Undergoing assessment! 

The premier slave dealership of Skank and Dreyfus is contracted

by the government to process criminals sentenced to slavery through the courts and to turn them into marketable commodities.

The process of doing this is a long one and it takes several months to turn a sullen and surly criminal into a docile, compliant, and obedient slave. Our training methods are necessarily harsh as the "trainees" are subjected to rigorous training and punishment.

Once the criminal is sentenced, his training as a slave begins immediately and he is transported to the Skank and Dreyfus processing centre to begin his journey into slavery. 

The first step in this journey is for the new slave to be evaluated by one of our experienced assessors. As can be seen in this picture, on arrival at the processing centre, the slaves are hosed down and hung up in threes to dry. 

Being suspended like this, first of all, immobilises the slave and makes his naked body fully available for close quarter inspection. And being suspended by the wrists highlights the slave's musculature  making it easier for our assessor to gauge his physical strengths and weaknesses.

The assessor pays particular attention to the slave's ass and genitals and his recommendation will determine the slave's future role either as a "pleasure slave" or as a beast-of-burden".

Careful attention is shown to the slave's ass; is he a virgin and if not, the assessor notes the tightness and elasticity of the slave's asshole to determine whether or not he can be sold as a "bed buck". 

Here at Skank and Dreyfus, we take pride in the quality of our products and we'll never sell a slave under false pretences. 

And the slave's cock and balls are also carefully examined for any physical defects or abnormalities. At this stage, the slave's potency isn't tested; that happens during the next step of the processing when the slave visits the vet for a more detailed examination. 

The assessor also notes if a new slave requires "skinning" and if so, then the next stop for the unfortunate slave is the skinning/branding bench.

As you can see from this "behind the scenes" picture much work goes into producing the high quality slaves which we are justifiably proud to offer to you, our valued and discerning clients.  

Picture found on the internet and source unknown. The text is mine.   

The Aftermath of the Third Servile War (73-71 BC)

From the pages of history we are aware of the slave rebellion known as the Third Servile War lead by Spartacus against Rome's tyranny. The story of Spartacus has inspired many novels, epic movies and a number of television series. 

At first the slaves in revolt were victorious but eventually they were defeated with thousands being killed in battle and others captured alive. They suffered a dreadful fate at the hands of Gnaeus Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus.

It is recorded that Pompey crucified 5,000 captured slaves and Crassus a further 6,000. This drawing is of the 6,000 slaves crucified by Crassus along the Appian Way between Rome and Capua.

I have always wondered about the logistics of so many crucifixions. How many trees were felled and how long did it take to fashion them into crucifixes? And of course, there were the spikes needed to fasten the 11,000 victims to their crosses. Assuming each slave required three spikes to nail him to the cross that amounts to 33,000. The blacksmiths must have been busy.

Drawing sourced from the internet; the text is mine.

Cave Canem! (Beware of the dog)

In a recent exchange with a reader, he mentioned the Romans using slaves as watch dogs chained at the entrance of their homes.

As preposterous as this might seem, there is evidence to support this as shown in this painting of 1881 by the artist Jean-Leon Gerome.

Ancient Romans regarded their slaves as non-humans - indeed they were described as 'talking tools' and had the status of animals - and it follows that no task was considered too humiliating or too demeaning for a slave to perform.

On my visits to Pompeii, I have seen mosaics at the entrances of some of the bigger and grander homes that show a real dog on a chain with the words 'Cave Canem'. I had always assumed these referred to four-legged canines. Now I'm not so sure!

Picture in the public domain. Text is mine.

A Modern Day Slave Raid

The "pink dollar" is a large part of today's economy and is eagerly sought after by enterprising merchants and business men.

Recognising that most gay men have large, disposable incomes, a consortium of businessmen have established a resort for gay men known as "The Patroclus Club" on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to cater for the European gay community. Here, gay men are assured of the outmost privacy and there are no restrictions in place to limit their activities.

As the resort states in its glossy brochures extolling the advantages of vacationing there -  "At Patroclus Resort anything goes and the gay man is free to be himself." Needless to say, the resort is well patronised.

It is mid-autumn and the club is at near full capacity with guests from all over Europe and North America all relaxing before the onset of winter.

It is mid-morning and as the club's patrons relax in the resort's bars or eat brunch in its restaurants, shop in the clothing and souvenir stores or lie on the warm, golden sands working on their tans, they are unaware they are under attack from modern day, Barbary pirates - until too late.

As we see in the above picture, the pirates are rounding up the club's guests, stripping them naked and immobilising them. Soon they will be loaded onto fast vessels waiting just offshore and sped away into modern day slavery. 

In the clandestine slave-markets of the Africa, Asia and the Middle-East there is great demand for slaves who share the sexual orientation of the resort's guests. On sale day, the auctioneer will extol the virtues of these new slaves as they stand naked and shackled on the auction-block, declaring they are fully "broken in" and come ready for instant use.

The artwork for this story is one of Amalaric's earlier works entitled "Pirates raid the coast of Southern California" and from memory, it was used to illustrate one of his marvellous stories. However, the text is mine and shouldn't be confused with his story. 

New Blog

Currently, I am establishing a back-up "Slaves through the Ages" blog at bdsmlr.org which will be similar to this site. However, as there is more flexibility at bdsmlr.org in what they allow you to post, some posts will differ. 

With the loss of my tumblr blogs, I am conscious of the content of the posts I make to this site and err on the side of caution.

And of course, I have the added assurance should I lose one site, I still have another so all is not lost as was the case with tumblr.

Should you be interested, the link to the new site which I should warn is still in the preliminary stages is as follows:

http://SlavesthroughtheAges.bdsmlr.com/

Chris 

Dahomey, West Africa, 1784

Work in the fields has ended for the day and these young men are skylarking on the banks of the great river that flows to the far distant ocean.

As they wrestle one another, they are blissfully unaware of the danger lurking in the nearby trees. Hidden from their view, a group of Arab slavers are observing them and waiting for an opportune time to seize them to add to their slave coffle. 

The slavers wait patiently and as the young men grow more boisterous they become oblivious to their surroundings and the lurking danger.

Wrestling and grappling with one another, they don't hear the soft whirring of the weighted, rope nets hurled by the Arabs to capture them. Too late, they find themselves enmeshed in the nets and as they struggle to free themselves, they are overpowered by the slavers who waste no time in securing them for the trip back to the Arabs' camp some miles downstream.

The youths have made the slavers' task easier by being naked and there is no need to strip them. With their hands tied securely behind them and roped together at the neck, they begin the first leg of their long journey to the slave-markets of the New World.

Their howls of protests and pleas to be set free leave their new Arab masters unimpressed and any resistance is discouraged by the liberal use of their captors' whips. For the six, unfortunate youths their trip from freedom to slavery will be a long and painful one. 

Source of picture unknown; text is mine. 

The Galley Slave

Looking at him now, you would never know the galley slave toiling at the oar and under the whip was once a proud Byzantine nobleman, Alexios Tifernas and friend of the last Roman Emperor, Constantine X1 Palaeologus. 

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Alexios was taken prisoner and unlike so many other noblemen who were beheaded by the victorious Ottoman Sultan Mehmet, his life was spared. He didn't know the reason why he'd not been killed but he thanked all the saints of his Orthodox church for sparing him.

However, his relief was short lived; instead of a quick death, he was condemned to the lingering and brutal existence of a galley slave aboard an Ottoman warship waging war against the Western infidels of Rome. 

No longer does Alexios wear the rich garments of a Byzantine nobleman. Now he is stark naked and he wears both the heavy shackles that chain him to an oar and the stripes of the Moslem whip upon his back and shoulders. 

Between voyages, Alexios together with all his fellow slaves, have their scalps shaved - once he'd proudly boasted long, blond curls - and their bodies are stripped of all hair to deny a haven for disease carrying vermin. 

Here we see the once proud aristocrat sweating and straining at the oar as his back is constantly lashed by an impatient slave-driver urging him to keep the beat of the hortator's drum.

One wonders if Alexios still thanks his Orthodox saints for sparing him for such a fate or does he now envy those noblemen so cruelly put to death by the victorious Ottomans.  

Source of picture unknown and taken from the internet; the text is mine.