Extreme violence, graphic nudity, and the sight of a man calmly negotiating a slave’s death over appetizers. It is not for the faint of heart—or stomach.
The relationship between Spartacus and his lanista is one of history’s cruelest ironies. For it was the lanista who sought to break Spartacus’s spirit, yet it was the lanista’s own brutal training that forged the weapon Spartacus would eventually turn against Rome. spartacus lanista
To understand the dynamic, one must understand the lanista. In the strict social hierarchy of Rome, the lanista was a paradox. He was a businessman, running a highly lucrative trade school for combat. Yet, he was often viewed with contempt by the upper classes, seen as a butcher who traded in human flesh. Extreme violence, graphic nudity, and the sight of
However, the lanista’s influence did not end with his death or the loss of his property. As Spartacus and his co-leaders, Crixus and Oenomaus, organized their fugitive band into a mobile army, they utilized the very skills the lanista had forced upon them. For it was the lanista who sought to
The most famous lanista in history was (often simply called Batiatus ). He operated a ludus , or gladiatorial school, in the city of Capua . It was Batiatus who purchased Spartacus—a Thracian soldier who had been enslaved—and brought him to his school to be trained for the arena.
John Hannah’s Quintus Lentulus Batiatus is not a villain; he is a hungry man. Unlike the noble patricians of Rome, Batiatus is a social climber trapped in a "shit-hole" of Capua. His lanista role is performed with desperate, Shakespearean ambition. The show’s genius is making us almost sympathize with him—until we remember he owns human beings.