Servius Gabinius Salax

[locutus-sum]

SERVIUS GABINIUS SALAX

"It's obviously a corruption of Sagax"

@Gothic or @Anna

29 | 9th June 47CE | Equite | Love Elegist | Pansexual | Original | James Callis

 

 

Personality

Gabinius is a simple man. He says what he wants, and very occasionally, he actually gets it. Most of the time he spends either making his presence known around town or sitting in his study, perfecting the perfect tone and volume of voice with which to recite his poetry through the doors of his latest target's villa. In truth, he is not a bad poet - for all his objectionability, there might genuinely be a spark of genius inside him, if you peer closely enough and from the right angle. The real problem, however, is his total lack of experience in the subject he is writing about in his love elegy. This is an issue he is determined to rectify.

 

Appearance

It is not immediately apparent to the far-off observer why the light bounces off Gabinius' hair in much the same way it bounces off olive oil spilled from a cargo ship into the sea, until said observer comes within a range of twenty feet, at which distance the pungent aroma of the carefully chosen blend of scented lotions he uses to achieve such an effect assaults the nostrils.

Despite not quite being the Adonis he thinks himself to be, Gabinius is... tolerably attractive, enough so that his charm, with which he drips more obviously that he does with rose water, produces a noticeable effect. Unfortunately, this effect is a tad overblown, which in the past had alienated potential lovers almost as much as his personality.

Gabinius speaks with an affected suavete at all times (on ne sait jamais!), and when he does, his eyebrows furrow with such startling earnestness that he seems quite convincing. There's no hidden agenda with Gabinius, and even perfect strangers can usually read him as well as the huge letters adorning the pediment of the Temple to Jupiter. This, strangely, is his most attractive quality. What woman wouldn't enjoy the feeling of having him wrapped round her little finger?

Family

Father: Publius Gabinius Salax

Mother: Deceased

Siblings: None

Spouse: None

Children: None

Extended family: None

Other:

 

History

Most of Gabinius' childhood was... well, boring. When you're young, the only son of one of the only non-peasant families in the miserable middle of darkest Mantua, and raring to go and live your life, there's only so much fun you can get out of harassing peasants. It was tempting to take up a political career just to get away from the wretched place, but it was hard to believe the combination of his humble origins and his natural lack of intelligence would exactly endear him to the ruling class. Gabinius didn't want to spend his days listening to stuffy old men drone at each other for hours on end, anyway. All there was for it was to wait for his old dad to pop his clogs - though the stupid old codger didn't seem to want to get round to that any time soon - so he could get his inheritance and slip free of the familial yoke. Until then, he spent his time trying to get it on with the local farm girls, not that many of them were an attractive prospect. Despite, or perhaps because of, Gabinius' tendency to send envoys running back and forth to them with his latest elegy about their ox-eyedness or their general shapeliness, he never had any success with any of them, apart from one slave-boy, whom he dubbed Adonis, from his father's household who probably knew he'd be whipped if he didn't comply.

Last year, at the age of 28, Gabinius finally drank in the beautiful sight of the flames eating up the funeral pyre and turned his gaze instead to the bright lights of Athens. Here, he spend a year making a general nuisance of himself and participating in all the wildest rituals on offer, sampling the mind-bending delights of no less than twenty different sets of mysteries. Somehow or other, he managed to convince himself he'd learnt the secret of life, the gods and creation. What it was, he wasn't quite sure, but he felt sure he knew it, and it did lend him a seductive air of mystery, he supposed. That was never a bad thing.

After ingesting his fill of strange concoctions in the cellars of temples, Gabinius headed for what had always been his real destination, ready to take on life: Rome. Here, the women, or young men, if he felt so inclined, might have refined enough tastes to realise that actually he, Gabinius, was a pretty decent poet, and that, despite his lack of any experience whatsoever in affairs of the heart apart from being repeatedly and soul-crushingly repulsed, he would make a pretty good lover, probably. His mother had always told him he was a handsome boy, and besides he had a LOT of passion to give. Yes, he'd take Rome by storm.

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Edited July 20, 2021 by locutus-sum

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