The Hadrian Enigma - A Forbidden History (24 page)

Antinous simply stared wide-eyed back at Hadrian. He was uprightly entranced with astonishment verging on sensory swoon.

A few protracted moments elapsed until, with a faint gasp, half-closed fluttering eyelids, and a writhed undulation at the hips, he quivered ecstatically as he flung back his head in cathartic release. His bright shaggy hair bounced in the moonlight as he emitted a strangulated cry, an animal yowl of agonized rapture. I guessed he had ejaculated charges of semen directly into his paramour’s fondling palm, just as I had seen him forcefully expel on those occasions of our jerk-off competitions under the stars by a wilderness fireside. Young men are fascinated by the extraordinary demands of their sex drive and its uncontrollable bodily manifestations.

Hadrian, bemused but determined, teasingly rolled the ejaculate around Antinous’s penis to intensify his sensitivities, causing him to squirm in feigned hurt in a burst of nervous laughter. He then calmly wiped his palm on the flannel of Ant’s loincloth while grinning into his companion’s shining eyes.

The episode complete, he took Antinous’s cranium in both hands to fondly buss him on the forehead, each eyelid, the tip of the nose, his lips, and bat a final brotherly tap to the butt.

‘
Young men are so hasty,’ I heard Hadrian mutter in amusement, ‘they don’t wait around, do they?’

‘
Can I do something pleasing for you too, my lord?’ I heard Antinous ask limply.

I suddenly realized how such reciprocation could lead in embarrassing directions; directions I might not wish to witness or even know about. The prospect of being obliged to avert my eyes from watching my best friend being butt-fucked by Rome’s great emperor in an artificial garden by pale moonlight rose to mind. But I was immediately rescued from this prospect. Hadrian responded.

‘
You have already done enough,’ he replied. ‘But there’ll be time for those things some other day, Antinous. We are going to part now, so you can return to your friends. I have other matters to address. But I hope my message came through to you? If you speak to your father for his permission, and if it is given, I would welcome you with your friend Lysias and your servants too, at Athens in the spring. You could join me for the Festival of Dionysus celebrations. That is, if it is your father’s will. Farewell until then. I hope we meet again, Antinous. I look forward to it.’

Hadrian began to wind his cloak around himself in readiness to depart.

‘
Hadrian,’ I heard Antinous murmur, halting the emperor in his move away from the couch with a presumptuous tug at his sleeve.

Caesar froze at this lapse of protocol as Antinous searched into his eyes. He had used the emperor’s name in a familiar manner, while the tug at the sleeve was not a subject’s approved kiss of a cloak hem. As we all know, a Caesar may engage in familiarity without permission, but a citizen should not do the same at risk of a lethal response from the Guard.

Hadrian scanned the garden to flick his head in a subtle negative shake. It immediately made me wonder if he expected hidden guards to be monitoring the occasion from somewhere nearby. If so, they were not evident to me, thankfully.

Antinous stumbled out his words. He was quaking with emotion.

‘
When next we meet, and with my Father’s endorsement, I hope to be able to say to you ‘
Yes Caesar, I am yours’
, if this remains your desire,’ he said softly but clearly.

Hadrian smiled.

‘
Prepare yourself well, Antinous of Bithynia. Your true life is about to begin. You will fulfill your destiny to your heart’s desire. Until Athens, farewell.’

Caesar rewound himself in his cloak and swept back into the Marquee’s dark interior. Once again Antinous was standing alone in the moonlight, disheveled, cold, while fumbling to adjust his loincloth and re-furl his cloak.

But then I perceived how, besides myself beneath the pale gray moon, another concealed observer had seen these events. Both of us had witnessed the inauguration of something which proved to be momentous for our generation.”

“
An observer, you say?” Suetonius interjected.

“
Yes. I began to back away from my place of concealment. I withdrew into the shadows to return to the lanes leading back to our sleeping quarters. I moved quickly to ensure I returned ahead of Antinous. I knew Antinous would feel his honor had been impugned if he realized I had observed the exchange with Caesar.

As I moved into the shadows I noticed another figure flit through the darkness ahead of me, someone who too had been concealed. Startled but evasive, I caught the image of this figure from the corner of my eye silently emerging through the moonlight and again disappearing into darkness. It happened momentarily. This figure must surely have seen me too concealed up ahead. He too had probably been a witness to the transaction between Hadrian and Ant. I perceived the shadowy figure’s height, breadth, and body type to have been similar to someone like Arrian.

It dawned on me how the absence of Horse Guards or Praetorian protectors at the site of the rendezvous was intentional to permit the night’s events to proceed unhindered. The emperor’s assignation with my friend was arranged to be entirely private and personal.

I then moved swiftly through the tent city’s lanes to be ahead of my school friend’s return.”

The four listeners heard out Lysias’s reminiscence with fascination. The graphic details of Caesar’s adventure with his Bithynian subject concentrated their minds wonderfully. Lysias returned to silence while sipping at his wine.

CHAPTER 11

“
S
o? What happened next?” Suetonius asked.

Lysias sat upright to begin his testimony again.

“
On returning to our sleeping quarters I was confronted with another surprise. Our staff was standing around staring in dismay at the places where Antinous and I were supposed to be asleep. Squatted atop Antinous’s bed of piled straw a pace from my own stack was a human figure reclining in a nonchalant manner.

She was a young woman of striking pertness, delicacy, and shining with a copper-colored complexion. Her dark hair was bound high on her head in the fashionable style of gentlewomen of quality at Rome, pinned with needles of ivory. She was dressed in the fine, sheer raiment and silken mantle of a member of the Imperial Court adorned with drop earrings and a necklet of filigree gold. Her eyes were outlined in thin black lines of
kohl, a 
striking fashion affected at the eastern half of the Empire.

She had a travelling sack bulging with possessions lying beside her, and as I approached I realized she also had a sheathed
gladius
short-sword lying on the blanket before her. The weapon’s matching hip dagger and its finely-crafted belt-strap were immediately-recognizable. It was the knife which had brought down the boar earlier in the day. Hadrian’s knife. It was accompanied by an Imperial scroll tied in scarlet silk and sealed with a clay
bulla
.

‘
Antinous of Bithynia?’ she asked brightly as I came near.

‘
No, I am Lysias, his friend,’ I responded. ‘Who are you? What do you want with Antinous, young lady?’

‘
Oh,’ she said firmly, ‘I am instructed to speak only with Antinous of Bithynia.’

At that moment Antinous entered the marquee, only to be surprised to find everyone awake and standing forlornly around his bedding place. It was occupied by the dark eyed interloper seated between her various possessions. He glanced around the motley group facing him.

‘
What the …?’ he gasped.

The lithe young beauty arose from her seat with a supple dexterity and a delicate feminine grace I have rarely seen expressed so effectively in a single human bodily movement. I realized the delightful creature in the resplendent attire with her supple elegance was perhaps one of the dancers from the evening’s entertainments, or some other nubile attendant to the Imperial Household.

She met eye-to-eye with Antinous and immediately understood how this blond haired, tall-statured youth with the gilded suntan was her mission’s objective. Someone had told her Antinous would be the very good looking fellow of our group.

‘
Antinous of Bithynia, victor of the Hunt, greetings!’ she proclaimed gaily. ‘I am instructed by my master to deliver these gifts to you and ensure their purpose is understood.’

With a nod of the head gesturing to the sword and dagger at her feet while proffering the official scroll, she continued trippingly.

‘
These are awards from Great Caesar to be delivered directly into the hands of Antinous of Bithynia. I am also instructed to deliver myself into your household’s service as well,’ she said with a teasing flash of the eyes. She rose to her full height barely up to Antinous’s chest and offered the
gladius
, dagger, belt, and scroll, accompanied by a small kidskin pouch knobbled with bulges. It suggested many coins within.

‘
Yes, I am Antinous of Bithynia, young lady,’ he confirmed with formality before the eyes of all. ‘So who are you?’

Antinous scanned his grooms and steward for an explanatory response.

‘
The young lady was escorted to our tent by two of Caesar’s soldiers,’ his steward said. ‘They departed just before you arrived. She is unaccompanied.’

Antinous glanced at me questioningly but then took the sword belt with its attached scabbard and dagger in his hands and unsheathed the well-wrought polished blade. The gleam of quality metal and fine craftsmanship shone beneath the lamp-light while the white enameled inlays and silver decoration announced its costliness. Antinous looked to me as we both immediately recognized its origin and owner.

‘
It’s the blade which killed the boar today. It’s Caesar’s.’

Antinous developed a growing blush as its implication dawned on both of us at the same time.
‘A small hunting kill, a fine weapon, or a drinking vessel’
, the classic definition of admissible suitor’s gifts to an
eromenos
which did not imply bribery, let alone prostitution.

‘
My master has instructed me to say you will understand what this gift represents,’ the petite birdlike woman confirmed in wide-eyed innocence.

The nutty russet of her skin, her straight line of white teeth shining from a beaming face, her whiter-than-white eyeballs with their piercingly dark pupils, the painted
kohl
around her eyes, and the slenderness of her figure told us this pretty creature was a foreigner of neither Hellene nor Asia Minor origin. Yet her spoken Greek was without accent.

Antinous nodded acknowledgement and took the scroll and sack of coins in curiosity. He broke the scroll’s clay seal and unwound the papyrus. Glancing to me and the others from time to time, he began to softly enunciate the message within.

‘
Antinous of Bithynia, son of Telemachus of Claudiopolis, greetings! I, Imperator Caesar Publius Aelius Hadrianus, as a token of my friendship, regard, and affection, bestow your person with this gift of a finely wrought sword of best Syracuse workmanship. This sword was once the property of King Nikomedes IV of Bithynia, being a part of the treasure endowed by his estate to the SPQR at the time of Caesar Augustus. You will recall this sword’s efficacy in our Imperial Hunt this day, and comprehend its intended message as a gesture of my regard. Respect the beauty and quality of this rare artifact just as I respect the equivalent character of its human recipient.

Accompanying this gift is an endowment of a specially selected slave acquired at market at the Isle of Delos, the holy abode of our divine Apollo, for your personal service. THAIS is her name. She is fifteen years of age, and a native of Cyrene at Roman Africa. She is trained in all domestic duties, household stewardship, finances, is a body servant or lady’s companion, and is a dancer and singer of talent.

However, more importantly, she is also schooled in Palatine Latin, Koine Greek, plus Syrian Aramaic to a high standard for your continuing language instruction. She reads and writes in all three scripts. This bestowal of ownership with its documents is supported with a purse of coins to pay for upkeep of her services for at least a year. Future annual upkeep is subject to your continuing demand of her services. Yours in friendship, etc.”

Antinous and I stared with amazement at this gift of living flesh standing demurely before us. Antinous peeped into the pouch. His eyes widened as he poured the contents of the purse onto the cloth before him.

A pile of coins of deep yellow gold lay before him, to the audible gasp of the surrounding household attendants. There was enough gold in the pouch to purchase several slaves of quality and provide their upkeep for years. Antinous didn’t think anyone of the group, including him, had ever before seen so much gold in one place.

The assembly looked to the human acquisition before them in wonderment. She looked back to Antinous with an open expression of disingenuous delight and a brightly twinkling smile.

‘
Hello Master. My name is Thais,’ she volunteered without permission, ‘I am trained as an educated servant for a master or mistress of quality. I was born of a slave mother at Cyrene, capital of Cyrenaica in Africa, and raised in the household of the Imperial Prefect of the province at Cyrene and Ptolemais. My mother was Lais of Canopus, the concubine favorite of the Prefect. I am competent in the duties necessary for managing a household of quality such as the Prefect’s two palaces in Cyrenaica.