Previously on Those About To Die...
BERENICE: Who was that man with Domitian?
-His name is Tenax. -I need to know more about him.
CALTONIA: Those shares were stolen by your husband.
MANILIUS: By order of Emperor Titus,
permission to run in Circus Maximus
is hereby withdrawn from the Gold Faction.
DOMITIAN: What could you kill with your bare hands?
-(GRUNTS) -Restrain!
DOMITIAN: I'll make a good show of his death.
URSUS: I'm gonna take everything from you.
Ursus?
URSUS: The boy you left to burn.
QUINTUS: Ursus, Ursus.
MAN: (GASPS) What have you done?
You little fuckers!
(BANGING ON DOOR)
(MAN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
Please! Come on! Help!
Don't do this today!
(YELLING)
(SCREAMING)
(SCREAMS)
QUINTUS: Ursus.
Ursus!
(PANTING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(PANTING)
(GRUNTS)
(EXHALES)
I'll open up.
We need more slates.
And another clerk to handle the swing bets.
-Did you hear me? -Yes.
(GASPS)
This was left at the door.
Read it to me.
-It might be personal, I... -Just...
Do it.
Don't be ashamed.
My people had no written language for 1,000 years.
-Our past is silent. -I'm not ashamed.
Just read it.
Out loud.
To me.
"All of your winnings at the end of each race day,
put in the corner room, second floor,
in your insula at Cispian Hill.
It's the price of my silence."
No one learns of this.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
(BIRD CAWING)
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
The one who bet the little gold horse.
Big, with the burn scars on his face.
-Find him. -We've been keeping our eyes...
I said find him, now! Look in every betting tavern,
every brothel, every gutter, every shithole.
Find him!
You wait for me out there.
-Eat. -(KIDS CHUCKLE)
Hey, you're the best out of this lot.
I've got something for you to do.
There's an apartment on Cispian Hill, second floor, corner room.
I know it.
Go there. Take a look around. See what you can see,
who's watching. Be invisible.
Hey, eat first.
The Suburra first.
I've got some ideas where he might be hiding.
Sister, I got this for you.
Thank you.
Tenax, I found him.
The big, scarred man. This way.
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
(GRUNTING)
(WOMAN MOANING)
(MOANING)
(SHUSHES)
(WOMAN MOANING)
(MAN GRUNTING)
(SCREAMING)
(WHIMPERS) Please, please. Don't kill me.
Don't kill me!
Keep looking.
(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
CROWD: (CHANTING) Xenon! Xenon! Xenon! Xenon!
Come on!
CROWD: (CHANTING) Xenon! Xenon! Xenon! Xenon!
Not Scorpus.
(CHANTING CONTINUES)
(GRUNTS)
Come on!
WOMAN: (YELLING) Go!
Yes.
(GRUNTS)
(CHEERING)
(GRUNTS)
Hyah!
Yeah!
(CROWD CHEERING)
(LAUGHING)
Yeah!
CROWD: (CHANTING) Xenon! Xenon!
It seems Xenon is earning his salary.
He most certainly is.
Thank you. Thank you, all.
A victory both noble and deserved.
Thank you.
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
Congratulations.
Shut your mouth.
Oh, come on, third place.
That's much better than one would expect with those old nags.
I can't really say I miss them.
Didn't go so well for you today.
Piss off.
Why are you angry with me?
I'm not angry that you signed for the White.
I'm hurt. Hurt you didn't trust me.
Something has happened. You need to come.
(GIRLS CRYING)
(SOBS)
(GASPS)
(BREATH TREMBLING)
Nica.
Come, come.
Nica.
I'm sorry.
Scorpus comes in third.
Scorpus fucking third!
Fucking third.
Fuck.
(GROANS)
(SNORING)
(SOBBING)
Sleep safe.
One eye open.
I never knew my mother.
Felix,
he remembered her before she got sick.
He said she was really pretty.
Like you.
Your mother...
she's up there in the clouds,
watching you.
I sent him there.
I should have known.
Are you sure about this?
He killed a child.
Hurry up.
Oh. Hey.
That's all of it.
Listen to me.
The two of you watch this place at all times.
Hide better than Felix did.
You saw what happened to him.
If the big scarred man comes, one of you follows him
and the other one comes to find me.
Be very careful.
A praying Tenax.
I'm a gambling man.
I'll try anything once.
Why are you up?
I couldn't sleep.
Felix was me 20 years ago.
I lived in the underbelly, near the stables.
A stray?
I always liked horses. So when I got to Rome,
it felt like the place to go.
Near the stables.
We slept in a big pile, 30 or 40 of us
for warmth and for safety.
As if there was such a thing.
But you crawled your way out of it.
I scavenged
one bit of food at a time.
One ugly errand,
one beating taken, one beating given,
one knife to the ribs, one fixed race,
one apartment bought, one step at a time.
Rise or die,
the Roman way.
And before Rome,
what does he know?
This one who demands the money.
Something to deal with this, I wager.
Hmm, healed well.
If there is such a thing.
Sleep.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Are we racing, Xenon? -There is no race today.
You never have any fun?
And end up like you?
It doesn't seem like fun to me.
Well, it is.
(BELCHES)
FONSOA: That's a big trunk for a small boy.
Running off to join the legions, are we?
Mother says we're moving into a big house.
I'm going to have my own room.
Then allow me to help you with that, Your Eminence.
Saddle up.
(CHUCKLES)
Fonsoa, I see my son has put you to work.
Big man, I need your help.
BOY: Oh, yes.
So, where to?
The Esquiline.
It's a big house with a cistern and a garden.
It's just the home of a friend of my mother.
Just knowing that you are where you belong.
And have you found where you belong?
Isn't your beautiful Baetica calling to you?
It was.
Well, I thank you for making this place bearable for him.
I had practice with my little brother.
My mother died giving birth,
and our older brother was always off with the horses.
So it fell to me.
There were tough times, even in paradise.
Fonsoa,
did you forget about me?
We should be going now.
-Let me help. -No, please.
You've done enough already.
Please.
-Jump on. -Oh.
-Ready? -Yes.
Are you going to tell me what's on your mind?
You are telling everybody that I will be returning home.
Yes.
Once we've earned enough for your passage to Leptis Magna.
Wouldn't it be better if I waited?
We could return as a family.
No, only the God can say
how long it will take to free your brother and sister.
And I need you to run the trading post in my absence.
Seeno can do that.
Oh, you'd rather stay here,
in this den of serpents.
Rome is far too dangerous a place.
Mm-mm.
I'm surprised I even have to tell you this,
given our experience.
Do I have no say in this matter?
Mother, we have come all this way
to the center of the world.
I just wish to see some of it for myself.
Your brother and sister are fighting for their lives,
and you talk as if this is some great adventure.
I had to come here to save you from
ending up a whore in a stall.
Kwame may very well die in the arena
because of your foolishness.
I'm sorry.
It is not my intention to be cruel.
My oldest daughter has a responsibility to this family.
I won't suffer selfishness.
(SNIFFLES)
You are not the only one who is suffering, Mother.
Aura.
I could have sent slaves for your belongings.
(GRUNTS) It was no trouble.
Thank you.
My people will take it from here.
Good luck to you. To you both.
Thank you. To you as well.
(GRUNTING)
You're late.
Listen, one of the grooms, the skinny one,
said the Red Faction is looking to hire a reserve driver.
We work for the Gold Faction, brother.
-What Gold Faction? -Tenax said he'll fix it.
And what if he doesn't?
All right, we'll you go with your plan.
We get hired by the Red Faction,
have Tenax keep our horses and kill us for the insult.
Great idea.
Xenon is great at this.
(CHUCKLES)
Yeah, he is.
(MEN GRUNTING)
It's strange that the crowd has not demanded to get the wooden sword.
They did, three times.
Each time they granted him his freedom,
he told them to shove it up their arses.
What type of man chooses to stay in the arena?
One who's not worried about losing.
(GRUNTS)
-(BONES CRACKING) -(WHIMPERS)
(GRUNTS)
Gladiators,
come closer.
To celebrate the wedding of our emperor, Titus,
special games have been called.
When is the wedding?
-Am I to attend? -(ALL LAUGH)
It happened already in the dead of night, they say.
Nonetheless, it calls for games of celebration.
Flamma will lead the spectacle.
His opponent, chosen personally
by the Aedile Ludi, Flavius Domitianus
is no other than our little Lion Killer,
Kwame.
(FOREBODING MUSIC PLAYING)
He will, of course, need some help
to make it last long enough to be called entertainment.
Ozzi, Prizzi,
you will have the honor of dying with Kwame at Flamma's hands.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
I am sorry, brother.
Come,
back to training.
I would hate for my death to disappoint the new empress.
How could you desert the Whites?
Xenon drives for the Blues now.
And where's your loyalty to our faction?
My loyalty is with my man Xenon.
Where he goes, I go.
Well, you two are going to make a lovely couple.
(ALL LAUGHING)
But this race is a sure thing.
The Greens run only Maremano mares,
unbeatable after rainfall.
If Jupiter opens the skies tonight,
which he will, you'll triple your money.
So why tell me all this?
Well, nobody in the tavern will take my credit.
-But if you front me 20 sesterces... -Right, right.
I'm trying to help you.
Like you helped your wife by gambling away her fortune.
Anybody with eyes knows that race was a fix.
Tenax fucked me to get those shares.
I warned you about that sort of talk.
How did he get Scorpus to hold back, huh?
I'll never know.
Tenax fucked me to get those shares.
Stain someone else's floor
-with your blood. -(PEOPLE LAUGHING)
(RUFUS SIGHING)
GISELDA: So I hear you lost your faction shares to Tenax.
Someone wants to speak to you.
Come.
BERENICE: Welcome.
It's Rufus, yes?
I'm told you've had dealings with Tenax,
the one they call the King of the Suburra.
Please, sit.
Forgive my appearance.
I wasn't expecting an audience with the Queen of the Jews.
I'm told he rigged the race and stole your shares of the Blue Faction.
The shame in Salena's eyes when she saw what I'd done.
My beautiful son.
(SOBBING)
It occurs to me that we may be able to help one another.
A question.
Have you ever seen this Tenax in the company of the Emperor's brother?
Not with my own eyes.
But I'm told that Tenax is Domitian's client.
Rumor has it that it was Domitian
who approved Tenax's Gold Faction.
This is where you give me a dagger
and ask me to slit Tenax's throat?
I assure you there are more competent man for that task.
I don't want you to kill Tenax.
I want you to ask him for work.
It is all right.
Tell me your name.
VIGGO: Ahren, where have you been?
(BOY LAUGHING)
VIGGO: Oh, you're getting big.
(LAUGHTER)
Kwame,
any sleep?
Why waste my last moments on sleep?
My wife, Linza, and my son Ahren.
You would honor us.
Please, please come, sit.
I have two sisters also in Rome.
I won't see them again.
Your husband fights well.
He will win the wooden sword.
LINZA: So I pray.
And when I do,
the three of us will return to Buri.
My father left me a farm there.
Geese, a couple of goats.
Me and Linza will breed both,
and ourselves as well, making more babies, lots of them.
Would you like to be a big brother?
(CHUCKLES) Yes, you'd be a good big brother.
A good thing to ask the Gods for.
Babies, geese and goats.
No, I...
I ask the Gods to protect you, my brother.
You waste an entreaty to the Gods
for me?
Not wasted.
Perhaps one day I will visit your farm
and meet your children.
And don't forget the goats.
(CHUCKLES)
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
ANTONIA: The madness of it.
Titus married his cousin.
(SIGHS)
Provincial nothing.
(SIGHING IN EXHAUSTION)
If only I knew a man,
undiluted Patrician blood,
who might ascend the curule chair.
Someone with a brilliant military record,
comfortable with command.
We've done this dance before, Antonia.
Every Patrician from here to Alexandria
has done this dance and is doing it now.
The Senate turns to you in moments of crisis.
Many of them will kill to see you on the curule chair.
Careful. What we say inside our own home is one thing,
but such a conversation outside these walls
is a die that cannot be uncast.
ANTONIA: Are you unsure if I were to make a good empress?
That, my dear, is the one thing of which I am sure.
Empress. What a lovely word.
But not as lovely as Emperor.
Shh!
The Civil War comes at a cost.
Senators, even those in my camp, remember that.
The Senate and the mob both turned against Nero after the fires.
Fires?
You'd put a torch to Rome to satisfy our ambition.
For you and for our son
and for our family,
I'd burn down the entire fucking empire.
What kind of emperor would I be if I sacrificed the city
to obtain dominion over it?
We don't need a fire.
We just need a spark.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MAN: Thank you, my dear.
TENAX: Get out.
-May we speak? -I said get out.
-Please, I-- -If this is about the shares
and whatever you think I did to get them,
don't waste your breath.
I'm here to ask you for work.
-TENAX: Doing what? -Anything you need.
Nobody else will hire me.
For a good reason.
I drink less and never steal.
At least from you.
I've heard that from much stronger men than you.
I swear it on my son.
A good oath,
but not from a fool.
Tenax, please.
I beg you, please.
Three sesterces a day
and you do whatever she says.
Thank you, Tenax...
If you steal from me,
I will cut off your hands and sell them to Carpo.
Thank you.
Mother!
(PANTING)
What is it? What is it?
Mama, Kwame.
Kwame.
Did you know about this?
No.
What can I do?
There's no stopping it.
Not now.
It has been posted, they'll already be at the staging area.
Everything has a price.
Not this. Not now.
But you know people.
You have influence and you can do it.
Were I the Emperor himself, I couldn't stop this now.
The mob smells blood.
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
Can I see him?
(CROWD CHEERING)
PASSUS: We hail the Emperor Titus
and his new wife, the Empress Marcia.
The Emperor is pleased to announce
that after weeks of famine,
he has filled the granaries.
The citizens of Rome will go hungry no more!
And in honor of his new wife, Marcia,
he offers a special day of games!
(CROWD CHEERING)
Cousin, good to see you again.
You arrived just in time to watch Flamma
slay three men in your honor.
Also in your honor, I have suspended Domitian's confinement.
Together, we can enjoy a glorious day of games.
My thanks.
I get to keep my two watchdogs by my side.
By the way,
that's my wife's seat.
(YELLS)
(GRUNTING)
(CHUCKLING)
Let her through.
CALA: Son.
Mother?
(EXCLAIMS)
Aura, she's free.
-Soon, Jula will be too. -Good.
You...
You are going to win this fight.
Then we can all go home together.
Whatever happens, I want to make the best of things.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Look at me. Me.
The day you were born,
your father took one look at you and said,
"The spirit of Apedemak, the lion-headed god, lives in our son."
He was always more superstitious than me.
Honestly, I thought that was utter nonsense.
But now I can see it.
I see it.
As clearly as that trident in your hand.
It is a terrible thing they expect you to do,
but you must do it.
I know, Mother.
When you reach the sand,
do not stop.
Do not give up until they pull you off him.
I won't stop.
Then we will see each other again.
Say it, Kwame.
ATTICUS: Gates.
I will see you again.
Say it.
I will see you again.
Say it!
I will see you again.
We must go.
Go.
CROWD: (CHANTING)
You are the lion that protects our family.
CROWD: (CHANTING) Flamma! Flamma!
(SOBBING)
CROWD: (CHANTING) Flamma! Flamma!
(FANFARE)
CROWD: (CHANTING) Flamma! Flamma!
(FLAMMA GRUNTING)
FLAMMA: We who are about to die,
salute you.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Chain them.
What is this?
-FLAMMA: Move! -Come. Come.
Flamma! Flamma! (YELLS)
(CROWD CHEERING)
Stay in the middle.
PASSUS: For our final bout today,
the great Flamma
will do battle with a force known only in myth.
The wicked net men from the Siren Islands.
(DARK MUSIC PLAYING)
(GASPS)
PASSUS: Gladiators...
Ready!
(GRUNTING)
-Engage! -(CROWD CHEERING)
Hey! Easy, brother!
Stay together.
Come on!
(GRUNTING)
-(GROANS) -(CROWD CHEERING)
(GRUNTING)
-(SCREAMS) -(CROWD CHEERING)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
-(FLAMMA LAUGHS) -(CROWD CHEERING)
(CHUCKLES)
(GRUNTS)
(GROANING)
(FLAMMA GRUNTS)
(FLAMMA LAUGHING)
-(CROWD CHEERING) -(CHUCKLES)
(MOANING)
FLAMMA: Here, come on.
(GRUNTING)
Steady, my dear friend, steady.
(BOTH GRUNTING)
-(RUMBLING) -(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
The Gods show their favor. I knew it.
(METAL CLANKS)
-(RUMBLING) -(CROWD EXCLAIMS)
(CROWD SCREAMING)
(FLAMMA YELLS)
No, no.
I'm sorry, brother.
(CROWD GASPING)
(EXCLAIMS)
Water.
The Empress is looking rather pale.
Perhaps someone's found my brother as well.
(FLAMMA GRUNTS)
CROWD: (CHANTING) Kwame! Kwame! Kwame!
No!
The small one, he shows great valor
in the face of certain defeat.
It's pity to see such virtue wasted in sport.
See how his virtue serves him
when Flamma puts a sword through his heart.
(CROWD EXCLAIMS)
(FLAMMA GRUNTS)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(CROWD EXCLAIMS)
-(WHIMPERING) -(PANTING)
CALA: You are the lion that protects our family.
-(RUMBLING) -(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
-(FLAMMA SCREAMS) -(CROWD CHEERING)
(FLAMMA GRUNTS)
(GROANS)
(GRUNTING)
FLAMMA: Come on!
(GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLES)
(FLAMMA LAUGHING)
(GRUNTING)
CROWD: (CHANTING) Kwame! Kwame! Kwame!
(CROWD BOOING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(GASPS)
The games are so beneath you, yet now you weigh in.
Perseverance deserves recognition.
No matter how lowly the venue.
I'm curious.
What martial virtue does cutting your comrade's leg off fall under?
(FLAMMA GRUNTS)
(GROANS)
(CRYING)
What's going on?
Winning the favor of the mob in his first contest
is no small feat.
Bodes well.
Might they free him?
No.
They'll want to watch him fight again and again.
If he's lucky, he'll build a following,
better opponents, better odds.
Perhaps I was hasty to bet against him.
You had blood money on my son?
This is Rome,
it's all blood money.
(PANTING)
Closer than usual today.
Especially for you, no?
My Emperor, Empress.
Brother, why do you not bestow the loser
with his consolation prize?
(RUMBLING)
(ALL SCREAMING)
Take cover.
(ROARING)
You ask the Gods for a spark.
There is your spark.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)