Eugenios

The two praetorian guards almost carried the girl between them into the room. Her hair was disheveled, but there was no hiding her beauty. Nor did the skimpy tunic hide the curves of her young body. In spite of the haughty manner in which she presented herself, I felt sorry for her immediately.

My master, Gaius Octavian, and his two life-long friends, Marcus Agrippa and Gaius Maecenas, were preparing for the wedding of Octavian to his fourth wife, Livia Drusilla.

The guard holding the girl’s right arm said, “We were protecting the wedding gifts at the house of Tiberius, when King Herod’s gifts arrived. They included this Hebrew girl from Joppa. We were about to have her made presentable, but the Lady Livia told us to take her to you as she was.”

“And Livia will want to know,” said Agrippa, with a broad smile barely hiding his hard face, “exactly what you did with her before you fall into the conjugal bed tonight.”

“Is it possible, Livia could be jealous of a slave girl?” asked Octavian, his bright eyes mocking the thought.

The Etruscan, Maecenas, a man who adhered to the Greek philosopher Epicurus’s contention that pleasure is the only good, adjusted his stylish yellow toga over his protruding belly. “This is serious,” he chuckled belying the words. “How can we ensure that our esteemed Triumvir can honestly tell his bride he had thoughts only of her on this, his wedding day?”

“Sphaerus,” my master addressed me, “what do you think I should do with this girl?” The three turned to me as I put down the watered wine I had been serving. As “attendant” to Octavian since the three entered the ludi litterarii elementary school together, I had often been asked “why” when he was young. Now that he was twenty-five, I was more like a favorite clasp for his toga than someone who walked him to school answering silly childish questions.

“Master,” I said with my eyes properly lowered, “the decision is yours … however, if you married her off to one of the servants, our future mistress may see the matter as settled.”

“Sphaerus, that is so exquisite. I don’t think I could have devised a better strategy,” Maecenas said, admiration in his voice. This was high praise from the one who superbly negotiated a temporary solution to the conflict with Marcus Antony two years earlier.

Octavian stared at me and a grin spread across his face. “And just who among our servants deserves such a prize?”

“Why there is only one,” Agrippa answered, his hand slowly settling on my shoulder.

“Who would that be?” I asked bewildered as the three stared at me. A moment passed and I understood.

“Sphaerus, you will marry her,” Octavian demanded, placing a grape in his mouth. “I’ve watched your moping face now for eighteen years and it’s time you were rewarded to put a little light in your eyes.”

I almost fainted. “But, master, I have no time for a wife.”

Maecenas reached for the buttered snails. “We couldn’t return the girl to Herod. It would be an insult. Giving the girl to just anyone, could also be taken as an insult.” Turning to Octavian, he added, “But Herod knows that Sphaerus is like a brother to you.”

“She is a virgin, Sphaerus. I assure you,” Octavian said. Of course, she was a virgin. We knew Herod wouldn’t dare offer someone who wasn’t a virgin.

“But, master,” I said, “I don’t want her. I have too much work to do to be bothered with a wife.” I had an easy life, caring for the most powerful man in Rome. I didn’t need any complications.

“I suppose she could be a member of my household,” Maecenas said with a leer.

“No,” Octavian said before I could agree. “Sphaerus will either marry her or I’ll send her off to the legionnaires for entertainment.”

“That’s not fair,” Agrippa argued with a strong voice. “You know that Sphaerus’s heart is too big to see her harmed. Look at him, he shudders.”

I was indeed shuddering. These three men knew me well. I watched them play together as school children and now they are men. Not just any men, but three of the most powerful men in Rome. If I rejected the girl, she would not last long in the barracks.

“Who said I wanted to marry a plain-faced idiot with big hands and feet?” the girl sneered. Gasps in the room and then snarls told me to do something or she might not leave the room. She suddenly realized what she had done for it was not against Roman law to rape, maim or to kill a slave. I took off a sandal and threw it at her, barely missing a guard. She tried to duck, but it was too late. The sandal hit her in the head. She quickly picked it up and for a second, I thought she was going to throw it back at me. Instead, she brought it over to me, kneeled and kissed my foot.

Her head was still lowered over my foot, when Octavian laughed, “She may not be properly submissive my friends, but she learns quickly. What shall it be Sphaerus? Will you wed her or should we send her to the barracks?”

What could I say? If we married, her behavior would reflect on me. Still, she would warm my bed at night. Yet, I was afraid. She was too valuable a gift for a slave. Octavian didn't see the danger to me and quickly ordered the guards to take her to my room.

The room then turned to the matter at hand—wrapping Octavian in his wedding finery. As he was brushing his nearly blond, curly hair, I placed his golden slippers at his feet. “Is it possible, that Mariamne suggested this girl be sent to us?” Agrippa asked his friends.

Octavian had ordered King Herod to marry Mariamne, the granddaughter of both Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II. She was still too young to consummate the marriage and being young had the audacity to think she was indispensable. Still, a marriage with Mariamne would ease tensions in Palestine by joining Herod, the Idumaean, with the last of the much beloved Hasmonean dynasty. They would be betrothed for another year and in that year Mariamne might make many demands.

“It’s possible,” said Octavian. “At Mariamne's insistance, Herod put aside his first wife, Doris, and exiled her together with their son, Antipater. Yes, I can see the childish Mariamne demanding this beautiful slave be sent here instead of remaining in Herod's palace.” He laughed at Mariamne's youthful conniving.