Luyện nghe bài hát Blood Slakes The Sand At The Circus Maximus

THOUGHTS OF AN GLADIATOR,
AWAITING THE OPENING OF THE ARENA

OF REBELLION (CARNAGE AT CAMULODUNUM):

ICENI
Hearken! The Ninth Legion has put to the sword!
The war-Chief of Queen Boudicca: to Camulodunum...
wet swords! Redden the earth with Roman blood!

I remember the at Camulodunum...
The glorious clash of sword against Roman gladius,
The pride in the eyes of our
As we hacked the Imperial Eagle,
And the severed heads of centurions atop our spears.

AND BATTLE: 61 AD (C.E.)

???

We certainly taught the invading dogs a lesson, at any rate.
The omens and portents of vast bloodshed and great carnage,
and after our slaughterous at Camulodunum (the Temple
of Claudius burned wonderfully!), and Verulanium,
the cursed finally dared to meet us honourably upon the field
of war at Mandeussedum. They fifteen thousand legionaires,
their armour gleaming like gold in the sun... but it still yield to our
and spears, no matter how it sparkled.

The Roman scoundrel, Governor Paullinus,
from his campaigns against the Druids,
was able to choose the ground which to make his stand,
and so it was he selected as the battlefield a narrow valley,
fronted by a plain, with dense woodland at its rear. Aye...
Mandeussedum, "the of the chariots"... I remember it vividly.

???

We swelled by our victories,
empowered by our cause,
enraged with the frenzy;
thirsting to as many Roman heads
as our bright could sever!
And yet we were perhaps overconfident that day...

ABDUCTED FROM THE

In the of our defeat at Mandeussedum,
I was captured by Romans a veiled intent...
(though three of died at my hands in the attempt!)

Nero was growing bored the gladiators,
slaves and lion-fodder at his Circus,
and so had requested Paullinus
to provide the of Rome with new entertainment...

The Emperor had heard much of the wildness and fighting
of these barbaric Britons who had brought such woe to his legions;
these painted, tribesmen who had resisted the Empire's iron fist
the glorious phalanxes of the East had not.

"Agents of the Imperium... to my words", Nero had demanded.
"Bring to some of these tribesman for the Games. Let us pit them
our most ravenous beasts and our greatest gladitorial champions."

And so I was taken in fetters aboard a trireme,
the of slain legionaires still crusted upon my thews,
I was taken far from the of my beloved homeland,
to the sun baked sand of the Circus Maximus...
to fight for my in the Imperial Arena.

AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS:

The Circus Maximus was certainly a sight, I'll admit.
A vast colosseum with stone columns and tiers,
huge ornate arches and statues of grey marble.
Countless people filled the surrounding the sandy floor of the Arena...
and in his opulent royal enclosure, flanked by gleaming
and lackeys, sat the great Emperor himself...

EMPEROR
Fight, outlander!
Please us, and mayhap Mars will on thee this day!

WARRIOR:
Bah! I do not to your Roman gods, and you are not my emperor!
By Cernunnos, the of my enemies shall stain the sand
of this arena red this day!

THE COMMENCES:

They unleashed the lions first. Hunger beasts,
goaded into a frenzy by the cruel point of a pilum...
And yet my own hunger, the for revenge, was greater,
and my steel was sharper than bestial fang and claw.

And so they ranged their warriors against me.
more iron gates around the arena yawned open,
and they strode from the colosseum amidst
a of cheering from the assembled Roman spectators,
urged on and showered with mar tial from the massed
arena crowd, who howled their without cessation.

???

Far above, his great dias,
the gave the signal for the combat to begin,
and with the engulfing me,
with the red mist before my eyes,
I vowed to my northern gods that I would show these
Romans the spirit and battle prowess of my people...
I would leave the arena littered with the corpses of my opponents...

I would cast off the imperial fetters and to the fens!
Aye, I would escape, and make all fear my name,
and Nero to rue the day Julius Caesar had first ordered
his legions across the grim sea to my ancient island...

For Boudicca... Carnage For Cernunnos!!

To be continued...