"Do you think me a fool?" "No, Dominus." "Yet you dishonor me." "An agreement reached, an oath sworn!" "You would submit to gladiatorial training." "Call me master, attend to the rules!" "In return, I would search for your precious wife!" "But your haste bested you." "Defying Doctore, maneuvering to usurp Gnaeus to face Crixus in the arena." "Your first contest!" "With Crixus!" "The champion of fucking Capua!" "I realize the mistake in it." "Mistake?" "Fuck, you had the crowd!" "You survived execution against four of Solonius' men!" "Your name was on every tongue!" "Now after your showing with Crixus, it's spoken of with contempt!" "Your little mistake makes reunion with your wife problematic." "You have knowledge of her?" "The syrian gable I sold her to was last noted heading north." "We've yet to divine their destination." "You must keep searching for her." "You shit on honorable agreements and press for fresh demands?" "Tell me, thracian, how will you pay for her release if found?" "Her transport?" "Do you shoot magic coins out of your ass?" "If so, squat and produce!" "I shall fight in the arena, my winnings..." "No one wishes to see you fight!" "The crowd's favor, like the wind, is fleeting." "Their interest in you has blown out." "There must be a way for me to fight." "Only one." "In a place where you needn't follow rules, because none exist." "The pits of the underworld." "Fight there and survive, and you will fill both our hands with coin." "And..." "You may yet feel your wife's touch again." "Thracian bitch." "Barca!" "Release!" "I think your wife's binding should remain here." "Where you're going, you might lose it." "Along with an arm." "Finish preparing him." "A word, Dominus?" "If hastened." "The walls spread rumor of the pits." "You find objection to this course?" "It is a place of pain and suffering, beasts dying without honor." "Your father would never have..." "The decision is made!" "If a beast cannot be tamed, it must be unleashed." "If the rains ever return," "I shall soak in a bath for a week." "Ahh, perfume." "Only a few drops remain, Domina." "I shall save them for Jupiter." "I will douse his altar and pray that the scent sparks a deluge." "Have you seen my dagger?" "It eludes me." "What purpose requires it?" "I've divined an additional stream of revenue." "One that will provide us a proper bath." "And this stream, it flows from what orifice?" "The pits." "The pits." "Look, Crixus remains the single draw of the ludus." "Of the new recruits, Varro is the only man of promise." "Spartacus and Kerza prove worthless in the arena." "So I fight them both tonight where they may yet fill our purse." "Quintus." "Dispatching the thracian brings me relief." "You descending into the pits does not." "It stains the name, and threatens the body." "My body will be well protected." "Barca looms over it, ready to break bone at the slightest provocation." "Inform Barca that if you return scathed," "I'll have his cock in a jar." "The message will be dutifully delivered." "Give Crixus a woman tonight." "Motivation to the others that success brings decoration in many forms." "I'll see him well satisfied." "Keep moving you fuck!" "Where do they take him?" "To the underworld, where he belongs." "Back to training!" "Tell me I don't look like I have been shit from a boar's ass like you." "I am not dying in the pits." "I'll show these fucking cunts my cock was forged in vulcan's flames." "I will fuck them all!" "Tear his ass open!" "Rip his head off!" "Get up, get up, you useless..." "Shit." "Shit!" "Ovidius approaches." "Ovidius, good to lay eyes!" "I had expected them laid earlier." "Our agreement calls for repayment of your debt plus thirty percent, to be delivered the day after the games of the Vulcanalia." "Yet I find you here, wagering coin still owed." "You'll be first to receive what is due, I assure you." "Words spewed by Janus, from both sides of his face." "You'll be repaid soon enough." "Unless you'd care to press the matter?" "At your convenience then." "Until such time, the points still accrue." "Ass eating shit." "Speak to me such again, I will accrue your fucking head." "Ixion, victor!" "You want to face me?" "May the gods fare you better, thracian." "For both our sakes." "Your neck is bare of my gift." "It is." "You did not favor it, then?" "The necklace I gave you?" "Lower your voice." "Your gift, I cannot accept it." "Pardon my mistake." "You must understand, if Domina..." "You've made your intention clear." "Does it excite you?" "To know that your very footsteps moisten my thighs?" "I would have them dripping even more." "Well draw closer and make it so." "What are you clutching?" "Show me." "A humble gift." "For a goddess." "Put it on." "Does it please you?" "Yes." "Witness the captive beasts, quenching our thirst with blood!" "Set to die in the pits..." "Payment for their offensive births!" "Let death descend anew!" "Behold, Myrmex!" "Behold, Spartacus!" "The crowd does not seem to favor him." "Why would they, after his showing in the arena?" "What weapons shall the gods bless them with?" "Or curse them with empty hands!" "Choose your fate!" "Myrmex draws sphairai!" "Spartacus draws caestus!" "Myrmex has the advantage." "Thank you for the fucking obvious." "We have but a single rule!" "Only one survives!" "Mongrel on mongrel, till Charon arrives!" "What do you make of the odds?" "Four to one against our man." "Maybe five." "Place ten denarii on Spartacus." "And pray for ample return." "Dominus." "Do something!" "Spartacus!" "Victor!" "Give him a moment's rest, then fight him again." "You're hurt." "I'm all right." "You push yourself too far." "And yet I live." "For how long?" "As long as it takes." "Then kill them all." "Do you plan to return to the pits?" "They fill our hands with coin..." "With yet more to be mined." "And what when the shaft caves in on you?" "What then?" "You know the law, without an heir" "I'd be forced to marry another." "Is that what you want?" "Someone else's hands upon me?" "I want everything!" "Yet can afford nothing." "My concerns only with you, Quintus." "If you're lost, my reason for breath would surely follow." "I remain firmly rooted, banish it from thought." "When Spartacus ends, so does my time in the pits." "Till then, his victories swell our purse." "Which you deflate with new purchases." "This simple thing?" "Its rediscovery today pleased me." "It was my mother's, lost amongst her things." "A woman of modest taste, sorely missed." "Perhaps we should return the emerald necklace we bought from Ramel." "Well, it was excessive, and if the coin will help speed you from the pits I'd be..." "Keep them both." "I will not have my wife return jewelry." "I should wash, I smell of death." "No, you smell like a man." "You live." "I told you he would." "What of Kerza?" "Fallen, never to rise whole." "This is where gladiators sleep." "Not dogs." "Hold your tongue." "He stays, he wakes beside Kerza in the afterlife." "Spartacus..." "Pay no mind to those inbred fucks." "They speak the truth." "I am no longer a gladiator." "You are still a man." "Am I?" "One deserving respect." "Though I'll grant the pits could force" "Jupiter himself to doubt his cock." "What do you know of the pits?" "Too much." "I wagered coin there at a time." "You were of the crowd?" "Howling for blood?" "Pride does not follow the statement." "These fights, Spartacus, they're..." "They're different from the arena." "I've seen them twist the mind, turning men into beasts..." "Their senses flown." "Sleep, then." "And dream of better days." "Would you have me bake in the sun or offer a price?" "Fourteen denarii." "Fourteen?" "That's half of what I paid not days ago." "Used gems fail to command full value." "Oh." "Oh, in the business of jewelry, perhaps." "A beautiful piece." "Allow me to buy from you." "At full price." "You have a woman in mind who might favor it, Solonius?" "Indeed." "She stands before me." "A vision." "Take it, and keep your emeralds." "The thought of them against your skin warms mine." "Perhaps you mistake the heat of the sun." "I'll have your offer, Ramel." "Pride." "Always part of your considerable attraction." "A trait which yet endears me to my husband." "How is he fairing these days?" "Beloved Ovidius mentioned something about fighting his men in the pits." "Oh, it's a temporary measure." "Oh, to be sure." "With honor." "Fourteen denarii." "May the gods shrivel your cock." "Study the flaws of your opponent." "Strike with your mind as well as your sword." "Fail to use your wits in the arena..." "And risk tumbling after Spartacus into the pits." "The man is no base humor to be laughed at." "He is a tale of caution." "Ponder on that while you fill your bellies." "Eat!" "A little porridge, and some water." "It's just a sip, but, you know, the drought..." "Pietros!" "Get away from him!" "Thank you." "Your boy fancy the thracian, does he?" "My cock keeps him well filled." "The Beast of Carthage!" "I always wondered how you acquired the name." "If you have words of purpose, speak them." "I was merely curious, Crixus." "The gift I procured for you, did it satisfy its intent?" "Gift?" "An opal necklace, of the finest..." "Your tongue rattles too freely in your mouth!" "Secure it, or it will join that useless leg of yours." "Apologies." "The question was born of goodwill," "I assure you." "Well you can stick your good will in your ass." "What necklace does the shit speak of?" "It's nothing, best forgotten." "You mad fuck." "A trinket for Lucretia's pet, wasn't it?" "Rest your mind." "I am of no interest to Naevia." "Nor her to you, if you value your cock attached to your balls." "Barca!" "See to Spartacus." "I want him ready to fight before the sun falls." "Yes, Dominus!" "Rise, dog." "More death awaits." "Fuck!" "He's finished." "That's how you send a dog to the afterlife!" "Spartacus, victor!" "The odds soar in Spartacus' favor." "They believe he's unbeatable." "A dead man whose soul refuses to leave its body." "Spartacus has no soul." "It resides in the heart of another." "Prepare yourself, you fight Mytilus next." "Crixus, you are summoned." "Thank you." "Wait." "Domina will grow impatient." "You know the urgency of her desires." "She did not summon you." "Then why am I here?" "The necklace, you purchased it for me?" "As I've said." "Then why does it grace the neck of Domina?" "The mind of a woman!" "You deflect a gesture only to question where it lands." "Your words were I cannot accept this." "Yes, my words." "Cut off before completion." "Well then complete." "That it is impossible for me to keep it, regardless of desire." "There is nothing in my possession that was not given to me by Domina." "Are you so thick that this fact was ignored?" "Did you think she would not notice?" "I misunderstood your meaning in returning it." "Of course you misunderstood!" "You have no mind outside the arena!" "You think only with your sword and your shield, you stupid, lumbering..." "You are a fool." "Guard!" "Only one survives!" "Mongrel." "Spartacus!" "Victor!" "How much longer?" "How much blood until we're free?" "Soon." "I promise you." "Just the thought of holding you..." "Feeling you against me..." "It's the only thing that keeps my heart beating." "You look like shit." "I've endured worse." "What man could, and still count himself of this world?" "This world." "All it holds is suffering." "It will end one day." "And we will be reunited." "As gladiators?" "A welcomed thought." "One that keeps me from the grasp of the afterlife." "Your condition speaks to its encroachment." "Mandrake root, acquired from Ashur." "Chewed to numb the pain." "Take it." "I can't." "I need what remains of my senses to save you." "Save me from what?" "Spartacus?" "Your offer is well received." "Even in the turning away of it." "Spartacus handsomely returns." "Will the sum balance our debts?" "The scales are well nudged..." "But balanced?" "No." "Pay out the most egregious." "But leave Ovidius with empty fucking hands." "Ovidius?" "The magistrate's cousin?" "You should be in bed, the hour is late." "And our debts follow." "If money is owed to Ovidius..." "Then it will be paid, in due course." "The man offered me insult and I won't reward it with it swift coin." "Is that wise?" "If he complains to the magistrate, I worry..." "I am the paterfamilias, the worry is mine alone!" "Is that how you woke this morning?" "Alone?" "Was I not by your side?" "Lucretia..." "How did you come to possess those coins?" "Lucretia!" "Lucretia..." "From Ramel, if you must kn, in exchange for the emerald necklace." "I commanded you to do no such thing!" "Commanded?" "You mistake me for a slave." "You know my intentions better." "Lucretia, the emeralds..." "They looked lovely on you." "To see them returned, a casualty of ill finances..." "The fault was mine, in pressing the purchase in the first place." "Your worries are my worries Quintus." "You are never alone." "A notion to warm the heart." "The emerald necklace, what did it bring?" "Fourteen denarii." "Fourteen?" "Days past it commanded twice that!" "Women and business, and these are the results!" "An offer for the full price was made by Solonius, who happened by." "Better business had I accepted?" "You struck the wiser bargain." "Solonius knows of your activities in the pits." "The whole city does by now." "Let their tongues wag." "The winnings will return this ludus to solvency." "Then we'll have at Solonius and all his shit eaters." "How long can the thracian last?" "A handful of nights, if that." "Even the walking dead eventually return to the grave." "Send him back to the pits!" "He's not a fucking gladiator!" "Spartacus!" "Here take it, Spartacus." "You have fought well, Spartacus." "The gods reward you." "The promise is kept." "Sura..." "I will always be with you..." "Even in death." "The rains are coming." "Save me." "Before they wash everything away." "Sura..." "No..." "No!" "Not so much fight in him now, is there?" "He saves his fury for the pits." "A place you wouldn't last a fucking breath." "Spartacus." "You've fought well." "The gods may yet reward you." "The gods." "They came to me last night." "In a dream." "What did they show you?" "The truth." "Your profit from my blood ends tonight." "Refuse to fight, and I will cease my attempts to find your wife." "I have to save her." "Before the rains come." "Give way to your meaning, you mad fuck!" "The odds remain high in my favor?" "Still." "Then bet everything you have against me." "You would die in the pits?" "Willingly, to see my fortune rise?" "Yes, if you will hold to wrest my wife from the syrian with a piece of it." "What's to keep me to this bargain once your blood is spilled?" "Honor." "And the promise of vengeance from the afterlife if you betray it." "The deal is struck." "Make it appear a sincere fight." "Finish preparing him." "Behold..." "Spartacus!" "Behold, Ixion!" "The wager is placed?" "The sum has been spread among the brokers to ease suspicion." "What weapons shall the gods bless them with?" "Or curse them with empty hands?" "Choose your fate!" "Ixion draws bipennis!" "Spartacus draws sica!" "We have but a single rule!" "Only one survives!" "Mongrel on mongrel, till Charon arrives!" "Not yet, not yet..." "No!" "My protector, and here I stand bloodied!" "I did not see there was another." "You must see all when my life is in the balance!" "Ring your crown with eyes, or have the two you possess ripped from your fucking skull!" "Their flesh carries a brand, Dominus." "Of what origin?" "Unfamiliar, but certainly the mark of a slave." "Slaves?" "They send common fucking slaves to kill Batiatus!" "Common fucking slaves?" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Discover their master." "I wish to have words with him." "Juno's lips," "Juno's heart," "Juno's belly." "The kalends are upon us." "The first day of the new month." "Prepare a sacrifice." "Perhaps the gods will finally grace us with a child in return..." "Quintus!" "Aye, it's nothing, a minor annoyance." "Minor?" "Why do you speak of children, yet press to make me a widow?" "It will take more than a scratch to wrest me from your side." "Barely more, sit." "And tell me who must die in response." "The agents have already been dispatched to the underworld." "The hand behind them yet to be revealed." "I warned you of the dangers of the pits." "I had thought to erase all our debts through them after tonight." "Spartacus offered terms to see it so." "What terms?" "His willing death to wager upon." "Locating his wife the crux of the bargain." "The thracian is dead?" "No, he yet lives." "And the wager is lost." "How much?" "A substantial sum." "We don't have it!" "That thracian..." "He brings nothing but shame on our house!" "Were it not for him, you would be a widow." "He saved my life in the pits this night." "A place you would never have been if it weren't for him." "He is cursed, he is cursed by the gods." "I would see his life ended, as it should have been when he stepped into the arena, doomed for execution." "Every day that the thracian yet lives," "I fear that his curse becomes our own." "Spartacus." "Batiatus summons you." "My wife thinks you are cursed by the gods." "I'm inclined to agree." "You'll find no argument." "The rational course would be to end your miserable life before it further infects mine." "A promise was made, you would find Sura." "If you died in the pits." "Yet here you stand, alive." "As do you." "Promise is kept." "I will continue the search for her." "You saved my life." "Gods or not, a debt demands repayment." "He's to rejoin the gladiators as soon as he is able."