‘My Lord some of our Leading Nobles have made the complaint that the price of slaves has risen a bit too sharply of late.’ The Functionary nervously shuffled his feet. The Leading Nobles were a point of contention with The Young Prefect who very much thought he was in charge.
‘Has there been a plague I’ve not been informed of?’ The Prefect’s voice already showed a hint of fury.
‘No my Lord.’ The Functionary bowed his head and avoided The Prefect’s stern gaze. Experience told him that eye contact would only make The Prefect more likely to lash out.
‘Perhaps a mighty storm in the Mediterranean Sea?’
‘No my lord, and the border wars of Gaul still yield a constant flow of slaves.’
‘Then, do tell me, why the price of slaves has risen in my province?’
‘It’s the New Quarry Master sir?’
‘...The Quarry Master? The man responsible for the exceptional decrease in the price of stone?’
‘Yes The Quarry Master?’
‘A significant enough decrease that we can afford twice the public works for our year’s budget?’ It irked The Functionary that The Prefect claimed the increased public works as his own idea and had reported back to Rome as such.
‘Well sir my next report is about the...’ The Functionary expertly suppressed a chuckle ‘...overspend on the public works budget.’ He braced himself to be hit with the closest thing to the Prefect’s hand which was quite a heavy looking, ornate, golden goblet.
‘Sorry What?’ Worryingly The Prefect hadn’t thrown the goblet yet. His fingers toyed with it, almost as though they had a mind of their own. The Functionary knew The Prefect was fuming and knew when, eventually, the goblet was thrown, there would be more venom behind the shot.
‘We’ll sir with the low cost of stone the Stone Masons are now in demand and have put their rates up accordingly and so coupled with the high cost of slaves it means the labour budget is currently being overspent.’ The goblet flew across the room but The Functionary had anticipated it and nimbly sidestepped it.
The Prefect stood up gripping the arms of his chair so tightly that his knuckles turned white. ‘Use fucking women and children slaves to labour on the works!’ Women and children were supposedly cheaper but they were weaker and rarely survived long enough the price would normally work out the same but the death toll would be higher which usually the public wouldn’t stand, it was a waste of good labour.
The Functionary backed toward the door. ‘The thing is sir… The Quarry Master has bought all the women and children too?’ He stepped through the door just in time as The Prefect’s chair hit the door and shattered.
‘What the fuck is a quarry master doing with women and children? Bring me The Quarry Master!’
‘Yes Sir!’ The functionary shouted through the doorway. He turned and patted himself down as if absentmindedly checking he were intact. ‘Why do I put up with him?’ he asked himself not for the first time. ‘Well’ he thought ‘It’s not as though the aristocracy could run the empire’. He chuckled and went to issue an order for the attendance of the Quarry Master.