat was getting full, thus less motivated.  Salidia learned in the future to have a cage of replacements rats for when the first batch tired from jumping.  A second string team, who would be ready to go with plenty of energy.

    Unfortunately for the boy, this whole episode would have been much easier on him if he had kept his mouth shut.  Originally, Salidia only intended to let the rat have four or five nips to see if the rat would jump up and hold to the penis when it was pushed lower down and shake it like a dog would; and, as a little reward for all the rat's jumping, allow the rat a few good chunks of meat.  But when the boy spoke, Salidia improvised the whole talk to tease the boy.  The boy got 2-3 times more the number of bites as Salidia played out her game with the boy.

   At the end she decided to have the door of the cage enlarged, and to have several round holes cut on the opposite side so she could push the cock inside easily at different heights for the rat.  She also wanted to commission five more cages with various cutout she had in mind, some large enough to allow putting the balls inside.     

    Salidia happily thought that she might be stuck out here in the boondocks, but she was going to have a lot of fun filled days.  A realization suddenly came to her of why Drusilla has a stable of 30-40 cocks.  If you use the same males day after day their poor little thingys would fall off and you'd have nothing to play with anymore.  You have to give them a chance to heal between rounds.  You have to let some heal while you play with the others.  Drusilla wasn't being extravagant when she filled her stable up with 30-40 men, she was being practical.  Salidia wonder just how many she would have to get besides 12 boys, and she got a little serious about cutting corners.  It was that same practicality that had gotten her out of Rome.

    That rat was as exciting as a lion, and improving as he lost his fear of people.  He was getting to the point were he would just walk up to a person and just bite him as soon a he saw them.  And take his time to do a good job at it too!  It was better when the rat was experienced.  They took their time and you could see what they did better.  (Salidia would eventually keep several very large rats that had become very accustomed to people.  The lazier they were the better.)  But she was still disappointed that the rat hadn't hung on and tugged and pulled at the penis.  She wanted to see him tugging and pulling on the penis, trying to pull it into his cage.  She immediately got a image of someone playing with a dog, the dog pulling and tugging at a rope, then being swung into air as the dog held onto the rope and the person swung him in a circle.  Which immediately turned  to  "Put the man on his knees, hands tied his behind back, let a small dog bite the penis, tugging and pulling at it.  Let the man get to his feet, and try to shake the dog off.  Or, put a man in a cage, hands tied behind back.  Three small dogs in the cage.  Let the man run around while the dogs jump up and try to get his cock."  "What a year I'm going to have!"

   It occurred to her that her success was because she was using small things.  If you wanted to kill the slave like in the Coliseum, you need hundreds of slaves and big animals.  If you contented yourself with little tortures, you only need a few slaves (more that 12!), and could use more manageable animals.  And as far as she was concerned, it could be just as dramatic as the Coliseum, and a hell of a lot funnier.  Watching that rat up close as he walked up and bit the penis was dramatic.  And the teeth!  So long and such a disgusting, dirty yellow.  They even looked sharp.  She didn't know the teeth were so narrow.  She was happy with the torture.  She could afford a kill every so often at the ludus.  But here at home she had hundreds of ways to fill up her days with little tortures.  She CERTAINLY WAS going to fill up her stable with more men to torture.  She planned to go to that seaport where they had a large selection of men.

    And!..... if she used small boys, 15-16-17, she could afford many more than 12!  Strong, grown men were the most expensive slaves, boys were near the bottom of the list, just above old slaves.  Use the boys at home; go to the ludus to kill a man once in a while.  Or buy her own!  Much cheaper than buying a trained one. (Some training!)  She was very happy with the boy.  It was the screaming and fear and jerking around that she liked, which she could get with safer, moderate torture.  This boy's cock would be healed in month or so, and it could be used again.  And in a week his nipples or some other part could be used.  Salidia decided she was going to stock her stable with boys to torture, and fill it up with as many as could.  She could imagine pulling a different boy into her torture chamber every day of the week, and feeling that sense of power and control.  She imagined walking down a line of boys kept in the stable, inspecting their injuries and selecting the one she wanted to torture that day, and having Talig pull the screaming and kicking boy into the torture room for her to torture and enjoy for the day.

       And she had just scratched the surface.  Different kinds of animals.  Whips, birches, plants with thorns, sharp stones to scrap the skin, pliers, fire, sharp knifes, pins, garrotes and a hundred other implements she hadn't thought of yet.  Today, she already had the steward's man auguring holes into that table so she could tie a slave down where she could use those new needles she had made.

                       EPILOG

      Over the next year Salidia filled her stable to twenty three, and she did stride down the middle of the stable pointing to Talig the boy she wanted to torture that day.  The stable grew over time.  Stable boys turned out to be her cheapest and most plentiful source of recruits.  Her fertile imagination pumped out new ways and implements to torture the boys.  Her animal collection grew.

    One day she stopped in the kitchen for something to eat as Talig was pulling a boy into the torture room.  She noticed one of the young scullery maids had stopped working and stood transfixed, smiling at the scene outside, while the other maids worked.  Caught starring, the maid gave Salidia a furtive, envious glance, then turned her head down and went back to work cleaning pots.  Salidia said, "Would you like a new job?"  The maid’s eyes widen in surprise with a slight smile on her face.  Hungrily, excitedly she asked with baited breathe, "In the torture room?"  Salidia had a new assistant who prove to be: One, helpful assisting Salidia in the torture.  Two, able to enthusiastically torture the boys herself while Salidia could leisurely sit back and watch the games as audience.  Three, be creative in her own right in coming up with new ways to torture the boys.  Together, the two women came up with many new, creative, entertaining way of torturing their toys.  The scullery maid rose to be third in command of the household behind Talig. but since the maid was in charge of the boys, Talig would take orders from her concerning the boys.

       As Salidia's stable grew and her repertory of entertainments increase, Caligula continued to scare the hell out of everybody in Rome.  More people fled to the safety of the provinces.  Slowly, some other expatriates settled around Salidia, whom she invited to dinner and she entertained with her boys rather than the usual gladiatorial contests.  Word spread of Salidia and her creative entertainments during dinners.  People began to stop by Salidia's to see her unique dinner entertainments for themselves.

       Salidia realized the potential for profit, and she began to charge guests for visit to be entertained and participate in the tortures themselves.  The stable grew, the pet collection grew, the repertory of entertainments grew, the collection of torture implements grew, the number of assistants grew, and Salidia became the director of a large complex offering guests entertainment as members of a audience or participants in the game.  Of course, many guests would order up boys or girls to be sent to their room at night for torture by the guest herself.  Most of the guest accommodations had their own torture chambers off the side, specifically to encourage this profit generating behavior.

       This became very lucrative.  Guest would become aroused by the evening shows, and would return to their rooms wanting to slake their sadism and willing to pay exorbitant prices for slaves on the impulse of the moment.  Many wanted to try for themselves some of the new, innovative tortures Salidia had created, which they had just seen in the show.  If requested, Salidia would happily provide them, and charge them, with rats, dogs, torture implements, etc., so they could try out some of things they had seen Salidia do for the first time.

    Some even paid (!!!!) Salidia to put troublesome brothers and sisters into her stable when there were arguments in the family over who was the rightful heir of the family fortune.  When there was conflict over who was the rightful heir of the family estate, a brother or sister would arrive at Salidia's estate, accompanied by the person's brother or sister.  When they left, only one left.  Salidia was paid to put the troublesome sibling in with the slaves slated for torture.  Sons and daughter of many noblemen ended up on her torture racks as a brother and sister laughed to themselves back on the family estates, which they had just inherited uncontested.  Salidia also got many hostages for her torture room when deals and alliances were broken and the hostage forfeit.  Many of these forfeit hostages were high ranked personages in the tribes they came from, princes and princesses.  Princesses were usually virgins, so they could be married off to form political alliances.  Salidia was able to make a large profit by selling them as slaves to her guests.

     Slave traders began to make special trips to Salidia, both to offer her their wares, and to pick her "retirees" at bargain basement prices. People didn't care if a slave were a little banged up, as long as he could clean up a stable, particularly when the slave trader would offer a discount on the boys for “wear and tear.”

     If word leaked to the slaves about where they were and who was buying them, pandemonium broke out because the slaves knew anyone sold to Salidia was tortured, and the auction was a scene in itself.   Later, the boys were intentionally told that they were being sold to Salidia for her to torture, to increase the drama of the auction.  Since the traders were coming to her house, Salidia has a cage build to hold the traders' boys on one side, and two cages on the other, one for rejects and one for the boys she would keep.  Boys were pulled one by one on to a dais where Salidia sat.  Salidia continued to test the boys suitability herself, not because she doubted the judgment of her assistants but because she savored that first look of fear and bewilderment as the boys were tortured for the first time.  She would then send the boys she wanted to keep to one cage and the rejects to the other.  Taking the screaming and fighting boys from the holding cell to the permanent stable was a drama in itself.  She had a full torture chamber on the back of the dais, and if she found one boy particular interesting, she would pull him in the back for a half hour or so of special entertainment.

       The whole slave auction became a lurid drama for the guests to watch.  Whenever slave traders arrived, guest would flock to the auction to watch screaming boys pulled before Salidia for her to test, and then pulled from holding cells to the stables in the back.  Some guest placed orders for particular boys they had seen at the auction to deliver the boys to them that night.  Usually spectators where treated to special, extended torture scenes when particularly entertaining boys were brought to the dais.

But those are all other stories.