"We march at nightfall and, by dawn's light, see an end to Spartacus." " The signal." " Glaber." "Again!" "Fall back!" "Into the tunnel!" "Move!" "Move!" "The mountain pass!" "Hurry!" "We'll be trapped." "There's no choice." "We must move!" "You will let them go free?" "No." "We shall kill them all." "The wood for fire is almost gone." "Our food quickly follows." "We have stripped the mountain of what little it had ever since Glaber forced us upon it." "A thing that should not have happened." "You will find a way to see us from this." "You always do." "As you always find words to pull me from darkest thoughts." "A talent I pray your next woman holds." "Spartacus!" "Nemetes and a clutch of fools have taken afoot." "Towards what purpose?" "They attempt to breach the Romans at the foot of the path." "Give word next time." "Be mistaken as enemy." "Glaber summons you." "We only just finished dining on the most succulent lamb." "There may yet be few scraps left." "You overstep, slave." "I but place foot where our praetor commands." "If you do not care where it falls, you are free to take issue." "I do not know your tongue nor have cause to learn it." "Pull back!" "Go!" "Move!" "Spartacus!" "Mira!" "Advance!" "Hup!" "We must go!" "Who is it?" " Mira." " Mira!" "We must seal her wound." "Nasir!" "Heat your sword in the fire!" "Quickly!" "Spartacus." "Was it worth it?" "Was it worth her life to make attempt to save your own?" "!" "Stay your fucking ground." "She is gone from this world 'cause of you!" "You were the mad fuck that led us to our deaths!" "At least she claimed hers as a warrior, not starving and robbed of strength, as the rest of us are doomed." "You are right." "We will all perish... if we do not stand together." "It will make no fucking difference." "Seize tongue, and open fucking ears." "The cliffs of Vesuvius are impassable." "The southern path holds the only promise of making purchase." "We hold the higher ground and, with it, advantage over superior numbers." "Only if Glaber is foolish enough to attack before we are too weak from hunger to fight." "A man is never too weak or too wounded to fight... if the cause is greater than his own life." "Glaber and his army will come." "And when they do..." "Vesuvius will be forever stained with the blood of vengeance." "He is all that was captured?" "Several more lay dead." "A fortunate thing you are not among them." "Had the Egyptian and I not been present," "I fear position would have been overrun." "The gods favor us then... and turn from those who would do us harm." "Tell me of Spartacus and his thoughts toward coming storm." "Can he form proper words?" "He has yet to break them." "A most unpleasant tongue." "Conditions must be dire to abandon the higher ground and attempt at such foolish act." "One that did not appear commanded by Spartacus." "You laid eyes upon the man?" "Briefly, as he and his shits gave opportunities for others to retreat." "How did he appear?" "Deadly." "Yet there was a look about eye, one found reflected in wild beast when pressed to corner." "Such an animal never greets the afterlife absent desperate blood." "Vesuvius is not Ceres' horn, offering endless bounty." "There cannot be much in way of nourishment left upon barren peak." "We shall stay our hand yet a while longer." "And when hunger and despair are the only taste upon his lips," "Spartacus shall kneel before Rome for the final time." "We should not be upon road." "Let us turn back." "No." "I will not sit idle in Capua as weeks threaten unwelcome months." "All will soon come to an end." "I would see the day hastened and my child born in a city befitting the heir of a praetor." "The glorious occasion is almost upon us." "To risk the journey to Rome..." "There is yet time if my husband is moved to bring siege against Spartacus to early conclusion." "The reason we are for Vesuvius." "A fraction of it." "The whole of the truth encompassing greater need." "Has heart returned so fiercely in such regard?" "Gaius and I share but one now, his absence leaving chest but half filled." "To find yourself in the arms of a husband thought lost... that's a blessing beyond measure." "A happiness I would share with treasured friend." "You will come with me to Rome." "I will entreat Gaius towards dowry in honor of your service... and you shall again find comfort in title of wife." "Your husband would not have me follow with you." "You have been invaluable to his cause." "He believes another more so." "I have been promised to Ashur." "Ashur?" "My hand and house in payment for blood spilled in your husband's name." "Why have you not told me this?" "I would not have such thoughts weigh mind and body with your day so close at hand." "I will seize opportunity at Vesuvius and attempt to rid myself of burden." "Reveal intentions... and see them embraced." "We sit here waiting to die, and he tends to fucking weeds." "He tends to his heart, as any man should." "There is not enough wood to build a pyre." "The ground is too hard to lay her beneath it." "He can only grieve and bind her in his cloak." "Blessing then... that we shall all be dead before she turns overly ripe." "Nemetes and his kind grow ever more restless." "I fear they're not alone." "I cannot lay blame." "Yet our only chance of survival is to hold fast to sound tactic." "Like attacking the arena with a handful of men?" "I once thought you reckless fool." "Now I see bold strategy is the only reason you are not already dead." "I have been but fortunate to have seized opportunity the Romans would consider mad." "There stand none left to us now, absent wings to fly from cliff." "The day comes when we must face Glaber and his army in open battle." "If I am to die, at least I shall die among brothers." "We share a bond forged not upon the sands, but upon grander stage of battle, and when it ends, as all conflict must," "I will gain Batiatus' ludus and villa as reward for loyal service." "It will become the noble House of Ashur, where I shall train the mightiest gladiators in all the Republic." "I would count you among my first recruits." "You will become gods of the arena, showered in wine and women." "I ask but for your oath," " pledging..." " Open the gate!" "Wait here... and see weighted heart lifted." "There's been no further movement?" "We have taught Spartacus the futility of attempting breach." "You cannot school rabid dog not to bare teeth." "Ilithyia." "You should not have come." "Yes, I know the rules." "Women are forbidden in the encampment." "Oh." "My concern is only for you and the life you carry." "I would not have you travel in such condition." "I have never felt stronger and would travel a greater distance still." "You wish to return to Rome." "With my husband beside me." "The rebels become desperate." "In a few more weeks, when starvation..." "A few more weeks, and your heir will be born in a house tainted with blood and shit." "End Spartacus' life, and let us return home to ours." "He holds the higher ground." "It cannot be taken yet without severe loss of men." "Yet... it can be taken?" "Await me in Capua... and prepare to celebrate the birth of our child in the arms of mother Rome." "You truly stand a titan, threatening the very heavens." "Go, and know that you are in my thoughts." "I would linger but a moment longer." "What is this?" "A warning from the gods." "How did this come to you?" "I uncovered it while cleansing trace of Seppia, secreted among her things." "My slave Amana recalls seeing it pressed into Seppia's hands by the Syrian toad." "That is how she knew her brother's true fate and why she moved against you." "But it holds no sense." "Ashur's fortunes are tethered to my own." "He is a serpent, forever seeking the heat of power and position." "When yours was threatened by Varinius, is it a wonder he sought to slither towards warmer clime?" "A venomous creature to the last." "One no longer holding worth." "He is not alone in such regard." "Serpent and oracle have both served purpose." "You speak of Lucretia?" "I speak of a woman who knows secrets I would not have revealed." "You would ask me to do such a thing?" "I would put unfortunate past behind us... and seize glorious future." "You are my husband... and I, dutiful wife." "I have missed your delicate scent... among other offerings of more personal nature." "It lifts spirits to find you close again." "I stay but a moment." "A thing of low importance when set against the promise of a lifetime held in loving embrace." "Do not shed tear when we part." "Know that campaign soon draws to inevitable close... and Ashur to deserving reward." "I long to greet the day." "Syrian." "Do you think me the fool?" "Praetor?" "I do not understand." "Do you deny taking it?" "I take many things from the fallen." "I thought I had your blessing to do so." "And did you also seek Seppia's blessing... before she made attempt on my life?" "Seppia?" "I've never broken words with the girl." "I have had my fill of serpent's tongue." "Wait!" "Wait." "I do not know what you have been told, but I fear you have made a grave error." "No, I fear you have made the error in attempting to maneuver beyond your station." "Unfortunate end to profitable association." "Perhaps it best my men and I quietly take leave, absent further disagreement." "Oh, I would make better offer." "Land and a thousand denarii to each of you, in return for faithful service." "You fucking cunts." "Hold." "You once swore to me," ""Your will, my hands."" "An oath that has not wavered." "I swear it to you, Praetor." "I would test such vaunted words and the depths of your loyalty." "Spartacus!" "There's movement upon the path." "Take position." "Ashur." "I come bearing a message from Glaber." "Speak it." "He has grown weary of this conflict and would return home to see his child born in Rome." "A thing of no interest." "Perhaps the lives of your people hold more." "He offers terms of surrender." "Lay down your arms, you'll be allowed to live." "As slaves?" "Beneath the heel of the Republic?" "Yes, as slaves." "Yet you will have your lives!" "Refuse, and Glaber has sworn torturous death upon the cross for all that survive the taking of the mountain." "And what of Spartacus' life?" "The cost of the bargain." "I for one do not wish to die this day... yet if it is to be fucking so," "I shall do it as a free man!" "Fuck the Romans!" "No surrender!" "Syrian cunt!" "You have your answer." "Very well." "I shall deliver it to waiting ears." "I would not have us part so quickly." "Glaber awaits." "I must return with a reply." "Your head would serve equal purpose." "Spartacus?" "I find no fault with his reasoning." "The mighty Crixus, forever intoning of the honor of a gladiator." "Where stands such now in the cutting down of a defenseless man?" "Give him a sword." "You once dreamt of honor upon the sand." "Make this your final arena." "You stand a champion... and I gravely wounded." "There is yet no honor in such contest." "To shit with honor." "No!" "I will not have you soil name to gain vengeance in mine." "Naevia." "I shall take it myself." "No one has been more wronged by Ashur... and no one has greater claim on his fucking life." "I will see him fall... and with him, memories that haunt darkest nights." "See it done." "Are you certain of this?" "I am far removed." "Very well." "If Ashur must die today, at least he will see Crixus' bitch to the afterlife before him." "Take it off!" "Rip his head off!" "Delicate flower has grown thorns." "Get that cunt!" "Sharpened by the Undefeated Gaul." "I fear it will not help." "Yeah!" "She fades, as all beautiful things do." "Naevia!" "No!" "He is mine." "Stay back!" "I will have his life for what he did to me." "Or die in attempt!" "Yeah!" "Come on!" "Do you recall this, my body pressed against yours?" "You trembling helpless, as you tremble now?" "I am far from helpless." "You think this makes difference?" "My death... will not heal the scars you bear." "Nor erase memory of my cock inside of her... or all those that followed." "No... it will not." "But it is a fucking start." "You were right." "It is no easy task... to cleave a man's head from his shoulders in a single blow." "Then I will teach you." "Donar!" "Lydon!" "See Ashur's head upon the path as reply to Glaber." "You send a clear one." "It will be nail and cross for those who live." "Glaber would have seen us all to such fate, regardless of answer carried." "So we are dead either way." "Pity there are not enough vines for all our corpses." "Close fucking mouth." "No." "Nemetes is right." "There are not enough vines for us all." "But perhaps there's enough for a few." "Your words carry no meaning." "They carry the weight of the world, braced by your own advice." "Glaber expects us to defend the higher ground, as any reasonable leader would." "Yet perhaps there is another course, a bold one, that the Romans will never see coming." "And what madness does the Bringer of Rain contemplate this time?" "That we shall sprout wings and do the impossible." "Head off." "Praetor." "They have given reply." "Spartacus makes expected choice." "Tell the men to eat well and gather sleep." "Dawn's first light, we take Vesuvius and the lives of all those who stand in defiance of Rome." "Soon we shall leave this place, never to return." "What your friendship brings me... there are no words to express gratitude." "You have returned the favor many times over." "The debt I owe far exceeds modest repayment." "You drew me from the depths of madness." "You gave me strength and purpose to live beyond the tragedy which betided this house." "Such things are of the past." "Let them give you no further pain." "I have tried to put it from me." "The memory of all I have lost, it fills the very air, choking each breath with the sting of loss... and binding my heart in chains." "You stand upon precipice of release." "Because of you." "You're my savior, Ilithyia." "And you mine." "You have given me hope of a life I thought denied me when my husband fell." "Know that such a gift shall be eternally treasured." "The child." "It comes too soon." "This is a sign from the gods." "It must be born within these walls." "Come." "Let us see their will be done." "We have used every vine we could gather, enough for four men." "Agron, Crixus, Gannicus," "I would have you by my side." "Crixus." "We will be reunited soon in this life or the next." "I know fear wells within your breast, and it does so with great cause." "The Romans hold numbers far outweighing our own, yet they have revealed time and again fatal flaw, that they believe the Roman way is the only one... just as they believe that there is only one way to leave this mountain." "We shall teach them that we forge our own paths and nothing in this world is impossible when heart and mind are put towards it." "Brace rope." "Let us begin a lesson forever remembered." "The sound will mask descent." "The gods bless us with good fortune." "Free men create their own." "We are all gods this night, and the Romans shall feel our wrath." "Fuck." "If we but fought as an army, like the Romans." "They hold only advantage of number." "One we shall see evened." "Prepare yourselves." "When signal comes, death shall quickly follow." "We must move quickly, before deed is discovered." "The hour is late." "Sleep will not come." "All I see when eyes close, it is the end of Spartacus... and with him, reason for being so long absent from Rome and more important matters." "You will be victorious where Varinius failed... a great advantage within the Senate." "To be used towards elevation." "One day I shall rise above all others... the light of accomplishment giving warmth to loving wife and cherished heir." "Raise alarm." " Praetor!" " Gather the men to formation!" "Awake the men!" "Fire!" "The signal!" "Where the fuck is the medicus?" "!" "He had gone to town, the child not expected for weeks." "I have sent the guards to fetch him." "Something is wrong." "It claws at me, not wanting to leave womb to be born in this place." "I will find something to ease the pain." "Do not leave me." "Know that I will return, and together we will see this blessing into the world." "Again!" "I need help over here!" "Relocate ammunition." "Advance on rear position!" "Kill anyone who stands in your path!" "Halt!" "A glorious death." "Kill them!" "I thought I heard a cry." "What have you done?" "What was always intended, to see curse upon this house lifted." "Shh." "There." "No one left to come between us." "Fall back." " Fall back!" " Fall back!" "Press advantage, and see victory ours!" "Stop." "Please." "We are friends, are we not?" "The very best." "Then why would you do this?" "Why would you take my life and that of my child?" "Your child?" "You are but a vessel carrying a gift from the gods to the House of Batiatus." "Now then... let us see it unwrapped." "I owe you pain." "Oenomaus!" "Oenomaus." "I go to my wife's arms." "We shall greet you in the afterlife, my brother." "Secure the perimeter!" "Signal all men to defend this position" "Mark your stations!" "Romans, ready!" "Lucretia!" "Hush now, little one." "You are safe now." "You are loved and shall be forever." "Please." "Quintus always wanted a son." "Because of you... we shall have one." "No." "I will not die at the hands of a fucking slave." "I am a free man." "The Roman finally learns his place before us... on his knees." "You've won nothing." "Rome will send legions in my wake, and one day soon you shall fall to deserved end." "Perhaps." "Yet it is not this day." "Let Rome send their legions." "We will face them and see all follow Glaber in death." "Yeah!" "Now we will become an army." " Yeah!" " Yeah!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!" "Spartacus!"