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

Quintus Lentulus Batiatus

Quintus Lentulus Batiatus (John Hannah)

"I see things in men that they themselves have lost, small spark, an ember, I give it breath, tender, until it ignites in the arena."

Batiatus is a Lanista, a trainer and trader of gladiators. He is head of his family's ludus in Capua, and is Dominus to Spartacus and most of the other gladiators that appear throughout the series. Batiatus is the son of Titus Lentulus Batiatus, and the husband of Lucretia.

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• Action Survivor: He's not a trained fighter, but can hold his own when he has to and delivers a few No-Holds-Barred-Beatdowns in his time. He's no match for a group of trained gladiators, though that doesn't stop him from trying.
• Adaptation Name Change: The historical Batiatus was named Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus, not Quintus.
• Affably Evil: If you're not on his bad side he's a great host, and he remembers to Pet the Dog from time to time, like sparing Spartacus' life when he loses to Crixus. He also loves his wife and dreams of being a father. However, cross him, and he will make you suffer.
• Ambition Is Evil: One of his most defining characteristics. Batiatus has never been satisfied with just being a lanista and dreams of rising through the ranks of Roman society, maybe even to steps of the Senate itself. And he's willing to do some pretty nasty and immoral things to achieve his aims.
• Bad Boss: In actuality. Though he likes to pretend he's a Benevolent Boss and acts accordingly when it suits him.
• Bait the Dog:
  • The first few episodes of the first season suggest that he's actually a relatively decent man for his era and profession. Then the fifth episode has him murdering the entire household of an enemy including a little boy and the sixth reveals that he had Spartacus's wife Sura murdered.
  • And then, wouldn't you know it, they pull it off again in the second, prequel, season. The first episode depicts him as a scrappy underdog who isn't that bad at that point... and then in the second episode he has poor Indus murdered in a particularly cruel You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, and you realise that yes, he already is that bad. Special extra points for that murder being the Start of Darkness for poor Ashur, who actually was a scrappy underdog who wasn't that bad.
• Big Bad: Of Season 1. He's the one who orders Spartacus's wife murdered so his new champion will remain bound to the ludus. Spartacus uncovering the truth is what sets the rebellion in motion.
• Berserk Button: When he's looked down upon due to his heritage.
• Bread and Circuses: Basically his entire plan for office relies on the entertainment value of his gladiators, especially Spartacus.
• Catchphrase: "Jupiter's cock!" might as well be his.
• The Chessmaster: He gets quite good at manipulating people to do what he wants, when he wants, in order to get ahead while appearing innocent and he can quickly alter his plans if he has to. Especially how he deals with Solonius, manipulating things so that it seems he kidnapped and murdered Magistrate Calavius. Unfortunately for Batiatus, this ultimately leads to his downfall when he tries to play Spartacus.
• Chewing the Scenery: As often as he possibly can. And it's delicious.
• Consummate Liar: He's very convincing when lying to both his slaves and fellow Romans.

• Defiant to the End: He goes down swinging a sword at Spartacus, knowing he hasn't a hope in hell of winning. Once it is clear he's not getting out alive, he rants that he gave Spartacus everything and that the latter was a nobody before they met.
• Dies Wide Open: After Spartacus cuts open his throat, his eyes remain open after he draws his last breath.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's killed off in the finale of Blood and Sand, after serving as the Big Bad of that season.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: One of his most prominent traits. He desperately wants to be respected and powerful within Roman society, and hates it when he's treated simply like a lowly, upstart lanista even after going to great lengths to curry favour with those higher than him.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Just about the only thing he and his father can agree on is that they both miss Quintus's mother.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • He genuinely loves his wife Lucretia, to the point that he let her get away with cheating on him with Crixus because it made her happy and when his father tries to make him choose between remaining his heir or staying with Lucretia, he picks the latter. When Spartacus stops Batiatus from going to a wounded Lucretia, he throws the same words that Batiatus used on him to get him to fight in the arena, and rather than be a coward, Batiatus bravely but futilely attacks Spartacus to get to Lucretia.
  • He's also shown to love his father, in spite of their differences and strained relationship. Batiatus ultimately cannot bring himself to kill Titus to secure his position and he is genuinely saddened when he dies, seeking bloody revenge against the man he believes caused his death.
  • In Gods of the Arena, it's shown that he considered Solonius a true friend and regretted when it when he spoke harshly to him. Unfortunately, Batiatus' continually poor treatment of Solonius drives a wedge between them and by Blood and Sand they're sworn enemies, although part of the reason for Batiatus' hatred of Solonius stems from feelings of betrayal.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Batiatus has very few moral boundaries he won't cross, but even he balked at the thought of killing his own father in cold blood and he ultimately can't bring himself to go through with it.
• Evil Is Hammy: Really starts hamming it up around episode three.
• False Friend: To Spartacus. He seems to grow genuinely fond of the man, and Spartacus appears to return the feeling. That fondness doesn't stop him from ordering his wife killed, to maintain his loyalty.
• Family Business: He's inherited the ludus from his father, who inherited it from his father and so on. He's actually not that keen on simply being a lanista, desiring to move into politics.
• Fatal Flaw: His burning ambition to rise higher in Roman society, no matter the cost, drives most of his worst actions and is ultimately his undoing.
• Finagle's Law: And he repeatedly lampshades it.
  Batiatus: "Once again the gods spread the cheeks and ram cock in fucking ass..."
• Historical Domain Character: He is based upon a real Roman lanista, from whose gladiator school Spartacus and around seventy other gladiators escaped.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Not much is known about the real Batiatus, but here he's portrayed as a scheming, manipulative Bad Boss who's not above committing murder to achieve his goals and the Big Bad of Season 1.
• I Just Want to Be Special: One of his biggest flaws. He wants to be more than mere lanista and feels he was destined for greater things, which ultimately leads to Ambition Is Evil.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The moment that truly establishes him as this is when it turns out he was the one who ordered the murder of Spartacus' wife, after seemingly going to great lengths to find her for him, just to dissuade him from escaping. As he puts it to Lucretia, he promised Spartacus he'd reunite him with Sura and he kept his word...he never said anything about her having to be alive.
• Large Ham: The largest ham of them all, in a World of Ham. Even when he's calm he seems to love Chewing the Scenery.
• Last-Name Basis: Only Lucretia seems to call him by his first name (probably as a sign of their closeness).
• Law of Inverse Fertility: He and Lucretia have been trying for a baby for years (and in the prequel series, his father threatens to force him to divorce Lucretia if she cannot produce an heir), to no avail. Lucretia does eventually get pregnant, though it's possible the child is actually Crixus', only for Crixus to stab Lucretia in the womb during the gladiators' uprising.
• Pet the Dog: From time to time.
• Manipulative Bastard: Spends most of his time trying to scheme his way around people to stay on top.
• Marry for Love: It's revealed that this is the reason he married Lucretia. Even though she was of a lower rank than him, brought him no titles or positions and his father disapproved, he persuaded his father to let him marry her because he truly fell in love with her.
• Morality Pet: Played with in Lucretia's case. She adores her husband, but her desire to help him achieve his ambitions and protect him leads her to commit even more immoral acts.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: The entire prequel was Batiatus' dying flashback.
• Pet the Dog: From time to time he will genuinely do this rather than Bait the Dog, adding a layer of depth to his character. A notable example is when Spartacus breaks his deal with Batiatus to get himself killed in the Pits to save him from an assassin; Batiatus had bet on Spartacus losing to earn back money he'd lost, but he doesn't punish Spartacus and gives him a second chance out of gratitude for saving his life.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: And in a show where virtually every character makes liberal use of the Cluster F-Bomb, that's really saying something.
  Batiatus: "I speak...of being fucked! And I will not, not be fucked, you fucking fuck, you fucking cock-sucking, you hemorrhoid-sucking fuck, you fuck!"
• Slashed Throat: Finishes off Barca this way. He himself dies this way, courtesy of Spartacus.
• Smug Snake: A high functioning one. His first instinct is to throw a temper tantrum anytime things don't go his way, and he can be quite smug with his gloating. That being said, the fact that he is quite cunning, and that his tantrums are accentuated by his Large Ham tendencies make him far less insufferable than most Smug Snakes.
• Too Clever by Half: He's brilliant schemer and through most of the season his plans go exactly his way. The one thing he never accounted for is Spartacus learning the truth about Sura's death. This one miscalculation is what brings all of his plans to ruin and costs him his life.
• Tragic Villain: While Batiatus by our modern standards is not the most moral of people, one can't help thinking that he would have been less evil if it wasn't for Lucretia either filling his ears with poison or pushing him to elevate his status. His father may have even unintentionally contributed to his increased ruthlessness. The prequel series also shows that he originally tried to get ahead through reasonably honest means, but this repeatedly got him screwed over, leading him to use increasingly ruthless methods. The fact that he is constantly judged, looked down upon and told to 'know his place' by his so-called betters simply because he's a lanista doesn't help, either.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Batiatus isn't so much ugly as plain, but his wife is freaking Lucretia.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Lucretia. The two have a great marriage and relationship, but despite the love they have for one another they are pretty villainous elsewhere. It can be argued that together they are darker than apart.
• Uptown Girl: Batiatus is a gender-flipped version to Lucretia. It's revealed in Gods of the Arena that he was of a higher social standing than Lucretia, which is one of the reasons his father didn't approve of her, but Quintus persuaded him to let them marry.
• Villain Protagonist: In Gods of the Arena, though one could make a pretty convincing case that he's a Nominal Hero until the end. His rivals in the gladiator business are much worse than he is, he's a generous friend to Solonius (until their falling out) and despite planning it for a while, he can't bring himself to murder his own father to secure his status.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end, when his life is crashing down on him, he's reduced to swinging a sword at the rebelling gladiators, clearly outnumbered and shrieking that he's their dominus and will have their heads. It is soon followed by...
• Villainous Valor: When Spartacus confronts Batiatus and stands between him and Lucretia, despite knowing he had no chance of victory, he fought anyway in a desperate attempt to reach his wounded wife.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: To his father in Gods of the Arena. He's constantly trying to gain his approval and respect, but often falls short as Titus doesn't approve of his methods and dislikes Quintus' obsessive ambition.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Solonius, as it turns out in Gods of the Arena. However, after screwing him over one too many times, Solonius turns on him and by the events of the first season they're sworn enemies, with Batiatus even framing him for murder and orchestrating his execution.
• With Friends Like These...: In Gods of the Arena, Batiatus really isn't a very good friend to Solonius. Their friendship is rather one-sided and he has a habit of using Solonius as a verbal punching bag – although he usually apologises, the fact he keeps doing it and makes some extremely hurtful remarks undermines it. Solonius gets sick of it eventually.
• Would Hurt a Child: Has no qualms about ordering Barca to kill a rival's child to get rid of witnesses.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Invoked almost directly.
  Batiatus: "A man must accept his fate. Or be destroyed by it."

Lucretia

Lucretia (Lucy Lawless)

"Quintus always wanted a son. Because of you, we shall have one."

Lucretia is a Roman woman of moderate standing in the land of Capua and lives with her husband, Batiatus, in the villa above his ludus. Through her husband's (and to an extent her own) schemes, the couple manage to climb quite high on the social scale, only to fall after Spartacus seeks revenge and rebels.

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• Accidental Murder: In Gods of the Arena, she inadvertently poisons Melitta after she drinks tainted wine, which Lucretia had used to kill Titus. She's actually pretty upset about it, though no one ever learns she was responsible.
• Achey Scars: Her stomach aches when she sees Crixus after he stabbed her in the gut.
• All Women Are Lustful: She cheats on Batiatus with Crixus and likes seeing her husband performing sexual acts with their slave as foreplay. She also sleeps with Gaia and the two of them engage in threesomes with her husband.
• Ambition Is Evil: Her ambition is something she shares with Batiatus; though she tends to be more cautious than him, she's willing to do just about anything to help elevate their status and protect her own position.
• And Starring: Played by Lucy Lawless, of Xena fame.
• Animal Motif: The serpent.
• Ax-Crazy: She had some violent outbursts in Blood and Sand if things weren't going her way, but most of her murders were committed in a cold and calculated manner for personal advancement. However, by the end of Vengeance she's full-blown Ax-Crazy, murdering a handmaiden with a knife and cutting open Ilithyia's womb to take her unborn child, grinning manically the whole time. She tells Ilithyia that the baby is a gift from the gods so she can give Batiatus a son; she then proceeds to drop off a cliff edge with the baby in her arms.
• Bad Boss: She treats her slaves quite poorly, especially if she's in a bad mood and wants to take it out on someone. As her body slave, poor Naevia gets the brunt of it. Lucretia makes Naevia perform foreplay on her so she can have sex with her husband, thinks nothing of publically stripping her so she can model jewellery for her, slaps her across the face when she's upset, and when Naevia tries to calm her during a meltdown, she throws things at her while screaming at her to Get Out!. What she does to Naevia when she finds out about her relationship with Crixus is monstrous. She's horrid to Mira, too; when Mira explains that Spartacus didn't want to sleep with her, Lucretia insists it was her fault and that if she doesn't seduce Spartacus she'll have a sword shoved up 'you know where'. Even when she acts more like a doting Benevolent Boss in Gods of the Arena, she still tends to treat her body slaves like dolls or pets than people. It backfires horribly when she tries to act like one to Ashur in Vengeance; after slapping his face he slaps her back, then rapes her, making it very clear that he's the one in charge now and reminding her she has no actual power anymore.
• Bad Liar: Averted most of the time but shes absolutely terrible at hiding her affection and lust for Crixus. So much so that when Batiatius reveals he knew the whole time about her affair he was personally insulted most of all that she thought she had managed to fool him.
• Benevolent Boss: Zig-Zagged in Gods of the Arena. She is generally amicable towards her slaves - Melitta in particular is a Morality Pet for her and she tries to protect her and Naevia from being abused. However, she lets Diona be used as a Sex Slave and later tells Naevia that although she understands why she ran away, she won't forgive it and also threatens Melitta that she will tell her husband about her sleeping with Gannicus unless she keeps her mouth shut about some of the less savoury goings-on in the ludus. By Blood and Sand, she's blatantly a Bad Boss, in particular beating the crap out of Naevia for 'daring' to sleep with Crixus and sending her to a Fate Worse than Death purely from spite.
• Berserk Button: Trying to take Crixus away from her.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Naevia's Betty for Crixus in Blood and Sand.
• Break the Haughty: She goes through quite the Trauma Conga Line starting in the first season finale and continuing throughout the second season. Her husband dies, she loses her unborn child, narrowly survives being stabbed in the womb, loses her fortune and lives in squalor for weeks, and has to live on the charity of Glaber and Ilithyia, the latter of whom distrusts and verbally abuses her in revenge for past mistreatment. Then Ashur begins regularly forcing himself on her and threatens to expose her to Glaber unless she keeps quiet, and later intends to make her his wife. By the end, she's not very haughty anymore, nor is she particularly sane, either.
• Canon Foreigner / Named by the Adaptation: Since nothing is known about the historical Batiatus.
• Cassandra Truth: Lucretia was right all along that Spartacus would cause nothing but trouble for Batiatus.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: For Crixus. It isn't helped when Spartacus takes his place as the star gladiator of the ludus.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Initially in Vengeance after she survives the slaughter at her house, cheerily welcoming Glaber and Ilithyia to her villa and seemingly oblivious to everything that's been going on. She eventually tones it down.
• Cold Ham: She's usually more subdued and soft-spoken than Batiatus, but still dramatic at times, usually when she's threatening someone. In the episode "Whore", though, she goes fullblown Large Ham when she pitches a fit about Ilithyia.
• Consummate Liar: She's one of the most accomplished liars on the series. Some of her lies (such as the fact she was the one who poisoned Titus and Melitta) are never found out.
• Deadpan Snarker: She sometimes displays dry sarcasm.
  Batiatus: Not every venture ends in climax.
  Lucretia: A fact well known to many women.
• Depraved Bisexual: Downplayed. Although Lucretia is definitely bisexual and definitely not a good person, her bisexuality isn't necessarily directly linked to this. She is shown ordering both her male and female slaves to perform sexual acts with her (or each other for her pleasure), but the one genuine same-sex relationship she had is with Gaia, and their friendship is generally depicted as a positive aspect of Lucretia's character; her love for her husband is also shown to be genuine and unselfish. The way she treats her slaves is also par for the course with Roman elites in the series.
• Didn't See That Coming: She never anticipated Ilithyia's extreme reaction to the Bed Trick. She only wanted to humiliate Ilithyia and put her in her place, but things rapidly escalate when Ilithyia straight up murders Licinia for laughing at her. Subsequently, Lucretia and Batiatus have to deal with a prominent Roman noblewoman winding up dead in their house.
• Disney Villain Death: In the finale of Vengeance she willingly throws herself from the cliff the ludus sits on. She takes a newborn baby with her, too.
• Driven to Suicide: For all intents and purposes, Lucretia's will to live died with her husband and unborn baby at the end of Blood and Sand. She sticks around for most of Vengeance despite this, but only because she intends to get revenge on those that destroyed her life and take Ilithyia's unborn baby to the afterlife with her. In the finale, she commits suicide in hopes of rejoining her husband with a son.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: In Vengeance, on account of her dubious sanity. She mostly keeps her dark hair rather than switching between red and blonde wigs to accentuate this.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely loves her husband and would do anything for him; however her attempts to help Batiatus elevate his status make him a much darker person. She also clearly liked Gaia and Melitta, grieving when Melitta dies even though she was slave and having a near breakdown when Gaia is murdered.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • She won't hesitate to use or destroy almost anyone, but even she balks at giving Naevia to Ashur, who disgusts her.
  • In Gods of the Arena, she also seems to genuinely like Melitta and attempts to veto the decision to have her sleep with Gannicus and is horrified when she learns of her death (which she inadvertently caused).
  • She looks shocked when she realizes her husband had Ovidius' entire family killed, including his young son, but she never calls him out on it. It seems she's more shocked because she didn't expect Batiatus to have it in him than out of disapproval.
• Evil Redhead: When she's not a blonde or a brunette. The red wig is actually a Memento MacGuffin from her old friend, Gaia.
• Fallen Princess: In Vengeance. After reaching incredible heights with her husband by the end of Blood and Sand, the slave rebellion leads to her husband's death and economically ruins them. Lucretia loses her sanity as well and finds herself as little more than a pawn for Glaber and plaything for Asher. She does not take it well at all.
• False Friend: To Ilithyia in Blood and Sand, only befriending her to gain her husband Glaber's favor. To be fair, Ilithyia's just as nasty to her and in Blood and Sand, Lucretia only puts up with her bullshit for her husband's sake. In Vengeance she evolves into an obsessive Psycho Supporter.
• Fatal Flaw: Arrogance. Lucretia is a highly shrewd and intelligent woman, but she tends to overestimate her own cunning while underestimating her opponents. This allows them to occasionally blindside her, or she gets tripped up by her own schemes spinning out of her control.
• Faux Affably Evil: Much like her husband, Lucretia can usually play the part of a gracious host and generous friend well, keeping her more conniving nature hidden. It's particularly difficult for Ilithyia and even the viewers sometimes to figure out if her friendship is genuine.
• Her Heart Will Go On: In a pretty dark and twisted way. After her husband’s death, Lucretia goes to some extraordinary lengths to take down everyone she views as having a role in his demise, revealing just how much suffering she can take and how far she's willing to go, before finally offing herself in the hopes of being reunited with her husband.
• Hollywood Healing: Her recovery from being stabbed in the womb by Crixus is nothing short of miraculous. Especially since the care she received amounted to some crude stitching performed by Ashur and she was living in the abandoned ludus under less than sanitary conditions.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Ashur makes this point to her when he violates her.
• Icy Blue Eyes: The cold, calculating type.
• If I Can't Have You…: When she learns Crixus is in love with Naevia, she arranges to poison him so that he'll be killed by Spartacus in his next fight. Crixus does not react well when he finds out, much to Lucretia's detriment.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: In the finale of Blood and Sand, shortly after she found out she was with child, she becomes caught up in Spartacus and the gladiators' rebellion and ends up running for her life to escape the massacre. When Crixus finds her, he stabs her in the stomach despite her pleas and leaves her to bleed to death.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: She rotates between her natural hair color and various colored wigs. Later we find out she wears them to honor her old friend Gaia, whose wigs they originally were. Her natural hair is implied to be black.
• Lady in Red: She often wears red, including red wigs, and is a dangerous and sultry woman.
• Lady Macbeth: To Batiatus, as Lucretia often schemes and pushes him towards more amoral acts in the name of securing power; sometimes she even goes behind his back. This becomes partially subverted as the season goes on. Batiatus becomes far more comfortable taking initiative and begins performing acts so ruthless that they shock Lucretia, though she's more impressed than anything.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Combined with Trauma-Induced Amnesia. At the beginning of Vengeance, her Near-Death Experience in the previous season finale appears to have caused some memory loss; she initially doesn't remember the massacre, that she sent Naevia away, that Ilithyia betrayed them or the Bed Trick she pulled on Ilithyia. She soon starts to regain her memories and she later reveals she actually remembers everything, she having either recovered her memory much sooner than led others to believe, or having been faking it all along.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: She and Batiatus have been trying unsuccessfully to have children for years. She did get pregnant. But the father stabbed her to the womb, killing the child.
• Lipstick Lesbian: She's a lipstick bisexual who enjoys sex with both men and women, including some threesomes, is usually dressed in the trailing, elegant dresses of a Roman nobleman with Long hair (actually a wig) impeccably done up.
• Love Makes You Crazy: In Vengeance. Lucretia does not take the loss of her husband well. At all.
• Love Makes You Evil: A lot of Lucretia's actions are motivated by her love for Batiatus and her desire to help him achieve his dreams. A telling example from Gods of the Arena is when it turns out she was the one that poisoned Batiatus' father, because she felt he didn't value him enough and was holding him back.
• Madness Makeover: Combined with Seriously Scruffy. The first time we see her in Vengeance, she'swearing a torn, dirty dress, her hair is all over the place and she's appeared to have completely lost her marbles. It's justified as she was stuck in the ludus by herself for possibly weeks.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Her unborn child could be Batiatus' or Crixus'. Batiatus doesn't seem to mind either way, as the child will officially be his anyway, whilst she's convinced Crixus is the father. Unfortunately for her, Crixus doesn't care.
• Manipulative Bitch: Her most defining characteristic. Lucretia is excellent at controlling and taking advantage of people to secure what she wants, her husband included, and she has very few moral boundaries in regards to securing a desired end.
• Mistaken for Undead: When Ilithyia encounters her for the first time since the ludus massacre, she screams in horror, convinced Lucretia is a ghost as everyone assumed she'd been killed.
• Morality Pet: Arguably to Batiatus. It's obvious he genuinely loves her, even overlooking her affair with Crixus because "it made [her] happy". That being said, Lucretia actually goads him into committing even more immoral acts, though his love for her is one of his redeeming traits.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: More like 'beat and humiliate the hypotenuse before sending her to a Fate Worse than Death', in the case of poor Naevia.
• Near-Death Experience: In the first season finale when Crixus stabs her in the stomach.
• Not Quite Dead: The finale of Blood and Sand seems to end with her dying at the hands of the rebels. However, early in Vengeance, it's revealed she actually survived, much to everyone's shock.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Zig-Zagged Trope in Vengeance. Early on, Lucretia appears to be completely insane. As time goes on, it's revealed this level of insanity is very much an act to make herself useful to Glaber and win over Ilithyia's affection, while simultaneously ensuring both underestimate her. Lucretia herself begins to come across quite sane and grounded.... until the season finale. Turns out, Lucretia was criminally insane and was faking sanity in an effort to steal Ilithyia's unborn child and take it with her to the Afterlife so they could be reunited with her husband.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Her father-in-law makes no secret of the fact he despises her and views her as being unworthy of his son, no matter what she does to please him. She returns to the sentiment and eventually poisons him to death.
• The Ophelia: She's a far darker-than-typical example in Vengeance. Lucretia was never a particularly pleasant person, but the traumas she endured in Blood and Sand's finale completely shattered her mind. She spends the first few episodes wandering about in a daze and claiming to hear the gods speaking to her, while still looking very beautiful, even being capable of seducing Senator Albinius. While it appears she was Obfuscating Insanity at first, the Vengeance finale reveals that Lucretia was even more unhinged than viewers are first led to believe when she kills Ilithyia and leaps off a cliff with Ilithyia's newborn child.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Some of her dresses are pretty spectacular-looking, especially after Batiatus starts raking in the money. The orange dress she wears in the Blood and Sand finale looks particularly fancy...though not so much after it's covered in blood.
• Psycho Supporter: To Ilithyia in Vengeance, her and Ilithyia's friendship is far more genuine, with Lucretia making a real effort to improve their relationship and standing by Ilithyia in the face of trouble. Instead, the venom is directed outward towards their enemies, as the two women bring out the worst sides of one another. Lucretia is also eventually revealed to be faking the entire friendship to steal Ilithyia's baby and commit suicide with it.
• Psychotic Smirk: She's fond of this expression.
• Purple Is the New Black: When she makes her public reappearance in Vengeance (thus revealing her survival to Spartacus and the rebels) she's dressed in purple.
• Rape as Drama: In Vengeance, Ashur begins raping her and intends to force her to marry him. She gets revenge on him at the end of the season, manipulating him into seeming like a traitor to Glaber.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Titus as he lays dying.
• Sanity Slippage: At the start of Vengeance, she appears to be rather unstable, with some Laser-Guided Amnesia. It's subverted, it that it turns out to be Obfuscating Insanity. Then double subverted in the final episode, where she's revealed to be quite mad after all.
• Sanity Strengthening: Played with in Vengeance. She starts to become more grounded and rational over the course of the season, although it does turn out she faking or exaggerating some of it. And then, she goes and cuts Ilithyia's baby out of her womb and throws herself over a cliff in the final episode, which isn't exactly a sign of sound mental health.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: One could be forgiven for believing that the only reason she wears clothes ever is because fashion is a sign of wealth.
• Start of Darkness: Though she was always quite manipulative, she becomes truly ruthless and callous over the course of Gods of the Arena, particularly after Gaia is murdered. It's solidified when she murders Titus to further her husband's ambition and secure her own position (and possibly in revenge for his rather cold dismissal of Gaia's death and refusal to bring her killer to justice).
• Statuesque Stunner: Lucy Lawless stands 5'8.
• Stupid Evil: Lucretia's biggest problem is that she's not as smart as she thinks she is, in heavy contrast to her husband, who's much better at being cunning. Her stupidest moment in the series comes in "Whore", where her jealousy over Illithyia wanting to sleep with Crixus leads to her performing a Bed Trick that had no chance of ending well, even if she couldn't have foreseen Licinia being beaten to death. She also outright says that she'll continue exploiting Illithyia "while breath gives life to my commands", and even thinks she can boss her around while the entire ludus is rebelling.
• Tantrum Throwing: Throws a massive tantrum when Ilithyia tells her she wants to have sex with Crixus, hurling things across the room, screaming incoherently and sending her slaves running for cover. Batiatus is the only one who can calm her down.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her wigs turn out to be this. In Gods of the Arena, we learn that the colored wigs Lucretia rotates between originally belonged to her friend Gaia, who died a violent death in Lucretia's home. She wears them in honor of her memory. In Vengeance she doesn't wear them anymore because she lost her memory, but is later forced to wear the red wig by Ashur, as a sign of his command over her. When Lucretia liberates herself from Ashur's influence, she throws the wig over the same cliff Gaia's body was thrown.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Batiatus isn't ugly, but he does look plain compared to Lucretia, who is gorgeous and regularly shows it off with revealing clothing.
• The Unfettered: There are very few things Lucretia won't do to help secure her husband's position and further her plans. Although she initially starts out with some standards in Gods of the Arena, she becomes increasingly ruthless; by Vengeance any compunctions she may have had seen to have flown out the window along with her sanity.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Batiatus. Despite both of them being supremely self-centred and immoral people, their marriage is a genuinely happy one. They are both usually very loving and supportive of each other in everything they do (and we do mean everything). As Titus points out, they do have a tendency to bring out the worst in each other and Lucretia in particular is motivated by her love for Batiatus to do some truly heinous things, but their venom is always directed at other people rather than each other.
• The Vamp: She's attractive, sultry and highly manipulative, with a cruel streak. Not even her husband, whom she truly loves, is off-limits for manipulation now and then. The way she goads and exploits Ilithyia isn't overtly sexual, but carries some suggestive subtext, particularly as she uses Ilithyia's sexual desires to toy with her. In Vengeance, Lucretia even seduces Ilithyia's father to help secure favors for her.
• Villain with Good Publicity: In Vengeance to an extent. Due to surviving the gladiators' bloody uprising, she is believed to be blessed by the gods, with crowds of people gathering to see her and receive divine blessings themselves. Naturally, she milks this for all it's worth.
• Woman Scorned: She does not take the revelation of Crixus and Naevia's Secret Relationship well at all.
• Would Hurt a Child: In her defense, she thinks she's doing Illithyia's baby a favor.
• Yandere: For Crixus. Any time Crixus' talent or place in the ludus is questioned she GUSHES about him. Case in point is when he's seriously injured and looks like his days as an A-lister are over. 90% of the reason he wasn't thrown out after getting curbstomped by Theokoles was due to Lucretia buttering up her husband.

Ashur

Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay)

"Whatever you need, Ashur provides."

Ashur is an ex-gladiator in Batiatus' ludus and due to a conflict with Crixus prior to Blood and Sand, he was crippled and forced to wear a brace on his right leg. Since then, he became Batiatus' errand boy, accompanying him into the city to aid in transactions or sometimes going alone for more private business. When Batiatus is killed, Ashur seeks out Glaber as a new patron to further his own desires. Using his years in the ludus, Ashur seeks to become a link between Spartacus and the Romans who are hunting him.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Crixus. Well, he considers Crixus his archenemy. Crixus, while contemptuous of him, doesn't share the feeling. Until he finds out that Ashur took Naevia against her will, that is.
• Asshole Victim: He fully deserves getting decapitated by Naevia after what he did to her and for the suffering he caused many others.
• Bald of Evil: In Gods of the Arena (though only towards the end).
• Beard of Evil: Subverted. He loses the beard in Episode 6 of Vengeance and almost instantly becomes MORE evil.
• Berserk Button: Not getting any credit for all of the dirty work he does. Do not slap or touch his face, either.

• Career-Ending Injury: Subverted. Like Oenamaus, his injury practically healed. It's his promotion as Batiatus' right-hand man that prevented him from returning as a gladiator.
• The Chew Toy: Less so in Gods of the Arena, where he is initially quite sympathetic. However, in Blood and Sand and Vengeance, people generally have no issue seeing him be injured or humiliated because of what a slimy, manipulative, Machiavellian Jerkass he is.
• Combat Pragmatist: He's just not skilled enough to win fighting honorably. So he doesn't. He will throw dirt in your eyes, remove your eye, use surprise attacks, concealed weapons, feign surrender to catch you off guard, or any other dirty trick he can to walk away from a fight alive. Subverted minorly in Vengeance, where outside of a single dirty tactic, he managed to more than hold his own against Glaber's men.
• Create Your Own Villain: Many of the gladiators bullied and ostracised him, understandably causing him to resent them, Particularly the case with Crixus, who was responsible for crippling Ashur to grab glory for himself. Ashur goes out of his way to make Crixus suffer as payback for what he did.

• The Dog Bites Back:
  • He orchestrates Barca's Frame-Up and death in revenge for his constant bullying.
  • In Vengeance, once he regains good favor, he is quick to repay Lucretia for past insults.
• The Dragon: To Glaber in Vengeance. After killing his original Dragon.
• Dirty Coward: In Season 1.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?/Well Done Ashur: His main motivation. At first.
• Evil Counterpart: To many characters, namely;
  • Nasir. Both of them are Syrians. Both of them are very intelligent. But while Nasir values relationship with people, Ashur doesn't. Agron and Crixus actually lampshaded this. Their Character Development also strongly parallels each other; Nasir was a Hot-Blooded Anti-Hero who Took a Level in Kindness and became a Nice Guy, while Ashur was a cheerful guy who Took a Level in Jerkass and became very bitter and cutthroat.
  • He and Oenamaus were both gladiators who got sidelined after a serious Game-Breaking Injury. Both of them were also elevated in higher positions despite fighting in the arena is all they live for. But while Oenamaus used his elevated position to help the current gladiators, Ashur used his to vent out his Tragic Dream.
• Evil Cripple: For much of Blood and Sand, due to his leg injury.
• Evil Genius: Served as this for Batiatus; his cunning was crucial to Batiatus' plans. He is undoubtedly very intelligent and quick-thinking, using his smarts primarily to serve his own interests regardless of the effect on others.
• Evil Gloating: On occasion, and doing it once too often leads to his well-deserved death. You'd think such a savvy character would know better.
• Evil Is Petty: He enjoys nothing more than seeing his betters robbed of what they love most or exacting Disproportionate Retribution for perceived slights against him.
• Foil: To Crixus, due to them representing the Brains Evil, Brawn Good rivalry..
• Game-Breaking Injury: Courtesy of Crixus, which is the very reason he resents him so much.
• Genius Cripple: Though his leg eventually heals.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has nasty burn scars on his left shoulder from where he got tossed out of a ring of fire by Crixus.
• Good with Numbers: To the point that Batiatus appoints him his accountant.
• Handicapped Badass: Subverted. Whilst he can still reasonably hold his own in a fight, his leg injury severely hampers him, often leading to resort to dirty tactics. Or just run.
• Important Haircut: Important Beard Shave.
• Jerkass: Though he does have shades of Woobie, he is generally an unpleasant person, being willing to use and abuse almost anyone to stay on top, seeking revenge on people for petty slights or hurting innocent people along the way and acting like a smug prick throughout it all, and is a rapist to boot.
• Karmic Death: Gets exactly what he deserves. While fighting Naevia, who he has raped before, he gets too cocky. Naevia castrates him and then cuts his head off.
• Klingon Promotion: How he becomes The Dragon to Glaber.
• Manipulative Bastard: Even when he was a gladiator, he usually had to resort to trickery to win. He now spends most of his time scheming his way around everyone to gain position.
• Marital Rape License: When he is given Naevia as a wife, he immediately takes advantage of this. He later implies he will do the same to Lucretia.

• Motive Rant: His speech to Doctore in the first season finale. Upon being accused of betraying the other Gladiators, Ashur furiously points out that they never did anything for him short for mockery at best. So he's technically not betraying them, and is in fact giving them payback.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The other gladiators, namely Barca and Crixus, tend not to take him too seriously. This is a mistake.
  • Gods of the Arena shows that while he desired to be a gladiator, he was not a very good one. He eventually won matches in the arena, but was usually outclassed and had to resort to trickery to win. The other gladiators apparently remembered that he wasn't a good fighter, and forgot that he was very good at killing people with deception.
  • Though even as a cripple, he managed to hold his own in a fist fight with Varro.
• Off with His Head!: A very messy example, with it taking multiple blows to get his head off his shoulders.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Ashur decides, after he is crippled by the Gladiator Crixus, that his only goals in life are revenge and rising in power. Using his cleverness to ingratiate himself to his master Batiatus, Ashur becomes his errand boy and supporter, hoping to tie his fortunes to Batiatus's own. When he is indebted to Barca (Who contemptuously and violently reminds him) after losing a bet, Ashur quickly makes it appear as if Barca has betrayed Batiatus and arranges his death. Ashur takes advantage of Batiatus's gratitude to steal Crixus's lover, and after Batiatus falls, Ashur simply aligns himself with Praetor Gaius Claudius Glaber, and uses Spartacus's rebellion to get Glaber to assign him his own private squad of enforcers with which he terrorizes Capua. Ashur uses his intelligence and lack of morality to make himself invaluable to those he serves while simultaneously using their favor to push himself higher.
• Oral Fixation: He carries around a bag of nuts and seeds to constantly chew on.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Driven home in Vengeance. While he's outmatched by other gladiators in previous series, he's still much tougher than your average soldier. He takes on a squad of Glaber's men to prove a point and ends up beating four of them to near-death.

• Seven Deadly Sins: He possess every single sin available but sloth.

• Start of Darkness: Gods of the Arena serves as one for him.
• Stone Wall: Even after he Took a Level in Badass, his offensive skills are still relatively weak compared to the rebels to qualify as a Jack of All Stats. However, his endurance and toughness makes up for it.
• Tactful Translation: He frequently does this for Dagan in Gods of the Arena.

• Then Let Me Be Evil: Seeing that the other gladiators will never respect him, he embraces The Power of Hate.
• Took a Level in Badass: A pretty big one as of Vengeance.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Gods of the Arena, in response to the other gladiators' constant bullying and rejection. And again, in Vengeance.
• Tragic Dream: Being a gladiator, due to his Career-Ending Injury and some unfortunate circumstances beyond his control, which saw the other gladiators view him with contempt.
• Third-Person Person: Tends to refer to himself this way.

• Wild Card: Ashur's only loyalty is to himself; he's constantly switching allegiances and helping out whoever he thinks will further his own plans, then backstabbing them once they're no longer useful or become a liability.

Ilithyia

Ilithyia (Viva Bianca)

"They are like something out of a fever dream. I mean, what if they went insane all at once, clamoring for blood?!"

Ilithyia is a wealthy Roman woman, the daughter of Senator Albinius, and the wife of Praetor Gaius Claudius Glaber. She is close friends with Lucretia, however, their lively relationship is more than meets the eye.

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• All Women Are Lustful: Ilithyia loves sex, both for her own enjoyment as well as to manipulate others. It's pretty much her go-to response in absolutely any scenario.
• Alpha Bitch: Starts the series as a self-absorbed, Spoiled Brat who's primarily interested in her own amusement. She only gets worse from there.
• Ambiguously Bi: She does kiss Lucretia on the lips more than once, but at least one of those was a "Take That!" Kiss, and she only ever shows an attraction to men throughout the series.
• Awful Wedded Life: In Vengeance her marriage to Glaber becomes increasingly unhappy to the point that she plots to divorce him and marry Varinius. Unfortunately, Glaber finds out, quickly nixes that plan, and then proceeds to make her life nigh-unbearable. He's so awful to her that some viewers actually found themselves feeling sorry for Ilithyia even though she's generally horrid and brought some of it on herself.
• Ax-Crazy: Dear God. When she's angry and feels backed into a corner, she's utterly terrifying. Just ask Licinia. Or at least, you could've asked her if Ilithyia hadn't smashed her skull in with her bare hands. She later threatens to do the same to Lucretia while choking her after catching her sleeping with her father.
• Back Handed Compliment: An absolute master of these. It's essentially the only kind of compliment she can give.
• Berserk Button: Do not. Laugh. At Ilithyia. With her, sure. NEVER AT HER.
• Blood from the Mouth: It's subtle compared to the usual examples in the show, though.
• But Not Too Bi: She and Lucretia have a lot of Les Yay, and even share several kisses. At the same time, we never see her participating in any kind of homosexual acts unlike other LGBT characters, such as Agron or Lucretia.
• Canon Foreigner / Named by the Adaptation: Since nothing is known about the historical Glaber.
• Daddy's Girl: For her many flaws, she genuinely does care for her father and he likewise dotes upon her. And she certainly likes the privilege that comes from being a senator's daughter.
• Death by Irony: Ilithyia causes the death of Lucretia's husband and unborn child in Blood and Sand. Lucretia later kills Ilithyia by performing a C-section, stealing her baby, and taking it over the cliff to her husband in the afterlife at the end of Vengeance.
• Despair Event Horizon: She visibly gives up after watching her newborn baby die and quickly succumbs to her severe injury.
• Dies Wide Open: To the point that it actually caused some confusion as to whether she was dead. As she dies, Ilithyia collapses and simply stares, eyes wide, at the cliff Lucretia took her baby over.
• The Dog Bites Back: Occurs during Blood and Sand in a big way. After spending an entire season being used, manipulated, and mistreated by Lucretia, Batiatus, and all of her other "friends" in Capua, Ilithyia finally decides she's had enough of it and, in the season finale, locks every single one of them inside the Ludus to be slaughtered by the revolting gladiator.
• Dying Alone: Occurs during the Vengeance finale, as she bleeds out after watching Ilithyia murder her unborn child.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: She's blonde and considered highly attractive by many men (and possibly by Lucretia as well).
• Eating the Eye Candy: She really likes staring at the gladiator's muscular bodies. Particularly Crixus when he's training or exercising.
• Fatal Flaw: Her self-centered impulsivity. She tends to do whatever the hell she wants, whenever she wants it, with little thought to the long-term consequences both to herself and others. This becomes highly detrimental to her either because she pisses off the wrong people, or her actions have unanticipated negative outcomes (or both).
• Femme Fatale: Seductive and uses sex as a weapon? Check. Dubious trustworthiness? Check. Ambitious and cunning? Check. Wild card with shifting allegiances? Check. Ilithyia fits this trope to a T.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Her breasts have more influence over politics than her husband does.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: If her Berserk Button is any indication, she seems to have one towards Licinia.
• It's All About Me: She seems almost incapable of thinking about the wants and desires of anyone but herself, nor does she seem to care all that much about who gets negatively affected as long as she gets her own way. That said, she does come to care about her unborn child and Lucretia to an extent.
• Jerkass: "Seal the fucking doors!" Granted, the people she was locking in with the slaves were mostly Asshole Victims, but still.
• Lack of Empathy: Ilithyia really only cares about most people regarding how much they can entertain or please her.
• Lady Macbeth: Tries to be this to her husband, to mixed success. She certainly holds some degree of influence over Glaber, but often times her own agenda isn't what's best for him. After a couple of times of this backfiring, things fall apart entirely and Ilithyia loses any and all control over her husband. It does not go well for her.
• Lipstick Lesbian: She's bisexual (but never actually has sex with a woman onscreen, despite bedding more than one man, and dresses in the very feminine style of a proper Roman noblewoman.
• Mama Bear: After Lucretia cuts open her womb to steal her baby, she still manages to crawl after them despite massive blood loss in an attempt to rescue her child.
• Manipulative Bitch: Made worse by the fact that she's incredibly shallow about who and what she wants, and so the goal she's manipulating people towards changes frequently.
• Marry for Love: Surprisingly, it's suggested that this is the reason she married Glaber (or at least she believed she was in love with him). Her father mentions he didn't approve of Glaber as a husband, but Ilithyia convinced him Glaber was worthy of her and that marrying him would make her happy, so he agreed. Given how self-absorbed she and how quickly her feelings for Glaber change after he (rightly) refuses to kowtow to her every demand, it's debatable as to whether her feelings were closer to lust or infatuation than genuine love, but it's clear she did truly enjoy being married to him until the shit hits the fan.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's naked a lot and in fact her first scene has her doing so.
• Naked in Mink: Sneaks into the Roman camp wearing nothing but a fur coat to surprise her husband in the pilot.
• Nightmare Fetishist: She's pretty turned on by the violence gladiators inflict within the arena.
• "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: Downplayed. The Bed Trick that led to her and Spartacus sleeping together counts as rape by fraud, but Illithyia is shown having flashbacks of the tryst in a sense that suggests she enjoyed it before the reveal.
• Outliving One's Offspring: She watches her newborn son fall to his death along with Lucretia shortly before she succumbs to her wounds.
• Pink Means Feminine: Her most well-known outfit is pink and, in addition, much of Ilihtyia's wardrobe consists of shades of pink, violet, or lavender.
• Pregnant Badass: In Vengeance, much to Seppia's misfortune. While heavily pregnant, she manages to walk all the way back to the ludus in Capua after Spartacus leaves her in the woods. And then she saves Glaber by overpowering Seppia and slashing her throat when she tries to kill him.
• Privilege Makes You Evil: The root cause of her selfish sense of entitlement and lack of empathy is the fact she was raised by a wealthy and powerful father, who let her have anything she wanted and never faced negative consequences for her actions.
• Promotion to Closing Credits: In episode 3, the fastest one to receive this.
• The Queen's Latin: Of all the cast, she has the most exaggerated upper-class English accent, to go with her persona.
• Redemption Equals Death: Redemption would be putting it far too strongly. That said, shortly before her death, Ilithyia shows genuine compassion for another person for the first time in her entire life: her unborn child. She dies almost immediately after, being forced to watch Lucretia kill the child first.
• Redemption Rejection: Played With. Ilithyia is put through absolute hell throughout the events of Vengeance and is forced to take on a certain amount of humility. She even begins to value the life of, at the very least, one other individual in her unborn child, as well as forming a genuinely close relationship with Lucretia. While hardly redeemed, she's showing signs of becoming a truly sympathetic character. All of this goes out the window the moment that Ilithyia sees an opportunity for her old life back. The humility vanishes, she murders Seppia, tries to murder Lucretia, and openly reunites as an Evil Duo with her husband, Glaber, the moment that doing so would be beneficial for her.
• Rich Bitch: She's the spoiled daughter of a wealthy and influential senator. She starts out being a more flaky, petty, emotional, and self-involved brat but eventually grows into a truly sadistic, selfish young woman who is so obsessed with her comfort and position that she will do anything to further herself.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Frequently naked, loves sex, and is positively gleeful about it at all times.
• Start of Darkness: In a sense, Blood and Sand is this for her. While Ilithyia is by no means a pleasant person even at the beginning of the series, she starts out as a selfish, spoiled Alpha Bitch and no worse than most the other Romans in the series. By the end of Blood and Sand, she's repeatedly tried to murder Spartacus several times, successfully led to the death of his best friend, murdered one of her frenemies with her own two hands, and finally allowed for Batiatus, Lucretia, and all their guests to be slaughtered by the revolting gladiators. And while Ilithyia feels some guilt over early actions, that quickly begins to subside. It only gets worse come Vengeance, where Ilithyia outright calls herself a monster.
• Statuesque Stunner: Viva Bianca is 5'9 and certainly attractive.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Over the course of Blood and Sand. While it's obvious right from the start that she's an obnoxious and spoilt rich girl who's never worked a day in her life, to call her "evil" would be a bit excessive. By the end of the first season however, she's become much, much worse, nearly rivalling Lucretia in terms of cruelty and how far she's willing to go to achieve her goals. See also Start of Darkness.
• Troll: She really likes giving Lucretia backhanded compliments and reminding her of how much higher her position is to her. Also, since she knew about Lucretias and Crixus affair some of her earlier actions with him, such as having him stripped naked as she examines his body in front of Lucretia, as examples of her love of toying with people.
• Traumatic C-Section: Inflicted by Lucretia in the Vengeance finale for the purpose of taking Ilithyia's child. Unfortunately for Ilithyia, neither she nor the baby survive this.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Glaber. While their relationship is rocky during Vengeance, in the episode "Monster" they are definitely back to this.
  Glaber: We cannot be what we were.
  Ilithyia: Then let us be what we are. We have done terrible things to each other. I would see such venom turned outward, to those truly deserving of it- Seppia. The Senate. And the man they dispatch to steal your glory.
  Glaber: You would move against Varinius?
  Ilithyia: We are both monsters, Gaius. Let us be so together- and seize the fucking heavens!
  • After which, to stress the point, they have sex covered in the blood of Seppia, whose corpse is still floating in the pool next to them.
• Unwanted Spouse: Becomes this to Glaber in Vengeance. She'd already tested his patience to the limit at the end of Blood and Sand after he finds out she murdered Licinia, thus forcing him to acquiesce to Batiatus and Lucretia's demands to keep it quiet, but he turns against her fully over the course of the second season, to the point that he doesn't even care all that much about the rebels kidnapping her and pretty much gives her up for dead (which rather ruins Spartacus' plan to use her as leverage to get weapons). He also goes out of his way to make her life miserable and cheats on her with Seppia. In fairness to him, this is mostly after he learns she was plotting with her father to abort her pregnancy and dissolve their marriage to hook up with his rival instead. By the end of the season, though, they've more or less made up.
• The Vamp: In a scheme to rob Spartacus of his best friend, she charms and seduces Numerius, who is only fifteen.
• Wild Card: She over ever consistently looks out for number one and will curry favor with whoever she believes can give her what she wants. Not even her own husband is safe from her machinations. She also tends to be quite fickle, her goals and desires shifting often. In fact, the rebellion in "Kill Them All" is so successful because she made it so; by having the doors locked to trap everyone inside with the vengeful slaves
• Woman Scorned: Her husband turns her affections away for the younger Seppia (who admittedly also didn't cheat on him or try to leave him). She does not take this well.

Gaius Claudius Glaber

Gaius Claudius Glaber (Craig Parker)

"The shadow of Rome is vast, and you, Thracian, will die under it."

Glaber is a Roman commander awarded the title of Legatus and later Praetor. He is married to Senator Albinius's favored daughter, Ilithyia, who supports her husband's actions politically and emotionally, by personally seeing to it that Glaber's greatest enemy, Spartacus, suffers as much pain as possible. Glaber serves as the main antagonist for the second season of Spartacus, and in the first season is a personal antagonist for Spartacus himself as Glaber enslaved both him and his wife Sura.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Spartacus. Interestingly, he doesn't see Spartacus the same way until he starts projecting all his problems onto the man.

• Badass Cape: Tends to wear a nice red one, and is certainly more than badass enough to pull it off. In addition to being a skilled and ruthless general, Glaber can hold his own in a fight better than most Roman soldiers or gladiators.
• Big Bad: Glaber takes on this role in Vengeance, serving as the primary antagonist to Spartacus, even to the point of having parallel character arcs.

• But Not Too White: Has an absolutely perfect, utterly uniform tan on his entire body. How exactly he accomplished this given that he wears armor most of the time is a complete mystery.
• Defiant to the End: Tells Spartacus that his death will only mean legions will come to hunt and kill Spartacus. Spartacus's response is to put a sword through his mouth.

• Disc-One Final Boss: For Vengeance, as Crassus was still to come.
• Domestic Abuse: He slaps Ilithyia hard enough to knock her to the floor after learning she killed Licinia and leaves her to the mercy of Batiatus and Lucretia. His increasingly cruel and controlling treatment of her in Vengeance can also be construed as emotional abuse. Even when she's kidnapped by Spartacus' forces he doesn't seem as concerned about her as one would expect when his pregnant wife ends up in the clutches of his archenemy; he's even willing to gamble with her life for a chance to capture Spartacus, which causes him to realize that Glaber doesn't actually care about Ilithyia.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In Vengeance he learns that despite his rank and armies, he is not respected or liked by the Senate. Ilithyia's father in particular doesn't like him. Thing is, whereas with Batiatus and Ashur we see they are cunning and resourceful enough to be deserving some of the respect they're denied, with Glaber, it really comes as no surprise he's thought of as a joke.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Even he is creeped out when he realizes Seppius is in love with his sister Seppia.
  • He also holds disdain or disgust for Cossitius. Whether this is because of Cossitius' fondness for rape, or some more personal reason is unknown.

• Faux Affably Evil: Seems like a nice enough guy in the pilot episode...for about 10 minutes. This is a recurring trait throughout the show, as, even when Glaber plays up his affability, other characters tend to see right through it and have to resist the urge to roll their eyes.
• Foil: To Spartacus in Vengeance. Both Glaber and Spartacus have a seething hatred for one another which often clouds their judgment. While Spartacus learns to grow past this quest for vengeance and find purpose in furthering an ideological cause and close relationships, Glaber is completely consumed by Vengeance, shifting the blame to his failure to others and completely isolating himself from any relationships he once had. By the end of Vengeance, there is nothing Glaber won't sacrifice if it means he can see Spartacus dead, and he takes fiendish delight in tormenting anyone who has somehow wronged him along the way (Ilithyia, her father, Seppius, Varinius).

• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Spartacus stabs him through the back of the head through his mouth.

• Jerkass: Suffice to say, he's not a nice man; it's established early on that he's petty, sadistic, lacking in gratitude, and doesn't care who he hurts or screws over to achieve his aims. Even his wife is no exception to his cruelty.

• Kick the Dog: Take your pick. When he taunts Spartacus over his wife's likely multiple rapes as a slave? Or when he strikes his wife and leaves her to the mercy of Lucretia and Batiatus.

• Last-Name Basis: To everyone accept Ilithyia.
• Mr. Fanservice: Is very well-built, tanned, and completely shaved. He is shown naked several times, complete with Male Frontal Nudity.
• Never My Fault: Continually blames Spartacus for the entire conflict, which would never have happened in the first place if he had kept his promise to the Thracians (which Spartacus was fighting for as a militia) and defeated the Getae instead of abandoning the campaign to march into Greece to steal the credit of Pompei's victory over the Macedonians. Even with that treachery, Spartacus would never have made Glaber his eternal enemy if Glaber hadn't hunted him down after he escaped with his wife from his now destroyed home village and sold them both to slavery (with a mass gangrape of Sura in the process by his bodyguards) as both people just sought to escape to another community and rebuild their lives. And then there's the fact it isn't just Spartacus, he blames everybody else including his officers and even other Roman aristocracy for all his mishaps. He continues to deny responsibility before Spartacus kills him and acts like he's the innocent wronged party.
• Papa Wolf: Suprisingly, one of Glaber few redeeming features is his deep love for Ilithyia unborn child. Throughout Vengeance it is evident Glaber dreams of being a father to Ilithyia baby and his murder of Albinus is partially motivated to stop Ilithyia aborting her pregnancy. Glaber also honestly describes the baby as his cherished heir before the final battle, he never learns the child's actual father is Spartacus.
• Promotion to Closing Credits: In Vengeance.
• Sadist: Glaber clearly gets a thrill out of tormenting others, if his interactions with Spartacus are anything to go by. He also takes pleasure in murdering his perceived enemies and has no qualms about having women and children murdered.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Aside from his involvement in the Third Servile War (the official name for Spartacus' rebellion) almost nothing is known about the historical Glaber. Despite rising to the rank of Praetor, he was an ultimately insignificant politician, and historians cite his being dispatched against the rebels as a sign of how little Rome thought of Spartacus. Even his death is unrecorded; while it's mentioned his force was destroyed at Vesuvius, Glaber himself simply drops out of the historical record. Aside from giving him a personal connection to Spartacus, the show's portrayal of Glaber matches up with this pretty well; see Dude, Where's My Respect?, above.
• The Sociopath: Overall, Glaber is fixated on gaining power and doesn't care about much else. His love for Ilithyia is only due to her ability to give him a son, and he is constantly back-stabbing allies. He's a pretty low-functioning example since the higher members of the Roman Republic think very little of him, and he can only get by murdering his obstacles.

• Unholy Matrimony: With Ilithyia, is something of an evil duo, although the marriage tends to be on the rocks a lot. This becomes most clear in Monsters, where Glaber and Ilithyia renew their marriage as monsters working to further themselves and destroy their enemies.
• Who's Laughing Now?: After spending an entire season as the Butt-Monkey and laughing stock of the villains, Glaber completely snaps and begins to murder, torment, and manipulate his way through all of them with utter glee, seeing it as retribution for their lack of respect for him. Everyone who had dismissed Glaber as a joke pretty quickly realizes just how wrong they were.
• Would Hit a Girl: He strikes his own wife, Ilithyia. He also claims he let his soldiers gang-rape Sura and has Ilithyia's slave girl crucified.
• You Can Keep Her!: Downplayed in Vengeance. Glaber does try to get Ilithyia back after she's abducted by the rebels, but it's more because she's pregnant with his child (or so he believes) and because it's publicly embarrassing for him to have lost his wife to his enemies, rather than him caring about Ilithyia personally. In fact, he's perfectly willing to go back on the deal he made with Spartacus to exchange weapons for Ilithyia to set a trap for them, even though it puts Ilithyia in danger. And after the ambush fails, Glaber basically washes his hands of the situation, even implying he will move on with Seppia after he's mourned Ilithyia for the socially appropriate length of time.

Albinius

Albinius (Kevin J. Wilson)

"You brought the Thracian to Roman soil Gaius. You granted patronage to that grinning shit Batiatus a breath before his house fell to massacre."

Albinius is a Roman Senator and father of Ilithyia. He plays a minor role throughout the series, although his role increases in Vengeance.

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• Corrupt Politician: Clearly wields a lot of influence in the Senate, and uses it in the grand tradition of Roman patronage to advance those he personally favors (e.g. Varinius) and cut down those he does not (e.g. Glaber).

• Doting Parent: It's made clear he genuinely loves his daughter and gives her almost anything she asks for. Unfortunately, him spoiling Ilithyia all her life is probably one of the main reasons she's such a horrible person.
• Entitled Bastard: In Vengeance, he asked Glaber for help after he was pinned by the debris of the collapsing arena. Prior to this, he insulted and mocked Glaber numerous times, and rubbed it in his face that he was going to let Ilithyia divorce him. Glaber's response?
  Glaber: "I'm not the fool you and your daughter think me! (Cue Oh, Crap!)

• Obnoxious In-Laws: In Vengeance, he makes it abundantly clear he thinks Glaber is beneath him and his daughter. He only let him marry Ilithyia in the first place because she insisted it would make her happy, and his opinion of him only continues to drop after the 'Spartacus debacle'. He's even willing to let Ilithyia divorce Glaber and marry Varinius instead, whom he sees as better son-in-law material, and even subtly gloats about it to Glaber's face.
• Parental Marriage Veto: He initially refuses to let Ilithyia divorce Glaber and remarry Varinius, as despite hating Glaber, Glaber ranks higher than him and Ilithyia is carrying his child. He later changes his mind, mostly thanks to Lucretia seducing him.
• Put on a Bus: After the pilot episode, before returning as a supporting character in Vengeance.
• Shipper on Deck: Eventually for Ilithyia and Varinius, the latter of whom he holds in much higher esteem than Glaber. He tells Ilithyia he'll allow her to dissolve her marriage to Glaber provided she aborts her pregnancy.

• Your Head A-Splode: Glaber kills him by smashing his skull with a wooden beam.

Marcus Decius Solonius

Marcus Decius Solonius (Craig Walsh-Wrightson)

"You take the wrong life. Your master Batiatus, is the villain."

Marcus Decius Solonius is a Lanista of Capua and is Batiatus' nemesis and chief rival.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: It's implied that he has feelings for Lucretia. Even after his friendship with Batiatus fell apart, he was always very polite and amicable to Lucretia, and also swoops in to save her from embarrassing social situations. This was even evident in Gods of the Arena, as when Batiatus reveals his father wants him to dissolve his marriage, Solonius seems very interested all of a sudden, and he later offers to let Lucretia shelter in his home if Batiatus' plan against Tullius goes awry...as a "friend", of course.

• Cool Old Guy: He is old, incredibly ripped, and puts up a good fight against Spartacus.
• Defiant to the End: Rather than accepting his fate, he fights Spartacus knowing he had no chance of coming out alive.

• Face Death with Dignity: He dies happy knowing Spartacus plans to kill Batiatus.
• Last-Name Basis: He's pretty much always referred to by his surname, even by Batiatus when they were buddies.

• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Batiatus in the finale of Gods of the Arena, calling him out for being a crappy friend who cares only for his own ambition regardless of the effect it has on other people.
• Regal Ringlets: Wears his hair in this style – the only male cast member to do so.
• The Rival: To Batiatus in Blood and Sand and right at the end of Gods of the Arena.

• We Used to Be Friends: With Batiatus, as it turns out in Gods of the Arena However, after screwing him over one too many times, Solonius turns on him and by the events of the first season they're sworn enemies, with Batiatus even framing him for murder and orchestrating his execution.

Licinia

Licinia (Brooke Harman)

"I would lay eyes upon a real gladiator. Bring Spartacus up."

Licinia is an upper-class Roman, married without kids, cousin to the wealthy Marcus Crassus, and a close friend of Ilithyia.

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• All Women Are Lustful: She pays Batiatus and Lucretia for sex with Spartacus.
• Alpha Bitch: She can almost out-bitch Ilithyia with her snide remarks and BackhandedCompliments.

• Connected All Along: She's the cousin of Crassus, the Big Bad of Season 3, though this connection never really becomes relevant to the plot
• Death by Disfigurement: And brutally so.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: An invented cousin of Marcus Licinius Crassus.
• Jerkass Laughing at somebody tricked into sex with someone unintended. For the record though, that somebody was Ilithyia.

• Never Found the Body: Zig-Zagged. Batiatus showed her (right) hand, but the rest of the body is kept hidden, probably forever.
• Too Dumb to Live: Laughing at Ilithyia.
• True Blue Femininity: Tends to wear blue.

• White Shirt of Death: Or whatever little she was wearing.

Titus Calavius

Titus Calavius (John Bach)

"You are beneath me, and you always will be, in this life or the next!"

Calavius is a high-standing Roman Magistrate, husband of Domitia, and proud father of Numerius.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Batiatus bends over backwards to accommodate him, in the hopes he will help him with his political ambitions. It's all for nothing as Calavius discourages him from reaching above his station.
• Canon Foreigner
• Defiant to the End: After being kidnapped by Batiatus and being at his mercy, he retorts with a The Reason You Suck Speech.
• Non-Action Guy
• Slashed Throat: How he dies courtesy of Ashur, and Solonius gets framed for his murder.
• White Shirt of Death

Numerius Calavius

Numerius Calavius (Lliam Powell)

"Varro? He deserved to die. He was nothing..."

Numerius is the son of Roman Magistrate Titus Calavius and his wife, Domitia

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first he seems like a nice enough kid, perhaps a little too thrilled by watching people kill each other, but hey, Values Dissonance, right? He worships the ground Spartacus walks on and treats him with admiration, even though he's a slave, so he can't be all bad. Then he orders Spartacus to kill Varro, his best friend. Ok, he was manipulated into it by Illythia, just a dumb kid mesmerized by a nice pair of tits, right? Wrong. When confronted about Varro's death by Aurelia, he coldly says that "He was nothing. He deserved to die." However nice this kid might seem, he serves as perhaps the coldest reminder that to the Roman Elite, slaves are nothing but playthings to be discarded on a whim.
• Broken Pedestal: Inverted with Spartacus. He idolizes the champion gladiator and Spartacus, in return, was quite fond of him. But after he ordered Varro's death, Spartacus has openly expressed his disdain for him.

• Karmic Death: Ordering a gladiator's death? Get viciously stabbed to death by his wife later on.
• Non-Action Guy: He's a physically weak kid who can just run from a fight.
• Oh, Crap!: He looked very nervous (or perhaps suffering a My God, What Have I Done? moment) as Aurelia makes it clear that she knew and loved Varro as Numerius is alone with her, she is armed, and he is not..
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Varro's wife, Aurelia. And boy did it hurt.
• Royal Brat: His father isn't royalty, but he's damn close.
• Teens Are Monsters: You wouldn't know it at first, but the quote above proves it.

Aulus

Aulus (Mark Mitchinson)

"Place foot on me again and find yourself once more a cripple!"

Aulus is Batiatus' 'handyman', doing whatever errand or dirty work he requests.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: He's not just a simple "handyman", he is the one who spilled the beans to Spartacus regarding Sura's murder, thus kickstarting the Gladiator Revolt.

• Hero Killer: Killed Sura, by orders of Batiatus.

Mecato

Mecato (Greg Ward)

"How you will stir the crowd!"

Mercato is a Roman politician and noble of Capua. He is the grandson of Marcus Minucius Rufus, famed conqueror of the Thracians.

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• Canon Foreigner: Possibly not. His aforementioned grandfather did exist in real life.

Theokoles

Theokoles (Reuben De Jong)

"Capua! Shall I begin?"

Theokoles was a legendary Greek gladiator and was also known as the Shadow of Death.

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• Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain: His origin story, as related in the prequel motion comic, paints him more as one of these.

• Defeating the Undefeatable: On both sides in fact. He's famed for having killed 100 men by himself, and he later ends up on the receiving end of this by Spartacus and Crixus.
• Dented Iron: By the time Spartacus and Crixus fight him, his body is essentially a mass of scar tissue, and he's been retired for several years. If his fight with Oenomeus in the prequel comic is anything to go by, during his prime he was likely the single most dangerous fighter within series canon.
• Disappeared Dad: Had one; supposedly a Spartan soldier.

• Dual Wielding: He fights with a sword in each hand.

• Hero Killer: He nearly killed Oenomaus and Crixus. In fact, he was the reason the former was forced to retire from fighting.

• Implacable Man: Being skewered doesn't even slow him down, and he would've still beaten Spartacus after that had Crixus not used the sun's rays to blind him.
• Ironic Echo: Apparently he heard Crixus saying "Capua, shall I begin?". So when he gets back up he throws this back at him.
  Theokeles "Capua, shall I begin?"
• Living Legend: He is wildly famed among the gladiators and the audience.
• Mighty Glacier: Downplayed. He is fast but his lower body lacks agility. His hand movement and swordplay on the other hand...
• Noble Demon: Had Oenomaus dead to rights in their fight before noticing his wife in the crowd. He stopped his assault, offering to let Oenomaus take his sword back up (said sword was sticking out of Theokoles' shoulder at the time) so they could continue on equal footing, only for the match to be declared a draw then and there.
• Off with His Head!: It took several swings at his neck to make it easier, eventually ending with Spartacus using two swords.
• One-Man Army: Once killed 100 opponents at once.
• Out with a Bang: Apparently the first woman he slept with didn't survive the encounter, not out of any malicious intention on Theokoles' part, but rather simply because he didn't know his own strength.
• Red Baron: The Shadow of Death.

• Wife-Basher Basher: In the prequel comic, harming a woman in his presence will get you killed.
• Worthy Opponent: He seemed to consider Oenomaus to be one if the prequel comic is anything to go by. Oenomaus, however, felt nothing but disdain and resentment towards him.
• Wrestling Monster: He shows many characteristics of this in the arena - he's a huge man who mostly screams and hisses instead of speaking, takes ungodly amounts of punishment, and sometimes pretends to be dead so that he can shock the crowd and his opponents by "coming back to life".

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