The life of a gladiator was one full of hardship and often tragedy, as Starz did an excellent job of conveying with its historical action-drama, Spartacus. While this show had its share of satisfying thrills, fun spectacles, and laugh-out-loud moments, there were more than a few emotional, saddening, and downright gutwrenching, moments.
With such a harsh, rough-and-tumble way of life that permeated the lower class and downtrodden of ancient Roman society, there were many tough, heartbreaking moments for both Spartacus as well as his supporting cast. With this list, we'll reexamine the short, but event-filled run of Spartacus and highlight some of the most somber, cruel, and tear-jerking moments.
10 The Lethal Poisoning Of Oenomaus' Wife Melitta
There are quite a few jaw-dropping moments crammed into the prequel mini-series of Spartacus, called Gods of the Arena. A particularly impactful, pivotal moment involves a double-poisoning at the hands of a scorned Lucretia, who decides to eliminate the threat of the Batiatus house patriarch, Titus.
While she succeeds in getting rid of what she perceives as the "overbearing shadow" to her husband, an unfortunate side effect also sees the accidental poisoning of Oenomaus' loving wife, Melitta, who had swiped her poisoned wine. It's a rather squeamish scene watching his poor innocent woman bereft of life after seconds of struggling to breathe, which is partly relived after seeing the reaction of a stunned Oenomaus when he finds out.
9 Ashur Lashing A Bound Oenomaus
Ashur is one of those underhanded, sleazy characters fans of Spartacus love to hate. Yet, this disgust reaches something of a fever pitch early on in the second season of the show, where we see him pressing and torturing a bound Oenomaus while held in captivity. As what Ashur considers to be payback from receiving his whip when he was a gladiator under Doctore, and as a means of questioning him, he relentlessly whips him.
The sight of this grinning villain harshly lashing the defenseless Oenomaus, the once proud and strong Doctore, makes for a tough scene to swallow and a powerful image - for all the wrong reasons.
8 The Capture And Execution Of Diona
We see a plethora of gore, death, and general destruction in Spartacus, yet it's always particularly tough to see such treatment inflicted on innocent, defenseless characters. Such is the case with the slave girl Diona, a good friend to Naevia within the house of Batiatus. Despite her only real "crime" being her attempt of escaping captivity as a slave forced to bow and scrape before the Batiatus family, she's met with a cruel and saddening punishment.
Not only is she killed by the Romans, but her execution by the sword is used as a twisted sort of entertainment for spectators during the opening ceremonies of the gladiatorial games. It's really quite a hard scene to sit through, especially after seeing the reaction of her good friend on the balcony of the arena.
7 The Tragic End Of Pietros And Barca
The relationship between the Carthaginian Barca and Doctore's assistant Pietros is a rare heartfelt bout amidst darkness and chaos that permeates much of the show. Yet, like much else in Spartacus, it's one that's short-lived and met with a very bitter end.
Thanks to Ashur's manipulation to get his main threat and rival Barca killed by Batiatus, the man is slaughtered, while a shattered Pietros is left to mourn alone. Another gladiator soon exploits the absence of his more physically-capable lover by frequently assaulting him, coaxing a demoralized Pietros to hang himself in his cell. It's really a Shakespearian-level tragedy in some ways that's quite disturbing on multiple levels.
6 The Separation Of Crixus And Naevia
Another powerful love story among many in Spartacus is that of the slave girl Naevia and the typically hard-nosed gladiator, Crixus. The relationship between these two reveals another, softer dimension to this ultra-masculine fighter, and grants them both motivation to keep fighting in their own way.
Like our previous entry, this is met with a bitter end, when Crixus is whipped for "offenses committed against the House of Batiatus," just before his love is quite literally pulled from his arms and sold to another Lanista. The sobbing of this physically and emotionally pained gladiator as she's taken away makes for quite the tear-jerker.
5 The Death Of Spartacus' Good Friend
There are plenty of characters who have their "crosses to bear," as it were, though few more so than Spartacus himself, who has been through a long stint of physical and emotional trauma as well as general hardship. He had literally sweat and bled to merely be able to live as an enslaved gladiator, whilst losing various figures close to him. While he had already lost his wife by this point, the preventable death of his good friend Varro seems to just add insult to injury for both our hero and the audience at large.
In what was meant to be a pure exhibitionist showcase, the child of a prominent Roman figure orders the gladiator dead after being manipulated by the wife of Legatus Glaber, causing Spartacus to break down.
4 The Death Of Spartacus' Wife
One of the biggest motivating factors for our hero to fight on, and indeed, to survive, is to reunite with his wife, who had been taken from him and thrown into slavery by a vengeful Glaber. This motivation shifts to Spartacus looking to mount his own revenge after it's revealed Batiatus had led a conspiracy to bring his wife Sura back to him only to leave her nearly dead upon their reuniting.
The ending of the season 1 episode "Delicate Things" is particularly saddening, as it builds up to what's seemingly a happy reunion between the long-separated Spartacus and Sura. Yet, the high spirits of both our protagonist and the audience only plummet with the tear-jerking realization that she's been fatally wounded, dying in the arms of a sobbing Spartacus.
3 The Rape Of Kore
The heavy emphasis on violence in Spartacus extends to a few gutwrenching bouts featuring sexual assault and rape, making for some scenes which are particularly tough to watch. Perhaps the most prominent example of such a harsh scene comes during the season 3 episode, entitled "Blood Brothers." During this episode, Crassus sends his slave girl Kore to council his aggressive son, Tiberius, only to be violently assaulted and raped by him.
It's a particularly twisted scene considering Kore's typically kind and nurturing nature to the family which had taken on an almost motherly relationship to this point. This wasn't just heartbreaking, but jarringly disturbing to its core.
2 The Loss Of Mira
Spartacus just can't seem to catch a break, nor can the loved ones close to him. As if it wasn't hard enough dealing with the death of his wife, which several episodes had spent time building towards, season 2 sees his new lover, Mira, meet her end as well. And again, it's at the hands of his enemy, the Romans - though in this case, she was at least fighting alongside the rebels.
We had seen Spartacus escape the clutches of Roman captivity and fending off one of the most powerful armies of the ancient world, only to lose yet another huge source of motivation for him. It's particularly sad in that this relationship hadn't quite been fully-realized. Spartacus never truly opened up to Mira, still somewhat getting over the loss of Sura.
1 That Series Finale...
You could say this powerful finale to the emotional roller-coaster ride that is Spartacus is quite bittersweet, with more emphasis on the "bitter." Spartacus manages to go out having cemented his legacy as a heroic rebel fighting for freedom - and leading others to liberation in the process.
Still, seeing the seemingly immortal ex-gladiator eventually meet his end at all, after fighting for so much, and losing another great warrior and friend Crixus, is a bitter pill to swallow. Even considering Spartacus has a few lone survivors making it out alive, it's tough to see so many lost along the way after fighting so hard and passionately.
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