- Spartacus considers striking a deal with a band of marauders to ensure his people stay supplied and fed. Crassus' son Tiberius makes a bold and fateful decision.
- Crassus sends Tiberius ahead with instructions to observe Sinuessa and wait. Caesar won't stand for being the boy's deputy and beheads the 'cowardly' gate keeper who escaped and reports Spartacus took the city easily. Despite Spartacus's explicit instructions, surviving Roman citizens suffer excessive cruelty, especially at the hands of Crixus's traumatized Naevia, who even kills blacksmith Attius. When Cilician pirates arrive, Spartacus learns their captain Heraclea has a secret deal with the late aedilius Ennius to use his seal to sell his thus laundered loot at market prices. Heracleo offers an Alliance. Spartacus agrees, mainly to buy urgently needed supplies. The suspicious leaders meet outside the city, but are observed by Tiberius, who decides to attack. The pirate fleet's artillery however makes the difference, Tiberius is carried off badly wounded.—KGF Vissers
- Now that Sinuessa en Valle is his to keep, Spartacus realises that staying organised is easier said than done. And with the food supplies rapidly depleting, the rebel leader is toying with the idea of making a deal with shady Cilician pirate and raider Heracleo to provide for his people. Under those grave circumstances, the city's captured Romans continue to suffer, with their lives forever changed by the war. But in the meantime, a fragile alliance gives breath to new hope, and young Tiberius, Crassus' impulsive and overconfident son, yearns to prove his worth and rise in his father's eyes, eager to make a difference. And now, there is no turning back. Is the haughty, inexperienced heir ready to honour Rome with blood and death as a beast of battle?—Nick Riganas
- "Spartacus: War of the Damned" - "Men of Honor" - Feb. 8, 2013
Arrr! Here be pirates!
In the aftermath of taking Sinuessa, Spartacus is trying to keep things running smoothly and treat their captives humanely but there are a lot of obstacles.
First the slave rebels are getting antsy to off the rest of the Romans in the city, filled with vengeance. To the point that they are stealing from them, mocking them, terrorizing them and in one sequence pitting them against one another in battles to the death a la the coliseum. Crixus sets up a totally unfair fight between a pudgy baker and another man-- for a scrap of bread-- and even though the pudgy baker comes out on top in an upset, when it looks like he's going to attack Crixus Naevia slices his hand open. (It is the first of many fierce things she will do in this episode.) Gannicus, seems alone in the chanting crowd to be disgusted by this pitting of the men against each other. Crixus sees it as payback for what was done to them. But even Gannicus knows this kind of cruelty as revenge is hollow. Also upset by this Attius, the blacksmith who is busy making swords for the rebel army and money to get himself out of dodge.
Another obstacle? Their grain stores are falling low and they only have a few weeks of food left.
As if by magic, men appear to solve this problem.
A band of pirates, led by the Ancient Roman version of Jack Sparrow apparently. He and his merry band offer a trade of sorts. They also hate the Romans and take "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" approach. It turns out that the leader of Sinuessa gave the pirates his official seal to do their dirty dealings. If Spartacus will give him the seal and a boatload of cash they'll make sure the rebels have supplies. Spartacus and the gang are, understandably, wary but come to an agreement with the pirates. Once this is done they have a crazy, decadent absinthe swilling party.
Two things of note happen here.
One of the pirates hits on Nasir hard and Agron no likey. So much so that he has a knockdown drag-out with the pirate. This apparently gets him and Nasir so hot they make some seriously fierce and explicit love.
Also, Saxa noted that one of the young women of the city has taken a shine to Gannicus. It turns out she was a slave and he killed her master and she wants to thank him. Saxa thinks this means she wants to thank him...physically, and tarts her up for a three way. But Gannicus, who when he isn't totally wasted, shows some real character this episode and tells the girl she is too young and to go away not keep company with men like him. Instead, he and Saxa get it on, bow chicka wow wow-style.
The next morning they set off to meet the pirates on the beach for the trade. It doesn't feel quite right though when the head pirate says they don't have all the supplies with them because they need to sail in to port to offload them. Things get Mexican stand-offish (with swords) but suddenly they all have a new problem; Romans.
Caesar and Tiberius received word of Spartacus' takeover of Sinuessa and went to check it out. When the leader on the ground basically blew Tiberius off in favor of Caesar when they arrived he started seething, pouting that he is the leader. He tells Caesar to head back to Crassus and tell them they're going to check out Sinuessa. When they see the pirates meeting with Sparty and the gang on the beach he tells the general to get his men ready to attack. Tiberius' buddy points out that his dead said to do recon only, not to engage. Tiberius retorts that his dad respects a fighter and he aims to be one.
They advance on the party on the beach and everyone springs into action. The rebels are totally winning when, off in the distance they spy hundreds of Roman soldiers. The main pirate sends up a signal and, suddenly, from his ships come barreling firebombs, decimating the horde of Roman soldiers who turn tail. Not before Tiberius is injured seriously and he spots which one is Spartacus. The rebels and pirates celebrate their victory and agree to their pact.
Meanwhile, back in the city, Naevia has heard some of the captives are on the run and that Attius the blacksmith is helping him. She goes to his shop and they get into a vicious brawl that ends with her beating his face in with one of his hammer-type tools. It is bloody and rage-filled. She has been all kinds of angry like this and we learned why. She confessed to Crixus that she went to work in a house where an apparently mild-mannered family man would repeatedly rape her, viciously, with tools and then present a sweet face to the world. She is clearly working out her issues...on Attius' face.
Spartacus also freed Laeta in this episode, hoping she will help tend to her former subjects and calm and feed them with their soon to be bounty. He offers to let her stay in her old palace, now taken over as Sparty HQ, but she begs off saying she wants to stay in her dead husband's old stables. We soon learn why. Under one of the stables is a secret trap door. There she is hiding and abetting in the escape of some her subjects, including the banker with the sliced hand. Spartacus-- and especially Naevia-- are not going to like this.
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