I’ve taken the job of writing about conflicts and relationships amongst the characters as they appear in the Spartacus series. We have more characters to add to the list in Part I. This is going to be a drip-drip post, I’ll add material as I refresh my memory of the series.
9. Tiberius Crassus, son of Marcus Licinius Crassus
-Tiberius is impulsive and demanding.
-has low regards for slaves, including Spartacus, the enemy.
-he humiliates and degrades his father’s favorite female slave and concubine, Kore -which eventually leads him to his death.
-The act of “Decimation” ordered by his father makes him into a worse version of himself, after he loses his friend to it, Sabinus.
A fractured character, in pain, gets worse, not better. However his father sees “new growth” after his trials with the decimation tradition.
What of the disparity between real and imagined vis-a-vis Tiberius’s hardening ? Crassus the father was no fool. What’s going on ?
Quote of the day: “A snake, by nature, favors maneuvering upon its belly.” -Vettius speaking of Batiatus, Spartacus
“As they pursue Spartacus, Tiberius repeatedly questions and contradicts everything Caesar says and actually supports his father after he beats Senator Metellus in a fit of rage. This prompts Caesar to blackmail him over the rape of Kore which caused her flight that broke Crassus’s heart. When Crixus makes for Rome, he urges his father to pursue Spartacus rather than defend Rome, which Caesar suggests defending. After taking their leave from Crassus, the two of them fall to a heated argument during which Caesar reveals that he learned the truth of Kore’s rape. Tiberius smashes a flagon in Caesar’s face and attacks him. The tribune easily bests him but is assaulted by the Praetorian Guard that protects Tiberius. They restrain Caesar, who Tiberius rapes, threatening to speak of it if Caesar reveals what he has learned.”- Spartacus Wikia
The rivalry between Tiberius and Caesar escapes Crassus. Or does it ? What if Marcus Crassus, as most leaders do, liked what he saw ? That rivalry in the end leads to Tiberius’s demise.
The Greater Good
In the episode “The Greater Good” Spartacus answers the question, should you sacrifice the one for the sake of the many ?
Spartacus: “A lie for the greater good. One that would not have been if it was your brother Duro [in the mines]. If a single life holds no value than none are of worth !“
The Fall of Spartacus
What caused the fall of Spartacus ? Or better yet, how did each of them, Crixus, Gannicus, Spartacus, fall ?
Their fall was a result of being overwhelmed by numbers. You’ve had tens of Romans leaping at them. The Law of the Greater Numbers.
In a way, the Fall of Spartacus was inevitable. Too many flanks exposed, exhaustion.
It took a long time and a twisted road for Gannicus to join Spartacus
There were twists and turn before Gannicus joined Spartacus. Gannicus was opposed to Spartacus’s uprising, whose cause he saw as foolish. Ganincus came to to the rebels camp to seek Oenomaus’s forgiveness, then left. Gannicus was unconvinced even after after having had the chance to speak with Spartacus in private. It was life’s unforgiving hand that would eventually make him change his mind. Gannicus declines to join Glaber’s army when asked to do so, then takes the opportunity to kidnap Glaber’s wife to bring her to Spartacus. Gannicus believed that if Spartacus exacted vengeance on Glaber’s wife Spartacus would cease his rebellion. However, Spartacus doesn’t kill Ilythia who was his prisoner. He releases her.
Spartacus: “Yet in inflicting equal wound,
How do I not become,
The Man himself,
The Man who my wife,
Would turn away from ?”
Gannicus begins to take part in Spartacus’s rounds because “If Oenomaus believes in it, perhaps he shall too.”
10. Gaius Claudius Glaber,Legatus-Commander in the Roman Army
-Main Roman antagonist in the second series; Spartacus’s slave maker.
-Ambitious, he later gets the title of Roman “Praetor” [general]
“Unpopular among many of his nobleman; Albinius looks down upon Glaber, Seppius and Varinius have a bitter rivalry with the Praetor, Varis and Cossutius do not have any love lost for him, and the Senate is disappointed in Glaber’s results in hunting down Spartacus. However, Glaber does seem to be on good terms with his Tribune Marcus and Magistrate Gallienus. Glaber does show affection for llithyia when he is not busy or stressed, but is as easily quick to disown her when she endangers his standing.” -Spartacus Wikia
-Forms a gladiator anti-rebel army spearheaded by the renegade Ashur
With Crassus. you have classic willful blindness. Agreed ?
Perhaps. Crassus wanted, and orchestrated, a change in his son. That maturity streak.
Did he think having Julius Caesar around, a much more experienced man, would be of no consequences ?
He casted the die.
Don't complain at the disastrous end.
Good description of this conflict between father and son.
What about women's hypergamy in the series, can you write something on it ?
He, he, I knew that was coming.
On Marcus Crassus, he should have known better about his son.
Harvey Specter (Suits) got it here in this video, where he talks about the father's bully.
Harvey: "It was his God damned job to know".
Hypergamy is on steroids with the Roman noble class women. It's almost as if these Roman women are millennials.
You have Ilithyia, who is married to Glaber, taking a shot at the other praetor, Varinius. The crazed hoe wants to dissolve her marriage because Varinius apparently has more influence than Glaber does. (she fails only because her father felled at the attack on the arena, unable to dissolve her marriage). BTW, he was against it. Lucretia "took him under her thighs" to convince him otherwise.
Seppia wants Varinius, too. She is the youngest and possibly most beautiful of the Roman women. When she fails to get Varinius, and while Glaber is alone, his wife captured by Gannicus…Seppia gets to work on Glaber. And work she does.
These women, if they're not trying to get the best men on the lot, they're not doing anything.
Now, the "sleeping with the gardener/fitness instructor" was going on during those times as well…the gardener being the slave gladiators. Roman women had to have some of those goods. It wasn't "beneath" them. AFBB.