Arena Read online

  Calamus nodded at the veteran. ‘That will be all, Amadocus.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ the Thracian replied, no discernible expression on his face.

  Pavo watched Amadocus march back towards the huddle of veterans as Calamus glared at the new recruits. The doctore took a deep breath and turned his head in the direction of a balcony overlooking the courtyard. ‘Now stand upright, the lot of you. Your lanista, Vibius Modius Gurges, wishes to introduce himself.’

  Calamus stepped aside. Pavo craned his neck and saw a figure float into view on the balcony. He had thin lips, and eyes set deep into their sockets. His skin was stretched tightly across his small face. He rested his hands on the balcony plinth and stared curiously at Pavo for a moment before addressing the men.

  ‘Calamus is your mentor, your doctore. He will turn some of you into legends of the arena, gods willing,’ he said, flicking his eyes from Pavo over the rest of the group. ‘But I am your master. I own you, body and soul. All of you have made a solemn promise to me to be burned, bound, beaten and killed by the sword. Some of you will fulfil that promise before the year is out. A lucky few will live a little longer. Most Romans consider you the dregs of humanity. But I don’t.’ Gurges raised his head to the heavens, then clasped his hands in front of his face. ‘In fact, I envy you.’

  He paused and sucked in a deep breath. ‘I envy you because you get the chance to die a glorious death. In Rome, as some of you might know, there is no greater honour. Crowds will cheer your name. Women will want to be with you. Even some men will want to be you. Children will talk of your legend for years after your blood has run dry.’

  A wicked smile tickled the corners of Gurges’s mouth as a slave emerged carrying a silver tray with a single wine goblet balanced on top. The lanista scooped it up and toasted the recruits. ‘To your success,’ he said. ‘Or not.’

  He drained the wine in a single gulp, then nodded to Calamus. ‘As you were.’

  ‘Back to training!’ Calamus barked at the gladiators. ‘New recruits at the palus. Move it!’

  Pavo paced with a heavy heart towards the wooden posts located in the middle of the training ground. The posts were a short step from a sundial used to time the length of each exercise. Training like a common legionary, he thought. His privileged life as a tribune in the Sixth Legion suddenly seemed a distant dream.

  ‘Not you, rich boy,’ the doctore ordered. Pavo stopped in his tracks and shot a puzzled look at Calamus.

  ‘Is there a problem?’

  ‘The lanista wants a word,’ Calamus replied.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A household slave ushered Pavo down a wide passageway with a vaulted ceiling painted in bright colours. At the end the slave turned left and stopped outside a bronze-panelled door with posts sheathed in carved marble. An intricate mosaic on the floor depicted a gladiator combat between a pair of lightly armoured fighters with whips.

  At that moment the door swung open and Pavo lifted his eyes from the mosaic. The lanista stood in the doorway. Up close, he looked even shorter and thinner than he had on the balcony, Pavo thought, as if he had shrivelled up. His arrogant demeanour had disappeared. Now a serious, dark expression was cast over his features.

  ‘Come in,’ Gurges said.

  Pavo followed the lanista into an office with contrasting marble tiles covering the floor, and richly decorated walls. The lanista eased himself on to a chair behind an oak desk and nodded to his slave.

  ‘Fetch more wine. The Falernian. Not that piss I ply my guests with.’

  The slave shuffled outside. Gurges leaned back in his chair. Pavo stood in front of the desk, his arms resting by his sides.

  ‘I am the lanista of the oldest and grandest ludus in Paestum,’ Gurges said. ‘Well, the oldest, though perhaps no longer the grandest. Fucking hard to make an honest living these days.’

  Pavo said nothing, unsettled by the lanista’s loose tongue. He saw that Gurges’s eyes were glazed and it occurred to Pavo that this probably wasn’t the lanista’s first drink of the day. Gurges folded his arms behind the back of his head and pushed out his bottom lip.

  ‘The high priests might turn their noses up at my work, but when it comes to keeping the mob happy, they need people like me. Men who live and work among the lowest scum Rome has to offer, looking for a champion.’

  The slave returned with a fresh goblet of wine. Like everything else in the lanista’s home, it appeared expensive and crass. Gurges admired the goblet for a moment. Then he said to the slave, ‘Fetch Calamus. I want an update on the injured gladiators.’

  ‘Yes, master,’ the slave replied and quickly departed from the study. Gurges took a gulp of wine, and set the cup down on the desk with a sharp rap. A few drops splashed over the oak. His eyes were wide and angry as they fixed on Pavo.

  ‘You can handle a sword, from what I hear.’

  Pavo shrugged. ‘Well enough.’

  ‘Good. I trust you’re aware of the deal I cut with that slippery Greek?’

  ‘Pallas,’ Pavo muttered through clenched jaws. ‘The snake.’

  ‘You’re to die within the year, for twenty thousand of the Emperor’s sestertii. I’ll honour the deal, because I’m a man of my word. But there’s nothing from Pallas to dictate what I do with you in the interim. For one year you belong to me, body and soul. And for that year, you’ll fight. A lot. I intend to pitch you into the arena at every opportunity. And I expect you to win. I know what you posh lads are like, I’ve had a few pass through my ludus in my time. One boy, he shoved his head through the wheels of the cart on the way to a fight. Chose to snap his bloody neck in half rather than face the arena, and left me out of pocket, the selfish prick.’

  Pavo took a deep breath. ‘There’s only one man I want to face. The man who killed my father.’

  Gurges stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘And who might that be?’

  ‘Hermes of Rhodes,’ said Pavo icily. ‘The Emperor ordered my father to fight him to the death in the arena. Hermes showed him no mercy or respect. Disembowelled him, then cut off his head and paraded it around the arena like a trophy. He disgraced my father and my family name in front of thousands. I will fight him, and I will have my revenge.’

  Gurges steepled his fingers on the desk and studied the son of the legate in silence. ‘Hermes, eh?’ he said after a long pause. ‘That won’t be easy to arrange. Hermes is officially retired now. He only comes out into the arena for a hefty fee. We’re talking a hundred thousand sestertii.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Pavo said. ‘I’ll find a way.’

  Gurges picked at a morsel of food lodged in his teeth. Pulling his finger out of his mouth, he rubbed the morsel between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Arrogant lad, aren’t you?’

  ‘No,’ Pavo said. ‘Just wronged.’

  A chill gripped Pavo as an image flashed across his mind of Hermes lying prostrate on the arena floor, blood spilling from his slit throat. He burned with rage. His father had been humiliated in the arena. His family’s wealth had been seized by Claudius and pumped into the imperial coffers. Pavo’s son, Appius, had vanished and he feared the worst. The child could have been sold into slavery or butchered in some dark alley, joining his mother Sabina – who had died during childbirth – in the afterlife. Pavo had been stripped of his position as tribune and condemned to a barbaric death. He had nothing left to live for, except the prospect of killing Hermes.

  ‘Perhaps we can come to an arrangement,’ Gurges said. Calamus arrived and waited patiently by the study door. ‘If you earn me some good victories, I may be able to help you in your quest to fight Hermes.’

  Pavo said nothing.

  ‘Give it some thought,’ Gurges continued. ‘In the meantime, watch your back. Some of the gladiators in this ludus are prisoners of war. One or two might even have been captured by your old man. As for the rest, well …’ He swept his arms across his desk as if clearing away imaginary clutter. ‘Let’s just say they don’t like high-born brats like you intruding on the
ir ludus.’

  He reached for his wine cup and raised it to his lips, forgetting that he’d already emptied it. Frowning, he rose abruptly from his seat as Calamus brushed past Pavo. The doctore watched the recruit depart down the passageway. Once he was out of earshot, he turned to the lanista.

  ‘He’s trouble, that one,’ Calamus grumbled. ‘We should just be rid of him.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Gurges replied, flattening out a slight crease in his tunic. ‘Times are hard. We haven’t had a champion since the great Proculus, seven bloody long years ago.’

  Calamus made to reply, but Gurges levelled his eyes with the doctore and cut in before he could speak. ‘With his raw talent and the fame of his family name, crowds will flock to see Pavo. We’ll fill the arena ten times over.’ He looked back down the passageway at Pavo’s shrinking figure. ‘He could save us. And gods know, we need a new champion. Either that, or we go out of business. Now, tell me how the injured gladiators in the infirmary are faring. The useless bastards …’

  Calamus stabbed at the sky, as if drawing blood from the bellies of the clouds.

  ‘This is a sword,’ the doctore said. ‘Look at it. Admire the blade. Consider the craftsmanship that has gone into making such a fine weapon.’ He smiled for a moment before making a thrusting motion at the recruits. ‘Now imagine the point puncturing your ribcage,’ he said. ‘Cutting through your flesh.’ He twisted the sword in his hand. ‘Carving up your vitals.’

  He held the weapon outstretched and pointed the tip at Pavo, who stood at the end of the line. Pavo felt the other recruits’ eyes burning holes in him. In the shadows beneath the balcony he could see the veteran fighters occasionally throwing angry stares at him between training exercises. Word of his privileged upbringing had spread quickly, Pavo realised. Since arriving in the ludus, he had learned that most of the men in the gladiator school were prisoners of war, slaves or criminals. There was a sprinkling of freedmen volunteers, men of lowly status and desperate circumstances willing to accept the stain on their characters inflicted by becoming a gladiator in exchange for a chance of glory and money. But all the men were of a much lower social status than Pavo. He knew from long experience in the Sixth that nothing bred resentment like an upper-class accent. Still, he had been at the ludus for less than a day, and already the trainer and most of the recruits despised him. It must be some kind of record, he thought moodily, as he took a deep breath and pretended not to notice.

  ‘A gladiator only gets to use a real sword when he fights in the arena, since no Roman worth his salt trusts a gladiator with a real sword in the ludus. You have that ungrateful wretch Spartacus to thank for that.’

  The doctore squinted at the sun gleaming off the sword.

  ‘Plenty of you may know about Spartacus. Some of you may even admire the bastard,’ he said, staring down the barrel of his bulbous nose at the recruits. ‘Don’t. Spartacus fought as a gladiator, received three square meals a day and a warm bed, and instead of seeking glory in the arena, he chose to piss it all away. When he died, six thousand of his followers were crucified along the road to Capua, so you can see how well that worked out. Learn from me, and you might end up better off than old Spartacus. One or two of you may live long enough to taste freedom.’

  Calamus plunged the sword into the sand and pointed at the dozen wooden posts to his right. They were arranged in two rows of six, spaced two sword-widths apart, one post for each new recruit, standing at roughly the same height as a tall Roman.

  ‘Until you prove yourselves worthy of the brotherhood, you will practise at the palus using a wooden sword. You will practise day and night. You will practise in your sleep. You will practise until your arms drop off. From this day on, your life is nothing but this palus,’ Calamus tapped the nearest post on the head, like a star student, ‘and your sword. Bucco!’

  ‘Yes, sir?’

  The doctore puckered his brow. ‘Extra rations for the men if you can tell me what this wooden post really is.’

  Bucco wiped his forehead. Pavo watched the other recruits glaring at him with hungry eyes, willing him to get the right answer so they could fill their empty bellies.

  ‘Come on then, fatso,’ Calamus growled. ‘I don’t have all fucking day.’

  ‘A wooden post?’ Bucco ventured between snatches of breath.

  Calamus looked ready to explode.

  ‘A … post? Fuck me, Bucco, you’re even thicker than you look. And believe me, from where I’m standing, that is no mean feat.’

  Calamus took an angry step towards Bucco, and for a moment Pavo thought the trainer might thrash him with his whip. Instead he grabbed Bucco by the fleshy folds of his neck and hauled him in front of the nearest palus, venting his anger.

  ‘This is no post. This is the palus! This is your sworn enemy! This is the merchant who stole your girlfriend and the father who kicked you senseless when he came home pissed every night. You will learn to hate the palus with every bone in your body. Despise it. Unleash your rage on it, and it will reward you by making you a decent swordsman.’

  Calamus released Bucco and shoved him back towards the line of recruits as he turned to address the group.

  ‘You will all be assigned your own palus. Each man will paint a face on his. Not the face of your girlfriend – or boyfriend for you, Bucco – but someone you truly hate. You will stab your sword at that face every day, until your rage has been channelled fully. Bucco!’

  ‘Yes, sir?’

  Pavo looked on as the doctore pointed at Bucco. ‘Let’s see if you’ve learned anything in your miserable little life.’

  The recruit cautiously approached the nearest palus, which had a practice sword lying beside it. The silence was broken only by the clashing thud of wood against wood as the veteran gladiators battled each other in pairs at the other end of the courtyard. Bucco didn’t strike Pavo as a natural gladiator. But he had bulk, and some of the better gladiators he had seen in the arena carried a reasonable amount of fat on them. More flesh to protect their vitals. One of two were even obese. Perhaps he will surprise me, Pavo thought.

  ‘Come on,’ Calamus barked with barely disguised contempt. ‘Don’t just stand there gawping at the sword like it’s a bit of posh cunny. Pick it up.’

  Bucco tentatively picked up the sword. His shoulder sagged as he struggled with the weight of it. Lifting it in a two-handed grip, he puffed out his cheeks as he aimed at a low point on the post, swiping the sword in a wide arc from his side rather than bringing it over his head with a reckless slashing motion. The point of the sword clattered meekly into the post four feet off the ground. It was an almost apologetic thrust. Pavo winced as the doctore looked on in disgust.

  ‘Gods below,’ Calamus fumed. ‘You’re trying to slay a man, not touch him up.’ He snatched the sword back from Bucco. ‘Maybe tomorrow you can show me how to dress like a Greek as well as fight like one.’

  Pavo watched Bucco sink back into line. He looked crestfallen. Calamus cast his eyes over the rest of the recruits. ‘Who wants to see if they can do better than the toga-lifter, then?’

  No one spoke up. The doctore settled his cold grey gaze on Pavo. ‘Rich boy! Get your arse over here.’

  A tense atmosphere fell over the recruits as Pavo stepped forward and wrapped the fingers of his right hand around the grip. The training sword was surprisingly heavy. Much heavier than a real blade, he thought. He stood level with the palus, his feet planted shoulder-width apart. He took a deep breath. He felt a heft in his arm muscles as he lifted the sword. In the same breath he felt his heart burn with resentment at the humiliation that had been inflicted upon his family since Claudius had come to the throne. He grasped the sword so tightly his knuckles whitened. The palus disappeared. Instead Pavo saw the figure of Hermes standing in front of him. An uncontrollable frenzy washed over the recruit as he suddenly dropped his right shoulder and twisted his torso, thrusting the sword against the palus with such force that both post and weapon shuddered. In t
he same blur of motion Pavo retracted his arm, angling his wrist so that his thumb was perpendicular to the ground, and thrust near the top of the palus at the point of an imaginary neck. There was a crack as the post shuddered. Pavo quickly launched a third attack lower down, driving the point of the sword into the groin area. Calamus waved for him to stop. The son of the legate took a step back from the post, his muscles inflamed as he stared coldly at three coin-sized divots on the post.

  A bout of silence swept like the shadow of a cloud across the training ground. His veins pulsing, Pavo retreated a couple more steps from the palus and let the sword clatter to the ground.

  ‘Well, that wasn’t completely shit.’ The doctore pursed his lips. He made a point of not looking at Pavo. ‘Right, I’ve seen enough for one day. It’s fair to say none of you will be giving me nightmares about my own proud record in the arena. Remove yourselves to the barracks. We resume tomorrow at dawn. Anyone late to roll call will be flogged and given half-rations for the day. Dismissed!’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘About bloody time!’ Bucco announced to Pavo as half a dozen lightly armoured guards ushered the new recruits under the east-facing portico and down a gloomy corridor. From a room up ahead to the left, Pavo could hear the crackle of meat sizzling on a grill. Bucco patted his belly in anticipation and beamed at Pavo. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.’

  Bucco licked his lips as he drew near to the cookhouse entrance. Pavo peered inside and looked on longingly as several slaves toiled over a side of pork hanging above a large grill. He feasted his eyes on bowls of sweet figs, grilled mushrooms layered with cheese, and a mouth-watering assortment of pickled fruit, all carefully arranged on silver trays, together with cakes dripping with honey and a large bunch of freshly picked grapes. His empty belly rumbled with hunger.