Spurtacus is a whodunit meets Swords and S(c)andals, with plenty of naughty bits of course in about 7 (or more) acts. Think Bridgerton meets Spartacus with twice the amount of raunch and some other bonus cleverdicking for the people who manage to pick up on it.

Last time in Spurtacus we've seen that the Empress Messalina after exhorting a room full of Roman Matronae for lusting after the legendary Spurtacus, a slave gladiator with a certain prowess to not just his name, called in this very Spurtacus, a nom de guerre of one of her very own Praetorian guards, serving at the Imperial palace, named Lucius Valerius Felix. When she calls him inside, Lucius aka Spurtacus expects to be executed as she’s figured out his secret identity

In this act we find out what happens behind those closed doors.

Spurtacus

Act III

As Lucius entered through the door he felt slightly betrayed by Titus, who closed the door behind him. It was simply part of his duties, but well, it did leave him. .. alone. .. in a room, with just the Empress, who was married to an old and infirm Emperor. .. gears started turning in Lucius’ head.

He wondered when the gods would strike him down for his libidinous mind and impertinence. As it hadn’t happened yet. .. well. He decided to simply play the soldier for now. And if things took a turn, we’ll who’s to say it was him? There were many Praetorians in the guard. And he knew for a fact that they wouldn’t be able to pick him out from a line by his cock length. He was normal. Average. Despite the attestations of the Roman Matronae.

Messalina looked chuffed with herself as she turned around and walked towards one of several small tables, that had fruits, cheeses, hard and soft breads and wine and olive oil on them. She didn’t offer him any. Nor did she bother with calling a slave to serve her. As she was nibbling on some cheese, she looked him up and down as if she’d forgotten why he was there again and needed to remember who he was, what he did or was supposed to do and well, not make her look as if she was scatterbrained. He recognised the expression. It was a similar face the Matronae made after their first orgasm of the evening.

As she was nibbling on some choice slice of cheese, Messalina looked at the Praetorian. She understood the Matronae. But well, dignity and continuity of the Roman noble houses was of the utmost importance. If they suddenly lost favor of the populace, well, they’d seen it with Herod Antipas in the East. The loss of life and though she was loathe to admit it, but the loss of wealth, had been astronomical. As soon as the Imperial minted coin didn’t carry it’s universal acceptance rate anymore, suddenly the whole of the Empire would wobble. It’d self correct. Just as it had many times before. But the cost would be heavy. And her own head and that of her husbands’ were connected to it. Somehow killing Imperials always solved economical downturns. Caligula of course being the most recent example.

The cheese slice was gone and Messalina licked her fingers clean before addressing the Praetorian. ‘You’re Lucius, right?’ ‘Yes, Domina Augusta.’ ‘I’m considering giving you a special assignment. You’ve been present as my guard at my door for a couple of months now and no information that wasn’t supposed to pass those doors, has passed those doors. Not all your brethren are as discrete. A virtue to be valued.’ ‘Yes, Domina.’ It was true. Lucius knew when to shut up. And what information to use for his own advantage and making sure it didn’t lead back to him.

‘I want to you to find this Spurtacus. I charge you to act on my behalf, discretely, to track down this individual. You can use the pretense that my need for him is simply to gift him to a dear friend as a present. Not for my personal use. And not because of his physical prowess or anything. He was only referred to me by others who had expressed interest and lost the opportunity earlier. Keep the details vague, as per necessity. Do you understand? Do you have any questions?’ ‘Understood Domina and no questions beyond: How much time may I spend on this endeavour?’

Messalina considered his question and answered: ‘I think you should be able to track him down within fourteen days. If you haven’t made meaningful progress within that time, I might need to replace you depending on the results you’ve gathered till then. Speak to no one about this charge. I’ll fix things with your captain, so your absence isn’t noted as absence. You’re free to leave and enter the palace as a Praetorian anyway and are part of my personal retinue, so you have unfettered access to me anyway.’ Lucius nodded his head in the affirmative and tried to whack his brain and groin into submission for reading too much into that last sentence.

‘I can see that your mind is already turning gears and considering options. Tell me your first steps. Your plan of attack if you will?’ Messalina asked him. ‘I’m assuming the matronae will try to get a message out to their shared paramour, to halt current indiscretions, till the possibility of Imperial wrath abates. They’ll use unofficial messengers, perhaps even decoys. Usually young slave boys. I’m assuming I’ll see a flutter of activities of these slave boys convening at a certain location.

So if I employ my own slave boys to keep an eye on the back exits of the villas of these matrones and let them follow the other slave boys, we’ll soon have a location where all these boys are supposedly dropping off their urgent messages. Whether that’s a tavern or the Circus or the pits, is to be seen, but there’s only so many places where a person like that will be hiding. It shouldn’t be hard to draw a line further into the districts that leads to him personally. Do you approve of such a tacit surveillance of the noble houses?’

Lucius felt extra clever by throwing in a couple of different possible exit points. He had two dead drops, which he operated through two beggars. The beggars would drop the messages in the barracks of the praetorians, as letters from his mother. He got a lot of mail from his mom. She was always worried about his health and if he was eating enough. His mates in the barracks used to josh him that he’d get two letters a day, from the two beggars of course, from his dear mommy. If only they knew. He was pretty sure some of those Matronae were actually the mothers of some of the captains of the Imperial guard.

The fruit had taken Messalina’s attention whilst he put forward his plan of attack. He wasn’t entirely sure whether she was listening. ‘Use girls.’ He blinked. ‘Use girls. If the boys follow the boys, that’ll draw attention. They might talk amongst one another. If you use girls, the boys might be flattered, but mostly they’ll ignore the girls. Girls are untouchable for boys of that station. And being followed or seen to be followed by a girl, especially one carrying a basket of groceries or something similar, doesn’t feel threatening. The Matronae will use messenger boys as they’ll gain access to the pits and whatnot, where girls will feel out of place. If you use girls, they can always make up any kind of excuse, that most boys won’t be able to figure out whether it’s true or not and they won’t harm the girls. They will fight boys if they feel they’re following them.’

She picked up a bunch of grapes and picked off a few. She offered him some, which he couldn’t refuse. She then rolled up a scroll and applied her personal seal on the wax she closed it with.

‘Nothing’s written inside of course. The seal alone will silence most of the populace. I think only my husband would dare to break such a seal. And perhaps my father. It can be waved around for legitimacy. Don’t use it with senators and the military of course. They might call your bluff.’

She handed him the empty scroll with the wax seal carrying her personal seal. He accepted it reverentially. She might as well have given him a battering ram to lay siege to a city. It had the same power. Probably even more.

‘You do understand why we have to do this, right? I don’t mind what they get up to in their free time, after having given Rome sons. But. . well, Herod Antipas was only a couple of years ago. We can’t have that kind of spectacle in Rome. Not here. Not now.’ Lucius nodded and saluted. As he turned about and left the room, his mind went in several different directions. She was smart. Smarter than he’d given her credit for. Using girls. He’d never have considered that.

Continued in Act IV