Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 19:22:53 EDT
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: While Emperors Contend at Rome

		      WHILE EMPERORS CONTEND AT ROME
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
		      WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM

     Titus Flavius Sabinus rode down the Latin Way in Campania, weary and
dust-covered after four days of hard riding in the hot sun of early July in
southern Italy. He saw the familiar gleam of white marble in the distance,
the country estate of the Antonius Primus family, and the home of his
once-friend Antonius Primus Justinius. Far from making his heart glad, he
let a frown crease his travel-weary body. He was neither expected nor
welcomed, he knew, for Justinius had left Rome at the time of the death of
Nero, and the official version of events was that Justinius was ill and
could see nobody.
     For this reason, Sabinus pulled up and stopped at the posts before the
house, tethered his horse by its reins, and strode up, helmet under his
arm, looking no doubt as bedraggled as could be, hardly a credit to Rome.
     As he had expected, Justinius met him with a sword and with no hint of
illness about him. "Hold and declare your intent!" he called out when
Sabinus walked onto the portico, a wide porch with columns, practically an
open-air room.
     "Pax!" called out Sabinus. "I am your old friend, Titus Flavius
Sabinus, and I come from Rome with evil news."
     "Sabinus!" Justinius' voice held gladness, but then his body stiffened
once more. "All news from Rome is evil in these days." Justinius replied
curtly. "If you have no other business, then you should travel on to my
neighbors, for I am afflicted with the measles." There was not the
slightest pock upon his body, and his strength was as great as Sabinus had
remembered. He could not help but sigh as he remembered their days in the
barracks at Mars Field, two young men new to the toga virilis, and in the
darkness of the room of sleeping bodies, when Justinius' body had slid into
his bed next to him, and the hand that grappled for his young penis,
sending thrills through his body, and he reached for Justinius' prong and
found it hard and waiting for him, and so they shared the innocent joy of
young boys in the near-madness of fresh pubescence, stifling their gasps of
pleasure in the snore-filled darkness. This had cemented their friendship
when awake, and they had been inseparable until some five years ago, when
their commands had sent them to different parts of Italy. Now Sabinus saw
that arm which had given him so many nights of pleasure, and watched as the
muscles in that arm rippled as Justinius moved the sword in a gesture of
his dismissal.
     "That is what your father told me in a letter from him that I received
but six days ago." Sabinus agreed. "And I came immediately to see you as he
requested."
     Justinius lowered his sword and Sabinus looked into those old familiar
eyes. Justinius was a large man, as were all of his family, with broad
shoulders, large arms and hands, deep brown hair and a handsome face...that
was long overdue for a shave and a tunic that was overdue for a change and
wash. Perhaps Justinius felt Sabinus' slight frown upon his incipient
beard, for he rubbed at his face and said, "If you lie to me you die,
despite our old friendship. But if you know my father and he has sent you,
then you can offer me a password. Tell me why I live here far from Rome,
pretending to be afflicted and avoiding all my former comrades."
     Sabinus smiled. "Because your father and three older brothers are all
important men in Rome. One died earlier this year when Galba came to power
because he had backed the cause of Nero against the rebellion. Another has
been banished to Lusitania Caesari Province in Spain for supporting Galba
over Otho."
     "Yes, and that was six months ago. Now Galba is dead and Otho is dead
and the latest soi-disant emperor, Vitellius, still approaches Italy with
the armies of the Upper and Lower Rhine at his back. He claims himself
emperor though the Senate has not yet confirmed it." Justinius said. "All
this I have heard to my sorrow. Why, then, are you here?"
     Sabinus looked into Justinius' eyes earnestly. "Because Vitellius is
unworthy to lead Rome in these days. We need a strong man who understands
the armies and will keep the men in check. Vitellius is incompetent, his
armies march more like the guests of a wedding party, drunk and stopping to
feast at every town they come across. It is no army, it is a mob of armed
men."
     "Yet the armies of the Rhine with Vitellius at their head outnumber
the armies of Italy more than two-fold." Justinius said, still not giving
anything away. Those deep brown eyes of his still held no comradeship
despite their years together as cadets on Mars Field, sharing the same
table, drinking at the same bars. "And now that Otho is dead, what shall
prevent him from becoming Emperor?"
     "Nothing, and so he will win," Sabinus agreed, "but he cannot
prevail."
     "And so you would back yet a third man for Emperor." Justinius
said. "And you would ask me to join you in this."
     "Not only I, but my father and yours." Sabinus said.
     "So who would you have for emperor, then?"
     "My grand-uncle." Sabinus said with no further preamble.
     "Vespasian?" Justinius said. "But he is at the siege of Jerusalem and
cannot arrive here before fall, far too late to take an army into the
field."
     "Nay, he is now at Alexandria, and has thus cut off the shipments of
grain to Rome." Sabinus told him. "Twenty thousand of his men are coming to
Italy under Gaius Licinius Mucianus, and will land near here very soon. Do
you doubt that my uncle can rule Rome?"
     "He can rule the armies." Justinius agreed. "And what else is there in
these days?"
     "Then will you join me?"
     "For what? More battles and more Roman blood on Roman swords?"
Justinius said. "Nay, you have distracted me with this news, I admit, but I
now recall my question to you. I ask you once more, if you expect my
good-fellowship, tell me what I already know, why I am here in Campania
when all Rome is on the march and corpses of Roman soldiers lie unburied in
disgrace at Bedriacum?"
     "Because your father gave you a single order, to live and carry on the
bloodline of Antonius Primus." Sabinus said. "Should he and his brothers
die, you are to go into hiding and thus preserve the family name."
     He had spoken truth, and Justinius' eyes showed trust for the first
time. "And so I live here." Justinius nodded. "Why should it be that my
father has changed his mind and risks me, his youngest son and his
bloodline?"
     "Because your father is now in Pannonia mustering the armies of
Ilyricum and Dalmatia." Sabinus said. "And they shall outnumber Vitellius'
forces two-fold in their own turn once they join with the armies of my
grandfather."
     Justinius stood there, and Sabinus sagged within his armor from
weariness. "I am with you."Justinius said at last to Sabinus' great
relief. "Yet it shall be weeks before they can arrive. What shall we do in
the meantime? Ride to meet with the armies of my father? Or await the
armies of Mucianus?"
     "We shall recover from the measles together." Sabinus said. "For I
find I am afflicted as well." And he smiled slyly. "And your father is not
the only one who thinks of the family bloodline."
     With a hard laugh, Justinius reached out and grabbed him with those
huge arms, hugged him tightly, squeezing a grunt out of Sabinus as this
arms nearly crushed his ribcage despite his breastplate. "Ah, my friend."
He said. "It has been lonely here for these many months. I have been as
those panthers we saw in their cages, waiting for the games on Mars Field
when we were very young; remember how they paced? So have I paced this
portico not daring to go out, but unable to do anything else. I understand
those panthers now; they are my brothers and we pace as one."
     "We will wait for your father's armies to arrive and then we will join
them." Sabinus said.
     "That will be many weeks yet." Justinius repeated. "Enter, my
friend. Helga, a bath for my new houseguest, and hot food to follow." he
called out as he turned to go inside. Sabinus smiled and followed.
     Some hours later, after a blessed bath and a meal full of wine whose
ending he did not clearly recall, Sabinus awoke with a start. It was
nearing dusk and the day was cooling, as a breeze had begun to rise from
the sea. He turned on his eating couch, seeing the table had been taken
away while he had slept, looked up. Justinius was there, awake, looking at
him. Just looking. Justinius had also been active while he had slept, his
face was now clean and his body garbed in a fresh tunic of dull brown, a
soldier's tunic.
     "I fear my weariness has caused me to be a poor guest." Sabinus said
as he rose up to a sitting position. He pulled at the white cloth of the
house-tunic he now wore, it was a loan from the house store of clothing,
for his had all been soiled by his ride, and this tunic was somewhat too
small for him.
     "It has been a pleasure to me just to see someone besides the farm
laborers and these three old German women who my father sent here to care
for me in my...illness." Justinius said. "They all keep my secret well, for
they have been promised their freedom in exchange for this time of
service. But they have been poor company and have no conversation worthy of
the word."
     "What then have you been doing to occupy your time?"
     "Very little." Justinius admitted. "I dare not risk being seen in the
exercise field, or go out riding. My instructions from my father were
clear, I was to give no indication that I was not ill and near to death."
     Sabinus lay back down on the couch, resting his head upon its sole
raised arm, for this couch had no back to it and his body ached from the
days of riding. As he did, he felt the tunic again riding up embarrassingly
high. And no underwear beneath it! "Feh, this is no tunic, it is a jerkin!"
He swore. "Have you nothing else in this house that I can wear until my own
clothing is clean and dry?"
     "There may be." Justinius said. "But this is what I told them to lay
out for you."
     "Then I shall wear it." Sabinus said and lay on back. "Though I
thought you knew my size better than this."
     "I knew your size, to the very inch." Justinius said and he came over
to sit on the edge of the couch where Sabinus lay. "You have asked what I
have been doing these days? I now tell you that I have been sacrificing to
Liber most unceasingly."
     "With the German slave-women?" Sabinus was confused and repulsed at
once. By invoking the name of the god Liber, Justinius was referring in a
discreet way to sexual release, done not for procreation but for
pleasure. But these women were white-haired and nearly feeble, they seemed
too old and ugly to be sexually desirable; he had already dismissed them
from his own calculations on that.
     "Nay, alone." Justinius said. "I give my seed to the air and wash it
away in the bath, letting it go up to Liber unimpeded."
     "Ah." Sabinus smiled. "The age-old occupation of a person who is
idle. But I am idle now too, it seems."
     "And so we will sacrifice together." Justinius said in a tone that
permitted no refusal.
     The strong hand rode up Sabinus' thigh with the firmness of a Roman
legion and it laid siege with fingers for scaling ladders around the
foreskin-wall of Sabinus' cock, surrounding and seizing him.
     "I would not have it otherwise." Sabinus gasped out. "I confess that I
have missed our days at the academy when we shared our bed at nights."
     "Pouring forth abundant offerings to Liber." Justinius agreed. "Even
now your body cries out for the sacrifice."
     Sabinus looked down to see the clear fluid oozing out of his
cockslit. "Liber smiles upon me this day."
     "He smiles upon us." Justinius agreed. "As he did in the days of our
youth. But we are not young anymore, and I would take you as a man, not as
an unskilled lad that knows only his hand."
     "My body is yours." Sabinus gasped. "Take it as you will for the glory
of Liber."
     "May his name be exalted." Justinius intoned and his body leaned over
and his lips brushed the top of Sabinus' cockhead.
     Sabinus gasped as Justinius' tongue probed into the taut opening of
his foreskin, exploring the dimpled cup-like opening that remained even
when his manhood was in full erection. His tender cockhead, nestled and
protected within this sheath, was tender and the skin that rarely knew
contact blushed strongly upon the moist contact with the tip of Justinius'
tongue, that caressed him and the saliva that poured down like wine pouring
to fill his little cup as the tongue kissed away the blessing of Liber,
snatching it away as an impious beggar might snatch the meat from the
sacrificial fire of an unattended altar, seizing it for himself.
     But his body had more and Sabinus felt his cock gush forth with more
of the crystalline fluid of his potency and his need.
     And now Justinius leaned over the more and captured all of Sabinus'
turgid prong, sending the organ thrilling to the very depths of his mouth
and throat, covering him with warm friendship made flesh, wrapping him up
and covering him in the way the brief tunic could not.
     Sabinus groaned and his hand fumbled across the desert of Justinius'
thigh, finding the canyon between his legs, the walls of which opened to
him in gladness and Sabinus questing fingers found and encircled Justinius'
manhood, and Sabinus was pleased to feel it once more after so many years,
larger and more confident in its tumescence than they had been in the bunks
at night, furtive and surrounded by their sleeping comrades, here was no
need to be covert in their actions, he brought Justinius' cock into the
light of the still-strong day creased by long-but-dim shadows that reached
across this room, the air was cool and fresh upon their skin, and it was as
if the entire world smiled upon this, their hour of joining.
     Sabinus manipulated the strong prick of the strong patrician tribune,
and Justinius groaned in appreciation as he suckled and nursed his friend's
cock, his head moving in unwavering, unapologetic motions, for this was the
hour of Liber who watched over them with their entreaties, and did he not
smile most warmly upon love that was freely given and taken?
     Justinius' cock weeped its own offering to Liber that poured onto
Sabinus' working fingers, and Sabinus shifted on the couch and Justinius
understood his movements, and joined him on the couch fully, pulled Sabinus
down by two powerful hands upon Sabinus' ankles that scooted him down so
that his powerful legs could land their knees upon either side of his head,
and Sabinus' world became dominated by the aroma of Justinius' freshly
washed and oiled body, fragrant with the perfumed body oil from Parthia,
and Justinius' scrotum landed upon Sabinus' nose, dropping over it like a
velvet bag loaded with two large stones.
     Sabinus lifted his nose free and the velvet bad slipped down onto his
lips, and Sabinus began to lick them as would a dog, hearing in reward
Justinius' grateful grunts as he continued to slurp mightily upon Sabinus'
prick, sending breakers of pleasure to wash over his body and smooth out
his soul as the waves do the sands of the beach and Sabinus took the
ballsac into his mouth and sucked it as an infant does a weaning bag,
hungry for the milk locked within.
     Justinius groaned and then, impatient with this adoration of his
testicles, raised up and reached down to his crotch and Sabinus felt the
balls being snatched from his mouth and an imperious cockhead shoved into
its place. He grunted in partial surprise, and then the long prong became
buried in his mouth. "Mrph! Gluh!" he choked as Justinius lowered his body
back down, the cock perforce was shoved into him quite deeply and Justinius
left it there while he recaptured Sabinus' cock and then was kind enough to
lower his body onto his side, carrying Sabinus with him.
     Now side-by-side, and with Justinius in a precarious position nearly
falling off the small couch intended for one person, Sabinus held tightly
to him and found that he didn't want this massive prong to be withdrawn
from its deep incursion into his body; he craved it where it was, and
nurtured it, only reluctantly permitting it a brief excursion from his body
and then reclaiming it, the way a doting mother will guard her child in its
first steps, only such brief freedoms did Sabinus permit Justinius' prick,
he preferred it kept safe and warm within his mouth, where it could pulse
happily, and Sabinus placed one of his legs behind Justinius' head and
roughly pulled Justinius onto his own prod, shoving his own cock deep into
Justinius while sending Justinius' prick deep into his own mouth and he
held them both there, buried deeply within each other, and felt for the
first time the pleasure described by the philosophers who touted men as
being only half of the original creation of the gods, and sex being the
search for the other half, and now it felt as if that primordial being had
been rejoined, he had found his other half!
     He would have kept them joined in this way forever had Justinius not
struggled and freed himself almost roughly from this over-fond
embrace. "Gah, my friend, enough!" He said. "I burn as I have not in many
months, and I would burst if I but permitted this bond to remain as it
was."
     Sabinus was surprised almost as Justinius rose entirely from the bed
and then he rejoined Sabinus, this time face to face, and Sabinus reached
gladly for those lips that sought out his own, and when they kissed, the
reconnection was again complete.
     And he felt Justinius' hands lifting up his legs as the spit-slimy
prong crawled down his crotch as a viper, and sought the dark cavern below.
     Deny Justinius this? Can a man deny his own hand? Could he deny this,
his other part, from its rightful place within him? Never! His legs sought
purchase upon Justinius' broad thighs, his heels found and dug into
Justinius' buttocks as Justinius' cock found the entrance to his nether
body and slithered inside.
     He felt his body's pain, but it was a small thing, to be ignored in
the greater joy of reunion, there was only the accommodation to find, and
Justinius was adept and kind, waiting when the skin protested and tuckered
under his thick schlong's entrance, and waited until Sabinus could
straighten the path once more before pressing on into him.
     Soon enough, a moment or an eternity later--what was time to them, who
must be patient until events could free them from their self-imposed
exile?--Justinius' cock was fully within him, and Sabinus felt his own body
reacting, joyfully spasming and clutching at this bulky cock that hummed
with life inside of him, and he could bring this life forth by giving it
leave to move inside of him; his body heeded this impetus and obeyed.
     Justinius felt the release of Sabinus' bowels and he smiled genially
into Sabinus and began to slowly fuck Sabinus. Sabinus reached up and
stroked Justinius' kind jowl, his gentle cheek, his loving ear, feeling him
out--he was real, he was real once more!
     Justinius nuzzled and kissed Sabinus' palm and then reached down to
feast once more upon Sabinus' lips, and their mouths met and curled about
one another as the petals of a flower-bud, meshed and seamless in their
joining, and within this cocoon of life their tongues sought out each other
and writhed together.
     Justinius' moves were as smooth and even in tempo as the winds moving
the trees outside, this same breeze caressed their passionate bodies,
cooling and nourishing them in their joining which was as ancient as the
origin of life itself, as the clay molded by Prometheus at the order of
Zeus, who breathed life into them and they moved about together, in those
first moments, the legend said, they were fluid and moved together and
about each other, and this was the movements that only at the time of sex
could a man recapture so briefly.
     Sabinus' arms stroked Justinius' strong body as he brought them closer
and closer to their mutual passion. Only at the very last did the religious
requirements recall themselves to him.
     "Wait, wait!" He begged. They could be careless later on, but this
first time the dictates of religion must be heeded if Liber's further favor
was to be expected.
     "What?" Justinius asked, his face flushed and his breaths blowing
ragged from his mouth.
     "The offering to Liber." Sabinus gasped out. "We must complete it."
     Justinius swallowed hard. "You're right, my friend. But let us hurry."
     Sabinus slipped out from beneath Justinius, who rolled over onto his
back. Sabinus straddled Justinius' stomach with his back to Justinius'
face, and in this manner, he could and did press their prongs together,
feeling the powerful heat of Justinius' passion-driven prong that screamed
red-hued for release, and his own cock took the heat and made it his own.
     Using both his hands to hold them together, Sabinus flailed at these
two dongs, feeling Justinius' climax roiling up and into his own body, they
were caught in a mutual heat, and Liber's ultimate acceptance was shown as
they reached their orgasms together.
     Through the blood-pounding haze of his ejaculation, Sabinus looked to
see gratefully that they had erupted as one, two cockhead spewed their
juices of potent white seed out, and Sabinus saw that save for a few of the
foremost spurts of jism, the come flowed out of them to coalesce together
in a steaming warm white pool on Justinius' thigh
     Justinius was roaring like a beast beneath him, and Sabinus felt
himself as a man he had seen at the Circus, who was astride a tiger,
holding onto its ears and riding it like that, and the tiger roared as it
obeyed the man momentarily, racing about until the man unfortunately
slipped, and the tiger tore free, rolled him off and then attacked the
rider, mauling him before the attendant archers could fling their arrows at
it, and he felt mauled as that man had been, and like the man, he groaned
feebly as his climax finished with him, chest blowing hard, the cold wind
of life snarling in and out of him.
     A gentle hand at his head pulled at him, and Sabinus leaned back and
kissed the man beneath him. They were together again, and would be for the
rest of their lives. He felt this with a certainty, and said a quiet prayer
of thankfulness for the prophecy granted him by Liber in this, their moment
of post-coital satiation which was the glory of Liber.
     "It shall be many weeks before my father's armies can arrive in
Italy." Justinius said once again. "And when they do, they shall approach
from the north, so as to draw as many men as possible away from the forces
that will land in the south of Italy from the Eastern regiments."
     "We would have to ride a most circuitous route." Sabinus agreed
blearily. He had little heart for this discussion, but it had to be thought
out. Rome was in turmoil, and love must wait until safety was obtained. "We
could ride across the Appenines and up the Adriatic Coast until we found a
boat to Ilyricum."
     "Or we can wait here until we are sent for." Justinius said. "By the
time your grand-uncle's men arrive here, the war itself shall be mostly
won, I think. We do owe a duty to our family bloodlines as well, you know."
     "Yes, that may be the best way to serve our family's wishes." Sabinus
said. "The days shall be long and tedious and we shall have to occupy
ourselves as best we can."
     "We shall be priests of Liber and glorify his name endlessly."
Justinius agreed. "Let those who live in Rome heed the call to power. We
shall serve as pontiffs here in Campania while Emperors contend at Rome."
     "I'm feeling very religious already." Sabinus smiled down. "But I
think a long course of study would be the best beginning for our new
life. And we should wait here until things are calmed down in Rome."
     He smiled as he said that, for he felt with a new certainty that such
calmness would not be obtained in Rome again for many years. Justinius'
words showed he had a similar view.
     "Blessed be Liber."

				  THE END
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