Chapter 39 Premiere in Turmoil (2)

　The Peterson Theater was packed with people waiting for the premiere of Spartacus to begin. For a theater located near the St. Antoine's district, the Petersen Theater was not very large, the backstage was very cramped, and Armand had included a song team in the script for the soundtrack chorus. There was no way for these people to hide backstage - backstage was already jam-packed with a portion of the instruments tucked away beyond the dressing rooms. There was no choice but to place the song team in the audience. The auditorium of the Petersen Theater was also not very big, it only had more than three hundred seats, and there were no boxes or anything else at all. The singing group took up another twenty seats, resulting in the audience not even having three hundred seats.

　　Of course, there was an advantage to having such a small theater, and that was that it was especially easy to fill up. Armand had been bragging about his new play for a long time, and he had a lot of friends, and his friends alone came in dozens, plus some of his friends mobilized, plus Armand pulled in a little bit of sponsorship from the Duke of Orléans, so he announced that the premiere was free of charge, and as a result, the Petersen Theatre, which originally could only hold three hundred people, was packed with almost six hundred, and there were still more people trying to squeeze in. In order to let them in, the theater manager simply decided to remove all the seats in the theater and let everyone stand. But since there was no charge, the entire theater was still packed to the rafters. Coupled with the fact that the lower class people were not very polite, the whole theater was as lively as a food market. An old lady even carried a hen that she had just bought back from the market and squeezed in.

　　Spartacus began in this kind of hustle and bustle. The first act opens with Spartacus facing off in the arena with a small band of gladiators and another band of gladiators led by his friend Enormae. And off to the side, the presiding officer of the gladiatorial event announces, "The generous Crassus has decided that the victor of this battle, who has slain his foe, will become a free man!" Immediately afterward, the two teams fought for "freedom", and people continued to fall, and soon Spartacus and Enomae were the only ones left standing. However, Enomae was already injured and could only barely stand, and his small shield had been lost in the previous fight, making it almost impossible for him to fight effectively. His opponent, and his best friend, Spartacus, on the other hand, was still almost unharmed. Victory seemed to be out of reach.

　　"Kill him, kill him!" The actor playing the gladiatorial spectator shouted.

　　"Spartacus, come on, kill me and you're free." Enormae knew that even at his best, he was more than likely no match for Spartacus, a guy who had already won over a hundred victories in the gladiatorial arena. Not to mention, he was already injured at this point.

　　"Opportunities like this don't come around very often," Enomae said, "and it's rare that Crassus is generous; otherwise, with that new master of yours, Akzion's miserly nature, you'd never get another chance to become a free man if you missed this one. If I were you, I would never let this opportunity pass."

　　"No." Spartacus said, "I would not kill my own friend. If I would have wielded a sword against my own friends, I would have been a citizen of Rome by now."

　　With these words, Spartacus ignored the shouts around him, sheathed his sword, turned and prepared to leave.

　　"Kill him! Or you'll wait for the whip!" Someone shouted.

　　"Lowly slave!" Someone cursed.

　　"I knew he was a sissy!" An audience member scorned. Playing Spartacus in the premiere was Louis, a friend of Armand's, who had no problem with his body, but his face was so handsome that he was even a bit of a girl, to the point where he seemed unsuitable for a role like Spartacus.

　　"Go to hell!" Enomae suddenly shouted, stumbling towards Spartacus, who had his back turned, brandishing his short sword.

　　Spartacus let Enomae's sword pass with a flick of his wrist, and at the same time slammed his elbow smoothly into Enomae's chest, and Enomae dropped his short sword and fell to the ground in agony.

　　"Kill me!" Enomayi gasped.

　　"No, I won't take your bait. I will not wield a sword against a friend."

　　In the scene that follows again, the whipped Spartacus is with the other surviving gladiators, who ask him why he didn't kill Enomae so that he would be free. Spartacus still replies, "I do not wield my sword against my friends." But Crixus, the other gladiator, coldly points out that his insistence is useless, for Enormae will soon die in the next fight for the entertainment of the public: "It is said that a very few gladiators are ever given the chance to become free men, or to leave the arena. But of such lucky ones, I have seen none. Even, with the exception of you, Spartacus, I have never seen a gladiator survive more than three years. Spartacus, you are an invincible warrior, having won over a hundred battles, whether against men or tigers and lions, but do you really think you can stay alive in the gladiator ring?"

　　Those words silenced everyone, and finally someone said, "Unless we escape!"

　　"But who can lead us to escape?" Another asks.

　　In Act II, Spartacus escapes from the Gladiator School with a group of gladiators, and they try to flee north, out of Rome, but the Roman soldiers keep coming after them. Many of the gladiators died on the way out, and finally they had to turn south and hide in the mountains of Vesuvius.

　　It was on this flight that Spartacus came to the conclusion that "slaves cannot be truly free by mere flight; only by overthrowing slavery, in which man oppresses man and man enslaves man, can slaves be truly free. Our goal should not just be to try to evade the Roman soldiers, but to destroy Rome and free all the slaves. Only when all the slaves are free can we truly be free ourselves!"

　　As Spartacus spoke these words to the dozens of exhausted companions that remained, in the background, the orchestra began to play the melody of that new war song of Josephus, beginning with a low and mournful prelude that sank in like a low-hanging cloud before a storm. Then the somber first theme began to play, and the music was subdued and determined, ending each bar with a heavy accent, like a heavy rain falling from the sky, or a rumbling war drum.

　　To the sound of this music Spartacus's speech continued: 'I know, my friends, my brothers, that you will be doubtful, that you will say, 'Rome has so many soldiers, who are well-trained, well-equipped, and well-organized; how can we, with so few men, fight against the whole of Rome? '

　　But I say, fear not, my brothers, what have we to fear? We have nothing to fear! For what can be more painful, more terrible, than the life we have lived in this life? What is there for us to fear when we live like pigs and are trampled like dirt? Do we have anything more to lose? Is there anything left for us to hold on to in our lives?

　　Friends, brothers, if there is anything we can lose in battle, the only thing we can lose is the chains that bind us, but once we are victorious, what we have won is a whole world! A new, new world where no one can oppress or enslave anyone anymore! Cheer up, my brothers, it is Rome that should be afraid, the slavers, the vampires! We, we need not fear!"

　　The theater fell silent. The uneducated lowlifes stopped talking, and they all stared with eager eyes at the actor playing Spartacus, listening to his powerful speech and nodding silently. Someone whispered, "True, we, we are not kings, we are not nobles, what have we but chains? What have we to fear?"

　　The remaining gladiators revived their spirits. Thereafter they continued to raid nearby estates to liberate the slaves there, and as slaves who had escaped from other regions fled to Vesuvius, Spartacus and his friends continued to gain new victories, and their ranks now numbered in the thousands. Spartacus' friend Enormae also joined the insurgents during this time. Under Spartacus' auspices, the slaves had even established a true, democratic system based on the equality of all men.

　　"This is so, so good, it's like a dream." Offstage, an audience member couldn't help but whisper.

　　"It's almost like the archangels are speaking. I kind of understand how they got a girl to star as a general." Another audience member said.

　　"Isn't it? I bet it's God's heaven, and it doesn't get any better than this." Another spectator responded in a low voice. Then he hurriedly drew a cross on his chest, "Lord, forgive me."

　　"It's good that all people are equal, that there is no more aristocracy, no more privileged classes. But are men and women equal ... Is it still possible for women to press on top of men?" Others said this.

　　But immediately afterward the plot was tense again. In order to destroy them, Rome sent an officer called Claudius, with three thousand well equipped soldiers, to come and besiege them. With the assistance of local slavers, these guys killed their way into Vesuvius. Lacking weapons and supplies, the insurgents had trouble holding off the Roman soldiers in a frontal battle, and they fell back, eventually being surrounded on top of a treacherous mountain. In front of them were Roman soldiers in tight formation, and behind them were cliffs. Spartacus and his insurgents seemed to be at the end of their rope. Even Crixus said, "It seems that this will be the last time of my life. It is good that in these days I am a free man."

　　But in the midst of the desperate situation, a female slave named Agnipe suggested a way: "There are many wild grape vines on this mountain, we can weave these vines into ropes, and then you men can sneak down the mountain along with these ropes and attack those Roman soldiers from behind."

　　"Hmph, just now you still look down on women, without us women, just you stupid men ..." The older woman on the stage who was still holding a chicken in her hand couldn t help but say.

　　Spartacus took Agnippe's advice, and he led the warriors to take advantage of the night to use these ropes to go down the mountain, and then launched a surprise attack from behind, defeating the Roman army in one fell swoop. Waving his short sword in his hand, Spartacus led the slaves in pursuit of the Roman soldiers as he shouted, "Brothers, sing our song!"

　　So to the sound of deep and majestic music, the slaves on the stage sang one such song:

　　"Debout! les damnés de la terre Debout! les forcats de la faim ..."