Those About to Die (2024) s01e08 Episode Script

[doors bang and creak]
[Vespasian] And the citizens,
and to serve Rome,
I will bring the glory of our
campaigns No, no, no
[inhales] Um
Hmm
As I have served Rome,
on distant battle fields, no
Yes, what is it?
[Domitian] Oh, um
- Perhaps a suggestion?
- [Vespasian] Yes, words?
Give me the words, you're good with words.
I
Titus Flavius Vespasianus.
I can't hear you, louder!
[clears throat]
[louder] I
Titus Flavius
Vespasianus
[rapid scribbling]
wear an iron ring.
Not gold,
- not silver
- [scribbling continues]
not encrusted with precious stones
Iron. The stuff of the plough.
- and the gladius
- [gentle music playing]
and the bit in the mouths of the mules
my father and grandfather bred.
[exhales, amused]
Emperor Nero of late,
a Patrician
of August family,
he wore gold.
[gentle music continues playing]
[exhales through nose]
He built the Domus Aurea,
the grandest house ever to be built,
on land he stole from his citizens.
[gentle music continues]
[inhales] I
Titus Flavius Vespasianus,
will tear down that Domus Aurea,
stone by stone,
[laughing]
and in its place,
I shall build an Amphitheatre,
not for the masters of this city,
but for the entertainment
and pleasure of the citizenry
[gentle music continues]
the men of iron
whose blood and toil
built this,
our City of Rome!
[scribbling continues]
[inhales]
[music fades out]
[Domitian exhales]
- I'm stunned.
- [gentle music playing]
And to think I thought your instructors
in rhetoric were overpaid.
And the Amphitheatre,
was that a sudden insight?
Er no.
I've been considering it for a while.
What better way to sap power
from the Circus Maximus
and Patricians who so resent our ascent?
Yeah.
[Vespasian inhales]
Well perhaps,
you already command one of my wings.
The political one.
[gentle music crescendos]
[loud majestic music playing]
[Domitian] It's just how I imagined it.
Vast beyond all comprehension.
Nero never understood the mob.
[metal banging]
He was too focused on building his stupid
Golden House,
with its endless gardens
and immense water features
and playing his lyre.
[Domitian laughs]
My father fell asleep
in one of his tedious concerts,
and Nero banned him from his court.
He sent him wage war in Judea.
In the end,
suicide was Nero's last and only option.
And he needed to be helped with that.
[tense music]
- [man screaming]
- Huh?
[man] Down!
- [man yells]
- [Centurion grunts]
[men] Stay back!
[man] Hold back there!
[man] Move!
[Domitian panting frantically]
[ominous music playing]
A young hothead.
Please, Great Domitian,
understand he acted alone.
[tense, ominous music playing]
[Centurion]
Continue! Moving on.
[in Hebrew]
We could have all been killed!
[in Hebrew]
Please brothers!
[in Hebrew]
Please!
[tense music intensifies]
- [insects chirping]
- [leaves rustling]
- [cock crows]
- [dog barks]
[Jula] By the Gods, I'm late.
[Elia sighs]
[exhales]
[Elia] When can I see you again?
- [Jula] When I can get away?
- Midday?
Evening? Tonight?
[sighs] We are nearly five weeks together
and all you can think of is making love.
- Do I?
- [Jula laughs]
[both giggle quietly]
- I have to tell you something
- [gentle music playing]
- [exhales] Something important.
- Tell me what is it?
Shhh [exhales]
Tonight.
Okay.
Go. Hurry. [sighs]
[gentle music crescendos]
[Drusilla] Which one would you like?
This one?
This one.
[door opens]
[ominous music playing]
[door closes]
[indistinct chatter]
[Cala] What's going on, Aura?
[gentle music playing]
Now tell me
[inhales anxiously and stammers]
[breathes laboriously]
[whimpers]
[sobs]
I was there I was there
when the man tried to kill you [gasps]
And I knew something was wrong,
I knew it and I should've turned around,
- I should have helped you.
- Shhh, shhh
- [Aura sobs] I'm sorry.
- [Cala speaks Numidian]
- [breathing fitfully]
- [Cala] Shhh
[fast-paced drumming]
[indistinct chatter]
[Andria] Ah, Elia! Welcome back.
You're ready to go?
Did Ferox eat well this morning?
Celery for the blood?
We fed them back in Baetica,
and now we feed them even better here.
It's not like you to be late,
little brother.
- I overslept.
- In who's bed?
[Fonsoa]
He wasn't home last night?
Nor this morning.
Can it be he has discovered
more to life than horses?
- [both men trill lips]
- [Fonsoa laughs]
[Fonsoa inhales, giggling] Come,
let's see if you have become a man.
- A Spaniard.
- There is nothing to tell.
Yet your tunic is on the wrong way.
- [exhales irritatedly] Come on!
- [Fonsoa chuckles]
Do you think our little lovebird
spent the night alone or
In a cosy nest, maybe?
I can see you are not in need of my help.
- So
- Elia!
[Andria] Elia!
[gentle music playing]
We're happy for you.
Perhaps, we can meet her, one day.
[snickers]
[laughs] Never would I commit her
to such an ordeal.
[all men giggle]
[Gavros] Andria!
The horses are ready.
[gentle music intensifies]
- [laughs]
- [Andria] Drinks tonight to celebrate!
[Fonsoa chuckles]
[fast-paced drumming]
[charioteer 1]
It was tough today
[Charioteer 2]
Yes, brother.
Just meant to say that
this was all a terrible mistake.
Well, I can assure you.
No one will hear of it.
Good luck out there.
[dramatic music playing]
[fanfare playing]
[dramatic music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd cheering]
Today's a good day, is it not?
The games may make one feel such. [snorts]
They do. Increasingly, even for me.
But there's something more.
I, Titus
Caesar Vespasianus
Give you this day's games.
- On building civic baths!
- [crowd cheers]
Already two months under construction.
And I announce that I am giving
our beloved Rome
[upbeat music playing]
an heir!
[crowd cheering]
He learns more quickly than I expected.
[upbeat music continues]
[Xenon] Hey
If only my mother and father
were here to see this!
All of Rome at my feet.
Don't crow unless you win!
[Passus] Chariots
ready!
[dramatic drumroll]
[intense unsettling buzz]
[crowd cheering]
[dramatic music playing]
[crowd roaring]
[Andria yells]
Andria's horses are flying!
[Andria grunts and laughs]
[dramatic music continues]
[grunts]
He's gone! He's gone!
Win me some money! [cackles]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[scraping]
[Xenon yells]
[crowd yells]
[sighs]
Thank the Gods that
Andria was ahead of that one.
Fonsoa, I need your help!
- [tense music playing]
- Coming.
[crowd chanting] Andria, Andria!
[grunts]
[grunts]
Andria, Andria, Andria!
[grunting]
[grunting]
[muffled ominous music playing]
[muffled hooves thundering]
[grunts painfully]
[yells]
[Xenon groaning]
[yells]
[Andria] Hey, Scorpus
Scorpus, what are you doing?
[Xenon grunting]
[dramatic music playing]
[yells]
Scorpus!
[Andria screams]
Andria!
- [gates creaking]
- [Elia gasps]
[screaming]
[Elia whimpering]
[panting desperately]
[inhales, gasping]
[Elia breathing fitfully]
[grunting]
- [crowd reacting]
- Come.
Get the physician! Clean the table! Hurry!
- [Elia] Quickly!
- [Gavros] Quickly.
[Elia] Come on, come on!
[grunting]
- [grunts]
- [Andria panting]
[Andria rasping]
[Andria grunts]
[Andria gasps]
[Andria rasps]
[gasping for breath]
I would like to have met her.
- [Andria gasps]
- And you will.
[chokes]
Ever the optimist.
- [Andria gasping]
- Yes.
[gasps]
[choking cough]
Look after each other.
[emotional music playing]
[gasps] Promise me.
[laboured breath]
I will tell our mother
[desperate gasp]
of our great adventure.
[breathing quietens]
[Elias and Fonsoa weeping]
[gasps]
[weeping] Brother
[Elia gasps]
[weeping] Andria!
- [both weeping]
- [Elia] Andria!
[sobbing]
[gasps] No!
[sniffs]
[weeping uncontrollably]
- [weeping continues]
- [horse snorts]
- [weeping continues]
- [crowd chanting Scorpus]
- [breathing fitfully]
- [chanting crescendos]
[crowd cheering]
[ominous music playing]
You fucking scum! You killed him.
He chose his line.
No, it was you. You pulled to the left.
- [grunts]
- Tell me what you saw.
He pushed Andria into the wreck.
He boxed him in.
- [Tenax] Enough of this!
- Touch Scorpus again, I'll have your head.
And I yours for killing my brother.
Andria is dead.
It was an accident.
It's over.
[crowd clamouring in background]
I offer my condolences.
It was a
tragic accident.
No, you lie!
Ours is a dangerous game.
Your brother knew that.
[Elias sobs]
[Scorpus] Look at what happened
to Xenon today.
[suspenseful music playing]
He's right, Elia.
You don't believe me.
[crowd clamouring in background]
I just didn't see what you say you saw.
- He forced Andria into the shipwreck!
- No.
- He boxed him in.
- No.
You cannot be sure.
[breathing fitfully]
I will have nothing more to do with you
or this Gold faction.
[gentle, melancholic music playing]
Plenty more stable hands.
[crowd cheering]
[sighs]
[horse snorts]
Elia,
it wasn't Scorpus, it was a shipwreck.
It happens
You are just as bad as he is.
[crowd chanting Scorpus]
You're usually a better liar than that.
As Scorpus said
There are other stable hands,
but there's only one Scorpus.
[whispers] Oh
foolish of me.
I thought I had seen a glimmer
of decency in you.
[crowd clamouring in background]
[tense music playing]
And you, brother?
On whose side are you on?
[tense music intensifies]
- [music fades]
- [insects chirping]
[Gavros] May the winds take you
to Elysium, where the Gods will it
we will meet again.
[melancholic music playing]
[sobs]
[spade scraping]
[emotional music playing]
[owl hoots]
I never had the time or money
to shed many tears for others.
Is that how you justify cruelty?
[night insects chirping]
That's how I explain it.
You can lie to others.
But it's dangerous to lie to yourself.
[bird cawing]
You are no longer a child.
You can more than afford
the luxury of compassion.
[owl hoots]
Old habits die hard.
Is that an apology?
Perhaps it is.
[quiet intriguing music playing]
I don't care enough about you
to want your apology.
Those are the ones who need it.
I thought ours was an arrangement
of convenience,
to allow you to help your children.
I didn't know you'd try
to make me a decent man.
[emotional music playing]
I don't care enough about your decency
or lack of it.
[gentle music intensifies]
[door opens]
I used to chase you by the river Baetis
when you were young,
now I do so again?
We're no longer playing children's games.
The last thing Andria would have wanted
is that we are divided.
So come with me.
Elia!
Elia, wait!
If I were to walk away with you,
what of Salena and the boy?
Says the man who never walked past
a brothel with a few coins in his pocket?
- That was before. [grunts]
- And this is now!
I can't turn my back on her.
Go on.
What else?
Scorpus and Tenax offered me
a second driver with the Gold faction.
[breathes heavily]
This city has twisted you in such a way
that you would drive with the man
- who killed our brother.
- Says you alone.
[breathes fitfully]
Then Scorpus has taken
two brothers from me.
[grunts angrily]
[door creaks and slams]
[indistinct chattering]
Elia!
- [door opens]
- [tense music playing]
[men grunting]
[tense music continues]
[tense music continues]
[music fades]
[Kwame breathing heavily]
- [ominous music playing]
- [Domitian] So
He refuses to eat
and he doesn't want to fight anymore.
[Atticus] He doesn't want to be
our puppet.
How many weeks now?
Almost five, my lord.
And we only have two weeks
until the Flavian Amphitheatre opens.
Hermes.
[suspenseful music playing]
[ominous music playing]
We've prepared some delicacies for you.
Figs
Spanish olives,
oysters, you'll need your strength
for the opening fight at my Amphitheatre.
You should thank Flavius Domitianus
for his favour.
[Kwame panting]
[ominous music continues]
[man yells]
[man groans]
Should we try that again?
[wounded man groaning]
Eat!
And you will fight!
[breathing heavily]
[suspenseful music playing]
[man yells]
[rasping breath]
[tense music playing]
Try with that one.
They're friends.
The one he spars with?
So
should we put an arrow through the neck
of this Northern barbarian?
[exhales nervously]
[ominous music playing]
I thank you for your gift
[breathing heavily]
Flavius Domitianus.
[breathing heavily]
[whimpering]
Loyalty.
The dumb trait of the ignorant. You dog.
And I have the most delicious
and entertaining way to kill that one.
- [ominous music playing]
- [exhales]
[sighs]
[Tenax] Domitian likes a show
It's not every day we get
to dispatch Senators even
treacherous shits like these, no.
he'll want something special!
Something theatrical!
Perhaps if the Aedile Ludi himself
were here,
we could please him.
You may be the new master of the games,
Tuccian.
But Domitian has made me,
Legislator of the Aedile Ludi.
Do not question his authority,
or mine.
Of course. Forgive me.
I understand your reservations.
But trust me.
I grew up in those stinking stands,
I know what the mob wants to see.
We need to entertain them.
To excite them. To
[upbeat music playing]
thrill them.
Remember.
Enough is good.
More, is better.
Too much
is perfect.
[gentle music playing]
How hard would it be
to flood the Amphitheatre?
[door opens]
[keys jangling]
This is too generous.
Accept it for your son,
if not for yourself.
What else am I going to do
with all my earnings?
I can only drink so much wine.
- [emotional music playing]
- [Salena sniffs]
On one condition:
this is a loan not a gift.
I will pay you back
when I regain my shares.
- If I regain my shares.
- You will.
- [gentle music continues]
- Things will get better.
- [exhales laughing]
- [keys jangling]
[sniffs]
Fonsoa, what is it?
It's my brother.
[emotional music continues]
I miss him.
[gentle music continues]
What if Fonsoa is right?
What if it was just an accident?
I
I didn't have a good view of it.
You seem to be the only one who did.
Xenon!
[inhales sharply] He was right there,
he must have seen something.
[physician] There.
- I'll leave it here.
- [Xenon breathes fitfully]
[indistinct chatter]
[horse snorts]
[indistinct chatter]
[door shuts]
Just rest now.
[sighs]
Scorpus.
I am so sorry, my friend.
Are you?
Or did you just come to see
if it's actually true?
That Xenon is finished?
Nonsense,
you and I will race again soon.
I've
bought gifts
so Atargatis can ease your pain
and speed up your recovery.
[door creaks]
[sighs]
What's this?
A gift.
To pay for physicians
anything you need or desire.
Thank you, but I have enough money
to pay for my physicians.
Of course.
I seek only to lighten your burden.
You think a few coins will buy my silence?
I don't understand you.
Yes, you do.
You forced the young Spaniard
into the spina,
I saw it.
[very faint suspenseful music playing]
No, you are mistaken.
You were injured, your mind was not clear.
No, Scorpus
I saw what I saw. [exhales]
You killed that boy.
And I insist that you confess
to the faction owners.
[breathes fitfully]
I cannot do that.
I would lose everything;
I would never race again.
Please.
Xenon
After that evening,
I thought you and I were now friends.
Take your friendship
and your gift
And shove it up your ass.
- [tense music playing]
- Now get out!
[Xenon sighs]
And if you don't tell them
[breathes labouriously]
I will.
[Xenon coughing]
- [Xenon coughs]
- [suspenseful music playing]
[Xenon coughing]
[suspenseful music continues]
[Xenon gasps and chokes]
- [tense music playing]
- [Xenon choking]
[Xenon grunts]
[grunting]
[gasping]
[Xenon struggling]
- [crash]
- [Xenon choking]
[rasping]
[rasping]
- [Xenon struggling and banging]
- [grunts]
[grunts]
[calm music slows down]
[ominous music playing]
[sighs]
[breathes heavily]
[tense music playing]
Xenon!
Xenon! [exhales]
Where's the physician? Where is he?
He's not breathing.
- He's not breathing.
- [indistinct chatter]
- [man] That can't be true.
- [ominous music playing]
[indistinct chattering]
[fast-paced suspenseful music playing]
[Scorpus] It's a terrible thing.
Xenon
is dead.
[crowd react in background]
A loss for all of us.
[tense music continues]
[music intensifies]
[ominous music playing]
[music fades]
[Gavros] You may have heard
We no longer work for the Gold faction.
[Fimbria] So, you seek work?
Yes.
No one in Rome knows and tends horses
better than we do.
Sadly, we have a full complement
of stable hands and grooms.
You misunderstand us.
I wish to race.
[laughing] To race?
Yes.
Are you a charioteer?
I've never seen you drive.
What is this?
Ah, these these gentlemen
are here on faction business.
Clearly.
And anything that concerns
the Blue Faction
is my concern.
- This is Gavros, tender
- Yes, I know who he is.
Er And this is Elia
- brother of the Gold driver who died.
- Mmh.
He has another brother
still driving for the Gold.
[Antonia] Indeed.
Romulus and Remus.
He hopes to drive,
but he's untrained and unproven.
[ominous, tense music playing]
Come closer.
[tense music continues]
Closer.
[tense music continues]
Your brother drives for the Gold.
Why would you race for the Blue?
[tense music continues]
[inhales sharply]
Because Scorpus
drives for the Gold.
I will face him on the track,
and I will defeat him.
[suspenseful upbeat music playing]
[Antonia inhales]
[sighs]
- You said he's unproven?
- [Fimbria] Yes.
[suspenseful music playing]
Then you must prove
yourself.
[clicks her tongue]
Go to our stables and rig up.
I'll be there this evening.
[suspenseful music fades]
There are hundreds of young men
wishing to drive for the Blue.
Why give him a chance?
The one thing that sets him apart:
his hatred.
[sighs] You could have told me
you wanted to drive.
Was it such a surprise?
Not really.
But still
you should have told me.
[gentle music playing]
See you at the stables.
[indistinct chatter in background]
[exhales] I have been wanting to see you.
[emotional music playing]
I heard about your brother.
My heart bleeds.
There's nothing anyone can do.
[inhales deeply, exhales]
I have to tell you something.
And I need to tell you something too.
I'm going back home.
To Spain, to Baetica.
What?
I must do something first.
But as soon as I can,
I'm leaving.
[inhales emotionally]
I am sorry.
[emotional music continues]
[footsteps receding]
[breathes fretfully]
[inhales]
[weeps quietly]
[Leto] My Emperor.
Porto tells me you have
an accusation to make.
No, I merely have information to impart,
Lord Titus.
[Titus] Don't play with words.
Treat this like field report on campaign.
I believe your brother Domitian
is responsible for the grain delays
[water sloshing]
and food riots.
[Titus] Do you have proof?
A navigator on one of the grain ships,
it sank off the coast of Sicily,
but he was rescued,
and then arrested.
A witness is being escorted here
as we speak.
How does telling me this benefit you?
I seek only to serve you and serve Rome.
[scoffs]
I have many clients,
open and secret, in the Senate,
enough to sway any vote.
[inhales]
I offer you full and sustained support
for your construction projects.
And in return you want?
Financial participation
in the Flavian Amphitheatre.
[scoffs] That's a strange desire,
there's no profit in that, only costs.
[ominous music playing]
For now
[ominous music continues]
[Titus] Done.
Porto, post your most trusted man
in Ostia to wait for this navigator.
Bring him before me as soon as he arrives.
You have my thanks and my loyalty, Caesar.
I'm only interested in the latter.
You may go.
[tense music playing]
[birds cawing]
[Domitian grunts]
I have to say brother,
I've seen you with steadier aim.
Nothing used to unnerve you.
Even father's cough.
Leave us.
[tense music playing]
[bird caws]
[inhales sharply]
Greeks, they say that
forgiveness is easier to grant,
when it's preceded by confession.
- [ominous music playing]
- And what do you wish me to confess?
I'm told by Senator Leto
that his shipping agents
have found proof
that you delayed the grain.
Brother, I cannot confess
to something I didn't do.
Apparently
there was a witness en route to Rome,
who will corroborate everything.
'Apparently' covers a wide
range of outcomes,
and Leto is a self-serving, ambitious
Patrician
who's resented our ascendancy
from the start.
I know these things.
And yet you ask me to confess
to some apparent misdeed.
Not quite.
I'm learning
how to play this game from you.
So, I'm telling you
an accusation about you
and I'm watching how you respond.
And what do you see?
That's the part I'm still learning.
I see either a somewhat strange
but loyal brother
or the best liar I have ever seen.
[indistinct chatter in background]
Domus, I think you will be
pleased with the show I've devised.
You have failed me. You were to cover
my tracks for the grain delays.
A navigator from a grain ship has
survived. He's being brought here to Rome
to testify to Titus.
Then we kill him.
His dead words, against your living ones.
- Where is he?
- It's too late for that.
He's made a written testimony.
All that's left
is for him to confirm it with my brother.
If it's too late to kill him then what?
- We kill my brother.
- [dramatic music starts]
The moment is upon us: kill or be killed.
[inhales, sighs] Alright
Who among the Praetorians can we buy?
Hermes!
[suspenseful music playing]
[Hermes groaning]
[tense music playing]
[men groaning]
[tense music builds]
[men panting]
Domitian!
[exhales]
- [tense music continues]
- [inhales nervously]
Come.
Join us.
[tense music continues]
[both breathing fitfully]
Take him.
What?
No. No.
[struggling] No!
[panting] Domitian, please, please.
I don't understand.
Not without
my permission.
[ominous music playing]
[fretting] I'm so sorry.
[gasps] I'm sorry!
I'm sorry, no!
Please, please
No! Please!
[Hermes yells] No!
[man grunting]
[gasping] No.
- [yells]
- [blood spurting]
[ominous music continues]
[groaning]
[grunts]
- [ominous music continues]
- [choking]
[choking]
[ominous music continues]
[dramatic drum roll]
- [music fades]
- [indistinct chatter in background]
[urine trickling]
[child laughing]
[Iris]
Here. This is everything he paid me.
[pimp] Sit down.
Iris, come home with me.
[quiet ominous music playing]
You're coming with me.
Where are you going?
She's my property, you bitch.
- [Aura grunts]
- [pimp yells]
- [glass smashing]
- [pimp grunts]
[reactions from crowd]
[woman laughing in background]
- [Aura breathing fast]
- [gasps]
[Aura whispers] If you go near her again,
I will kill you slowly.
- Bitch.
- [glass shatters]
[exhales]
- [tense music playing]
- [man grunts]
[Aura] Iris, come!
[tense music continues]
[intriguing music playing]
[door opens]
[gentle music playing]
Troubled?
You as well?
My daughter Aura,
she is no longer mine.
I lost her
to Rome.
[gentle music playing]
[gentle music continues]
You told me
it's fine to lie to others,
but dangerous to lie to yourself.
I took that to heart.
You are learning.
I may not be quite the scum
you think I am.
There is a chance I am of Patrician blood.
[scoffs quietly]
[inhales deeply]
You Romans are so foolish.
You think blood matters.
In Rome, blood is everything.
With the right blood
a man can do anything.
The whole world opens up before him.
And will your new high-born friends
ignore the stench
of where you've been and what you've done?
[quiet, gentle music continues]
They've ignored worse.
I can't tell if you are excited
or frightened.
Frightened.
I have to do something terrible.
Which would have once given me pleasure
but now
if I am a Roman of the first order
terrifies me.
Then only think of the pleasure.
[emotional music playing]
No.
[inhales, exhales deeply] Not
Not, what?
Not yet?
I didn't say that.
But you were thinking it.
[emotional music continues]
Perhaps.
[door opens]
[emotional music builds]
[music fades]
[bird caws]
[night insects chirping]
[Iris inhales, sighs]
In Samnia, I have a cousin,
he worked underground,
in an ossuary.
Draining fluids from the dead,
preparing them for the crypts.
There is nothing lower.
He escaped that.
- He took his own life?
- [Iris] No.
He enrolled, by free will
as a Gladiator at the Ludus Magnus.
You mean he wasn't a slave?
Many are slaves.
But some come there by choice.
Choosing death by another's hand.
[Iris] Maybe not.
It's been three years
and he's still alive.
He eats, he has a place to sleep,
and he's treated with respect.
And it's not just men.
They enlist women as gladiators as well.
Women?
The crowd finds it amusing.
But sometimes
a woman fights so well
that they stop laughing.
[gentle music playing]
[gentle music continues]
[horse whines]
Hey, shhh [whistles]
- Hey.
- [horse whines]
Easy, easy.
- [horse blows]
- Incitatus.
You are hungry, huh? [laughs]
Here.
There you go, boy.
Back home in Spain,
my grandfather used to say,
horses are prey,
and men
are predators.
To get a horse to run
you must convince them
- [horse whines]
- that we are not what we truly are
killers.
First you let them know
that you are not going to hurt them.
Oh, shhh
But that is not enough.
To get a horse to run is easy.
But to get him to really fly
for him to give his heart and soul
and sweat and muscle
- I must love him
- [horse blows]
[quiet gentle music continues]
and he must know it.
And if I tell him the right way,
how much I love him
he will do anything for me.
[music builds]
- [wind blowing]
- [tense music playing]
[tense music continues]
[metal staff hitting ground]
You made a bad bet.
[Tenax]
I don't know
Perhaps Titus won't be Emperor
for much longer.
There's too much of the soldier in him.
Not enough politician.
- Who will supplant him?
- Domitian.
Of course.
And if that were to happen,
all those loyal to Titus
would likely die with him.
Nobody likes loose ends.
[sniffs] Rome has had warrior rulers
who died as old men.
In war time maybe.
But this is peace
far more dangerous.
In peace you don't want warriors
you want street fighters.
[low tense music playing]
Ten million sesterces in gold,
two days from now. Here, in this place.
And if you try to bargain,
it merely tells me Domitian
lacks the resources to succeed,
and I will kill you
and report his treason to Titus.
- [ominous music playing]
- [Manilius scoffs]
Two days.
Domitian is closer to death
than you think.
[inhales] And if he dies,
so will his friends.
Nobody likes loose ends.
Ten million
two days.
[tense music intensifies]
[solemn bang on drum]
- [bang on drum]
- [bird caws]
- [bang on drum]
- [bird caws]
[bang on drum]
[bird caws]
[hooves trotting in distance]
[bang on drum]
- [Elia] Whoah, whoah.
- [horse whines]
[Elia] Easy
- [dramatic music playing]
- [horse blows]
[horse whines]
[wind blowing]
[upbeat music playing]
[horses neighing]
[music intensifies]
[Elia yells]
- [dramatic music playing]
- [yells]
[horses neighing]
[muffled] Andria!
[dramatic music playing]
[exhales sharply, yells]
[solemn dramatic music playing]
[yells repeatedly]
[dramatic music continues]
[yells]
- [music fades]
- [Fimbria] Did you know?
He's fast
Very fast.
- [Elia yelling]
- [music intensifies]
- [Elia yells]
- [music fades]