"What was the name of the slave?" I asked.
"Milo," she said.
"The well-known Milo," I asked, "the actor?"
"Yes," she said.
"Did you not think he would have his pick of slaves in the house of Appanius?" I asked.
"I did not know," she said.
"Beautiful slaves, silked for a man's pleasure, perfumed for his delight, eager, needful, helplessly responsive, trained to please in a thousand modalities?"
"I did not know," she said.
"Did you think to be able to compete with such women?"
"I did not know!" she wept.
"Do you invite further discipline? I asked.
"I was free," she said. "I thought that I was somehow special or better!" I smiled. Marcus laughed, and struck the side of his saddle twice, so amused he was.
She looked up at us, angrily.
"But you are not free now," I said.
"No, Master," she said.
"Do you still consider yourself better than slaves?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said, "for I now, too, am only a slave."
"And only a field slave," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
Female work slaves, field slaves, stable slaves, and such, like kettle-and-mat girls, are usually considered the lowest of slaves. At any rate, they commonly bring the lowest prices in the markets.
"You are now quite different from what you were as a free woman," I said. "Yes, Master," she said.
"But now that you are slave, even a field slave," I said, "you are better prepared to compete with other slaves for the attention of a man than would be a free woman."
She looked up at me, puzzled.
"You at least know what is your business with men," I said, "to please them, and as a slave."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Your life could depend on it," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do you doubt your attractiveness?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do not do so," I said.
"Master?" she asked.
"You are beautiful," I said, "or could be beautiful."
She was silent.
"Consider yourself," I said.
She put her hands up to her cropped hair, and then touched the tiny, torn brown rag she wore, and then, again, put her head down, and placed her hands on her thighs.
"Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?" I asked.
"I have looked upon my reflection in water," she said, "in the tank."
"You are interested in such things?" I said.
She was silent.
"Speak," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"As are other slave girls," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And what do you see in the water?"
"A slave," she said.
"A field slave?" I asked.
"A pleasure slave," she said.
"Ah!" laughed Marcus.
"But yet you are in the fields," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do you think it strange that you, who were a free woman, should look upon your reflection, and see in it a pleasure slave?"
"No, Master," she said.
"From your collaring," I said, "you have seen in your reflection this pleasure slave?"
"I have seen her there for years," she said, "not just since my collaring."
"A bold confession," I said.
"I am a slave girl," she said. "I must speak the truth."
"But once before, it seems, earlier, in the matter of how you came to be a slave, you did not speak the truth."
"No, Master."
"But it is your intention now to speak the truth?"
"Yes, Master!"
"Keep the angle between your knees," I said.
"Yes, Master!" she said. Once again then, she knelt suitably.
"Is the pleasure slave whom you see in your reflection beautiful?" I asked. "It is my hope that she is," she said.
"She is," I said.
"Thank you," she said, "a€”Master."
"Do you think you are the only women who has been brought into bondage by means of the attractions of Milo, the slave?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said. "Apparently there have been several others."
"Trapped dupes," said Marcus.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Snared as easily as vulos," he said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"As you were," he said.
"Yes, Master!" she said.
"And doubtless there will be many more," I said.
She looked up, tears in her eyes. "Yes, Master," she said. "Doubtless."
"Do you know of others?" I asked. "Say, in the fields?"
"They were commonly sold out of the city," she said. "But apparently that is more difficult now, with the Cosians in power. That is probably why I am here, in the vicinity of Ar. I know of none in the fields other than myself. There are two others, however, in the house."
"Then you have been in the house," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. "Only in the last few days have I been in the fields." This did not surprise me, as her mien had suggested to me earlier that she might be new to the onus of such labors. This was also suggested to me by the condition of her skin, which had not yet browned, darkening and toughening. "How did you get on with the other slaves in the house?" I asked.
"The three of us who owed our collars to Milo hated one another," she said. "The other slaves held all of us, recent free women, in contempt."
"Interesting," I said.
"We, too, now were only slaves, and inexperienced slaves," she said.
"True," I said.
"But they need not have been so cruel!" she said.
"Perhaps you behaved around them as though you might still think of yourselves as free women," I said.
"We did that scarcely at all," she said, "only a little at first, I think, and then we did not do it again, for they whipped us. After that, for the most part, they ignored us."
"They did not teach you their secrets then," I said, "such things as how to please men?" There are hundreds of such things, of course, ranging from the dressing and care of the hair, the application of cosmetics, such as lipstick and eye shadow, commonly thought improper for free women, and the judicious selection of jewelry, silks and perfumes, to physical and psychological subtleties, both behaviors and techniques, which can drive a master almost out of his senses with pleasure, and all this by a female totally at his disposal, one whom he can command, as it pleases him, one who is legally and literally owned by him, and in every way.
"They would not do so," she said, "though we begged them!"
"Did you put yourself as a slave before them?" I asked. "Did you weep and beg, kneeling before them and licking their feet? Did you make it clear to them that your entreaties were those of one like themselves, only another slave? Did you offer to work for them? Did you do so? Did you serve them, and wait upon them, on a lengthy probationary basis, as though you might be their own slave, that they might assess your earnestness, your sincerity and zeal?"
"As a new slave, I too much feared them," she said.
"Perhaps it is just as well," I said. "You might have been whipped."
"I think so, Master," she said.
"Perhaps, after a few months, after they had become used to you as only another slave amongst them, no more or less, things might have been different."
"Perhaps, Master," she said.