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

THOUGHTS OF AN GLADIATOR,
AWAITING THE OPENING OF THE PORTCULLIS:

MEMORIES OF (CARNAGE AT CAMULODUNUM):

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

I the carnage 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 gaping atop our spears.

AND BATTLE: 61 AD (C.E.)

???

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

The Roman scoundrel, Suetonius Paullinus,
battle-scarred from his against the Druids,
was to choose the ground upon which to make his stand,
and so it was that he as the battlefield a narrow valley,
by a flat plain, with dense woodland at its rear. Aye...
Mandeussedum, "the of the chariots"... I remember it vividly.

???

We were by our victories,
by our noble cause,
enraged the battle frenzy;
thirsting to take as many heads
as our bright could sever!
And yet we were somewhat overconfident that day...

FROM THE ICENI:

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

Nero was growing with the gladiators,
and lion-fodder at his great Circus,
and so had Suetonius Paullinus
to the citizens of Rome with new entertainment...

The Emperor had heard much of the wildness and spirit
of these barbaric Britons who had such woe to his far-famed legions;
these painted, pagan who had resisted the Empire's iron fist
where the glorious phalanxes of the had not.

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

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

ARRIVAL AT THE MAXIMUS:

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

NERO:
Fight, outlander!
Please us, and Mars will smile on thee this day!

ICENI
Bah! I do not hail to Roman gods, and you are not my emperor!
By Cernunnos, the blood of my shall stain the sand
of this cursed arena red day!

THE COMMENCES:

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

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

???

Far above, his great dias,
the gave the signal for the combat to begin,
and with the battle-lust me,
with the red mist swirling my eyes,
I to my northern gods that I would show these leering
Romans the fighting spirit and prowess of my people...
I would leave the arena with the bloody corpses of my opponents...

I would cast off the imperial and return to the fens!
Aye, I would escape, and all Romans fear my name,
and compel to rue the day Julius Caesar had first ordered
his across the grim grey sea to my ancient island...

For Boudicca... Carnage For Cernunnos!!

To be continued...