"The Council has decided?" "We go to war." "Move to formation." "We advance east." "I gave my word to defend against the Getae." "You will march where you are commanded!" "You came back." "For me." "Knowing it could mean your life." "There is no life without you." "The shadow of Rome is vast." "And you will die under it." "I have a batch of new recruits arriving tomorrow." "If I were to purchase this man to be trained I doubt he'll survive to the quarter moon." "When the Romans came..." "I thought I'd never see you." "I will always be with you." "The Gods themselves could not keep me from your side." "I would kill them all for trying." "Have him taken to the baths." "But first attend to all that fucking hair." "Dominus." " The pool's dry." " Yes we need rain." "Money would also see it filled." "too." "How fares your new pet?" "He breathes." "His cost was enough for us to fill our pool for a month." "Lucretia." "Spartacus is a corpse yet walking. - dragging your investment with him?" " Not before he serves his purpose." "From the Legatus Claudius Glaber." "His intentions?" "Nudging toward my desires." "He comes here?" "Two days hence." "the reason for his visit is absent." "but the meaning shines." "He comes to thank me." "For what?" "For paying too much for the Thracian?" "Spartacus defied Glaber's attempt at assassination in the arena. an embarrassment for the Legatus." "by purchasing him." "At inflated price. the arena will be his tomb as first intended." "If not..." "Then his passing becomes an early delight for the Legatus." "Desires well nudged." "There's yet more stroking needed." "A simple gesture of gratitude from the Legatus falls short." "Patronage is the reward we seek." "Nothing less." "The Legatus as patron..." "His coins will fill our pool to overflowing." "We'll need to prepare a feast." "A small one." "With wine." "And water." "Lots of water." "Just enough... to wet the tongue." "I'll sacrifice a bull to appease the Gods in our venture." "Perhaps something smaller?" "then." "To the Gods." "May they bless us with good fortune..." "Lick my hole." "The pig-fucker's still alive." "This is the one?" "The Spartacus everyone's been pissing about?" " My name is..." " No one gives shit" "Thracian." "I give no shit to who he is." "What is this place?" "friend." "Or least outside its rusted gates. master of the greatest ludus in Capua." "Ludus?" "A school of training. their mountaintop." "Gladiators." "The truest of brotherhoods! you and the other recruits will count yourself among us." "And bare our mark. can we fetch you something?" "Food?" "Water?" "Maybe some scented oils for your feet?" "Water." "isn't he?" "What do you expect from a Thracian?" "Smells like fresh shit." "They all do." "Except for their women." "They smell like... piss... and shit." "then?" "little man." "The greatest of my kind." "the Undefeated!" "A Gaul." "That explains why you smell like a woman." "You tend to your wounds." "Eat." "Rest. we'll revisit that remark." "Freak!" "Pile of shit." "Not a cock among them." "you little cunt." "What is beneath your feet?" "Answer!" "What is beneath your feet?" "Sand?" "What is beneath your feet?" "Doctore!" "Watered with the tears of blood!" "Your tears." "forged into something of worth." "Listen." "Learn." "live." "As gladiators." "attend your master!" "You have been blessed! at the ludus of Quintus Lentulus Batiatus!" "Purveyor of the finest gladiators in all of the Republic!" "in the hard days to follow." "Prove yourselves more than a common slave." "More than a man." "and die. or sold off to the mines. and stand proud among my titans!" "A Gladiator does not fear death." "He embraces it." "Caresses it." "Fucks it. he slips his cock into the mouth of the beast." "And prays to thrust home before the jaws snap shut." "None... of you stray dogs would last a fleeting moment." "Except one. battered Thracian stood against four in the arena. given nothing but a sword to wager his life upon." "They came at him!" "Again and again and again!" "He defied Death!" "Fate!" "The gods themselves!" "Gaze at this man!" "Study him." "And realize... he is nothing." "A coward." "A deserter from the Auxiliary. as hollow as his courage." "He fought against the ill-trained men your master's rival." "Had Spartacus entered the arena with any Gladiator here... his head would have left well in advance of his body!" "The Thracian disagrees." "perhaps?" "Practice swords." "Spartacus." "Pick it up." "That is not my name. is what we decide." "Perhaps the coward requires advantage to still his trembling knees." "Gladius!" "Pick it up." "I can do nothing with this one." "Send him to the mines." "are we?" "An attack must be grounded in proper footing." "He attempts to press before regaining balance." "Allow advantage to your back..." "and you are dead." "Become entangled with a more powerful opponent... and you are dead." "Hurl your sword in the arena..." "and you are dead again." "Your foolishness has cost a life." "But yours may yet be redeemed." "Two fingers." "A sign of surrender." "A plea of mercy to the editor of the games!" "little rabbit." "Bash his skull in!" " Dominus." " Continue training." "and yet you let him live?" "Glaber visits tomorrow." "His intention towards the Thracian may include blood." "Until his patronage is secured I intend to keep it warm and flowing." "the heat!" "Enough to boil the tongue from the head!" "Eat it!" "the lot of them." "Are we the better?" "You survived your own execution." "if you mark the Gaul over there not introducing your brains to the sand." "Thracian." "Above this unfortunate collection." "And you?" "Varro." "The worst of the lot." "A free man consigned by his own hand." "Why would a man willingly condemn himself to this? grown large." "The repaying of it proves difficult." "If the concern was only to me..." "A family?" "Wife and child." "A boy." "my winnings will keep them fed." "Winnings?" "and you're rewarded with coin." "the Gods be fortunate." "The Gods." "You are a fool." "by the judging." " They're the best I could do now." " One or two show promise." "my own mother would have them in the arena." "You have no mother." "You were belched from the cunt of the underworld." " That's why I favor you." " Were there no better offerings?" "no!" "You stand questioning and complaining instead of setting yourself to the task!" "Batiatus." "And this ludus." "Legatus Glaber visits tomorrow." "With him hope of renewed fortunes." "these men are all the straw afforded." "or crumble them to the mines." "Your will." "My hands." "Ovidius!" "Apologies for the delay!" "if made with coin." "the payment standing past due." "is it?" " To the day." "The games of the Vulcanalia approach." "If I could carry the debt till then... plus thirty percent." "Thirty?" "!" "Or settle the debt as it stands." "Principle plus thirty." "After the Vulcanalia." "The day after." "I could have taken him." "Crixus?" "The shit would be running down your leg." "fucked like a dog." "Kerza." "Speaking otherwise is bloated air." "I pray not to face Crixus in the final test." "Nothing to worry." "cock hole." "All can make it to the test." "And beyond." "Freedom." "One day." "If you fight well." "Varro." "Win the hearts of the crowd in the arena and you'll be blessed with both." "You fought the gladiators there." "What do you think of our chances?" "You're all gonna die." "Up!" "You will sleep when you prove yourselves men." "Keep pace!" "It's late." "It is." "Return to your dreams." "In a minute." " We need better wine." " We need many things." "again." "The arrangements are set?" "I've taken care of everything." "Cannot fall short tomorrow." " If I can secure Glaber's patronage..." " You will." "How are you certain?" "We've done everything we can." "It's in the hands of the Gods now." "Come to bed." "And bring that awful wine." "I beg you." "Do not fuck me." "Halt!" "The day's training will begin shortly." "Eat." "Jupiter's cock." "Now we train all day?" "Still believe every man will live to see the test?" "Mostly." "then." "by the look of them." "The Roman way." "Lives for coins." "Some deserving more than others." "I've heard a certain Thracian was quite the price." "I would see the cost rise higher still." "when I was a recruit." "You must be mad with hunger." "Fill your bellies!" "Shit." "Wake me when it's time to die again." "Apologies for the porridge." "Barca finds the jest amusing." "Least he didn't piss in it this time." "Adds an unpleasant bite. - more so." " You would give me your bread?" "Mine?" "this hand to that." "Even from outside these walls." "Ashur provides." "I owe no man." "I ask nothing in return." "My only concern is your strength and well being in the coming day." "Come to plain words." "then." "I offer odds." "Will this man live?" "That one die?" "How fast?" "How slow?" "On what day or hour?" "Games... to pass the time." "And the coin." "favoring the mines." "Higher towards your death." "Crixus stands to lose a sum if you defy the numbering." "I would see it so." "Do not think me friend." "The thought is well removed." "How did you manage this?" "By playing the odds." "I fear they're about to worsen." "Glaber." "You will address me by title of Legatus." "Yet the animal." "The mark of your kind." "Where is she?" "Who?" " That little wife of yours?" " Where?" "Wherever I please!" "She served you no grievance." "None." "But you..." "You have grieved me. imperiling my standing with the Senate. by not knowing when to die." "then." "In exchange for hers." "Your life is no longer yours to bargain!" "I have but to whisper and good Batiatus will command it!" "Then tongue the words in his ear." "Thracian." "True." "I once sought death in repayment for your slights." "But I see the error of that now." "Wishing for an end too quick." "My desires have turned to blood." "until you are drained." "I told you Rome's shadow was vast. to the roar of the crowd. to bind us." "I took it from her thigh" "to preserve the scent." "Before my men stained it with their own." "She was a savage amusement." "And when the fight finally left her eyes." "I sold her to an unpleasant Syrian for half a coin." "You see the Thracian finally learns his place before me." "On his knees." "then?" "The man is of no more concern to me." "No none whatsoever!" "We've prepared a feast in your honor!" "I leave for Rome." "Rome?" "Now?" "then?" "Lucretia." "These common dishes leave my stomach unsettled." "while we wait for your husband?" "Sestian?" "but something of equal taste?" "then." "The heat and the dust." "Will it ever rain again?" "We can only pray." "Can't place foot on street in Capua without hearing someone pleading to the heavens for a sprinkle." "And the gods yet ignore us." "Perhaps we've done something to offend them." "I try to do a little something everyday." "Ilithyia." "I'd stand a bit away." "Jupiter could hurl a bolt at any moment." "He'd have to choose between targets." "And I thought I was in the presence of a proper Roman woman." "Proper is a word forged by men who would seek to enslave us with it." "Have you ever been inside a ludus?" "I've always wanted to." "But father would never allow it." "You obey his commands?" "Not all of them." "Or my husband's." "surrounded by these... animals?" "aren't they?" "Something out of a fever dream." "Isn't it a worry?" "clamoring for blood?" "!" "This ludus has been in my husband's family for generations." "And yet it stands." "What about your children?" "Do you let them play with them?" "I'm without children." "Apologies." "I just thought a woman of your age..." "Come." "We leave for Rome." " So soon?" " Can't we stay a while?" "I want to watch the Gladiators." "Another time." "Come." "Kerza!" "Pair with Spartacus." "Doctore." "Recruits!" "Attend!" "Show the Thracian what we've learned in his absence." "Form one." "Attack!" "Form two." "Attack!" "The Gods haven't pissed on me enough for one day?" "!" "but no!" "Let's add shit to the piss." "Let's pour it in his mouth!" "If word gets out that Batiatus can't control his own men..." " I warned you of their quality." " You warn me nothing!" "your will." "barely beyond my fucking gates!" " The Thracian is unpredictable." " Then school him to our standards. best unleashed in the mines." "they were all of little cost. his worth well exceeding their entire sum." "I will have return." "then from the man himself." "Even though he is unpredictable? if we can but divine the instrument of his taming. even as the guards beat him." "It may bring you some service." "upon his arrival." "Bring him to my chamber." "I'll press to discovery." "Why are you here?" "In this place." "Under my hospitality." "Do you know why?" "Because I trusted in the honor of a Roman." "You are here because of my grandfather." "He built this ludus." "He believed that no man was without worth." "That even the most vile among us could rise to honor and glory. who in turn passed them on to me. like my forefathers." "A trainer of gladiators." "I see things in men that they themselves have lost." "A small spark." "An ember." "tinder." "Until it ignites in the arena." "I burn for no cause but my own." "And what might that be?" "Money?" "You've cost me enough on that front." "then?" "Power?" "Love?" "Thracian?" "I have a wife." "And do you love her? tensing of the jaw." "What might be the name of this delicate flower?" "Sura." "Where is she?" "He took her." "When he came for me." "Legatus Glaber?" "He has her?" "He sold her to a Syrian." "Well then how do you know she still lives?" "How do you know the heart beats beneath your chest?" "I don't." "I'm just a simple Roman you are the most dangerous of animals." "The beast born of the heart." "What wou you do to hold your wife again?" "to taste her lips?" "Would you kill?" " Whoever stood between us." " How many men?" "A hundred?" "A thousand?" " I would kill them all." " Then do it in the arena!" "Fight for me and the honor of my forefathers!" "Prove yourself." "gain your freedom and that of the woman you've lost." "I did not lose her." "She was taken from me." "A man must accept his fate." "Or be destroyed by it." "Why would I place my fate in the hands of another Roman?" "Because of what they hold." "Your wife's?" "tonight." "With honor and servitude." "Call me Dominus." "And I will help to reunite you." "The choice is yours." "Cease!" "Varro has stood to a draw!" "The test is passed!" "Barca!" "Marcus!" "Positions!" "Begin!" "That's disappointing." "Not every venture ends in climax." "A fact known well to every woman." "Crixus!" "Spartacus!" "Positions! before I send you to the afterlife." "Begin!" "Fuck." "all in a measure." "Fight!" "You Thracian bitch!" "Tears!" "The rabbit is fixed to piss himself!" "Finish him!" "Thracians." "The lesson is well learned." "Cease." "You have passed the test." "Dominus." "Your life now promises meaning." "Swear it to me." "Recite the Sacramentum Gladiatorum." "I commit my flesh." "My mind." "My will." "Batiatus. or die by the sword." "In pursuit of honor in the arena." "Welcome to the brotherhood." "Subtitles:" "Our Team Will Find Your Ass In The Afterlife"