“Rise as gods in the House of Batiatus.” – Lucretia
Ashur and Dagan, gladiators of the House of Batiatus who bear the Mark of the Brotherhood without truly earning it, finally take to the sands of Capua where it all counts. And in fact, they take to the sands together, paired in a two-on-two bout wherein Dagan saves Ashur from being killed at the last second by piercing his opponent with a sword through his back.
Vettius then unveils the gladiators Caburus Murmillo and Drappes Thraex, as father and son (Titus and Quintus) from the House of Batiatus look on. The dynamic remains where the fearsome Gannicus and promising Crixus are not being allowed to compete (read = battle to the death with gladiators from other houses) in the “prime time” or primus events, which the younger Batiatus boy is displeased with.
“Our men see victory, only to be awarded exclusion,” Quintus complains, but Titus advises, “We must be humble if I am to repair our relations with Tullius and see all our men returned to the sands.” He concludes with, “Set your mind towards more reasonable pursuits,” versus getting the gladiators of their ludus into the new arena that has recently been constructed.
As Lucretia relays to Gaia, the married couple’s hopes lie in the dusty weather of Capua forcing Titus Batiatus to return to Sicilia to restore his health (where he had resided offstage, so to speak, during the early episodes of this Gods of the Arena Spartacus prequel limited series).
This is of interest to Gaia, as is attempting to procure a new husband of means. She approaches a man named Petronius, but when he recognizes Lucretia, his attentions quickly turn to the growing reputation that the House of Batiatus basically offers up its slaves for all kinds of bacchanalia and depravity. That both Quintus and Lucretia fostered this reputation only reluctantly doesn’t matter much in the end.
And Lucretia for her part is less worried about her slaves (read = she’s likely not really worried about them at all) than that her father-in-law, Titus, will get wind of what’s been going down at his family home on the late night scene. But when Quintus gets word of what happened, he’s more than willing to run interference with regard to his father if it means a chance to gain favor with Petronius.
While Titus and Quintus have ostensibly grown closer since poppa’s return, the two men clearly have different values and outlooks on life. After Gannicus is called in for an audience with father and son Batiatus, Titus coldly concludes, “Gannicus is no champion of my house.”
Ah, but he is the champion of the House of… Quintus Batiatus.
Gannicus is only interested in paying lip service to the elder lanista’s questions, but a more profound revelation comes when he reveals to Melitta that he now has romantic feelings for her after being forced to have sex with her (and she him, of course) during a previous round of House of Batiatus bacchanalia (see: “Paterfamilias”).
The huge complicating factors here – even amongst these lower rungs of Ancient Roman society – are the fact that Melitta is married to (and seemingly in love with) Oenomaus and, in fact, Gannicus and Oenomaus are close friends (and additionally Oenomaus holds a higher “rank,’ after being granted the role of Doctore, a drill sergeant of sorts for all of the gladiators of the ludus).
Another coughing fit from Titus finally allows Quintus and Lucretia – of whom I’ve written before are one of the great scheming couples in television history – to convince him to head to Neapolis to get some fresh air to restore his health. As soon as Titus leaves the room, arrangements are accelerated to set up another… well, freak fest is the best way to describe it I’m afraid, for the benefit of Petronius.
While by modern (or any reasonable) standards, the purchasing and owning of slaves is a hideous and despicable practice, it’s utterly normal by Ancient Roman standards, and Spartacus does a really nice job of exploring what those living conditions and relationships might feel like under those conditions. But it does this while still managing to be entertaining and even occasionally funny. Example: when both father and son Batiatus are displeased with the slaves on offer in Neapolis, Titus spits back to the slave trader: “You offer us piss, but call it wine.”
The bacchanalia (read = Roman orgy) back at the Party House of Batiatus is the biggest one we’ve seen yet, and even Solonius is there to behold the action (at the request of Lucretia). Things are going swimmingly… from the perspective of Lucretia and Gaia, at least, when more enemy-than-frenemy Tullius shows up to also take advantage of the Batiatus’ hospitalities, shall we say.
And speaking of things going swimmingly until… Quintus’ plot to get Titus away from the orgy on the home front has the unexpected benefit of making father feel more warmly toward his son than we’ve ever seen before. So much so, though, that pops declares that they might as well head on home – a few hours on the road and off to their own comfortable beds. Little does he know of course that his bed might possibly be occupied by a pile of naked, writhing bodies.
Sidenote that even when the plot machinations on Spartacus are straight forward or even obvious, the way they play out are always deliciously fun and satisfying.
Lucretia invites her guests to “rise as gods” for one night, which Tullius brazenly uses to challenge Gannicus to an “exhibition” of fighting skills, and further insists to use steel instead of practice swords. Oenomaus advises Gannicus that he must lose this exercise to save his own life, but nonetheless Tullius shows off a degree of skill as he slashes and jabs at the champion gladiator Gannicus around and among the fountains that adorn the Batiatus’ main gathering space.
However, the pompous Tullius takes full advantage of knowing that Gannicus can take no real offensive against him, and proceeds to slash and punch him at will. Even in a show of so much violence (even if much of it is stylized), this is a scene that can’t help but make the viewer angry in defense of a suddenly defenseless Gannicus – who, we’re reminded, is like so many others very much a slave within this world.
Tullius gleefully prepares to kill Gannicus, who is only saved when Lucretia cries out that the match is his (and Gannicus has even given his “missio,” our version of crying “Uncle”).
“God of the arena, saved by a woman,” Tullius sneers, before finally relenting.
Even after his forced defeat and near death, Gannicus presses his romantic case to Melitta, who surprisingly relents and gives in to kiss her husband’s best friend.
And speaking of pressing cases, Gaia volunteers – perhaps a little too willingly for Lucretia’s interests – to “occupy” Tullius, who hovers rather creepily around the increasingly wild orgy.
The night seems to have ended swimmingly (with Petronius even agreeing to have the Batiatus ludus represented at the new arena) and it looks like the house slaves will even get the place cleaned up before the boys get back from Neapolis, until… Tullius shows back up.
He is menacing in his interaction with Lucretia, and finally invites her to check in with Gaia, who, he claims, holds a “message” for her.
And then Lucretia finds her – she’s brutally beaten, abused, battered, dead. Life can be harrowing and short-lived, even for those not born or conquered or abducted into slavery. Or maybe there can be many different kinds of slavery, really.
Instead of a “big reveal” where we see Titus finding out that the naughty kids had a big party behind his back, we cut to him already having found out – inclusive of Gaia’s horrific murder.
His reaction is predictable in that he’s furious with both his son and daughter-in-law, and somewhat perplexing at the same time to a modern audience in that he focuses on this point: “A Roman citizen, dead in my house!”
The steely Lucretia we come to know later in Spartacus emerges here: “I claim vengeance – his life for hers. Blood and brains on the f—ing floor.”
Titus won’t have it through. No retribution. He’s as upset about Quintus meddling in the affairs of those “above his station” than the fact that a woman was raped and murdered.
And then Titus quickly concocts a cover up story that wouldn’t be out of place in a modern crime drama: Gaia is to be made out to have drunk too much wine and then slipped… “and fell to her death at the bottom of the cliff.”
Titus then goes even further, much further, demanding that Quintus either “dissolve” his marriage with Lucretia (so that he may “be put on right path”), or be cast out of his own home. The fact that Lucretia brought no dowry (or “status”) and has borne no children is also thrown in his son’s face.
More thoughts on “Beneath the Mask”:
- When the camera pans through Capua’s crowded street scenes and we hear exotic music as score, I’m reminded very much of the HBO show Rome, which was sadly canceled after two great and very promising seasons.
- We get to see some fighting in the arena involving one fighter who uses a trident and a net. I’ve always been fascinated by this… let’s call it unique style, though I’m not shocked that it seems to have fallen out of popularity at some point.
- Cool use of an old hand-drawn map to show the action moving from Capua to Neapolis.
Some stats and info about Spartacus: Gods of the Arena – “Beneath the Mask”
TV SHOW – Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 4
AIRED ON – February 11th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Starz
GENRE – Drama, Period Show, Historical Epic, Swords & Sandals
CREATED BY – Steven S. DeKnight
CAST – John Hannah, Manu Bennett, Peter Mensah, Dustin Clare, Nick E. Tarabay, Lucy Lawless, Craig Walsh-Wrightson, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Antonio Te Maioha, Stephen Lovatt