Jovian for his creative abilities and Cailin for her acrobatically inclined performance.
“Next week,” Jovian said enthusiastically. “We begin our performances next week. There is just enough time to let our special clients know that something extraordinary will be happening. Oh, my brother! We are going to be rich!”
The Virgin and the Barbarians was an immediate success. Never had anything like it been seen in the history of Constantinople. It was all going exactly as Jovian had predicted it would. Phocas, in a rare show of excitement, could scarcely contain his glee over the thousands of gold solidi piling up in their strongbox. Twice weekly the playlet was performed before several hundred guests, each paying five gold solidi apiece to view the performance.
One night Jovian sought out his elder brother and told him excitedly, “The empress’s brother has come, and General Aspar with him! I have seated them in the first row for the best viewing. The gods! I knew I was right! I am going to start designing another playlet, Phocas.”
“I wonder if this is as fascinating as the rumors insist,” Prince Basilicus murmured to his companion. The prince was an elegant man with fair skin, black hair, and deep brown eyes. Cultured and educated, it was unusual to find him in such an atmosphere, particularly given his public piety and his circle of religious friends. “I am going to be sorry that I allowed you to drag me here tonight, Aspar.”
The general chuckled. “You are too serious, Basilicus.”
“And I should be more like you? A lover of plays and public spectacles, Aspar? If you weren’t the finest general the empire has ever seen, you would not be tolerated by the court.”
“If I were not the finest general the empire has ever seen,” Aspar said quietly, “your sister, Verina, would not be empress.”
The prince laughed. “It is true,” he admitted. “You made Leo emperor even as you chose Marcian before him. You would be emperor yourself were it not for my friends in the church. They fear you, Aspar.”
“They are fools, then,” was the reply. “Thank God for my lack of orthodoxy, Basilicus. I should rather be an emperor-maker than an emperor. That is why your friends really fear me. They do not understand why I choose to be as I choose to be. Besides, times have changed. Byzantium needs a great general more than she needs a great emperor right now; and the days are long past when a single man could be both.”
“Your modesty touches me,” the prince said ironically. “My God! Is that Senator Romanus’s wife with that muscle-bound boy? It is!”
Aspar chuckled. “We probably know half the people in this room, Basilicus. Look, over there. There is Bishop Andronicus, and just look whom he is with. It is Casia, one of the finest courtesans Villa Maxima has to offer. I have enjoyed several evenings in her company. She is a charming and a most talented girl. Would you like to meet her one day? I do not think I dare intrude upon the bishop tonight, however.”
The room was totally filled now. Naked young boys and girls began to move about, snuffing out the lamps until the room was in total darkness. Aspar smiled to himself, hearing the low moans and heavy breathing about him. Already some in the audience were taking advantage of the darkness to make love. Then the heavy curtain shielding the stage was drawn aside, revealing a second diaphanous curtain. The stage was very well lit, with lamps set along its rim and several others that hung down from the stage beams.
The sheer draperies were slowly drawn back to completely reveal a beautiful young woman seated at a loom. Her face was serene, but it was her charming, long auburn curls that Aspar found delightful. The girl was dressed in a modest white tunica; her slender feet were bare. She worked knowledgeably at the loom. Her very demeanor was of purity and innocence.
Soft music played in the background from unseen musicians setting the peaceful scene. The general gazed about him. Among the audience, lovers were beginning to become quite entwined. Senator Romanus’s wife was seated facing the stage, upon her lover’s lap. Her gown was pulled well up, as was the tunic of the young man upon whom she sat. Their activity was obvious. Aspar smiled, amused, and turned back to the stage. The girl looked up from her weaving, and Aspar saw that her eyes held no expression at all. For a