Who wants to tackle this...I'm busy.

[SEVERUSMAX]

Too much to do already, and I'm trying to get that done first. However, I would love for someone else to tackle this, perhaps as a chain....then I could join in when I am not as busy.

A young, angry husband is forced to put with a double standard by Theodora, the Byzantine Empress who has sided with his wife. He gets revenge by defecting to the Sassanid Persians under Khosrau II, the Great King who actually overran much of Justinian's territory while he was busy waging futile wars with the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in Spain, and the Vandals in Africa. I'm not sure if Theodora actually did this sort of thing, but it has been implied by the Secret History of Procopius. It might make an interesting twist on things. The man gets his revenge by becoming Sassanid governor of a captured Byzantine city and taking a few wives in the Persian tradition (poetic justice). Any takers?

 

[snooper]

ROFLMAO is, I understand, the appropriate acronym at this point.

 

[Carnevil9]

A young, angry husband is forced to put with a double standard by Theodora, the Byzantine Empress who has sided with his wife. He gets revenge by defecting to the Sassanid Persians under Khosrau II, the Great King who actually overran much of Justinian's territory while he was busy waging futile wars with the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in Spain, and the Vandals in Africa. I'm not sure if Theodora actually did this sort of thing, but it has been implied by the Secret History of Procopius. It might make an interesting twist on things. The man gets his revenge by becoming Sassanid governor of a captured Byzantine city and taking a few wives in the Persian tradition (poetic justice). Any takers?

Isn't that an old "Gilligan's Island" plot?

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

ROFLMAO is, I understand, the appropriate acronym at this point.

I don't get the humor. I just like the idea that someone would stick to a bitch who tries to turn men into cuckolds. Make her pay in fiction, if not in history. My understanding is that Theodora was such a nefarious character, involved in cuckoldry and all. Double standards are wrong. Now, if she just wanted an equal right to commit adultery for both sexes, that would be one thing. But that's not the impression that I get from Procopius.

 

[sunandshadow]

I believe the humor is that any of us know might possibly know that much about history - I know I don't.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I believe the humor is that any of us know might possibly know that much about history - I know I don't.

Ah, yes, that explains it. I'm too much of a history buff for my own good, but there are seriously good sex story ideas in history, you know.

 

[sunandshadow]

Ah, yes, that explains it. I'm too much of a history buff for my own good, but there are seriously good sex story ideas in history, you know.

I like historical fantasy myself, but with realistic historicals I often can't get into the mindset of the characters, and the stories tend to be kinda gritty, not usually in line with my ethics and the types of characters, themes, and settings I want to read about.

 

[snooper]

I don't get the humor. ...

I doubt one in ten of the writers here could be bothered to do the research, and I doubt if one in a thousand of the readers care who the characters are as long as the sex scenes are hot and frequent.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I doubt one in ten of the writers here could be bothered to do the research, and I doubt if one in a thousand of the readers care who the characters are as long as the sex scenes are hot and frequent.

Ah, yes. True. Hot sex is important. Guess I'll have to wait until my other stuff is over and handle it myself.

Question for sun: what ethical issues?

In any case, something tells me that I should adjust it a little. Especially since, come to think of it, Theodora would have been overthrown by a massive popular uprising if she had tried to make too many cuckolds of men. It will have to be something else that she does to piss him off. I'll have time to think of it, since it will be a while before I get around to writing it if I do it myself.

Maybe she makes him raise another man's child? A little preggo fetish and all. Could be plenty of hot sex, even at the beginning, with the Empress "appeasing" the husband by fucking him herself. Maybe she is doing it to keep Justinian busy and happy by letting him knock up another man's wife? The figurehead must be appeased and all. Could be fun.

A little swap that only the husband finds objectionable. Wife becomes the Emperor's regular mistress and hubby has to service an increasingly demanding Empress (including presenting her with expensive toys). Maybe hubby comes to enjoy it, but still finds it unacceptable that another man's (even the Emperor's) seed will grow into a child in his wife's womb and will inherit HIS lands. That's the part that angers him. He is compelled to claim the child as his own, when he doesn't wish to raise the Emperor's bastard. The pregnancy fetish and involuntary swap could be fun.

 

[sunandshadow]

Question for sun: what ethical issues?

Well people in the past just thought differently from what we (or at any rate, I) consider an acceptable way to think today. Generally people in the past were not very educated, religious, superstitious, did not believe men and women were equal or slaves and foreigners were people, they had no doubts that it was honorable to kill people in battle and few compunctions about rape or torture... If you compare that to me, an athiest pacifist feminist socialist and some other ists, you can probably see how I find it difficult to sympathize with realistic historical characters.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Well people in the past just thought differently from what we (or at any rate, I) consider an acceptable way to think today. Generally people in the past were not very educated, religious, superstitious, did not believe men and women were equal or slaves and foreigners were people, they had no doubts that it was honorable to kill people in battle and few compunctions about rape or torture... If you compare that to me, an athiest pacifist feminist socialist and some other ists, you can probably see how I find it difficult to sympathize with realistic historical characters.

Ah, well, pacifism and socialism aside, I agree with you. Not too keen on chattel slavery and such. I just try to remember that historical people were not PC or paragons of modern ideals. In other areas, they were more open-minded in some cases. For instance, feudal Japan and ancient Greece were free of homophobia.