PZA Boy Stories

Pueros

The Lycian Prince

(New version)

Summary

This long saga, describing the adventures of a young Prince in the Roman Empire of the 3rd Century AD, was originally posted elsewhere (in the PZA-archive included as the 1st version) but has been revised and amended, including a changed ending, for this site by the author.
Publ. 2006- 3; (Nialos); this site Jun 2007- 3;
Unfinished, Jun 2007; 28,000 words (56 pages)

Characters

Anthonius, Prince of Lycia (13yo)

Category & Story codes

Boy-Slave story/antiquity
Mtbnc cons anal oralbd cbt humil spank toys tort
(Explanation)

Disclaimer

If you are under the legal age of majority in your area or have objections to this type of expression, please stop reading now.
If you don't like reading stories about men having sex with boys, why are you here in the first place?
This story is the complete and total product of the author's imagination and a work of fantasy, thus it is completely fictitious, i.e. it never happened and it doesn't mean to condone or endorse any of the acts that take place in it. The author certainly wouldn't want the things in this story happening to his character(s) to happen to anyone in real life.
It is just a story, ok?

Author's note

The tale is mainly a work of pure imagination and the writer hopes that historical truth will be forgiving!

Thank you for taking the time to send feedback to the author through this feedback form, please mention the story title in the subject line.

Table of Contents

  1. Waiting
  2. Delegation
  3. Departure
  4. Rome
  5. Induction
  6. Initiation
  7. Enemies
  8. Penance
  1. Punishment
  2. Orgasms
  3. Bedtimes
  4. Betting
  5. Training
  6. Sabotage
  7. Athletes
(1st version, ch. 1)

Chapter I
Waiting

(January 290 AD)

The Emperor Diocletian was becoming impatient.

Nonianus, head of the Imperial Household, was in turn beginning to worry. Diocletian's notorious temper could flare if impatience turned to anger. As a result, anyone present could easily suffer. For example, the Emperor had been known, when angered, to run a sword into a courtier's stomach just for an incautious phrase.

Diocletian sat in his state pavilion tent, surrounded by his senior army officers and household advisors, awaiting the now overdue arrival of the Lycian delegation. The Emperor had reluctantly agreed to meet the embassy on advice from his senior general and Nonianus.

The general knew that the Lycians were ready to sue for peace and he did not want any of his men unnecessarily wasted in prolonging the campaign. Nonianus believed that the long-term interests of the Empire justified allowing the local populace some mercy.

Lycia, located in what is now southwest Turkey but then populated by ethnic Greeks, had been a client kingdom of Rome for a couple of centuries, prospering under the Empire's protection. The present King had ruled wisely for many years, maintaining excellent relations with the various Emperors. However, he had become senile in old age and had taken irrational exception to some new Imperial taxes. He therefore rather stupidly refused to pay any more, and expelled the small and surprised Roman garrison, whilst declaring his country's independence of foreign suzerainty.

Diocletian had just completed a successful campaign to put down a Parthian-inspired rebellion in Syria and had decided to attend to the Lycian impertinence himself on his way home to Rome. The Emperor had landed unopposed with a couple of legions on the coast and quickly progressed inland.

The small Lycian army, which had not experienced a war for over a hundred years, was no match for the hardened Roman legions and had been quickly routed. The countryside was ravaged and soon the capital city was being besieged.

Diocletian knew that the end would not be long delayed for the capital was not prepared to withstand a prolonged siege after so many years of peace. The Emperor's instinct was to let matters take their course, raise the city and enslave the population as evidence to other client kingdoms of the consequence of defying Rome's omnipotence. However, the Princeps had reluctantly bowed to advice to listen first to the Lycian entreaties.

Diocletian was now thinking that this advice had been unsound, as the Lycians were compounding their rebellion and testing his patience further by being discourteously late. Nonianus, appreciating the Emperor's increasing annoyance, hoped that something would happen soon or he could be one of those who bore the brunt of the Princeps' displeasure.

Fortunately, something did happen in the form of a distraction. Armillatus, the latest of Diocletian's beautiful bumboys, entered the tent. The catamite was 12 years old and sported a shock of straight black hair, deep brown eyes, sumptuous rosy lips and a lithe lightly tanned and nicely proportioned body.

Armillatus was dressed in the tight white short-sleeved tunic with purple edgings of an Imperial page. The garment of expensive material extended to just below the boy's groin and tended to highlight rather than simply hide his delectable shape.

Armillatus had been sent to collect fresh wine and had returned with a large silver jug. Diocletian immediately gestured that the boy should replenish the Emperor's matching goblet, insisting that the cup be filled to the brim and then be held for him.

Armillatus obeyed, standing immediately to his Imperial master's right, holding the goblet pressed to his chest with both hands for steadiness and waiting to offer the cup to Diocletian whenever signalled. However, the Emperor now decided to amuse himself with the boy whilst he waited impatiently for the Lycians.

Diocletian surreptitiously reached out his right hand until it delved underneath the rear of Armillatus' tunic and then under the rear flap of the boy's loincloth underwear, placing his hand gently on the cloth covering his catamite's smooth buttocks. The startled 12 year-old then jumped slightly in surprise, spilling a little wine in the process. However, he knew better than to move away or say anything.

Armillatus knew he must instead try to allow Diocletian to fondle him furtively and intimately without revealing what was happening. Nevertheless, some of the military and court advisors present realised what the Emperor was doing and either looked on entranced or found something else to do.

The Imperial hand proceeded gently to massage Armillatus' buttocks before the fingers ran up and down the boy's bumcrack. The young recipient of such attention swallowed hard in his efforts to maintain some form of equilibrium but he could feel himself becoming aroused.

Diocletian had not bedded Armillatus for over ten days and, as usual in such circumstances, the pubescent boy, who was now rather fond of ejaculation, had since been forced to remain chaste or risk punishment. He therefore desperately needed sexual relief.

A bead of sweat slowly worked its way down Armillatus' forehead, whilst the Imperial hand moved further underneath the boy and began to rub his genitals, which were covered not only by the front flap of his loincloth but also by a little thong. Such intimate attention immediately encouraged the 12 year-old's already partially excited uncut cock to enlarge further.

The rubbing then proceeded remorselessly. As a result, Armillatus' gorgeous young form swayed, spilling a little more wine, and he had to close his eyes because he felt himself becoming dizzy. Nevertheless, the relentless genital massaging continued.

Armillatus' slender cock, which was a little larger than normal for a boy of his age because of the recent copious attentions afforded to it in the service of his Imperial master, was now really causing its cloth encasement to bulge. The 12 year-old also recognised that the Imperial hand was bringing him close to climax.

Armillatus therefore whispered to Diocletian in desperation. "Lord," the boy advised, "I'll cum if you don't stop." However, the Emperor proved rather unsympathetic.

Diocletian whispered back, whilst continuing to fondle Armillatus' bulging thong, "You have until the Lycians arrive to resist or it's two strokes of the cane later. Double if you spill more wine!"

Armillatus now knew that Diocletian was playing with him in two ways. However, fear of the threat now hanging over the boy could not prevent his penis from continuing to enjoy and react to the remorseless secret gentle rubbing and his cockhead eventually began to emerge from his thong and the downside of his loincloth.

Armillatus' only compensation for such embarrassing exposure was that his tunic still hid his undergarments from general view. However, given the unrelenting rapid expansion of his penis, the boy worried that such cover might quickly not extend to his cockhead, which might soon peek out below the bottom hem.

Several more beads of sweat ran began to run down Armillatus' forehead, as he felt his cock pounding and becoming fully engorged, whilst the rubbing continued. The boy's immaculate body then suddenly visibly shuddered uncontrollably, forcing the goblet to fall from his grasp and encouraging everyone to look at him.

What everyone else now saw was the goblet on the floor of the tent and Armillatus' hands feverishly gripping the sides of his tunic. The boy's body was vibrating and his lovely face was flushing bright red, whilst his rosy lips released a quiet moan. A stream of white liquid also emerged from under his uniform to splash onto the ground.

Almost simultaneously, a centurion entered the tent to announce the arrival of the Lycian delegation. The officer was about to elaborate further when he was swiftly silenced by Diocletian's impatient command to "Just bring them in". With an amused frown, the Emperor then glanced down at the small pool of white boy seed next to a larger one of spilt wine.

Diocletian subsequently looked aside at Armillatus, who was standing motionless in post-orgasmic shock and shame. "Four strokes of the cane later before bed," the Emperor whispered, and the boy visibly shivered again, although this time not as a result of sexual climax.

Diocletian then looked up and shivered himself in shock, as the Emperor thought there was now a young god standing before him.

Confused, Diocletian asked of the divine boy "Who are you? Where's the Lycian delegation?"

The boy replied confidently, in excellent Latin, "Sire, I am Anthonius, Prince of Lycia, and I am the delegation!"

(1st version, ch. 2/1)

Chapter II
Delegation

Diocletian was suddenly rendered speechless but not because the Lycians had had the effrontery to send a child to negotiate with him. The Emperor was instead overwhelmed because Anthonius, who was about the same age as Armillatus, was the most beautiful boy he had ever seen.

Anthonius sported straight silky golden hair, immaculately trimmed in the Roman bowl style, and his face was that of a young Adonis, with sparkling sky-blue eyes and sensuous rosy lips. Like Armillatus, the perfect boy wore a tight short-sleeved white tunic of the finest material, which extended to just below his groin. However, instead of purple edgings, the hems of the garment were neatly adorned with colourful but discreetly not too ostentatious embroidery.

Anthonius' short and tight tunic allowed his sleek bare arms and legs, and the well-defined profile of his covered torso, to suggest an impeccably proportioned frame. The confined fit of the garment also made especially clear the perfect curvature of the twin mounds comprising the boy's bottom.

Diocletian's shock was initially compounded by the fact that such a gorgeous vision seemed completely out of place in Lycia until he remembered the legend that the local royal family had stemmed centuries previously from conquering golden-haired warriors from the north.

Anthonius now strode forward purposefully to stand immediately before Diocletian. The divine boy then bowed gracefully and asked politely in an angelic voice if he might speak further. The still stunned and speechless Emperor, whose throat had suddenly dried up, somehow managed to gesture permission.

As the senior officials of the Lycian royal court had cunningly anticipated, being fully aware of Diocletian's liking for handsome boys, the Emperor had been completely disarmed and smitten by the startling vision of this particular delectable princely specimen. They were hoping that Anthonius could use his undoubted spectacular charms to obtain generous peace terms from the Princeps.

Anthonius proceeded by confirming that he was the second son of the Lycian King. The boy also apologised for being late but explained, without malice, that he had been held up at the Roman picket lines because no-one had at first believed that he represented the expected delegation.

Anthonius went on to explain that, with his father very ill and his elder adult half-brother absent, he had been asked, as acting head of the royal family, to talk to the great Diocletian on behalf of his people. The Emperor was aware of the much older sibling, Lysus.

Lysus had exiled himself to Rome years before, apparently in disgust at being displaced from his elderly widower father's affections by a new son born to a second young wife. The man was unpleasant in many ways but had become a regular court hanger-on.

Diocletian had indulged Lysus' ingratiating presence, and had actually given him a court position, because his similar sexual preferences were even more perverse and sadistic than his own. The Emperor had made him responsible for organising the entertainment at the many orgiastic Imperial banquets.

Anthonius, helped by expert preparatory tutoring, belied his tender years by exhibiting remarkable self-assurance and maturity, as he started to press the Lycian case for clemency from Diocletian. Speaking eloquently in Latin, which contained just a hint of Greek accent, the boy described his people's immense sorrow that the King's sickness of mind had caused upset with Rome. He also detailed their desire to make amends, and concluded his graceful opening statement by kneeling before the Emperor and humbly begging him to be allowed to negotiate an honourable peace.

Diocletian had by this time become utterly infatuated with Anthonius. The Emperor was also aware that, as well as suffering from a very dry throat, his cock, which had become semi-hard within his purple toga as a result of playing with Armillatus, had now become rigid.

Diocletian did not immediately answer the kneeling Anthonius' entreaty because of the dryness of the Imperial throat. The Emperor instead quietly croaked a command to Armillatus, ordering the page to refill a fresh goblet with wine.

After Armillatus had sheepishly complied, and Diocletian had quickly emptied the goblet to restore his dried vocal chords to some semblance of working order, the Emperor gently asked Anthonius to regain his feet. The Princeps then consumed another two full cups of wine to help him recover at least some of his composure before commanding that a chair for the Prince be brought up close to his own.

As Anthonius subsequently sat in the proffered chair, he placed his hands on the seams of his tunic in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the short garment from rising up his thighs. At the same time, the young Prince noticed that the face of similarly-aged very pretty page, who had just served Diocletian with wine, was flushed and exhibited worry.

Anthonius then noticed the goblet on the floor and realised that the page must have been clumsy and would be expecting chastisement. The surprised and intrigued Prince also thought that he recognised the little patch of white fluid close to the cup but, before he could ponder the strange matter further, his attention was drawn to Diocletian.

Diocletian, with mouth open, was gaping back towards Anthonius' groin, seemingly transfixed by what he was seeing. The Prince's tunic had ridden up his thighs when sitting and this had clearly revealed, from the Emperor's own seated viewpoint, the boy's loins, covered by just a skimpy white loincloth and underlying thong.

The sight caused Diocletian to be silent for quite a time after Anthonius sat down, and the Prince was too polite to disturb the Imperial reverie too early, despite recognising and being slightly embarrassed by the clear cause. However, the perceptive boy did not realise that the Emperor had just managed to avoid replicating Armillatus' earlier humiliating ejaculation.

The unwanted Imperial climax had almost arrived when Diocletian had appreciated what the slight bulge at the front of Anthonius' now visible undergarment had represented and believed that he had also seen a sudden slight growth in its shape. In fact, such young penile expansion was real.

Anthonius' sudden penile excitement had resulted from the abrupt displacement of his bafflement and abashment at his advisors' insistence that, for this meeting with Diocletian, the Prince was to wear clothing that he had thought he had outgrown a year previously. The boy's mystification and discomfiture had been replaced by sudden recognition of the underlying reason, evident from the Emperor's gaping, and an associated rather narcissistic guilty thrill, which subsumed any embarrassment.

Despite his tender years, Anthonius was not sexually na�ve and he knew what Diocletian's gawking meant, especially when accompanied, as now, with heavy breathing and a licking of lips. Lycian society had inherited much of the sexual liberalism of more ancient Greek cultures, particularly in attitudes towards homosexuality and pederasty. In fact, the latter was particularly encouraged within the upper and middle classes in the shape of formal man-boy pedagogue-pupil relationships.

Anthonius was also being educated, as was customary for a Lycian Prince, with a retinue of similarly-aged boys from the noblest of families. His natural pleasantness, which included consideration and modesty, had enabled him to befriend all, and he had managed to explore a pubescent child's normal sexual curiosity from the age of 10 with some of his closest companions. This had eventually led to mutual kissing, fondling and masturbation, enabling him to appreciate the joys of sex and recognise the signs of desire.

Such happy times had latterly became less frequent, as the more handsome of Anthonius' friends had recently entered into their pedagogic relationships with men suitors. The Prince was disbarred from similarly indulging in the practice because of his royal status, and this proscription was reinforced by his father's dedication of him at an early age to the cult of Ganymede, beautiful boy beloved of Zeus. The King had wanted to proffer thanks to the gods for the gift of so magnificent a son so late in life.

Only the most beautiful of boys could be so dedicated and they were expected to remain virginal until adulthood in honour of Ganymede and the gods. Nevertheless, the curious Anthonius had gossiped regularly with his friends about the progress of their love affairs with men, learning much about the associated pleasures and pains, not least that the former seemed to outweigh the latter.

Anthonius' curiosity eventually became frustration. The boy knew from the looks he was given by men and older youths that he was physically admired by many of them. This situation was confirmed when friends revealed that he had acquired the nickname of 'Little Ganymede' in some circles because of his great beauty and sad inaccessibility.

Anthonius also knew that he experienced enjoyable tingling feelings throughout his body when ogled. The boy would sometimes naughtily reward his distant admirers for such excitement by lifting the bottom hem of his tunic to scratch a non-existent itch or bend over to retie an already tied sandal, inevitably intensifying his own sweet sensations and producing a stiffening of his cock in the process.

As his sexual awareness and needs increased, Anthonius had had to use his own right hand more and more to gain relief, invariably whilst daydreaming about being made love to by a handsome male hero. Girls never yet entered his thoughts.

After briefly enjoying the tingling coursing through his body as Diocletian continued to glare up his tunic, Anthonius eventually decided to try to make use of the Emperor's preoccupation with his charms by disturbing the quietude to relate the peace proposals he had been told to suggest. Despite the Princeps' clear attraction towards him, the boy fully expected that he would subsequently have to haggle seriously before hopefully reaching a settlement.

In reaction to Anthonius' disturbance of his sexual reverie, Diocletian listened quietly and patiently to what the Prince had to say, whilst his eyes now constantly looked the boy over slowly, from face to feet and vice-versa. The Emperor also started to realise that there was only one war trophy that he wanted from his Lycian campaign, and the prize was currently sitting next to him.

When Anthonius had finished stating the peace proposals, Diocletian astounded everyone by immediately accepting the Prince's suggestions. After recovering from the shock of this, the boy began to offer his profuse thanks but was stopped by the Emperor. The Princeps now added that there would be one essential condition for his acquiescence to the terms, namely a certain guarantee against the Lycians' again rising in revolt, which would be taken with him back to Rome.

When Anthonius asked what guarantee was wanted, Diocletian answered "You."

(1st version, ch. 2/2)

Chapter III
Departure

(January 290 AD

Diocletian explained that, as guarantee for the agreed peace treaty, Anthonius would accompany the Emperor to Rome, where he would be found some appropriate role in which to serve the Empire. Meanwhile, there was nothing more to discuss. Either the Lycians accepted this condition or the war would continue to its inevitable conclusion. The Princeps emphasised his stance by standing to bring his meeting with the beautiful 12 year-old Prince to an end.

Anthonius recognised Diocletian's determination to take him back to Rome, and also perceptively guessed what the man ultimately hoped to achieve by it. The boy additionally realised that he must accept his fate in order to save his family and his people.

Anthonius looked deeply into Diocletian's eyes, noticing again the clear lust revealed in them, held out his hand and said "We have reached agreement then!" The Emperor smiled broadly in response.

Diocletian also touched the most beautiful boy he had ever seen for the first time by shaking Anthonius' proffered hand and then holding the 12 year-old's shoulder as he personally led him from the tent, swallowing hard much of the way as he experienced his own intense bodily tingling.

After reluctantly releasing Anthonius outside the tent, Diocletian saw the boy approach a splendid white horse and the Emperor immediately thought that surely the steed was too big for one so young. However, the 12 year-old mounted the animal with practised ease and rode skilfully away towards the walls of the Lycian capital, accompanied by two unarmed royal guards.

To the astonishment of bystanders, Diocletian waved Anthonius goodbye. The Emperor then shouted for Armillatus, as he urgently needed to satiate his pent-up sexual frustrations.

Armillatus was later unable to walk or eat properly for a few days afterwards, and not because of the four agonising stokes of the cane that he had received and which marked his bottom so vividly. The boy had simply never known the Emperor to use his anal and oral orifices so harshly and frequently as he did that night.

Anthonius sailed for Ostia a week later, after tearful farewells from his family and friends.

The royal advisors had been pleased with Anthonius' rapid success in establishing peace, even if it was accompanied by personal sacrifice. The sick Lycian king would remain in situ but with his power devolved to an advisory council, led by an Imperial representative supported by a strengthened Roman garrison. The new taxes plus war reparations would be paid and an independent local army would not be reformed. However, such conditions were all that would have to be paid for peace, apart from the exile of the Prince to Rome.

The royal advisors cynically considered such conditions a small price to pay for the salvation of their country. Anthonius' mother and friends thought otherwise but were unable to dissuade the boy from dishonouring the agreement he had made. The Prince even refused to be accompanied by some of his closest companions who had kindly offered to go with him to Rome.

Anthonius knew that the lecherous Diocletian had lustful designs on him and he was determined to try to preserve his purity, especially as the Emperor was far from his ideal of a handsome heroic lover. The boy possessed rather naive confidence in his royal status and the ability it afforded him to fight off any unwanted attentions, whereas his attractive young friends had no such protection.

Unfortunately, Anthonius was also totally unaware that the ethical conduct he had known within the Lycian court was not replicated in Rome.

Diocletian sailed back to Italia on a different ship, ostensibly because he wished to visit Tarentum on the return journey, but actually because he could not trust himself to keep his hands off Anthonius within the tight confines of the vessel. The Emperor had reluctantly decided that all the protocols had to be observed and the relevant gods respected before he engaged in molesting and debauching the boy. He could just about control his impulses and impatience and bide his time for now, as there was always Armillatus and other pretty Imperial pages to play with in the interim.

(1st version, ch. 3)

Chapter IV
Rome

(February 290 AD)

Anthonius was housed in a luxurious villa outside Rome, well cared for by Imperial servants and slaves, until Diocletian himself had returned and his triumphal re-entry into the city, celebrating his recent victories in war, had been readied. The boy then found himself to be an integral and important part of the eventual spectacle, being himself a campaign trophy. He was paraded on his white horse just behind the Emperor's black steed, and later he was a guest at the formal celebratory banquet in the huge, magnificently appointed main hall of the Imperial palace.

The hall had room for almost a hundred guests, lying on couches accommodating three people each, with low tables in front and in a circular arrangement surrounding a central, round, low entertainment platform. All were attended by a multitude of palace slaves attired in off-white sleeved tunics with purple edgings and embossed with a small red Imperial eagle on the chest. Court custom caused food to be served slowly in many small courses and swilled down with much wine.

Diocletian had entered the hall in formal splendour, escorted by Praetorians and a group of very pretty boys, aged from about 8 to 15. Some carried banners displaying Imperial emblems. An immaculately groomed handsome young man finished off the entrance party.

The boys were all dressed in tunics similar to those of the palace slaves but with broader purple edgings and a black eagle emblem. The garments were also sleeveless and shorter, seemingly designed to show off the physical attributes of the young wearers to best advantage without being overly revealing.

Entertainment on the central platform was constant and initially provided by tasteful dancers and acrobats. However, as the evening wore on and after the more cultured and less licentious guests had departed, the acts, involving young male and female troupes, became much more erotic. Some of the almost naked artistes were then invited by increasingly libidinous and drunken guests to share couches after their performances, and they invariably accepted.

Anthonius had now never previously seen anything like the spectacle unravelling before him, and was at first guiltily enthralled by the whole scene. The Prince became especially excited when he noticed many of the guests, inhibitions loosened by their heavy consumption of wine, beginning to kiss and obscenely fondle the scantily-clad youngsters sharing their couches. The boy's interest came to a peak when a particularly pretty young companion of Diocletian stood up, removed his tunic and danced delightfully for the Emperor in just a skimpy black loincloth with a small gold Imperial eagle embossed onto the front flap.

The boy-dancer's movements often caused both of his loincloth flaps to rise to reveal the tight sparse underlying thong that just concealed his private parts, whilst still clearly revealing their seductive outline. Anthonius felt the pleasant tingling, which he had again been experiencing his groin, intensify as he watched.

Anthonius was also aware that he too was being frequently glanced at by many in the hall, not least by the boys in the Emperor's entourage. However, the Prince noticed that three pairs of eyes paid him particular attention, namely those of Diocletian himself, those of the handsome young man now couched next to the Emperor and those of a dissolute fat adult in his forties lying further away.

Anthonius discovered, by enquiring of a servant, that the pretty boys were Diocletian's personal pages and that the young man was Casperius, their supervisor, or `major domo'. Having already recognised the Emperor's sexual preferences, the Prince did not have to enquire about the full nature of the role of the young male servants in the Princeps' life.

Anthonius also did not have to enquire about the older fat man. Although he had no personal recollection of him, the boy recognised the strong likeness to his father in the adult's facial features.

Anthonius, remarkably perceptively for someone so young, believed correctly that he recognised the feelings behind the men's stares. He believed that Diocletian's was one of blatant lust and Casperius' was one of avid curiosity, although the boy also detected a strong hint of cruelty in his eyes. The 12 year-old additionally rightly judged that the fat man's look was not of brotherly love but quite the opposite.

Anthonius did not stay to the end of the banquet. The boy's earlier initial interest and excitement were completely defused, along with his appetite, with the presentation of one particular entertainment.

Two square bondage frames were carried in and fixed in place near the middle of the central platform. Two attractive twins, one boy and one girl about 14 years of age, were also brought in and chained in a spreadeagled pose and facing each other to the two structures. Anthonius discovered later that the two children were campaign trophies too, being the offspring of a slain rebel Syrian lord.

A huge black African followed the twins onto the platform and, to wild cheers, stripped to reveal an enormous but real phallus. He then ripped the clothing off the girl and, to louder cheering, began to viciously rape the obviously virginal child.

The girl screamed in agony but the rape proceeded mercilessly and, after the African had finished, she was copiously leaking blood from her defiled vagina. Meanwhile, the black man had turned his attention to the now whimpering boy.

Anthonius left the hall in disgust, with the poor boy's yells ringing in his ears, to spend the night in the luxurious palace guest chamber allocated to him. However, he did not appreciate the opulence of his surroundings overnight because of his nightmares, in which the two Syrian children and three pairs of eyes were prominent.

(1st version, ch. 4)

Chapter V
Induction

Next day, Anthonius was surprised to be taken to the secluded part of the palace, heavily guarded externally by the Praetorians, where the Imperial boy pages were accommodated in great comfort. He was led to Casperius' own luxurious living quarters, where the young man welcomed him in a friendly manner, although the Prince thought that he still saw cruelty in his eyes and detected some sarcasm in his voice.

After some preliminary pleasantries, Casperius finally came to the reason for the meeting. He declared that Diocletian had asked him to find Anthonius something useful to do during his exile in Rome, and he was pleased to advise that the Emperor had accepted his suggestion that the Prince should be offered the great honour of becoming one of the Imperial boy pages.

Anthonius was aghast, as he was acutely aware that the role was no honour at all for a Prince and was actually insulting to proffer to someone of his royal status. He had also already recognised that the official portrayal of the pages as privileged young attendants was just show to hide, for the sake of public appearance, the fact that they were the Emperor's catamites. However, he now instantly knew that the offer was what the wily Diocletian must have planned for him all the time, and why Casperius and his boys had been staring at him during last night's banquet.

They already knew that this offer was to be made and what real choice did Anthonius have but to accept? Diocletian would be free to renege on his treaty agreement with Lycia if the Prince, as guarantee, was construed as misbehaving.

Declining to honour Diocletian by refusing to enter his service as a page could be interpreted as misbehaviour. Consequently, after some thought and in a halting voice, the Prince reluctantly replied that he would, of course, accept the honour, whilst hoping that his royal status would protect him from the Emperor's obvious active lechery towards pretty boys.

Casperius, wishing to act quickly before Anthonius changed his mind, then speedily introduced the new addition to the Imperial household to a nullified black slave named Niachiarus, who had been standing, unseen by the Prince, in the shadows of the chamber. The major domo informed the boy that the adult Nubian eunuch, dressed in a tunic similar to that of other Imperial servants, would be his personal attendant.

Niachiarus was in his thirties and it was obvious that the tall Nubian had once been handsome. However, some of his muscles were becoming flabby, with his body gaining fat in all areas. Nevertheless, the nullified eunuch slave had still proved proficient in his work for other pages, which he conducted with outward dutiful politeness, effectively disguising the fact that he secretly hated his young charges, being jealous of their beauty, free-born status, current privileges and intact genitalia.

Casperius commented to Anthonius that it would be wise for the Prince to follow the eunuch slave's advice closely, as it would help him considerably in learning the requirements of his new role. The major domo then politely dismissed the boy by stating that Niachiarus would now escort him to his new quarters.

The dumbfounded and deeply dismayed Anthonius subsequently acquiescently followed Niachiarus along a couple of wide corridors to the pleasant suite of rooms that was to be his home, which was remarkably large and opulent for a mere page. The Prince immediately guessed correctly that Diocletian liked to provide excellent accommodation for his favourite catamites.

Anthonius was next swiftly introduced by Niachiarus to some of the humiliating realities of his new life.

Niachiarus told Anthonius, albeit with great diplomacy, that none of the Prince's personal effects, including attire, could be transferred from his previous quarters because Diocletian's pages were normally allowed to keep as possessions only what the Emperor gave. The boy's belongings would be packed and returned to his homeland. He also had to discard his current clothing, with the exception of the golden throat chain with pendant, which attested to his Lycian royal status, and the longer and bigger medallion of the same precious metal, which indicated his sacred dedication to Ganymede.

Niachiarus also added quietly that the removal of Anthonius' present clothing would be an appropriate opportunity for the Nubian to check the Prince's bodily health. In response, the boy initially just stared at his new adult slave in shock, as he realised that the black servant wanted him to strip.

Unlike other aspects of Lycian society that orientated towards Greece, local attitudes to nudity actually stemmed from Persia, where only the worst criminals were seen unwillingly naked before others. Anthonius could not remember a time that he had been seen unclothed by anyone, apart from his intimate friends amidst sex play, although he supposed that he had been when still in toddler's nursery, but then that was different. However, now was equally different, for he was humiliatingly being requested to strip to allow his bare body to be intimately inspected by a slave.

Anthonius felt deep shame but suddenly realised that his cock might suggest otherwise. Within the Prince's loincloth underwear, his penis had incongruously hardened.

Recognising Anthonius' reluctance to strip, Niachiarus attempted to spur action diplomatically by advising "My duties, young master, will also entail supervising your daily ablutions, grooming and dressing. It's therefore important that you become quickly accustomed to me dealing with your naked form, and now is as good a time as any to start!"

The suddenly blushing Anthonius swallowed hard, inhaled a deep breath and reluctantly began to react to Niachiarus' advice by nodding in agreement and then shedding his sandals and lifting his rich, long-sleeved, intricately embroidered, woollen winter tunic up and over his sublime head. The Prince then stood in front of the nullified Nubian eunuch, covered only by his loincloth underwear.

Anthonius' reluctant hands then reached for the bow on the side of the narrow cord that held his loincloth in place and, after again swallowing hard and inhaling a deep breath, began to untie the knot. The Prince then allowed his loincloth to succumb to gravity and fall towards the colourful mosaic on the floor, which, perhaps rather appropriately, the boy now noticed depicted a rampant Zeus in eagle form raping Ganymede.

Anthonius subsequently stood naked before Niachiarus, shyly attempting to hide his humiliatingly hard cock with his hands. However, the slave was prepared for the Prince's acute embarrassment, as he had witnessed similar many times before. The nullified eunuch therefore simply asked if the boy could oblige him by lying face-up on a high padded couch, located in the palatial suite's adjacent bath chamber.

Niachiarus subsequently observed the immaculate form of Anthonius' lustrous bare rear, as the boy turned round to obey, whilst still keeping his hands in their genitally strategic position. The slave then followed the beautiful naked Prince into the bath chamber and waited for the boy to clamber on top of the waiting high couch, which was designed for conducting massages.

Niachiarus subsequently approached Anthonius and began to examine the Prince slowly and very carefully from head to toe, whilst allowing the 12 year-old to continue to hide his genitals with his hands. The slave started with the boy's hair, looked into his ears, nose and mouth, felt his limbs, and their fingers and toes, and then his chest and belly. He lingered particularly at the young Lycian's nipples, delicately massaging them to erection, and at his cute navel, which he gently probed.

Anthonius knew what was due for examination next but he was loath to move his hands, especially as his embarrassing hard- on had intensified because of the attentions being paid to his bare body. However, Niachiarus was excellent at diffusing boys' tensions.

The eunuch slave did so in respect of his latest charge by saying "Now, young master, I know that you don't want me to look and, if you insist, I won't. However, I'll then be whipped for not performing my duties properly and I don't think you want that to happen. Anyway, there's nothing behind your hands that I haven't seen previously. I also suppose it's grown a bit because of what I've been doing. Come let me see!"

Partly assuaged by these words, the still blushing Anthonius reluctantly moved his hands towards his sides and closed his eyes in shame. The Prince subsequently soon felt Niachiarus' sensitive touch, as a hand weighed the boy's smooth scrotum and a finger ran carefully up and down his now throbbing cock.

The hands then went away, causing Anthonius to open his sensuous blue eyes. The Prince now saw that Niachiarus held a long piece of string with regularly demarcated markings, which was obviously a measuring device.

With this device, Niachiarus next proceeded to measure virtually every dimension of the front of Anthonius' divine body, recording the results on a clay tablet whilst successfully discouraging the naked Prince's inclination to return his hands to his groin. The abashed boy simultaneously closed his eyes again but quickly reopened them when he suddenly felt his cock being pumped.

Niachiarus attempted to appease the shocked and astonished Anthonius by saying "Do not be alarmed, young master, as the maximum length of your erect cock needs to be assessed!" The Prince had believed that the slave's measurement of his naked body must be connected with providing him with appropriately sized clothing, including his new page uniform. However, this latest humiliating and puzzling development now placed some doubts in the boy's highly intelligent mind as to whether his original belief was correct.

In fact, Anthonius' original belief was correct. The Prince simply did not yet know that some more exotic items of the new clothing, which would be specially made for him, would need to be able to accommodate his erection.

Niachiarus eventually expertly stopped the pumping of Anthonius' cock just before the Prince reached the point of no return and inevitable orgasm. The slave then completed his measurement, also adding the circumference of the boy's erection and scrotum to his list.

Niachiarus next asked the red-faced Anthonius if he would turn over so that he could complete his inspection and measurements. The shamed Prince reluctantly complied, although as he did so he had to be careful how he rested his embarrassingly hard cock on the padded surface of the couch.

Soon the back of Anthonius' body was experiencing Niachiarus' intimate attentions, with much of the slave's time spent examining the Prince's lustrous bottom. The delightfully curvaceous buttocks were tenderly rubbed and massaged, and the boy could not prevent himself from uttering a moan when his bumcheeks were carefully prised apart and he felt a fingertip gently probing his virginal sphincter. Both the 12 year-old and the eunuch knew that the noise was not one of pain but of pleasure.

Shortly afterwards, Anthonius heard Niachiarus requesting him to turn back over. As the Prince complied, he glanced at his still hard cock. The boy immediately realised that he had previously never seen his penis so big.

Niachiarus again prevented the Prince from shielding the rampant cock from view and instead shocked the Prince by grasping the smooth erection between his fingers, saying "Please forgive, young master, but this is almost the final examination that I'm required to make!" The slave then again started to masturbate the boy, who quickly grasped the sides of the couch to try to stabilise his now quivering body. However, the 12 year-old could not prevent his loins from instinctively rising from the surface towards the hand giving him such pleasure.

The pubescent Anthonius was accustomed to masturbating himself, and had recently proudly begun to ejaculate small amounts of semen. The Prince's previous embarrassment was also now forgotten, as he writhed in increasing ecstasy, and soon unprecedented amounts of sperm spurted out of his cock, as he enjoyed an orgasm of unparalleled intensity. Niachiarus then completed his task by pumping the climactic boy dry, carefully gathering his young seed in a bowl.

Niachiarus subsequently meticulously checked Anthonius' creamy white ejaculate by sight, smell and taste, whilst the slave allowed the Prince to grasp his smooth boyish sexual organs with both hands in a strange mix of post-orgasmic abashment and gratification. Later, the slave gently moved these manual genital defences aside to conclude his final measurement of the boy's form, namely that of his now flaccid cock. However, the 12 year-old's humiliations were still not over, as the eunuch then apologetically asked him some deeply personal questions about his sex life.

Niachiarus asked Anthonius what he fancied and practised sexually, telling the Prince that truthfulness would be best for both of them. The boy, who was anyway incapable of lying, thought that his humiliation could become no worse, as he replied with the shameful required veracity, including describing his regular acts of masturbation, whilst dreaming of being loved by a handsome young man. However, he was quickly proved wrong in his assumption.

Niachiarus was most content at having secured Anthonius' sexual secrets, which to him confirmed the pubescent Prince as ideally suited to become a young male whore, whilst he now attached some vertical wooden poles, fitted with leather stirrups, to the couch. The slave subsequently placed the puzzled but compliant boy's uplifted legs through these supporting straps so that his knees bent over them and his bottom was uplifted.

Niachiarus now produced a narrow leather hose, to one end of which he applied some grease, whilst fitting the other into a leather water carrier. "Please forgive again, young master, but I now need to clean here," the slave then advised, as he carefully inserted the tube's greased end into the startled Anthonius' exposed anus and lifted the pouch upwards in order to tie it to one of the poles.

Anthonius instantly felt cool water flow into him, as the first of the two enemas to which he was to be subjected began. Later, after overseeing the Prince's final toilet, Niachiarus moved the shocked and shamed boy to a nearby marble-lined bathtub, full of warm water, and bathed him whilst advising him that he would be similarly comprehensively cleansed at least once daily.

"But why do I need enemas?" Anthonius asked, as he was being bathed and despite having perceptively guessed the appalling real reason. "The Emperor likes his personal pages to be as clean inside their bodies as on the outside," Niachiarus replied in incomplete explanation, whilst he sponged the Prince's completely smooth and very pleasantly proportioned genitals. The boy was naturally dissatisfied with this answer but his intention of probing further was deflected when the slave diplomatically changed the subject of conversation.

Niachiarus confirmed to Anthonius that he would henceforward be responsible for the health, cleanliness and purity of the Prince's body, and for preparing the boy for his role as an Imperial page. Consequently, the slave would carefully oversight his young charge's daily diet and exercise, would personally bathe and massage him and would provide him with all necessary duty tuition.

Niachiarus also explained that it was important for Anthonius to resist the temptations of pleasuring himself, as he needed to remain chaste in order to serve the Emperor in the manner required. Accordingly, the Prince would be fitted with a chastity belt whenever he was left alone in his quarters.

Niachiarus fetched the belt concerned, which consisted of a small pouch of hard leather, designed to encase boyish genitalia tightly and make arousal at least very uncomfortable if not impossible. The device was held in place by slender vertical thongs, which were attached at the front and rear to a narrow waist-strap, buckled at the side.

"Once fitted," Niachiarus advised, "a wax seal, with an embossed Imperial eagle, is applied to the buckle and, if this is subsequently damaged, it would suggest that the belt had been removed. I'm afraid, young master, that I have to inform you that, if such impairment is detected, the wearer is punished with a beating!"

"Even if he's a Prince?" an amazed and affronted Anthonius asked. "Regardless of status!" Niachiarus bluntly answered.

"But why do Imperial pages need to remain chaste?" the worried Anthonius next enquired, despite having again perceptively guessed the appalling real reason. "It is by command of the Emperor," Niachiarus replied in further deliberately incomplete explanation, "and his orders are always obeyed!" The slave was also tempted to be more brutally honest with the Prince about the reasons for enemas and enforced chastity but the nullified eunuch believed that he needed to satisfy the boy's curiosity more carefully and diplomatically.

Niachiarus had been told that Anthonius was being blackmailed into accepting the status of an Imperial page, including certain yet-to-be revealed disreputable elements of the role. However, the slave worried unnecessarily that the Prince might still be so disgusted to learn about his full duties that he might reject his destiny or attempt to flee, which would upset the Emperor and thereby cause the nullified eunuch trouble.

Niachiarus would therefore attempt to prepare and introduce Anthonius to the realities of his new position in what was effectively the Emperor's boy harem in a slow, deliberate, careful and diplomatic manner. During this process, the Prince would eventually learn that Diocletian's marriage was for reasons of state and public appearance only. The Princeps had never privately disguised his preference for young males, and always maintained a group of about twenty catamites, aged between 8 and 15 and disguised as Imperial pages.

All of the boys had to be beautiful, unblemished, originally virginal and of noble birth. They were usually offered by aristocratic families who had fallen on hard times, as the Emperor was known to reward his catamites well for loyalty when they became too old for further service, many being granted lucrative state sinecures.

The boys would also be able to help their impoverished families more immediately by passing on the frequent bribes they were known to receive, because of their regular access to Diocletian, from people wanting to petition the Emperor for favourable decisions in legal or other matters. The Princeps happily indulged such activities, and would occasionally hear particular petitions in order to keep his catamites in credit.

All the boys possessed their own comfortable living quarters in the secluded but well-guarded part of the vast and luxurious Imperial palace in which Anthonius now found himself housed. The accommodation centred round an entertainment chamber and adjacent bedroom. The Imperial catamites would generally be required to appease the Emperor's sexual desires within these discreet private amenities.

The whole arrangement was managed by Casperius, who had himself once been one of Diocletian's boy favourites. The major domo had become expert and seemingly indispensable in ensuring that the Emperor's needs were fully satisfied. He was consequently very influential within the Imperial court, had enriched himself considerably because of this and was very jealous of his position.

Under the overall control of Casperius, each boy was allocated a nullified Nubian slave not only to serve them but also to ensure that their bodies were kept at a peak of physical perfection and sexual readiness. The eunuchs also expertly kept their young charges instructed in the latest manners and rituals of the Imperial court and their anticipated duties, both sexual and otherwise.

The boys were taught by their Nubian slaves the arts of lovemaking, with appropriate instruction aided by using a series of ingenious leather and ivory oral and anal dildos, although these devices were never used on a virginal rear orifice. The versions utilised for practising fellatio could spurt a semen-like liquid, produced from herbs, in order to perfect the swallowing of sperm. Catamites were also shown how to manoeuvre their bodies whilst being sodomised in order to ensure the greatest pleasure for the man performing the deed, as well as how to disguise any mental disgust or physical distress resulting from such activities.

The boys were additionally taught erotic dancing and the playing of musical instruments by hired professionals under the supervision of their Nubian slaves, for the Emperor liked his catamites to provide such entertainments. Meanwhile, the eunuchs oversaw strict dietary and exercise regimes, with all food and drink spiced with strong and effective aphrodisiacs. Enemas, massages and body perfuming were invariably included in final ablutions before the pages were ready to assume duties.

Discreet body shaving also occurred when necessary but, once this requirement became regular and obvious, it was clear that a page's days as an Imperial catamite were rapidly coming to an end. Diocletian did not like the thought of even one hair on his boys' torsos.

When on duty inside what was effectively a boy harem, the pages went barefoot and wore, at least initially, just their simple skimpy black cloth loincloths with gold eagle embossed on the front flap. They were allowed elsewhere in the palace only with the permission of the Emperor or Casperius and, unless performing normal routine duties, such as delivering messages, under his strict supervision of their major domo or Nubian slaves. They then additionally sported sandals and their light sleeveless short purple-edged white tunics with Imperial emblem on the chest.

These brief and tight tunics only hid the pages' loincloths if they remained still. Movement often provided teasing views of the boys' barely covered loins.

The boys were told from the beginning that the pleasures to be derived from their bodies were now exclusively the reserve of Diocletian. The catamites were therefore not allowed to play with themselves, at least not without the Emperor's permission and oversight, and, to help keep them celibate whilst off- duty, their Nubian slaves usually required them to wear their chastity belts.

Such enforced chastity was designed to keep the pages in a state of sexual eagerness, which was further intensified by their aphrodisiac consumption and was often demonstrated by their frequently full and constant erections when relieved of the restrictions of clothing. However, sexual relief was generally granted only when Diocletian allowed, either obliging himself by masturbating the boys, having them indulge the habit in front of him or have sex with each other as erotic foreplay before he himself bedded them or another selection from his catamite coterie.

Casperius did sometimes allow pages to masturbate in front of him too, or alternatively personally manually milked them of their stored semen. Such activities usually occurred when the boys had been neglected by Diocletian and were unlikely to be wanted by him soon, mainly because the Emperor was away in the provinces or on military campaign without them.

Diocletian generally treated his boys reasonably well, usually allowing them to be punished only for genuine misdemeanours, the most common of which was, despite the precautions, accidental ejaculation. However, principally to alleviate boredom, the element of cruelty in the Emperor's character sometimes came to the fore and he set some of his catamites sadistic challenges and physically chastised them if they failed.

Entry to the pages' quarters was carefully restricted and contact without permission with anyone else outside was strictly forbidden. The boys knew that the consequences of breaking this cardinal rule could be calamitous for those concerned, as there was a precedent about which they were constantly reminded.

One silly early member of the corps of Imperial pages had seemingly flirted with one of the Praetorian guards, although no real evidence of sexual relationships had ever emerged. The boy was not well liked by the others and so news of his indiscretions eventually passed to Diocletian, who exploded in anger.

Diocletian subsequently had both of the alleged furtive lovers tortured until they confessed to an illicit liaison. Later, with the Emperor and the other pages observing from a balcony, the boy was forced to watch as his supposed adult paramour was dragged out naked into a palace courtyard before the whole of the assembled Praetorian Guard and chained spreadeagled between two punishment posts.

The man's penis and scrotum were then tightly bound with leather thongs, separating them and making them stand out from his body. The Praetorian commander, or `Prefect', then stepped forward, drew a knife, grabbed the genitals and with one slice severed them from the writhing soldier's body. The officer then stuffed them into the victim's mouth to silence his screams, whilst his terrible wound was cauterised.

The boy himself was now stripped and chained to a small wooden horse, in a bent posture with legs splayed so that his bottom was fully exposed. The Prefect then sodomised him, as did as many ordinary Praetorians who wanted to experience the pleasure over the next twenty-four hours.

Diocletian had deemed the mass rape appropriate because the pretty boy seemed to like Praetorians so much. The Emperor and his entourage even viewed some of the early violations of the screaming page but left after a while to enjoy dinner.

Diocletian and his young entourage returned on the next day to see the boy, who had just been re-chained to the same bloodied punishment posts from which his alleged lover's mutilated form had recently been removed. Two huge Praetorians with evil looking metal-pointed whips then approached and began to flog the page slowly but mercilessly. Their orders were to continue to do so until he was almost dead, after which the eventually recovered but permanently marked young victim was to be sold as a slave alongside his nullified supposed paramour.

This precedent subsequently proved useful in keeping the minds and bodies of pages concentrated on serving Diocletian loyally, whilst completely deterring any other potential admirers of the boys from acting on their dangerous impulses or otherwise revealing their attraction.

Anthonius was still hoping that his new life would not entail sexual as well as menial servitude, as Niachiarus completed the intimate bathing of the Prince's immaculate body. However, after the beautiful naked boy stepped out of the bathtub to be carefully dried by his slave and then acquainted with his new chastity belt, the eunuch began the gradual process of diplomatically appraising his increasingly horrified young charge about the appalling reality of his situation.

Niachiarus did so by revealing snippets of information over the next few days, whilst he initially concentrated on accustoming Anthonius to his new home and lifestyle within the confines of his personal chambers. When the slave eventually confirmed to the appalled Prince that he too was expected to be like the other Imperial pages in agreeing to additional sexual duties for Diocletian, the nullified eunuch was pleased to observe the boy apparently bravely and rather fatalistically accept this already feared destiny. The servant's worries that the 12 year-old might instead refuse to co-operate or show signs of wanting to flee thankfully seemed unfounded.

Consequently, Niachiarus even managed some grudging respect for Anthonius, who was clearly courageously prepared to sacrifice his princely status and honour for the continued safety of his beloved Lycia.

(1st version, ch. 5)

Chapter VI
Initiation

(March 290 AD)

Casperius had given Niachiarus four weeks to ready 12 year- old Anthonius for formal initiation as an Imperial boy page. He wanted the relevant ceremony to take place at Emperor Diocletian's forthcoming birthday banquet.

Niachiarus felt that the target was unrealistic. Although he thought all boys were sluts at heart, he did not feel that four weeks was enough to convert a royal Prince into a whore. However, he had been proven wrong.

Anthonius had quickly overcome his obvious misgivings and shame and had reluctantly submitted himself co-operatively to the required frequently demeaning routines of his new life. The Prince had thereafter absorbed his training very well.

Niachiarus had actually never seen someone pick up the arts of erotic dancing and lovemaking so proficiently with so much speed, which reinforced a suspicion that Anthonius was truly a real whore at heart. In fact, the Prince had always believed that, in whatever he did, he should try his best, and this commendable attitude was reinforced by fears as to what might happen to Lycia if he proved a disappointment to the Emperor. The boy was a naturally gifted, gregarious and sensuous child and these attributes had enabled him to adapt speedily to his changed circumstances and learn the particular skills required by his new role, no matter how degrading.

The day of the Emperor's birthday banquet had arrived and Anthonius was ready to play his part in the celebrations. The great care afforded his preparation had ensured that the Prince looked and felt at his absolute best, outstandingly beautiful and overflowing with youthful vitality.

The barefoot Anthonius was wearing clothing identical to that of the Imperial boy pages but white. This colour supposedly officially denoted his candidate status, although privately Diocletian preferred the notion that the hue indicated the Prince's current virginity, which the Emperor now eagerly anticipated plucking soon.

Anthonius eventually found himself standing before the side door of the palace's main banquet hall from which the various entertainments acts entered. Niachiarus had led the Prince there and was now at the apprehensive boy's side, attempting to soothe him with quiet platitudes to calm his nerves.

Although the nullified black eunuch furtively harboured jealous malice towards his young charge and hoped to be the secret instrument of much distress befalling him in the future, he appreciated that now was not the time for the boy to earn displeasure and chastisement. Niachiarus had been entirely personally responsible for the Prince's preparation and training and so any imperfection in Anthonius' imminent public performance would certainly rebound on him and he would definitely be punished too.

Niachiarus was, however, very clever and cunning, as well as highly skilled in manipulating boys' sexual conditions. He had serious hopes that his careful preparation of Anthonius might spoil the Prince's ceremonial performance later in the less public surrounds of Diocletian's opulent private quarters in a manner that should not rebound on him.

The banquet inside had been proceeding for a couple of hours and the birthday present Diocletian was most looking forward to was about to replace the boy dancing troupe on the entertainment dais to commence his initiation ceremony. Anthonius fully knew that the degradations he had suffered at the hands of Niachiarus during his preparation and training were nothing to those he was about to suffer, but he was determined to face them well and with as much dignity as they allowed.

In particular, Anthonius remembered the boy page, who had danced so enchantingly at the triumphal banquet, and the Prince's pride had encouraged his resolve to out-perform him. However, he currently could not explain why the prospect of what was now to happen rather shamefully aroused him. He was somewhat disgusted with himself, but this did not cause his hidden cock to become any less rigid, and he blushed when he realised that his excitement would be clearly visible to all as he performed in the form of a noticeable bulge at the front of his tunic.

Perhaps fortunately Anthonius did not have much time to reflect on this embarrassing development before the doors to the banquet hall opened. The troupe of beautiful boys, who had just been performing and were all about 11 years of age and dressed only in identical tiny purple thongs, ran out.

Niachiarus then patted Anthonius gently on the sweet curves of his bottom and suggested "Don't be afraid, as I'm sure that you'll be fine. In you go!" The Prince complied and entered but with immense apprehension.

Anthonius immediately recognised that the eyes of virtually all of the many people within the hall were on him, as he crossed towards the front of the central entertainment dais immediately before Diocletian, who was already beginning to lick his lips at the wonderful sight of the gorgeous Prince. However, the boy's fortitude brought his training to the fore and, despite his trepidation, he approached gracefully before standing on the platform and kneeling in homage.

As at the triumphal banquet Anthonius had attended, there were almost a hundred guests, mainly men but with some women, lying on couches accommodating three people each, with low tables in front and in a circular arrangement surrounding the central, round, low entertainment dais. All were attended by a multitude of palace slaves, serving food slowly in many small courses, which were swilled down with much wine.

As before, many of the guests, inhibitions loosened by their heavy consumption of wine, had invited previous young performers on the dais, of both genders, to join them on the couches. Much lecherous kissing and obscene fondling of the scantily-clad youngsters had already begun.

Casperius now stood and addressed Diocletian by his formal title. "Augustus, before you is Anthonius, Prince of Lycia, who wishes to implore your majesty to allow him the honour of becoming one of your Imperial boy pages, foregoing all his royal privileges and rights in order to do so. As a symbol of his desire to submit himself completely to your service, he herewith consumes the sacred libation of subjugation."

One of the boy pages now stepped forward with a tiny pottery jar. On reaching Anthonius, he removed the little stopper and handed the opened contained to the still kneeling Prince.

Most of the watching guests did not appreciate what comprised the contents of the tiny jar. Most of those who bothered to contemplate the matter presumed that a little special wine, previously blessed as sacred by priests, would be inside. However, Anthonius knew, having been told by Niachiarus in order to help the Prince prepare to honour without demur or hesitation this literally distasteful defining moment.

Anthonius put the tiny jar to his lips and the distinctive smell of fresh semen, recently milked from Diocletian's own cock by an existing page, immediately invaded his cute nose. However, Niachiarus' earlier preparation, in which he played on the Prince's pride by emphasising the need to be brave, ensured that the boy overcame his repulsion to swallow the contents without hesitation.

Niachiarus, looking from afar, was very happy. He now knew that Anthonius would perform the rest of the ceremonials excellently, as every new boy whore should.

Diocletian was also very happy. The young Lycian Prince had just publicly swallowed the Imperial sperm without visible delay or disgust, which indicated to him that Anthonius had truly committed himself to be another of the Emperor's compliant catamites.

Casperius now continued "Augustus, will you permit Anthonius, Prince of Lycia, to dance in your honour whilst you consider his plea?" Diocletian nodded positively and the major domo of the Imperial pages therefore signalled the boy to begin.

Anthonius, who could still taste Diocletian's semen in his mouth, immediately obediently regained his feet and waited for the music to start. The Prince remained somewhat nervous and ashamed at his situation but his pride also still made him determined to perform well.

When the music did begin, Anthonius therefore did not hesitate but instead untied the cord of his tunic and quickly, but with practised refinement, pulled the garment over his head, cast it to the floor and began his sensual dance routine. Many of those who saw his performance later agreed that they had seen no better. After all, they had watched a boy of unparalleled beauty, clad in just a small highly revealing and specially designed white loincloth, gyrating athletically before them with unblemished elegance, skill and eroticism. The simultaneous busy movements of his golden throat chain with pendant, which attested to his Lycian royal status, and the longer and bigger medallion of the same precious metal, which indicated his sacred chaste dedication to Ganymede, somehow added to the exotic scene.

The erotic nature of Anthonius' dance had been enhanced whenever the flaps of his loincloth had been uplifted by his energetic movements, which included somersaults. Such hectic activities had exposed the sublime curves of the Prince's bare bottom and also revealed the obvious bulge in the little front underlying integral thong. Certainly, the highly lustful expression on Diocletian's face revealed to all that he was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

With secret embarrassment, Anthonius also had to admit that, despite his shame at having to dance in a such a manner before a large number of licentious spectators, his peculiar sexual thrill at his circumstances had been maintained. This superficially incongruous phenomenon was evident by the guilty bulge retained at the front of his loincloth and the thong underneath. The boy was additionally experiencing a strange exhilaration, apparently at performing with seeming quality before, judging from their eyes, gestures and occasional ribald shouts, clearly appreciative watchers.

When Anthonius eventually finished with a perfectly executed back somersault, most spectators appeared genuinely unhappy that the entertainment had concluded. Some unprecedented applause began to ring out in praise of the performance, along with shouted pleas for "More!" However, as the Prince, now almost breathless with exhaustion and with a sweaty sheen causing his now literally dazzling body to glisten, resumed his kneeling posture before Diocletian, the clapping was quickly curtailed by Casperius, who stood to re-address the Emperor.

Casperius asked of Diocletian "Augustus, is it your wish that Anthonius, Prince of Lycia, be allowed the honour of serving you as an Imperial page?" The Emperor tried not to nod positively with too much clear eagerness.

On receiving the anticipated confirmation of acceptance as an Imperial page, or more correctly catamite, and the associated loss of his royal status and privileges, the sparsely clad Anthonius now stood, bowed nicely and proceeded to leave the banquet hall. As they viewed this lovely concluding spectacle, many of the watching guests were engrossed in thought about what now awaited the sublime form of the now former Prince.

On his way across the hall, Anthonius noticed his adult half-brother, Lysus, who was happily sneering back at him, clearly highly delighted that the boy was no longer a Lycian Prince but an Imperial whore. The obvious fraternal joy caused the younger sibling fresh mental distress.

A happy and smiling Niachiarus subsequently met the freshly distressed Anthonius at the doors of the banquet hall to escort him back to his quarters. Once there, the nullified black eunuch subjected his young charge to speedy fresh ablutions and redressing in his small white loincloth before leading him to Diocletian's own spacious and luxurious private accommodation, which was actually surrounded by the smaller rooms of his boy pages.

Niachiarus led Anthonius to a chamber that was reserved for Diocletian's private pleasures. The room was basically a smaller version of the banquet hall but was decorated by obscene floor mosaics and wall paintings depicting the debauchery of young pretty boys by well-endowed men.

Niachiarus guided Anthonius to stand at the centre of the chamber's entertainment dais to await Diocletian's arrival, which, as he anticipated, was not long delayed. The Emperor had never before been so impatient to taste the pleasures of a particular boy's body.

Diocletian was accompanied by Casperius and the full entourage of his other young pages. They all reclined on the couches surrounding the dais in a circle, except for three boys who sat cross-legged on the floor to play musical instruments, namely a lyre, a flute and cymbals.

All of the boys had removed their tunics to be dressed only in their own skimpy loincloths before they had assumed their positions. They passed the discarded garments to their own eunuch attendants, who, as always and like Niachiarus, would be acting as servants during the entertainments in their Emperor's private pleasure chamber.

Meanwhile, Diocletian took time to view the magnificent sight now kneeling on the dais before him. The boy's dazzling golden hair crowning a gorgeous face, adorned with sparklingly sensuous sky-blue eyes and sweet rosy lips; the immaculately smooth and unblemished skin of the body encasing a form of perfect symmetry. A visage of undoubted unparalleled beauty!

Diocletian also saw that the boy was breathing rapidly, his lovely belly expanding and contracting rapidly, presumably with nervous anticipation, which was a state from which the Emperor would now relieve him. He therefore gestured to the young but skilled page musicians that they were to begin and they did so with a slow introductory melody to enable Anthonius to stand and ready himself.

After standing, Anthonius awaited with renewed apprehension and shame the sudden quickening of the music's tempo, for this would signal the time for the degrading act that would precede the commencement of his dance. When the moment arrived, the boy had to overcome a strong desire to ignore the meaning of the now suddenly energetic rhythms and instead to pull on a hidden cord that retained the rear flap of his small loincloth in place.

The rear flap came loose and Anthonius, as trained, discretely tossed it to one side and began again to gyrate energetically, this time with the delightfully smooth and rotund curvature of his magnificent bare bottom fully exposed to permanent view. When the boy's dance routine later necessitated him to turn and wiggle the sleek flawless mounds of his uncovered buttocks in front of Diocletian, the Emperor uttered a muted gasp, his face went bright red and he almost ejaculated into his own loincloth underwear at the wonderful sight.

Soon afterwards, the musical melodies again changed, heralding the detachment of the front flap of Anthonius' loincloth, leaving the boy covered only by the underlying integral minuscule thong. This skimpy attire did little to hide the shape of the young dancer's smooth genitalia or their clearly sexually excited condition.

Nevertheless, despite Anthonius' shame, the boy commendably continued to dance with energetic perfection until, after another small interval, a further musical change finally signalled what he most dreaded. Awareness that many eyes had remained focused on him throughout his performance, and especially at his skimpily covered groin and bare bottom, now caused the boy to hesitate in respect of what he was expected to do.

Fortunately, Anthonius also immediately realised what diverging seriously from the dance routine, in which he had been proficiently trained by Niachiarus, would certainly entail, namely painful punishment. The boy additionally possessed enough imagination and skill somehow to disguise his hesitation momentarily as a tease, which he nevertheless knew could not persist.

Anthonius therefore summoned enough courage to overcome his strong objections, nurtured through acute abashment, to unfasten the almost imperceptible bow that tied the waist cord of his thong together to allow his last covering to fall to the floor. In response, the now former Prince heard a louder gasp from Diocletian and quiet giggling from some of the watching boys, as he discretely kicked the discarded garment to one side and started his nude dance.

Diocletian now became transfixed by the glorious sight of Anthonius' naked groin, revealed to him for the first time. The wonderful scene was dominated by the exquisite ripe form of the boy's nicely proportioned, smooth and rotund hairless scrotum dangling pleasantly under a pleasingly fully erect penis.

Anthonius now again danced faultlessly, with his rigid cock, released from the confines of clothing, humiliatingly flopping around freely as he progressed through the various manoeuvres, until finally disaster struck. The boy could feel the relevant passion slowly and inexorably rise within him but was nevertheless powerless to stop the development because he knew that he had to complete his scheduled dance routine or be painfully punished.

All of the watchers could not help but be enchanted by the exquisite boy's dancing routine, which allied erotic beauty, skill and unmistakable sexual excitement and which now had an explosive conclusion. This unscheduled finale occurred after Anthonius had perpetrated another expertly accomplished somersault to end the show.

In so doing, Anthonius' hard cock had repeated an action that had occurred several times during his lively naked performance, namely hitting and rebounding off his belly. However, on this occasion, the boy's body visibly convulsed and his unruly upright penis sprayed his own semen over himself and the dais.

After recovering from his unwanted and unexpected shaming orgasm, Anthonius heard chuckling at his plight and noticed that everyone was smirking at him. Nevertheless, the boy remembered his next duty and, despite a compelling compunction to want to run away in disgrace, he somehow fulfilled this chore by again kneeling on the dais in front of Diocletian. However, on this occasion, he performed the act of submissive homage to his new Imperial master naked and with the proof of his recent disgraceful orgasm smeared all over his stomach, loins and front legs, as well as the wooden stage.

No one was ever to discover that Niachiarus had cleverly deliberately so orchestrated Anthonius' physical preparation, including enforced chastity and secret infusion with strong aphrodisiacs, and the nature of the energetic nude dance routine that he thought such an accident inevitable. The eunuch would be very pleased about his trick for all of two weeks.

There was silence for what seemed to Anthonius like eternity before the smirking Casperius asked of Diocletian, in a mocking tone, "Augustus, do you want the boy cleaned before the rituals proceed further?" The Emperor reluctantly responded positively, despite being so desperate to bed his new page that he really wanted no further delay in fulfilling his sexual ambitions. The man's own cock, pressing uncomfortably hard against his underwear, was evidence of the Imperial need.

In accordance with Diocletian's wishes, Casperius next gestured to two nearby pages, who in response fetched some damp cloths and approached the still kneeling and thoroughly abashed Anthonius. They then stood up the naked boy, whose penis had shrunk to humiliated flaccidity, and gradually carefully wiped the spermatic evidence of his recent shameful orgasm from his divine form.

After the pages had finally finished, and in response to another gesture from Casperius, they subsequently led Anthonius to an adjacent bedchamber. The room was large but possessed little furniture apart from a mammoth bed, whilst the decorative paintings and mosaics were even more obscene than next door.

The pages stood Anthonius at the foot of the huge bed, which over the years had been the scene of their own deflowering and that of many other boys, as well as of much later continued debauchery of their delectable bodies. The former Lycian Prince was now to be the next youngster to lose his innocence and purity humiliatingly and painfully at the hands, or more accurately cock, of the lascivious and all- powerful Diocletian.

The pages next left Anthonius momentarily alone. The former Prince then shivered slightly in fear at recognition of what was imminently to happen on the bed in front of him.

The pages returned quickly, now escorting Diocletian, who smiled at the waiting Anthonius. However, the boy gained no comfort from the gesture, as he realised that it was not meant to provide him with any reassurance but rather indicated the Emperor's satisfaction that his lustful plans were about to come to fruition.

The pages next helped Diocletian to disrobe and Anthonius felt himself become a little dizzy when the Emperor's own large engorged cock, which he would now be required to service, was revealed to him for the first time. Other than that possessed by the huge African who had raped the young male and female Syrians at the triumphal banquet, the boy had never seen a man's erect penis before and he wondered how his orifices could possibly accommodate such a monster.

With a last lingering and clearly contemptuous look at the compliantly waiting Anthonius, which caused him to blush again, the two pages eventually left, leaving him alone with the now naked Diocletian, who spent a while examining his nude prize whilst stroking his cock. The Emperor was rewarded with the sight of the boy's own penis amazingly return to its previous embarrassing unruliness by again slowly but noticeably becoming excited and hard.

Anthonius had been taught by Niachiarus not to attempt to hide such embarrassment behind his hands because such action only engendered Diocletian's anger. The boy could therefore do nothing but stand naked before the Emperor, whilst the man continued to ogle him and stroke his own cock lewdly, whilst the much younger and undisciplined penis of the subject of his attention gradually became similarly erect.

Anthonius could never subsequently explain how he could become so guiltily aroused in such shameful circumstances, especially as he had just ejaculated. The boy consciously did not desire sex with this man, not least because of the undoubted mental and physical distress that would result. However, there was something within his deeper persona that did perversely want him to give himself to be abused and hurt and it was causing his body currently to experience strange tingling feelings.

Diocletian eventually lay on the bed and signalled to Anthonius to join him. The boy, again desperately fighting impulses to disobey, with a particular desire to run away almost overwhelming, reluctantly obeyed the summons.

Diocletian next leaned over the prone Anthonius, who was now lying next to him, and, whilst peering down at the delightful sight, some drool began to exit his mouth. However, the Emperor disregarded his libidinous phlegm and instead ran his hands though the boy's silky golden hair before lifting the child's gorgeous head towards his own to plant his first kiss on the inviting rosy lips.

Anthonius managed to disguise his disgust at Diocletian's act, as well as at the Emperor's disagreeable breath and fat hairy body, with its unpleasant sweaty aroma. Ignoring the vile drool, he also reluctantly received the Imperial kiss receptively as he had been taught.

The kiss was prolonged and accompanied by a slow exploration by the Imperial tongue of Anthonius' mouth. Diocletian's passion then overtook him.

Diocletian very carefully and intimately moved his kisses and tongue to most other places on first the front and later the back of Anthonius' divine body, especially spending much time at the boy's neck, nipples, navel and bottom, including a licking of the currently virginal sphincter. The Emperor finally culminated his oral Imperial exploration by paying careful and prolonged attention to the boy's re-aroused young genitalia.

Anthonius had eventually not been able to prevent himself from again becoming very sexually excited, even uttering shameful moans of guilty pleasure, as Diocletian's gentle and comprehensive oral attentions persisted. The tingling within his own young form was finally approaching crescendo, as was evidenced by the rigidity and ivory-like lustre now exhibited by his own throbbing cock. However, the Emperor had, through regular relevant practice, learnt the signs of a boy's progression towards imminent climax and stopped when he realised that his bed companion was close to orgasm.

Diocletian then carefully examined his oral work. The Imperial scrutiny confirmed that the boy lying next to him was firmly gripping the bedclothes, whilst his eyes were shut, beads of sweat ran his brow and his rigid penis was vibrating wildly.

Diocletian laughed at the sight, which confirmed to him that the Lycian Prince was now nothing more than an Imperial whore, and in satisfaction lay back on the bed and started again to play with his own erection. Such was Anthonius' sexual high that it took a while for him to realise that the Emperor's oral attentions had terminated.

Anthonius now realised with alarm that it was his turn to do to Diocletian's sweaty and smelly fat hairy body what had just been done to his own much pleasanter variety. The boy was not in any way looking forward to the gross task but knew that he had no choice.

Anthonius opened his eyes and lifted himself into a kneeling position between Diocletian's now splayed legs, as taught and whilst his own throbbing cock embarrassingly pointed horizontally directly at the expectant man, whose own much bigger and now engorged penis was vibrating vertically. The boy then leant over to caress the ugly face with his own kisses and tongue before progressing elsewhere to a cacophony of pleasurable moans from the Emperor.

Anthonius was close to retching on many occasions during the foul journey, none closer than when having to tongue Diocletian's own putrid sphincter, but he somehow managed to prevent himself from doing so. However, the Emperor's genitals were now due next for his reluctant oral attention.

Anthonius gulped before his head moved downwards to perform this next disgusting chore. Again as taught, the boy first licked the obnoxious hairy scrotum all over before concentrating on carefully absorbing each testicle in turn into his mouth to suck them gently.

Anthonius subsequently licked the full length and all sides of Diocletian's swollen cock. As the boy did so, he unavoidably gathered onto his tongue copious amounts of repulsive precum.

Anthonius eventually slid his tongue teasingly over the exposed slit on Diocletian's engorged cockhead before letting the rest of the top of the Imperial penis to enter his mouth. The boy then sucked and sucked, carefully taking air whilst gradually allowing his sweet rosy lips to go lower and lower until he felt the penile intrusion entering his throat. However, at this point, the Emperor's hands suddenly pulled him off.

"I'm ready!" was all that Diocletian now announced. However, Anthonius' training caused him to know what the Emperor meant and so the boy now positioned himself as he had been instructed, on his back with his legs held wide apart in the air by his own arms.

Diocletian liked his boys in this position when he sodomised them for the first time. The Emperor wanted to see their faces as he excruciatingly deprived them of their virginity.

Diocletian, whose eyes were rather glazed with sexual need and whose readied cock could only now be described as massive in length and girth, subsequently straddled Anthonius. The Emperor next introduced his fulsome erection to the boy's bumcrack.

Diocletian then pointed his hard expectant penis directly at Anthonius' exposed virginal sphincter. This little round pink muscular orifice was now seemingly blinking back at the Emperor in anticipation, in line with the boy's breathing becoming nervously faster at the prospect of his imminent undoubtedly painful deflowering.

Momentarily, Anthonius pondered how his life could have changed so much that this horrible man was now going to agonisingly despoil him. The boy also again worried how his young virginal rectum could possibly admit such a monstrous implement as Diocletian's comprehensively excited penis.

Anthonius' anxiety was compounded by the fact that neither the imminent invading penile shaft or the virginally tight young orifice into which it was about to plunge had been greased, as had been promised by Niachiarus. However, these considerations were immediately forgotten when the boy felt the touch of the Imperial cockhead pressing against his anal entrance.

Niachiarus had actually lied to Anthonius. Diocletian never used grease when sodomising his boys, even the virgins. The Emperor gained more sexual pleasure from the increased hurt he inflicted by not using such a lubricant.

At first, Anthonius' pink virginal sphincter resisted the initial attempted intrusion into his insides. However, the pressure gradually became irresistible and such brave resistance eventually gave way.

Anthonius then screamed shrilly in acute agony and shame, as his innocence and purity was lost to the large manly cock avidly and mercilessly invading his tight innards up to the hilt. The boy also began to cry profusely and to beg uselessly for Diocletian to desist, as his cruel deflowering proceeded remorselessly. The Emperor would anyway have been incapable of halting even if he had wanted, so engrossed was he in the ecstasy of this long-awaited moment.

The volume of his shrieks, sobbing and pleas did not lessen much after Diocletian subsequently adopted a steady rhythm of harsh and resolute thrusts in and out of the former virgin's rectum, despite the fact that some natural lubrication had evolved in the form of the boy's own blood. Meanwhile, Casperius and the boys lounging next door laughed as they realised, from the aggrieved sounds, that Anthonius was now no longer a Lycian Prince but had truly become an Imperial whore like them.

Diocletian's balls were now making regular heavy contact with Anthonius' buttocks, whilst the anguishing Imperial thrusts persisted at a steady pace until becoming faster and faster as the Emperor ultimately approached orgasm. However, before such a climax occurred, a strange transformation overcame the boy's body.

Anthonius' cries became shallower and shallower until they disappeared along with the expression of horrified agony on his beautiful but now tearstained face. The boy instead again began to utter low moans and develop a look of increasing enjoyment.

The acute pain and shame associated with Anthonius' deflowering was slowly being displaced by the delicious sensation of entertaining contact being made with his prostate gland. This phenomenon was exemplified visually by the gradual re-hardening of his own cock, which had softened during his agony, back to full vertical erection.

The sight of this development then took Diocletian over the top. The Emperor did not want his long-awaited delectable act of sodomy on Anthonius to stop but he now could not prevent the feelings boiling in his groin reaching their inevitable climax.

Diocletian finally yelled ecstatically, whist he impregnated Anthonius with copious amounts of thick creamy ejaculate. As the boy felt the Emperor's cum pumping deep into his insides, he shamefully reacted with his own orgasm, powerfully shooting plentiful semen upwards over his own belly, chest and face.

Diocletian eventually collapsed exhausted onto Anthonius, with his now slowly softening cock still imbedded in the boy, who felt that he might be smothered by the heavy and unpleasant fat, hairy, sweaty and smelly body on top of him. However, rather fortunately, the Emperor quickly rolled away, withdrawing his flaccid cock from within the 12 year- old to the accompaniment of an audible pop.

By this time, Anthonius had slowly let go of his own legs and had gingerly rested them down on the bed. The boy then became acutely aware of a great pain between his legs. He could also somehow feel the copious semen within him and noticed that some had leaked, along with blood, onto his inner thighs.

Anthonius additionally appreciated from his training that his duties were far from over. Despite his acute distress, the boy consequently raised himself from the bed to kneel again between Diocletian's legs.

Diocletian had closed his eyes but Anthonius knew that this would not excuse him from his next unpleasant task. Somehow managing to ignore the intense pain in his bottom, the boy therefore leant over to suck again the Imperial penis, which had returned to full flaccidity.

Half an hour's delicate and literally distasteful oral attention was required to clean the cock completely of extraneous Imperial semen and of Anthonius' own blood and juices and restore Diocletian's penis to full erection. The boy thankfully appreciated that his preliminary enemas meant that there was nothing worse to lick away from the hairy shaft.

Anthonius had eventually encountered some difficulty in taking as much of the cock as he could manage satisfactorily into his mouth and down his throat once the penis had been restored to earlier rigidity. However, this problem was temporarily cured when Diocletian held the boy's head down firmly in place whilst he ultimately again ejaculated.

Anthonius swallowed as much ejaculate as he could, thankful for the technique he had been taught, but the need to breathe as opposed to being suffocated soon became overwhelming. Luckily, Diocletian, having been completely sated and drained of semen, released his grip just in time.

Anthonius' sublime head immediately withdrew from Diocletian's re-softening cock and gulped air hungrily. As the boy did so, trickles of extraneous semen ran from both sides of his mouth.

Diocletian rested for a while with the deeply shamed Anthonius, intensely hurting both mentally and physically, alongside him. However, the Emperor eventually pushed the boy rather uncaringly off his bed and shouted to recall the two pages, who had undressed him previously, now to help him rise.

Anthonius returned to a standing position at the foot of the bed, with his head bowed in degradation. The boy felt terrible. His bottom was extremely sore, as were his mouth and throat, in which the taste of Diocletian's cum was stronger than ever. His bumcrack and inner legs were besmirched with the Emperor's ejaculate and his own blood, whilst Imperial semen trickled from his mouth and his own sperm also soiled his face, chest and belly.

Anthonius' sense of deep degradation was not helped when the two arriving pages chuckled at the sight of him, whilst their faces also betrayed sadistic satisfaction that the former Prince had now suffered as they had once done to become no better than them. However, their focus on their just deflowered new colleague did not last long because they had their Imperial master to attend.

The two pages wiped Diocletian clean with warm perfumed cloths before assisting him to redress. They then escorted the Emperor back into the adjacent private pleasure chamber before returning to collect Anthonius, who was not to benefit from their cleansing.

Anthonius soon found himself, still in his despoiled state, back on the pleasure chamber dais. However, instead of now kneeling in homage to Diocletian, the boy had, as the future frequent symbol of his new degraded status, to go further and kiss an Imperial eagle embossed into the platform.

Anthonius' two escorts subsequently removed the former Prince's golden throat chain with pendant, which had denoted his previous Lycian royal status, and threw the adornment insultingly onto the floor, where his discarded white loincloth still lay with equal symbolism. The jewellery was replaced with the poorer silver variety sported by the Imperial boy pages.

The pages then carefully attached an accurately-sized constricting silver cockring to Anthonius' genitals. The adornment came in two semi-circular parts, whose flanged ends snapped neatly together but, in order to prevent easy removal, were now impossible to separate.

In fact, the cockring could only really be removed by cutting, as attempting to slide the tight adornment off would undoubtedly not only be very awkward and painful but also potentially highly damaging to the owner's balls. Nevertheless, the genital jewellery would have to be occasionally replaced with slightly larger versions as the wearer grew.

The manufacture of the cockring was one of the reasons for Niachiarus' earlier intimately precise measurements of various aspects of Anthonius' body. The fitting was carefully designed not to diffuse sexual passion by restricting the blood supply to the genitals, but rather the opposite.

The cockring was proportioned to concentrate the blood within the organs, thereby substantially enhancing sexual stimulus. Diocletian was also attracted to the decorative effect of the adornment, particularly the fact that a boy's prize assets stood out more from his groin. The Emperor additionally like the notion that the constant feel of the genital attachment would regularly remind them of their demeaning role and status.

The pages finally redressed Anthonius in a black loincloth similar to their own but still made no attempt to clean the embarrassing mixture of juices from his body. Such visible soiling of Anthonius' normally perfect form would for now remain as testament to the boy's lost status and purity.

All pages except for Anthonius now redressed in their tunics and everyone then returned to the banquet hall in the normal formal fashion, with the newest Imperial minion walking immediately behind Diocletian. The boy could not help but sense his degradation being severely compounded by his still skimpy attire and by feeling the soreness in both his bottom and mouth, as well as the new cockring on his genitals and the drying stains on his body.

When the parade re-entered the hall, Anthonius separated from the rest to stand again at the front of the entertainment dais for what he thought would be the concluding indignity of his initiation ceremony. Diocletian had been away from the banquet, enjoying the former Prince, for several hours but the event, with its spectacular erotic acts, had simply continued without him and, by now, most guests were very drunk.

These inebriated and ribald guests cheered Diocletian's return and cheered even more when they saw the state of Anthonius. The boy was redressed revealingly in only the skimpy loincloth of an Imperial page and his face, chest, stomach and inner legs were clearly smeared with the obvious signs of his recent deflowering.

Naturally, the person who was happiest to see the current state of Anthonius was his older half-brother, Lysus. Consequently, the boy's adult sibling was most vociferous in his cheering.

This cheering became rapturous when Anthonius next removed his golden medallion, marking his chaste dedication to Ganymede. The boy then advanced towards Diocletian and knelt immediately before the Emperor to kiss his feet.

After this humiliating act of homage, Anthonius subsequently presented his precious medallion to the blissful Diocletian in confirmation of his loss of virginity to the Emperor. Another demeaning public kiss of the Imperial feet was followed by the shamed boy's retreat back to the dais.

Anthonius had been led to expect the end of the initiation ceremony at this point and to be allowed at a gesture from Diocletian to sit with the other pages. However, a signal from Niachiarus to remain put disabused him of this.

Anthonius' curiosity at this turn of events swiftly changed to worry when one of the bondage frames he had seen used on the Syrian twins was brought in and fixed to the dais. The same two pages, who had recently escorted him to and from Diocletian's bedchamber, now walked up and led him to the square wooden structure.

"Don't be alarmed, nothing bad will happen", one of them lied, "but we are ordered to bind you to this and you must allow us." Anthonius looked in alarm first at Diocletian, who exhibited no emotion, and then at Niachiarus, who signalled that the boy should submit.

Anthonius therefore reluctantly allowed the two pages to place shackles on his wrists and ankles and then chain him tightly in a 'Y' formation to the frame so that his body was uncomfortably taut. The boys then relieved him of his detachable loincloth flaps, leaving just the deliberately tight-fitting thong-like undercloth to preserve his modesty.

Anthonius' distress at this unexpected turn of events then turned to panic when the side doors opened and two big men entered pulling a wheeled and lit brazier with what looked like two branding irons embedded in the coals. A wet patch immediately appeared at the front of the boy's undercloth and urine began to seep from the sides and down his legs, as his bladder emptied in terror.

To resounding cheers from the spectators, of whom the main cheerleader remained Anthonius' half-brother, Lysus, the men hauled the brazier to within a few paces of the boy. The 12 year-old, who had realised in horror what was now to be perpetrated on him, began loudly to plead "No! Please no!"

One of the adults silenced Anthonius by placing a leather gag in his mouth, which would also serve to prevent the boy from damagingly biting his lips or tongue. The man then kneeled and pricked both of Anthonius' upper front thighs with a small needle, carefully ensuring that the alignment of both of the resultant tiny marks, each now visibly enhanced by emerging blood-drops, matched.

With these markers in place, the man collected the first iron from the brazier. Anthonius noticed that the glowing red-hot end had the outline of a little Imperial eagle. The boy therefore desperately tested his shackles in order to attempt flight, but he sadly discovered that he was held immovably in place.

Anthonius next saw cruel pleasure in the man's eyes, as he slowly approached and deliberately presented the evil iron for the uselessly struggling and tearful boy to inspect closely. The adult then knelt again and his young victim could feel intense heat as the cruel red-hot implement was held just above the front of his upper left thigh.

Anthonius subsequently fainted when, without further ado, the red-hot iron was accurately applied to his flesh at the readied mark. However, the boy was quickly reawakened by the application of a pail of cold water to his body. Custom dictated that the victims of branding were kept conscious during their ordeal.

After awaking, Anthonius not only felt the acute agony induced by his new brand-mark but also smelt his own burnt flesh. Such experiences caused him to retch but his effective gag also made him swallow the vomit to avoid choking.

The man now returned the iron to the coals and collected the other implement. Despite Anthonius' copious tears, his eyes were still able to confirm that this cruel tool was exactly the same and as red-hot as the first.

Anthonius subsequently remembered little else until he awoke to find himself naked and alone on his own bed. The boy had been cleaned but the discomfort in his bottom and mouth was now nothing compared to the searing agony of his new pair of brand-marks, which were vividly displayed on the fronts of his upper thighs.

Some attempt to reduce the excruciation appeared to have been made because both brand-marks had been smeared with some form of salve but Anthonius was to discover that several days would need to elapse before the pain faded completely. The boy was also to find out that the feeling of utmost dejection at having such emblems burnt permanently onto his body would never subside.

Anthonius was additionally initially completely mystified as to why he had been so marked. He had not become a slave, as the Imperial pages were not of such status, and none of the other boys had been branded.

Niachiarus later told Anthonius that he thought it best not to tell him before the initiation ceremony that Diocletian had ordered the branding. The Emperor had also decreed that such marking was to become regular practice for all future new boy pages. According to the black nullified eunuch, the former Lycian Prince was simply unlucky to be the first to be subjected to the latest Imperial whim.

Niachiarus did not tell Anthonius that the idea to brand the former Lycian Prince had first been suggested to Diocletian via Casperius by himself. Naturally, Lysus was also an enthusiastic supporter of the plan.

The propounded theory backing the proposal was that the humiliating brands should forever destroy any possibility that Anthonius might entertain some notions that he was in someway superior to his fellow pages because of his royal background or someday aspire to a return to princely status. The shameful marks, usually reserved for slaves, denoted that his new standing was instead one akin to that servile class and was one from which he was unlikely ever to rise.

Niachiarus was content that the brands would confirm to Anthonius that he was now nothing more than an Imperial menial and whore and that is what the boy would remain until he lost his looks, if he survived that long, which the eunuch doubted.

(1st version, ch. 6)

Chapter VII
Enemies

(March 290 AD)

Casperius always recalled how he had managed to so ingratiate himself with Diocletian during his own service as an Imperial page that, instead of leaving the position belatedly at the age of 17, he had found it easy to displace his major domo predecessor. Given such remembrance, he had since constantly done his best to ensure that he was not so readily usurped in a similar manner from the enjoyable, lucrative and influential post. He generally achieved his aim by recognising potential future rivals early and then destroying their reputations with the Emperor.

Anthonius, with his supreme beauty and royal pedigree, was the most serious potential future rival for Casperius' position to have appeared for some time. Consequently, the major domo had decided, from the moment that he had first become aware of the Prince, to ruin the boy, perhaps fatally.

Casperius appreciated that he should pursue his aim carefully and gradually in order to succeed without the possibility of his plotting rebounding on him. The major domo also realised that he should be able to achieve his objective more easily with the assistance of certain court allies. The people concerned appeared to be even worse enemies of Anthonius than the major domo.

Casperius had been around the effectual Imperial boy harem long enough to perceive Niachiarus' secret, helped by the fact that the eunuch once let his amiable façade slip in anger during the early days. The major domo was therefore fully aware of the nullified Nubian's normally well disguised envy and hatred of the Emperor's pages, especially those unfortunate enough to be assigned to his supposed care, which resulted from his jealousy of the attractive wholeness of their young bodies.

Consequently, Casperius regularly manipulated Niachiarus' nefarious furtive attitude for his own purposes. However, the eunuch was fully aware of what the major domo was doing and was happily acquiescent to being so used.

Niachiarus had frequently dreamed of gaining his eventual freedom, when he would learn the skills of castration, find employment in a slave-market and practise on others at least some of what had been perpetrated on him. However, to achieve his ambitions, the eunuch knew that he had to perform exceptionally well in his present function and so he had set out to become an excellent servant and instructor to his young charges, who came to rely heavily on him.

Unfortunately, this reliance was misplaced for Niachiarus had also realised that just being good at his official work would be insufficient to achieve his goals. He recognised that he additionally needed to ingratiate himself with Casperius more deeply.

The fact that the furtive use to which Casperius wanted to put Niachiarus matched the eunuch's true underlying attitudes was a pleasant bonus. The major domo invariably assigned the nullified Nubian to those new pages whom he had identified as potential future rivals for his position and the black slave fully appreciated that his appointment did not just entail converting yet another spoiled brat into a good whore.

Casperius instructed the eagerly willing Niachiarus to inform on his young charges, mischievously and maliciously falsely if necessary as long as the stories, whose source was of course kept carefully anonymous, could not be countered but instead caused the pages all sorts of problems. The major domo had also ordered the eunuch to sabotage the boys' duties without being detected whenever possible.

Niachiarus thoroughly enjoyed causing his boys trouble, especially when Casperius subsequently put his devious activities to excellent use. The major domo's clear antipathy towards Anthonius therefore promised interesting times ahead.

The first of the calamities to befall Anthonius in his new degrading capacity of an Imperial catamite as a result of Niachiarus' perfidy had, of course, already occurred. The eunuch had falsely reported that the boy was retaining royal airs and graces and making plans to return to Lycia sooner rather than later and had recommended branding to eliminate these attitudes.

Casperius perceptively and happily realised that despite, or rather because of, Anthonius' unparalleled pleasantness of character and form, Niachiarus' motivation for such early perfidy resulted from him furtively despising his latest charge more than any other placed in his supposed care. The boy's previous royal status only added to the eunuch's malevolence.

Casperius was additionally aware of Lysus' ambitious loathing of his young half-brother. The man's attitude made him another willing ally in plotting the destruction of Anthonius.

The alliance between Casperius and Lysus was helped by the fact that their roles within the Imperial court meant that they needed to liaise with each other regularly about banquet arrangements. Both also realised that the other was no potential rival, particularly as the main aim in life of Anthonius' adult half-brother was to leave Rome and return someday to Lycia as king.

Lysus had for years resented his father's obvious deep affection for Anthonius, whilst he had only experienced paternal coldness. He also saw his half-brother as the major potential rival to his eventual assumption of the Lycian throne, for which ambition he had exiled himself to Rome in order to secure Imperial support for his rights when the time came. He had perceptively recognised that such advocacy would be more decisive than the King's own choice of successor.

Anthonius' recent entrapment as an Imperial boy catamite had been a dream come true for Lysus. However, his young half- brother might still be a danger to his ambitions if the new page became the apple of the Emperor's eye, and so he was more than happy to join Casperius in plotting the boy's eventual downfall.

To Casperius, both Niachiarus and Lysus had already usefully proved their enmity towards Anthonius by suggesting that the boy be branded as part of his initiation as an Imperial page. The major domo had not himself originally considered such marking of the Prince's delectable form but was more than happy to take the proposal to Diocletian.

Diocletian was initially resistant to the idea of having Anthonius branded. However, he was eventually persuaded by Casperius' arguments that such humiliating marking would surely destroy any notions that the Prince might retain about being in someway superior to his fellow pages because of his royal background or returning someday to princely status in Lycia. The Emperor wanted the boy to be like his other catamites, namely having no other thought in his mind other than being completely subservient to his Imperial master's desires.

Having successfully achieved the first of the calamities to befall Anthonius in his new degrading capacity of an Imperial catamite, Casperius had also happily recognised the chance to inflict the second on the boy. The opportunity had arisen from Niachiarus' secret sabotaging of the 12 year- old's physical preparation for his initiation.

Niachiarus had furtively supercharged Anthonius' young but rapidly maturing hormones by secretly adding copious aphrodisiacs in his diet to enforced celibacy. The eunuch fully anticipated what such chicanery would cause and he had happily been proved correct.

Anthonius, who was currently being allowed two weeks of unmolested tranquillity to recuperate from the ordeals of his initiation, was, of course, oblivious to such perfidy.

Despite Lysus' clearly far from fraternal attitude towards his half-brother, Anthonius was also currently oblivious to the fact that he was confronted by three potentially deadly enemies, who were utterly determined to achieve the boy's total ruin.

(1st version, ch. 7)

Chapter VIII
Penance

(April 290 AD)

Two weeks after his initiation, Anthonius' debasing brand- marks had healed. The relevant little black Imperial eagles were visible on his front upper thighs, at the sides of the small front flap of his loincloth, which was the only attire permitted to the pages within their private quarters, which encircled those of the Emperor. Given such successful recuperation, the latest of Diocletian's beautiful catamites was again brought before Casperius.

Casperius subsequently advised the neatly groomed Anthonius, without now bothering to disguise his gloating, that Diocletian was away visiting Umbria but would be back soon to enjoy more of the delights of his new boy. The major domo joyously added that meanwhile in the Emperor's absence he had a duty to provide the Imperial pages with any chastisements that they may have earned.

Casperius then revealed that he had discussed with Diocletian the matter of Anthonius' unauthorised ejaculations during his initiation ceremony. The major domo had recommended that, in penance for such disgraceful desecrations of ritual, eight strokes of the cane across the boy's bare bottom would be appropriate.

Casperius paused whilst Anthonius, whom he had learnt had never been punished in such a way before, digested the implications of his disturbing revelation. However, if the major domo hoped to see fear and be the recipient of pleas for mercy in response, he was disappointed because the boy just stood waiting for him to continue his statement, apparently emotionless.

This show of apparent nonchalance infuriated Casperius because he jealously disliked bravery, having none in his own character. However, the major domo somehow managed to hide his intense displeasure in anticipation of Anthonius' bravado eventually being encouraged later to disappear.

Casperius simply went on to report to Anthonius that unfortunately Diocletian had rejected the major domo's recommendation. The Emperor had pointed out that the boy was a newcomer to the rituals, by which he, of course, meant erotic dancing and being deflowered, and his lack of previous experience should be taken into consideration when assessing the due punishment.

Consequently, Casperius informed Anthonius that Diocletian had decreed that he should receive just four strokes of the cane and only after the new page's brand-marks had healed. The major domo added that, as Niachiarus had told him that such recuperation was now complete, the punishment would be performed today at dusk in the Emperor's private pleasure chamber and, as usual, in front of the other pages in order to convey a lesson to all of the boys.

The smirking Casperius therefore commanded Anthonius to report back to him in the pleasure chamber at the appointed time.

(1st version, ch. 7/1)

Chapter IX
Punishment

Despite his brave front, Anthonius was actually horrified and terrified at the thought of being caned. He had generally been a good boy but, like all, had occasionally been sufficiently naughty to justify such chastisement. However, he had been so loved by his father and mother that he had never been so punished.

As a result of his horror and terror, Anthonius spent the hours leading up to his first beating in quiet dread. The time appeared to the anguished boy to pass extremely slowly but eventually dusk approached and he summoned enough courage to walk to the pleasure chamber, albeit whilst shivering in apprehension.

Inside the chamber, Anthonius again encountered a gloating and smirking Casperius, now with the other pages reclining casually on the couches around him. The boy's shivers then intensified when he saw that a small wooden horse, as high as his waist, had been placed on the central entertainment dais, with a long thin cane leaning against the side of this sinister new item of furniture.

Casperius gestured Anthonius onto the dais next to the horse. The major domo then ordered Armillatus to strip the boy penitent of his loincloth.

The fearful and ashamed Anthonius soon found himself again standing naked before the assembly, knowing better than to try to cover his private parts with his hands. The boy also recognised that everyone else present was clearly enjoying the delightful novelty of inspecting the newcomer's nude body displaying the exotic brand-marks. Resultant chuckling additionally drove home to the 12 year-old the humiliating fact that he was the only page to bear such demeaning symbols.

Casperius also enjoyed the satisfaction of perceiving Anthonius' clear fear and abashment, which had eradicated his earlier exhibition of nonchalance. The major domo also happily observed that the boy, despite his trepidation and shame, was visibly becoming aroused. An unruly 12 year-old cock was slowly growing and rising.

Casperius compound Anthonius' resultant humiliation by commenting, to accompanying sniggering from the other pages, "Well, boy, you desecrated your initiation by not being able to command your bodily functions and it seems that you still can't control them. You really are a little whore who's found his proper role in life, aren't you? You're a slut who's more like a brothel prince than a Lycian one if you ask me!"

"It'll be interesting," Casperius added, "to see if you're still so excited after your well-earned caning. Armillatus, chain the slut in the necessary position!"

Armillatus obediently guided the nervously compliant and thoroughly humiliated Anthonius to the nearby horse, bent him over it and shackled him in place. He then played with the adjustable legs of the furniture so that the boy's bottom was perfectly presented for imminent painful chastisement.

Casperius then stood and approached the scene purposefully. The major domo subsequently picked up the cane and practised swinging the switch close to the sweet curves of Anthonius' exposed bare bottom so that the naked boy could appreciate the resultant swishing noise and draught.

Casperius finally brought the cane to rest on Anthonius' buttocks and teased him by rubbing the thin switch gently up and down. The major domo was pleased to note that he could now see the boy visibly begin to shake in fright in contrast to his earlier bravado.

Casperius eventually lifted the cane away from the lustrous currently unblemished smoothness of Anthonius' bottom, which he was now cheerfully going to hurt and damage. The major domo then paused, whilst he observed the boy tense in desperate preparation to receive the first blow.

Casperius subsequently cruelly waited for a while, with his cane raised in readiness to strike. The major domo sadistically wanted Anthonius to relax slightly before he swung the switch viciously onto the boy's defenceless bottom.

Anthonius, thinking that the first blow was being delayed for even longer, complied and so Casperius launched the initial strike of the cane with all of his might. The hit landed accurately with a loud crack but then disappointingly there was silence.

Anthonius was trying his best not to scream, painfully biting his tongue instead in his effort to stop doing so. The proud boy wanted to display as much bravery as he could in order not to demean his royal Lycian heritage in front of the Romans and other young foreigners present.

Casperius, however, believed that Anthonius' display of silent fortitude could not persist and he was quickly proved right when the next stroke of his cane brought forth a loud yelp from the boy's lips, which were made even rosier by blood from his badly bitten tongue. Further shrieks, accompanied by persistent sobbing, were then a feature as the happy major domo delivered what he thought would be his last two blows against the young bottom.

Casperius subsequently examined his handiwork by both sight and touch. The joyous major domo inspected four lovely stripes extending across Anthonius' buttocks. A couple had intersected, causing the flesh to cut and draw a droplet of blood. There was also clear evidence that the boy's lovely body had emitted other bodily fluids.

A pool of urine was visible on the wooden floor of the central entertainment dais below the horse on which Anthonius was chained. However, this clearer fluid was mixed with a small amount of opaque white liquid.

Although Casperius already knew what the white substance was, he nevertheless asked Armillatus to confirm the identify. The boy therefore compliantly kneeled to examine the stuff and trace its origin.

After subsequently regaining his feet, Armillatus confirmed to Casperius "Anthonius appears to have ejaculated his seed again." In response, the delighted major domo smiled evilly and laughed heartily.

Casperius then suggested to Anthonius "You really are a dirty whore because, as well as urinating, you've done what you're being punished for again!" All the boys in the chamber joined in the major domo's laughter, except for the one prone across the horse, who was instead still quietly sobbing in agony and shame.

Casperius next laughingly declared "Hopefully, slut, you'll finally learn the need and way to control yourself after I've delivered eight more strokes of the cane, four for urinating and the same number for ejaculating!" Before Anthonius, amidst his excruciation and misery, was subsequently able fully to comprehend mentally what the major domo had announced, the boy became physically aware of the increase in his punishment.

Casperius had powerfully swung the cane again and Anthonius' whole body had convulsed within the confines of the tight shackles that fixed him in place. The boy also screamed louder than ever, whilst increased tears dripped from his face, which was upside down on the other side of the horse from his assailed bottom, onto the wooden floor below him.

Anthonius' proud attempt to display bravery was subsequently ruined after Casperius' sixth blow landed with as much powerful venom and expert accuracy as the previous five. The boy's sobbing was now interspersed with pleas for mercy, which the major domo was, of course, not prepared to grant.

Casperius instead delivered another six hits of the cane to Anthonius' now ravaged bottom, where the earlier scarlet stripes had either turned brown or purple. The sadistic major domo would probably have found another excuse to extend the punishment even further if he had not realised that harsher chastisement might cause permanent damage, which would currently be difficult to justify to the Emperor on his return.

Casperius therefore contented himself with delivering a total of only twelve harsh blows of the cane. After his own subsequent close visual and manual examination of the hot and now rather bloody stripes that he had created, he also allowed the other young pages to inspect the wheals as intimately as they wanted.

All of the pageboys made use of the opportunity, hurting Anthonius' bottom and pride even more in the process.

(1st version, ch. 7/2)

Chapter X
Orgasms

(April 290 AD)

Diocletian returned to his palace in Rome a week later and Anthonius again found that he had been afforded the dubious honour of dancing at the evening banquet. On this occasion, the Emperor and his guests were particularly amused by the sight of the former Lycian Prince's unique brandmarks, as well as by the dull but still noticeable indications across the boy's bottom of his recent punishment. The latter fading stripes became visible as the flaps of the 12 year-old's loincloth once more rode up and down with his busy movements.

Later, Diocletian bedded Anthonius for the second time and, on this occasion, for the whole night, during which the boy gained little rest. The Emperor was customarily sexually quite conservative. He generally liked the same foreplay routines to be followed, namely mutual kissing and licking followed by the sucking of his penis almost to climax before he indulged in sodomy, although he did vary the positions his catamites had to assume in readiness for anal penetration. Unless tiredness then overwhelmed the Princeps, he subsequently usually required his special young pages to conclude the entertainment by performing fellatio.

On this night, Diocletian demonstrated that he was both still very virile and not too tired by subjecting Anthonius three times to this customary sexual routine, interspersed by short bouts of sleep. The boy was sodomised on the first occasion in the same way that he had been he was when he was originally deflowered, namely lying on his back whilst holding his legs in the air. The Emperor later gained similar pleasure whilst the 12 year-old was lying facedown.

Anthonius' most humiliating moment of the night occurred, however, when he was subsequently forced to lower himself onto Diocletian's seemingly insatiable cock in order to sodomise himself on the still rampantly sexually hungry Imperial penis. The boy's acute shame was compounded when he actually ejaculated amidst this debasing process but the Emperor, evidently in a particularly happy or forgetful mood, later did not tell Casperius about this punishable misdemeanour.

The naked Anthonius had been compelled to kneel astride Diocletian's groin, whilst facing the Emperor, who was lying on his back with his cock vertical, thanks to the boy's recent licking and sucking. The 12 year-old had then carefully lowered himself onto the Imperial erection, using his hands to guide the hard penis towards penetration of his sphincter.

The process was both humiliating and hurtful but not as excruciating as on the first three occasions that Diocletian had sodomised Anthonius. There were two reasons for this reduction in pain. First, by lowering himself onto the Imperial cock, the boy managed to be more careful than when the Emperor took the initiative. Second, the 12 year-old's rectum was becoming more accustomed to invasion by the Princeps' penis.

After Anthonius had carefully received the full hard length of Diocletian's cock inside him and the boy's smooth curvaceous buttocks were resting on copious curly manly pubic hair, he paused for a moment. Whilst in this degrading posture, feeling the Imperial erection throbbing eagerly within him, the shamed 12 year-old looked at the Emperor's face.

Anthonius saw an expression of pure lechery. Diocletian's eyes were glazed, his mouth was open, with his tongue sticking out, and he was panting.

Anthonius then looked down at his own groin, where he had again been experiencing strong tingling feelings. The boy was subsequently ashamed to ascertain the cause, namely that his own cock was once more rigid.

Anthonius guessed what would happen when he finally began carefully to raise himself up from Diocletian's cock to lower himself immediately again before repeating the process until the Emperor impregnated him once more. The boy was proved correct when, simultaneous to the Princeps' fifth climax of the night, the result of which the 12 year-old could feel filling his rectum, his own penis erupted to spill a smaller amount of ejaculate onto the Imperial belly and chest.

Diocletian's bodily vibrations and gasping, as his semen filled Anthonius, were now matched by the boy's similar reactions, as he too demeaningly orgasmed. The 12 year-old subsequently could not believe that he had responded in such a shameful manner to the act of self-sodomy. However, his immediate concern about this was short-lived.

Anthonius' attention was instead quickly preoccupied by his oral cleansing of the Emperor's belly and chest to remove his own spilt cum. The boy was subsequently obliged to do the same with the temporarily sated Imperial cock before eventually reinvigorating the penis sufficiently to cause further ejaculation down his throat.

This final act of fellatio for the night, and Diocletian's sixth impregnation of Anthonius' now sexually efficient anal and oral orifices, took over an hour to achieve, after which both Emperor and Imperial catamite fell into exhausted sleep. The boy could not later tell whether his subsequent lack of chastisement for unauthorised ejaculation was because the Emperor had been particularly pleased with him or had just forgotten the incident.

Anthonius was naturally thankful to escape chastisement, especially as he believed that the lingering shame, as well as the pains in his bottom and mouth, resulting from the night's multiple acts of sodomy and fellatio was punishment enough. The boy was also amazed at Diocletian's ability to cum six times in one night, as well as his own much less commendable susceptibility to orgasm occasionally in reaction to anal penetration.

(1st version, ch. 7/3)

Chapter XI
Bedtimes

Over the next month, Diocletian chose Anthonius to be his bed companion every night, often after an orgy in his pleasure chamber, where the other Imperial pages would entertain him first by having various forms of sex with each other. The Emperor's subsequent overnight focusing on his latest catamite caused little surprise or resentment, as newcomers were usually popular with the Princeps in this way for a while, although the prolonged regularity in respect of the former prince was unusual.

Diocletian was sometimes too tired or drunk to indulge in his usual sex routine more than once with Anthonius but, on other occasions, his appetite and virility again extended to multiple sessions interspersed with some sleep. The boy himself estimated that, on average, he had been sodomised and forced to perform fellatio twice each night during his first month of service as an Imperial page.

Anthonius had therefore been sodomised by and performed fellatio for Diocletian about sixty times each during this first month. However, his black eunuch servant, Niachiarus, was amazed and happy to discover that the boy's anus remained remarkably tight, given the amount of attention the orifice had received from the Imperial cock. The 12 year-old himself was less pleased about this phenomenon because, as a consequence, every penetration still incurred pain.

Niachiarus was also happy to confirm that, to his expectations and Diocletian's delight, Anthonius' genitals on the other hand had expanded noticeably as a result of the Emperor's regular manual attentions.

(1st version, ch. 8/1)

Chapter XII
Betting

(May 290 AD)

The nights that Anthonius spent with Diocletian suddenly stopped abruptly when he was introduced to a Greek athletics coach. Until then, the 12 year-old had never heard of the games for boy athletes that the Emperor held every year in a small arena within the Imperial palace complex, supposedly in honour of the gods.

When Anthonius was told about the juvenile games, he quickly appreciated Diocletian's real motive for holding the annual event because he learnt that, as well as being excellent athletes, the specially selected young participants were expected to be very pleasing to the eye. The Princeps had devised an ideal way to inspect some of the boy elite of his Empire, especially as the only attire they were permitted during competition was a tiny thong coloured light blue.

Anthonius was also sure that Diocletian would have followed the Greek fashion of complete nudity for athletes if public Roman morals had allowed. The Emperor might even have ignored such prudish attitudes if he had still not felt entirely secure on his throne.

Anthonius was now advised by the coach that Diocletian wanted his new servant to participate in the next juvenile games, which would take place in one month's time. The boy would be the first Imperial page to do so, and he would spend the next four weeks preparing for the event, during which period his body would have to remain chaste and free from Imperial molestation to ensure proper athletic readiness.

Anthonius was informed by the coach that one of the facts that Diocletian had discovered about him, whilst enquiring about him in Lycia, was that the boy would have been a promising athlete if his royal status had not prevented him competing. The Emperor had been told that the prince had been successful in private challenges with some of his friends who were champions, or nearly, in their age group.

This was the first time that Anthonius realised the extent to which Diocletian had enquired into his background, and he could not deny the truthfulness of this particular piece of information. The boy was a very fast sprinter, who also possessed good stamina for longer runs.

Anthonius was not as big and strong as many boys of similar age but he made up for this, in events such as throwing the discus and javelin, with excellent technique. His one weakness was in wrestling. No one was supposed to fight a Lycian Prince and so he had had little practice. Only his closest friends had secretly tangled with him and they had usually emerged victorious.

Anthonius was advised by the coach that Diocletian wanted to give him the opportunity, denied to him in the past, to compete and literally show his paces publicly. He was not informed that Casperius and Lysus had cleverly seized the opportunity, when the Emperor had drunkenly bragged that his new boy favourite could beat anyone at the forthcoming juvenile games, to suggest that the page be allowed to justify such Imperial faith.

Knowing that Diocletian liked challenges, Casperius and Lysus then supplemented the Emperor's agreement by entering into a bet. If Anthonius matched his reputation by coming first in his discipline, they would pay for the games' costly closing banquet. However, if the boy failed to achieve such success, they could have him publicly flogged as part of the entertainment at the function for incompetence and shaming his Imperial master.

The motives of Casperius and Lysus were not, of course, just relating to their desire to see Anthonius flogged. The wicked conspiratorial pair also hoped that athletic defeat would at least begin to undermine the boy's obvious popularity with Diocletian, which could endanger their own positions if seriously prolonged.

Casperius and Lysus confidently expected Anthonius to fail, given that his boy opponents would be professionals who participated regularly in games throughout the Empire. However, the pair also decided to take no chances.

Lysus had, as usual, been charged with organising the juvenile games. He proposed to make certain arrangements to make sure that Anthonius was not successful in the event.

Meanwhile, Diocletian in sobriety regretted his decision to command Anthonius to participate in the juvenile games but not out of any concern for the boy's welfare. The Emperor was instead unhappy at the prospect of losing his current favourite bed companion for at least a month.

Diocletian felt that he could not change his decision about commanding Anthonius to participate in the juvenile games, as such action would cause both of them to lose face and would undermine his drunken boasts about the boy. Having adopted this stance, the Emperor also believed that he had to give his young page every chance of making such bragging come true, even if this meant that he was excused the Imperial bed for a month. However, the latter Imperial attitude again had no regard for the interests of the 12 year-old.

Diocletian hated being proved wrong and he wanted Anthonius to succeed in the juvenile games only for that reason. Furthermore, if the boy failed, the Emperor considered that a subsequent comprehensive public flogging would be well deserved for embarrassing his Imperial master. The Princeps was also parsimonious, and so he liked the idea of Casperius and Lysus paying for the banquet marking the end of the annual event.

Anthonius was kept ignorant about the prospect of a comprehensive public flogging if he failed in the forthcoming juvenile games. The boy was therefore rather innocently fascinated and excited by the prospect of participation, as he enjoyed contests, especially athletics. The bonus of not having to sleep with Diocletian for at least a month was also pleasant.

Anthonius was astute enough to appreciate that many of the spectators, who would be invited to the juvenile games by Diocletian, would not be there to enjoy the competitions as such. Most would undoubtedly share the Emperor's sexual tastes and so would simply revel instead in seeing young beautiful near-nude boy athletes performing.

This correct appraisal of the nature of the crowd that would watch the forthcoming juvenile games somehow caused excitement in Anthonius' groin whenever he thought about the matter.

Chapter XIII
Training

The Greek athletics coach had been nominated and hired by Nonianus, head of the Imperial Household. Diocletian had wisely deliberately kept Casperius and Lysus out of the process because he did not trust them not to attempt to win their bet by sabotaging Anthonius' training for the forthcoming juvenile games by appointing someone truly inept or bribed to act so. However, the Emperor actually did not mind such chicanery, as such trickery represented part of the fun of gambling and he would have tried to act similarly if he had been in their position.

Nonianus performed his duty well. The Greek athletics coach proved very capable and incorruptible. However, the latter commendable attribute was largely due to the big fee that he was earning, with the promise of a substantial bonus if Anthonius was ultimately successful, plus a stern warning from the head of the Imperial Household not to be influenced by Casperius and Lysus.

Consequently, when Casperius and Lysus inevitably did approach the coach, their attempt to bribe failed. However, the wicked conspiratorial pair was not too disappointed by the rebuff because they had other options to pursue to ensure that Anthonius failed and was flogged.

The coach subjected Anthonius to a month of rigorous training, mainly within the currently usually otherwise deserted small arena within the Imperial palace complex that would eventually host the forthcoming juvenile games, and a nearby gymnasium. The man did so despite confirming early in the process that the exceptionally beautiful former prince was a remarkably excellent natural athlete, who should be able to compete seriously with even professional boys of his own age in all events other than wrestling.

The coach was motivated to inflict a rigorous training regime on Anthonius because he was a true professional who constantly sought further improvement in whoever he supervised. The man was even hardly disturbed by the sight of the boy's ignominious brandmarks, which made the former prince look more like a slave than an Imperial page of royal Lycian background.

By the end of the month, Anthonius had become accustomed to performing whilst attired in just a minuscule thong, despite the embarrassment resulting from the fact that his shameful brandmarks were fully visible when he wore such sparse attire. He was helped in such acclimatisation by the fact that his coach was not a pederast and therefore did not watch him, as some others did, with off-putting lecherous eyes. In fact, given his profession, the trainer could not afford to have a liking for young males, who represented his clientele, as the resultant diversions from the tasks in hand would probably have ruined what he was attempting to do.

Anthonius, however, never quite became comfortable with what his coach invariably held in his hand as he supervised the boy's training. Like virtually all Greeks in his profession, the man constantly carried a light but long whip when working in order to encourage his young athletes to devote their best efforts to whatever they were practising and not to make silly mistakes. Hellenic athletic judges used such implements too for similar reasons.

The whip was designed not to harm but to sting athletes into performing properly. Fortunately, Anthonius proved such a dedicated and competent trainee that he was rarely the target of the light lash during his month of preparation.

Consequently, Anthonius' gorgeous body was not besmirched by any striped bruises by the eve of the juvenile games.

(1st version, ch. 8/2)

Chapter XIV
Sabotage

(June 290 AD)

After a month of intensive training and absence from Diocletian's lustful clutches, Anthonius found himself dancing again at a banquet. This one was held to celebrate the opening of the juvenile games on the following day.

On this occasion, Anthonius was the first entertainment of the evening and his body was attired only in his sparse light blue athletic thong. The boy's bare bottom and demeaning brandmarks were therefore again visible for all to see.

Later, Anthonius' coach escorted the boy, who remained attired only in his athletics thong, to the communal barracks that accommodated the now assembled 400 or so boy athletes. The prizes for success in the Imperial juvenile games were such that the young competitors had gathered from all over the Empire and beyond.

The barracks were located under the terracing, catering for a few hundred spectators, of the small arena that would host the games. The simple communal accommodation comprised five main amenities, namely the separate sleeping quarters of the young athletes and their coaches, plus joint refractory and bathing and toilet complexes.

Both sleeping quarters contained both large and small dormitories, with varying numbers of simple but clean uncovered beds with straw mattresses. Anthonius found himself deposited in one of the littlest, where no one else had chosen to sleep. The boy presumed correctly that his coach had used the influence of his court appointment to ensure that his young charge, who was after all an Imperial page intimate with the Emperor, was allowed to rest alone without disturbance.

After his coach had departed, Anthonius lay on his crude bed and contemplated the day ahead until tiredness and sleep finally overcame him. However, the boy's slumber proved short-lived.

Anthonius was suddenly awoken around midnight by the entry into his small dormitory of five other supposedly similarly aged boys. By far the biggest of these unexpected intruders was carrying a torch and he shouted to the others "Get him!"

The biggest boy was Ceionius, who came from one of the Spanish provinces. He was an undefeated in the octathlon, which happened to be the multi-disciplined event for which Anthonius had been entered in accordance with the bet agreed between Diocletian on one hand and Casperius and Lysus on the other.

Ceionius had been champion in his age group at all the games he had attended throughout the Empire, and he had won the event for 11 year-olds at the previous juvenile event held by Diocletian. A former Roman legionary trained him, and he knew all the dirty tricks of his new trade, which was one of the reasons why his young charge had never failed to be victorious.

Such victories had enriched both the legionary and Ceionius. However, both were ruthlessly determined to become even richer by whatever means necessary.

The first advantage that Ceionius had over the other boys in his current 12 year-old age group was the fact that he was actually 14, and big and strong even for that age. A senior official in the boy's hometown had received a large bribe when certifying the young athlete's birth date.

The second advantage was that Ceionius' coach researched the opponents well to identify the most likely challengers to the boy's supremacy. They then proceeded to nobble these threats, usually doing so, as now, with the help of an acquiescent little gang of lesser athletes, whom they had managed to ally to them, mainly through fear of the consequences of not being their friends.

Ceionius and his coach, with the help of their young allies, had already made sure that three other boys would under- perform in the octathlon for 12 year-olds at the forthcoming Imperial juvenile games. Anthonius' turn to receive a relevant visit had now arrived, although as usual the former legionary who had planned the occasion would not be present, as he left the actual operational side of his plotting to his minions.

The former legionary would have sought to sabotage Anthonius' participation in the octathlon without any inducement other than to ensure Ceionius' victory. The bribe that he had coincidentally accepted to do so from Lysus, who was ignorant of such an evil intent, was therefore an unexpected but nevertheless very pleasant bonus.

Ceionius and his four smaller and younger allies had waited patiently for Anthonius' anticipated belated arrival in the barracks and now they put the former legionary's plan into action. In doing so they were relying on Lysus' assurance that the boy would not complain to his Imperial master about bullying and sabotage.

Diocletian apparently disliked telltales and also had no interest whatsoever in his pages' personal problems, which he expected his catamites to resolve themselves. The Imperial attitude had been impressed on all the boys, including Anthonius, by Casperius, and was backed up by his threats of a serious beating if the Emperor reported that one of them had complained to him about something.

As far as the legionary and Ceionius were concerned, they believed this scenario. After all, their informant, Lysus, was not only one of Diocletian's favoured courtiers and the organiser of the forthcoming juvenile games but also the estranged half-brother of the boy whom they intended to sabotage.

The newly awakened and shocked Anthonius soon found his limbs pinned in a spreadeagled formation by the four smaller intruders. After placing his torch in an empty holder on the wall to illuminate the scene, Ceionius then produced some long leather cords and used them to bind the boy's wrists and ankles to the sturdy bedposts so that he was firmly spreadeagled.

Ceionius subsequently rapidly muted Anthonius' protests by stuffing a cloth into his mouth, which he retained in place by application of another cord tied around the now helpless boy's head. He then stood back to admire his work.

Despite his shocked bewilderment, Anthonius had already guessed correctly that the biggest of the gang of young intruders was the leader before he quietly said "Hello, Imperial bumboy, I'm Ceionius and we'll be competing against each other in the octathlon tomorrow. I do like to introduce myself in the proper manner to fellow athletes!"

Ceionius next confirmed that he had noticed Anthonius' degrading bodily markings when he added "Now, what have we here? You've been branded like a slave. I thought you used to be a Prince. My, you've really come down in the world, haven't you!"

Ceionius subsequently produced a knife and pressed the blade lightly into Anthonius' throat, in the process producing a tiny droplet of blood. The bully then moved the sharp tip delicately downwards in a zigzag fashion along the petrified boy's chest and belly before finally coming to rest on the pleasant bulge of his light blue thong, the shape of which left little to the imagination concerning what the minuscule tight garment was covering.

Goosepimples formed all over Anthonius' body as he felt the knife descend slowly down his body. However, the boy was disgusted to have to admit secretly to himself that they did not seem to stem only from his fright.

"Boys, I think I'll cut something off him", Ceionius now announced. Anthonius, in sudden horror and whilst the knife still rested on the bulge of his thong, immediately began quietly to pray to the gods that he was not going to be emasculated.

Ceionius had actually planned to introduce this very speculation into Anthonius' mind and therefore pressed the point of his dagger harder into the protuberance of the boy's thong in order to reinforce the illusion. He was immediately rewarded when the garment began to discolour.

Anthonius' immense fear had caused him to wet himself, just as Ceionius thought he might. The five young captors subsequently all laughed when they saw the dark stain discolour the light blue thong, with the leader then saying, whilst displaying a broad grin "Dear me, look what the dirty brat's done. Better have that garb off for cleaning!"

Ceionius now proceeded to sever each side of the waist cord of Anthonius' thong with his knife. He next grabbed the underneath of the garment, which was the only item that he had ever intended to cut off the boy, and pulled the cover off with one sharp yank.

Anthonius' penis, shamefully somehow now semi-erect and still expanding, and his balls, encased in their golden cockring, were then revealed. On seeing this sight, Ceionius and the other boys again burst into laughter.

Unfortunately, Anthonius' unruly penis reacted to the laughter rather incongruously by becoming fully erect by the time that the loud mirth had subsided. This enabled Ceionius now to announce "Look boys, the brat's wearing a nice cockring like a good bumboy should, and….hmmm….by the sight of his prick, he seems to like us very much!"

Anthonius immediately felt blood rush, in addition to into his cock, into his acutely ashamed face, as he blushed vehemently. This scarlet hue then intensified further when Ceionius next proceeded to encourage the further growth of his penis by rubbing the knife up and down the full length of the shaft.

When, despite his attempted resistance, Anthonius' fulsome and throbbing erection had begun to point towards his own navel, Ceionius suddenly stopped playing with the boy's cock. He had realised that time was passing and he needed a good night's sleep himself to be able to perform at his best in the octathlon on the next day.

Ceionius therefore instead finally ordered "Right, get him into position!" His four smaller companions, still located on either side of the bed in pairs, immediately placed their hands under the bare bottom of the spreadeagled Anthonius. They then lifted the pleasant curves off the straw mattress, causing the cords restraining the boy's bound limbs to bite painfully into the flesh of his wrists and ankles.

Ceionius simultaneously produced yet another long leather cord, which he wrapped tightly around the base of the appalled Anthonius' genitals. He then stood on the bed to tie the other end to an overhead beam, carefully sizing the intervening length.

When Ceionius had finished, he ordered "Right let him go!" He cruelly added "This should please the brat!"

As the four smaller intruders obeyed, they and Ceionius could hear Anthonius emit a muffled scream into his gag, as his genitals briefly took the full weight of his uplifted body. Nevertheless, the boy was still astute and capable enough to tense quickly the muscles of his outstretched arms and legs even further in order to raise his bottom a little and so temporarily relieve the pressure on his sexual organs. However, he immediately appreciated that he would be unable to maintain this highly uncomfortable pose for long before he wearied and his buttocks succumbed to gravity and began to lower once more towards the bed.

Anthonius was unsure of the distance remaining between his uplifted bottom and the bed. The boy was therefore unable to assess with any accuracy what damage would be caused when he could no longer prevent himself from finally succumbing to gravity.

Anthonius speculated that he could then find himself being excruciatingly suspended from the overhead beam with his full weight thrust agonisingly onto his genitals. Alternatively, the boy might successfully collapse back onto the mattress, having emasculated himself.

Whilst Anthonius pondered his predicament, Ceionius, having carefully surveyed his handiwork, said to his companions "Well boys, we've conveyed our greetings to our fellow athlete. It's now time to let the poor bumboy sleep. He'll need all his energies if he's up against me tomorrow in the octathlon!"

Picking up his torch and turning to Anthonius, Ceionius subsequently wished his latest young victim "Sweet dreams bumboy!"

To the bound Anthonius' horror, all five boys then departed, whilst giggling amongst themselves and leaving their latest young victim in complete darkness and suspended by his genitals from the ceiling.

(1st version, ch. 8/3)

Chapter XV
Athletes

(June 290 AD)

Anthonius spent the next few hours sobbing in excruciating torment in the complete darkness, as weakening limbs and gravity slowly encouraged his bottom back onto his mattress. The boy had initially believed that the compelling forces pulling his genitals downwards had to rip them from his body or at least irreparably tear them. However, Ceionius' trainer had learnt this particular torture from his legionary days, and had expertly passed on its refinements to his young athlete who, with practice and the odd early mistakes involving some inconsequential victims, had himself become quite adept in ensuring maximum discomfort without permanent damage.

Ceionius sent one of his gang just before dawn to release Anthonius. The boy's bottom had by then reached his mattress and the resultant agony in his groin had mercifully subsided. He had subsequently succumbed to fitful slumber.

Ceionius and his trainer had calculated that the humiliation, pain and sleep deprivation alone, inflicted on Anthonius by being subjected to the torture, should cause him to compete in the impending octathlon poorly. The fact that it was also very difficult for an athlete to perform with a severe groin strain would be a pleasant bonus.

After his release, Anthonius lay on his mattress for a while grasping his tortured genitals. Subsequently, after the boy eventually regained his senses and composure, he went to the baths to cleanse and attempt to restore his stretched and fatigued body.

Anthonius gave special early attention to his tear-stained face, which looked drawn, and scrotum, the base of which was red raw from Ceionius' cord. The boy then paid his wearied arm and leg muscles careful focus, particularly his sore wrists and ankles.

Luckily for his pride, as he did not want anyone to see him in his current state, no one was about at the early hour and so Anthonius had the baths to himself. The boy later redressed in a spare thong after completing his ablutions and returned to his bed but he gained little rest before his own trainer arrived.

The efficacy of Anthonius' at least superficial restoration of his body was now confirmed when his trainer noticed nothing untoward about his young athlete. This situation was helped by the facts that the red marks created by the cords that had tied his wrists and ankles had faded and that Lysus had been proved correct when he had suggested that the boy would not be a telltale.

During subsequent limbering up and performance of some exercises during final practice with his trainer, Anthonius also managed through immense willpower not to exhibit any obvious adverse reaction to his unpleasant experience of the previous night. He did so despite serious discomfort in his groin and his success in disguising his woe subsequently enabled him to take his place in the subsequent parade of about 400 boy athletes that entered the amphitheatre later in the morning.

Anthonius' superlative character was of a different calibre to that of the other rivals Ceionius and his own trainer had attempted to coerce previously. The boy had recovered sufficiently from his ordeal to want to compete successfully, if only to defeat the plans of the cheats, although he worried about the effect that the discomfort in his groin would have on his performance.

All of the parading boys heard the loud lecherous shouts and whistles from amongst the full crowd, which almost exclusively comprised pederastic men. However, most of the young athletes, attired only in their minuscule thongs, managed to ignore the ribald cacophony and so avoid faces reddening in embarrassment.

The short opening ceremonial was also soon over. This development enabled the boys subsequently to run to their various event positions, either for an immediate start or to await the turn of their particular age group.

There were the same eight events in each age group, running for 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 paces, discus, javelin, long jump and wrestling, plus the octathlon. The latter competition, which was the most prestigious and had the richest prizes, combined all of the other contests.

Boys were segregated into five age groups, namely 11s, 12s, 13s, 14s and 15s. The young athletes tended either to specialise in one or two events or try for the octathlon.

The special Imperial arena, in which the boys were currently about to compete, was elliptical in shape, with two tall columns at each end, 200 paces apart, around which runners simply ran to achieve their laps. There was a sandpit at the side for the long jump.

The throwing events took place along the main arena during intervals between the various running competitions. The wrestling occurred at various points around the amphitheatre and was always the last contest.

Anthonius and his 19 fellow competitors in the 13s' octathlon had to wait for over an hour for their first event, the 400-pace run. During this time, the gregarious former Lycian Prince had fatefully chatted amicably with another contestant, whose name was Sura.

When the 400-pace run subsequently eventually did start, Ceionius was the first to emerge in front. He soon established a healthy lead over everyone else.

The race necessitated just one lap around the arena and, by the time that Ceionius turned round the column at the far end of the amphitheatre, Anthonius, troubled by his groin problem, was a long way behind, with many other boys between him and the leader. Although the former Lycian prince subsequently made a desperate valiant effort to catch up, eventually overtaking several fellow young athletes in the process, he remained far behind the victor when he passed the winning post, represented by the other pillar.

Ceionius won the initial event of the octathlon for 13 year- olds easily, with Anthonius' groin problems causing him to finish in a disappointing 8th place in a time well below his best. As the 20 competitors were awarded 20 points for coming first in an event, 19 for second and so on, the former Lycian Prince now trailed the leader by a score of 7.

Ceionius and his trainer naturally immediately believed that their nobbling had worked and wrote Anthonius off as a threat to their dishonest ambitions. Of the same opinion were Casperius and Lysus, watching from the Imperial box, who also believed that their nefarious plans for the boy were working. However, Emperor Diocletian was not happy, as was exemplified by the disgusted look on his face, which boded ill for his young page's immediate future welfare if he continued to under-perform.

Meanwhile, Anthonius cursed himself for paying attention to the discomfort in his groin instead of ignoring the pain. He therefore decided that he would not make the same mistake again in the octathlon's next event, the long jump, which happened to be Ceionius' worst competition.

The Roman Imperial long jump event was dissimilar to that of games held in the Greek style, in that participants were permitted a run-up. However, Anthonius' first of two permitted attempts had to be aborted when, in his eagerness, his front foot crossed the take off line. Nevertheless, now completely ignoring the discomfort in his groin, he fearlessly sprinted as fast as he had ever done to launch himself into the air for his second effort.

Anthonius felt himself flying through the air and, when he landed, he heard loud cheering from the nearby crowd and especially from the Imperial box. His jump had far outstripped the previous leading effort.

Ceionius came 11th and suddenly Anthonius found himself leading his wicked rival in the competition, now having 33 points to the other boy's 30. However, someone else, with one 2nd and one 4th place, actually led overall on 36 points but there was still a long way to go.

The next event was the 800-pace run. This was Anthonius' most awkward distance because it made least use of his sprinting and stamina capabilities. Nevertheless, he finished a commendable 3rd behind a victorious Ceionius.

The last event of the day was the discus and Anthonius' excellent technique could not quite match Ceionius' power, the pair being 2nd and 1st respectively. However, the two boys left the arena now equal leaders overall, with 70 points each.

Ceionius and his trainer were naturally highly displeased by this outcome, as were Casperius and Lysus. However, Diocletian was now happy, as was exemplified by the grin on his face.

Anthonius knew that Ceionius was bound to try to do something nasty to him again that night and so he had made arrangements to sleep elsewhere. Sura, who had ended the day in 4th place, agreed to share his own single dormitory cell with him.

The earlier conversations between Anthonius and Sura had soon revealed that they had both been victims of Ceionius' nefarious scheming to sabotage potential rivals. The pair therefore proved to be more like allies than opponents in the 13s' octathlon, despite the desire each held to win the event.

Sura readily agreed to allow Anthonius to use his individual cell, where they ended up sharing much more than sleeping accommodation. The former Lycian Prince originally offered to slumber on the floor but his new friend told him not to be so silly, as there was enough room on his bed for two.

Both young and beautiful athletes had been told that they had to resist their natural bodily urges whilst in training for the games and remain chaste. However, the resultant desperate need for sexual relief and the presence of a pretty near-naked companion immediately next to them overnight produced the inevitable result.

The development all began innocently enough, with apparently accidental contacts between Anthonius and Sura, as they tossed and turned whilst seemingly trying to sleep. However, the touches gradually began to linger for longer and become more adventurous until, no opposition but rather the opposite being evident from their companion, eventually the boys' clearly shared lust removed inhibitions.

Anthonius and Sura began to fondle each other intimately and with increasing passion, until lips finally met and hands initiated acts of mutual masturbation. Only after subsequently despoiling their shared straw mattress with their semen virtually simultaneously did they finally fall soundly asleep in each other's arms.

Meanwhile, Ceionius was furious at not being able to find Anthonius, whom he was again seeking in order to sabotage more proficiently his performance on the next day by breaking one of the boy's toes. However, he realised that he could not risk searching the whole barracks for him and so would have to subvert his main rival in another way.

The first event of the octathlon for 13 year-olds on second and last day of the competition was the 1600-pace run. Anthonius had just taken the lead from Ceionius on the last lap when he sadly felt a foot hit his ankle, causing him to tumble to the ground.

The prone Anthonius subsequently espied the wicked look on Ceionius' face, as he ran past to enjoy his victory. His shocked and sore rival eventually trailed in last.

With only three events to go, there was now surely no way that Anthonius could overcome the resultant 19-point deficit to overtake Ceionius, but he continued to try his best. A supreme effort won him the javelin but his wicked confident rival was happy with 2nd place.

In the 3200-pace race, Anthonius carefully watched Ceionius. However, he forgot about his gang and one of them was also competing in their discipline.

The collision bringing both boys to the ground looked accidental but Anthonius knew otherwise. He also realised, after regaining his feet to run again, that his chase of Ceionius was forlorn, as by now his wicked rival had established a substantial lead.

Anthonius realised that he would not be able to catch Ceionius, although another boy was beginning to do that. He therefore wished him the best and concentrated instead on gaining third place.

Then, suddenly, there was a loud gasp from the crowd and Anthonius looked up to see the two leaders on the ground. As he passed the tangle of bodies, he recognised that the other boy was Sura.

Despite his earlier fall, Anthonius' stamina over the long 3200-pace distance was too good for the remaining 17 other competitors and he now romped to victory. Ceionius, having kicked Sura in the groin, eventually came next-to-last.

Sura, now hampered by his own groin discomfort, came last. Nevertheless, his efforts in other events enabled him to retain a position of 4th in the overall competition.

Anthonius and Ceionius were again level on points. However, the former's worst and the latter's best event, the wrestling, was still to come to close the competition.

The victor in each wrestling bout was the boy who caused his opponent to fall within a designated circle. No holds were barred to achieve this aim, apart from eye gouging and attacking the rival's genitals. Each fight was supervised by judges, who stood nearby and held whips to encourage observance of the rules, including actual engagement because no spectator wanted to see shadow contests in which competitors circled each other but avoided contact.

Fortunately for Anthonius, given his weakness in the event, the top four in the overall octathlon competition did not participate in the early wrestling bouts. The other sixteen young athletes competed first to reduce their numbers to a quartet who would then fight the leaders.

Even more fortunately for Anthonius, his eventual quarter- final opponent lost his advantage of being a better wrestler than the former Lycian Prince by picking up a leg injury in his previous bout. His consequent serious reduction in mobility literally led to his downfall.

Anthonius was next paired against Sura. Having won his own first bout, this boy was guaranteed at least overall 4th place despite sacrificing a good position in the last run to help his new friend by deliberately colliding with Ceionius.

The prize for overall 4th was not insignificant. Despite actually being a better wrestler, Sura therefore happily discreetly deliberately lost his bout with Anthonius, generously to allow his new friend to face Ceionius, who had been easily victorious in his two fights.

Anthonius realised what Sura had done, namely sacrifice his realistic winning chances in two events to enable his new friend the opportunity to beat Ceionius. Consequently, he was more determined than ever to overcome the wicked rival in the final contest, which actually comprised three bouts. However, he also knew that he would have to use guile to emerge victorious, as he was sure that the much bigger boy's superior size, strength and technique would be too good for him in an ordinary fight.

Anthonius formulated his plan and quietly prayed to the gods that his guile would work but not for his own glory. He instead wanted to ensure that such a cheat like Ceionius did not win and that Sura's generous sacrifices were not wasted.

The contest took place immediately in front of the Imperial box, in which Diocletian was sitting on the edge of his seat in great excitement. Casperius and Lysus were calmer. They had never expected Anthonius to perform so well, especially after the attempts to sabotage his efforts. However, they remained highly confident that Ceionius would now emerge victorious and so earn the defeated former Lycian Prince a severe public beating at the post-games banquet under the terms of their bet with the Emperor.

In the opening bout of the final contest, Anthonius implemented his plan by using his speed and the wide perimeters of the circle, inside which the wrestling took place, to full advantage to prevent Ceionius from grasping him. He knew that, if his bigger opponent achieved a hold on him, this would probably be fatal to his cause.

Ceionius was confident of beating the seemingly terrified wimp running around in front of him, desperately attempting to avoid contact. He should have waited patiently for the smaller boy to be coaxed into combat by the whips of the nearby judges, who would not allow such behaviour to continue for too long.

Ceionius, however, was over-confident and lurched out to grab the infuriating coward. Anthonius allowed the approach until the bigger boy almost had him but then suddenly darted to one side, cleverly tripping his opponent as he did so.

To everyone's surprise, not least his own, Ceionius found himself sprawled on the ground. The initial shock actually caused Anthonius' supporters amongst the spectators, including Emperor Diocletian and Sura, to gasp before belatedly beginning their cheering. Casperius and Lysus were naturally less pleased.

Anthonius knew that Ceionius would not lose the second bout so easily, especially as the only hurt caused by his trip was to his pride. His bigger opponent would surely now be more circumspect and therefore dangerous.

The second bout eventually started the same as the first but this time Ceionius sensibly waited for the whips of the impatient judges to threaten his opponent's bare back, forcing his rival towards him. Meanwhile, Anthonius appreciated that he was in deep trouble, as the fear of the flailing scourges thwarted his original tactics. However, he also knew that there was little that he could do about the situation and so reluctantly advanced towards his fate.

Ceionius soon had Anthonius within reach and managed to grab an arm. He quickly also had a leg and soon moved his hold to the boy's nude rump, lifted with all his strength and executed a successful and fierce throw to the ground.

The successful throw hurt not only Anthonius' pride but also his bare bottom, which he appreciated was likely to bruise. The boy also knew that glorious victory or ignominious defeat would depend upon the last bout.

Ceionius' confidence had returned and he now expected the third bout to be just a repeat of the second, especially as Anthonius seemed to be hurting. However, he was quickly disillusioned.

Instead of again holding back, Anthonius, in line with his original plan for a third bout, came straight for his surprised opponent. The shocked Ceionius managed to grasp the speeding boy but not cleanly and he soon found his opponent's smaller body swiftly backing into him.

Ceionius was trying to gain a better grip when he next experienced excruciating pain shoot up his right leg. As he subsequently instinctively lifted the limb slightly to gain relief, he then felt his other begin to slip.

Anthonius had actually stamped with all his might on his opponent's right foot, which was within the rules, and was now attempting to trip the other. The manoeuvre worked superbly for, as Ceionius lost his balance, his more diminutive opponent was able, by backing in further, to use the bigger boy's own weight against him.

Ceionius soon found himself somersaulting over Anthonius and onto the ignominy of the dust below. He did so to the accompaniment of loud roars of acclaim from the crowd and especially the Imperial box, where only Casperius and Lysus were silent.

Anthonius was later full of pride, happiness and gratitude, as he collected his laurels from a similarly proud Diocletian. The boy was also pleased to see the miserable expressions on the faces of Ceionius and his trainer when they eventually came forward to receive their lesser awards.

Anthonius actually subsequently kissed in privacy the much more content expression on Sura's very pretty face, when he gave the 1st-place prize-money to his new friend to go with that for 4th in thanks for the boy's help in his victory. In doing so, the former Lycian Prince was not only being generous in gratitude but also being realistic. Living as he now did in the Imperial palace, he did not need the precious gold coins.

Anthonius later had to pay another price for his victory because Diocletian's passion for the young victor became even more intense. After dancing at the closing banquet, the boy had to share the Imperial bed not just for the whole night. The Emperor and his favourite page did not emerge from the bedchamber for two days.

Anthonius was never to know that the post-games entertainments required from him could easily have been completely different, and much more humiliating and painful, namely suffering a severe public beating for humiliating his Imperial master by being defeated. If he had been aware, he would certainly have recognised that the perpetrators of the idea, Casperius and Lysus, would plot to make up for their disappointment.

Whilst Anthonius was spending the 48 hours pleasuring Diocletain, Casperius and Lysus did indeed meet to discuss their serious under-estimation of the former Lycian Prince. Not only had their plan failed but also the boy's unexpected victory had enhanced his prestige with and attraction to the Emperor, as well as cost them a lot of money. The terms of the lost bet meant that they also had to pay for the post- games banquet, which was very expensive.

The conspiratorial Casperius and Lysus eventually decided that, for now, Anthonius' position in Diocletian's affections was unassailable and so they would patiently bide their time. They were content in the certainty than an opportunity to destroy the boy would come sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Casperius and Lysus had perceived the significant role that Sura had played in the disaster. They would just have to wreak their revenge on that young boy for now.

Preliminary End of the adapted version,
continue with
1st version chapter 9.