, you’ll come to the position that I’m about to show you.”
He demonstrated; pulling himself erect, he looked straight ahead, pulling his chin in, with his chest out, his feet together and his arms straight down by his sides.
Holding that position for a moment so that we could see it, he broke the position then immediately snapped, “ Intente !”
Instantly we tried to emulate the position he had just shown us, as he walked up and down, inspecting us, correcting my comrades with a quick smack to the part of the body that was not in the proper position. His progress was punctuated by grunts and groans as he made his way to me, and I prayed to every god I knew that I had done it correctly because I was still sore from my earlier lesson. Once he reached me, I concentrated on looking straight ahead, despite my natural inclination to look at him. This was one time where my height actually helped, since I could look directly at his horsehair device and not in his eyes. Luckily, he just rapped my knuckles to make me put my hands into the correctly curled position before he returned to the front of our group.
“That is pathetic, truly pathetic,” he sighed, with what sounded like genuine sadness, “but since we have so much to do today, we’ll have to work on this another time. Now, I’m going to give another command, to tell you to turn to the right. When this command is given, you'll all immediately pivot, like so,” he demonstrated by pivoting on the ball of his left foot, while simultaneously turning on his right heel, then after turning, bringing his left foot back to its original position next to his right foot. “You will not move until you hear the last word of the command,” he commanded next, which confused me.
How would we know which was the last word?
However, it became clear that this was yet another trick, when he called out, “ Ad GLADIUM ,” putting the emphasis on the second word, causing at least three of the others to turn in the manner he had demonstrated. For some reason I did not move; I think I was already beginning to understand how things worked, or so I thought at the time.
Immediately, the Pilus Prior screamed, “Do not move!” Then he ran over to the unfortunates and roared at one of them, “You miserable bag of cac ! I said to wait for the FINAL word of the command.”
“But Pilus Prior,” the man replied, in a whining, wheedling voice that I recognized immediately as belonging to Didius.
Before he could get another word out, however, the thud of the stick smashing into his gut sounded, and I heard him fall, choking.
“But what? There is no but, you cunnus , you piece of filth! You’ll wait for the command!”
Before Didius could give any response, Pilus Prior Crastinus leaped to the other two, administering the same type of punishment to them that he had doled out to Didius. It turned out that one of them was Vibius, although I did not find out until later, because he was at the farther end of the line, towards what would become known as the “little end.”
Once the three recovered and were at the original position of Intente , the Pilus Prior again commanded, “ Ad Gladium …… Clina !”
Immediately, we all turned in the manner we had been taught, except that now, one of our group, while he had indeed turned in the exact manner that was specified, turned to the left instead of the right. This sent Pilus Prior Crastinus into an ecstasy of rage.
“By the gods, what has been sent to me?” he asked rhetorically.
Running over to the man standing facing the one to his left, instead of staring at the back of the man to his right as he should have, I could hear by the tone of voice that this had taken the anger of the Pilus Prior to a new level.
“Are you daring to tell me that you don’t know your left from your right?”
“N-n-no, Pilus Prior,” came the answer, almost forcing me to look down
He demonstrated; pulling himself erect, he looked straight ahead, pulling his chin in, with his chest out, his feet together and his arms straight down by his sides.
Holding that position for a moment so that we could see it, he broke the position then immediately snapped, “ Intente !”
Instantly we tried to emulate the position he had just shown us, as he walked up and down, inspecting us, correcting my comrades with a quick smack to the part of the body that was not in the proper position. His progress was punctuated by grunts and groans as he made his way to me, and I prayed to every god I knew that I had done it correctly because I was still sore from my earlier lesson. Once he reached me, I concentrated on looking straight ahead, despite my natural inclination to look at him. This was one time where my height actually helped, since I could look directly at his horsehair device and not in his eyes. Luckily, he just rapped my knuckles to make me put my hands into the correctly curled position before he returned to the front of our group.
“That is pathetic, truly pathetic,” he sighed, with what sounded like genuine sadness, “but since we have so much to do today, we’ll have to work on this another time. Now, I’m going to give another command, to tell you to turn to the right. When this command is given, you'll all immediately pivot, like so,” he demonstrated by pivoting on the ball of his left foot, while simultaneously turning on his right heel, then after turning, bringing his left foot back to its original position next to his right foot. “You will not move until you hear the last word of the command,” he commanded next, which confused me.
How would we know which was the last word?
However, it became clear that this was yet another trick, when he called out, “ Ad GLADIUM ,” putting the emphasis on the second word, causing at least three of the others to turn in the manner he had demonstrated. For some reason I did not move; I think I was already beginning to understand how things worked, or so I thought at the time.
Immediately, the Pilus Prior screamed, “Do not move!” Then he ran over to the unfortunates and roared at one of them, “You miserable bag of cac ! I said to wait for the FINAL word of the command.”
“But Pilus Prior,” the man replied, in a whining, wheedling voice that I recognized immediately as belonging to Didius.
Before he could get another word out, however, the thud of the stick smashing into his gut sounded, and I heard him fall, choking.
“But what? There is no but, you cunnus , you piece of filth! You’ll wait for the command!”
Before Didius could give any response, Pilus Prior Crastinus leaped to the other two, administering the same type of punishment to them that he had doled out to Didius. It turned out that one of them was Vibius, although I did not find out until later, because he was at the farther end of the line, towards what would become known as the “little end.”
Once the three recovered and were at the original position of Intente , the Pilus Prior again commanded, “ Ad Gladium …… Clina !”
Immediately, we all turned in the manner we had been taught, except that now, one of our group, while he had indeed turned in the exact manner that was specified, turned to the left instead of the right. This sent Pilus Prior Crastinus into an ecstasy of rage.
“By the gods, what has been sent to me?” he asked rhetorically.
Running over to the man standing facing the one to his left, instead of staring at the back of the man to his right as he should have, I could hear by the tone of voice that this had taken the anger of the Pilus Prior to a new level.
“Are you daring to tell me that you don’t know your left from your right?”
“N-n-no, Pilus Prior,” came the answer, almost forcing me to look down
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