The Traitor's Son Chapters 39-40
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

Chapter XXXIX

The main facility where slaves were bought and sold in Rome was set within the confines of the great emporium. This was the mighty mart where every manner of goods could be traded, including the live kind, from pretty boys to delight their purchasers with their beauty to wild animals to entertain the crowds with their ferocity in the amphitheatre.

The emporium was not one single market but a number of separate ones. Some were competitively similar to each other, whilst others were unique in the specialities offered to prospective purchasers.

In respect of human merchandise, there were several markets, including one specialising in eunuchs. The particular type to which Marius was destined dealt just with the choicest of young stock, comprising the most beautiful and best prepared of largely unsullied boys and girls. However, the amenities were very basic. They comprised only an open-sided paved area, shielded from the overhead sun by a large tarpaulin, in the centre of which was a large raised platform, accessible through steps at both sides, with a table towards one edge and a small solid wooden block in the middle.

When Marius and Alseus arrived, the auctioneer was sitting to the side of the table and was engaged in allocating random lots to the items to be offered for sale that day. A queue of sellers with their young merchandise had already formed for the purpose, extending from the paving up the adjacent flight of stairs.

Marius and Alseus joined the tail of this queue. They subsequently shuffled slowly forward, as one by one the children were submitted by their sellers to the auctioneer for scrutiny.

The auctioneer had to inspect the goods on offer to ensure that they met his stringent requirements for this particular market. If satisfied as to their physical quality, he would allocate the children lots, which would determine the order in which they would be sold. He also recorded the background details of the young merchandise in order to appraise prospective purchasers of the relevant facts during their sale.

The auctioneer was highly experienced, having over many years sold many thousands of children in this market for his usual commission. He therefore worked expertly, including being quick and decisive in his scrutiny of the relevant young merchandise.

The auctioneer would strip clothed children. He subsequently performed a rapid but nevertheless expert thorough examination of their physical charms. He would then ask a few concise questions of the sellers about the age, origin, skills and so on of their offerings, enquire about any reserve price and finally allocate the boys or girls neck- tags indicating their lot numbers.

Not all went smoothly because sometimes arguments arose. Such disputes mainly occurred when the auctioneer declared that children were not suitable for his particular quality market on the grounds that they were insufficiently beautiful or in some way too tarnished, usually as a result of previous clear physical and sexual abuse. However, there were also occasional quarrels over reserve prices that he judged were set too high and so were likely to waste everyone's time, as well as over lot numbers.

Lot numbers were important because everyone recognised that the most lucrative time to sell was usually in the middle of an auction. Children brought earlier to the block might miss late-arriving prospective purchasers, who might have bought them for a higher price. Those sold towards the end might similarly be undervalued because buyers had already spent their funds.

When disputes arose, sellers would often rant and rage but generally to no effect because the experienced auctioneer, who had handled many similar quarrels previously, had highly effective set counter-arguments. He just drawled them out in his customary rather mannered contemptuous way.

The effectiveness of the auctioneer's counter-arguments was actually aided by his rather disarming superciliousness. The remainder of the waiting queue, which would inevitably be muttering complaints, invariably targeted at the seller, and be jostling impatiently at the delay caused by the dispute, also helped. However, the most common reason for his usual victory in the quarrels was the nearby presence of his 'minder', a huge and strong brutal-looking slave, from whose belt dangled a nasty leather crop and an even more worrying cudgel.

This servant was mainly present to assist the auctioneer with the sale of his fellow but much younger and diminutive slaves. His primary duties entailed ensuring that the children displayed themselves obediently as required. However, his mere advance towards his master's side usually quickly terminated any arguments in favour of his own owner.

Most sellers were professionals such as Scyrax, who had acquired their highly lucrative specialist merchandise from all over the Empire and beyond. The children concerned had generally been bought cheaply and originated from three main sources.

First, formerly freeborn children became available because of wars. Second, some of similar previous standing were sold by desperate parents to raise money to settle debts or for other purposes. Third, some were the progeny of existing slaves, whose owners had decided for whatever reason to separate them from their fathers and mothers and sell them.

The second source was occasionally the cause of some distress in the market. Sometimes parents might not use middlemen to offload their children, who under paternalistic Roman law were essentially considered to be the property of their fathers, but would do so themselves to maximise their return.

One poor father, who was selling one of his sons to pay his debts, broke down. He wept and hung on to the boy to prevent him being taken away by his new owner, who was a notorious rich pederast.

The normally calm auctioneer had then lost his temper and berated the wretched father, telling him that it was his own fault that he had to sell the boy and that he had no right to disrupt the auction in such a manner. He added that he was slighting his market's reputation and endangering the earnings of honest men like him, as well as breaking his contract.

The auctioneer explained that, once children had appeared on the auction block and been subject to a completed bidding process with the reserve price met, they were automatically, under Roman contractual law, the slave of the highest bidder, subject only to payment. He also threatened the father that he could therefore be sued for breach of contract if he did not allow the boy's purchaser to take him away.

The auctioneer's main motive for the rebuke and threat had, of course, actually little to do with the good reputation of his market, which would easily survive such an incident unscathed. He was instead much more concerned about the possibility of losing his commission on the sale, particularly as the exceptionally beautiful virginal boy had fetched a very high price because two lecherous wealthy pederasts had bid against each other for the delight of owning him.

The auctioneer's commission eventually proved to be safely forthcoming when the father, in response to the rebuke and threat, reluctantly finally released his son. The boy, still naked as a result of his appearance on the auction block, was subsequently led away by his very happy new owner, who was already licking his lips at the prospect of the night to come.

As the boy was led away, with his shoulders stiff in apprehension and his face still blushing because of his public nudity, he had bravely attempted to prevent himself from breaking down too. He selflessly did not want to add to his father's grief.

Such unsavoury incidents were, however, rare. Those parents who cared for their children generally, despite the reduction in profit, used middlemen to sell them to avoid the grief of actually seeing their offspring being auctioned. Others, who had no such regard and were perhaps actually happy not only to gain some cash but also to have one less mouth to feed, were naturally usually unmoved by the plight of their sons or daughters.

Few of the children being sold in the particular market to which Marius had been taken would have been subjected to much previous sexual molestation, or they would not have passed the scrutiny of the choosy auctioneer. He prided himself on specialising, if not entirely in virgins, at least in beautiful boys and girls whose orifices had not been overused and were therefore still sufficiently tight to provide new male masters with great pleasure if such owners were so inclined.

Marius and Alseus eventually climbed the stairs to reach the front of the queue awaiting the auctioneer's attention. By this time, the platform was filling up with scared and deeply abashed naked young children of exceptional beauty, all wearing their tags denoting their lot numbers.

The individual children had been placed in position by the auctioneer's slave, who had warned them to stay put and keep quiet and still with their arms at their sides. He added that no attempts at flight or to talk or hide their most private parts behind their hands were to be made or they would be flogged with his strap.

Few children ever considered attempting to escape for two reasons. First, few had anywhere realistic to flee to, especially in a naked state, and so had reluctantly accepted their sad lot. Second, most were too ashamed and traumatised even to contemplate the notion.

The hands of some of the children did, however, occasionally instinctively stray from their sides to the protection of their exposed genitalia. A glance of admonishment from the auctioneer's fierce slave generally cured such an unthinking misdemeanour unless the boys or girls concerned were too traumatised to realise their error.

A slash of the leather crop of the auctioneer's slave across vulnerable bare bottoms and a verbal admonishment were therefore occasionally required instead to cure such mistakes. However, the relevant hit was usually relatively light, as the goods on display were not to be marked too badly before their appearance on the auction block.

"Hmmm, you appear to have brought another exceptionally good-looking lad from Scyrax, Alseus," the auctioneer immediately commented on eventually first casting a connoisseur's eye over Marius. He knew the black eunuch's name and provenance from many previous similar transactions in his market.

The auctioneer also particularly welcomed Scyrax's business. Of all of the professional dealers in select boy flesh with whom he dealt, the fat merchant generally provided the choicest and therefore most lucrative specimens, which would be happily reflected in higher than average commissions for himself.

The auctioneer admired not just the invariable valuable exceptional beauty and relatively undefiled state of the boys supplied by Scyrax but also the accomplished way in which they had been prepared and trained for their anticipated functions with their new owners. He had never yet received any complaints whatsoever from purchasers about the later behaviour and performance of the young slaves in question, and he ascribed this to the quality and stern discipline of their earlier grooming in the fat merchant's house in readiness for their impending roles.

"Let's see if the hidden bits of him match the beauty of the already exposed parts," the auctioneer went on to remark. Without further ado but with well-practised ease, he subsequently pulled on the little bow on the cord at the side of Marius' skimpy loincloth, which held the boy's sparse sole garment in place.

Marius' released loincloth then quickly succumbed to gravity and dropped to the ground, with the wearer knowing better than to try to prevent this embarrassing development. The boy also appreciated from his harsh training at Scyrax's house that now hiding his suddenly humiliatingly publicly exposed and still aroused genitals behind his hands would neither be tolerated or wise.

On noticing Marius' little erection, the auctioneer laughed and commented, to the boy's further embarrassment and worry, "He's certainly a little hottie. I'm sure that there'll be several lustful gentlemen here who'll want to buy him for their beds!"

The auctioneer next cast another connoisseur's eye over the rest of Marius' now completely naked body. As part of this process, which was, of course, deeply humiliating for the young recipient of such visual scrutiny, the man slowly turned the boy around.

"You'll note," Alseus suggested when the auctioneer had come to examining Marius' curvaceous bottom, "that the boy's still a virgin." "Really!" was the initial delighted reply.

The auctioneer subsequently instructed Marius to spread his legs before placing a hand on the boy's neck and pushing his head gently, thereby bending him over. He then moved his other fingers to the young slave's bumcrack to prise his buttocks apart to check the supposedly virginal sphincter.

The auctioneer, being as expert in his profession as Scyrax was in his, immediately recognised an unsullied virginal sphincter when he saw one. He therefore happily advised Alseus, whilst estimating in his mind the increased commission that he could anticipate from selling such pleasant and lucrative purity, "You're right, although I doubt that he'll continue to be for long after we've sold him!"

The auctioneer subsequently repeated his earlier comment about Marius, namely "He's certainly a little hottie!" He had just observed the boy's degradingly maintained erection, which was clearly visible, dangling between the bent-over child's currently splayed legs, quiver in apparent pleasurable reaction either to the gentle manhandling of his cute bottom or to the man's words.

The auctioneer later stood Marius back upright and resumed turning him slowly around, whilst still carefully visually scrutinising him. Once he had finally returned the boy to his original position facing him, the man next began a brief manual scrutiny of his exposed and demeaningly fully aroused genitals.

The auctioneer first cupped Marius' small smooth light rotund scrotum in one palm before gently using the fingers of the same hand to explore for the tiny testicles within. "There shouldn't be a problem extracting these," he then suggested to Alseus, "if his new owner wants a young eunuch, although it would be a pity to inflict such damage on such a beauty!"

Marius' erection again visibly quivered in perverse reaction, whilst his abashed facial redness intensified, causing the auctioneer to laugh once more. However, on this occasion, the man did not comment but instead began to use a fingernail to tickle the underside of the boy's hard penis.

Marius was immediately instinctively drawn to close his eyes, as he began to feel a sensation of immense pleasure starting to well up in his excited groin. The boy also clenched tightly the hands still at his sides, as the man's touch tempted him towards enjoyment of his first-ever sexual climax.

Such a sensation did not, however, continue for long because the auctioneer expertly ceased his teasing of Marius' cock just before he would have experienced his first dry climax. The man never had any intention of bringing about such an orgasmic denouement. He was instead exercising his extensive experience of readying children for imminent auction by skilfully intensifying still further the boy's clear arousal.

The auctioneer knew, as Scyrax did and for the same reasons, that, if such acute arousal could be maintained all the way to Marius' appearance on the auction block, the boy was likely to sell for a higher price. The man liked to maximise his commissions.

Instead of bringing Marius to rather public first orgasm, the auctioneer now withdrew from a large pot a bronze tag with leather cord and used the latter to hang the boy's allocated random lot number, which happened to be 'VIII', around his slim neck. He next questioned Alseus about the young slave's name, age and background.

The auctioneer recorded details of Alseus' answers onto a large wax tablet, which already contained similar information relating to the other naked children now displayed on the platform awaiting their sale. "His name is Marius, Sir," the black eunuch subsequently advised, with the usual respectful politeness that he, as a slave, afforded free citizens, "and he is 11 years old."

"He's a former farm slave," Alseus continued before advising the auctioneer about the training that Marius had received in Scyrax's house and what competence levels in terms of obedience and skills the boy had achieved. "Naturally," the black eunuch informed as part of this process, "his abilities to pleasure a man sexually can only be estimated because, being a rare virgin, both of his main orifices have been kept pure."

"As usual, and as Marius himself would verify," Alseus added, "my master does not send counterfeit virgins in respect of either orifice to market. Consequently, the enjoyment to be gained from being the first to impregnate the boy's mouth and rectum with manly seed has been reserved for his new owner, if he so desires such pleasures."

The auctioneer did not doubt Alseus' word and therefore saw no reason to ask Marius to verify the situation regarding his oral and anal virginity. His stance was reinforced by not only having already checked the boy's sphincter but also a snooty dislike of talking to slaves other than when issuing orders.

The auctioneer was aware that he had spent longer with Marius than with any other child so far on this day, mainly because he was himself rather attracted towards the boy, as was evidenced by a cock secretly throbbing within his own loincloth underwear hidden beneath his tunic. However, he also appreciated that the price that the child would reach would probably be beyond even his own not insignificant financial resources.

The auctioneer additionally realised that this longer-than- usual dallying over inspecting Marius' delectable form had caused some unrest amongst the remaining queue. He therefore now quickly concluded his dealing with this particular boy by asking Alseus about the reserve price that Scyrax had set.

On discovering the relevant substantial figure, the auctioneer whistled in surprise. "That is asking a lot," he subsequently commented, "even for exceptional boy flesh as this."

On hearing the auctioneer's remark, Marius immediately began to fear even more that he would not be sold but would instead be returned into Maccius' punitive grasp. However, the boy relaxed a little after the man added "But Scyrax certainly knows his business and his judgements are rarely wrong."

"Remove the boy's wrist manacle, Alseus," the auctioneer subsequently asked, "and take his loincloth away too. I'm sure that, as usual, Scyrax will find another brat to fit the garment."

The auctioneer next advised Marius directly "Certainly you're no longer due the cover provided by the loincloth, as what you'll wear in future, if anything, will have to be supplied by your new master." The boy's facial blush immediately intensified at the worrying notion that his prospective owner might want to keep him permanently naked.

Marius also worried that, if permanent nudity was not required, his new master might nevertheless not have brought any clothing with him to auction. The boy did not consider the possibility of returning to his prospective owner's home through the busy streets of Rome whilst completely naked to be pleasant.

The auctioneer then finally finished dealing with Marius by nodding to his own slave, who approached to collect the naked boy and position him, with the usual instructions, amongst the other nude children readied for sale. The latest addition to the young goods on offer was afforded a place in line with his tag number.

Chapter XL

Over the next hour, the queue to see the auctioneer gradually dwindled, whilst the crowd of naked children of various ages and skin colours standing on top of the platform increased in proportion. Some prospective purchasers and voyeuristic paedophiles also began to arrive, keen to have an early view of the goods on offer.

The genuine prospective purchasers generally comprised individual men or women being counselled by a male adviser. Females never visited slave auctions alone because Roman decorum considered such attendance to be exceedingly unseemly.

Paternalistic Roman law also precluded most women from owning property, including slaves. Such a prerogative was instead generally the exclusive preserve of men. Even what might otherwise be considered to be the assets of single or widowed females were usually legally held by a male guardian or trustee.

In practice, though, women did usually control their own assets, with the guardianship or trusteeship positions being nominal. Nevertheless, males still legally had in public situations to buy property, such as slaves, on behalf of females.

Consequently, the women attending today's slave market might be wanting to but a new young servant and would in respect of this intent choose which children to bid for and decide the maximum price that they were prepared to pay. However, their male advisors would actually have to perform the bidding.

Such niceties of custom and law were, of course, not currently at the forefront of Marius' shamed and worried mind, as he stood embarrassingly naked and humiliatingly still erect amongst the other nude children on the platform. The boy's abashment was intensified by recognising that he was now being visually ogled by the prospective purchasers and paedophiles who had arrived early and invariably strolled slowly around the wooden dais to gain an appreciation from all angles of the nude goods on offer.

As well as his deep sense of humiliation and shame, Marius' mind focused mainly on his concern that one of the women might secure his purchase, which made subsequent castration very conceivable. The boy also worried that some of the individual men might additionally be seeking young eunuchs for their households.

Nevertheless, Marius' mental concerns did not reduce the debasing resolute hardness of his cock, which stood out proudly from his body, as if at horizontal attention. The boy also detected, from the tingling sensations, which he was constantly experiencing throughout his body, especially in his groin, that the penile phenomenon was somehow perversely exacerbated by his current degrading situation.

Appreciation of his shameful aroused public nudity, with many adult eyes regularly focusing on him, was somehow instigating such tingling and stimulating his unruly genital excitement. The fact that his sexual organs were also in some danger had amazingly not lessened the phenomenon but appeared masochistically only to increase the strange thrill pervading his form.

Marius' confused mind was still focusing on such a diagnosis when the auctioneer's queue finally disappeared and he stood up from his chair to announce the commencement of the auction. By now, the paving around the platform was crowded with prospective purchasers.

Marius' acute sense of humiliation and shame was subsequently compounded when his mind now focused on the crowd, whilst wondering who, if anyone, of those present might soon purchase him. By examining the people surrounding the platform, the boy finally realised that some of the prospective purchasers had brought young sons with them.

To Marius, being publicly displayed naked and aroused in front of such boys was somehow much more humiliating and shameful than being exhibited just in front of adults. The other children, even the girls, on the platform, had not counted, as they shared his debasement and trauma and would therefore not be paying too much, if any, attention to his nude form.

Marius' sense of degradation was intensified further when he noticed that some of the boys in the crowd, whom he was now beginning to resent because, unlike him, they were clothed and were of undoubtedly comfortable and privileged free status, were laughing and pointing at him. His maintained erection appeared in particular to be the focus of their amusement.

Marius' only consolation in being the cause of such juvenile hilarity was the fact that he was not the only young naked male slave on the platform towards whom the boys directed their attention. When he followed some of the pointing fingers, he noticed that other exposed quivering erections were displayed around him.

"The first child for sale is a girl aged ten named Enyo," the auctioneer now declared. He subsequently nodded to his adult slave to take the young female concerned down the stairs of the platform to the waiting crowd.

The auctioneer then proceeded to relate Enyo's background and skills, whilst below him prospective purchasers, or those who just wanted to fondle a young girl's body, both visually and manually inspected her, including the most intimate recesses of her pretty form. The watching Marius was shocked.

Marius had naively not realised that part of the auction process would involve such intimate public examination by strangers. The boy's mind was also not looking forward to his turn in facing the demeaning process. However, his unruly cock appeared to possess a different attitude, as his still resolutely rigid penis again visibly quivered in seeming excited anticipation of the prospect.

The auctioneer's slave tried his best to ensure that Enyo was only subjected to the intimate attentions of genuine prospective purchasers, although not out of consideration for the girl, as he was more concerned about speeding the auction along. However, apart from the obvious paedophiles present, who were known from frequently being present and wanting to fondle the children but never buying because they could not afford to do so, his efforts were tempered. He was not able to recognise the true motives of other men who had rarely or never attended the market previously.

The auctioneer's slave suspected many such men of base voyeuristic motives, whilst they fondled Enyo with clear relish. However, he also had to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were genuine prospective purchasers, as he appreciated that rich paedophiles would form a significant proportion of the possible buyers.

Enyo reluctantly passively allowed many men to inspect and fondle her and her compliant attitude did not just arise from the mental trauma that she was suffering. The girl was fully aware that any resistance on her part would certainly be quickly overcome by a blow from her escorting slave's leather crop, which was no longer dangling from his belt but was now threateningly held in his hand.

The deeply blushing Enyo eventually emerged from the crowd back onto the platform, where her escorting slave now stood her on the auction block. His master subsequently invited bids for her purchase.

Enyo was finally bought for a substantial sum. However, her valuation fell far short of the reserve price that Scyrax had placed on Marius, which re-ignited the boy's worries about remaining unsold and being returned to the undoubtedly gleeful Maccius.

Children with tags numbered II, III, IV, V, VI and VII were next inspected and auctioned in a similar manner to Enyo. The process for each took about a third of an hour.

Consequently, the still amazingly erect Marius finally found himself descending the steps at the side of the platform towards the eagerly awaiting crowd after a further wait of about two hours. The boy was actually initially pleased to be moving because standing relatively still for so long had become distressing. He even felt sorry for the children whom he was leaving behind because they would have to maintain their increasingly stressful postures for longer unless the auctioneer let them sit.

Such considerations, however, soon became secondary when Marius noticed the lecherous looks in the eyes of many people in the waiting crowd, even those of some of the women, plus the continued amusement at his predicament of the boys present. The disturbing sight actually caused the naked 11 year-old to pause on going down the steps but his escorting slave soon put an end to such misbehaviour through the simple expediency of pushing him in the back.

The push catapulted Marius forward and he was fortunate not to tumble the rest of the way down the steps. The boy was instead lucky enough to maintain his balance somehow and this feat safely delivered him to the paving whilst still standing, with his escorting slave quickly and protectively arriving at his side.

There was an initial rush forward by several men, all wanting to have the privilege of being the first to be allowed to examine Marius most intimately. However, the auctioneer's slave rapidly put an end to such unseemliness, which had not happened previously with the children who had preceded the boy.

"Please, Sirs," the slave requested, "let us have some calm. Only one of you at a time can examine the boy and so kindly allow me to decide the relevant order!" He also raised his crop intimidatingly and Marius could never later decide whether the man's words or the threat of being hit now caused the rush forward to halt and greater tranquillity to return to the scene.

The auctioneer's slave had already identified the known pederasts present, who were there not to buy but to see and hopefully fondle the invariably exceedingly pretty boys being offered for sale in the full glory of complete nudity. He would therefore as always seek to disappoint their obvious aspirations to manhandle systematically his undoubtedly exceptionally beautiful young charges by denying them a formal opportunity to do so. However, he was also realistic enough to realise that, as usual in the crowded circumstances, some successful furtive casual groping by unwanted and unauthorised hands would take place.

The auctioneer's slave actually did not particularly mind such unauthorised groping. He was realistic enough to recognise that he could not prevent such occurrences and anyway his main considerations were to prevent the auction from being disrupted and delayed and to guard the children from real harm and attempting to run away. Protection of their sensibilities was not in his remit.

"You can be first, Sir," the auctioneer's slave announced, whilst pointing with his crop to an elderly fat man, who despite his age had been one of those forceful enough to be eagerly present at the front of the recent rush forward. His reasonable wealth was evident by his well-tailored tunic and his pederastic tendencies were obvious from the lecherous look on his rather ugly face. However, the sexagenarian was known to be a genuine buyer because he had purchased boys in the market previously, although he was rather parsimonious and never overpaid. He instead always tried to secure bargains.

The elderly fat man now rushed alone up towards Marius, who instinctively for the first time in the market drew his hands protectively over his still amazingly aroused genitals. However, his action was noticed by the carefully supervising escorting slave and was rewarded by a light tap of the crop on his bottom, with the simultaneous whispered but nevertheless authoritative command to "Return your arms to your sides, boy!"

Marius reluctantly complied, just as the elderly man arrived immediately in front of him and, despite his age and some consequent infirmity in his legs, squatted. The prospective purchaser subsequently initially lifted the boy's chin slightly upwards in order to acquire a better perspective of the exceedingly fine features present before gently forcing his head to turn slowly from side to side to view the sublime scenery from other angles.

After prising Marius' lips apart to check the pristine white teeth beyond, the elderly man's manual attentions then ventured upwards to ruffle the boy's neatly trimmed silky golden hair before returning in a downward direction to his neck and chest. Two hands now gently explored the front of the child's upper torso, comprehensively feeling the sweetly perfumed oiled skin, including fondling the rosy nipples and allowing a fingertip to venture into the cute navel.

The elderly man's hands eventually gradually wandered further downwards, inexorably towards Marius' humiliatingly aroused genitals, where, shamefully because of the gentle manual attention being afforded by the prospective purchaser's fingers, the boy's cock was harder than ever, having adopted an almost ivory-like statuesque appearance. The child again instinctively closed his eyes, as he once more felt the slow evolution of potential sexual climax.

Marius next felt his scrotum and then his actual erection being gently fondled, which caused his cock to quiver visibly again. In response to this reaction, his elderly scrutiniser finally broke his silence, having not said a word since he had begun to examine the boy most intimately. He had instead occasionally uttered a rather satisfied grunt, whilst also appearing to be carefully listening to the auctioneer, who was relating the child's name, age, background and skills from the elevation of the adjacent platform.

The elderly man commented in a whisper, whilst closely inspecting Marius' aroused genitals and observing his erection quiver, "You're certainly a lively boy, which is an attribute that I definitely like to see in my young slaves. I think that we could have a lot of fun together!"

Marius could guess what the elderly man meant by fun. However, although he was now resigned to the real possibility that he might be required in future to have regular sex with a new master, he had hoped to do so with an owner who was younger and more handsome. On the other hand, the remarks made by this particular prospective purchaser suggested that the boy's balls were literally safe in his hands, with the prospect of subsequent castration eliminated if purchased by him.

The elderly man persevered with fondling Marius' genitals for rather too much time, which was a common occurrence in the market when pederasts were amongst the genuine prospective purchasers. The auctioneer's slave was therefore accustomed to such incidents and so possessed a well- practised polite request in his verbal armoury to spur possible buyers to end their dallying.

"Please, Sir," the auctioneer's slave politely requested, "can you move on to other parts of the boy's anatomy. There are obviously many other people waiting to examine him and time is pressing, as there are also still other children to be auctioned."

The elderly man reacted positively to the slave's request and effectual rebuke by apologising. He also did indeed move his intimate examination of Marius' wondrous form to other parts of the boy's anatomy.

Marius was initially and rather shamefully unsure as to whether he wanted this development to happen. Despite the degrading public circumstances, he had again been unable to prevent himself from beginning to enjoy the intimate manual attentions being afforded to him and the associated slow inexorable approach of sexual climax. He even started seriously to want to experience his first orgasm but such a desire was thwarted when the elderly man had finally stopped fondling the boy's erection, which subsequently visibly throbbed in frustration at his unsatisfied need.

The elderly man was aided in choosing what to inspect next when the auctioneer finished his loud description of the goods being carefully scrutinised. In line with his common practice of keeping the best news for last, he announced in conclusion "The child is that sadly too rare these days and therefore very precious commodity, namely a virgin!"

The elderly man was now exceedingly keen to check the auctioneer's assertion by turning Marius around and encouraging him to spread his legs and bend over. The boy then felt his sphincter being carefully and gently probed again and, whilst his dangling cock visibly throbbed once more, he also heard his scrutiniser compound his humiliation by loudly declaring, for the benefit of other prospective purchasers, "He is indeed a virgin!"

An ironic cheer echoed round the market in reaction. To Marius' increased shame, his perceptive sense of hearing suggested to him that this response had been produced by juvenile vocal chords, indicating that the free boys present were particularly enjoying his humiliation.

The elderly man eventually began the conclusion of his thorough intimate examination of Marius' undoubted exceptional charms by initially running his fingers carefully over the smooth delectable curvature of his bottom. As he did so, he commented "There are signs of a recent beating, so you must occasionally be a naughty boy." He subsequently added menacingly, which rather belied his outward benign façade, "I assure you, child, that, if I buy you, you'll very much regret being ill-disciplined in my household!"

Marius would have liked to advise the elderly man that Maccius had actually caned him for no reason other than to satisfy his sadism. However, the boy had been taught at Scyrax's house never to talk without permission and so remained silent.

The elderly man next finally did conclude his thorough examination by gently but sinisterly kneading Marius' buttocks, as if to assess the capability of the pleasant fleshy coverage to endure a beating. Afterwards, spurred by the auctioneer's slave and some impatient comments from those waiting to examine the boy too, he reluctantly stood back up, with a care and slowness that was testament to the infirmity of his legs.

Another man, this time much younger, although still as ugly, was next summoned by the auctioneer's slave to come forward to examine Marius and he did so more speedily but just as comprehensively. The boy was subsequently led on a mazy tour of the market, gradually circling the platform in a haphazard way, whilst frequently stopping for further intimate inspections by many keen eyes and hands.

Assisted by his comprehensive experience of such situations, the auctioneer's slave managed politely to encourage most of the performers of these further inspections to conclude their examinations with concise swiftness, despite the obvious attraction for many to linger for longer. He also succeeded in keeping the known time-wasting pederasts away from Marius, except for forgiving the regular brushes of straying hands against the boy's bottom.

Nevertheless, the time consumed by the intimate customer examinations of the clearly very popular Marius took far longer than those of any child in the market before or after on this day. Two thirds of an hour elapsed before the comprehensively visually and physically probed and thoroughly humiliated boy was returned to the platform and finally stood on the auction block.

Because of the time consumed and the popular attention being paid to Marius, the auctioneer had by now allowed the remaining as yet unsold children on the platform to sit, for which small mercy they were immensely grateful. Some of the boys and girls had been trying to stand still for so long that they had been on the brink of collapse.

The auctioneer's mercy did not, of course, emanate from any personal concern for the welfare of the children. He had granted them permission to sit only because he wanted them to remain physically capable of later enduring what Marius was now experiencing.

Marius' cock remained resolutely hard, as he was introduced to the auction block. The boy's recent comprehensive manhandling had ensured no retreat to meek flaccidity.

As Marius now stood naked at the elevated height of the auction block, he could not help but notice the faces in the crowd below of some of those who had expressed an interest in him by intimately examining him. Some of the relevant façades recalled particularly humiliating aspects of the boy's recent debasing experience.

Marius saw the face of a rich well-dressed woman who had broken convention whilst her male adviser was examining the goods intimately on her behalf and making his views known to her. She had scandalously touched the boy by reaching out to feel his scrotum and the testicles within when her companion had commented about the safety of castrating the child.

By breaking convention in this manner because only her male companion should have touched Marius, the woman had earned a few disgusted comments from some shocked witnesses of the incident, not directed straight at her but at others in such a loud way that she overheard them. There were also some audible tuts of similar umbrage from other sources, as well as a look of surprised displeasure on her own adviser's face.

The woman also earned an alarmed gasp from Marius, who was already acutely apprehensive at the idea that she might buy him. The boy appreciated from her conversation with her adviser that she proposed to castrate him if she secured his purchase.

Marius was also aware that convention dictated that no woman should touch even a young naked male slave at auction in any way, especially his most private parts. The boy immediately felt that his shame could not become any worse. However, his opinion was soon to be disproved.

In response to the general negative reaction to her breaking of convention, the woman apologised but not to Marius. Mere slaves did not qualify for any expression of regret regarding anything perpetrated against them.

The woman instead apologised to her male adviser, sufficiently loudly so that the follow-up regretful excuse could be overheard by those who had earlier in some way expressed disgust. "I'm sorry," she explained, "as my touching of the boy was just an unthinking instinctive reaction to your comments about castrating him. I know that I shouldn't have done it. Please forgive me!"

The woman was indeed quickly forgiven for breaking convention. The incident was also rapidly forgotten by everyone except the female perpetrator and the young male victim.

The woman's excuse had actually been a lie. Her desire to touch Marius' scrotum, the welfare of which would be seriously threatened if she bought him, had not been as a consequence of an unthinking instinctive reaction but had instead calculatingly resulted from a strong desire to fondle the smooth endangered flesh.

The woman knew that she would outrage witnesses, plus the slaveboy, whose disgust anyway did not count. She had therefore pre-planned her apology, which was designed to attempt to deflate any disgust at her perpetrating something that she felt compelled to do.

The woman had secretly enjoyed an immense sexual thrill at fondling Marius' endangered scrotum and the little testes inside, especially whilst his pretty face exhibited clear humiliated disgust at her touch, plus horror at the thought of possible castration. She also looked forward to gaining similar pleasure from watching the particular boy whom she did buy today later being gelded on her orders.

The next face that Marius noticed in the crowd below him, whilst standing on the elevated auction block, was that of another boy of similar age to himself. However, this child was clothed and free, with his expensive tunic denoting the relatively wealthy middle-class equestrian status of his family.

The boy also exhibited a maintained broad smirk on his face. This sneering grin had first appeared when he been allowed by his father, who had been one of the prospective buyers permitted to examine Marius, to inspect the young slave intimately too.

The father was actually seeking to purchase for his son a servant of similar age and had been happy to agree to the boy's request to be allowed to check the goods on offer as well. The relevant examination was anyway a useful educational exercise for when he became a man, responsible for maintaining his own retinue of slaves.

The father had actually directed his son through the examination process. The extra time spent rather displeased the auctioneer's slave but, as the prospective purchaser maintained a large household with plenty of servants and was a regular well-paying customer, he did not want to upset him by asking him to desist or hurry.

Consequently, Marius had to endure the father instructing the son to do likes of "Feel the texture of his hair" and "Check his teeth". The boy gleefully obeyed, fully knowing how intensely he was humiliating the subject of his attentions.

The most degrading aspect of the examination began when the boy was told to "Weigh his genitalia in your hand and inspect them whilst they're there to satisfy yourself that there's nothing wrong with them. We might want him to breed other slaves when he's older to curtail the cost of buying them at market and so we don't want his sexual organs to be defective."

Marius was relieved to learn from these words that this particular prospective purchaser had no intention of castrating him but was in fact considering essentially the opposite, namely the future possibility of using his sexual organs for procreation. However, he also believed that having his naked body intimately inspected and fondled by a boy of roughly his own age was somehow truly the nadir amidst the various humiliations that he had already suffered. He considered the situation even worse than when being subjected earlier to scrutiny and touching by a woman.

Marius' shame intensified further after he was again forced to turn around, spread his legs and bend over. The father subsequently gave his son practical instruction on how to ascertain whether a sphincter was virginal or not and the feel of the boy's light touch on the relevant aperture caused the young slave's unruly cock to wobble excitedly one more.

Marius might have in other circumstances have welcomed becoming the slave of another boy. He could imagine companionship but, with this particular clearly nefariously natured child, he perceptively recognised that life would be hellish and he therefore hoped that the father would not succeed in buying him.

The market was a noisy place when an auction was being held, with many prospective buyers and sellers chatting amongst themselves or to companions about the young goods on offer or other more general matters. The one exception to the normalcy of such clamour was when the actual bidding process took place.

Silence usually reigned during the actual auction of a child, apart from the voices of the auctioneer and bidders. Marius' sale was to prove no different.

The auctioneer had now established sudden quiet by rapping on his table with a gavel. "Well, ladies and gentleman," he subsequently announced whilst pointing with the wooden implement at Marius, "we finally now come to lot eight, who appears to be very popular given the extraordinary number of you who wanted to examine him." His comment drew a few laughs from his audience.

"As usual," the auctioneer continued, "we have a wide selection of the highest quality young livestock for sale today because my policy is always only to retail to the discerning connoisseur the choicest young slaves who become available within the whole Empire and beyond. However, the naked boy now on the block is perhaps truly exceptional, definitely amongst the highest echelon of such supreme goods, and I'm therefore looking forward to this being accurately reflected in the price that he attains!"

"Now, as a final reminder of the marvellous assets on offer," the auctioneer added, "I'll have the boy place his hands on his head and turn slowly around." He proved as good as his word, and Marius endured another humiliation, namely having to comply with the man's instruction to allow his prospective purchasers and pederastic admirers to have further sight of his naked body from all angles.

As Marius turned slowly, his unruly erection again visibly quivered. The auctioneer noticed and commented, in line with the opinion of Scyrax and many others, "As you can see he's hot for something. I also think that his new owner might either give it to him or deprive him permanently of his obvious want!" For this quip, he earned some further laughter, plus a deeper reddening of the boy's already blushing face.

For Marius, the worst aspect of the chortling was that the similarly aged boy, who had examined him so intimately and humiliatingly, appeared to laugh loudest and longest, with such prolonged reaction seemingly being deliberately designed to intensify his shame. The fact that a certain watching woman also clearly displayed a strong desire to fulfil the auctioneer's quip that his new owner might want to 'deprive him permanently of his obvious want' was additionally not helpful to his sensibilities.

After Marius had performed the requisite humiliating slow revolution and returned his arms to his sides, the auctioneer finally invited bids for the boy, who had already, from the quick auction of the seven children preceding him on the block, noted how rapidly the actual sale procedure generally concluded. Serious purchasers had invariably speedily established their credentials by tendering amounts that most others were not prepared to match, thereby swiftly confining the relevant contest to just a few bidders.

Marius' sale, which he appreciated would determine the whole of his future life, was no exception and he was pleased to see a certain elderly man and a certain father drop out of the proceedings relatively early. The former was still only seeking a bargain, whilst the latter might have wanted a slave for his son but he was also clearly not prepared to overpay.

After both of these men had dropped out of the process early, the sale continued and the bids for Marius eventually began to reach enormous proportions, far superior to those attained by the children who had preceded him on the auction block. The boy was grateful that Scyrax's reserve price was easily surpassed, providing him with relief at not now facing the prospect of being returned into Maccius' sadistic hands. Despite the serious shame created by his current situation, he also started to feel some pride that he was proving to be so valuable.

Marius, however, additionally felt acute fear because one of the two remaining bidders was the adviser of the woman who clearly planned to have him castrated. The other was a middle-aged bearded man whom the boy had taken little notice of when he had been circulated around the crowd for intimate examination.

This particular unexceptional man had inspected Marius carefully but quickly and so the boy had taken little notice of him, particularly as he did not appear to be the type of rich, handsome and caring master aspired by him. However, the young slave now did afford him serious consideration because he seemed to be the only person in the world who could prevent the 11 year-old losing his testicles, although even that was not certain.

The woman's adviser eventually bid a huge price, which earned some surprised gasps from the crowd around her. The other man then pondered the situation, clearly wondering whether to stay in the contest.

The delighted auctioneer, who was already relishing the bigger than anticipated commission for auctioning Marius, practised his expert sales technique by allowing the bearded man a few moments to consider the situation. However, he eventually asked "Would you like to make a counter-bid, Sir?"

Marius' heart beat heavily in trepidation, as he awaited the bearded man's answer. If the prospective purchaser now replied "No", the boy knew that his young testicles would be forfeit. However, his amazingly maintained unruly erection did not appear to care but instead seemed to be excited by the prospect, as his penis visibly wobbled once more.

Marius felt that an eternity was passing, as he awaited the bearded man's answer to the auctioneer's question. The boy's very troubled mind also subsequently appeared to be watching events unfold in slow motion, as he finally observed the adult's mouth open.

(To be continued)