“I would sacrifice a thousand if I had but had them.” – Gannicus
One of the many great things about this six-episode Spartacus prequel series is that the momentum builds quickly and then trucks along like an Ancient Roman chariot at full speed.
The House of Batiatus is mourning – at least sort of – over the death of its patriarch and head lanista, Titus. The fact that Titus has been murdered – and Melitta too, a slave beloved by two gladiators within the same walls – is very clear. That son Quintus (who was quite close to murdering his own father by his own hands recently) assumes that the deadly deed was perpetrated by Tullius is something that his wife, the murderer in fact*, is more than okay with.
* Melitta was accidental collateral damage in Lucretia’s plot to poison Titus with honeyed wine.
While Tullius, horrific murderer and general Not Good Dude in his own right, doesn’t bother showing up to the funeral of his deceased friend (of sorts), his henchman Vettius does show up in his stead. When Vettius demands that Quintus make good on his father’s deal to sell Gannicus in exchange for allowing the House of Batiatus entre into the opening games of the new arena, Quintus angrily refuses.
“Turn desire towards piss and s—, and see yourselves well satisfied,” he says, in one of the most colorful expressions of “no” we’ve ever seen on television.
Speaking of secrets kept buried (literally, as it were), Oenomaus is none the wiser at that point that Gannicus and Melitta were having an affair, nor that Melitta’s death occurred literally in the middle of the couple making love. Oenomaus, the most honorable of people within this world of gladiators, slaves, and Roman citizens, takes the time to comfort Gannicus in his grief, telling him that Melitta loved him as a brother.
During the funeral scene, set in the ludus where Batiatus’ gladiators train, Quintus delivers a speech that becomes a turn-the-page moment: Gannicus will not be sold, and Titus’ plan to sell the gladiators who lost the competition that Titus had devised will not be sent off to the salt mines. During this speech, Dagan – one eye sown closed but otherwise looking hale and menacing – returns to the gladiators and stares down his former friend and fellow speaker of Aramaic, Ashur.
Gannicus seeks an audience with Quintus, who assumes that his former champion (technically, Crixus bested him during Titus’ little competition, even if Gannicus allowed him to win) wants to petition him to not get sold to Tullius. Instead, vengeance is on Gannicus’ mind, and he wishes to be sold off that he might kill Tullius. Quintus correctly gauges that his own father isn’t the source of his gladiator’s rage, and asks him why he would sacrifice his own life over the murder of Melitta.
“I would sacrifice a thousand if I had but had them,” Gannicus replies.
Gannicus, once carefree and unserious (except for the deadly business of gladiatorial combat) is now as serious can be.
Solonius is the first one to express suspicion about the true murderer, but he wrongly muses that it could have possibly been by Vettitus’ design instead of Tullius’. Further, Solonius’ motive – as Quintus once again sniffs out – is that his friend’s leanings are toward caution instead of instigating a war with Tullius (which of course could impact his own ludus business). Herein we get a fun little murder mystery at play – though we the audience already know what happened, and why – amidst the other dealings near the end of this limited series.
Naevia gets a “promotion,” if it can be called such, to be Lucretia’s “body slave” in the wake of Melitta’s death. “I expect equal loyalty from you now,” Lucretia tells her.
After Quintus and Solonius confer about the best way to proceed, it seems they are cooking up something rather intriguing: Solonius informs a furious Tullius that Gannicus is no longer for sale: “Batiatus sent me to secure sale to the Syrian trader Galeagra. By morning Gannicus will be on a ship sailing towards points unknown.” And then he adds, “Forever beyond your reach,” for good measure.
Just as you’re starting to wonder why Solonius would want to rile up someone as volatile as Tullius – he’s the rough equivalent to Tuco from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul within this world, I’d say – he mentions that there’s still time as the deal with the Syrian is going down on the edge of time.
The plot thickens, as they say.
And indeed, when Tullius, Vettius, and a small group of thugs move in to attempt to grab Gannicus (and take out Quintus), the Batiatus son is ready with a much larger group who have the drop on his enemies. It’s been left somewhat unclear throughout Spartacus: Gods of the Arena exactly where Solonius’ loyalties lie, but here he comes through for his friend and fellow lanista.
“You played your part to f—ing perfection!” Batiatus exults after his side is victorious, with both Vettius and Tullius captured and bound.
Meanwhile, back at the Batiatus residence, Lucretia commands a… command performance from Crixus in the aim of getting pregnant. She also orders Crixus to groom his hair and beard, which sets up the version of Crixus we meet in the Spartacus series proper.
Quintus’ moment of ultimate triumph and vengeance comes when he tells a bloodied and captive Tullius that Vettius will help corroborate the tale that Tullius “headed out of town,” never to be heard from again. But did Tullius sow the seeds of doubt just before he was slashed apart by Quintus, Oenomaus, and Gannicus when he asks why he would strike down a good Roman who “knew his place”?
It’s finally time for the opening games at the much larger new arena, and it’s quite a spectacle compared to the old dump. And, what’s more, both Quintus and Lucretia are in the modern equivalent of a luxury suite or owner’s box – stemming from Vettius’ now pliant aid in relaying that this is Tullius’ (dying) wish from “afar.” “Pressing business in Antioch,” indeed.
And if that’s not enough, Vettius announces that he is retiring from the life of a lanista, “in favor of station more befitting a man of breeding.” When Quintus “graciously” offers to purchase his ludus in a joint offering with Solonius, we find out that Solonius had already taken full purchase himself. Short version: Solonius looked out for Solonius.
When Quintus angrily confronts his friend, the cards are laid on the table: “It has taken years and the price of blood, but I at last see you for what you are… A man that holds no one in esteem beyond himself.” So… maybe not friends anymore.
And a great example of Quintus pressing every opportunity for more wealth and power with zeal and greed. Poppa Titus may have been right about a thing or two before he was… oh yes, that’s right, murdered by his daughter-in-law.
In the matches before the primus, it’s clear that the new arena only accentuates the Ancient Roman’s bloodlust at the sport of humans battling each other to the death – which is fronted, not coincidentally, by a round of public executions (Diona, an escaped slave from the House of Batiatus – is among them).
Fittingly, the gladiators facing off in the early rounds are between those now controlled by Quintus and Solonius. The characters we’ve come to know – including Ashur, Gnaeus, and Gannicus (who pierces two opponents, Tasgetius and Synetos, at the same time) are victorious whereas a few unnamed characters of the Batiatus ludus fall.
And so it is that the surviving gladiators are to face off in the primus (read = prime time) event. Side note here that it’s wild from a modern standpoint that we’ve seen Quintus get what he’s dreamed of – having his gladiators compete at the opening games of the new arena – but with an assured outcome that at least some of his prized fighters are going to get slaughtered. I guess as a lanista – and a Roman – you price that in as the cost of doing business. A grisly business.
Finally, it’s nighttime and time for the primus, which has played into so much of what has gone down on Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. Most of the surviving gladiators we’ve come to know enter the arena, save Barca, who though willing is held back by Oenomaus due to injury. Even so, visually we can see that Solonius has roughly twice as many surviving gladiators left.
A ring of fire is lit up around all of the gladiators in the arena, forming an Ancient Times version of a (hot) steel cage match. From an entertainment standpoint from the vantage point of the gladiatorial games organizers, it seems like the ring of fire – while a cool low tech “special effect” – would not be as entertaining as having the very best fighters stand off one-one-one, but then again, this was an era before television and the Internet and the UFC, so I suppose they had to get their kicks somehow.
In the early part of the melee, Batiatus’ men generally have the best of those of Solonius, with Gnaeus’ newfound ability with the (wacky) trident and net serving him well (of course, there has to be a bit where the net sets on fire just as its draping over a screaming opponent). And meanwhile the snaky Ashur gets his final vengeance on his friend-turned-enemy Dagan in the midst of the chaos, driving a sword all the way through his stomach.
As the “active” gladiators dwindled in number (many dead, but with those tossed outside the ring of fire considered “out” for competition purposes), Ashur got some of his medicine as a now weirdly competitive and ambitious Crixus slashed him the leg and tossed him outside the ring so he could get his own shot not at the final, hulking beast of a Solonius gladiator, but at Gannicus.
That too is a short-lived gambit as Crixus is quickly dispatched of outside the ring himself – a nifty if somewhat obvious device used by the Spartacus writers to “save” the lives of characters they want to live (and of course we know that Crixus becomes a central figure throughout the rest of the Spartacus series).
So, it comes down to Gannicus and some huge dude on Team Solonius who it would have been nice to have some connection with as an audience. Their mano-a-mano is somewhat straightforward in the “it seems like Gannicus is going to totally lose until the last second” way, until finally we have Gannicus as the Champion of Capua, with the rapid (and drunken and half-naked) crowd chanting his name.
“The House of Batiatus stands f—ing triumphant!” Batiatus exclaims in a way that you know things are going just a little too well for him, which Solonius seizes upon to “helpfully” suggest that now would be the perfect time to grant the new champion his freedom. “I would have granted the same had my man survived,” he adds.
Quintus has no choice to acquiesce, and even after offering him money and flexibility to continue to fight for the House of Batiatus, Gannicus refuses and is set on leaving. Which, I mean, can you blame him?
“Crixus performed well in the games,” Lucretia says, trying to soothe her husband (and bolster the standing of the newly well-groomed Gaul). “Let us hope that he may bring us honor and good fortune.”
“Melitta would have been proud,” Oenomaus tells Gannicus as they say farewell as friends. “She loved you above all others,” Gannicus responds, not quite a lie that helps hold dark secrets in place that need not be disturbed ever again.
And so, the table is set with the end of Gods of the Arena for a new gladiator, and a new champion, to come to the House of Batiatus.
And change everything.
Some stats and info about Spartacus: Gods of the Arena – “The Bitter End”
TV SHOW – Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 6
AIRED ON – February 25th, 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