Original subtitles

Ursus!

Ursus!

What!

What have you done?

You little fuckers!

Open up!

Please, come on! Help!

Don't do this today!

Hey! Hey!

Hey!

Ursus!

Ursus!

I'll open up.

We need more slates.

And another clerk to handle the swing bets.

- Did you hear me? - Yes.

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 a thousand 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.

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.

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 Subura first,

I've 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!

Hey!

Shhh.

Welcome...

Please, please!

Don't kill me. Don't kill me!

Keep looking.

Come on!

Xenon!

Not Scorpus!

Come on!

Yes!

Xenon!

Yes!

Yes!

- God! - Yes!

It seems Xenon is earning his salary.

He most certainly is.

Thank you! Thank you all.

A victory most noble and deserved.

Thank you. Thank you.

Congratulations.

Shut your mouth.

Oh come on! Third place!

That's much better than one would expect with those old nags.

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!

Nica...

Come... Come... Nica...

I'm sorry.

Scorpus...

comes in third.

Scorpus, fucking third!

Fucking third!

Fucking...

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've known.

Are you sure about this?

He killed a child.

Hurry up.

Come.

Hey.

That's all of it.

Listen to me.

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, twenty 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,

thirty, or forty 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 our Rome?

What does he know,

this one who demands the money?

Something to do with this, I'll wager.

Healed well.

If there is such a thing.

Sleep.

Are we racing, Xenon?

There is no race today!

You never have any fun?

And end up like you?

Doesn't seem like fun to me.

Well...

it is.

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 let me help you with that, your eminence.

Saddle up.

Fonsoa...

I see my son has put you to work.

Big man, I need your help.

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 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 gods can say how long it will take to free your brother and sister.

And I need you to run to 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 centre 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.

I'm sorry.

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.

You are not the only one who is suffering, mother.

Aura!

I could have sent slaves for your belongings.

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.

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.

What if he doesn't?

Alright. We'll 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.

Yeah, he is.

Strange that the crowd didn't demand he get the wooden sword.

They did. Three times.

Each time they granted him freedom, he told them to shove it up their asses.

What type of man chooses to stay in the arena?

One who's not worried about losing.

Gladiators...

Come closer.

To celebrate the wedding of our Emperor Titus.

Special games have been called.

When is the wedding?

Am I to attend?

It happened already, in the dead of night, they say.

None the less, 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.

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.

I am sorry, brother.

Come.

Back to training.

I would hate for my death to disappoint a 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 will make a lovely couple.

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?

No betting tavern will take my credit. But if you front me

- twenty sesterces... - Right, right...

Cato, I'm trying to help you.

Like you helped your wife, 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? I'll never know.

Tenax fucked me to get those shares.

Stain another floor with your blood.

So, I hear you lost your faction shares to Tenax.

Someone wants to speak to you.

Come.

Welcome.

It's Rufus, yes?

I am told you've had dealings with Tenax.

The one they call the King of the Subura.

Please sit.

Forgive my appearance.

I wasn't expecting an audience with the Queen of the Jews.

I'm told he rigged a 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.

It occurred to me that we may be able to help one another.

A question:

have you seen this Tenax in the company of the Emperor's brother?

Not with my own eyes.

But I'm told Tenax is Domitian's client.

Rumour has it that it was Domitian who approved Tenax's Gold Faction.

Is this where you give me a dagger

and ask me to slit Tenax's throat?

I assure you there are more competent men for that task.

I don't want you to kill Tenax...

I want you to ask him for work.

It is alright.

Tell me your name.

Ahren!

Where have you been?

You're getting big.

Kwame...

any sleep?

Why waste my last moments on sleep?

My wife, Linza, and my... my son, Ahren.

- You would honour 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.

So I pray.

And when I do...

the three of us will return to Buri.

My father left me a farm there with 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?

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 waste it...

Perhaps one day I will visit your farm and meet your children.

And don't forget the goats.

The madness of it!

Titus married his cousin...

A provincial nothing.

If only I knew a man

with 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 would 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.

Are you unsure if I would make a good empress?

That my dear is the one thing of which I am sure.

Empress, what a lovely word.

Not as lovely as Emperor.

Shhh...

Civil war comes at a cost.

Senators, even those in my camp, remember that.

The Senate and the mob 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.

I'll have 20.

Thank you, my dear.

- Get out! - May we speak?

- I said get out. - Please...

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 for work. - Doing what?

Anything you need. Nobody else will hire me.

For a good reason.

I'll 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.

No, Tenax, please...

I beg you!

Please.

Three sesterces a day.

And you do whatever she says.

Thank you, Tenax, I...

If you steal from me...

I will cut off your hands,

and sell them to Carpo.

Thank you.

Mother!

- No, no, no... - What is it? What is it?

Flamma and Kwame.

Kwame...

Did you know about this?

No.

What can I do?

There's no stopping it.

Not now.

It's 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.

Can I see him?

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 honour of his new wife Marcia,

he offers a special day of games.

Cousin, good to see you again.

You arrived just in time to watch Flamma slay three men in your honour.

Also, in your honour, I've suspended Domitian's confinement.

Together we can enjoy a glorious day of games.

My thanks.

And I get to keep my two watch dogs by my side.

By the way...

that's my wife's seat.

Boo!

Let her through.

Son...

Mother.

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 will make the best of things.

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.

Gates!

- I will see you again. - Say it.

I will see you again.

Say it!

I will see you again!

We must go!

Go!

You...

are the lion that protects the family.

We, who are about to die,

salute you!

Chain them.

What is this?

Come. Come, come.

Flamma! Flamma!

Stay in the middle.

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.

Gladiators!

Ready!

Engage!

Hey, hey! Easy, brother.

Stay together.

Steady, my little friend.

Steady.

The Gods show their favour.

I knew it.

No, no!

I'm sorry brother!

Water.

The Empress is looking rather pale.

Perhaps someone to fan my brother as well.

No!

The small one shows great valour in the face of certain defeat.

It's a pity to see such virtue wasted on sport.

We'll see how virtue serves him when Flamma puts a sword through his heart.

You are the lion that protects our family.

The games are so beneath you, yet now you way 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?

What's going on?

Winning the favour of the mob in his first contest is no small feat.

It 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.

Closer than usual today.

Especially for you, no?

My Emperor.

Empress.

Brother, why do you not bestow the loser with his consolation prize.

- Take cover! - Mother!

You asked the Gods for a spark.

There is your spark.