It's Your Turn

It's Your Turn

After forty-nine days, Macrus appeared once more on the second-floor balcony. This time, however, the two female slaves beside him had been replaced by a Persian woman and a Parthian woman, who helped him into his chair.

Yet Macrus seemed unable to feel happy. The arena's attendance had fallen again over the past two months, forcing him to increase Habitus's appearances to win back at least some of the audience. But the greedy Habitus had taken the opportunity to demand a larger share of the profits and a promise that he would be groomed as the Gladiator School's star fighter.

On the other hand, Macrus had also heard news from the front lines. It was said that the Empire's new emperor, Commodus, had no interest in taking over the burden left behind by his father, Aurelius, and was preparing to make peace with the Germanic peoples. This was not good news for Macrus, since prisoners of war were an important source of gladiators for him. In particular, high-caliber gladiators were often selected from among them. And now that he was busy looking for Sisnatas's successor, Macrus could only place all his hopes on Bach.

By custom, a grand gladiatorial exhibition would also be held whenever a new emperor ascended the throne. In order to win the people's favor, this exhibition would be free of charge. It would be held at the Flavian Amphitheatre, the largest arena in the entire Roman Empire. Funded and built by the imperial family, it had taken eighty thousand slaves eight years to complete and could hold up to ninety thousand spectators. Considering the era in which it stood, the arena was nothing short of a miracle in architectural history.

But an arena alone was obviously not enough. Without gladiators, there could be