quo-vadis50
Spectator
This is the next tale of the depraved and evil Tribune Gaius Cassius Trajanus. Hope you enjoy it!
PLEASE-- feedback is deeply appreciated!!
THE CRUCIFIXION OF LIVIA
by quo-vadis50
Livia shrieked piteously as the flagellum exploded across her naked, ruined breasts, barbs of bone biting deep, exposing pink flesh through torn skin, leaving her left nipple hanging by a bloody thread.
The torture went on, endlessly, relentlessly. Her screams grew weak and hoarse. The two Praetorian Guards, clad only in loincloths and sandals, had wordlessly taken turns scourging her, spelling each other. Forty lashes! Livia prayed to the gods of Rome to let her die now, before this agony went any further.
Her prayers went unanswered.
Without warning, the whip lashed out again, curling around her breasts from behind, raising angry red welts and beads of blood. The pain was beyond sense, unlike anything she had ever felt, radiating throughout her entire body. Livia howled mindlessly, twitching in agony, her shapely legs flailing as they futilely sought purchase. She was so tiny that her feet dangled several centimeters off the flagstone floor of the dungeon cell. With the ferocity of a wild animal, the torturer mercilessly scourged her again and again. Livia cried and screamed as her blood sprayed all over the room and her creamy skin was crisscrossed with bloody whip welts. Her back, her breasts, her ass, her belly, her arms and legs—nothing was spared except her face; they didn’t want to ruin that. The girl panted and sobbed and gasped in pain, her superb body glistening with sweat and blood in the torchlight. She fainted again and again. Each time she passed out, the flogging stopped until they revived her by tossing a bucket of water over her.
She was not to miss a single stroke of the whip.
Until finally, she realized the kiss of the lash no longer rained down on her mangled back and shredded breasts. Her vision occluded by a red haze of pain, LiviaÂ’s eyes focused on her tormentor standing armÂ’s length away from her, breathing heavily, blood dripping from the flagellum hanging at his side. It was a wicked instrument of torture, a short whip with a half dozen braided leather thongs, razor-sharp pieces of animal bones and teeth and small iron balls tied randomly along the length of the lash. Gaius snapped it menacingly.
“Twenty strokes to the back, and nineteen to the front,†he panted. “One more to go. I missed a spot.Ââ€
Suddenly, he brutally slashed the whip up between her legs, the bone bits ripping open her mons. Livia gulped, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she passed out.
Tribune Gaius Cassius Trajanus, commander of the 8th cohort of Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus’s elite Praetorian Guard, regarded his unconscious captive as she hung from the scourging post. She was a very young girl, luminously beautiful, and even though she was barely eighteen, she looked much younger. She was slender. She had full, round breasts, not overly large, but perfectly, exquisitely shaped; a slim waist with narrow hips and firm buttocks; and long, tapered legs. Her clear skin was the color of cream. Long golden hair framed an angelic face with –when they were open -- large, terrified blue eyes. Lovely, luscious, little Livia, the beautiful daughter of Senator Octavius Albertus Maximus, condemned to death by crucifixion, along with her father and her mother Drusilla and her twenty year old sister Jocasta. Even now, covered from head to toe with bloody lash marks, her flaxen hair matted with sweat and filth, Livia was still incredibly, incomparably beautiful. If anything, the gory, mutilated condition of her lissome body excited him all the more.
And she was still a virgin—although she wouldn’t be for long, once this business was taken care of.
Gaius set down the flagellum and toweled off as he cooled down from his exertions. A formidable erection bristled beneath his loincloth.
Gaius loved his work.
He took a drink from a fresh bucket of water and passed it to his second-in-command, Centurion Quintus Tarcanus.
Then he grabbed a branding iron from the brazier.
Livia moaned in agony, hanging by her wrists, her head lolling from side to side. Her eyes flickered open, then widened in terror as she saw the flaming brand in GaiusÂ’s hand. The huge tip glowed white-hot. It was fashioned in the shape of a cross; each of its arms was four inches long and an inch wide.
It was the mark of a prisoner condemned to crucifixion.
“N-n-nuh-n-o-oo…..please…..†Livia quavered. But her pleas fell on deaf ears. Quintus held her from behind, and Gaius relentlessly, remorselessly held the brand against Livia’s hairless pubis. Flesh sizzled and spat like a roasting pheasant; the girl jerked spasmodically, her head thrown back, legs kicking, ear-splitting screams of agony erupting from her chest, fresh sweat boiling and rolling from her body. She urinated as the pain seared through her nervous system.
Finally, Gaius removed the brand. Thick smoke curled up from the charred, blackened mark of the brand. Livia gagged on the stench of her own cooked flesh, then collapsed, sobbing, in her bonds.
Gaius returned the brand to the brazier. He unlocked the iron cuffs, and Livia slumped to the floor.
The tribune glanced at his friend, smiling wickedly. “Now the real fun begins, Quintus,†he said. He tore off his loincloth. And his rock-hard, 12 inch erection sprang free. Quintus stripped as well, then bent down and lifted Livia to her feet.
The girl stirred and stumbled forward. She gasped when she saw Gaius playing with himself, stroking his huge, rigid cock in anticipation. “NO!†she exclaimed forcefully. “You shan’t have me—either one of you! I’ll die first!†Without warning, she jabbed her elbow backward into Quintus’s exposed testicles. The surprised Praetorian doubled over, grunting in pain as he went to his knees and released his hold on Livia. The terrified girl tried to run, but Gaius sprang like a lion. He stiff-armed the girl; she ran face-first into his flattened, outstretched palm. Stunned, Livia staggered backward, bleeding from her nose and mouth. She collapsed on her side.
Quintus had recovered somewhat, though he was still slightly bent over. His face crimson with rage, he savagely kicked the girl in the pit of her stomach, and Livia retched and vomited. The second-in-command lashed the girlÂ’s wrists behind her back with coarse rope and brutally yanked her to her feet by her hair.
Gaius had picked up the mallet and two of the spikes. “You won’t die, cunt,†he said softly, “but you’ll wish you had.†He nodded to Quintus. The guard bent Livia over a table at her waist and lifted her firm breasts forward, out from under her chest. Then he yanked her head back by the hair.
Before the dazed girl even realized what was happening, Gaius had driven a spike into her left breast from above, behind the nipple, through the soft flesh and into the wood of the table.
Before she could even draw breath to scream, he had repeated the process with her other breast. Puddles of blood spread out across the tabletop. The shock to her system was overwhelming; all she could do was burble incoherently. Gaius drove each nail a bit deeper into the wood. He stepped back; Quintus released his grip on her hair, and Livia’s head hit the table with a solid ‘thump.’ She vomited again. She was totally helpless, at the mercy of her captors.
Gaius stepped around behind her, stroking her spread cunt with one hand and his throbbing erection with the other. Gently, he probed the soft flesh between her legs and was gratified when the resisting membrane of her hymen pushed back at him. When he tried to work a finger into the tight, puckered ring of her anus, he found he could do so only with great difficulty. Satisfied that she was indeed still a virgin, he sighed in contentment. “At last!†he breathed.
He guided his huge cock between her cunt lips, and, without preamble or foreplay, savagely thrust inside her to the hilt. “Yessssss!!†he snarled. “So tight!Ââ€
LiviaÂ’s head jerked up and she screamed raggedly. Internal tissues tore before the brutal onslaught, and virgin blood streamed down the insides of her legs. Gaius pounded her mercilessly for long moments, grunting and snarling like a wild animal as he viciously raped her. Livia could scream no more. She wept softly, moaning as he continued his abuse. “AhÂ…no-no-no-no-no-noÂ….†she quavered. “MamaÂ…pleaseÂ…help meÂ….Ââ€
Suddenly Gaius bellowed and arched his back as he came, flooding her womb with his seed. He collapsed on top of the girl, and she moaned as the pressure on her breasts caused flesh to tear anew. Gaius continued to thrust inside her until he was fully erect again. He pulled out, and a gush of semen slid down her inner thighs.
"Now, bitch, I think I shall explore more uncharted territory," Gaius snickered as he spread her flesh of her buttocks with one hand.
Before she could react, his swollen, erect member was jammed fully into her rectum, forcing a scream of pain from her lips as she felt tender flesh rip and tear. He paused, staring down at the crying figure under him. He chuckled cruelly as he withdrew, then rammed himself into her again, forcing another scream of pain from the girl under him as her sphincter tore with an audible 'crack.'
“Exquisite!†He bent over her, bringing his mouth close to her ear, forcing himself even deeper into her. “Even tighter than your virgin cunt, bitch! Does it hurt? DOES it, cunt?Ââ€
“YESSSSSSS!!!!!†she howled. “uuhhhhAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!! oohhhAAAAGGHHH!!
He continued to thrust into her torn, tortured orifice. Livia, unable to restrain herself any longer, sobbed, pleading for him to finish, to be done with her, which only made his thrusts harder, and slower. She could feel a wet stickiness trickling down her legs. Semen from the rape and sodomy, no doubt, but also, she realized, her own blood from the forced entry.
A lot of it.
Finally she felt his muscles bunch and he climaxed again, forcing another scream of pain from her as he roared in triumph. Finished with the little female beneath him, he withdrew, the last few spurts of his seed glazing the fleshy globes of her ass.
Stepping away from her, he walked to a bucket of water and proceeded to clean her blood and excrement and his own semen from his body. He watched dispassionately as Quintus eagerly took his place and repeated the violations. This time she didnÂ’t scream; she just wept and sobbed pitifully, her tiny body shaking with each brutal thrust. Of course, Quintus was not nearly so well-endowed as he himself was, and the damage had already been done. It probably didnÂ’t hurt her nearly as much.
Before too long the second-in-command also finished. He washed up, and the two men got dressed and strapped on their weapons. Gaius opened the cell door and gestured to two more Praetorian Guards, who entered the chamber. The tribune and Quintus began to pull on the nail heads with pliers as one of the guards lifted the teenÂ’s body, until she was free from the table with the spikes still embedded in her breasts. The other guard laid the patibulum across her mangled shoulders and he and his companion lashed her wrists and arms to the rough, wooden crossbeam. Livia, half-conscious and in agony, staggered under the heavy weight, but kept her feet.
“P-please,†she begged. “By the godsÂ….please take the..n-nailsÂ….from myÂ…breasts. I-it hurts!Ââ€
Gaius tsk-tsked at her. “Oh, no, my dear—youÂ’ll carry them to the cross that way, in those lovely tits of yours. As a matter of fact, we need to find a place for two more nails!Ââ€
A cold chill ran down LiviaÂ’s spine as she realized Gaius was staring directly at her torn vagina, a feral grin on his face.
“Hold her tight and spread her legs,†he commanded, as he picked up two spikes and a pair of forceps from the instrument table. Quintus grabbed the teen around her middle as the two guards each grabbed a leg, immobilizing her. Livia moaned in terror, helpless, unable to escape her fate. Gaius attempted to grab her sore, swollen cunt lips with the forceps. The flesh was slick with blood and semen and her juices, but he finally got a good grip on them and distended them.
Then, slowly, deliberately, he thrust the spikes into the ravaged flesh, piercing her labia as she screamed, running the nails in opposite directions through them in the shape of an “X,†blocking the opening to her tortured womb. She sagged, unconscious, in the guards’ grip as fresh blood dripped on the floor.
They revived her with more splashes of water from a bucket. Gaius pulled on thick gloves made of animal hide and picked up the crown of thorns. Without ceremony, he brutally jammed it onto her head. The barbs pierced deep into her scalp and forehead, and blood streamed into her eyes as she feebly cried out.
“There—you can emulate your Lord, the Nazarene, Christian cunt!†he spat.
Gaius peeled off the gloves and picked up a scroll.
“Livia, daughter of Octavius Albertus Maximus, you and your family are hereby charged and found guilty by Imperial Decree of treason; of plotting to murder Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known as Caligula; and of being a Christian. The sentence is death by crucifixion. You will hereby walk with your patibulum on your shoulders to the Sessorium beyond the Esquiline Gate—your place of execution. There you will be crucified alongside the other members of your family, whose sentences have already been carried out, and you will hang on the cross until you are dead, and thence until your bones fall from the wood. Sentence is to be carried out immediately.Ââ€
He slipped a long cord around her neck, and led her from the cell. Livia followed meekly, mechanically. She was in danger of going into shock, and shuffled down the long corridor, disoriented, in a haze of pain and confusion. She staggered out into the bright early morning sunlight.
A huge throng waited in the streets, and a cheer went up as Livia stumbled weak-kneed from the dungeon and into the light. Word had spread fast; the beautiful teenaged daughter of a disgraced Senator was to be crucified outside the city walls. The dregs of Roman society had gathered en masse, eager to watch her torment as she followed her own via dolorosa to her death. Hundreds lined the streets, and thousands had already assembled in the fields of the Sessorium. The Romans had a saying for it: "overnight from high society to a low cross." The riff-raff, the lowlifes, loved when that happened, taking pleasure in the fact that someone was even worse off than they were, and they especially loved it when the victims were snooty, high-born patricians—and this was a Senator and his family, no less! The crowd pushed in closer, hooting and jeering at her, taunting her, flinging rocks and garbage and even excrement at her.
“Look at her—sheÂ’s beautiful—as beautiful as they said, even covered with blood like that!Ââ€
“That crown of thorns on her head—sheÂ’s a Christian?Ââ€
“Hey, Tribune, youÂ’re going to crucify her low crux, arenÂ’t you, so we can get at her? You will nail her legs spread wide open so we can get at her cunt and fuck her, right?Ââ€
“Look what theyÂ’ve done to her tits and cunt—theyÂ’ve got the nails in them! Her cuntÂ’s like raw meat! TheyÂ’ve ruined it! WonÂ’t be much fun to fuck that!Ââ€
“Well, if you donÂ’t want to, I will!Ââ€
“By the gods, sheÂ’s only a child—a baby! This is horrible!Ââ€
“Ever seen a baby with tits like those?Ââ€
Livia swayed under the weight of the patibulum, dizzy and lightheaded. She went down hard, tearing open her knees. Then she fell forward and landed on her tortured breasts as the crossbeam cracked her left shoulder blade. She yelped in pain.
One of the mob stood over her and urinated on her back, and she screamed as the scalding liquid ran into her open wounds. Then she heard the crack of the flagellum, and the sting of the thongs on her ass. She gasped as lash followed lash, and her head spun. But she couldnÂ’t get up.
“Hold, you fool!†Gaius commanded. “I want her alive!Ââ€
The tribune frowned. It was obvious Livia would not be able to go much farther without help. Horrible black and purple bruises and contusions had bloomed on her lacerated body, the work of the iron balls on the lash. There were several places on her back where the skin had been completely peeled away, exposing the bloody muscle beneath, and white bone glinted here and there where the flagellum had cut especially deep. She had lost a good deal of blood; she was weak, in shock.
GaiusÂ’s upper lip curled as a grinning, scrawny youth who seemed to be missing half his teeth stood over Livia and took out his penis, preparing to piss on her. The tribune snarled; in a move too quick for the eye to follow, he pulled out his sword and decapitated the young man. Several of the onlookers fell on his bloody, headless corpse like a pack of wolves on a wounded sheep, stripping the body, ransacking his tunic as they looked for anything of value.
When they found nothing, one of the scavengers snarled and kicked the severed head to the opposite side of the street.
Gaius eased the young girl into a sitting position. “Get the patibulum off her!†he snapped. “SheÂ’ll never make it.Ââ€
Two of the soldiers rushed to comply. They cut away the ropes and pulled the heavy crossbeam off her shoulders. LiviaÂ’s arms fell weakly to her sides. Taking a flask of water, the tribune forced it into the girlÂ’s mouth. She drank greedily. She seemed to revive somewhat. Gaius picked her up like a child and carried her through the streets with a brisk stride.
“Do not think of this as a kindness, cunt,†he hissed. “I just want to make sure you are strong enough and energetic enough to dance properly after youÂ’re nailed. I want you to put on a good show!Ââ€
The mob jeered at him.
“Bastard! We want to see her crawl!Ââ€
“Put her down! She can make it!Ââ€
GaiusÂ’s baleful gaze raked the crowd like a physical blow. Some of the rabble took an involuntary step backward before his fearsome stare. It was almost a mile to the Esquiline Gate, but the horrid stench from the other side of the wall assailed his nostrils before he was halfway there. Gaius wrinkled his nose. He fought the urge to retch. It became easier to bear after a while but he never got used to it. In his arms, Livia gagged and tried to vomit, but there was nothing left in her stomach, and her tiny body was wracked with dry heaves.
Before long they arrived at the huge gate. Several Praetorians who were posted as sentinels swung it open for him, and Gaius stalked out past the walls of the city with his guard contingent and the crowd in tow.
And he walked into a scene far more terrifying than his worst nightmare.
The field was deceptively green and grassy. Crosses sprouted everywhere, hundreds of them, with corpses and skeletons in varying stages of decomposition hanging from them. The smell of death was overpowering, and this time Gaius did gag momentarily. There was the odor from the crucified victims, but in addition to that, off to the left were the puticuli, the large pits that served as a garbage dump, and beyond lay the potter’s field, where corpses were stacked in open trenches. Clouds of large fat flies swarmed everywhere. Overhead, flocks of vultures circled and wheeled, biding their time, waiting until the crowds dispersed to feast on the remains. Smaller carrion birds such as ravens were much bolder, however, and worried and tore at the rotting flesh of the crucified, sometimes coming away with a treasure such as an eyeball plucked from a putrefying skull. Gaius strode toward a knot of new crosses surrounded by a sea of thousands of spectators. Three bodies hung nailed to crosses, a man and two women. Their naked bodies bore the same marks of torture as Livia’s – the bloody stripes and bruises of the flagellum and the charred scar of the brand. They had been crucified low crux, the most ignominious way to die. The riff raff and lowlifes had easy access to the prisoners, and were able to abuse them in any way imaginable
And they did.
Senator Octavius Albertus Maximus was already dead. He had been castrated, and had bled to death in short order. The girl, Jocasta, LiviaÂ’s beautiful young sister, was drawing a good deal of attention. A young man stood in front of her, raping her, and an adventurous, acrobatic naked youth had gotten a ladder and stood atop it, forcing fellatio on the girl. Jocasta sucked voraciously, as if this might in some way save her from further agony. The boy grabbed her head by the hair as he climaxed, bowing his back. He pulled out and sprayed her face with his seed, then massaged it into her skin with his slick organ. JocastaÂ’s eyes were glazed, listless.
She wore the expression of someone who did not have long to live.
Gaius frowned. The woman Drusilla was being ignored, for some reason. Octavius had robbed the cradle. Drusilla was still very beautiful and voluptuous, being only in her late thirties. The carnifex had nailed her legs in the diamond position, the soles of her feet touching each other, the nails driven into the ankles, spreading her legs obscenely wide and exposing her raw cunt. She was covered with flies; the insects swarmed all over her cunt lips, crawling in and out of her opening. She had been well-used and was dripping with semen. It was strange that she wasnÂ’t being used now.
As if reading his mind, a boy who appeared to be about sixteen approached, peeling off his tunic to display a respectable erection. An older man dressed in the rags of a pauper grinned toothlessly at him.
“Don’t know as I do that, lad,†he said.
The youth looked puzzled. “Why not?†he asked.
“Because Decius let his hounds fuck her!†he cackled. “All four of them. DidnÂ’t think it was possible. I was wrong!Ââ€
The young man looked as though he would be sick. He shrugged back into his tunic and hurried off.
“Where ya goinÂ’, boy?†he shouted. “Probably just as well. If ya stuck it in there, yaÂ’d probably grow hair anÂ’ howl at the moon!Ââ€
Gaius chuckled as he lay Livia down in the grass at the base of a lone, upright post. She too would be crucified low crux. The girl stirred as she was placed on the patibulum, her arms lashed once again to the rough wooden beam. The crowd pressed in closer. This was the highlight, the main event of the day. They had been waiting for this.
“No!†she whispered fearfully, her eyes widening in terror.
Gaius nodded. “It is time, cunt.†His lips drew back over his teeth in a snarl. He savagely yanked the spikes from her breasts and ripped them from her mutilated cunt, and Livia screamed until her vocal cords bled. His eyes gleaming like those of a wild animal, the tribune pushed the point of a spike between the fine bones of her left wrist and smashed the heavy mallet down with brute force, striking sparks when it hit the head of the nail. A cheer went up from the crowd as the “clang†of the blow echoed across the valley. The girl thrashed wildly about, like a fish hooked on a line, crying and screaming in her agony. The sheer terror of her ordeal overwhelmed her; her bowels and bladder failed her, and she began to urinate helplessly, and to defecate.
“Watch where you step when we haul her up, men!†Gaius snickered. “SheÂ’s left us a little present!Ââ€
Livia stared in disbelief at her outstretched arm with horrified, pain glazed eyes, at the spike buried in her wrist, at the streams of blood gushing from the wound and spreading out over her skin. No one had ever, in her short, pampered, patrician life, treated her so brutally! Gaius struck again, driving the nail into the wood of the patibulum. Livia arched her back and gagged, and went limp. She whimpered weakly, shuddering as a spike was driven completely through her other wrist with a single, savage blow. Gaius set aside the mallet and the remaining nails.
LetÂ’s get her up,†he commanded. “Watch that you donÂ’t step in her shit.Ââ€
He and Quintus and the two guards got under the crossbeam and lifted her into a sitting position, then hoisted her off the ground with main strength. A piercing cry of pain ripped from LiviaÂ’s throat as the entire weight of her body hung on her wrists, tearing flesh. She kicked frantically, her mangled back banging against the stipes as they dragged her up it. They set the patibulum into the notch above the upright post, and the impact stretched every tendon and muscle and ligament in her tortured body. Her struggles grew weaker as her strength ebbed.
The two guards grabbed her twitching legs and forced them apart into the diamond position, bending her knees at sharp angles so the soles of her feet touched each other. Gaius bent once again to his grisly task, driving the spikes through her ankles, splashing blood into the air. Livia jerked, but a low grunt was all that issued from her lips.
“The finishing touch,†Gaius said. He tacked the titulus placard into the wood over her drooping head. “Traitor,†it read.
The soldiers stood back as the crowd surged forward, intent only on one thing. Livia’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw them coming. Her lips parted in a silent “o†of terror.
“Look at her cunt—itÂ’s wide open! Bloody as Hades, but who cares?Ââ€
“Me first!Ââ€
“I hope she doesnÂ’t die before I get a chance to fuck her!Ââ€
One of them was on her, penetrating her. She tried to scream, but the youth with the ladder was back. He forced his huge cock down her throat. Hanging on the cross made it difficult to breathe anyway, and this obstruction only made it worse. She panicked, fighting to breathe as the darkness swirled around her.
Mercifully, she was unconscious for what happened next.
************
The setting sun hung low and bloody in the sky. Livia moaned as she drifted back to consciousness.
Someone had fashioned a sedile on the upright beam. It was a sharpened wedge of wood that cut viciously into her vagina, but it supported her weight and made it easier to breathe. For the moment she was grateful for that, even though she knew it was only prolonging the agony. Flies swarmed all over her, crawling in and out of her cunt, biting, laying eggs in her wounds that would hatch into maggots after she died. She realized that, even though it was still brutally hot, she was shivering with chills. She had stopped sweating. Her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth.
The crowds were gone. Gaius and his troops sat ion a blanket on the ground, drinking wine and playing dice games. They were probably waiting for her to die. Wild dogs were slinking around, afraid to come too close just yet, but eager to taste fresh meat
Livia raised her head and gasped. Salty tears formed in her eyes.
The vultures had gotten to Jocasta. Her beautiful sisterÂ’s lithe body was being torn apart by the powerful beaks of the carrion birds. They had ripped open her belly, and two of them yanked viciously on her intestines, tearing long, greasy loops of them from her stomach cavity. A raven landed on her head and defecated in her hair. Then it reached down, plucked an eyeball from a socket, and flew off with its prize clutched tightly in its beak. She couldnÂ’t see her mother and father, but she heard the screeching of more of the big birds behind her, probably fighting over morsels of her parentsÂ’ corpses.
Livia sobbed. Soon this would happen to her. She couldnÂ’t last much longerÂ….
The sound of pounding horses hooves and the clattering of carriage wheels intruded on her blunted senses. She painfully turned her head toward the noise.
It was a noblemanÂ’s coach, and his horse guards and an empty wagon. They rode up to the foot of her cross and stopped. The carriage door opened, and a tall, lanky Hebrew dressed in the robes of a wealthy merchant stepped out, accompanied by a beautiful young dark haired girl who was similarly attired, and a lean black man in a turban and a desert robe. The girl looked right at her and did not flinch, unfazed by the horror and brutality of this place, and what had been done to Livia. She had a cloud of blue-black, curly hair and wide, clear blue eyes. She seemed to be younger than Livia, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, but the rich robes she wore could not hide the ripe, womanly curves beneath.
This fact was not lost on Gaius, whose gaze brazenly raked her slim body from head to toe as he approached.
“What can I do for you, My Lord?†he asked, never taking his eyes off the dark-haired girl.
“I am Nathaniel of Sidon,†he said. “I am a Hebrew merchant and a Roman citizen This is my daughter Rebekkah, and NÂ’kwame, my personal physician.†He gestured toward Livia. “I wish to buy this child down from the cross.Ââ€
Gaius snorted.
“Why? WhatÂ’s in it for you?Ââ€
“Nothing,†Nathaniel returned, “except to obviate what little I can of this atrocity. Octavius was a good friend of mine.†His blue eyes bored into Gaius’s cold, steel grey ones, and, uncharacteristically, it was the tribune who broke off the gaze first.
“You can’t afford the price of her freedom!†Gaius spat.
“Name it.Ââ€
“Fifteen thousand gold pieces,†the tribune ventured.
“How about twenty thousand for you, twenty thousand for your centurion, and ten thousand each for you guards?†Nathaniel countered.
Gaius’s mouth dropped open. “Twenty……..†His voice trailed off.
“A man like you must have ambitions beyond the Praetorian Guard—perhaps the Senate, perhaps even……Caesar?†Nathaniel probed. “Twenty thousand in gold would go a long way toward those dreams.†The merchant snapped his fingers. Two of his guardsmen dragged a heavy chest from the carriage and opened it at the feet of the tribune.
Gaius gasped, and he heard the exclamations of his men behind him. The chest was full of gold, everything he had just promised them and then some.
“D-done,†he stammered. “Take the little girl. SheÂ’s yours. SheÂ’ll die anyway.Ââ€
“Perhaps not,†Nathaniel said. “NÂ’Kwame is quite skilled. There are medicines from his jungle home that are unknown to us. I wish take the bodies of her family as well and give them a proper burial. They shall be entombed on my estate on the Palatine Hill.Ââ€
Gaius snickered. “Take them, too. The birds have already picked their carcasses clean.Ââ€
Nathaniel gestured to another of his men.
"Count out their money—and give each of them an extra five thousand."
The Bantu physician raised a cup to LiviaÂ’s trembling lips.
“Drink this,†he said, his voice soothing. “It will help the pain.Ââ€
Livia swallowed the cool liquid gratefully. Almost magically, the agony faded from her body within moments. She closed her eyes and drifted into a peaceful, healing sleep.
Gaius watcd incredulously as NathanielÂ’s men gently took Livia down from the cross and wrapped in a silken sheet. They laid her down on a cushioned seat in the coach. Behind him, the vultures squawked in protest as they were chased away from their prey. The horse guards wrapped the three bodies in sheets and bundled them into the wagon.
Then without another word, they rode off toward the city.
“She wonÂ’t survive,†Quintus said. “You just wonÂ’t get to see her die. Too bad.Ââ€
Gaius shook his head.
“Maybe not, my friend. Perhaps itÂ’s just gratification delayed. IÂ’ve heard stories of those Bantu medicine men, stories about medical miracles they performed. Perhaps Livia will yet dance on the cross again another day—and the girl Rebekkah with her. Did you see her? What a beauty! The two of them would look wonderful crucified together, struggling and writhing on the cross. Side by side, maybe—or tit to tit and cunt to cunt. Or perhaps nailed to the same cross.†His eyes narrowed. “Whatever happens—even if Livia doesnÂ’t survive—I will have Rebekkah, and soon. She will soon feel the bite of the nails in her soft, pale flesh.Ââ€
He straightened.
“Come on, letÂ’s gather up our treasures and head inside the walls. ItÂ’ll be dark soon, and the wild beasts will be moving.Ââ€
They gathered up the heavy sacks of gold and headed back toward the Esquiline Gate as the sun set behind them. Gaius thought again of the dark-haired, alabaster-skinned daughter of Nathaniel of Sidon, and his loins stirred.
It would be good to see her hanging on a low cross!
*******
COMING SOON—DEATH IN THE DESERT: GAIUS’S REVENGE
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THE CRUCIFIXION OF LIVIA
by quo-vadis50
Livia shrieked piteously as the flagellum exploded across her naked, ruined breasts, barbs of bone biting deep, exposing pink flesh through torn skin, leaving her left nipple hanging by a bloody thread.
The torture went on, endlessly, relentlessly. Her screams grew weak and hoarse. The two Praetorian Guards, clad only in loincloths and sandals, had wordlessly taken turns scourging her, spelling each other. Forty lashes! Livia prayed to the gods of Rome to let her die now, before this agony went any further.
Her prayers went unanswered.
Without warning, the whip lashed out again, curling around her breasts from behind, raising angry red welts and beads of blood. The pain was beyond sense, unlike anything she had ever felt, radiating throughout her entire body. Livia howled mindlessly, twitching in agony, her shapely legs flailing as they futilely sought purchase. She was so tiny that her feet dangled several centimeters off the flagstone floor of the dungeon cell. With the ferocity of a wild animal, the torturer mercilessly scourged her again and again. Livia cried and screamed as her blood sprayed all over the room and her creamy skin was crisscrossed with bloody whip welts. Her back, her breasts, her ass, her belly, her arms and legs—nothing was spared except her face; they didn’t want to ruin that. The girl panted and sobbed and gasped in pain, her superb body glistening with sweat and blood in the torchlight. She fainted again and again. Each time she passed out, the flogging stopped until they revived her by tossing a bucket of water over her.
She was not to miss a single stroke of the whip.
Until finally, she realized the kiss of the lash no longer rained down on her mangled back and shredded breasts. Her vision occluded by a red haze of pain, LiviaÂ’s eyes focused on her tormentor standing armÂ’s length away from her, breathing heavily, blood dripping from the flagellum hanging at his side. It was a wicked instrument of torture, a short whip with a half dozen braided leather thongs, razor-sharp pieces of animal bones and teeth and small iron balls tied randomly along the length of the lash. Gaius snapped it menacingly.
“Twenty strokes to the back, and nineteen to the front,†he panted. “One more to go. I missed a spot.Ââ€
Suddenly, he brutally slashed the whip up between her legs, the bone bits ripping open her mons. Livia gulped, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she passed out.
Tribune Gaius Cassius Trajanus, commander of the 8th cohort of Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus’s elite Praetorian Guard, regarded his unconscious captive as she hung from the scourging post. She was a very young girl, luminously beautiful, and even though she was barely eighteen, she looked much younger. She was slender. She had full, round breasts, not overly large, but perfectly, exquisitely shaped; a slim waist with narrow hips and firm buttocks; and long, tapered legs. Her clear skin was the color of cream. Long golden hair framed an angelic face with –when they were open -- large, terrified blue eyes. Lovely, luscious, little Livia, the beautiful daughter of Senator Octavius Albertus Maximus, condemned to death by crucifixion, along with her father and her mother Drusilla and her twenty year old sister Jocasta. Even now, covered from head to toe with bloody lash marks, her flaxen hair matted with sweat and filth, Livia was still incredibly, incomparably beautiful. If anything, the gory, mutilated condition of her lissome body excited him all the more.
And she was still a virgin—although she wouldn’t be for long, once this business was taken care of.
Gaius set down the flagellum and toweled off as he cooled down from his exertions. A formidable erection bristled beneath his loincloth.
Gaius loved his work.
He took a drink from a fresh bucket of water and passed it to his second-in-command, Centurion Quintus Tarcanus.
Then he grabbed a branding iron from the brazier.
Livia moaned in agony, hanging by her wrists, her head lolling from side to side. Her eyes flickered open, then widened in terror as she saw the flaming brand in GaiusÂ’s hand. The huge tip glowed white-hot. It was fashioned in the shape of a cross; each of its arms was four inches long and an inch wide.
It was the mark of a prisoner condemned to crucifixion.
“N-n-nuh-n-o-oo…..please…..†Livia quavered. But her pleas fell on deaf ears. Quintus held her from behind, and Gaius relentlessly, remorselessly held the brand against Livia’s hairless pubis. Flesh sizzled and spat like a roasting pheasant; the girl jerked spasmodically, her head thrown back, legs kicking, ear-splitting screams of agony erupting from her chest, fresh sweat boiling and rolling from her body. She urinated as the pain seared through her nervous system.
Finally, Gaius removed the brand. Thick smoke curled up from the charred, blackened mark of the brand. Livia gagged on the stench of her own cooked flesh, then collapsed, sobbing, in her bonds.
Gaius returned the brand to the brazier. He unlocked the iron cuffs, and Livia slumped to the floor.
The tribune glanced at his friend, smiling wickedly. “Now the real fun begins, Quintus,†he said. He tore off his loincloth. And his rock-hard, 12 inch erection sprang free. Quintus stripped as well, then bent down and lifted Livia to her feet.
The girl stirred and stumbled forward. She gasped when she saw Gaius playing with himself, stroking his huge, rigid cock in anticipation. “NO!†she exclaimed forcefully. “You shan’t have me—either one of you! I’ll die first!†Without warning, she jabbed her elbow backward into Quintus’s exposed testicles. The surprised Praetorian doubled over, grunting in pain as he went to his knees and released his hold on Livia. The terrified girl tried to run, but Gaius sprang like a lion. He stiff-armed the girl; she ran face-first into his flattened, outstretched palm. Stunned, Livia staggered backward, bleeding from her nose and mouth. She collapsed on her side.
Quintus had recovered somewhat, though he was still slightly bent over. His face crimson with rage, he savagely kicked the girl in the pit of her stomach, and Livia retched and vomited. The second-in-command lashed the girlÂ’s wrists behind her back with coarse rope and brutally yanked her to her feet by her hair.
Gaius had picked up the mallet and two of the spikes. “You won’t die, cunt,†he said softly, “but you’ll wish you had.†He nodded to Quintus. The guard bent Livia over a table at her waist and lifted her firm breasts forward, out from under her chest. Then he yanked her head back by the hair.
Before the dazed girl even realized what was happening, Gaius had driven a spike into her left breast from above, behind the nipple, through the soft flesh and into the wood of the table.
Before she could even draw breath to scream, he had repeated the process with her other breast. Puddles of blood spread out across the tabletop. The shock to her system was overwhelming; all she could do was burble incoherently. Gaius drove each nail a bit deeper into the wood. He stepped back; Quintus released his grip on her hair, and Livia’s head hit the table with a solid ‘thump.’ She vomited again. She was totally helpless, at the mercy of her captors.
Gaius stepped around behind her, stroking her spread cunt with one hand and his throbbing erection with the other. Gently, he probed the soft flesh between her legs and was gratified when the resisting membrane of her hymen pushed back at him. When he tried to work a finger into the tight, puckered ring of her anus, he found he could do so only with great difficulty. Satisfied that she was indeed still a virgin, he sighed in contentment. “At last!†he breathed.
He guided his huge cock between her cunt lips, and, without preamble or foreplay, savagely thrust inside her to the hilt. “Yessssss!!†he snarled. “So tight!Ââ€
LiviaÂ’s head jerked up and she screamed raggedly. Internal tissues tore before the brutal onslaught, and virgin blood streamed down the insides of her legs. Gaius pounded her mercilessly for long moments, grunting and snarling like a wild animal as he viciously raped her. Livia could scream no more. She wept softly, moaning as he continued his abuse. “AhÂ…no-no-no-no-no-noÂ….†she quavered. “MamaÂ…pleaseÂ…help meÂ….Ââ€
Suddenly Gaius bellowed and arched his back as he came, flooding her womb with his seed. He collapsed on top of the girl, and she moaned as the pressure on her breasts caused flesh to tear anew. Gaius continued to thrust inside her until he was fully erect again. He pulled out, and a gush of semen slid down her inner thighs.
"Now, bitch, I think I shall explore more uncharted territory," Gaius snickered as he spread her flesh of her buttocks with one hand.
Before she could react, his swollen, erect member was jammed fully into her rectum, forcing a scream of pain from her lips as she felt tender flesh rip and tear. He paused, staring down at the crying figure under him. He chuckled cruelly as he withdrew, then rammed himself into her again, forcing another scream of pain from the girl under him as her sphincter tore with an audible 'crack.'
“Exquisite!†He bent over her, bringing his mouth close to her ear, forcing himself even deeper into her. “Even tighter than your virgin cunt, bitch! Does it hurt? DOES it, cunt?Ââ€
“YESSSSSSS!!!!!†she howled. “uuhhhhAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!! oohhhAAAAGGHHH!!
He continued to thrust into her torn, tortured orifice. Livia, unable to restrain herself any longer, sobbed, pleading for him to finish, to be done with her, which only made his thrusts harder, and slower. She could feel a wet stickiness trickling down her legs. Semen from the rape and sodomy, no doubt, but also, she realized, her own blood from the forced entry.
A lot of it.
Finally she felt his muscles bunch and he climaxed again, forcing another scream of pain from her as he roared in triumph. Finished with the little female beneath him, he withdrew, the last few spurts of his seed glazing the fleshy globes of her ass.
Stepping away from her, he walked to a bucket of water and proceeded to clean her blood and excrement and his own semen from his body. He watched dispassionately as Quintus eagerly took his place and repeated the violations. This time she didnÂ’t scream; she just wept and sobbed pitifully, her tiny body shaking with each brutal thrust. Of course, Quintus was not nearly so well-endowed as he himself was, and the damage had already been done. It probably didnÂ’t hurt her nearly as much.
Before too long the second-in-command also finished. He washed up, and the two men got dressed and strapped on their weapons. Gaius opened the cell door and gestured to two more Praetorian Guards, who entered the chamber. The tribune and Quintus began to pull on the nail heads with pliers as one of the guards lifted the teenÂ’s body, until she was free from the table with the spikes still embedded in her breasts. The other guard laid the patibulum across her mangled shoulders and he and his companion lashed her wrists and arms to the rough, wooden crossbeam. Livia, half-conscious and in agony, staggered under the heavy weight, but kept her feet.
“P-please,†she begged. “By the godsÂ….please take the..n-nailsÂ….from myÂ…breasts. I-it hurts!Ââ€
Gaius tsk-tsked at her. “Oh, no, my dear—youÂ’ll carry them to the cross that way, in those lovely tits of yours. As a matter of fact, we need to find a place for two more nails!Ââ€
A cold chill ran down LiviaÂ’s spine as she realized Gaius was staring directly at her torn vagina, a feral grin on his face.
“Hold her tight and spread her legs,†he commanded, as he picked up two spikes and a pair of forceps from the instrument table. Quintus grabbed the teen around her middle as the two guards each grabbed a leg, immobilizing her. Livia moaned in terror, helpless, unable to escape her fate. Gaius attempted to grab her sore, swollen cunt lips with the forceps. The flesh was slick with blood and semen and her juices, but he finally got a good grip on them and distended them.
Then, slowly, deliberately, he thrust the spikes into the ravaged flesh, piercing her labia as she screamed, running the nails in opposite directions through them in the shape of an “X,†blocking the opening to her tortured womb. She sagged, unconscious, in the guards’ grip as fresh blood dripped on the floor.
They revived her with more splashes of water from a bucket. Gaius pulled on thick gloves made of animal hide and picked up the crown of thorns. Without ceremony, he brutally jammed it onto her head. The barbs pierced deep into her scalp and forehead, and blood streamed into her eyes as she feebly cried out.
“There—you can emulate your Lord, the Nazarene, Christian cunt!†he spat.
Gaius peeled off the gloves and picked up a scroll.
“Livia, daughter of Octavius Albertus Maximus, you and your family are hereby charged and found guilty by Imperial Decree of treason; of plotting to murder Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known as Caligula; and of being a Christian. The sentence is death by crucifixion. You will hereby walk with your patibulum on your shoulders to the Sessorium beyond the Esquiline Gate—your place of execution. There you will be crucified alongside the other members of your family, whose sentences have already been carried out, and you will hang on the cross until you are dead, and thence until your bones fall from the wood. Sentence is to be carried out immediately.Ââ€
He slipped a long cord around her neck, and led her from the cell. Livia followed meekly, mechanically. She was in danger of going into shock, and shuffled down the long corridor, disoriented, in a haze of pain and confusion. She staggered out into the bright early morning sunlight.
A huge throng waited in the streets, and a cheer went up as Livia stumbled weak-kneed from the dungeon and into the light. Word had spread fast; the beautiful teenaged daughter of a disgraced Senator was to be crucified outside the city walls. The dregs of Roman society had gathered en masse, eager to watch her torment as she followed her own via dolorosa to her death. Hundreds lined the streets, and thousands had already assembled in the fields of the Sessorium. The Romans had a saying for it: "overnight from high society to a low cross." The riff-raff, the lowlifes, loved when that happened, taking pleasure in the fact that someone was even worse off than they were, and they especially loved it when the victims were snooty, high-born patricians—and this was a Senator and his family, no less! The crowd pushed in closer, hooting and jeering at her, taunting her, flinging rocks and garbage and even excrement at her.
“Look at her—sheÂ’s beautiful—as beautiful as they said, even covered with blood like that!Ââ€
“That crown of thorns on her head—sheÂ’s a Christian?Ââ€
“Hey, Tribune, youÂ’re going to crucify her low crux, arenÂ’t you, so we can get at her? You will nail her legs spread wide open so we can get at her cunt and fuck her, right?Ââ€
“Look what theyÂ’ve done to her tits and cunt—theyÂ’ve got the nails in them! Her cuntÂ’s like raw meat! TheyÂ’ve ruined it! WonÂ’t be much fun to fuck that!Ââ€
“Well, if you donÂ’t want to, I will!Ââ€
“By the gods, sheÂ’s only a child—a baby! This is horrible!Ââ€
“Ever seen a baby with tits like those?Ââ€
Livia swayed under the weight of the patibulum, dizzy and lightheaded. She went down hard, tearing open her knees. Then she fell forward and landed on her tortured breasts as the crossbeam cracked her left shoulder blade. She yelped in pain.
One of the mob stood over her and urinated on her back, and she screamed as the scalding liquid ran into her open wounds. Then she heard the crack of the flagellum, and the sting of the thongs on her ass. She gasped as lash followed lash, and her head spun. But she couldnÂ’t get up.
“Hold, you fool!†Gaius commanded. “I want her alive!Ââ€
The tribune frowned. It was obvious Livia would not be able to go much farther without help. Horrible black and purple bruises and contusions had bloomed on her lacerated body, the work of the iron balls on the lash. There were several places on her back where the skin had been completely peeled away, exposing the bloody muscle beneath, and white bone glinted here and there where the flagellum had cut especially deep. She had lost a good deal of blood; she was weak, in shock.
GaiusÂ’s upper lip curled as a grinning, scrawny youth who seemed to be missing half his teeth stood over Livia and took out his penis, preparing to piss on her. The tribune snarled; in a move too quick for the eye to follow, he pulled out his sword and decapitated the young man. Several of the onlookers fell on his bloody, headless corpse like a pack of wolves on a wounded sheep, stripping the body, ransacking his tunic as they looked for anything of value.
When they found nothing, one of the scavengers snarled and kicked the severed head to the opposite side of the street.
Gaius eased the young girl into a sitting position. “Get the patibulum off her!†he snapped. “SheÂ’ll never make it.Ââ€
Two of the soldiers rushed to comply. They cut away the ropes and pulled the heavy crossbeam off her shoulders. LiviaÂ’s arms fell weakly to her sides. Taking a flask of water, the tribune forced it into the girlÂ’s mouth. She drank greedily. She seemed to revive somewhat. Gaius picked her up like a child and carried her through the streets with a brisk stride.
“Do not think of this as a kindness, cunt,†he hissed. “I just want to make sure you are strong enough and energetic enough to dance properly after youÂ’re nailed. I want you to put on a good show!Ââ€
The mob jeered at him.
“Bastard! We want to see her crawl!Ââ€
“Put her down! She can make it!Ââ€
GaiusÂ’s baleful gaze raked the crowd like a physical blow. Some of the rabble took an involuntary step backward before his fearsome stare. It was almost a mile to the Esquiline Gate, but the horrid stench from the other side of the wall assailed his nostrils before he was halfway there. Gaius wrinkled his nose. He fought the urge to retch. It became easier to bear after a while but he never got used to it. In his arms, Livia gagged and tried to vomit, but there was nothing left in her stomach, and her tiny body was wracked with dry heaves.
Before long they arrived at the huge gate. Several Praetorians who were posted as sentinels swung it open for him, and Gaius stalked out past the walls of the city with his guard contingent and the crowd in tow.
And he walked into a scene far more terrifying than his worst nightmare.
The field was deceptively green and grassy. Crosses sprouted everywhere, hundreds of them, with corpses and skeletons in varying stages of decomposition hanging from them. The smell of death was overpowering, and this time Gaius did gag momentarily. There was the odor from the crucified victims, but in addition to that, off to the left were the puticuli, the large pits that served as a garbage dump, and beyond lay the potter’s field, where corpses were stacked in open trenches. Clouds of large fat flies swarmed everywhere. Overhead, flocks of vultures circled and wheeled, biding their time, waiting until the crowds dispersed to feast on the remains. Smaller carrion birds such as ravens were much bolder, however, and worried and tore at the rotting flesh of the crucified, sometimes coming away with a treasure such as an eyeball plucked from a putrefying skull. Gaius strode toward a knot of new crosses surrounded by a sea of thousands of spectators. Three bodies hung nailed to crosses, a man and two women. Their naked bodies bore the same marks of torture as Livia’s – the bloody stripes and bruises of the flagellum and the charred scar of the brand. They had been crucified low crux, the most ignominious way to die. The riff raff and lowlifes had easy access to the prisoners, and were able to abuse them in any way imaginable
And they did.
Senator Octavius Albertus Maximus was already dead. He had been castrated, and had bled to death in short order. The girl, Jocasta, LiviaÂ’s beautiful young sister, was drawing a good deal of attention. A young man stood in front of her, raping her, and an adventurous, acrobatic naked youth had gotten a ladder and stood atop it, forcing fellatio on the girl. Jocasta sucked voraciously, as if this might in some way save her from further agony. The boy grabbed her head by the hair as he climaxed, bowing his back. He pulled out and sprayed her face with his seed, then massaged it into her skin with his slick organ. JocastaÂ’s eyes were glazed, listless.
She wore the expression of someone who did not have long to live.
Gaius frowned. The woman Drusilla was being ignored, for some reason. Octavius had robbed the cradle. Drusilla was still very beautiful and voluptuous, being only in her late thirties. The carnifex had nailed her legs in the diamond position, the soles of her feet touching each other, the nails driven into the ankles, spreading her legs obscenely wide and exposing her raw cunt. She was covered with flies; the insects swarmed all over her cunt lips, crawling in and out of her opening. She had been well-used and was dripping with semen. It was strange that she wasnÂ’t being used now.
As if reading his mind, a boy who appeared to be about sixteen approached, peeling off his tunic to display a respectable erection. An older man dressed in the rags of a pauper grinned toothlessly at him.
“Don’t know as I do that, lad,†he said.
The youth looked puzzled. “Why not?†he asked.
“Because Decius let his hounds fuck her!†he cackled. “All four of them. DidnÂ’t think it was possible. I was wrong!Ââ€
The young man looked as though he would be sick. He shrugged back into his tunic and hurried off.
“Where ya goinÂ’, boy?†he shouted. “Probably just as well. If ya stuck it in there, yaÂ’d probably grow hair anÂ’ howl at the moon!Ââ€
Gaius chuckled as he lay Livia down in the grass at the base of a lone, upright post. She too would be crucified low crux. The girl stirred as she was placed on the patibulum, her arms lashed once again to the rough wooden beam. The crowd pressed in closer. This was the highlight, the main event of the day. They had been waiting for this.
“No!†she whispered fearfully, her eyes widening in terror.
Gaius nodded. “It is time, cunt.†His lips drew back over his teeth in a snarl. He savagely yanked the spikes from her breasts and ripped them from her mutilated cunt, and Livia screamed until her vocal cords bled. His eyes gleaming like those of a wild animal, the tribune pushed the point of a spike between the fine bones of her left wrist and smashed the heavy mallet down with brute force, striking sparks when it hit the head of the nail. A cheer went up from the crowd as the “clang†of the blow echoed across the valley. The girl thrashed wildly about, like a fish hooked on a line, crying and screaming in her agony. The sheer terror of her ordeal overwhelmed her; her bowels and bladder failed her, and she began to urinate helplessly, and to defecate.
“Watch where you step when we haul her up, men!†Gaius snickered. “SheÂ’s left us a little present!Ââ€
Livia stared in disbelief at her outstretched arm with horrified, pain glazed eyes, at the spike buried in her wrist, at the streams of blood gushing from the wound and spreading out over her skin. No one had ever, in her short, pampered, patrician life, treated her so brutally! Gaius struck again, driving the nail into the wood of the patibulum. Livia arched her back and gagged, and went limp. She whimpered weakly, shuddering as a spike was driven completely through her other wrist with a single, savage blow. Gaius set aside the mallet and the remaining nails.
LetÂ’s get her up,†he commanded. “Watch that you donÂ’t step in her shit.Ââ€
He and Quintus and the two guards got under the crossbeam and lifted her into a sitting position, then hoisted her off the ground with main strength. A piercing cry of pain ripped from LiviaÂ’s throat as the entire weight of her body hung on her wrists, tearing flesh. She kicked frantically, her mangled back banging against the stipes as they dragged her up it. They set the patibulum into the notch above the upright post, and the impact stretched every tendon and muscle and ligament in her tortured body. Her struggles grew weaker as her strength ebbed.
The two guards grabbed her twitching legs and forced them apart into the diamond position, bending her knees at sharp angles so the soles of her feet touched each other. Gaius bent once again to his grisly task, driving the spikes through her ankles, splashing blood into the air. Livia jerked, but a low grunt was all that issued from her lips.
“The finishing touch,†Gaius said. He tacked the titulus placard into the wood over her drooping head. “Traitor,†it read.
The soldiers stood back as the crowd surged forward, intent only on one thing. Livia’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw them coming. Her lips parted in a silent “o†of terror.
“Look at her cunt—itÂ’s wide open! Bloody as Hades, but who cares?Ââ€
“Me first!Ââ€
“I hope she doesnÂ’t die before I get a chance to fuck her!Ââ€
One of them was on her, penetrating her. She tried to scream, but the youth with the ladder was back. He forced his huge cock down her throat. Hanging on the cross made it difficult to breathe anyway, and this obstruction only made it worse. She panicked, fighting to breathe as the darkness swirled around her.
Mercifully, she was unconscious for what happened next.
************
The setting sun hung low and bloody in the sky. Livia moaned as she drifted back to consciousness.
Someone had fashioned a sedile on the upright beam. It was a sharpened wedge of wood that cut viciously into her vagina, but it supported her weight and made it easier to breathe. For the moment she was grateful for that, even though she knew it was only prolonging the agony. Flies swarmed all over her, crawling in and out of her cunt, biting, laying eggs in her wounds that would hatch into maggots after she died. She realized that, even though it was still brutally hot, she was shivering with chills. She had stopped sweating. Her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth.
The crowds were gone. Gaius and his troops sat ion a blanket on the ground, drinking wine and playing dice games. They were probably waiting for her to die. Wild dogs were slinking around, afraid to come too close just yet, but eager to taste fresh meat
Livia raised her head and gasped. Salty tears formed in her eyes.
The vultures had gotten to Jocasta. Her beautiful sisterÂ’s lithe body was being torn apart by the powerful beaks of the carrion birds. They had ripped open her belly, and two of them yanked viciously on her intestines, tearing long, greasy loops of them from her stomach cavity. A raven landed on her head and defecated in her hair. Then it reached down, plucked an eyeball from a socket, and flew off with its prize clutched tightly in its beak. She couldnÂ’t see her mother and father, but she heard the screeching of more of the big birds behind her, probably fighting over morsels of her parentsÂ’ corpses.
Livia sobbed. Soon this would happen to her. She couldnÂ’t last much longerÂ….
The sound of pounding horses hooves and the clattering of carriage wheels intruded on her blunted senses. She painfully turned her head toward the noise.
It was a noblemanÂ’s coach, and his horse guards and an empty wagon. They rode up to the foot of her cross and stopped. The carriage door opened, and a tall, lanky Hebrew dressed in the robes of a wealthy merchant stepped out, accompanied by a beautiful young dark haired girl who was similarly attired, and a lean black man in a turban and a desert robe. The girl looked right at her and did not flinch, unfazed by the horror and brutality of this place, and what had been done to Livia. She had a cloud of blue-black, curly hair and wide, clear blue eyes. She seemed to be younger than Livia, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, but the rich robes she wore could not hide the ripe, womanly curves beneath.
This fact was not lost on Gaius, whose gaze brazenly raked her slim body from head to toe as he approached.
“What can I do for you, My Lord?†he asked, never taking his eyes off the dark-haired girl.
“I am Nathaniel of Sidon,†he said. “I am a Hebrew merchant and a Roman citizen This is my daughter Rebekkah, and NÂ’kwame, my personal physician.†He gestured toward Livia. “I wish to buy this child down from the cross.Ââ€
Gaius snorted.
“Why? WhatÂ’s in it for you?Ââ€
“Nothing,†Nathaniel returned, “except to obviate what little I can of this atrocity. Octavius was a good friend of mine.†His blue eyes bored into Gaius’s cold, steel grey ones, and, uncharacteristically, it was the tribune who broke off the gaze first.
“You can’t afford the price of her freedom!†Gaius spat.
“Name it.Ââ€
“Fifteen thousand gold pieces,†the tribune ventured.
“How about twenty thousand for you, twenty thousand for your centurion, and ten thousand each for you guards?†Nathaniel countered.
Gaius’s mouth dropped open. “Twenty……..†His voice trailed off.
“A man like you must have ambitions beyond the Praetorian Guard—perhaps the Senate, perhaps even……Caesar?†Nathaniel probed. “Twenty thousand in gold would go a long way toward those dreams.†The merchant snapped his fingers. Two of his guardsmen dragged a heavy chest from the carriage and opened it at the feet of the tribune.
Gaius gasped, and he heard the exclamations of his men behind him. The chest was full of gold, everything he had just promised them and then some.
“D-done,†he stammered. “Take the little girl. SheÂ’s yours. SheÂ’ll die anyway.Ââ€
“Perhaps not,†Nathaniel said. “NÂ’Kwame is quite skilled. There are medicines from his jungle home that are unknown to us. I wish take the bodies of her family as well and give them a proper burial. They shall be entombed on my estate on the Palatine Hill.Ââ€
Gaius snickered. “Take them, too. The birds have already picked their carcasses clean.Ââ€
Nathaniel gestured to another of his men.
"Count out their money—and give each of them an extra five thousand."
The Bantu physician raised a cup to LiviaÂ’s trembling lips.
“Drink this,†he said, his voice soothing. “It will help the pain.Ââ€
Livia swallowed the cool liquid gratefully. Almost magically, the agony faded from her body within moments. She closed her eyes and drifted into a peaceful, healing sleep.
Gaius watcd incredulously as NathanielÂ’s men gently took Livia down from the cross and wrapped in a silken sheet. They laid her down on a cushioned seat in the coach. Behind him, the vultures squawked in protest as they were chased away from their prey. The horse guards wrapped the three bodies in sheets and bundled them into the wagon.
Then without another word, they rode off toward the city.
“She wonÂ’t survive,†Quintus said. “You just wonÂ’t get to see her die. Too bad.Ââ€
Gaius shook his head.
“Maybe not, my friend. Perhaps itÂ’s just gratification delayed. IÂ’ve heard stories of those Bantu medicine men, stories about medical miracles they performed. Perhaps Livia will yet dance on the cross again another day—and the girl Rebekkah with her. Did you see her? What a beauty! The two of them would look wonderful crucified together, struggling and writhing on the cross. Side by side, maybe—or tit to tit and cunt to cunt. Or perhaps nailed to the same cross.†His eyes narrowed. “Whatever happens—even if Livia doesnÂ’t survive—I will have Rebekkah, and soon. She will soon feel the bite of the nails in her soft, pale flesh.Ââ€
He straightened.
“Come on, letÂ’s gather up our treasures and head inside the walls. ItÂ’ll be dark soon, and the wild beasts will be moving.Ââ€
They gathered up the heavy sacks of gold and headed back toward the Esquiline Gate as the sun set behind them. Gaius thought again of the dark-haired, alabaster-skinned daughter of Nathaniel of Sidon, and his loins stirred.
It would be good to see her hanging on a low cross!
*******
COMING SOON—DEATH IN THE DESERT: GAIUS’S REVENGE
They point out to the crowd how she had deceived them about her sex as she stole, and the mob is encouraged to show her what it means to be a woman.