But I was now to personally witness the next development in this occasion. Should I continue with my tale, gentlemen?"
"Do so, Geta."
"The clatter of horse hooves on flagstones followed by muffled whispers at the house portal told the two dozing bodies dawn had arrived. As first light peeped through the andron window Antinous awoke to hear Herodes' villa's great door being unbolted to allow entry to arrivals.
Military-booted footsteps approached the andron across the atrium's tiles towards the chamber's shutters. A soft knock upon its cedars announced callers were waiting.
'Come!' Hadrian called.
Servants pressed the panels apart to reveal two Horse Guards and myself standing to attention outside. Scorilo, Godron, and I absorbed the scene before us with keen interest.
A potent charge of the musky scents of body sweat, wine dregs, stale incense, and the miasma of hard sex exuded from the space. Sex has its own special sweet aura, and it steeped the andron like a charged storm cloud.
Cushions and blankets lay across an impromptu bed arrangement with other pillows scattered across the floor. Assorted tunics, cloaks, belts, and boots were littered elsewhere, while crumpled toweling with dank stains were flung carelessly over chair backs. A small urn holding a deeply-scored emollient had rolled to one side across the floor.
Hadrian sat upright at the edge of the double-couch arrangement bare to our view but holding a corner of a rug across his privates. He scratched his head and rubbed early morning eyes.
Antinous lay lengthwise along the couch behind Caesar propped lazily on one elbow to casually eye the intruders. His sun-bleached mane was in wild disarray. Only a small cotton compress attached to his left cheek covered his buck-naked frame. My eyes were drawn to the pale-straw lightness of his underarm fluff and pubic hair. A hickey adorned his frontal upper throat.
The guards and I instantly recognized the vestiges of the energetic activities which had been enacted in that place. The tell-tale debris of the night's couplings was self-explanatory.
'Caesar, it is dawn. I am instructed to attend you,' I announced, my eyes scanning the room, its detritus, and its implications before settling upon the finely drawn figure of the naked ephebe lying behind the emperor. His free hand idled lazily at Caesar's crutch.
'And good morning to you too, Antinous of Bithynia,' I added diplomatically.
He responded with a languorous nod, his jaw resting on his clenched fist and no attempt to cover his nudity.
Palaestra nudity is a given in the life of young men of the elite classes in Greece. Nakedness possesses shame only in the eyes of our older Romans, some colder clime barbarians, and certain weird religious eccentrics. But in Athens it is a commonplace.
'I hope you slept well, my lords, after the night's festivities?' I offered very politely. Antinous probably realized I had elevated him into the ranks of a lord. I guess he wondered whether 'festivities' referred to the Dionysia revel or the bedchamber antics?
I was to learn much later how the night's engagement had been a revelatory experience for Antinous. The intensity of their mutual passion and the fierce aggression it incited had astonished both parties. I gather neither was especially vexed by this fact though.
'Call the servants, Geta, I must dress,' Hadrian commanded. 'I'll wash at the Household.'
I clapped my hands and two of Herodes' servants came scuttling to the chamber. They immediately set about retrieving the emperor's clothes and re-dressing him.
'I bring news, Caesar.' I took my opportunity as Hadrian was being clothed. 'Senator Lucius Ceionius Commodus and his companions departed the Household villa before dawn to reach Piraeus and sail on the earliest tide to Corinth.'
I sensed both Antinous and Hadrian prick up their ears.
'Commodus's steward said his party must return immediately to Rome from Corinth,' I added, 'because he had received news his mother had taken ill, so they left early to hire passage.'
'Has he left a note?' Hadrian asked.
'Not that I'm aware of, Caesar. He was eager to depart at some speed.'
Hadrian was silent as the servants arranged his dress to a suitable degree of comportment. Meanwhile Antinous contemplated the effectiveness of Herodes' handling of Commodus.
But not at that time knowing these details, I took an initiative.
'Will Caesar wish to pursue his friend by sea or overland? The Praetorian horse network could speedily deliver Caesar to Corinth, before his vessel arrived or at least before he could negotiate a further passage to Italy?'
Hadrian was silent again as his laced boots were drawn on. When he turned his back while being buckled I noticed two distinct bruises at the back of his neck above his right shoulder. They were already pale purple and told of an infliction of passion on the emperor's flesh.
I think my eyes and eyebrows fluttered slightly at the sight of the love bites when I calculated the direction of their reception. They would have been applied from directly behind. This possessed a significance about the nature of the act underway during their imposition. My eyes may have widened in astonishment at this realization, I guess.
Antinous detected my fluster from his recumbent position on the bed. Our gazes crossed fleetingly, but I flicked away in embarrassment. Antinous was smiling to himself. It was an enigmatic smile suggesting triumph. It communicated notions I had not anticipated about Caesar, nor for that matter about Antinous.
'No, Geta, I won't follow Commodus,' Hadrian resolved. 'I've tired of the young man's impetuosity. Perhaps it's time he returned to Rome. We'll see him later in the year.
In the meantime, Geta, I've told Antinous how he and his companions will enter the Imperial contubernium, our living arrangements for the Household. Both they and their attendants will accompany us on our forthcoming tour of Achaea. We will be visiting historical sites, making awards, visiting troops, hunting a little, and so on across the Peloponnese this summer before we sail to Italy.
Antinous is likely to sleep in my chamber regularly, but he and his household are to have their own independent apartments wherever we travel. Is that clear?'
'It is indeed, Caesar!' I declared.
My wide-eyed gaze returned to Antinous. I suppose it conveyed an unspoken message akin to awe at the lad's extraordinary accomplishment. He responded with a serene, knowing grin. He exuded the cool confidence of an arena's victor, and he let me know it. Decurion Scorilo of the Horse Guard too would have comprehended the circumstances from his own perspectives.
Antinous's arrival in Caesar's sphere now cemented many of the questions of what my own role was to be in Caesar's life. I had spent my lifetime under Hadrian's aegis, so perhaps it was time my own ambitions should at last find a satisfactory resolution too?
'Leave us for a moment,' Hadrian commanded, as he shooed the servants and the guards beyond the andron's closing doors. Only I stayed in attendance.
Hadrian kneeled over the twin couches to lift Antinous's chin within close reach by a single fingertip. Their eyes were only an inch or two apart. He smiled at the sleepy Bithynian.
'We enjoyed ourselves through the night, didn't we Ant?' the emperor charmed as he leaned closer. Noting Antinous's gesture of one hand modestly cupping his genitals, I perceived he had sensed his bloodstream stir to life once again.
'We did, Hadrian,' was his reply, unexpectedly using the special nomen in my presence. This was new from his lips and told me something they each perceived about their relationship.
'We'll do those things again tonight, my strong-willed Lion-heart.'