Around Capua, they ravaged the countryside...
forcing other slaves to join them.
Looting, robbing, burning everything...
while they make their camp in the escarpments of Vesuvius.
Each day swells their numbers.
The situation presently lies in the hands...
of this august body.
Where's the mighty Crassus?
- Out of the city. - At least you're here.
No need to fear for Rome as long as Glabrus is with us.
Let me add: Over 1 00 estates have been burned...
among them, gentlemen, my own...
burned to the ground and three million sesterces lost.
I propose the immediate recall of Pompey and his legions from Spain.
- I could bring them in with 500 men! - Don't make a fool of yourself.
Why call back the legions...
when the garrison of Rome has nothing to do...
but to defend us from sausage makers?
Let's send Glabrus against these scoundrels!
Give'em a taste of Roman steel.
I protest. I most strongly protest.
There are more slaves in Rome than Romans.
With the garrison absent, what's to prevent them from rising too?
I did not say the whole garrison.
Six cohorts will more than do the job.
The rest can stay in Rome to save you from your housemaids.
Will you accept such a charge, Glabrus?
I accept the charge of the senate...
if the senate truly charges me.
The garrison of Rome stands ready.
Slave hunting's a dirty business.
It takes a brave commander to consent to it.
I propose we turn the city out tomorrow...
in tribute to Glabrus as he marches through.
And...
for temporary command of the garrison during his absence...
I propose Caius Julius Caesar.
You don't look very happy over the new job.
It's not a serious disturbance. Glabrus will be back.
Maybe.
At least it gives me a chance...
to separate Glabrus from Crassus for a while.
You know, this republic of ours is something like a rich widow.
Most Romans love her as their mother.
But Crassus dreams of marrying the old girl, to put it politely.
Hail Glabrus! Hail Glabrus!
- God be with you, Glabrus. - And with you too.
I hope he returns to such applause.
One fat one, Fimbria!
No, keep the change. Give it to your wife.
- May the gods adore you. - Only through your prayers.
Let's make an old-fashioned sacrifice for Glabrus' success.
I thought you had reservations about the gods.
Privately I believe in none of them. Neither do you.
Publicly I believe in them all.
Greetings, Marcus Clodius Flavius!
Is Marcus Glabrus in attendance?
- He awaits you in the atrium, sir. - Excellent.
What have we here?
A gift from the governor of Sicily, sir.
Antoninus.
Sicilian, age 26.
Singer of songs.
For whom did you practice this wondrous talent?
For the children of my master...
whom I also taught the classics.
Classics, indeed.
What position have we, I wonder, for a boy of such varied gifts?
You shall be my body servant. Instruct him.
All of you, come with me.
Are you on guard duty?
My dear Crassus, congratulate me.
Or better still, let us congratulate each other.
I congratulate us.
Tomorrow I lead six cohorts of the garrison...
against the slaves on Vesuvius.
The whole city is turning out to see us off.
Great merciful bloodstained gods!
Your pardon.
I always address heaven in moments oftriumph.
Did Gracchus have something to do with this brilliant affair?
Yes, he even proposed it. Rather decently, too.
And you? Do you think I made you commander of the garrison...
to control some rock patch on Vesuvius?
It was to control the streets of Rome!
I only take six cohorts. The rest of the garrison remains.
- Under whose command? - Under Caesar's.
Excellent, excellent!
Finding Gracchus in control of the mob and the senate...
you felt compelled to hand over the garrison to him also.
I see.
I'll refuse. I'll withdraw from the expedition.
One of the disadvantages of being a patrician...
is that occasionally you're obliged to act like one.
You pledged the senate to go, and go you must.
If Gracchus should decide to move against you--
He won't! Has no need to.
He has, with your assistance, immobilized me altogether.
Your legions are still in camp outside the city walls?
My legions?
Do you truly believe I'd order my legions to enter Rome?
I only point out that you can if you have to.
Are you not aware of Rome's most ancient law...
that no general may enter the city at the head of his armed legions?
- Sulla did. - Sulla? To the infamy of his name!
To the utter damnation of his line!
No, my young friend.
One day I shall cleanse this Rome which my fathers bequeathed me.
I shall restore all the traditions that made her great.
It follows, then, that I cannot come to power or even defend myself...
by an act which betrays the most sacred tradition of them all.
I shall not bring my legions within these walls.
I shall not violate Rome...
at the moment of possessing her.
Go.
Prepare your troops at once.
March out of Rome tonight, but the city tribute is impossible.
We've already been made to look a fool. Let's not add the trappings of a clown.
Leave by unfrequented streets, without fanfare, without even a drum!
Sneak out.
As you wish.
And for heaven's sake, my young friend...
try and see to it that you don't have to sneak back again.
Farewell.
Come on, fat boy!
Noble Romans...
fighting each other like animals!
Your new masters, betting to see who'll die first.
Drop your swords.
I want to see their blood right over here where Draba died!
When I fight matched pairs, they fight to the death.
I made myself a promise, Crixus.
I swore that if I ever got out of this place...
I'd die before I'd watch two men fight to the death again.
Draba made that promise too.
He kept it.
So will I.
Go on. Get out!
What are we, Crixus?
What are we becoming? Romans?
Have we learned nothing? What's happening to us?
We look for wine when we should be hunting bread.
When you've got wine, you don't need bread!
You can't just be a gang of drunken raiders.
- What else can we be? - Gladiators!
An army of gladiators.
There's never been an army like that.
One gladiator's worth any two Roman soldiers that ever lived.
We beat the Roman guards, but a Roman army's a different thing.
They fight different than we do too.
We can beat anything they send against us if we really want to.
- It takes a big army for that. - We'll have a big army.
Once we're on the march...
we'll free every slave in every town and village.
Can anybody get a bigger army than that?
Once we cross the Alps, we're safe!
Nobody can cross the Alps. Every pass is defended by its own legion.
There's only one way to get out of this country.
The sea.
What good is the sea if you have no ships?
The Cilician pirates have ships.
They're at war with Rome.
Every Roman galley that sails out of Brundusium pays tribute to them.
They've got the biggest fleet in the world.
I was a galley slave with them. They'll take you anywhere for enough gold.
We haven't got enough gold.
Take every Roman we capture and warm his back a little.
- We'll have gold, all right. - Spartacus is right!
Let's hire these pirates and march straight to Brundusium!
Comejoin us. All of you, comejoin us.
Come on and join us!
Back to Vesuvius!
Varinia.
I thought I'd never see you again.
Everything's so different.
The last time I saw you...
you were waiting in the arena to--
I thought you were in Rome.
How'd you escape?
I jumped out of the cart...
and Batiatus was so fat--
I flew out of the cart...
and Batiatus was so fat...
that he couldn't catch me.
He couldn't catch up with me.
Do you realize...
nobody can ever sell you again?
Nobody can sell you.
- Or give you away. - Or give you away.
Nobody can ever make you stay with anybody.
Nobody can make you stay with anybody.
I love you, Spartacus.
I love you.
I still can't believe it.
Forbid me ever to leave you.
I do forbid you.
I forbid you.
It was funny at the time. I wish he'd heard it.
How good you are to me, if I may say so.
- You may. - Thank you.
Don't just eye those birds. Eat them.
There's no need to be on your best behaviour here.
May I remind you...
you've been very good to me in the past?
I've been good to you?
Yes. You've sold me slaves at an extremely reasonable price.
And you arranged private gladiatorial jousts at cost, or practically.
On the whole, you are both ethical in business matters...
and certainly farsighted socially.
Zenobia's put on a little weight since I last saw her.
- Yes, hasn't she? I like it. - So do I.
You and I have a tendency towards corpulence.
Corpulence makes a man reasonable, pleasant and phlegmatic.
Have you noticed the nastiest of tyrants are invariably thin?
In spite of your vices, you are the most generous Roman of our time.
Vices?
The ladies.
Ladies! Since when are they a vice?
Perhaps I used the wrong word. An eccentricity, a foible.
I hope I pronounced that word--
It's well-known that even your groom and your butler are women.
I'm the most virtuous man in Rome.
I keep these women out of my respect for Roman morality.
That morality, which has made Rome strong enough to steal...
two-thirds of the world from its rightful owners...
founded on the sanctity of Roman marriage and family.
I happen to like women.
I have a promiscuous nature...
and, unlike these aristocrats, I will not take a marriage vow...
which I know my nature will prevent me from keeping.
You have too great a respect for the purity of womankind.
Exactly.
It must be tantalizing to be surrounded by so much purity.
It is.
Now, let's mix business with pleasure. How may I help you?
Great Gracchus, I find it difficult to hate...
but there's one man I can't think of without fuming.
- Who's that? - Crassus.
- You've grown ambitious in your hatred. - Do you blame me?
There I was, better than a millionaire in the morning...
and a penniless refugee by nightfall...
with nothing but these rags and my poor flesh to call my own.
All because Crassus decides to break his journey at Capua...
with a couple of capricious, over-painted nymphs!
These two daughters of Venus had to taunt the gladiators...
force them to fight to the death, and before I knew what had happened...
revolution on my hands!
What revenge have you in mind?
I sold Crassus this woman, Varinia.
- Whom? - Varinia. May the gods give her wings.
There was no contract, but she was clearly his slave...
as soon as the deal was made.
Now she's off with Spartacus killing people in their beds.
And Crassus-- no mention of money, no!
You never offered me this woman. Why not ?
Well, she's not remotely your type, Gracchus.
- She is very thin and-- - Look around you.
You'll see women of all sizes.
Five hundred sesterces deposit on Varinia.
Since he hasn't paid, this gives me first call over Crassus...
when she's caught and auctioned.
May the gods adore you!
Why would you buy a woman you've never even seen?
To annoy Crassus, of course, and to help you.
Fetch a stool, Antoninus.
In here with it.
That will do.
Do you steal, Antoninus?
No, master.
Do you lie?
Not if I can avoid it.
Have you ever dishonoured the gods?
No, master.
Do you refrain from these vices out of respect for the moral virtues?
Yes, master.
Do you eat oysters?
When I have them, master.
Do you eat snails?
No, master.
Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral...
and the eating of snails to be immoral?
No, master.
Of course not.
It is all a matter of taste, isn't it?
Yes, master.
And taste is not the same as appetite...
and therefore not a question of morals, is it?
It could be argued so, master.
That will do. My robe, Antoninus.
My taste includes...
both snails and oysters.
Antoninus, look.
Across the river.
There is something you must see.
There, boy, is Rome!
The might, the majesty...
the terror of Rome.
There is the power that bestrides the known world like a colossus.
No man can withstand Rome.
No nation can withstand her.
How much less...
a boy!
There's only one way to deal with Rome, Antoninus.
You must serve her.
You must abase yourself before her.
You must grovel at her feet.
You must...
love her.
Isn't that so, Antoninus?
- Take your time! - How are they coming?
Good. Give me another thousand like them and we can march on Rome.
Come on, once again.
Here on Vesuvius, we're safe from attack...
while we organize ourselves into an army.
It may take six months. It may take a year. We don't know.
Once we're strong, we're gonna fight our way south to the sea.
We're going to arrange for ships with the Cilician pirates.
Then the sea will be a road back home for all of us.
If you agree, you may join us.
If you don't agree, go back before your escape is discovered.
Too many women.
What's wrong with women?
Where would you be now, you lout...
if some woman hadn't fought all the pains of hell...
to get you into this accursed world?
I can handle a knife in the dark as well as anyone.
I can cast spells and brew poisons.
I have made the death shrouds for seven Roman masters in my time.
- You lout! I want to see Spartacus. - All right, grandmother.
I'm Spartacus. Stay with us.
We'll need a million Roman shrouds before we're through.
Where do you people come from?
Most of us come from the estate of Lillius.
- What kind ofwork did you do there? - Sixteen years a carpenter and mason.
Good. We can use carpenters.
- What kind ofwork did you do? - I was a chiefsteward.
You'll help with the food supplies. You'll report to the man Patullus.
What kind of work did you do?
Singer of songs.
Singer of songs? But what work did you do?
That's my work. I also juggle.
Juggle. What else do you do?
I can do feats of magic.
Magic?
May be he can make the Romans disappear.
I'll need one volunteer, man or woman. How about you?
Here we have a likely subject.
You'll notice there is nothing in my hand, true?
- How many fingers do you see? - Three.
- How many fingers do you see? - Three!
I make a bowl.
My hand is upside down, and I askyou to blow at it.
No, not hard enough. Hard!
Thank you.
Would you like to try?
Hit it against the rock, gently.
Poet, I haven't had an egg in days.
You haven't?
- Here. - Thank you.
I'm not going to let mine get away.
- Sing us a song. - Sing us a song, Antoninus.
Sing, Antoninus.
When the blazing sun hangs low in the western sky...
when the wind dies away on the mountain...
when the song of the meadowlark turns still...
when the field locust clicks no more in the field...
and the sea foam sleeps like a maiden at rest...
and twilight touches the shape of the wandering earth...
l turn home.
Through blue shadows and purple woods...
l turn home.
l turn to the place that l was born...
to the mother who bore me and the father who taught me...
long ago, long ago...
long ago.
Alone am l now, lost and alone, in a far, wide, wandering world.
Yet still when the blazing sun hangs low...
when the wind dies away and the sea foam sleeps...
and twilight touches the wandering earth...
I turn home.
Where'd you learn that song?
My father taught it to me.
I was wrong about you, poet.
You won't learn to kill. You'll teach us songs.
I came here to fight.
Anyone can learn to fight.
I joined to fight!
- What's your name? - Antoninus.
There's a time for fighting, and there's a time for singing.
Now you teach us to sing.
Sing, Antoninus.
When the blazing sun hangs low in the western sky--
You like him, don't you?
Who wants to fight?
An animal can learn to fight.
But to sing beautiful things...
and make people believe them--
What are you thinking about?
I'm free.
And what do I know?
I don't even know how to read.
You know things that can't be taught.
I know nothing.
Nothing!
And I want to know.
I want to--
I want to know.
Know what?
Everything.
Why a star falls and a bird doesn't.
Where the sun goes at night.
Why the moon changes shape.
I want to know where the wind comes from.
The wind begins in a cave.
Far to the north, a young god sleeps in that cave.
He dreams of a girl...
and he sighs...
and the night wind stirs with his breath.
I want to know all about you.
Every line...
every curve.
I want to know every part of you.
Every beat of your heart.
Go on about the city of Metapontum.
What garrisons will we find there?
There are two legions in the garrison. Some have been sent south--
Set the litter down there.
Where is this slave general?
Dionysius, get the litter bearers out of the rain.
Give them food, bread, and their freedom.
- All right, follow me. - We'll pay you for them.
We have no slaves in this camp.
Tigranes Levantus at your service.
My credentials.
Come in.
''To the general of the Italian slaves called Spartacus...
from Ibar M'hali, Cilician governor of the island of Delos.''
- Sit down. - ''Greetings.
Word has been received that you wish to embark your armies...
on the Cilician ships from the Italian port of Brundusium.
- Receive now my agent, Tigranes--'' - Levantus.
''who bargains in my name.
May Isis and Serapis bring victory to your cause. The governor of Delos.''
- Who are Isis and Serapis? - Gods of the east.
Why should they want us to win?
Because they favour Cilicia...
and Cilicia, like you, fights against the Romans.
Would you like some wine?
I drink only after the bargain has been concluded...
never before.
How many ships do these Cilicians have?
Five hundred at least.
But no deal is too small, I assure you.
We'll need them all.
- All? - What is the price?
Price is 1 00,000 sesterces per ship.
For 500 ships that would be...
50 million sesterces.
- You have such a sum? - We will have.
See for yourself.
- Beautiful. - When will the ships be ready?
Beautiful. I love to see such beauty.
When will the ships be ready?
My friend...
when will you be ready?
How long will it take you...
to cross one-third the length of Italy...
fighting a major battle in every town?
One year? Two years?
If we're not in Brundusium seven months from now...
we'll never be there.
What if we assemble the ships...
and there is no longer a slave army to board them?
We'll give you a chest of treasure now, the rest when we get to Brundusium.
- This one? - Yes.
Done! Seven months from now, the ships will be assembled.
Arrange to have the chest loaded.
Now, with your permission, I should like to have the wine you offered me.
- Will you join me? - I will.
Excellent workmanship.
It came from the estate of a wealthy nobleman.
I've heard that you are of noble birth yourself.
I'm the son and grandson of slaves.
I knew that when I saw you couldn't read.
Of course, it pleases Roman vanity to think that you are noble.
They shrink from the idea of fighting mere slaves...
especially a man like Crassus.
- You know him? - I entertained him one afternoon.
- You? - In the arena.
Excellent wine.
- May I ask you something? - You can ask.
Surely you know you're going to lose, don't you?
You have no chance.
At this very moment, six cohorts of the garrison of Rome...
are approaching this position.
What are you going to do?
We'll decide that when they get here.
Let me put it differently.
If you looked into a magic crystal...
and you saw your army destroyed and yourself dead...
if you saw that in the future...
as I'm sure you're seeing it now...
would you continue to fight?
- Yes. - Knowing that you must lose?
Knowing we can.
All men lose when they die and all men die.
But a slave and a free man lose different things.
They both lose life.
When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life.
A slave loses his pain.
Death is the only freedom a slave knows.
That's why he's not afraid of it.
That's why we'll win.
Spartacus, that pirate was right.
The garrison of Rome, they're setting up camp.
- How many are there? - About six cohorts.
- Where? - At the mouth of the valley...
against the cliffs.
- Strong camp? - They have no stockade.
No stockade? Are you sure?
- I'm very sure. - This campaign is great sport for them.
The Romans are having a picnic.
- Did they see you? - No! We were hidden.
Maybe we ought to join this Roman picnic.
Form your men.
Six cohorts.
A lot of arms and weapons...
to build our army with.
Crixus always wanted to march on Rome.
Now he doesn't have to.
Rome's come to us.
Half this way! The rest over there.
Stand up, the way a noble Roman should!
That's Roman pride for you!
That's better.
What's your name?
Marcus Glabrus.
Commander of the garrison of Rome!
Commander?
He was commanding it on his belly when we found him, playing dead!
You disappoint me, Marcus Glabrus.
Playing dead.
You afraid to die?
It's easy to die.
Haven't you seen enough gladiators in the arena...
to see how easy it is to die?
Of course you have.
What are you going to do to me?
I don't know.
- What should we do with him? - Let's have a matched pair, him and me.
I'll not fight like a gladiator!
You keep staring at this.
Do you recognize this baton?
- Yes! - You should! It was in your tent.
The symbol of the senate.
All the power of Rome!
That's the power of Rome!
Take that back to your senate.
Tell them you and that broken stick is all that's left ofthe garrison of Rome!
Tell them we want nothing from Rome.
Nothing except our freedom!
All we want is to get out of this damn country!
We're marching south to the sea.
And we'll smash every army they send against us.
Put him on a horse!