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Emperor and the Scribe

That Tiberius – according to the lost annals of Tacitus – had the reputation for unimaginable debauchery and licentiousness was due, in no small part, to his scribe, Lucius. Recalled to Rome from his exile in Capri, after the death of his stepfather, Augustus, who he had always disliked for his moral insincerity, the new …

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The Statue

Here is a strange case of agalmatophilia concerning a gardener who worked on the estate of a rich Umbrian noble. One day, the lady of the house happened to see the gardener as he was tending one of the rose bushes in the high walled garden that could be seen from her dressing room. Among …

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The Widow

A soldier of Caesar’s army died in battle leaving a widow. The widow had four sons who were forced to grow up around the Roman camp while she plied her trade. Fed up with their wild ways, she decided to knock some sense into them. “Each of you will go to the lupanar[1],” she said. …

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The Snake

Wang Jia was one of the Sing Sing Girls living in Hebei province which at that time was run by the Zhili clique. One day, the artist Zhang Dun came to see her. “Baobei,” he said, “you spend too much money. I can no longer afford to keep you here.” Wang Jia would have no …

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A History Lesson

They were in the middle of the Kyzl Kum Desert; the carriage was infernally hot. The conductor Ermat, who was already drunk, sat down and offered the American some vodka. “What are you doing here?” he said. “Soldier?” The American shook his head. “Ex-soldier, like me… I was in Afghanistan.” Ermat began to describe his …

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The Last Valley

At the end of the war, fleeing the advancing Americans during the Battle of the Bulge, a band of German soldiers found themselves in a remote valley of the Upper Rhine. The band had long forgotten what it meant to be soldiers in the Third Reich. If they owed allegiance to anything, it was the …

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Laziness

Picture the scene in a Parisian boudoir. A gentleman sits in an attitude of appraisal, hand resting on silver knob of ash plant, while a young lady takes off her dress. She rolls down her stockings and lies back against the sunburst headboard of the bed with her legs akimbo, like two pale chevrons… “Now …

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Bill Sykes

T.H. Bill Sykes had been a journalist for a number of years. He never made the transition to the national newspaper. He considered it a dirty world, and, besides, he was a Dorset man through and through. One day, he was in the office penning a routine story about the garden at Old Came Rectory …

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Sailor Fresco

In a Roman tavern a woman was observed fondling a man while he boasted of the Nubian slave girls he had seen down at the port… The sailor was also overheard saying: “Nolo cum Murtal. I don’t want to with Murtale.” Later, when the lady of the night went away, the sailor called for a …

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Colonel Lawrence

Eva always used to joke with him. “Who is to be today, sir? Colonel Lawrence or Mr. Shaw?” The hero of Arabia would laugh and say: “Tell T.H. that T.E is here to see him.”  “The truth was Mister Hardy always cheered up when Mr. Shaw came to tea. Frankly, so did us domestics.” As …

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