Interestingly, we had made no decision as to the instructors. I had thought that once trained, the men would be content to return to their original cohort. Instead Gaius received a deputation of the instructors. All wished to remain under my command in the unit, and requested that their uniform be changed to reflect it. They retained their armour, but took on the new green and new helmets at the expense of the traditional red and standard helmets.
Gaius asked me for my opinion. There was a generally held belief that women were only good for having sex and producing children. Indeed, sex with a woman was often not as attractive because of the second potential hazard.
“If the other legionaries see men and women working together without having to sneak off to fuck during every down moment that will be good. They need to believe this will work, and this sort of thing is great for morale.”
Mind you, when men and women work together in close proximity, there will always be that attraction and strong discipline was required to prevent just what I had said from happening.
The instructors stayed in the unit.
By August we were in a reasonable condition. Ideally, I’d have liked another month to hone their skills, but Gallinas wanted to relieve this besieged fortress before the autumn rains.
That made me laugh.
Gaius saw me laughing and asked what was so funny.
“Autumn rain? It rains all the damn time, what’s the difference?”
“It’s colder in autumn. Then the snows come, and they can cover the land until the spring flowers arrive.”
This time three cohorts were despatched to undertake the rescue of the garrison. After persuading his superiors, Gallinas was given command, but Gaius was never far away. At least the young man was aware of his military shortcomings, so tended to keep the experienced Gaius close at hand for tactical advice.
The Roman army had built a long, straight road north, so the march was an easy one in good weather for the most part. Because the road was paved with close-fitting, rectangular blocks, it was easy underfoot and well drained, so there was little pooling and almost no mud.
The hob-nailed sandals were sturdy, but prone to skid a little on the hard stone roads. They were more suited for rough or softer ground where a sound grip was more beneficial.
Initially, as we marched through supposedly friendly territory, the Recon unit was kept to the rear, where we did not stand out. Under orders to keep our military equipment and status hidden, we marched in green tunics and pants, with our buckskin leggings. Our weapons and other equipment were carried in a wagon pulled by mules immediately behind us.
Taking full advantage of the long summer evenings, and early dawns, we marched for the bulk of the daylight hours, stopping at regular intervals for water, food and toilet breaks.
Considering that we were only in the first century, I was surprised at the speed at which we moved north. The road came to an abrupt end by a small fortified camp somewhere in the middle of what is now the county of Durham. There was a military unit there, a modern army would call them engineers, but they were normal soldiers seconded for the task of building the road. There were many locally recruited labourers, all under the watchful eyes of military overseers.
We spent a night there; not really mixing with the other soldiers or the locals. We had our own tents, and kept ourselves close to our weapons and alongside the first cohort.
The legionaries had been initially scathing and unpleasant towards the girls. However, after we proved ourselves more than a match for them, and their friends who had been chosen as instructors volunteered to remain with the unit, they came around and were broadly supportive and became more and more possessive and protectionist. Woe betides anyone from outside their unit who might show an interest, sexual or otherwise, in any of the girls.
Inevitably relationships between the soldiers and the girls happened. I had told the girls in no uncertain terms that pregnancies were not part of the deal, so although I had no idea what they got up to. Standard vaginal intercourse was probably not that common.
Roman attitudes towards sexual relationships were at odds with any twentieth century imprints I carried with me. For men, it was generally acceptable to be a giver of sexual activity. The masculine male was seen as primary, although often whether they screwed girls or boys was relatively unimportant. Indeed, most men of higher rank were expected to have male concubines from within the slaves in the household, and these men had reasonably high status in the home.
Indeed, Emperor Trajan himself was reputed to be an active homosexual. Although married, it was to be a childless marriage, but whether this was due to his sexual orientation or not is something about which we can only speculate. His wife was Pompeia Plotina, a woman of noble Roman birth from the Roman Settlement at Nîmes in Gaul.
It was common for senior soldiers to select attractive males as bed-mates during campaigns. However, male concubines were always slaves, while female concubines were often freely born and were simply kept mistresses.
For most men, allowing himself to be penetrated threatened his liberty as a free citizen as well as his sexual integrity. If a Roman citizen were to be found being penetrated by another male or giving another man oral sexual gratification, he could have his citizenship removed.
It was expected and socially acceptable for a freeborn Roman man to want sex with both female and male partners, as long as he took the penetrative role. The morality of the behaviour depended on the social standing of the partner, not gender per se.
Both women and young men were considered normal objects of desire, but outside marriage a man was supposed to act on his desires only with slaves, prostitutes (who were often slaves), and the infames (a similar status to prostitute who was not a slave but unable to be anything else). Gender did not determine whether a sexual partner was acceptable, as long as a man’s enjoyment did not encroach on another man’s integrity. It was immoral to have sex with another freeborn man’s wife, his marriageable daughter, his underage son, or with the man himself; sexual use of another man’s slave was subject to the owner’s permission. Lack of self-control, including in managing one’s sex life, indicated that a man was incapable of governing others; too much indulgence in “low sensual pleasure” threatened to erode the elite male’s identity as a cultured person.
In the Imperial era, anxieties about the loss of political liberty and the subordination of the citizen to the emperor were expressed by a perceived increase in voluntary passive homosexual behaviour among free males, accompanied by a documentable increase in the execution and corporal punishment of citizens. The dissolution of Republican ideals of physical integrity in relation to libertas contributes to and is reflected by the sexual license and decadence associated with the Empire.
There were no literal translations of the English words - homosexual or heterosexual, just givers and receivers.
Sexual relations between women were generally not a matter of great concern, as women were very low on the Roman list of important factors. Most women were little more than chattels within the patriarchal society. Certainly, graphic artistic representations of sexual activity showed men and women in a multitude of poses, undertaking normal coitus and same sex activity. Some threesomes were common with one male penetrating a female while being taken from behind by another man.
The legion was full of men who were givers, with a few who, in the absence of female companionship, were content to have fun with each other. Most men did not care where they stuck their dicks, but tended not to allow anyone to do it to them.
My relationship with Iona was seen as something akin to a turn-on by most men, but as it became obvious that neither of us were willing to allow any of them have their way with us, some became quite rude and insulting.