SEVERUSMAX
Benevolent Master
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
- Posts
- 28,995
OOC: * Means that this is open, but that since it is historically based, some effort should be made to pay attention to facts, as they existed in Ptolemaic Egypt, Republican Rome, etc. This is a role play set in the reign of Berenice III, daughter and rebel against her father, Ptolemy Auletes (who was King, but never Pharaoh, since he could not appease the native priests of the ancient Egyptian religion).
My character is a knight, Titus Pacius, the younger son of Sextus Pacius the pedarius senator, who unlike his ambitious brother Sextus Pacius Junior, has no political aspirations of his own. Instead, being unable to access the landed wealth of the firstborn and heir, he has chosen a life of commerce as a means to enrich himself and acquire influence as a powerful knight (merchant/plutocrat/businessman). Thus his visit to Alexandria, to join the influential Roman business community there and make his mark in the world of high finance and industry.
There, of course, he is to have many adventures and meet many people. These will be created by you, the other role-players. There will also be a need for a retinue of slaves for such an important member of the Roman First Class. I will need, in particular, an Alexandrian business partner of some sort, not to mention Alexandrian women who have some intelligence and wit, as well as beauty and sex appeal.
I hope that this turns into an interesting role-play, with a mix of eroticism, history, character development, psychology, etc.
The setting is the year 58 BC (though not known as such to pre-Christian Romans and Alexandrians).
Bear in mind that while the Romans disapproved of homosexuality, Alexandrians had no qualms about it, so don't feel constrained to avoid the subject matter. It will make a useful part of the culture clash between a Republican Roman and his Alexandrian hosts. Also bear in mind that the Alexandrians looked down at ordinary, native Egyptians and hated their gods. If you wish to play a regular Egyptian, feel free, as that would be enlightening to the Roman as well.
IC:
Titus Pacius fully took in his first sight of the lighthouse at Pharos, the famous Alexandrian island that guided sailors safely into the harbor. It was truly awesome, thought the young Roman knight, who at 23 years of age, had just completed his mandatory six years (instead of ten campaigns) of military service as a tribune in the Roman legions.
Here was his first chance to explore the world on his own terms, though the official reason for his visit was strictly business. As a knight, he hoped to make his mark by lending money to Egyptian merchants at sensible rates of interest (some would call it high, but he deemed the risk to justify the increased profit).
Date merchants had visited Rome and requested a meeting with him, which convinced him that plenty of other Alexandrian businessmen would welcome the loans as well. He could make a great deal off profitable traders like those in a great port like Alexandria.
Of course, he was also curious what was really happening in Alexandria with the overthrow of King Ptolemy Auletes in favor of his daughter Berenice and her sister Cleopatra. Would the new ruler be favorable to Rome, as her father had been, or would things change again in that disorderly kingdom?
He further wanted to actually meet some of the locals in their own country and especially some women. Yes, they would make enticing lovers, he was sure, and as he was in no hurry to wed (as he was not yet twenty-five), he could use some sexual release. While he took some slaves with him, he still lived with his brother, the paterfamilias, and the house girls were all his. The slaves he brought were only clerks, a trio of Greeks who seemed more interested in each other than in women.
Elder brother Sextus had told him bluntly just before he left that he could use such girls while in the house or on the estates, but he couldn't take them with him, due to the risk of their escaping from custody. The whole Spartacus insurrection had convinced the firstborn not to trust slaves with too many opportunities to leave their master.
If his military service had been overseas, he would have his own slave girls, but as he had been on sentry duty in Italian Gaul after his only actual combat experience against the rebel Catiline, he had no chance to find one through a decent sack of a foreign city or town.
So, in short, if he was going to acquire a slave girl or two, his first real chance would be here, during his stay in Egypt, where he planned to enrich himself greatly as part of the local Roman merchant community.
Here it was....Titus thought as he finally set foot in the port of Alexandria, the city-state that dominated the great kingdom of Egypt through a personal union under the Ptolemies. Here was the richest, most powerful city of the East, the last outpost of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great. Here, he, a Roman of the First Class and son and brother of a Roman senator, would make his own mark as a man of high finance.
Of course, it helped that he was a client of Marcus Licinius Crassus, the senatorial plutocrat who had insisted as the price for his assistance (in the form of introductions and connections, not of money) that when Titus returned, he would make a full report of the situation in Egypt. Not surprising, really, since Crassus was known to favor eventual annexation of Egypt by Rome, but no one at the moment (outside the small circle of Roman knights in Alexandria) needed to know that Crassus was his patron. That might scare people away (except the Romans, of course).
Yes, this trip had every promise of bringing him Fortune, provided that he kept his head and successfully juggled his plans for business, pleasure, and espionage.....
My character is a knight, Titus Pacius, the younger son of Sextus Pacius the pedarius senator, who unlike his ambitious brother Sextus Pacius Junior, has no political aspirations of his own. Instead, being unable to access the landed wealth of the firstborn and heir, he has chosen a life of commerce as a means to enrich himself and acquire influence as a powerful knight (merchant/plutocrat/businessman). Thus his visit to Alexandria, to join the influential Roman business community there and make his mark in the world of high finance and industry.
There, of course, he is to have many adventures and meet many people. These will be created by you, the other role-players. There will also be a need for a retinue of slaves for such an important member of the Roman First Class. I will need, in particular, an Alexandrian business partner of some sort, not to mention Alexandrian women who have some intelligence and wit, as well as beauty and sex appeal.
I hope that this turns into an interesting role-play, with a mix of eroticism, history, character development, psychology, etc.
The setting is the year 58 BC (though not known as such to pre-Christian Romans and Alexandrians).
Bear in mind that while the Romans disapproved of homosexuality, Alexandrians had no qualms about it, so don't feel constrained to avoid the subject matter. It will make a useful part of the culture clash between a Republican Roman and his Alexandrian hosts. Also bear in mind that the Alexandrians looked down at ordinary, native Egyptians and hated their gods. If you wish to play a regular Egyptian, feel free, as that would be enlightening to the Roman as well.
IC:
Titus Pacius fully took in his first sight of the lighthouse at Pharos, the famous Alexandrian island that guided sailors safely into the harbor. It was truly awesome, thought the young Roman knight, who at 23 years of age, had just completed his mandatory six years (instead of ten campaigns) of military service as a tribune in the Roman legions.
Here was his first chance to explore the world on his own terms, though the official reason for his visit was strictly business. As a knight, he hoped to make his mark by lending money to Egyptian merchants at sensible rates of interest (some would call it high, but he deemed the risk to justify the increased profit).
Date merchants had visited Rome and requested a meeting with him, which convinced him that plenty of other Alexandrian businessmen would welcome the loans as well. He could make a great deal off profitable traders like those in a great port like Alexandria.
Of course, he was also curious what was really happening in Alexandria with the overthrow of King Ptolemy Auletes in favor of his daughter Berenice and her sister Cleopatra. Would the new ruler be favorable to Rome, as her father had been, or would things change again in that disorderly kingdom?
He further wanted to actually meet some of the locals in their own country and especially some women. Yes, they would make enticing lovers, he was sure, and as he was in no hurry to wed (as he was not yet twenty-five), he could use some sexual release. While he took some slaves with him, he still lived with his brother, the paterfamilias, and the house girls were all his. The slaves he brought were only clerks, a trio of Greeks who seemed more interested in each other than in women.
Elder brother Sextus had told him bluntly just before he left that he could use such girls while in the house or on the estates, but he couldn't take them with him, due to the risk of their escaping from custody. The whole Spartacus insurrection had convinced the firstborn not to trust slaves with too many opportunities to leave their master.
If his military service had been overseas, he would have his own slave girls, but as he had been on sentry duty in Italian Gaul after his only actual combat experience against the rebel Catiline, he had no chance to find one through a decent sack of a foreign city or town.
So, in short, if he was going to acquire a slave girl or two, his first real chance would be here, during his stay in Egypt, where he planned to enrich himself greatly as part of the local Roman merchant community.
Here it was....Titus thought as he finally set foot in the port of Alexandria, the city-state that dominated the great kingdom of Egypt through a personal union under the Ptolemies. Here was the richest, most powerful city of the East, the last outpost of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great. Here, he, a Roman of the First Class and son and brother of a Roman senator, would make his own mark as a man of high finance.
Of course, it helped that he was a client of Marcus Licinius Crassus, the senatorial plutocrat who had insisted as the price for his assistance (in the form of introductions and connections, not of money) that when Titus returned, he would make a full report of the situation in Egypt. Not surprising, really, since Crassus was known to favor eventual annexation of Egypt by Rome, but no one at the moment (outside the small circle of Roman knights in Alexandria) needed to know that Crassus was his patron. That might scare people away (except the Romans, of course).
Yes, this trip had every promise of bringing him Fortune, provided that he kept his head and successfully juggled his plans for business, pleasure, and espionage.....
