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

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

OF REBELLION (CARNAGE AT CAMULODUNUM):

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

I the carnage at Camulodunum...
The glorious of Celtic sword against Roman gladius,
The pride in the eyes of our
As we hacked down the Eagle,
And the severed heads of gaping atop our spears.

AND BATTLE: 61 AD (C.E.)

???

We certainly taught the arrogant dogs a lesson, at any rate.
The omens and portents spoke of bloodshed and great carnage,
and our slaughterous victories at Camulodunum (the Temple
of Claudius burned wonderfully!), and Verulanium,
the cursed Romans finally dared to us honourably upon the field
of war at Mandeussedum. sent fifteen thousand legionaires,
their armour gleaming gold in the sun... but it would 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 upon to make his stand,
and so it was that he selected as the battlefield a valley,
fronted by a flat plain, with woodland at its rear. Aye...
Mandeussedum, "the place of the chariots"... I it vividly.

???

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

ABDUCTED FROM THE

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

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

The Emperor had heard much of the wildness and fighting
of these barbaric who had brought such woe to his far-famed legions;
these painted, pagan tribesmen who had resisted the iron fist
the glorious phalanxes of the East had not.

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

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

ARRIVAL AT THE CIRCUS

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

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

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

THE COMMENCES:

They 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 their finest warriors against me.
Three more gates around the arena yawned open,
and they strode from the tunnels amidst
a cacophony of cheering from the assembled spectators,
urged on and showered with mar tial from the massed
arena crowd, who their bloodlust without cessation.

???

Far above, upon his dias,
the gave the signal for the combat to begin,
and the battle-lust engulfing me,
the red mist swirling before my eyes,
I vowed to my northern gods that I would these leering
Romans the spirit and battle prowess of my people...
I would leave the arena littered with the bloody 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...

Blood For Boudicca... For Cernunnos!!

To be continued...