and bought by Jovian for Villa Maxima. I was very lucky,” Casia said. “You know how well they treat children at Villa Maxima. They are taught to read and write, and to do simple sums. They learn manners, and how to please the men and women who patronize the establishment. When I was thirteen my virginity was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Jovian and Phocas had never before nor have they since received such a high price for a virgin,” she said proudly. “Because I had been taught well how to please a man, and because I seem to have a talent for such work, I became quite popular. Jovian warned me to be choosy about whom I pleasured, for it was my right to refuse any man. It proved to be excellent advice. The more discerning I appeared to be, the more desperate men became to have me, and the more willing to pay the highest price. I managed to garner some magnificent gifts from my appreciative lovers.” She smiled. “Then Basilicus came, and after a short time I realized he wanted more than just an occasional visit to my bed. I hinted such a thing might be possible. He offered to give me my own home in a good district, and so I purchased my freedom from Villa Maxima.”
“How old are you?” Cailin asked her.
“But a year your senior,” Casia replied.
Cailin was surprised. Casia seemed older, but then of course she would. While I was playing with my dolls, Cailin thought, Casia was learning her lessons in a brothel. “How long will you keep the prince as a lover?” she asked her friend. “I mean … well … you are used to a variety of lovers. Does not having just one bore you?”
Casia laughed. Had the question come from anyone else, she would have been offended, but she knew Cailin meant no offense by it, that she was only curious. “One lover at a time, my friend, is really quite enough,” she replied. “As for your other question, I will remain with Basilicus as long as it pleases us both. He and I will never marry as you and Aspar will. I am no patrician like you, Cailin Drusus.”
“Being a patrician has not protected me from evil,” Cailin said quietly. “Still, though I once complained that fortune did not smile upon me, I was wrong. I may have lost my husband and child, but I have been given Aspar to love. Ohh, Casia! He wants children, and at his age!”
Casia shuddered delicately. “Better you, dear friend, than me,” she said. “I am not the maternal sort, I fear. Fortunately my prince is content with his wife’s efforts at producing offspring—when they are his own.”
They came up from the beach and sat by the fish pond in the atrium, sipping sweet wine and indulging themselves with honey cakes that Zeno’s wife, Anna, had made them.
“The city,” Casia said, “is agog with excitement over the games that Justin Gabras is sponsoring at the Hippodrome in a few days. He’s brought in gladiators for death matches. I can hardly wait!”
“Arcadius told me,” Cailin responded. “I am glad I do not have to see such a thing. I think it’s horrible!”
“Not really,” Casia replied. “You would get used to it. Good gladiators are magnificent to watch, but they are a rare breed now. The church does not approve of them, but I will bet the patriarch and his minions will all be there in their box howling with the same blood lust as the rest of us.” She laughed. “They are such hypocrites! I am sorry you are not going. I shall have to sit in the stands, then, but I would not miss these matches for the world.
“The Saxon is fighting. He has never, they say, lost a match. He seems to have no fear of death, and his other appetites are equally insatiable, I am told.”
Casia stayed at Villa Mare for three days. The day before she left, Arcadius arrived with a wagon in which sat the pedestal for the young Venus and several beefy helpers who were to move the statue from the studio to its place in the garden. The two young women watched, fascinated, as the work was carried out, hard pressed not to laugh at the sculptor who fussed and fumed at the workmen as they went about their task. Finally the young Venus was settled upon her pink and white marble base, angled so