"In the bedroom, when Andreor was pressed against her by Hecht, her slaves hid outside the door, put their ears to the door, and kept **." - Ancient Roman satirical novels

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The banquet of Luculas was held in two chambers at the same time, a semicircular hall with colonnades, reserved for the dignitaries of the city, in which each person had a couch with a table served by special slaves and high-class prostitutes (or male prostitutes), and on the table was full of high-class food such as eels, oysters, fine pork, hazelnuts, etc., and Tyrannan was among them; In addition, in the general dining room, where all the freedmen whom he sheltered gathered around a long table, with huge glasses in their hands, drinking rough but good wine, and munching on vegetables and fine bread, Calabis gave Paluma a small ball and let him play freely in the courtyard with the other freedmen.

As he was munching on a strip of pork, he saw in the courtyard that Lucuras's brother Marcus was walking around the cistern restlessly, and he immediately felt that something was wrong, and he heard that Marcus was slightly mentally retarded, so he immediately walked over and asked Marcos, "Is there anything I can do to help you?" ”

"No, no, nothing." Marcus tried to maintain his dignity in front of his brother's freemen, but after walking a few more steps, he sighed, shrugged, and said, "Yes, I was talking to the others on the couch with my cup of wine, and then the lights went out, and I didn't like the atmosphere inside, so I went out and blew the wind here." ”

"Forgive me for being abrupt, but you can't find your way to your room?" Calabis asked.

Marcos squeezed his eyes awkwardly, trying to hide something, but Zuihou still confided: "Free people, you won." No woman wanted to talk to me at the reception, they were perfunctory to me, because I was the elder brother, I was not happy, and now I can't even remember where my room was. It's hard to believe that a man like me has served as a magistrate in the province of Macedonia. ”

At this moment, Kelly walked out, and he walked up to the two of them and asked what was going on.

"No, it's nothing, Marcos suspects too many people, come out and be quiet." Calabis quietly concealed his past, knowing that nobles of the rank of the Lucuras brothers did not want to be exposed to their slaves, even if their flaws were known to all.

After questioning the two slave girls, Calabis, who knew the path, took Paruma and sent Marcos back to his room, and it is no wonder that the rooms in the mansion of Marcos and Lucuras are really countless. Entering Marcus's room, Calabis was an eye-opener, a forty-year-old man's room, which was full of various cages containing precious birds, some of which were extremely elaborate in design, and were two-tiered, and the birds could play with the levers up and down.

It was a children's room, and Paruma was running around in amazement at the number of strange pet birds, and Marcos bent down and took out an Egyptian dogfight chess piece made of ivory from the cabinet to face off the five-year-old Paluma.

"Quick, Marcos, work harder and you'll be two rounds ahead of the little pigeon." Calabis was behind Marcus and massaged the acupuncture points of his mind (he had learned a little about nursing massage when he was a university volunteer), which was said to be useful for the mentally retarded, as he encouraged.

Marcos, who was eating a large oyster, enjoying a massage, seemed to have a much clearer mind, and smiled like a child, "Okay, okay, we have to finish this game of chess with the little pigeon as soon as possible before my brother sends someone to find me, your name is Calabis, right, you are such a good man - soon my brother will build a villa of the best in the world in Prima on the seashore outside the city of Rome!" Calabis, maybe your hands are a little stronger. ”

"Yes, I'm sorry." Calabis immediately retracted, just now Marcos said that his brother was going to build a villa in Prima, he couldn't help but remember that in the municipal department, Kaimes complimented him, which mentioned that if his patron could let him take over a business, or run a building, he would have hundreds of thousands of Cesdeus to earn!

Take advantage of the present moment to continue to take Marcos's words, "Marcos, you are so favored by your brother, there must be a place to take care of your interests in this Prima villa. ”

"Oh, it's a secret thing, and I won't tell anyone, not even you Calabis - I wish to have a little pond surrounded by soft gravel with two real Nile crocodiles - but I wonder if my slutty sister-in-law Claudia will laugh at me as she did last time in Campeña, and she will say, Hey, Lucuras, you have to take care of your brother, and don't let him lose face with the families of Metra, Licini, and Claudius. This woman, she did not come to Lucius's banquet, and my brother and I were disgusted with her. Marcos led Paruma two more rounds in dog fighting, and lay down on the couch very happily, laughed for a while, and then cried out that I was tired, and Calabis immediately carefully helped him to lie down, covered with a soft fur blanket, and then Marcos said that he would sleep, and Calabis took Paruma, and then crept out.

When he came out, Lucuras was standing nervously in the general dining room, with a look of self-reproach, as if he was looking for Marcos, but he was too embarrassed to ask the crowd loudly about his brother's whereabouts, fearing that Marcos would be hurt by the gossip of his subordinates.

"My lord, your brother said that he was not strong enough to drink, and he had already gone back to his room to rest, and I sent him back." Calabis quickly walked up to Luculas and whispered.

"Xiexie you, Calabis. Maybe you can tell me about Marcos's condition, I heard he was very unhappy when he left the feast, damn it - I only care about talking about the battlefield and politics with the others, and I shouldn't have asked these prostitutes to help me, they hurt Marcos! ”

"Marcos was very happy before he went to sleep, he played dog chess with Paruma and won three games in a row." This sentence of Calabis made Lucuras's heart fall to the ground, and he nodded to Calabis with a mixture of gratitude and appreciation, "What kind of job did the Municipal Secretary give you?" ”

"Duty of the Temple of the Stove, Your Excellency. After a leap month I went to work, twelve cesths a day. ”

Luculas said satisfied, "This is a good job, I will immediately operate it, so that you can become the superintendent of the Sacred Warehouse in the Stove Temple." In this way, you don't have to spend anywhere except for the rituals, just rent out your keys from time to time, but you have to be careful to stay away from the virgins of the Stove Temple, you will be in big trouble with them. In your spare time, maybe you can come and accompany Marcos with you and take your little pigeon. ”

Towards the end of the feast, as he went out the back door, Calabis excitedly dragged Potty and said to her, "Go to Delfero at once, and rent an upscale apartment near the rich Palatine Hill, and I'm going to do a big job." By the way, how much savings do we have now? ”

"Even the five hundred owl silver coins this time, there are nine hundred in total." Potty was a little dragged out of pace, she didn't know what Calabis was excited about, "I heard that the rent of Paladin's apartment is five hundred to eight hundred drachmas a year, and that would cost us all our savings. ”

"Even so, we have to fight, by eating these rewards, we will sooner or later become poor, I will have to become rich, we must become strong, in the city of Rome, we will be the richest freeman couple, can have a small villa with a roofed hot spring pool on a certain hill, and then send our children to enjoy a high level of education! It's always worth it. ”