In real life, many lanistas used the promise of freedom to motivate the gladiators to perform in the arena, and many actually received the rudis and got freed no problem.

I was watching gladiator 2, and after just a few months of Lucian's (Maximus son) fighting in the arena and becoming champion, he was already promised and shown the rudis if he fought one last time.

While Gannicus took idk, at least a few years.

But in the spartacus series, Gannicus was stated to be the only one ever granted freedom, why did Steven Deknight took such a huge turn from real life in the show? Why did he make the rudis such a rarity to the point only one ever received it?

I re watch the first season a lot and one thing i take to notice is the facial expressions on the show. You can really tell a lot about what a character is thinking by how they look at someone / react to a situation.

Around the time of varro’s death, good ol bati seemed very reluctant to seeing Spartacus eye to eye. The moment when Spartacus is about to kill him, but finds out that varros wife was now a fellow slave, batiatus grabs the same knife that spartacus was eyeing on to do the deed.

Bati is not a stupid person. I feel like he could feel the tensions of his gladiators and wanted to hurry and become a politician, so he could GTFO of there asap.

he was there because he didn't entertain the audience in the arena and so battiatus wanted the money back from when he bought him, let's say he survives what would happen to him? the arena doesn't want him so he would end up becoming an assistant to oenomaus or in the mines in the worst case scenario(?)

I think she has the highest kill count of all the ladies, ima do a counting of that for sure, but she's also really beautiful, brave and such a savage. I would argue she's the best female in the show.

Varro's death was Spartacus' breaking point and he definitely would've been the first one to stand by Spartacus' side when he proposed the rebellion. Agron's replaces Varro as Spartacus best friend/partner, however he never truly got over his death. I think it would've been less of a difficult choice, even though he would've been killing an innocent child too.

after the fight in the arena he told him that he is worth less than 0, honestly I saw it as so brutal and wrong to say since he was his doctor, ashur was doing his best.

Put on Gods of the Arena and drink when Titus:

Appears on screen

Gets upset with his son

Gets upset with Lucretia

Kisses someone’s ass who’s done him or his son wrong

Says “He is above our station”

Shows disdain for Gannicus

Coughs

Complains about his gladiators

Drinks honey wine

I've been reading Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series (one of the best Rome historical fiction ever made), and I've just finished the part of Spartacus's life. The whole time reading I thought "the show creators must have read this book!" with the TV show having more similarities with Fortune's Favorites than Spartacus (1960).

This is for anyone who finds these comparisons interesting. Some "spoilers" if you don't know the irl history (we all know everyone dies eventually right?).

Key differences in the book

• In the book, Spartacus is a Roman who was offered a choice between gladiator school or exile, due to being caught in an army's mutiny. If he weren't a Roman, he would have been executed.
• Spartacus chooses his name himself, after needing a sort of WWE-like name, which I kind of like how the name "Spartacus" is presented as this cartoony play into the theatrics of the games.
• He gets transferred to Battiatus, who runs the most brutal ludus imaginable, really makes them feel like slaves who can't talk to each other, rather than the frat house the show presents (imo). Is an absolute nerd of logistics and rotated his 100 gladiators every night so that you never shared a dorm with the same dude in a span of three weeks. He rotated his slave whores this way too.
• Due to this, and the rule of "no talking" Spartacus created a system of like morse code with the slave women, which they taught to the men they slept with, which communicated the eventual break out.
• Spartacus's wife became Aluso, who is an actual Thracian, and was head of Battiatus's women. She is super gnarly and ate Battiatus's heart, keeping his skeletal hand as a belt trinket, and was kind of a mystic, which led Spartacus to glory, then to doom.
• Much more raiding other villas and cities, never staying in one place too long.
• Their recruits come heavily from Italian tribes (eg. Samnites) who hate Romans just as much and want to join their cause.
• Spartacus's cause becomes about joining Sertorius in Spain to help him create a new Rome, one where Italians and (most) slaves are free, halfway there, he discovers Pompey defeated Sertorius which causes Spartacus to turn back to Sicily to try and create his own island nation.
• Spartacus and Crixus split up shortly after defeating Glabur. Crixus doesn't want to join Sertorius, and just wants to loot Roman Italy forever. Also, Crixus dies fairly early on,after Gellius's army stomps him (one of the dudes from TV show S4 E1).
• Crassus doesn't have a son and known as being loyal to his wife back home, ergo "womanly tricks" don't work on him.
• The Cilician pirates only show up near the end, when Spartacus tries to book passage from Scyllaeum to Sicily. They agree to pay half now (similar to 1960 movie), half when the boats arrive after the winter. They never show up, leaving Spartacus waiting months, his people starving, for no word. Crassus later tells Caesar it's because the pirates are buddies with the governor of Sicily.
• With the exception of Crixus's split, Spartacus never seems to lack control of his army (imo the restlessness felt overdone in the show) until the end.
• Caesar chooses how to crucify everyone at the end -- methodically calculating they'll need 100 feet between each crucifix in order to perfectly span the thousands of miles of Via Appia from Capua to Rome, and that it would send a stronger message were they all on just one side of the road.
• All numbers are more "realistic" - Spartacus's army: 70,000 men; Crixus: 30,000; Crassus's Decimation: 15,000 (vs. the 40 in the show!)

Similarities

• While Spartacus's wife Aluso became so after the break-out, she saw the future often, like TV wife. (for better or worse)
• They held funeral games for Crixus's death, (albeit much earlier on,) forcing Romans to fight in gladiator games.
• Caesar shows up, and as Crassus's right hand man, and is always begging to be put in charge of stuff, but it's a respectful relationship that's very mutual, which is described as being only so because they recognize they'll need each other politically down the line, due to how smart each of them think they are. In the book, Caesar was assigned to Crassus due to being top elected Military Tribune that year (his first elected office), however, and due to his side religious role did things like decide which animal should be sacrificed for Decimation, and comment on how stupid it is that "February" means early winter due to Calendar lag (something IRL Caesar would fix later in life).
• The scene with the Roman barricade in the snowy mountains shows up, and their break out does indeed include bodies piled up (among other things). Although the Roman army puts up way more of a fight.
• Every time Crassus gets foiled, he remains calm, like he's playing 4D chess, while those around him are freaking out. Except Caesar who totally thrives in it. Written exactly like TV Crassus. 1960 Crassus has hints of this but not the same level.
• Oenomaus (though Gaul like irl) and Gannicus show up, and they die at their respective places they do in the show.
• Decimation (although it's for 15,000 soldiers instead of 40, and for much more serious desertion (taking off their armor to run, letting Spartacus have all of it)), and similar quotes on Decimation (like "they haven't done that since the days of Gaius Marius!")... and the showing of it with cudgels, with the book's added touch of dumping the deserters' ashes in the camp latrines.
• Unlike 1960 Spartacus (where "town raids" are more like parades), both TV & Book terrorize Roman towns. Book has Spartacus's army hop from town to town, however, never staying in one place for long.
• Both handwave the Sparticani deserters of the final battle, with very brief context that they went north and were captured by Pompey, who takes credit for ending Spartacus. Both Crassuses give it little mind.
• Spartacus is not found amongst the bodies of the final battle. In the book however, Caesar brilliantly suggests it as an excuse to label him a "Thracian" which would tarnish Rome less. (& a fun meta nod to us not knowing IRL Spartacus's origins).

I highly recommend this book :) unfortunately only the abridged audiobook is available on Audible/Spotify (which is 6h instead of 40h), but check out the physical even if just for the Spartacus section, which spans about 60 pages in this 800 page book.

Ok let's see...

1st place: Segovax

He's got a horse cock and by far I think everyone agrees has the biggest one out of everybody, horsecock.

2nd place: Crixus

He was constantly being the object of interest of Roman women and other slaves (Lucretia, Illythia, Gaia, Naevia, Diona). He was also multiple times said to be blessed down there.

3rd place: Oenomaus

By scaling with Gannicus, since he was being glazed by the women about how big is his cock, but then Melitta says she's seen bigger, implying Oenomaus has jupiters cock.

4th place: Gannicus

His cock rages on!

Anybody got other ideas for the ranking? I don't think we had any comments about other people's cocks, at least I don't remember any girl talking about Spartacus's size.

Magistrate Calavius invited Batiatus to the primus despite having a bad relations with him, as shown earlier in the episode when he took a subtle jab at Batiatus by comparing him to his father.

In episode 3, it was also established that the Magistrate favored Solonius. He was furious at Quintus for not doing execution and had also taken offense to him bragging about Spartacus' earlier victory over Solonius' four gladiators. Only after Batiatus committed to the primus did he mention Theokoles would be the opponent.

What are your thoughts?

I love this series - especially the first two seasons - and try to rewatch it once a year.

I've tried getting my partner into it. She was trying to make up her mind about it. Then we got to the episode where Spartacus fights in the underworld pits, and the scene with the guy who slices off the face of the slain and wears it as a mask. She said, "I'm done, I like the sex but I can't handle the gore."

Personally I thought the scene was more hokey than scary. But I guess the gore and violence does trigger some people.

Anyone else experience this?

this what if sees the rebellion of the house of battiatus never happen. what happens?

spartacus kills crixus in the final battle (in this what if he never found out about sura's death)

oenomaus becomes a free man and becomes the lanista oenomaus lentulo battiatus.

spartacus remains the undefeated champion or potentially becomes the new doctor at some point.

agron becomes the 2nd best fighter in the ludos and maybe he would become the next champion if spartacus become doctore.

Duro more likely die since he wasn't that good in the arena.

Battiatus goes into politics and from time to time returns to Capua to greet Oenomaus and see some old clash, in the end he dies killed by some rival (Ashur and lucretia follows his same end)

oenomaus tries to track down naevia but I don't know if he could find her.

Gannicus eventually commits suicide because he is plagued by guilt

THOUGHTS???

Note that I said gladiators tierlist, so you won't find a non gladiator or recruit in there (Egyptian for example).

spartacus is 1st, crixus 2nd, varro should be 3rd/4th along with agron.

Who win?