In 1220, Rome had a new emperor, Procopius Anthemius, once again a puppet in the hands of Ricimer who married his daughter. The general and his Vandals continued to fight Genseric in the Mediterranean, to protect the Roman trade routes, but only when Basiliscus, the emperor of the East, attacked in turn. Genseric was finally eliminated and his fleet annihilated.
Things, however, were not going well for the Western empire: the Visigoths, led by Euric, controlled all the south of Gaul, and Britain was now in the hands of the Jutes and the Saxons. The north of Gaul was less and less under the control of the Roman legions, whilst the Burgundians, in the east of Gaul, had founded their independent kingdom.
In 1225 Ricimer deposed the emperor Procopius Anthemius and proclaimed in his place Anicius Olybrius, who had married the eldest daughter of Valentinianus III. Anthemius, who had tried to recover the imperial throne, was captured by Ricimer and sentenced to death. A few weeks later, however, Ricimer also died and his nephew Gundobad, a Burgundian, succeeded him.
When Helvius was seventeen, he decided that he knew enough to start his own business without having to share with his father what he earned: unlike his father, the shrewd boy had an entrepreneurial spirit. He took all the sesterces he had accumulated and went to Ravenna, which at that time was under the control of the Byzantines, and here he rented a small house.
Going around the port, he hired some boys and brought them to live with him. After having duly, personally instructed and enjoyed them, he began offering them to «rent» to the rich of the city, quickly recovering the sum he had invested. He never sold his boys for only a single night or two, but demanded that the rent be for ten days, just as he had done himself in his time. This way they would become acquainted with the house, the habits of those living there, and above all, the place in which the valuables were kept.
Helvius now very seldom sold his own body: he limited himself to the careful instruction of his young boys to whom he asked to never steal anything. He would then sneak into the houses and villas more or less a month after the boy had been there, to take away the things of greatest value, which he sold, making more money. Now it was Helvius who during those nights when one of his boys was not in «service» took his pleasure with him. It was he who was fucking instead of being fucked.
After less than nine months of reign, the emperor Anicius Olybrius, strangely for those times, died a natural death. Gundobad after a few months put Glycerius on the throne, another puppet in his hands. But Emperor Leo, from Constantinople, did not recognize Glycerius as a legitimate sovereign and instead raised a relative of his wife and governor of Dalmatia, Julius Nepos, to the imperial purple of the West. So now what remained of the Western empire had two emperors.
Meanwhile, the son of Orestes, Romulus, grew up in comfort, educated by good tutors. He lived with his mother in a beautiful villa, served by maidservants, servants and slaves, in a discreet luxury, although, having always someone keeping an eye on him, he enjoyed very little freedom.
When Romulus was thirteen, one of the servants, a fifteen-year-old boy named Norbanus who had fallen in love with him, managed to gradually introduce him to appreciate and enjoy sex among males.
At first they only masturbated each other, but a little at a time they came to the «inter femura» relationship, in which one of the two boys took turns over the other, slipping the member between the tight thighs, simulating a penetration until reaching orgasm.
Romulus really liked this new, secret activity and realized that the feminine graces did not provoke in him any desire, unlike the beautiful male bodies... In the unions with Norbanus he was very pleased to be both the active and the passive partner, he enjoyed thrusting between the thighs of the beautiful servant as well as to feel the boy on top of him.
He liked it even more when Norbanus, once, while he was pounding him, begin to tease his hole with a finger.
"Do you want to put it there?" Romulus asked softly.
"No, not there. It might hurt you... I do not want you to get angry with me. I know someone who does it, but I've never tried and I do not want to try."
"And you... has someone ever put it in you?"
"No, never. A man tried it once, but I made him stop."
"A man... here in the villa?"
"No. A soldier on the street."
"He tried with you on the street?" Romulus asked, amazed.
Norbanus laughed: "But no, of course not! He made me understand what he wanted and brought me into the bushes... we were in the countryside..."
"What did you do? Everything like the two of us?"
"Yes, but the soldier did something else... he was just a lousy person!"
"What else?" Romulus asked, intrigued.
"He... sucked my pea... just like a calf sucking a cow! And then... he drank it all!"
"Bah... that's disgusting, really!" the boy exclaimed.
"Anyway... I liked it a lot as he was sucking it... If he was happy..."
"I would never do it... I'm almost getting sick just thinking about it!"
"Me too." Norbanus nodded, and continued to happily fuck his young master between his thighs.
The emperor Glycerius, was deposed after only one year of reign by Julius Nepos who had come to Ravenna with his fleet, sent by the father of Romulus, the general Orestes, he was made bishop of Salona. Gundobad returned to Burgundy. But Leo's successor on the throne of Constantinople, Zeno Augustus the Isaurian, withdrew the Byzantine fleet from Ravenna, so that Julius Nepos could rely only on his own troops. Trouble broke out in Gaul and then in Rome itself.
Both Helvius and Romulus were not at all interested in these events. The first one continued wisely conducting his «trades» and the other grew, strong and beautiful, in the secure protection of the villa and under the guidance of his mother and his Roman and Greek tutors.
Helvius had recently admitted to his house in Ravenna a sixteen-year-old Greek boy, Cimon, who had escaped from a military ship in which he had been a ship's boy and was abused by all, or almost all, the sailors and soldiers. Cimon liked to mate with a man, but he was tired of having to do it several times a day so as to satisfy perhaps six or seven men...
Helvius had noticed this handsome boy and had felt attracted to him. Seeing how he was hiding, how he looked around with a careful and worried expression, he thought he was a thief. He had followed him and, when he slipped into a dead end, he had reached and taken him by the arm.
"What are you hiding from, boy? What have you stolen?" he had asked, but with a little smile.
"Nothing, I'm not a thief, but I do not want to go back to the ship!" the boy answered in a rough Latin.
"Ah, are you a ship boy? Why don't you want to go back to the ship and instead hide yourself?"
"I hide because they will not let me go, and I do not want to go back because the sailors and soldiers fuck me."
"And you don't like it?"
"Yes I like it, but not all the time, not from morning to night! One every now and then... why not? I even liked some of them, but... when I satisfied one, another was ready to fuck me... it hurts too, then there's no more pleasure."
"Yes, I understand you... Come, boy, I'll hide you in my house until the ship has left port..."
"Do you want to fuck me too?" Cimon asked him, a little worried but with a smile.
"Of course... but not today... I will let you recover for a few days... Would you like to do it with me when you feel better?"
"If my ass did not still hurt... I would do it with you right away. You are beautiful! Will you really hide me in your house? And you will really wait for me not to hurt anymore?"
"Really. Are you coming? "
"Yes, I come." the boy answered cheerfully.
After three days it was the boy who asked him to have sex. Undoubtedly Cimon had a lot of experience, and Helvius took him with art and with great pleasure for both of them.
"You're amazing, Cimon. You really can do it."
"You too, Helvius." the boy answered with a broad smile.
Then Helvius suggested he worked for him: "I'll find you a rich client, you'll be with him for ten days, a month, no more. But you will have to get to know the house well, the habits of those who live there, servants, masters or slaves. You have to see what's precious, where they keep it, how they guard it... but you do not have to steal anything at all. Then, when you come back here to me, you have to tell me everything in detail, so that I can get into the house and remove the most interesting objects."
"But then, when I come back here, we will fuck together again, you and me?"
Helvius laughed: "Of course, and with pleasure. And I'll give you a quarter of how much I earn by selling the items and half of what those rich people pay me to fuck your pretty ass. Are you game?"
"Not bad! Of course I'm game. Especially if you promise we can fuck again, when I come back here. "
"You will pretend to speak and understand only Greek... so you can also overhear the speeches they make: it can be useful."
Cimon laughed: "Funny."
"I'll find you some pretty clothes in the Greek fashion, you know, you cannot go dressed in these rags. You already have a beautiful body: keep it nice and clean. Do not eat too much... do exercises. "
"Yes, sure. How old are you, Helvius?"
"Five more than you. Why?"
"I hope to be as beautiful as you, at your age."
"You're already very handsome, Cimon, you have nothing to envy me."
"Do you have many boys working for you?"
"With you, seven."
"And you fuck them all?"
"Certainly."
"Nice life, eh? And I bet you get a lot of money too, to let us be fucked in the ass. "
"I'm the one who risks the most, because I have to go into the houses to steal, then I have to sell the objects without getting caught..."
"I would not be able to steal. I would be too scared. I'm sure I'd get caught immediately."
"You absolutely do not have to steal anything, not even a fruit, I told you! Otherwise then they start to suspect me too and my business goes awry. But you have to carefully note where they keep the things that I'm going to steal."
"Okay. I let those rich people fuck me... then you fuck them, even if in another way!" the Greek boy laughed, amused.
Cimon began his new job. Helvius realized that he was one of the best: not only were the customers who rented him very happy, but when he returned home, he explained everything to him with plenty of detail, so that the nightly visits brought him good loot.
Little by little, Cimon became Helvius' right-hand man, and he also entrusted him with a part of the preparation of the new boys that one or the other was able to hook from the slums. These boys were mostly orphans or came from disastrous families, they were small beggars, petty thieves, runaways from home.
One day when he was not «on duty», Cimon arrived home excitedly.
"Helvius, Helvius! You must immediately come to the slave market!"
"Why?"
"They sell a delightful boy, the son of a Gaul slave and a slave of Pannonia, beautiful as a dream, blond..."
"God forbid that we are going to buy slaves! They cost too much." Helvius replied.
"But he's too handsome, this boy... Look, I'll put half the price... I alone do not have enough money to buy him... Come on, please... Come on, before they sell him!"
"If he's so beautiful, they'll have already sold him..."
"No... he's frail, malnourished... But he's so beautiful... He has hair the colour of wheat, eyes the colour of the sky, lips the colour of the dawn..."
"And... a light coral-coloured ass that, I bet, you like quite a lot more than the rest."
"You would like him too, I'm sure!" Cimon said, urgently pulling him by the arm to get him out of the house. "Come on... If you agree... advance me the money and then keep it back from how much you pay me. Please!"
Helvius let himself be convinced, amused by the Greek boy's enthusiasm and followed him. When they arrived at the slave market, they were just starting to sell the boy who had aroused so much interest in Cimon.
"Is he not really beautiful?"
"Well, I have to admit... if we put some flesh on those bones..."
"Come on, you make the offers... And come on!"
Helvius nodded and made an offer. Gradually the others withdrew and only one man remained. Helvius, recognized him: that man had rented a couple of his boys a year before. To keep the offers from getting too high, he approached him.
"Oppius Sellius Arvina... if you stop outbidding, I'll let you have one of my boys for free for ten days!"
"Oh, Helvius. If I buy him, I do not need your boys anymore."
"You do not know if you like him, if he will satisfy you and you know that my boys are really skilled..." Helvius insisted.
"No, no, you do not convince me... Either you offer me better conditions, or..." the man said.
But since Helvius had been the last to bid, and the man, busy arguing with him, had not thought about doing it, the seller declared that the slave was owned by Helvius.
"Hey, but I wanted to outbid!" Sellius protested.
"I'm sorry, you did not do it in time." laughed Helvius. "So the boy is mine... and I owe you anothing." He went to pay the slave merchant and get the certificate of possession.
Cimon took the boy by the arm and, with Helvius, went home, all happy.
"What's your name?" he asked the young slave.
"Icenix... or Icenius..."
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen..."
"I gave you less... are you really fifteen?"
"Yes, master, I was born when the emperor Majorian ascended the throne... my mother always told me. The same month."
"Hoho!" Helvius gently mocked him, "But Majorian, after four years, ended up murdered. It's not a good omen."
"But I'm still alive, master." the boy pointed out to him with a slight smile.
"Well, today it's safer to be a slave than an emperor, a thief than rich man, a whore than a general, apparently." Helvius told him, laughing. "What work can you do, Icenius?"
"In the house of my previous owner, I helped my mother to clean and cook..."
"And your father?"
"He was taking care of the stables."
"And why did he sell you, your master?"
"He sold us all... His business had gone wrong."
"And your father, your mother?"
"My father was sold in Sutri, my mother in Augubium..."
When they got home, for the moment they put the boy to do the cleaning. Already that first night Helvius heard that, in the darkness of the only room where everyone was sleeping, Cimon was trying it with Icenius... who let him do it without any problems. He got excited and felt the desire to join the two, then he thought he did not want to spoil the first night of Cimon...
The following morning the Greek boy had bright eyes and a smile from one ear to the other.
"So, how was Icenius' ass?" Helvius asked him.
"Sweet..."
"Did you lick it?" he asked, making fun of him.
"I put it in him and fucked him! And he liked it... and he knew how to take it well... I'm not the first one, obviously."
"Who put it in him, before? His master, a servant or another slave?"
"I did not ask him... to not disturb your sleep with our chat..." Cimon answered and they both laughed.