All language subtitles for Gladiators Warriors s01e01 Spartacus Rise of the Gladiator.eng

Ancient Rome is powerful and

violent.

Its people pack amphitheaters to watch
gladiators fight and die

for entertainment.

The arena for the Romans was a cinema.

You think you've seen spectacle.

It's way bigger than you might expect.

Over time, These nameless warriors
become icons.

They're symbols of manhood could attain.

As the empire expands, the games grow
increasingly more important to Rome.

It was a staging of Roman power.

The obsession of the people and the
excess and ruin of emperors. The

emperor holds your life in his hand.

Before Rome became an empire, one
gladiator stood above the rest.

Spartacus. The story of Spartacus tells
us about a moment in gladiatorial

history. An innocent man condemned to a
gladiator's lot.

Thousands died fighting in the arena,
and we don't know most of their names.

But we do know the name of Spartacus.

Once a soldier.

He's captured by Rome and forced into
gladiatorial combat.

But where most accept their fate,
Spartacus defies, leading one of Rome's

largest and bloodiest rebellions. The
future of the Republic lies in the hands

of one man and his army of courageous
gladiators.

The term gladiator is able to stir the
imagination, the thrill of the games,

crowd roars, that very fancy
gladiatorial armor.

The word gladiator comes from the Latin
word gladius, which means a sword. So a

gladiator is simply a swordsman.

Ultimately, they were people who faced
death.

They were...

People that were hired to do a job. They
are purely swordsmen for entertainment.

But there is a great mythology that
surrounds gladiators.

So the fact that Spartacus is associated
with the gladiator gives him a certain

amount of mythos.

Unlike many other gladiators, we know a
lot about Spartacus. He became a

celebrity and a bogeyman in his own
lifetime.

He's probably one of the most famous
gladiators from all of ancient Rome.

In fact, he's probably one of the most
famous characters from ancient Rome full

stop. Most people have heard of
Spartacus.

The sources that we do have aren't
interested in him for himself, but

what he does and for the impact that he
has on Rome.

Our sources actually are all from the
Roman side.

And a lot of them are much later, more
than 100 years later.

So by then he's become this mythical
figure.

Although Spartacus earned his fame as a
gladiator, he honed his deadly talents

long before he set foot in the arena.

Spartacus is a soldier. He comes from a
military background.

He had something of an aura of being
kind of a tough, rogue figure.

Spartacus was a free man born in Thrace,
which is in the eastern part of the

Mediterranean, modern -day Bulgaria.

It was a barbarian land, and Roman
influence was penetrating to those

Rome was conducting military campaigns
in the Eastern Empire in the 80s and 70s

BCE.

The Thracians were particularly hardened
warriors.

They had a reputation for being quite
difficult to deal with.

They were tenacious, and the Romans
admired their courage in battle.

Spartacus is a skilled and fearless
warrior.

But the Roman army overwhelms him.

He is captured.

Prisons of war become property, and they
therefore can be sold into slavery for

whatever purpose their enslaver
requires.

They had no say in what happened to
them.

And Spartacus was brought to Rome to be
sold into slavery.

Spartacus is taken to the slave market
where he could face a life of hard labor

in the fields and farms or join the back
-breaking construction of Rome.

But instead...

He finds himself in the sights of a man
called Lentulus Batiatus, who has a far

more brutal purpose in mind.

Lentulus Batiatus is a lanista, an owner
of gladiators.

So if you wanted to put on a
gladiatorial show, you didn't just go

yourself, you went to a middleman.

And that's what Batiatus does.

He trains up gladiators, sources them,
and then he hires them out to people who

want to put on games.

Lentulus Batiatus had a large number of
gladiators and was attached to a

training school in Capua.

He is quite a wealthy man. He can afford
to invest in a couple of hundred

gladiators, which would not come cheap.

Those who look healthy and strong are
highly prized by Lannisters like

Not everybody could just become a
gladiator.

You have to be physically impressive.
You have to be that exception.

Spartacus is already probably fit.

He's used to hand -to -hand combat.

He's used to handling weapons.

Before making the investment in these
gladiators, they had to be fight

and so perhaps there was a test fight.

They had no option.

If they don't throw themselves into it,
it's the end for them.

There was no saying no.

He would have been tortured and killed.

So all they can do really is try and
impress their new owner that they're

to be a great gladiator.

Spartacus shows potential.

He may make a good gladiator, but before
he's thrust into the arenas...

He will have to endure months of brutal
training at a school in Capua, 130

miles south of Rome.

Capua is the heart of the gladiatorial
history.

This idea of gladiatorial fights really
is cemented and rusted onto the culture.

It was a microcosm of the Roman world.

It was a plethora of people from all
parts and walks of life of Roman

Somewhere that's known for having
gladiatorial schools and for being a

training gladiators.

What better way to develop gladiators
than having professional schools to

them?

A gladiatorial school that's called a
ludus.

The ludus would hold 250 men.

The gladiators are locked up, kept
behind bars.

It had an armory, it had a medical
center, it had a kitchen, an exercise,

area, and that is where the gladiators
would do all of their training.

Kind of like a small military camp in a
way.

They weren't pleasant places.

Gladiators were shackled to the wall.

They could sit and they could lie down,
but they could hardly even stand up.

When Spartacus arrives into the lute,
he's probably assigned into a cubicle.

He will have some comrades who settle
him in.

Cryptus is one of Spartacus' cellmates.

They're comrades in arms.

They look after each other.

They help train each other.

These folks were thrown together.

They're living in very, very close
quarters and having the same horrific

activity thrust upon them.

Bacchiatus doesn't do all of the
training himself.

He's got a team of doctores who are
trainers.

They're learned men in the skills and
the arts of being a gladiator.

Experts in specific areas, whether it's
attacking stroke, defense, fitness,

and most of them are probably former
gladiators.

They're the kind of people who would be
the real experts in all the skills that

they would need to survive in the arena.

They did a lot of exercises against a
big wooden stake in the ground.

It's called a palace.

And so he could strike at this foe,
which is the equivalent, I suppose, of a

punch bag in a gym, and practice his
sword strokes against that.

And he would have been learning
combinations, as you do in boxing.

How to parry, how to attack by driving
against this wooden stake.

But also...

A big part of your training would have
been how to put on a good show.

The point is not to kill. The point is
to entertain.

It's no good simply hacking your
opponent to death. No one wants to see

They want to see something that's
exciting.

You've got to draw the fight out.

So there would have been a great amount
of aerobic training.

These guys have to fight in the
Mediterranean heat.

And the implements they're using for
training are heavy.

So they're trying to get them used to
spears, heavy swords, tridents,

all of which they'll be using later on
in the arena.

Spartacus is caught in a grueling
routine of training.

But the comrades he trains with and the
captors who guard him have no idea that

this new gladiator will soon leave a
mark far beyond the walls of the Ludus.

It's hard to know how long Spartacus
would have trained for.

A gladiator has got to get fit.

They've got to build up muscle.

They've got to acquire skills in the
particular weapons that they're going to

use. It must have taken at least six
months until you were prepared to go

the arena.

Lentulus Batiatus would try to monetize
these individuals to the max.

No tea break.

No lunch break.

Spartacus is being pushed to the limit
to survive in the arena.

Spartacus will be forced to fight for
the crowd's amusement in gladiatorial

combat, one of the most popular forms of
entertainment in the Roman Republic.

We're pretty sure that the Romans didn't
come up with gladiatorial combat

entirely by themselves, but which
culture they're drawing from?

we're really unsure.

Some theories point to ancient rites
practiced by an Italian people known as

Etruscans. Other sources suggest they
may be of Greek origin or from a nearby

region, Campania.

The Romans were innovators. They weren't
inventors. They took great ideas from

the cultures they encountered and they
amplified it.

In the tombs of Paestum, we have 4th
century BC images, and they depict

the first images of gladiatorial combat
in Italy.

In 264 BCE, we have our first recorded
gladiatorial event in Rome.

An aristocrat thought it would be a
great honour for their dead father to

some prisoners of war fight to the
death.

To demonstrate the great things your
ancestors had done and these are another

form of celebration.

And this is something which the crowds
find fascinating and they are

hooked almost at once.

They quickly become very popular.

People want to be them.

And it doesn't take the Romans too long
to figure out that this is a way of

currying favour with the people of Rome
to put on these spectacles.

Roman Republican culture was a culture
of visibility, of physical visibility.

To be seen was vital for the elite, but
more broadly as well,

to validate themselves through various
types of performances in front of the

people. The spectacles were a part of
political culture.

Gladiatorial combat and its evolution
fit within that culture of spectacle.

And it quickly becomes a popular thing
amongst the aristocratic class to try

show off their status in society by
having more and more gladiators fight at

their unions.

The people are accepting a gift when
they come along to the games.

And those people who are putting on the
games are gaining a reputation. And

Romans love building their reputation.

For 700 years, Rome has been growing in
size and strength.

Countless wars drive its expansion.

Thousands of enemy soldiers are
captured.

Some of these enslaved men become
gladiators, forced to perform their

again and again as entertainment for the
Roman citizens.

In the early Republic, second century,
first century BCE, the majority of

gladiators were prisoners of war,
captives from Rome's wars of conquest.

They've armed their enemies and then put
them on as entertainment or as

displays.

The arena was a chance to witness and
experience what the Romans only heard

about.

the different groups wore different
types of armor.

So in gladiatorial combat, those
different identities through armor are

stage.

There were the M -Knight gladiator,
there was a gladiator known as a gallant

gall, and there was a gladiator known as
a thrite, a Thracian gladiator.

Now over time, of course, the
gladiatorial combats become hugely

It's a funerary show, but it's also a
popular public spectacle. And in the

Republic, these two sort of start to
merge.

There's a gradual growth in the size of
the game.

So by 183 BC, we've got 120 pairs of
gladiators fighting.

A hundred years later, we hear of 320
pairs.

Over the next 200 years, the funerary
links fade as the games become regular

spectacles. Gladiators become one of
Rome's favorite obsessions.

As the upper classes compete to stage
the most dazzling shows, seeking men

Batiatus, to hire their fiercest
fighters.

You want to get the best gladiators in
there that you can?

You want this spectacle to go beyond the
spectacles that people have seen

before. So there is a constant sense of
one -upmanship.

Alinistar, he's the person that people
probably approach in order to rent out

the gladiators under his control.

It is not long until Spartacus is called
upon to fight.

He has no choice and will soon face his
first duel in the arena.

In a community like Capua, Lentulus
Batiatus would have rented his

to important local officials.

They've been elected to high office.

And this is a way of rewarding the
people of the town for their election.

And so they would want to impress them.

It's an expensive exercise.

Only the rich are really capable to do
this.

So there's probably a few thousand in
the crowd.

It's not like the massive games we have
later in the Colosseum.

And tickets are kind of handed down
through patronage.

The wealthy will definitely have a
portion of those tickets and they will

some out to their friends.

And then their friends would hand them
down to their kind of supporters and

their clients.

But there's a whole bunch of tickets
that are reserved for the common people.

Small business owners, day -to -day
farmers, people earning their trade

petty crime, who knows?

We're not necessarily having the
citizens divided up by their class in

period. This is something that tends to
happen later.

So there is a mingling of all sorts of
people jamming themselves into the

a bit like a sports stadium.

This is what's great about the
amphitheatre.

Whoever you were outside the
amphitheatre was irrelevant.

When you were in it, you were in a
joined spectacle where you all spent the

together.

The crowd is here to be entertained.

A fast fight and swift death is
unacceptable.

Spartacus and the other gladiators have
been trained to deliver a spectacle.

You would want them to be fighting one
-on -one so that the audience can

appreciate their skill level because it
is a show.

One of the things that we tend to get
wrong about gladiators is that everybody

dies.

It's not necessarily to the death.

If a gladiator died, the giver of the
games would have to pay the cost of

replacement.

Gladiators were very expensive.

About 10 % of gladiators die.

That might seem quite low, but if you're
fighting three or four times a year, it

probably means you've got a one in three
chance of dying every year.

was, in fact, one of the most compelling
aspects of the gladiatorial spectacle.

No one knew what was going to happen.

So you've got to assume that if you
don't give a good performance or you

fight well, that you are going to die.

From backstage, Spartacus can hear the
roar of the crowd.

He is about to make his debut as a Roman
gladiator.

Spartacus fought at Thracia.

That's where he comes from.

So he has a sword, he has a shield.

He's probably going to be up against
other swordsmen.

Usually they were from the same
barracks, and so you would be fighting

someone you'd trained with.

Which is a particularly cruel aspect of
Roman games.

The fights were fought in rounds, and it
was a point of them.

They're just trying to score points
against each other, a bit like modern

fencing.

You have two referees, the guy in the
middle of the action and the guy in the

outside.

This is quite dynamic, very fast,
ruthless.

The Thracians were particularly hardened
warriors.

The Romans admired their courage in
battle, which is not a surprise then

they would take the idea of the
Thracians and put them in the arena

the pleasure of the Roman crown.

He was enormously charismatic.

You've got to entertain the audience.

You had to be spectacular.

It was a spectacle.

It doesn't matter if you can quickly
dispatch a guy in a couple of minutes.

You want him to go all around, you want
him to almost be losing, you want him to

come back at the end, and you want a
successful triumph.

So if a gladiator couldn't go on, his
only option was to appeal for mercy.

And so he would raise his finger.

And it's up to the giver of the games
whether he gives him mercy.

And people would either shout out, let
him go, or they'd say, kill him.

And then the giver of the games would
signal with a turned thumb whether there

was going to be mercy or death.

In Latin, the term is polykeverso, which
just literally means a turned thumb.

we would use it that thumbs down was
death and thumbs up is they stay alive

it's not actually clear in the sources
what they mean it could mean that thumbs

down was turning down the request to
have them killed thumbs up was actually

sort of sticking the sword up in their
throat

Or it might even be that it's a kind of
turning of the thumb into the palm,

which seems to have been some sort of
symbol of mercy that you find in some

religious context.

The sponsor of the games really has to
make the crowd happy.

That's why the games are on. So if
you're offside with the crowd as a

your time in the arena and your time in
life is really, really numbered.

If Spartacus forced his opponent into
submission, the host of the games would

decide on the fate of the fallen
fighter.

This idea that a loss meant death, it is
an exceptionally rare form of fighting,

just because the cost of the gladiator.

had to be recouped. You had to have
somebody who was willing to pay out the

gladiator's contract to the minister.

And in one law we have a figure that
that cost would be 50 times the cost of

hiring them.

And if in the first fight Spartacus was
to meet death or kill another gladiator,

somebody's lost that investment.

Spartacus has won his first contest.

But there is little to celebrate.

He will return to a cycle of training
and combat.

Freedom, just a distant hope.

Having won his first bout in the arena,
Spartacus is returned to his training

school, where his wounds are treated.

The medical care of gladiators was
amongst the best in the Republic, not

compassionate reasons, but because their
owners wanted them in fighting shape.

You're probably only fighting three,
perhaps four times at most in a year.

long periods of training, recovery,
recuperation, and then you're in this

and death situation again.

Gladiators had quite serious injuries,
including cuts,

bruises, head injuries.

So doctors come into the Ludus to look
after them.

Because of the state of medicine at that
point in time, it would have been

difficult for them to arrest an
infection, you know, if it got in

to the leg or something like that.

That was probably riskier, in a sense,
than breaking a bone.

There will be gladiators who get injured
either in the fight...

Or in training.

There will be others who die in the
arena.

So there's going to be always a steady
sort of trickle of new recruits coming

into the looters.

For years, Spartacus' life is consumed
with nothing more than training,

fighting, and recovery.

He dreams of finding a way out.

If you really impressed the crowd
repeatedly as a gladiator, you could be

your freedom.

You could be given a rudis, a wooden
sword, which was a sign that you were no

longer risking your life with real
weapons, that you could retire and

But statistically, it must have been a
very small number.

Most gladiators either died or were so
badly injured that they couldn't fight

on.

Spartacus must have enormously resented
his absence of freedom and terrible

conditions in the training school.

Spartacus was a captured prisoner of
war.

To be free, he wants to not be a
gladiator.

Badiatus is buying enslaved people as
part of a broader slave trade.

He will want to make as much money as he
can from these people, so he has no

intention of letting Spartacus go.

It's possible a gladiator like Spartacus
will have to fight until he dies.

And it is this horrifying fact that we
really have to keep in mind when we

of what's happening to Spartacus.

We could speculate that what he would
like to do is return home to escape

itself, but he's trapped there.

They can't get out of Italy.

And this starts something that no one is
expecting.

Spartacus manages to convince...

A bunch of his fellow gladiators said it
was time to bust out of this place.

That now is their chance to fight for
themselves, rather than to fight for the

entertainment of the Romans.

They were highly trained and highly
skilled fighters.

That presents a problem with the
Lannister, because you have people that

fight against you.

But they were not equipped with weapons.

The weapons were kept strictly separate
from the men living there.

However, Spartacus was an opportunist.

He managed to see an opportunity to
escape, and he took it.

They were having something to eat, and
he manages to get his hands on some

weapons.

Utensils from the kitchens.

Cleavers and stakes.

And they overwhelm the guards.

What he'd learned fighting as a
gladiator would have helped him escape

lunatics.

It's a daring escape, Spartacus and his
companion Crixus pull.

It goes to show the gladiators, in fact,
were trained to such a high level they

could out -fight the guards one -to
-one.

Over 70 of these gladiators in training
escaped.

His rebellion doesn't stop there.

He doesn't just get out and think,
great, I'm free, off I go.

They would have had the opportunity to
leave Italy, to cross the Alps and to

head homeward.

But they don't.

It's a difficult path. It is this very
narrow peninsula of a place.

Because you've got to go over those
mountains, and there's not many paths

those mountains.

It's tough going, and you could be cut
off really easily.

Possibly that was what he was trying to
do, but certainly it seems that he

changed his mind.

Spartacus wants to take on Rome for all
that it's done, of exploitation of the

enslaved and of gladiators.

Spartacus decides to fight Rome in
various different ways.

Spartacus's days of fighting as a
gladiator are over. Instead of making

dangerous trip home, he remains in
Italy. Soon, he will come face to face

the Roman forces that first enslaved him
in a fight bigger than simply his own

freedom.

and his men have escaped the ludus.

The Romans severely underestimated the
threat of this break in Capua.

Six dozen gladiators would not have
seemed an immediate threat to the state,

boy were they wrong. And a lot of it had
to do with the terrain.

What they do first is actually go and
hide up on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius,

which is in the highlands, south of
Capua.

There were plenty of places for
Spartacus and his compatriots to hide,

to build support.

People from the Italian countryside
begin to join Spartacus, who are

disenfranchised, who are upset with Rome
in various ways, having difficulty with

their land, facing extreme poverty, who
are maybe enslaved as well or had

formerly been enslaved.

His rebel army is drawn initially from
the gladiator, but it's more of a slave

rebellion than a gladiator rebellion.

There is a regular trade in enslaved
people that is happening throughout

Italy in this period. The Romans and the
Italian people generally...

are building their societies through
enslaved people. That is happening and

traveling throughout all of Italy.

The Roman Republic wages countless wars
and with every victory prisoners are

captured. The cities swell and enslaved
people now make up more than a quarter

of the population of Rome.

According to our literature, if the
enslaved population of Rome were to

They'd have either a numerical advantage
over the rest of the population or

something that's not far off that.

It was speculated that the population of
Rome might be somewhere around a

million and between 30 -40 % in Rome is
enslaved.

That's an awful lot of people.

Traditionally, Rome has not put a lot of
stake or value in conflicts with the

enslaved.

The enslaved are not valued as
honourable opponents.

This is to change with Spartacus.

Spartacus is seen as a very good
organised leader.

What he'd learned before as a soldier
would have helped him plan a campaign,

organise men.

skills that made you a really successful
gladiator, which is really becoming a

showman, will have helped him provide
leadership to what becomes effectively a

very large army.

Spartacus sets up a kind of pseudo
-military arrangement where he's got

gladiators from the Ludus who are
serving underneath him as kind of his

lieutenants. Crixus is certainly
somebody who seems to be a leader

Spartacus.

He seems to be somebody that Spartacus
values.

The Roman armies begin chasing them.

So the Romans, to start off with, send a
small body of troops, and they get

defeated.

The Romans send a bigger army and a
bigger army, but even they are defeated.

Spartacus had military experience, and
that was very helpful to them.

They've sent multiple military leaders
against Spartacus' forces who have

failed. So it's a huge issue.

The priority, militarily, is to keep
this under wraps.

The elite Roman military leaders and
commanders are talking about it because

they're like, this is a problem that we
really need to deal with. And as an

extension of that, their soldiers know
that this is a problem.

And this is how the reputation of
Spartacus begins to spread.

And more and more enslaved people join
him until he's got thousands of men,

anything from 60 to 100 ,000.

Spartacus enjoys victory after victory
after victory.

But when little groups break off from
his army that's when they tend to face

defeat or problems of some kind.

Spartacus is caught in a war against the
Roman Republic.

As his army tracks north, Crixus has
eased

and is defeated by Roman forces.

When news of his death reaches
Spartacus, he seeks vengeance.

He has captured soldiers by these
gladiators.

What he's trying to do here is humiliate
them and to give the Romans a taste of

their own medicine.

So after these various conflicts, Rome
is taking Spartacus seriously.

Spartacus really produces an enormous
fear in the Romans.

People would have thought, there are a
lot of enslaved people in Roman society,

what happens if they all rise up?

They put one of the wealthiest Roman
politicians in charge of the conflict.

Marcus Licinius Crassus.

The Roman military has underestimated
Spartacus. But with immense wealth at

disposal, Crassus is able to raise a
fierce army that could finally crush

Spartacus and his rebel troops.

Spartacus and his army face growing
danger.

Having won impressive victories on the
battlefield, they now face the powerful

General Crassus, who has been appointed
by Rome to end the uprising once and

for all.

Crassus is a very rich man, and he's
also a military general.

Crassus was really pursuing power.

Being sent to face this massive army.

And his military strategy does outweigh
that of Spartacus.

Crassus manages to pin them down in the
very toe of Italy.

Build a wall, shuts them in.

There's a siege at this point.

Spartacus is fighting hand -to -hand
combat.

They try to escape, but they can't.

And in the final battle he is killed.

Spartacus has been defeated.

He is killed in battle.

As far as we know, his body is not
recovered.

His remaining troops, six thousand of
them, are captured.

The Romans made a huge example out of
Spartacus and his followers.

Six thousand people were crucified along
the Appian Way from Capua to Rome.

Thousands of enslaved and free people
were killed in this conflict.

Their corpses would have hung there for
months and been a real cautionary tale

to anybody who felt that they could
resist Roman power.

The crucifixions mark the end of the
uprising.

Rome has triumphed over Spartacus and
his army of gladiators.

However, his actions...

will never be forgotten.

The rebellion by Spartacus really shook
Rome.

This revolt produces a real
transformation in attitudes to the

enslaved and to gladiators and the
restrictions on sizes of gladiatorial

training schools.

You can't have too many gladiators in
one place rather than sort of risking

breaking out.

The Senate put a limit on the number of
gladiators that you can use.

They're worried that this will be a
threat to the safety of Rome itself.

What would happen if all of these
enslaved people in the Roman world rose

against their masters, as Spartacus
does?

It's one of the great mysteries how
Spartacus could have his jailbreak

into a full -scale rebellion.

His strategy is testament to his skill
as a leader.

He has become such an important symbol
for this kind of uprising.

He becomes this really famous name
because we have this rebellion.

Spartacus is the only gladiator we know
of who has a career beyond the

gladiatorial arena.

And for that he's remembered.

When people mention the name Spartacus,
the first thing we think of is Spartacus

the Gladiator.

But he's more famous, I think, as
someone who has come to stand for

freedom from oppression, freedom from
enslavement.

That's his legacy more in the modern
world.

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