Games of the New Arena

The Games of the New Arena was an event held to celebrate the opening of the new Capua Arena.

The earlier matches in the day were to determine who would fight in the Primus of the event, which took place between the two biggest Ludus in Capua: The House of Batiatus and the House of Vettius. Mom

Games of the New Arena.

ents before the games began, however, Vettius signed over his ludus and role in the games to Solonius.

Houses

The Houses that took part in the games:

• House of Batiatus
• House of Solonius (formerly that of Vettius)

Opponents

Gladiators who took part in the games were:

House of Batiatus

• Crixus (Murmillo)
• Gannicus (Dimachaeri)
• Duratius (Secutor)
• Ashur (Thraex)
• Dagan (Murmillo)
• Gnaeus (Retiarius)
• Narto (Hoplomachus)
• Unnamed Murmillo
• Unnamed Secutor
• A number of minor gladiators

House of Solonius

• Caburus (Murmillo)
• Lysimachus (Murmillo)
• Three unnamed Secutor's
• Unnamed Dimachaeri (carrying two bipennis axes)
• Unnamed Retiarius
• Unnamed Hoplomachus
• Two unnamed Murmillo's
• Unnamed Laquearius
• Two unnamed Thraex
• Several more minor gladiators.

The Games

Morning

Before the games began, there was an execution of four escaped slaves, including the runaway slave Diona and three oth

Diona is executed.

ers (two men and one woman). The executions were carried out by Caburus, of the House of Solonius, and each prisoner was killed by a single sword thrust to the back of the neck.

Afternoon

The afternoon matches, along with a number of minor games beforehand, consisted of :

• Crixus vs. unnamed Thraex
• Ashur vs. Lysimachus
• Dagan vs. unnamed Murmillo
• Gnaeus vs. unnamed Secutor
• Caburus vs. unnamed Murmillo and Secutor
• Gannicus vs. Tasgetius and Synetus

Primus

The Primus occurred in the evening, and featured the Gladiators from each house who had won their matches earlier in the day.

The match saw seven gladiators of Batiatus pitted against thirteen gladiators of Solonius.

The rules were simple:

1. Fight in a ring of fire.
2. Fall out of the ring and you are eliminated.
3. No missio allowed.
4. When the enemy team is eliminated, the surviving gladiators will fight each other to the death (or "ring-out") for the title Champion of Capua.
5. Only one man can win the match.

Results

Afternoon

Batiatus in the afternoon games is seen losing at least one unknown Murmilo and Secutor. Solonius is seen losing several men.

The Primus

13 of Solonius's gladiators vs 7 of Batiatus's gladiators.

The start of the Primus saw many of the gladiators clashing, after a while Narto fighting for the house of Batiatus was killed by Caburus, making for the first kill of the Primus.

Duratius was struck incredibly hard by Caburus's shield and was killed. Dagan was killed by Ashur when they started fighting each other.

During the following minutes, many of Solonius's gladiators were killed. Gnaeus was knocked out of the ring of fire by Caburus. Ashur was injured and thrown out by Crixus when Ashur was about too attempt to kill Gannicus. Crixus was knocked out by Gannicus to prevent Caburus from killing him, living to fight another day but eliminated from the match.

Gannicus and Caburus faced off for a hard and brutal one-on-one fight, but Gannicus emerged as the victor.

Conclusion

Solonius lost all the gladiators he fielded, including Caburus and the other twelve who fought in the Primus.

The survivors of the games were Gnaeus, who when seen in the future in Blood and Sand and by then is one of the best gladiators Batiatus has. Ashur survives though due to the wound Crixus gave him he would not return as a gladiator but as Batiatus's business associate. Crixus becomes Champion of Capua and of The House of Batiatus.

The winner of the Primus was Gannicus, after a long battle against both friend and foe. Gannicus, however never claimed the title of Champion of Capua but was instead given his freedom as a prize (as suggested by Solonius).

Historical context

Unlike the TV series, an arena this size wasn't constructed in Capua until around 100 AD, almost 2 centuries after Spartacus' time. Like in the show, Capua's amphitheatre likely also had opening celebrations, including Gladiator games involving those from every Ludus in or around the city.