Characters / Spartacus Blood And Sand Protagonists Blood And Sand

Character subpage for Spartacus: Blood and Sand. See here for the main character index.

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Spartacus

Spartacus (Andy Whitfield, Liam McIntyre)

"Forge your own path, or join with us, and together we shall see Rome tremble!"

Spartacus (real name unknown) is a Thracian warrior who becomes a famous gladiator in the arena, later to build a legend upon himself during the Third Servile War. For the first season, he served as a gladiator in Batiatus' Ludus under the direction of Doctore and rivaled the then-Champion of Capua, Crixus. Later, he and many of the gladiators broke free from captivity and began an armed rebellion against Rome.

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• The Ace: He establishes himself as one in Blood and Sand. He not only becomes the top gladiator at the ludus, but is a brilliant military tactician and a charismatic leader (not to mention quite good in bed, apparently).
• Animal Motifs: The serpent.
• Arc Symbol: The red serpent that Sura mentioned to him. Also the rain.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After he slays Sedullus the Germans quickly fall into line and recognise that he is the one in charge.
• Badass Cape: In the pilot and in War of the Damned.
• Bash Brothers: First with Varro, then with Agron, Crixus and Gannicus.
• Battle Couple: First with Sura, then with Mira.
• Berserk Button: Treating or referring to Varro's Heroic Sacrifice as a Shoot the Dog moment for Spartacus is a bad idea.
• The Berserker: When Spartacus is possessed by the gods, he turns into a nearly unstoppable fighter.
• Big Good: To the rebels from Season 2 onwards.
• Blond, Brunette, Redhead: During the course of the story, he has been involved with two brunettes, a blonde (but not the blonde he was expecting), and ultimately with a redhead.
• Blue Oni: To Crixus' Red. Although he can be impulsive when it comes to certain circumstances (such as his wife) Spartacus tends to be more rational and collected, and prefers meticulous planning to winging it; though he's capable of thinking of his feet too, he tries to exercise caution.
• Butt-Monkey: When he first arrives in Batiatus' service.
• Cartwright Curse:
  • His wife Sura is murdered by Batiatus to ensure that he has nothing to distract him from glory in the arena.
  • Mira is killed by a thrown axe that Spartacus dodged.
  • He once had sex with Ilithyia, in a bizarre incident where neither of them consented. She gets gruesomely murdered by Lucretia.
  • Averted in the case of Laeta, who survives the final battle. He however does not.
• Celibate Hero: After Mira's death, he seems to have taken up Oenomaus' practice of refraining from drink and women. Then subverted, when he and Laeta become Friends with Benefits for the last three episodes and also with a little wine for the final pep rally/tribute in "The Dead and the Dying" remarking that he himself can be inconsistent from time to time.
• Chick Magnet: Being a former hedonist, he Really Gets Around prior to his marriage. Later, Mira falls head-over-heels for him, Licinia and some of Ilithyia's friends lust for him, even Ilithyia herself "thinks" of him, and finally Laeta quickly gets drawn to him.
• Condemned Contestant:
  • His life as a gladiator begins because he survives his execution by gladiator against all odds in the pilot.
  • Later in the first season he ironically serves as the executing gladiator for Solonius.
• Crazy Enough to Work: The main way he manages to outmaneuver the Romans. Gannicus initially dismisses him as a "reckless fool" but recognizes it is his "bold strategy" that has managed to keep the Rebels alive.
• Cruel Mercy: He spares Ilithyia's life after letting her know her husband would rather kill him than save her, and that he doesn't really love her. This backfires when Ilithyia recalls details about the rebels' hiding place, enabling Glaber to track them down in the finale.
• Crusading Widower: Thanks to Sura's Plot-Triggering Death, Spartacus's initial motivation is to avenge her by killing Batiatus and then Glaber.
• Cultured Badass: He beats Batiatus in a friendly game of chess.
• Death by Irony: Throughout the show, Spartacus is shown and commended as an excellent spear thrower. Guess how he died...
• Defiant to the End: Subverted. Spartacus did defy Crassus' Worthy Opponent speech to him, but he was rescued by Agron and Nasir right before Crassus executes him.
• Determinator: He let's nothing short of crippling wounds stop him from achieving his goals, be it trying to get back to Sura, becoming champion of the ludus or leading a rebellion. Notably, it takes no fewer than three spears in the back to bring him down in the end, and he still lived long enough to be carried to the foot of the mountains to give a farewell speech to his followers.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Sura did. Spartacus himself died while Agron, Nasir, Laeta, Sibyl, and the remaining slaves are around him during the finale.
• Dies Wide Open: Although Agron closed them afterwards.
• Doomed by Canon: On the other hand, historically speaking his body was never found...
• Doomed Moral Victor: It's a Foregone Conclusion that his rebellion ultimately fails, though he lives on in legend.
• Dual Wielding: After he kills Theokoles, Batiatus makes him learn this style as in-universe invocation of Rule of Cool. He largely drops the style in Vengeance, instead preferring to use one sword and one free hand for defense, though that was more to do with the lack of swords among the rebels. It firmly becomes his main style by the time of War of the Damned.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: He killed lots of Mooks (including the Mook Lieutenant) and defeated Crassus himself in one on one combat before reinforcements had him Impaled with Extreme Prejudice with spears thrice.
• Face Death with Dignity: Double Subverted. After being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice thrice, Spartacus solemnly accepted the fact that he'll be executed but is rescued by Agron and Nasir. However, before he finally succumbs to his fatal wounds, he is more than happy to be with his wife again and even told Agron that he shouldn't shed a tear for him for said reason as well as dying as a free man.
• A Father to His Men: He develops this attitude by the end of Season 2, showing genuine concern and camaraderie to all the gladiators.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Crixus, by first season's end. They have a falling out in Season 3, but part on amicable terms.
• Genius Bruiser: Spartacus is both a formidable fighter and strategist, which is what makes him so dangerous to the Romans, especially as they frequently dismiss as just some mindless brute.
• Glass Cannon -> Lightning Bruiser: At first, he has poor defensive and counter-attacking skills and mainly focused on the offensive. After Oenomaus' training and his own battle experiences (both in the pit and the arena), his defense and counter-attacks dramatically improved, making him an almost invincible fighter.
• Good Is Not Nice: While he holds ethical standards regarding the treatment of fellow slaves, friends and followers, he can also be rather surly, particularly between in the middle episodes of Blood and Sand. Later, he tries to keep his followers from murdering Romans just for kicks, but he kills soldiers and civilians alike when he deems it crucial to the rebels' success.
• Heartbroken Badass: He becomes this after his wife dies. He becomes this even more so after Varro dies, which actually propels him to new levels of badassery when he leads a rebellion against the Romans. He's also quite heartbroken by Mira's death, but finally achieves victory over Glaber afterwards.
• Happily Married: To Sura until she's taken away by the Romans.
• Has a Type: Mira, his Replacement Goldfish to Sura, is also a dark-eyed brunette and an Action Girl. However, Laeta, his next Love Interest]] is a subversion, she being a blue-eyed redhead and Roman noble.
• The Hero: At best. At worst, he's a Pragmatic Anti-Hero out of necessity, but his intentions are always good.
• The Hero Dies: Although they Never Found the Body.
• Hero Protagonist: Of the whole show save for the prequel, Gods of the Arena.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Varro in Blood and Sand. Later with Agron in Vengeance and War of the Damned.
• Historical Domain Character
• Honor Before Reason: At times.
• I Die Free: Perfectly reflected in his Final Speech
  Spartacus: "Do not shed tear. There is no greater victory than to fall from this world, a free man."
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Or to be even more specific: If I Kill Him I Will Be Just Like The Romans. He lives and breathes this, listing it as why he spares Nasir (which works out), Ilithyia (which doesn't work out so well), and the Roman captives in War of the Damned. In the final case, some of the other rebels get sick of it and decide to kill all the Romans, much to his fury.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Via spears, thrice! This eventually leads to his death.
• In a Single Bound: He really jumps high.
• In the Back: He actually manages to defeat Crassus...then three Roman soldiers throw spears into his back.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: There are several closeups of Andy Whitfield's bright blue eyes, usually when they're welling up with Manly Tears, to highlight that Spartacus is something of a Wide-Eyed Idealist.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Throughout much of Blood and Sand he is moody and asocial at times, though he didn't really go that far in terms of Jerkass behaviour (especially compared to other gladiators like Crixus and Barcus) and is a good man at heart. It's also implied to be more of a facade he's putting up, out of grief over being Made a Slave and losing his wife, and not knowing who to trust.
• Kill the Ones You Love: He's forced to kill his best friend Varro, as otherwise they would both be killed. He's utterly distraught by it and never truly gets over it, not unsurprisingly.
• Knight in Sour Armor: By the end of Season 1.
• Lady Killer In Love: With Sura. He was The Hedonist before falling for her.
• The Leader: He fits every type (The Mastermind, Levelheaded and Charismatic) except Type III (Headstrong).
• Le Parkour: The infamous shield-leap to start the Gladiator Revolt in the Season 1 finale.
• Living Legend: In Season 1, he gains fame as a badass gladiator who slayed 'the Shadow of Death'. By War of the Damned, he's become famed as the leader of the slave revolt.
• Looks Like Jesus: In his first appearance, due to his long hair and beard.
• Love Redeems: Both Sura and Spartacus himself have openly stated that he was quite The Hedonist before their marriage and meeting her made him a better person.
• Made a Slave: As punishment for deserting the Roman army, which kick-starts the entire series.
• Made of Iron: In War of the Damned, despite being stabbed in the back by Caesar, he continues to fight without any signs of a slowdown.
• Magnetic Hero: He is depicted as being quite charismatic and persuasive right from the first episode. The guy picks up tens of thousands of followers by the end.
• The Mourning After: He never truly gets over the death of his wife, Sura. This ultimately dooms his relationship with Mira. Although he developed feelings for Laeta eventually, it's strongly implied Sura was always his One True Love - on his deathbed, he expresses happiness that they will be reunited at last.
• Mr. Fanservice: Both Andy Whitfield and Liam McIntyre are very good-looking and muscular, getting lots of opportunity to show this off. In the first season, Spartacus even gets a brief full-frontal scene.
• Named After Somebody Famous/No Name Given/That Man Is Dead: His Thracian name is never revealed. Batiatus labels him Spartacus, after a legendary Thracian king, because Glaber never bothered to learn his name. Afterwards they make a point of never letting him utter his original name in order to separate him from his past life.
• Near-Death Experience: After his fateful match against Varro, due to not treating a minor wound he received, which then becomes infected. He ends up bedridden and suffers a number of hallucinations and fever dreams.
• Never Found the Body: While he is mortally injured in front of Crassus, he is taken away by Agron and Nasir before he dies. The viewers see him die, but the Romans never claim the body, which is Truth in Television.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: He's filled with grief when his forces kill a Roman child and her mother, and tries to prevent any surviving Roman civilians from being killed.
• No One Gets Left Behind: As he puts it, if a single life has no value then no one's does.
• Perma-Stubble: For most of Blood and Sand and Vengeance. At the beginning of Blood and Sand and all through War of the Damned, he has a full-grown thick beard instead.
• Pragmatic Hero: He eventually becomes this, especially in War of the Damned. He's more than willing to use violence against the Romans and even fellow rebels if they threaten the others, but he prioritizes the well-being of his people above all, and whilst he'll slaughter Roman soldiers left and right and has little sympathy for slave masters such as Batiatus, he disagrees with harming innocent civilians.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: He's the central protagonist and title character and the primary leader of the rebel forces; by War of the Damned, many of his followers even regard him as their 'king', given his monikers of 'King Spartacus' and 'the Rebel King'.
• Purple Is Powerful: Sura's ribbon and his Badass Cape in the final season.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: In addition to becoming the top gladiator in Batiatus' ludus, he personally leads the rebels into battle and is easily one their best fighters.
• Rape and Revenge: When Pietros hangs himself due to being repeatedly raped and beaten by Gnaeus, Spartacus avenges him by shoving Gnaeus over a cliff.
• Rebel Leader: The main leader of the Gladiator Revolt and one of the most famous real life examples of this in history. By War of the Damned, some people have even taken to calling him "The Rebel King".
• Red Baron: The Bringer of Rain, The Slayer of the Shadow of Death, The Rebel/Slave King.
• Reluctant Warrior: Spartacus doesn't really want to be fighting a war, but does so on behalf of the people suffering under Roman enslavement and to protect those who have already been freed.
• Revenge Before Reason: He has a problem with this when it comes to avenging Sura, as both Mira and Crixus point out. First by trying to kill Batiatus, despite Mira telling him will result in every single slave being killed for it. In Vengeance he has apparently learned his lesson by moving against Glaber alone, so no one else will die. Mira calls him out for not thinking of how the rebellion would suffer with him dead and Crixus points out that Spartacus has again not thought of the Roman reprisal; killing a praetor would result in Rome sending an entire army, which they cannot fight.
• Second Love: For Laeta. After her husband's death, she begins falling in love with Spartacus.
• Sex Equals Love: How he and Sura ended up together. Averted with Mira. Though he is fond of her and starts a relationship with her after they hook up, he never quite falls in love with her, to her disappointment.
• The Strategist: The very best in the series.
• Super Mode/Unstoppable Rage: Spartacus sometimes goes into a sort of battle trance where he is nigh unbeatable. Batiatus and Lucretia describe it as him fighting "like a man possessed by the gods themselves", and Ashur echoes it in Season 2, stating that calling in a second squad of soldiers would be pointless as "Spartacus is possessed by the gods". Given the series has a bit of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane going on, they could be right about that. Or he could be just that much of a badass.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Liam McIntyre is 6'1, while the late Andy Whitfield was 5'11.
• Team Dad: To the rebels by the end of the second season.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Subverted. Oenomaus and Crixus schooled him the hard way. Oddly, this trope begins to plays straight after his Gladiator training.
• Tragic Bromance: Varro's death haunts Spartacus to the end of the series.
• Tragic Keepsake: Sura's ribbon, the only momento he has of her after both her enslavement and death.
• Trauma Conga Line: The first season is this for him in a nutshell; his village is sacked, he is separated from his wife, sentenced to death and then Made a Slave when he survives, goes through Training from Hell, has his wife die in his arms just when they were going to be reunited, gets tricked into sleeping with someone he despises and is forced to kill his best friend, just to cover the major ones.
• Traumatic Haircut: His long hair was forcibly chopped. Oddly, Gladiators such as Barca and Gannicus retained theirs. It appeared as though the haircut was primarily to antagonize him, and to convey that he was supposed to behave properly now.
• The Unreveal: His real name.
• Vocal Dissonance: Due to The Other Darrin being in effect. The late Andy Whitfield was raspy to the max, while Liam McIntyre has a smoother voice.
• Worthy Opponent: After Spartacus' final battle, Marcus Fucking Crassus pretty much calls him this. Spartacus seems to return the feeling, but with emphasis on the "opponent" part; whatever respect he may have for the Roman General's intelligence and capabilities, he ultimately despises what Crassus stands for: Rome, and the oppression it represents.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Ilithyia is the only exception. Probably made easier by the fact that the Romans didn't employ female soldiers.

Doctore Oenomaus

Doctore Oenomaus (Peter Mensah)

"It is never an easy thing to see a friend once loved, now absent breath."

Oenomaus is the gladiator trainer in Batiatus' Ludus, traditionally referred to only by the title of "Doctore". At a young age, he was recruited into the ludus by former lanista Titus Batiatus, whom he came to see as a father figure. After the downfall of the House of Batiatus, Oenomaus believed he had lost his purpose in the world and retired himself to die in The Pit. However, with the help of Spartacus and the other Rebels, he eventually finds a new purpose and joins the Rebels' cause, quickly being recognized as a mentor. He was married to Melitta before her death.

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• Animal Motifs: The stallion.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: New recruits are quick to learn this. Even Spartacus in his own plans of escape, recognising the Doctore as being the only one who could actually stop him.
• Badass Teacher: To the gladiators and later, the rebels too.
• Bald of Authority: In the first season and late in the prequel season. Becomes this to rebels (though second-in-command to Spartacus) late in the second season.
• Black Dude Dies First: He is the first of the Rebel Leaders to die.
• Blue Oni: To Gannicus' Red.
• Broken Pedestal: Towards Melitta and Gannicus in Vengeance when he learns they had sex and they were together the night she died. However, by the end, he's forgiven them, and as he dies he happily declares he'll go to his wife.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Just watch him with his wife, Melitta, and his best friend Gannicus in Gods of the Arena, and even in Blood and Sand, he's a much more compassionate and honorable man than he lets on.
• Canon Character All Along: He's simply addressed by his professional title for much of the first season. That is until the Season 1 finale, which reveals he's one of Spartacus' top generals. His Given Name Reveal is even treated as a big deal to reflect this.
• Clark Kent Outfit: He keeps his torso covered up until the episode "Shadow Games", where he takes his shirt off and reveals the scar he got from Theokoles. Behind the scenes, the other actors were stunned into silence at how ripped Peter Mensah was.
• Covered with Scars: He has many scars on his body and face, a lot of which are from his fight with Theokeles. In the fifth episode, she gives Crixus and Spartacus a rundown of how he got all those scars to show them just what they're up against. Despite this, he's one of the nicest characters on the series.
• Crusading Widower: After he finds out the truth about his wife's death, he didn't think twice in joining the rebellion.
• Death by Disfigurement: Had an Eye Scream before he dies.
• Death Seeker: At the start of Vengeance, due to losing everything he cared about and wanting to regain his 'honour'. He snaps out of it eventually.
• Dented Iron: His injuries from past battles and tortures pretty much became his Fatal Flaw.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: He loses an eye near the end of Vengeance. No historical records indicate that Oenomaus was mutilated.
• Doomed by Canon: The historical Oenomaus died quite early in the war.
• The Dragon: Batiatus obviously considered him second in command, even planning to free him from slavery and put him in charge of the Ludus. Unfortunately, Batiatus didn't anticipate Oenomaus getting sick of his increasingly cruel and amoral methods, and turning on him when the gladiators rebel.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Subverted; he's definitely nasty to the new recruits and to gladiators who don't fall in line, but he's one of the nicest and most level-headed guys around.
• Due to the Dead: One of the few fallen characters honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Et Tu, Brute?: When he learns how Gannicus and Melitta were together the night she died, he's devastated. It doesn't help that Gannicus shows up to execute him and Crixus in the arena.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Through most of Season 1, he's exclusively called "Doctore". This serves The Reveal as the real-life rebel Oenomaus.
• Eye Scream: Suffers this late in Vengeance courtesy of The Egyptian. He still proves to be one of the rebels' best fighters.
• Game-Breaking Injury: His injury sustained from facing Theokoles means he can't be a gladiator anymore, and he is put in charge of training the others.
• Genius Bruiser: One of the smartest gladiators. He is the only one of the Rebels to discover the truth behind Barca's real departure.
• Handicapped Badass: In his last few battles due to having one of his eyes stabbed out.
• Happily Married: To Melitta. Then there was the 'Gannicus incident', although he remained unaware of this until years after Melitta's death.
• Happiness in Slavery: This becomes an important plot point in Season 2, as the collapse of the house he followed all his life shook him.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He acts like a Drill Sergeant Nasty, but as time goes on, it becomes clear that an act is all it is; he's actually one of the nicest and most honorable characters on the show. Gods of the Arena shows he engages in Jerkass behaviour to establish authority over the other gladiators after he's promoted to Doctore, as they initially don't respect his position.
• Historical Domain Character: Although the real Oenomaus was a Gaul.
• Klingon Promotion: To the previous Doctore. In a subversion, it's not his intention to do so, and Doctore challenged him to a fight to the death that he only narrowly won.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He dislikes Spartacus up until Vengeance, calling him "a dog without honour", and stopping him from killing Batiatus earlier. He has valid reason to dislike him, since Spartacus did drug him as part of an escape attempt.
• Lightning Bruiser: Especially in his prime. Downplayed considerably in Vengeance due to his injuries.
• Living Legend: Downplayed, maybe even Deconstructed. His legacy as the only gladiator that survived against Theokeles is something he considers an Old Shame.
• The Lost Lenore: Openly stated that he's a widower.
• Made a Slave: Vengeance shows that he was previously found by Titus while fighting in the pits, and bought to be trained as a gladiator.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Initially towards Batiatus; he remains loyal to him even when he does things Oenomaus sees as dishonorable. By the end of Blood and Sand however, he finally gives this up when Batiatus goes too far.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: What he gets put through in Vengeance would have killed almost anyone else on the show.
• Race Lift: The real Oenomaus was a Gaul.
• Rebel Leader: He becomes one of the leaders of the rebels in the second half of Vengeance, of the Team Dad variety.
• Second Episode Introduction: He doesn't appear until the second episode of Blood & Sand, introduced when the new recruits begin their training.
• Stern Teacher: To the gladiators. He's strict, emotionally distant and doesn't suffer fools, but he genuinely wants them all to succeed and his methods do get results.
• Surpassed the Teacher:
  • An extremely dark example. Ulpius only considers Oenomaus worthy of the position of Doctore when he kills him in battle. Oenomaus clearly didn't want to do it and is utterly horrified with himself, though he was left with no choice as Ulpius forced his hand.
  • Interestingly it's somewhat unclear as to whether or not any of his students ever manage to surpass him, as it's never really put to the test. In season 1, Crixus certainly thinks he could defeat Oenomaus in a one on one fight, but dialogue from Oenomaus in an earlier episode implies that he disagrees. Even after defeating Theokoles, Spartacus clearly does not think he could defeat Oenomaus, even though he's Crixus' equal by this point. Gannicus, who's on an even keel with Spartacus & Crixus, does think he could defeat Oenomaus, but he also never viewed Oenomaus as a teacher, but rather as a peer.
• Team Dad: He's the highest-ranking slave in the ludus and is looked up to by everyone (except Ashur), acting as a strict but caring father-like figure to the gladiators and even some of the house slaves. In Vengeance, he eventually becomes this to the rebels as well.
• Token Good Teammate: For House Batiatus before his Heel–Face Turn. He's got a sense of honour and turns out to be Good Is Not Nice, sincerely congratulating Spartacus on his victory, and wanting the recruits to do well.
• Undying Loyalty: To the House of Batiatus, especially Quintus' father. He becomes increasingly disillusioned however, and by the middle of Vengeance he switches allegiance to the rebels.

Crixus

Crixus (Manu Bennett)

"I will not die a faceless slave forgotten by history."

Crixus is the former Champion of Capua, introduced into Batiatus' Ludus as a slave desiring the life of a gladiator, whom eventually fights his way up to become one of the top gladiators of the ludus. During the arrival of Spartacus in Blood and Sand, Crixus is seen as champion and becomes the lover of Naevia.

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• Always Save the Girl: If Naevia is in trouble, he'll do anything and everything to save her, regardless of the long-term effects on the others or himself. This tends to backfire; in the first season, when he realises Ashur raped Naevia by tauntingly groping her in front of him, he attacks him...in front of everyone in the ludus, thus revealing he and Naevia's Secret Relationship (and playing right into Ashur's hands, he having deliberately done this to set Crixus off). In Vengeance, Crixus's main motivation for the first half of the season is finding Naevia at any costs and leads what is effectively a Suicide Mission into the mines to rescue her, resulting in many deaths and Crixus getting captured.
• Animal Motifs: The octopus.
• Arc Symbol: Tiberius' sword in the final season.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As you might imagine, the gladiatorial champion of Capua got there by kicking lots and lots and lots of ass.
• Badass Cape: In War of the Damned.
• Badass Long Robe: In Spartacus Vengeance, full effect.
• Battle Couple: With Naevia by Season 2's end.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Lucretia and Ilythia seem to think so. Naevia doesn't seem to have any complaints either.
• The Big Guy: Subverted; Crixus is a fair bit more well muscled than the rest of the gladiators, a visible testament to his badass status, but he's shorter than most (which is repeatedly commented on in the prequel season). Manu Bennett is 5'11" to be exact. Yes, we know. He is however the physically strongest of the main characters and one of the most battle-ready.
• Blood Knight: Tones it down by the end of Blood and Sand and throughout Vengeance, where he's more concerned about finding his girlfriend. Then he goes right back to this mentality again in War of the Damned, to the point where he splits off from Spartacus to continue fighting the Romans, rather than try to flee the Republic. In hindsight, it wasn't a very good idea...
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: With Naevia in Blood and Sand, before helps her take several levels in badass.
• The Brute: At first.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Has shades of this. When he's with Lucretia, he easily spouts off all sorts of cheesy, Purple Prose tinged lines, all of which is an act. When he's around Naevia, though, whom he genuinely loves, he turns into a bumbling schoolboy. He outright admits to her he's no good at being truly romantic, he knowing little but fighting in the arena.
• Catchphrase: As a gladiator, "Capua! Shall I begin?" He modifies it to "Shall we begin?" for his Rousing Speech in s3e8.
• The Champion: In Blood and Sand, he's Champion of Capua and adored by the arena crowds. Lucretia in particular is a fan. However, he's truly this trope to Naevia; he subtly dedicates his arena victories to her after falling for her, is devoted to her and remains a hero in her eyes even after he loses favour with the Romans, with Naevia even stating she dreamt of him coming to rescue her when she's banished from the ludus.
• Chick Magnet: Lucretia uses him as a lover, Naevia falls in love with him, and Ilithyia desires him. He loves Naevia, pretends to be interested in Lucretia out of duty, and doesn't seem to care about Ilithyia. The prequel also added Gaia and Diona to the list of women lusting over him.
• Death by Irony:
  • "I will not die with a Roman sword in my back". Will a spear suffice?.
  • In the Season 2 finale, he suggested that they should decapitate Ashur (who was Glaber's messenger) as a reply to Glaber's offer. After he is defeated by Crassus, the latter decided to do the same as a warning for Spartacus.
• A Death in the Limelight: "Separate Paths" highlights the historical event where Crixus separates from the main army, killing legions of Romans and ends with his fall.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Historically, Crixus met his end at the hands of Arrius and his legion. Here it was Crixus and his men who defetaed and killed Arrius and his, and Crixus meets his end at the hands of Crassus' son instead.
• Dies Wide Open: As seen with his decapitated head. He intentionally kept them open so he could see Naevia one last time.
• Doomed by Canon: The historical Crixus will be the second of Spartacus' general to fall. He died at Mt. Garganus near the end of the war.
• Drama Queen: Hands down the most overtly emotional of the protagonists (outside of battle). Especially when contrasted to Spartacus, Gannicus and even Agron, all of whom prefer more internalized forms of dealing with their feelings.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: After his injuries temporarily keep him from fighting.
• Due to the Dead: His funeral in The Dead and the Dying.
• Dumb Muscle: At his worst.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: The character who the most received the most. At the end of Gods of the Arena, his long hair and beard is cut off, symbolizing his transformation from rookie gladiator into the Champion of Capua. By War of the Damned, he's grown hair and beard again, though he's better groomed, showing he has started to reclaim his own identity and reject his slavery.
• Face Death with Dignity: The fact that he's going to die after he's defeated sinks in really fast. He doesn't cry and beg, or try to fight back (which he isn't really capable of doing anyway on account of his wounds). Instead, he just stares at Naevia in his last moments, silently trying to offer her comfort.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Crixus is a downplayed Lightning Bruiser at best, but his tendency to have his back unguarded somehow makes him a textbook Glass Cannon.
  • His thirst for revenge has him recklessly lead an army to Rome. Crassus is waiting for them, Crixus does not survive.
  • Arguably his biggest flaw is that he's never able to let go of his gladiator mentality and think like a soldier. All of his combat training is for arena combat; unlike Spartacus, who was a warrior in his tribe before joining the Roman auxillery, Crixus was taken as a slave before he would have been trained even among his own people. This is the direct cause of his recklessness; despite the fact that he's an excellent warrior and an extremely charismatic leader, he's a terrible strategist.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Spartacus, by first season's end.
• Game-Breaking Injury: During the fight with Theokoles. He got better.
• Glory Seeker: He relishes the chance to fight the "Shadow of Death" and even during the slave revolt he believes victory in defeating the Romans would become legendary. In Gods of the Arena, his main motivation is to become Champion of Capua.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: One of his major flaws. He gets angered quickly and it takes a lot to calm him down, during which time he tends to do very reckless and destructive things that are detrimental either to himself or others around him.
• Headbutting Heroes: With Agron in Vengeance.
• Hidden Depths: He possesses a soft and sensitive side, usually around Naevia, whom he is devoted to. He also extends sympathy to Barca over killing Auctus, and reveals his continued grief over the massacre and enslavement of his family when he was just a child.
• Historical Domain Character
• Hot-Blooded: If Crixus feels strongly about something, everyone will know about it.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Naevia.
• Humiliation Conga: Goes through a MAJOR one starting with his fight with Theokoles. First, he was severely wounded in the fight, rendering him incapable of contributing anything aside from a last minute save by blinding the giant with his cast off helmet. Second, his wounds take a long time to heal, rendering him invalid for weeks on end and thus people begin to think he'll never be a major contender again. Next, his place as the star in the ludus is taken by Spartacus who proceeds to return the curbstomps Crixus gave him before, thus showing that Spartacus has surpassed him in skill after a very short time (a major blow to his ego). And finally he's only kept from getting shipped off to Damascus because he just happened to save Spartacus from being strangled in the bath and because of the good graces of Lucretia (who's obsessed with him). It's only when Spartacus is rendered invalid due to an infection and Crixus is sent to replace him for the primus that he manages to regain the favor of the crowd and Batiatus.
• Hypocrite: Chastises Spartacus for attempting to assassinate Glaber, as he claims that such an act will provoke greater reprisals from the Romans than their group can handle. He then proceeds to drag the rebels around raiding the villas of the Roman aristocracy, which just makes them into a more obvious threat which Glaber (ironically) is under intense pressure from Rome to stamp out. Crixus also leads most of his own supporters on a Suicide Mission to rescue his beloved Naevia that gets some of them killed.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: With a spear In the Back courtesy of Tiberius, which is the reason for his defeat.
• Improbable Hairstyle: His Seasons 1 and 2 hairstyle is way too modern for Ancient Rome.
• Jerk Jock: At first. He develops into more of a Lovable Jock.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Manu Bennett has claimed he bases Crixus off of people he knew when he was younger, who he hated when he first met but became his friends later. Case in point, he is loyal to his comrades with a strong sense of honor and is also devoted to his Love Interest Naevia, treating her with kindness and respect.
• Knight in Sour Armour: By the end of Blood and Sand.
• Knight Templar / Unscrupulous Hero: Becomes this by War of the Damned. Like Spartacus, he wants to free slaves from Roman tyranny, but he has very different ideas about how to do this, including burning down Rome itself. He also has a tendency to choose more ruthless methods of doing so and isn't above killing civilians either.
• The Lancer: Shares the role with Agron and Gannicus in War of the Damned. He's the authority-clashing type and the rebel forces' official Number Two, not to mention being Spartacus' former rival.
• Large Ham: He really loves to give a speech on glory and dying in war.
• Lightning Bruiser: Downplayed. He has great athleticism, but he relies more on using his strength than speed and prefers grounded attacks. Crixus at one point bulldozes his way past a dozen Romans and effortlessly neck lifts a Roman soldier with just one hand.
• Living Legend: Is the Champion of Capua before Spartacus's arrival, known as the 'Undefeated Gaul' due to (almost) never being defeated in battle.
• Locked Out of the Loop: In War of the Damned at times, as Spartacus is concerned his Revenge Before Reason and Blood Knight tendencies make him unreliable. Crixus does not take it well.
• Looks Like Jesus: In both the prequel and the final season.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Rarely but evident. He chastises Spartacus for pursuing vengeance of Glabor because it would illicit the attention of Rome. Yet he runs rampant around Capua killing Romans to find Naevia.
• Love Redeems: In Blood and Sand, falling in love with Naevia brings out his softer side and gives him something to live for besides glory in the arena. Double Subverted in War of the Damned.
• Made of Iron: Survives grievous injuries inflicted by the Shadow of Death. Only one other person has survived such trauma.
• Magnetic Hero: He is very charismatic and really knows how to rile up the crowds or his troops.
• Male Frontal Nudity: He's fully naked when Spartacus first meets him, and later has to strip off when Ilithyia wants to see more. He's the only one of the male protagonists to appear nude on the show, with the rest only ever showing as much as their asses. Spartacus does show penis in "Whore", but Andy Whitfield was wearing a prosthetic.
• Morality Pet: To Naevia in War of the Damned. Although she's Took a Level in Jerkass and is exceedingly ruthless towards those she views as enemies, she is always loving and supportive towards him and almost seems like her old self around him at times (when she's not egging him on to go behind Spartacus back and kill all Romans, that is).
• Mr. Fanservice: His formal introduction in the series involves him wearing nothing at all and he has several more nude scenes. Most notablly when Iliythia summons him to the ludus and procedes to strip him naked so she can paw and ogle at his naked body.
• Number Two: The official second in command of the rebel forces.
• Offing the Offspring: He stabs Lucretia in the womb while knowing she's pregnant with their child, saying he'd rather see the baby dead than "suckled at [her] breast".
• Off with His Head!: How he eventually dies in War of the Damned.
• Rape and Revenge: After finding out Naevia has been passed around to various Roman elites as a Sex Slave, Crixus personally tracks down and kills many of them, also interrogating and torturing them for information on her whereabouts.
• Rebel Leader: One of Spartacus' generals. He is the defacto leader of the Gauls and has enough clout to command several thousands in his own campaigns sans Spartacus.
• Red Baron: The Undefeated Gaul.
• Red Oni: To Spartacus' Blue.
• Revenge Before Reason: In War of the Damned.
• The Rival: To Spartacus, at first. Starts showing signs of this again in the third season.
• Secret Relationship: At first with Naevia.
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Naevia in Blood and Sand.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is 5'11.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Especially in Season 1.
• Took a Level in Kindness: As of Season 2. He tries to honour the spirit of Naevia by treating the Syrian Nasir with niceness despite his unabashed disdain towards Syrian people. He's also very understanding and supportive of Naevia whilst she's coping with the trauma of being raped. However, he ends up (Re)Taking A Level In Jerkass in Season 3.
• Would Hit a Girl: He killed several Roman noblewomen during the ludus massacre, which includes stabbing a pregnant Lucretia in the stomach, though in fairness Lucretia kinda deserved it after everything she did to him and those he cares about throughout the season. In War of the Damned, he also seems to have no qualms about killing or hurting female prisoners in Sinuessa.

Varro

Varro (Jai Courtney)

"Live...and see my family provided for...And know I would have done the same."

Varro is a gladiator in the house of Batiatus. He was once a free Roman man, but voluntarily became a gladiator in Batiatus' ludus to pay off his momentous gambling debts. He rose from being a common recruit to becoming one of the more formidable gladiators in the ludus. Varro is the husband of Aurelia, father of Janus, and a friend to Spartacus.

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• Action Dad: To his young son, Janus.
• Animal Motifs: The eel.
• Ascended Fanboy: Played with. Varro is a fan of gladiators who eventually becomes one; however, in this context it means that he lost so much money gambling on fights that he was Made a Slave in order to pay his debts.
• Bash Brothers: With Spartacus.
• Canon Foreigner
• The Confidant: To Spartacus.
• Deadpan Snarker: On a very bad day, he starts snarking about his predicament.
• A Death in the Limelight: "Party Favors", the same episode he dies, focused on him a lot.
• Dies Wide Open: Though they were closed when his body was returned to Aurelia.
• Due to the Dead: One of the fallen characters honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Expy: His appearance (blond with curly hair) is likely closer to the Real Life Crixus than Manu Bennet's. His role is also very similar to the Crixus of the Stanley Kubrick film.
• Face Death with Dignity: After Numerius gives the thumbs down, he pretty much accepted his fate and even calmly asks a reluctant Spartacus to kill him. When Spartacus hesitates, he actually grabs his sword and plunges it into his own neck to encourage him to finish him off.
• The Gambler: His gambling addiction is the whole reason he had to become a gladiator.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Is a very good-meaning man with blonde hair.
• Happily Married: To Aurelia. Well, mostly. His gambling addiction caused some problems for them, and they hit a rough patch due to Varro's poor reaction to finding out she was pregnant by rape, but they undoubtedly loved one another and he tried to be a good husband.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When Spartacus is ordered to kill him, he cannot. Varro, knowing Spartacus will be punished for disobedience if he doesn't, grabs his wrist and forces his sword into his chest.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Spartacus.
• Jack of All Stats
• The Lancer: To Spartacus for most of Season 1.
• Morality Pet: Varro's presence and interactions with Spartacus during his time as a slave is integral for keeping the latter from losing his humanity, especially once Sura dies. By the time Varro dies, Spartacus already has enough support system (particularly in Mira) for him to go on, though that doesn't mean it stopped Spartacus from taking his death really hard.
• Mr. Fanservice: A handsome man with a muscular body. Unfortunately for him, its probably what got him selected by Lucretia for the sex show on the night of the Vulcanalia.
• Nice Guy: Zig-zagged. He is usually affable and well-meaning, but is a Jerkass to his wife, blaming her for being raped and accusing her of cheating on him. He then cheats on her with a prostitute out of anger. That being said, he snaps out of it after Spartacus calls him out on his behaviour and expresses extreme regret at his treatment of Aurelia. He threatens to kill the man who raped her, vows to try harder to be a better husband and father and even says he will accept and love Aurelia's unborn Child by Rape as if it were his own, simply because it's part of Aurelia. His wife later states that even though he was far from perfect, he genuinely loved her and their son, and he was a loyal friend to Spartacus.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His fate, coupled with Sura's, is what drives Spartacus to start a rebellion.
• Rape by Proxy: He's forced by Lucretia to engage in a sex show with a slave on the night on the vulcanalia for the entertainment of Ilithyia and her other guests.
• Retirony: The episode where he dies spends about 45 minutes making a point of Varro establishing a happy future for him with his wife and children once he leaves the ludus. It's so conspicuous it would have been more surprising had he not died at the end.
• Sacrificial Lion: The series heavily builds him as The Lancer to Spartacus but he dies near the end of Blood and Sand. It sends Spartacus into a Heroic BSoD, which ultimately leads to him reevaluating his life and the death of his wife Sura. It eventually spurs him to reject his fate as a slave and start a rebellion.
• Second Episode Introduction: Played straight.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: The reason why he, a Roman citizen, became a gladiator.

Sura

Sura (Erin Cummings)

"If you go to war you are destined for great and unfortunate things."

Sura is Spartacus' Thracian wife and inspiration, tragically taken from him after he deserts from the Roman auxiliary by his most hated enemy, Gaius Claudius Glaber.

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• Action Girl: She can handle a sword and does a good job holding off four or five armed attackers before Spartacus shows up to help. When plotting his escape, Spartacus considers her combat ability an asset to get by the guards.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted: Spartacus is The Hedonist when they first had sex. However, it turns out she didn't do it because he was a bad boy, but because the gods had shown her that, once he fell for her, he would be a fantastic guy.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She is composed and quite snarky, with dark brown hair.
• Always Someone Better: She's considered this by Mira, Spartacus' Second Love interest. Although she respects Spartacus' continued love for his deceased wife, she clearly feels hurt and increasingly resentful that Spartacus cannot love her as deeply as he loves Sura. Spartacus's third love interest Laeta seems to feel this way about Sura too, but to a far lesser extent; she's not as insecure about it as Mira and is more understanding probably because she also knows what it's like to lose a spouse.
• Armour-Piercing Question: Combined with Bait-and-Switch. During a fever-induced hallucination, Sura asks Spartacus "Why did you kill that man?" He initially thinks she means Varro whom he was forced to kill, but then realizes she was talking about him, as by this point he has lost much of his identity. By the end of the episode, Spartacus has reclaimed his true self and makes plans to rebel against the House of Batiatus.
• Battle Couple: Briefly with Spartacus in the first episode, but if Spartacus' escape plan is anything to go by it's apparently happened a few times before.
• Character Death: Sura is murdered by bandits on her way to the ludus, dying in Spartacus' arms, half way through Blood and Sand. However, it turns out that Batiatus actually arranged Sura's murder to dissuade Spartacus from escaping with her. Spartacus isn't happy when he figures this out.
• Damsel in Distress: Subverted in the first episode. She's attacked by enemy soldiers but actually does a decent job holding them off until Spartacus arrives to help her. She then promptly joins in the fight, actually saving his life. Played straight when she is abducted and enslaved by the Romans though. But since she's Spartacus's wife, she's not a true damsel, which just means a young unmarried woman.
• Death by Adaptation: Married or not, Spartacus did have a relationship with a prophetess who played an important role in the rebellion, rather than dying in his days as a gladiator (as in the show).
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in her husband's arms.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Historical records state that Spartacus' prophetess lover/wife, who played an important role in the rebellion, fell along with the rebellion rather than during his days as a gladiator as part of Batiatus' scheme to manipulate her husband into settling in said role.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: She claims that her dreams can foretell the future.
• Due to the Dead: The ludus holds a funeral for her after her death, with Spartacus personally lighting her pyre.
• First Girl Wins: She's the first of three women Spartacus is with in the series. She's the one he really loves, and Mira especially knows she can never compare to her.
• First Love: To Spartacus. Although he has other lovers after her death, he never truly gets over her.
• Go Out with a Smile: A downplayed example, but she smiles slightly as she dies in Spartacus' arms, presumably out of happiness at being able to see her husband one last time.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She has a purple ribbon, which Spartacus gives her as a promise to return to her before he goes to war. Following Sura's enslavement and death it becomes a Tragic Keepsake for him.
• Happily Married: To Spartacus; the two are clearly deeply in love and talked of having a family until Glaber separated them.
• Improbable Hairstyle: She has quite a modern side fringe hairstyle that was very popular among women of the late 2000s and early 2010s, but probably not in ancient times. While the Egyptians and the Romans did sport fringes, they were usually much more blunt.
• Lady in Red: One of her most common outfits includes a red top over a blue dress.
• The Lost Lenore: One of the most classic examples in a recent television series. Spartacus mourns her for the rest of his life and is inspired to rebel against the Romans because of her.
• Made a Slave: As punishment for her husband's desertion.
• Male Gaze: The camera man really loves to emphasize that she's a Ms. Fanservice character.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Spartacus is for the most part a 'realistic' show with few fantastical elements, but some Sura's dreams and predictions do indeed come to pass in one way or another (such as her vision of Spartacus kneeling before a red serpent). It's ultimately left ambiguous as to whether she is truly able to predict the future or just really good at guessing.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a bonafide eye candy.
• Named by the Adaptation: It is historically stated that Spartacus may have been married to their village's prophet. Married or not, he had a relationship with a prophetess who played an important role in the rebellion.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We never find out exactly what happened to her during her enslavement. Glaber outright tells Spartacus that he had her gang-raped "Until the fight finally left her eyes", and Crixus suspects something similar happened. Given what happened to Naevia, it certainly wasn't pleasant.
• One True Love: Word of God is that she is Spartacus'. She herself tells Spartacus she foresaw he would never love another woman and he indeed never stops loving her; on his deathbed, he expresses happiness at finally getting to see her again.
• Oracular Urchin: Doesn't dress for snowy weather, but knows a lot about the future.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Her fate, in addition to Varro's, is what drives Spartacus to start a rebellion.
• Present Absence: She's not physically present for most of Blood and Sand as she was taken to Syria, but she is never far from Spartacus' mind. His love for her and dream of seeing her again is what motivates him to survive.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: In the first episode of Blood and Sand, she is captured and taken away by Glaber's men to be enslaved, though she shows up in dreams and flashbacks. She's Back for the Dead in "Delicate Things".
• Rape as Drama: Glaber tells Spartacus he let his men rape Sura. However, it's never confirmed if she was assaulted or if Glaber was just messing with Spartacus.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Sura is introduced as Spartacus's loving wife, who is dragged off to slavery in the very first episode. Spartacus's motivation for the first half of Blood and Sand is finding a way to be reunited with her. Then, just as they were about to meet again, Sura is killed in the sixth episode, leaving Spartacus utterly lost and devastated. However, unlike many other Sacrificial Lambs, Sura plays a more significant role in overarching plot, as her death is ultimately one of the main reasons Spartacus starts a rebellion.
• Sage Love Interest: To Spartacus, often dispensing advice or words of wisdom, largely based on her visions.
• Satellite Love Interest: Her character largely revolves around her relationship with The Protagonist, Spartacus, and considering she dies mid-way through Season 1, she doesn't have much opportunity to develop further, although she is given a bit of depth beyond this, mostly in regards to her supposed powers of precognition.
• Sex Equals Love: She intentionally invoked this with Spartacus, seeking him out after foreseeing that he would be the love of her life.
• Spirit Advisor: Could possibly be this to Spartacus...unless he's just imagining her. But his visions of her do prove quite handy from time to time and even help him solve her murder.
• Together in Death: As he lays dying in the Grand Finale of the series, Spartacus says he's happy he'll finally get to be with Sura again in the afterlife.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Spartacus certainly thinks so. One of the reasons he is so distraught and enraged by her fate is because she was completely innocent of any wrong-doing, but was punished for his so-called crimes.
  Mira: Was she such a woman, your wife?
  Spartacus: She was the sun. Never to rise again.
• True Blue Femininity: Usually wears blue.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After watching her hometown burn, being separated from her husband and Made a Slave, Sura is finally on her way to be reunited with him...only to be fatally stabbed on the road and die in Spartacus' arms.

Naevia

Naevia (Lesley-Ann Brandt, Cynthia Addai-Robinson)

"You were right. It is no easy thing, to cleave a man's head from his shoulders in one blow."

Naevia is a former slave in the House of Batiatus, owned by Lucretia, who later becomes Crixus' love interest. She is banished from the Ludus after their love affair is discovered. She is eventually found by the Rebels, and joins their cause alongside her lover.

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• Action Survivor: In Vengeance, she's able to survive a number of life-threatening situations despite being a handmaiden her whole life and starts learning how to defend herself properly, culminating in her narrowly defeating Ashur in a sword fight. She eventually graduates to Dark Action Girl.
• Affectionate Pickpocket: She steals a key to the gate separating the gladiator cells from the villa by flirting with a guard, in order to be with Crixus. However, Crixus sees them together and assumes Naevia's affections have turned from him until she explains what she was really doing.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Mostly only towards Crixus in the first season, until their Relationship Upgrade. She becomes a straighter example in the third season.
• Ambiguously Brown: More so when played by Lesley-Ann Brandt, who has mixed ancestry (Cynthia Addai-Robinson was more clearly black, though she is also mixed race). Naevia is said to be Phoenician, who originated from the Eastern Mediterranean.
• Anti-Hero: Develops into an Unscrupulous Hero by War of the Damned. She's exceedingly vengeful, vicious and paranoid when it comes to fighting the Romans, but she is on the rebels' side and ultimately puts their overall well-being first.
• Arc Symbol: Tiberius' sword in the final season.
• Arranged Marriage: Late in Blood and Sand, she is given as a wife to Ashur against her will. Fortunately for Naevia, it doesn't last long.
• Ax-Crazy: She unfortunately descends into this in War of the Damned; though not completely irrational, she's quick to dish out violence to anyone she sees as a threat, even if the evidence is flimsy at best, including beating Attius to death with a hammer in a rage. She snaps out of it after Spartacus saves her life and Crixus dies.
• Battle Couple: With Crixus, starting late in Vengeance.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: She's been in Lucretia's service since she was born and is noted by several characters to be beautiful; her outfits also tend to be quite revealing. She initially manages to avoid some of the pitfalls of this trope, as Lucretia protects her virginity, if only so she will be worth more later. She is eventually given to Ashur, to Lucretia's disgust and Crixus's rage.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Despite the horror she goes through in being passed from villa to villa to be repeatedly raped and tortured by various Romans, and sent to the mines, which are said to be A Fate Worse Than Death, she continues to look beautiful. Lucretia's beating on her in "Revelations" only leaves her slightly bruised, and her hair has grown out by the time of Vengeance to be just attractively unkempt. She does have a scar across her cheek but not in a way that detracts from her beauty.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Ultimately subverted. She is blinded by her hate and desire for vengeance against the Romans after being abused and raped by Roman elites - even encouraging Crixus to turn against Spartacus due to him showing some Romans mercy - and she's a bit too fond of using violence to solve her problems. But she redeems herself in the end, most notably by choosing to spare Tiberius to save her comrades, despite the fact he killed Crixus.
• Betty and Veronica: She's the Betty to Lucretia's Veronica for Crixus in Blood and Sand.
• Big "NO!": In "Separate Paths" when Tiberius stabs Crixus in the back, seriously wounding him.
• Blood from the Mouth: Justified in "Victory", as she was fatally stabbed in the throat.
• Blood Knight: She becomes this by the end of Vengeance; she just about lives for fighting the Romans at Crixus' side and isn't too impressed by Spartacus' attempts to avoid more bloodshed. That said, there are a few instances in War of the Damned where she expresses a desire to live a more peaceful life and raise a family with Crixus. After Crixus is killed, she willingly takes part in the Last Stand against Crassus to buy the non-combatants time to escape, feeling she has little else left to live for.
• Born into Slavery: She tells Crixus she was born in the ludus and so has been a slave all her life.
• Braids of Action: Naevia's hair evolves with her story. When she was still a body slave she had long, loose hair. When she got cast away her hair was cut as punishment. By War of the Damned, her braided hair shows her development into a Dark Action Girl.
• Broken Bird: From Vengeance onwards, due to being repeatedly raped, tortured and sent to the mines. She trains as a fighter and uses this as an outlet for her trauma, vowing to never be helpless again, though she tends to take it overboard in War if the Damned and her vulnerabilities sometimes show through (usually around Crixus).
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: With Crixus in Blood and Sand. She later ditches the 'gentle' part.
• The Bus Came Back: In Vengeance, when the rebels finally track her down.
• Canon Foreigner: Nothing is known about the historical Crixus's love life, and Naevia is an original character created for the series, though of course someone like her definitely could have existed.
• Childhood Friend: To Diona; they were raised together and she states they've "been as one" for as long as she can remember.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Believing that Crixus died so that she could escape, and knowing how many others died in the attempt, she angrily chastises the rebels for throwing away so much to rescue her. Notably, she chastises Agron, who was the one opposed to the rescue from the start. When he tells her this, she says he should have tried harder to talk them out of it.
• Crusading Widow: She's technically not a widow per se, as she and Crixus were never married, but they were as devoted to each other as a married couple, and she certainly wants Tiberius dead for causing her lover's death. Ultimately subverted, however; whilst she wallops and humiliates Tiberius, she spares him so he can be exchanged for five hundred captured comrades.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Being repeatedly raped and battered then banished to the mines destroyed the last of her innocence. By War of the Damned, she is a hardened and ruthless warrior, a far cry from the sweet and naive house slave she was in earlier seasons. She also tends to be a lot more suspicious of people and their intentions, sometimes to the point of paranoia.
• Damsel in Distress: In Vengeance, where she spends much of the season either trapped in the mines or threatened by enemies, needing to be rescued quite a bit. She then starts taking levels in badass by learning how to fight.
• Dark Action Girl: In War of the Damned, she has become skilled enough in combat to fight alongside Crixus and the other warrior rebels, though she's also become a lot darker in her personality. She's more of an Anti-Hero than a true villain, but she makes it plain she despises all Romans (even civilians) and has no qualms about killing them. She mutilates an innocent Roman baker, doesn't stop the rebels from abusing the Romans, causes tension between Crixus and Spartacus that backfires on all the rebels and kills Attius on the wrongful assumption that he freed their prisoners. She's not a completely immoral person though and is fighting against Roman oppression.
• Defiled Forever: She sees herself as this after being repeatedly raped. However, Crixus and the majority of the other characters make it very clear that they don't and she isn't presented as being so by the narrative either. Naevia herself eventually stops thinking this way; notably, when Ashur points out that killing him won't take away her memories of being assaulted, she states that although this is true, "It is a fucking start".
• Despair Event Horizon: She comes close to crossing this twice; first after being repeatedly raped and banished to the mines, then again after Crixus is killed. It's ultimately subverted, as she manages to bounce back (more or less) in time.
• Devoted to You: Crixus is very devoted to her; in Blood and Sand he subtly dedicates his arena victories to her and is inspired to fight for her (as opposed to just personal glory) whilst in Vengeance his driving motivation is finding her and keeping her safe, no matter how many Roman villas, mines or legions he has to tear his way through to achieve that.
• Distinguishing Mark: She has a butterfly tattoo on her back, which is Lucretia's personal symbol identifying her body slave. In Vengeance, the rebels are able to identify Naevia in the mines from the tattoo.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Subverted in Vengeance. Agron reports that a dying Roman told him Naevia is dead, but it later turns out he lied – Naevia is actually in the mines, which in Agron's mind means she’s as good as dead anyway and that any attempt to rescue her would be suicide. She's later found alive.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Her hair is initially always worn up, and only starts being worn down when her romance with Crixus blossoms. Lucretia cuts it off after discovering the affair, and it's still growing back by the time they find her in the mines, coincidentally with how she has a lot of trauma to deal with. By War of the Damned, it has grown long again, but she continues to wear it in a Tomboyish Ponytail as befitting an Action Girl.
• Fag Hag: Especially after her rescue, when she was suffering severe PTSD from having been repeatedly abused and raped. When she was not with Crixus she was usually with Nasir and sometimes Agron. It's implied this is because after having endured repeated rapes, she's afraid of most men, with them being ones she can trust (since Crixus would never hurt her, and they aren't interested).
• Fatal Flaw: Arguably her impulsiveness/lack of foresight. In the prequel season, she tried to help Diona escape, but it was very rushed with no real planning. As a result Diona is captured and executed. In Blood and Sand, she grows somewhat careless about her Secret Relationship with Crixus, leading to Ashur finding out, who uses this to hurt both Naevia and Crixus. In Vengeance she panics and tries to run from Roman soldiers, causing Nasir to be badly injured (though this one is more justified in that she was clearly traumatized and not thinking straight). It gets particularly bad when combined with her Revenge Before Reason attitude in War of the Damned, leading to conflict between Crixus and Spartacus that divides the rebels. Her fighting style also reflects this (see Glass Cannon).
• Freudian Excuse: She's very clearly suffering from PTSD after being repeatedly raped and tortured between the first and second seasons. She starts getting better by the end of Vengeance, but never really gets over it and it serves as fuel for her desire for revenge against the Romans at any cost in War of the Damned.
• Glass Cannon: In War of the Damned. Despite taking several levels of badass to become a Dark Action Girl, she still has poor to no defensive and counter-attacking skills.
• Groin Attack: She defeats Ashur this way; when he gets too cocky and lowers his guard after knocking her to the ground, she slashes him between the legs with her sword.
• Hates Being Touched: At first in Vengeance, due to being abused and raped. She gets better about it by the end of the season.
• Her Heart Will Go On: After Crixus is killed in "Separate Paths". She spends the first part of "The Dead and the Dying" going through a Heroic BSoD, but by the end she's ready and willing to fight alongside the rebels once more, participating in Crixus's funeral games and joining them in their Last Stand against Crassus, before finally falling in battle herself.
• Heroic BSoD: She's going through one for most of Vengeance, on account of her Trauma Conga Line, though she comes out of it by the end of the season. She goes through another one briefly out of grief and trauma when Crixus is killed in front of her.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Diona in Gods of Arena; they've known each other all their lives and are closer to each other than anyone else.
• Howl of Sorrow: When she's forced to watch Crixus die, she's reduced to screaming and sobbing hysterically.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Crixus, as she barely comes up to his shoulder and he's almost twice her size.
• The Ingenue: In Blood and Sand and particularly Gods of the Arena, she is characterized as young, beautiful, virginal and quite naïve and innocent. It doesn't end too well for her.
• Lady Macbeth: To Crixus in War of the Damned, encouraging him to defy Spartacus' orders, kill the Roman prisoners and attack Rome itself.
• Last Girl Wins: Crixus ultimately only ever loved her, not Lucretia, which he makes abundantly clear.
• Living MacGuffin: The first three or so episodes of Vengeance revolve around the rebels trying to track her down, whilst freeing any slaves and killing any Romans in their path.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: In the first two seasons, when she is a body slave and at her most feminine, she wears her hair long and loose. By the time she's started taking up combat lessons, her hair has been cut short. In the final season she has grown her hair again, though by this point she's wearing it in braids.
• Master of the Mixed Message: She has shades of this in Blood and Sand. When Crixus buys her a necklace, she initially accepts it...then turns it down because she's not allowed jewellery. When Crixus is forced to give it to Lucretia to explain away why he has it, Naevia is annoyed and jealous. However, as she points out, Crixus didn't let her fully explain her reasoning and she makes it clear she does return his feelings.
• The Millstone: To the rebels in Season 2's "Empty Hands", though it's somewhat justified in that she's obviously severely traumatized.
• Morality Pet: To Crixus in Blood and Sand, where hes a Jerk Jock, and in War Of The Damned, where hes an increasingly ruthless Anti-Hero. No matter how he acts around everyone else, Crixus softens up considerably around Naevia and treats her with nothing but kindness and respect. And may the gods help you if you lay a hand on her.
• Near-Death Experience: In the mines and also against Crassus under Crixus' lead.
• Nice Girl: In Blood and Sand and Gods of the Arena. She's a polite, gentle and compassionate young woman who dislikes the violence of the arena and almost never treats anyone badly. She even takes it upon herself to care for Barca and Pietros' birds after they both die even though she didn't know them well, partly out of guilt because she knows but cannot talk about Barca being murdered, while Pietros committed suicide after believing Barca abandoned him. She ends up taking some serious levels of jerkass between Vengeance and War of the Damned, although she is occasionally still nice.
• Nice Job Breaking It Heroine:
  • In Gods of the Arena, she encourages and helps Diona to escape from the ludus, attempting to protect her from further abuse. Unfortunately, Diona is soon recaptured and executed for trying to run away.
  • In War of the Damned. And how!
• The Paranoiac: By War of the Damned, she is convinced all Romans are callous, two-faced monsters just waiting for an opportunity to strike once they've lowered their guard, and meets five of the seven criteria for this trope: she's consumed with getting revenge, tends to assume the worst of people (with the exception of Crixus), is prone to aggression and takes mercy for weakness, initially refuses to accept the blame for her mistakes, and is convinced there's a conspiracy to take down the rebels from within (she's actually right about that, but she directs her suspicions at the wrong person completely).
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: In Vengeance, she finds herself unable to have sex with Crixus after being rescued from the mines as it triggers horrible flashbacks to her being raped. She laments that her abusers have even taken his touch from her and tends to hang out with Nasir or occasionally Agron, both of whom are gay, the implication being that she doesn't have to worry about them trying to abuse her. By the end of the season, however, she overcomes this and rekindle their relationship.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being a paranoid jerk and borderline Ax-Crazy for much of War of the Damned, she shows a softer side by training Diotimos and a few other recruits to fight. She is encouraging and jovial with him and is genuinely upset when he dies, doing what she can to comfort him. After learning that Gannicus was right about Attius being innocent, she also apologizes to him with genuine humility. Unfortunately, the fallout of her earlier accusations makes this ring hollow for Gannicus.
• Properly Paranoid: Zig-zagged in War of the Damned. It turns out she's right about there being a mole in the rebel forces, but the primary target of her suspicions is actually innocent.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: In the penultimate episode of Blood and Sand, she is banished from the ludus to be sent from villa to villa as a "gift", after Lucretia finds out about her relationship with Crixus.
• Rank Up: In the finale of Gods of the Arena, Lucretia promotes her to her personal body slave following Melitta's death.
• Rape and Revenge: Naevia insists on personally fighting Ashur, the first man who raped her and orchestrated the events that led to her becoming a Sex Slave and manages to castrate and kill him.
• Rape as Drama: Though it mostly happened off-screen, she was first raped by Ashur, then passed around as a Sex Slave to various dominuses as punishment for her relationship with Crixus. After being rescued, Sedullus tries to rape her as well, though she manages to fight back this time and is rescued by Agron.
• Rape Leads to Insanity: When she's found by the rebels in Vengeance, she's an emotional wreck, acting on pure instinct and barely capable of stringing together coherent sentences. She gets much better by the end of the season, though she's clearly got PTSD and in War of the Damned, she starts slipping into Ax-Craziness.
• Rebellious Spirit: Increasingly shows signs of this in Blood and Sand and even as far back as Gods of the Arena, such as helping Diona escape and stealing a guard's key to secretly meet up with Crixus right under her domina's nose – she even has the nerve to deliver a Shut Up, Hannibal! to Lucretia by the end of the first season. This side of her comes out in full force in Vengeance, where she joins the rebels.
• Redemption Equals Death: Dies with Spartacus and the remaining rebel forces in the finale after spending half of the season causing tensions within the group.
• Rejected Apology: After realizing she was wrong for blaming Attius for their escaped prisoners, she apologizes to his close friend Gannicus (she can't apologize to Attius himself because she killed him in a fight). Gannicus doesn't accept it, to her disappointment, probably because his friend died for no reason and Naevia initially refused to accept she'd made a mistake, resulting in a huge fight between Gannicus and Crixus, during which she clobbered Gannicus with a rock. It also only caused further tensions between the rebels, who really need to be sticking together at this time. That being said, Gannicus appears sympathetic towards her after Crixus is killed along with half their army, leaving her traumatized, and is very upset when he sees her die in battle, perhaps suggesting a case of Forgiven, but Not Forgotten.
• Revenge Before Reason: In War of the Damned.
• Same Character, But Different: As portrayed by Lesley Ann Brandt in Blood & Sand and Gods of the Arena, she's The Ingenue and a Nice Girl with more of a Silk Hiding Steel persona. As portrayed by Cynthia Addai-Robinson from Vengeance onward, she trains to become a Dark Action Girl and is a Blood Knight by War of the Damned - even taking glee in watching Roman civilians be slaughtered and degraded. She's said to have endured a huge Trauma Conga Line in an attempt to bridge the transition.
• Satellite Love Interest: She's a bit of one to Crixus in Blood and Sand. However, from the prequel series onwards she becomes a lot more fleshed out as a character (funnily enough, she and Crixus don't actually even interact with each other in Gods of the Arena despite this being when they first meet).
• Screaming Warrior: She tends to scream and yell a lot in battle.
• Second Episode Introduction: Played straight.
• Secret-Keeper: She is forced to keep quiet about what really happened to Barca, who was secretly killed by Batiatus after being framed by Ashur. When Oenamaus starts asking questions, she warns him that his inquiries could endanger her. After she is banished and has nothing left to lose, she tells Oenamaus the truth about Barca.
• Secret Relationship: Initially with Crixus in Blood and Sand; Lucretia has decreed that no man may touch Naevia without her permission, while Crixus is also Lucretia's lover, forcing them to meet in secret. Ashur finds out eventually and outs them to get revenge on Crixus, with Lucretia taking it extremely poorly.
• Separated by the Wall: Technically, a door with bars separates her from Crixus in Blood and Sand, also serving as a visual metaphor for their social statuses keeping them apart. At most, they can hold hands and kiss a bit...until Naevia ends up stealing a spare key from a guard.
• She Who Fights Monsters: In War of the Damned, she's been consumed by her hatred of the Romans, to the point that she considers even innocent civilians to be as evil and deserving of death as the soldiers.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • When a jealous Lucretia begins beating and insulting her for her Secret Relationship with Crixus, Naevia defiantly states that Crixus doesn't truly love her. Lucretia doesn't take this well.
  • In Vengeance, when Ashur mockingly states that his death won't heal her scars or take away the memory of him raping her, Naevia states "You are right. It will not. But it is a fucking start" before proceeding to brutally hack his head off with a sword.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: She starts out as a kind, innocent house slave wearing revealing blue and white dresses, and by the end she's a Dark Action Girl who dons black and dark blue (or purple) make-shift armor.
• Slut-Shaming: Lucretia physically attacks her and calls her a whore for daring to sleep with Crixus without her permission...even though she herself has been cheating on her husband with Crixus for years. It's not just because Naevia had sex with him of her own free will, but also because Lucretia is bitterly jealous that Crixus has affections for another. Lucretia exacts horrible punishment upon Naevia by turning her into a Sex Slave.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Crixus, mostly in Blood and Sand. Their respective positions in the ludus prevent them from openly being together and when their relationship is discovered, Naevia is sent away to a Fate Worse than Death. In Vengeance, Crixus is led to believe she is dead, only to discover this is untrue; he rescues her from the mines only to be captured and initially thought dead. After he's rescued they're finally reunited, though Naevia's trauma initially puts a damper on things until she finds a way to cope. They're happy together for the rest of the series until Crixus dies, with Naevia joining him a few episodes later.
• Stuffed in the Fridge: Played straight for a while in Vengeance, when Crixus was led to believe she was dead, only for it to turn out she was actually still alive. Ironically, Crixus ends up being Stuffed in the Fridge to her in the final season.
• Stylish Protection Gear: She tends to wear this in War of the Damned. Whilst many of the rebels just tend to shove clothes and armor on rather haphazardly, Naevia seems to have made an effort to coordinate her outfits so that they look cool and stylish, whilst also remaining practical to fight in.
• Their First Time: Lucretia has intentionally preserved Naevia's virginity, saying she will give her as a wife to a deserving gladiator rather than make her a Sex Slave. However, Naevia takes her sexuality into her own hands by secretly meeting up with Crixus and losing her viginity to him. When Lucretia finds out, she is NOT happy.
• Those Two Girls: With Diona in Gods of the Arena.
• Token Evil Teammate: Ultimately subverted. She does some very harsh, very brutal things, and kills several people who didn't deserve it. But in the end, she chooses to forego personal vengeance against Tiberius to save the lives of five hundred captured rebels, showing she still has some good in her.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: A very feminine hand maiden at the beginning of the series, she becomes an Action Girl by War of the Damned, and is often only seen in armour.
• Took a Level in Badass: Learning sword fighting with Crixus and castrating and killing Ashur who started her descent into hell. She becomes a full-fledged Dark Action Girl in War of the Damned.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In War of the Damned. And how. She gets a bit better towards the end of season.
• Traumatic Haircut: Lucretia brutally hacks her hair off after discovering her Secret Relationship with Crixus.
• True Blue Femininity: Her outfits are mostly blue. After Crixus' death, she switched to purple.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: To Crixus in War of the Damned. Unfortunately, she takes this to some insane levels, slicing in half an innocent Roman citizen's hand for 'allegedly' reaching for a sword to attack Crixus, and also bashing Gannicus's head with a rock whilst he is fighting with Crixus.
• Virgin in a White Dress: Almost always wears white in Gods of the Arena, before being promoted to Lucretia's personal body slave. She occasionally wears white in Blood and Sand. Notably, she never wears white again after the first season and gradually shifts to much darker clothing, reflecting her Character Development.

Mira

Mira (Katrina Law)

"I am not the past. I stand beside you now."

Mira is a former house slave serving Lucretia in the House of Batiatus. She helps Spartacus during his uprising, becomes a fighter, and later becomes his love interest during the beginning stages of the Third Servile War.

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• Action Girl: Especially in Vengeance, where she receives formal combat training.
• Action Survivor: Initially one, until she gets proper training in the second season.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Played with. She falls in love with Spartacus and they enter a relationship. However, although Spartacus cares for Mira and respects her, he is still not over his wife and does not fully return Mira's feelings, to her disappointment. They eventually break up because of it.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Mostly in Blood and Sand. She becomes friendly in Vengeance.
• Amicable Exes: She and Spartacus seemed to be headed this way after their break up late in Vengeance. They still respect each other and get along, and Mira expresses a hope that his next relationship is more successful. Unfortunately, she is killed not long after.
• Badass Spaniard: She's from Spain and becomes pretty badass in Vengeance.
• Battle Couple: With Spartacus in Vengeance.
• Beautiful Slave Girl / Sex Slave: She is a very beautiful slave and it's implied she is often used as a concubine by the ludus; she is also repeatedly sent to Spartacus to 'service' him. To his credit, he turns her down as she is not there willingly; it's implied this what made her fall in love with him and eventually become his willing lover.
• Canon Foreigner: Although she may be partly based upon a real woman whom Spartacus had a relationship with during the rebellion.
• Character Death: In the finale of Vengeance, she takes an axe to the chest whilst covering the rebels' escape up Mount Vesuvius after some of them (namely Nemetes) foolishly attempted to attack the Romans.
• Chastity Dagger: Although she herself isn't chaste, after being freed from slavery she is determined to never be victimised and abused by anyone again. Beginning in Vengeance, she starts carrying a knife with her to protect herself and to protect other freed slave girls from men who would harm them.
• Clingy Jealous Girl/Love Makes You Crazy/Woman Scorned: Upon learning of the Bed Trick in Season 1, she didn't react well trying to strangle Ilithyia. She claims she's doing it as a favour to Spartacus (who is reluctant to kill her himself because she's likely pregnant with his child), but Spartacus doesn't take it well either way, with it actually being the catalyst for their break-up.
• Competing with a Corpse: Spartacus begins a romance with Mira some time after his wife Sura dies, but he still mourns deeply for Sura. Although he cares for Mira, their relationship lacks the emotional intimacy she craves and he never tells her he loves her, much to her sadness and frustration. This eventually leads to them breaking up late in Vengeance, because they both realize Mira can never be what Sura was to Spartacus; they're surprisingly amicable about it though, after the initial bust up.
• Cool Big Sis: To the other slave girls, Naevia especially.
• Decomposite Character: The historical Spartacus did have a wife/lover who aided in his rebellion. In the show, he has a wife called Sura, who dies midway through Blood & Sand. Mira is a separate character, a slave he meets after becoming champion, and she is integral in starting the revolt.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in Spartacus and Naevia's arms after being mortally wounded on Mount Vesuvius.
• Distracted from Death: Spartacus is too busy trying to get medical attention for her to realise she's already died.
• Due to the Dead: Spartacus makes a point of wrapping her body in vines, due to being unable to burn or bury her. She's also one of the fallen characters mentioned in The Dead and the Dying.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Lucretia finds her very beautiful and can't understand why Spartacus wouldn't want her, insisting it must be something she did. Saxa also gives her a victory smooch after they win a competition together.
• Exact Words: In order to avoid getting punished for Spartacus not sleeping with her at Lucretia's command, when asked how the night went, she responds that Spartacus "made many demands of me". She just doesn't clarify that the demand was to find word of Aurelia for Varro.
• Foreshadowing: In her first appearance, she's wearing a mask of the goddess Diana - the goddess of hunting who is often depicted with a bow.
• Glass Cannon: While she can deliver great damage to her opponents (armed or unarmed), they were usually able to strike her back.
• Graceful Loser: Once she realises that Spartacus will never love her the way he did Sura, or even as he used to, she sadly accepts it and one of the last things she says to him is expressing hope that his next lover will make him happy. Indeed, early plans were for her to survive and move on to become Gannicus's lover.
• Guile Heroine: She's good in making anything and everything work for her and her team's advantage, and occasionally employs deception and manipulation to make a plan work.
• Heroic Seductress: She occasionally uses her beauty and sex appeal to help the rebels - in one case in particular, she pretends to let a dominus have his way with her before drawing his own knife on him and threatening him into giving her what she wants.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The Shoot the Dog moment in Vengeance is a good example.
• Instant Expert: She masters the bow very quickly. Though Lucius indicates that she has a natural skill.
• Lady in Red: Her most common and well-known outfit is red, highlighting her attractiveness. Which she wore to the very end.
• Lady of War: The most calm and collected Action Girl in the entire series.
• Latin Lover: She is from Hispania after all. See also Male Gaze and Ms. Fanservice.
• Long-Range Fighter: She becomes fond of archery upon learning it.
• Loving a Shadow: And she fully knows it. Her exchange to help Spartacus with the revolt is for him to make love to her with "a pale shadow" of what he felt for Sura, so she can at least feel something resembling love coming from him for a moment.
• Male Gaze: Her character first appears completely naked, save for a mask. She gets her kit off again a few scenes later in an attempt to seduce Spartacus.
• Ms. Fanservice: Much like Crixus, the viewers first get a clothesless introduction to Mira's character and she tends to wear outfits with exposed cleavage, as well as being a Heroic Seductress from time to time.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has a bit of this reaction after the Shoot the Dog moment in Vengeance, saying she "only meant to wound", not kill her target.
• Mythology Gag: The scene introducing her to Spartacus bears striking similarity to the introduction of Spartacus and Varinia in Spartacus, possibly Foreshadowing their future relationship.
• Never Be Hurt Again: After Naevia's apparent death in the mines, Mira tells Spartacus she will not suffer the same fate and determines to learn how to fight properly so she can defend herself, also encouraging other former house slaves to learn combat as well.
• Only Sane Man: In Vengeance. Spartacus wants revenge, Agron wants to fight, and Crixus wants to find Naevia. She seems to be the only main character who simply wants to get out of dodge and start a new life while they still can and one of the few people that can sway Spartacus.
• Pre-Climax Climax: She intentionally invokes this in Blood and Sand; in exchange for her help in the Gladiator Revolt, she asks Spartacus to show her at least some of the affection he holds for his late wife in case the revolt fails.
• Replacement Goldfish: She's indicated to be one to Spartacus for Sura, whom she superficially resembles in appearance and personality, though Word of God is that Sura will always be his one true love. Katrina Law believes that Mira loves Spartacus because he still loves his wife deeply. Given how Season 2 ends, Spartacus now has the unenviable privilege of possessing not one but two Lost Lenores.
• Sacrificial Lion: She is killed in the final episode of Vengeance, being one of six major characters to die in the finale, to remind us that Anyone Can Die and to give Spartacus and the others the extra motivation they need to fight back and defeat Glaber. Wrapping her body in vines actually gives Spartacus the idea to use them to rappel down the mountainside and sneak up on the Romans. Spartacus also uses her death, along with Sura's and Varro's, to spur him into an Unstoppable Rage against Crassus in the finale of War of the Damned.
• Second Love: A subverted one to Spartacus. He begins a relationship with her months after his wife's death, but is still in love with Sura and makes it clear he always will be. Spartacus tries to love her as much as he can, but it's not enough for her and it finally leads to their breakup in Vengeance.
• Shoot the Dog: In Vengeance she sees the traitorous Chadara trying to escape with their map and supplies whilst everyone else is distracted by Spartacus and Gannicus' fight. Being too far away, Mira shoots Chadara with an arrow to stop her. Though she saves Gannicus and by extension the other rebels, she knows Chadara wasn't truly evil but desperate and even states she didn't intend to kill her.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Is not interested in anyone but Spartacus.
• The Smart Girl: See Guile Heroine above.
• Street Smart: She's quick-witted, resourceful, usually pretty savvy when it comes to reading people and knows her way around Capua. See also Guile Heroine.
• Statuesque Stunner: Katrina Law is 5'8.
• Team Mom: In Vengeance to an extent, being both caring towards the rebels and serving as a voice of reason. She was also seen attempting to mentor Aurelia in Blood & Sand after she becomes a slave, redirecting her from Ashur.
• Took a Level in Badass: She has gone from a slave girl/concubine in Blood and Sand to having a pretty impressive kill-count building up in Vengeance.
• Undying Loyalty: To Spartacus. A notable example in season two; when it looks as though they are surrounded by Romans, Spartacus tells her to flee, but she refuses to abandon him and is prepared to go down fighting at his side.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Inverted. She is the first prominent Action Girl of the rebellion to be killed off and is a more dignified Lady of War, whilst boisterous Ladette Saxa outlives her.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Calls Spartacus out on his selfishness a few times; it's a sign of how close they are that he lets her get away with it.
    • Vengeance gives us this gem:
    Mira: We need a leader! Not some angry boy who can barely piss without spraying everyone around him!
    • While she's chewing out Spartacus for almost getting himself killed, the line refers to Agron; had Spartacus died, he would have been the angry boy left to lead them.
  • She herself gets this treatment from Spartacus for trying to strangle Ilithyia.
• White Shirt of Death: Wears white during the rebels' uprising against the House of Batiatus during the finale of Blood and Sand, which gets rather blood-spattered during the massacre, although in this case she's the one dishing out death rather than being on the receiving end.

Agron

Agron (Daniel Feuerriegel)

"It is a heavy thing, to rob a man of life. Less so that of a Roman shit."

One of the later recruits to Batiatus' Ludus, Agron is a skilled fighter and one of Spartacus' chief lieutenants during the rebellion. Never having been fond of the Romans in the first place, Agron harbors a visceral hatred towards the Romans ever since he lost his brother Duro during the upheaval at Batiatus' ludus. Agron is fond of and loyal to Spartacus. After the death of his brother, he goes on to become the lover of Nasir.

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• Adaptation Name Change: Ultimately subverted as Castus appeared in the final season.
• Aloof Big Brother: Averted in that he doesn't seem to be aloof at all; if anything, his temper is worse than his brother's, and his major story in Blood and Sand deals with him learning to stop being so overprotective of Duro.
• Animal Motifs: The crab.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: As Spartacus' most trusted lieutenant and loyal friend, it's not unusual for Agron to take command of the rebellion in his stead. The fact that he's a complete badass helps, too.
• Badass Long Robe: On occasion in Vengeance.
• Badass Normal: Of all the Rebel Leaders, he is the only one who didn't became a Champion of the ludus or in the arena. And he outlived those who did.
• Battle Couple: With Nasir.
• Bash Brothers: In Blood and Sand with his brother. With Spartacus for the rest of the series.
• Berserk Button: He's got quite a few of them, but the biggest ones seem to be messing with his brother and touching or flirting with Nasir.
• Big Brother Instinct: He is always looking out for Duro. In fact, Batiatus' plan to split them up so that Agron, the more talented and valuable gladiator, would stop risking himself to protect Duro in the arena was a major motivator in convincing Agron to join with Spartacus in rebelling.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Duro, doing his best to teach him to be a better fighter.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His weapon in the Final Battle.
• Blood Knight: Agron absolutely loves killing Romans, especially after his brother's death. He often has to be restrained, although he does get better as the series progresses and Nasir calms him down a bit.
• Canon Character All Along: Historically, he fills the role of Castus as one of Spartacus' top generals. See Decomposite Character below.
• Catchphrase: Fucking Gauls. And in War of the Damned, it seems to be "Fuck the Gods."
• The Confidant: Is Spartacus' closest and most reliable friend, as Crixus and Gannicus are both too tempermental in their own ways and tend to clash with him.
• The Consigliere: Spartacus frequently bounces ideas off of him and looks for an opinion. He also trusts Agron with more detail about his plans than he does with the others.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Loves Nasir hugely and is rather paranoid about any other men expressing interest in him, even if Nasir is not responding to their advances.
• Crucified Hero Shot: He survives it.
• Deadpan Snarker: Agron has his moments, most often with Spartacus and Nasir.
• Decomposite Character: He has the historical Castus' entire role and characterizations while the TV's Castus only shares the name and fate.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Goes on to live his life peacefully at the end with his lover, Nasir.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: He has braids in Blood & Sand that are cut short in Vengeance with no apparent explanation, but they coincide with him becoming The Lancer to Spartacus. In War of the Damned, the hair is now worn up to show his confidence.
• Expy: Comparable to Varro in the first season. Ultimately, he is this to the real-life Castus.
• Gay Best Friend: To Spartacus. He's an interesting example, as he's a Manly Gay man rather than stereotypically camp, though still snarky. He serves as an advisor and confidante to Spartacus, who is not a straight woman as is typical with this trope but a straight man, yet they're clearly just close friends and Agron's Love Interest is Nasir.
• Gratuitous German: Gratuitous, often incoherent, German. But to be fair, the series predates even the Old German language.
• Handicapped Badass: After being crucified, he can no longer grip a sword. Nasir fashions a shield with a sword and spike sticking out of it that can be strapped to his arm, allowing him to fight, regardless.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It's very easy to set him off, though he becomes a bit more tempered by the end.
• Headbutting Heroes: With Crixus in Vengeance. They really don't get along at times, especially when Crixus blatantly questions or defies Spartacus.
• Hot-Blooded: Big time. Mira, rather accurately, describes him as "an angry boy who can barely piss without spraying everyone about him". He cools off and matures considerably by the time of War of the Damned.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In Vengeance, when confronted over the fact he lied about Naevia being dead, insisting that trying to rescue her from the mines would be suicidal. He does have a bit of a point, but Spartacus still calls him out, insisting they should still try and rescue Naevia.
• Impaled Palm: He gets crucified late in War of the Damned, which in turn prevents him from gripping anything, much to his dismay.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He tells Nasir to go with Spartacus to the Alps, because he can't bear the thought of anything happening to him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though he can short-tempered and aggressive, he is ultimately quite a nice and loyal person to his fellow slaves and is especially loving and compassionate to Nasir.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: To Duro. His death devastates Agron and leads to him seeking active vengeance against the Romans at Spartacus' side.
• The Lancer: Shares the role with Crixus and Gannicus in War of the Damned. He's The Reliable One type and also functions as the (and more active) Number Two to Spartacus when Crixus is too emotional.
• Lightning Bruiser: Though not a top tier one.
• Manly Gay: Probably one of the most extreme examples on television to date. He's a fierce Germanic warrior who gets involved with another male ex-slave.
• Morality Chain: Nasir is this for him.
• No One Could Survive That!: He survived his crucifixion.
• Not Quite Dead: After Crixus' army falls, many thought he was among those who perished. Obviously, they were shocked to find out otherwise.
• Number Two: Subverted. He seems to be Spartacus' second-in-command in Vengeance, but it is stated that Crixus is officially Spartacus' successor should he fall in battle. He does, however, share The Lancer role with the former along with Gannicus.
• One Head Taller: Than Nasir.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Probably due to not being a former Champion, he is the most overlooked Rebel Leader by the Romans in War of the Damned.
• Perma-Stubble
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Is a Gallophobe who has problems taking orders from Gauls.
• Properly Paranoid: Sometimes, his suspicions turn out to be right.
• Rage Against the Heavens: His Catchphrase in the final season invokes this.
  Fuck the Gods.
• The Reliable One: His loyalty to Spartacus is personal friendship, not just because they share common cause.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Duro's death. Stephen DeKnight has stated that his favorite cut scene from the finale involves Agron killing "everyone." His first scene in the second season involves him stabbing a Roman soldier several times, then smashing his head over and over against a rock; apparently, he never got over the "anger" stage of grief.
• Sole Survivor: Of all the Rebel Leaders of Spartacus' rebellion, he is the only one who survives the series.
• Spared by the Adaptation: See Decomposite Character above.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: The tallest of Spartacus lieutenants. Also Tall, Dark, and Snarky.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In War of the Damned.
• Undying Loyalty: To Spartacus. The one time he leaves Spartacus' side to go with Crixus, it ends pretty badly for him. Despite being incapable of holding a sword, he insists on fighting alongside him in their last stand against Crassus and risks his life to reach a mortally wounded Spartacus and carry him away from the battlefield to die peacefully. He also buries his body in a secret location where the Romans will never find it.

Barca

Barca (Antonio Te Maioha)

"...But you know of my affection of delicate things."

He is one of the top gladiators in Batiatus' Ludus, becoming famously known as the Beast of Carthage after (reputedly) defeating his father Mago in the arena. He is the lover of Auctus, and later Pietros.

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• Always Someone Better: He is never the best gladiator for Batiatus, always only ever second best to: Oenomaus, Gannicus, Crixus, and Spartacus.
• Anti-Villain: Type II and sometimes Type I.
• The Big Guy: One of the tallest gladiators.
• The Brute: Was this to Batiatus; he never had any real authority, but served as Batiatus' bodyguard and hitman.
• The Bully: Mocks new recruits, and even urinates in their porridge.
• Bury Your Gays: He and his lovers didn't survive the series.
• Condemned Contestant: Became a gladiator after almost his entire clan was taken prisoner and the men were forced to fight each other until only one remained. The last person he killed was his father. This earned him the nickname The Beast of Carthage.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice numerous times and was ultimately killed by Batiatus via Slashed Throat.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Wears his hair in dreadlocks.
• Due to the Dead: One of the fallen characters honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Glass Cannon: He could actually pass for a Lightning Bruiser if he doesn't get hit way too often.
• Informed Ability: Barca is often touted as one of the ludus' best gladiators, as implied by his Always Second Best status above. However, his fight scenes aren't really impressive, especially compared to the other gladiators.
• Jerk Jock: Especially in Gods of the Arena. He has a habit of bullying rookie gladiators, particularly choosing very humiliating or degrading methods (such as urinating in the rookies's porridge). He continues being a {[Jerkass}} to the Syrians, especially Ashur, even after they receive the mark of the brotherhood, as he doesn't feel they earned it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is pretty much a Jerk to everyone except the people he loves. He was affectionate with Auctus and kept caring for his pigeons after he died. He is very tender in his relationship with Pietros, and his desire for freedom is based mostly on his wish to better Pietros' circumstances.
• Kill the Ones You Love: According to rumour, he was forced to fight and kill his fellow tribesmen, including his own father.
• Manly Gay: He's said to be one of Batiatus' best gladiators and is very openly gay, having two boyfriends during the series.
• Red Baron: The Beast of Carthage.
• Warrior Prince: Formerly, at least according to rumor.
• Would Hurt a Child: Doubled subverted. He seemingly follows Batiatus's order to kill Ovidius's son, but then tells Pietros he didn't. However, it turns out He lied to spared Pietros' feelings. This backfires, as Ashur uses this to orchestrate Barca's death.

Aurelia

Aurelia (Brooke Williams)

"He was not a perfect man; but he was mine! He was mine!"

Aurelia is a Roman woman and wife to Varro. She becomes a slave in order to pay off her late husband's debts, but is later freed during the revolt. Spartacus then sends her away, although with unexpected consequences.

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• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Despite the Hair Color Dissonance, it's still pretty dark.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She castrated her rapist and brutally killed the person who ordered her husband's death.
• Break the Cutie: Her husband had to sell himself into slavery to pay off his gambling debts, then she got knocked up by a rapist; her beloved husband rejected her for it and took her back just in time to die at an exhibition, not even in the arena, leading to her having to become a slave as well. Her arc ends when the Romans capture and torture her; although the rebels rescue her, she winds up dying of her injuries.
• Dies Wide Open: Dies giving an angry stare while she's blaming Spartacus for everything bad that happened to her and her husband.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: One of the few fallen characters who wasn't honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She primarily wears purple outfits.
• Hair Color Dissonance: Her hair is either black or dark red.
• Happily Married: To Varro. Well, sort of. She loves him, but he's a gambling addict who sells himself into slavery to pay off his debts, then rejects her when he finds out she's pregnant by a rapist. Not Prince Charming Stuff, although the eventually make up, not long before his death.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Varro's death gradually took a toll on her sanity.
• Sanity Slippage: See Love Makes You Crazy.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Survives the first season and dies at the end of the Season 2 premiere.
• White Shirt of Death: On both ends. When she kills Numerius, both of them are wearing white, complete with his blood splattering to her clothes.
• Would Hurt a Child: Though she did it to someone deserving of beating. And to be technical, he was legally an adult by the standards of Roman society.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Butt-Monkey and Break the Cutie just doesn't sum up to all the shit she has gone through.

Medicus

Medicus (David Austin)

"Get the fuck out! Out!"

Medicus is the devoted and skilled doctor for the House of Batiatus, tending the injured Gladiators after their many battles.

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• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Is only ever referred to by his job title.
• Put on a Bus: Disappears after the destruction of Batiatus and his villa.

Pietros

Pietros (Eka Darville)

"Which direction shall we travel and how far?"

Pietros is a slave in Batiatus' Ludus, serving the gladiators and as Doctore's assistant of sorts. He is the lover of Barca.

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• Because You Were Nice to Me: The main reason why Spartacus lost it when he committed suicide and killed Gnaeus for mocking it.
• Break the Cutie: Lied to by his lover who dies tragically, raped by Gnaeus not so long after, and finally Driven to Suicide.
• Butt-Monkey: Eventually becomes one. And none of it's played for laughs.
• Canon Foreigner
• Driven to Suicide: After experiencing one hell of a Trauma Conga Line (he was tricked into believing his lover abandoned him and them continually raped and abused by Gnaeus) he can't take it anymore and hangs himself.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: One of the few fallen characters who wasn't honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Morality Pet: To Spartacus, somewhat. His presence, along with Varro's, allows Spartacus to have interactions with decent people in the ludus' overall unpleasant environment. Despite their limited interactions, Pietros' tragic fate has still affected Spartacus.
• Nice Guy: Probably one of the most genuinely nice characters on the show, which just makes his fate all the more upsetting, especially considering the circumstances behind it.
• Non-Action Guy: Pietros has no desire to fight and kill like the gladiators around him. Unfortunately, this also contributes to his suffering and eventual death.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Seems to have shades of this with Naevia.
• Rape as Drama: Endures this after Barca dies, leaving him unprotected from Gnaeus.
• Replacement Goldfish: Turns out to be this for Barca; in the prequel, Barca's lover was a fellow gladiator named Auctus, who is killed half-way through.
• Second Episode Introduction: Played straight.
• Son of a Whore: According to Batiatus.
• Straight Gay: Like the show's other gay characters, you wouldn't know Pietros favored the same gender without seeing him interact with his lover.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: One of the very unambiguously good people in the series and is sadly one of the very first to die.

Duro

Duro (Ande Cunningham)

"I would rather die before I kill my own brother!"

Duro is a Germanic gladiator serving in the ludus of Batiatus. His brother, Agron, also serves Batiatus as a gladiator.

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• Always Second Best: To Agron as part of their Sibling Team. He loves his brother, but feels humiliated at constantly needing to be protected by him.
• Bash Brothers: With his older brother, Agron.
• Dies Wide Open: Well, half-open.
• Due to the Dead: One of the fallen characters honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Glass Cannon: Almost as big as Agron, but nowhere near as tough.
• Lesser Star: Batiatus is aware of Agron's superior skill as a gladiator and planned to separate him from Duro lest he risk himself to protect his less talented younger brother in the arena.
• Taking the Bullet: Takes a stab that is meant for Agron and dies for it.

Segovax

Segovax (Mike Edward)

"Spartacus is a man to be held as an example. The slave ignites the arena. One day the flames shall set him free."

Segovax is a Gaul slave bought by Batiatus in the markets to train in Batiatus' Ludus and was put under Illithiya's patronage.

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• Anti-Villain: Becomes this in his desperation for freedom.
• Apologetic Attacker: Apologies to a victim while strangling him.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Aside from getting crucified, he was also castrated.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Agron took a peek at his Gag Penis, which is likely the first Foreshadowing of his sexuality.
• Gag Penis: As Illithyia says, "He has truly been blessed by the god Priapus!"
• Lightning Bruiser: Based on his training performance, he is strong and fast, but not on the level. Also counts as Informed Ability since he was described as having his own skin as an armor and his own hands as his steel.
• Mr. Fanservice: Illithyia openly lusts for him.
• Undying Loyalty: To Illithyia, of all people.

Rhaskos

Rhaskos (Ione King)

"Varro, the dice call your name!"

Rhaskos is a gladiator in Batiatus' Ludus. He joins Spartacus and the other freed slaves in seeking vengeance, and becomes one of the more prominent rebels.

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• Due to the Dead: One of the fallen characters honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Well, gold is a little strong, but he's not a total jerk.
• Kavorka Man: Had sex with Diona twice (though both not by choice) and Chadara.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Whenever he has sex, he just pumps as fast as he can until he ejaculates, then pulls out and leaves with no consideration for his partner.
• The Pig-Pen: Several characters comment that he smells like shit.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: No one is very happy when he starts singing My Cock Rages On while naked.
• Second Episode Introduction: Played straight.

Gnaeus

Gnaeus (Raicho Vasilev)

"He will be missed. Especially his lips on my cock."

Gnaeus is a Dacian slave and gladiator in the house of Batiatus.

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• Asshole Victim: He definitely had it coming.
• Berserk Button: He doesn't take the mocking of his fighting-style well.
• Butt-Monkey: He gets constantly humiliated throughout the series.
• Disney Villain Death: Spartacus pushes him off a cliff for what he did to Pietros, and his fall took long enough to see his blood splatter on the rocks.
• Depraved Homosexual: Repeatedly rapes Pietros.
• Hachimaki: In Gods of the Arena.
• Kick the Dog: He frequently raped Pietros following Barca's death. And mocks his suicide.
• Perma-Stubble: In Gods of the Arena.
• Unknown Rival: To Barca.
• You All Look Familiar: Raicho Vasilev also played two different characters in the series. Other than that, he's also Liam McIntyre's stunt double.

Rabanus

Rabanus (Andrew B. Stehlin)

Rabanus is a Sardinian rebel and former gladiator in the House of Batiatus.

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• Cruel and Unusual Death: Crucified in the Grand Finale.
• Identical Stranger: To Rhaskos.

The Veteran

The Veteran (Shayne Blaikie)

The Veteran is a Greek slave and former gladiator for Batiatus, and later a rebel under Spartacus' command.

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Hamilcar

Hamilcar (Siaosi Fonua)

"This is where gladiators sleep, not dogs!"

Hamilcar is one of several gladiators in Batiatus' Ludus.

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• Butt-Monkey: According to The Other Wiki, he never won a single battle. At least on screen.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: One of the few fallen characters who wasn't honored in The Dead and the Dying.
• Informed Ability: After Gnaeus becomes unfit to fight Crixus in the Primus, Doctore and Batiatus settle for him as replacement before Spartacus asserted himself. Many argue that the likes of Barca and Rhaskos are the better replacements, if not the better first choice.
• Jerk Jock: Said the page quote to Spartacus after being condemned to the pit.
• Odd Friendship: With Duro.
• Second Episode Introduction: Played straight.
• You All Look Familiar: Siaosi Fonua also plays a Cilician pirate in the final season.

Kerza

Kerza (Karlos Drinkwater)

Kerza is one of several gladiators in Batiatus' Ludus.

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• Badass Boast: Desperately trying not to show fear when going to the pits, claims that he will FUCK! THEM! ALL!.
• Butt-Monkey: Gets the shit beaten out of him in the Ludus and killed in the pits.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: One of the few fallen characters who wasn't honored in The Dead and the Dying, but nobody really liked him, anyway.
• Groin Attack: On the receiving end of one for laughing at one of Doctore's statements in his speech to the newly recruited gladiators.

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