Chapter 4

Fiona and I settled in and found that most of the gladiators were married, so Fiona had a bunch of women that she could talk to about the problems with their husbands, you know, the standard things that wives talk about.

I got along well with the other men, except, as expected, there were a couple of prima donnas that were sure that I was trying to muscle in on their territory. Hell, I didn't care how many boyfriends they had, and I sure was not interested in joining in, so I just ignored them. I think that may have been what cut them the most. They were not used to being ignored!

About a week after I moved in, I had a chance to "meet" Commodus. There was a formal inspection of the gladiators, and he did spend an inordinate amount of time checking over our sex organs. Maybe he was just checking us as prospective breeding stock, I don't know, but I sure did feel ticklish while he was inspecting me. He never said a word to me, but he did smile just before he walked away. Oh, well, that was not the worst inspection I ever stood, but it did seem to be the silliest!

Most of my time was spent in physical training of some form or other. It seemed that the hobbyist gladiator owners pitted their stables against each other in a game to score points. I was not exactly sure how points were counted, but the battles were not usually to the death, because a competent gladiator was expensive to replace. It seemed to me to be like a game of chess where the winner gloated over his points won, and the loser simmered and plotted ways to regain what he had lost. Strangely, in this game, being Emperor gave Commodus no extra pull, he was just one of the competitors. Of course, he had more money to spend on his hobby than most people, but that made little difference.

The only problem was that if a gladiator lost too many matches, he was shipped out to the provinces somewhere, and the living was not nearly as good there. That was enough incentive to train hard and fight hard, because the living was definitely the best in the palace.

I continued in my role as a Samnite, since I had made such a splash fighting as one, and I happened to be the only one owned by Commodus at that time. This did mean that I had to train harder than most because I was probably going to make the rounds of all of the other gladiator stables fighting their best, at least, until I lost a match.

My first bout as a member of Commodus' stable was against a Mirmillo. The Mirmillo's outfit was much like mine, except he had a smaller, rounded shield and no greave. Supposedly, this gave me a slight advantage, except that I was carrying a lot more weight as a Samnite. That would probably slow me down as the fight ran on, but I hoped to be able to overcome that handicap by being smarter than my opponent.

This time, I was not the featured performer in the day's activities. I figured that it would take a few matches for me to climb to that status, but my victory over Horatio was remembered by the spectators, and the betting was skewed a little toward me. I was a 7:5 favorite, which was so close to even money that I only put down a token 10 sestertii. A lot of money might change hands, but nobody was going to get rich by betting either way.

Iagolo and I met at about mid afternoon. That was not a particularly prestigious time. But it was respectable, so we had nothing to complain about. Other than fighting each other, we only had to be concerned about clearing out in time for the next match, and that was not a big deal. If we were pleasing the crowd, we could go on as long as we wanted to. Only if we were duds would we be whipped out of the stadium.

We entered the arena to the sound of music, which was more in tribute to our owners than to us. Of course, the Emperor was in attendance, so we marched up to salute him. This was simply a bow and a "HAIL, CAESAR!" We marched back nearly to the center of the arena and faced each other. The referee signaled for us to begin, and Iagolo made the first move.

He stabbed at me in almost a contemptuous manner, almost as if he expected me to be fearful of his reputation. I knew he was good, but I didn't think that he was that good. Naturally, I blocked his jab with my shield, but I had to swing around somewhat to accomplish that. In a fit of bravado, I continued to spin 360° and hit him in the side and a little to the back with my shield. I had put some umph behind the slam, and I knocked him off balance. I figured that I had scored a point or two with that maneuver, and Iagolo was not going to be so cocksure from now on. That certainly caught the attention of the audience, and even the Emperor applauded my little maneuver.

There was a decorative boss (knob) on my shield, and this caught Iagolo just below his ribcage. I know it had to have hurt—it was supposed to! A couple of more blows there was going to slow down his sword thrusts, and I hoped to pull this sort of thing again if he gave me the chance. The roll of fat over his ribs and below did moderate the blow somewhat; otherwise, I would probably have broken a rib or two, which would have been a great advantage to me.

Iagolo tried to counter with a wild swing of his sword, but I could see that the hit in the rib area had already had an effect. I don't know if the crowd could see that, but I hoped to take advantage of the situation as soon as I could. The longer it took to put my opponent down, the more chance there was for me to get hurt. I was definitely against that happening!

I really didn't want to kill Iagolo, but I did want to win, so I laid on to his shield with my sword, banging and crashing at it trying to beat it down. It's tiring to hold up a shield for very long, and that was my strategy—to tire out Iagolo if I could without doing the same to myself.

He was a strong man, and I did get a little careless, so he was able to counter with his sword to the point of nicking my side enough to make a little blood flow. The wound was insignificant, but it did show that Iagolo was trying. The match was going to end one way or the other before that small blood loss amounted to anything significant. Again, chalk up one for the virtue of a layer of fat.

It was time for another smack with my shield boss, so I worked my way to his right side, the one with the sword. He did not recognize what I had in mind and simply continued to batter at my shield with his sword. Suddenly, I was close enough and jumped at Iagolo with all of the strength in my legs. The shield boss hit very close to where it had landed the first time, and there was a loud grunt of pain from my opponent. His sword arm dropped, and I was able to stab him in the right shoulder.

This was not a very serious wound, but it was a spectacular one because of the way the blood poured down his arm. There was tremendous cheering from the stands, and the referee signaled the end of the fight. His livelihood depended on not antagonizing the owners and sponsors, so he stopped the fight as soon as he had a good excuse to do so. We had been fighting for 15 minutes or so, and that was a reasonable length for such a bout. The referee looked at the Emperor who signaled with a closed fist, so the bout was officially over, and I was the winner. I was awarded the laurel wreath, and I bowed and waived, first to the Emperor, and then to the rest of the audience.

Actually, I was glad the fight was over, because I was now feeling very tired. I could tell that Iagolo was also relieved as he was taken to the first aid station. As usual, I received a supply of money collected from the audience, but it was not as large as I had received for my defeat of Horatio. I had expected that, so I was not all that disappointed.

I was marched to my cell where Fiona was waiting for me. Her greeting was as enthusiastic as usual, but anything else had to wait while my minor wounds were tended to and I received the massage before my muscles tightened up. Before the masseuse left, I received a message from the Emperor congratulating me on my win and I also got a small bag containing 25 Denarii, the equivalent of 100 Sestertii. That was a nice tip, and I was pleased to receive it.