The Grand Premiere Amidst Turmoil (3)

Because the chorus was arranged within the audience seating and wore no special costumes, the surrounding spectators were taken by surprise when these individuals suddenly began to sing as the song reached its chorus.

In this segment, only the first verse of the song was performed. Once the melody concluded, the members of the chorus closed their mouths, almost instantly blending back into the audience.

"Hey, buddy, you guys know how to sing this?" A young man with light brown freckles across his nose gently tugged on the sleeve of a singer next to him and whispered.

"Yes. We know how to sing it," the chorus member replied simply.

"This song really has some kick to it!" the young man exclaimed in admiration.

"There are a few more verses to this song; they only sang the first one here. It's even more powerful when sung in full," another person interjected. "I live nearby, and I've heard them practicing this song for the past few days..."

"Shut up, I can't hear the lines!" someone else complained.

The drama on stage continued; Vesuvius was already too small to contain the insurgent army. Regarding the future direction of the uprising, Spartacus and another rebel leader, Crixus, had a disagreement. Spartacus believed the Roman legions were formidable; after this battle, they had already caught Rome's attention, and remaining in the local area would be unsustainable. He argued that the rebels should take advantage of the fact that the Roman legions on the frontier had not yet been recalled, leave Rome, head north, cross the Alps, and establish their own free nation north of the mountains. Once their strength grew, they could then strike back at Rome and liberate all the slaves. Crixus, however, felt that Spartacus was too timid. He believed the Roman legions were nothing to fear and that the rebels should stay put, capture Roman cities, liberate the slaves there, and continue fighting and growing until the evil system of slavery was completely eradicated.

Neither man could convince the other, so they finally resorted to a democratic vote. The majority of the rebel soldiers chose to support Spartacus, leaving Crixus resentful. When Spartacus led the main force north, Crixus requested to serve as the rearguard. Yet, once the army departed, he took a group of soldiers and left to attack a Roman city on his own. He ended up falling into a Roman ambush, and by the time Spartacus arrived, his entire force had been wiped out. The Romans executed all the prisoners with cruel punishments. Upon seeing this, the rebel army was filled with rage; they refused to continue marching north and demanded revenge. Spartacus could not persuade them and was forced to hold another vote. This time, everyone chose to stay and fight in Rome.

"Staying in Rome is courting disaster; why does Spartacus have to submit to democracy?" one audience member couldn't help but remark. "What do those slaves know?"

"You're wrong about that," another retorted. "If Crixus could have submitted to democracy like Spartacus, none of this would have happened. Besides, you ask 'what do those slaves know?'—those priests and nobles use the exact same words to describe us!"

The rebel army remained in Italy, and under his command, they achieved constant victories, yet Spartacus grew increasingly worried. He knew the victories were only temporary; the main Roman force was closing in. He repeatedly tried to persuade the soldiers to head north, but his suggestions were always rejected.

Crassus led the Roman army to block the path of the rebel army's northward advance, closing in step by step. Spartacus led the rebels southward while attempting to contact pirates, hoping to cross the sea and retreat to Sicily. But when they arrived at the agreed-upon location, the pirate fleet did not appear. Consequently, they were surrounded by the massive army of Crassus. Crassus sent a letter to Spartacus offering terms of surrender. He promised that if Spartacus surrendered, he could become a Roman citizen and a general. But when Spartacus asked about the other slaves, Crassus replied, "They will return to the estates and gladiator schools to continue being slaves."

Spartacus rejected the surrender and led his troops in a desperate breakout. After paying a heavy price, they finally broke through. However, the Romans brought in more reinforcements, forcing Spartacus to face Crassus in a decisive battle in Apulia.

Before the final battle, Spartacus and Crassus met. Crassus once again offered the same terms, and Spartacus once again refused. He and Crassus agreed to fight to the death on the battlefield the following morning.

On the battlefield, the outnumbered rebel army was eventually defeated, and Spartacus fell in combat. His lieutenant, Oenomaus, and over six thousand other soldiers were captured. Crassus ordered them all to be crucified.

The final scene of the play depicted Oenomaus and two other rebel soldiers being crucified. They were forced to carry their own crosses and set them up themselves. Then, the Romans nailed them to the crosses. The two soldiers were nailed to the sides, with Oenomaus in the center.

"This is blasphemy!" a priest said in a low, vicious voice, clutching the crucifix at his chest tightly.

Indeed, this scene was clearly imitating the crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus had also carried his own cross and was crucified alongside two other criminals, with the two criminals on the sides and Jesus in the center.

The two soldiers on the crosses hung their heads and sobbed. Oenomaus, also nailed to a cross, looked left and right, then shouted, "What is it, my brothers? Is losing one's life truly more terrifying than being a slave? Yes, we failed to win our freedom in the end, but at least we have won the right to never be enslaved again! We have been defeated this time, but in the long run, our cause will never fail. The system of slavery where man oppresses man, where man enslaves man, will surely be overthrown! The glorious name and cause of Spartacus will live forever! Brothers, let us sing our battle song one last time!"

Then, Oenomaus began to sing: "Debout ! les damnés de la terre, Debout ! les forats de la faim..."

Hearing his voice, the two soldiers on the crosses stopped crying, lifted their heads, and joined in:

"La raison tonne en son cratère :

C'est l'éruption de la fin"

The Roman soldiers holding spears looked up in terror at the slaves nailed to the crosses and shouted in panic, "Stop singing! Stop singing!" One soldier even thrust his spear into Oenomaus's side, and blood immediately began to flow.

"This, this is truly terrible blasphemy! Lord, may You send down Your thunder..." the priest muttered through gritted teeth.

In the Bible, after Jesus was crucified, a Roman soldier named Longinus pierced Jesus's side with a spear to check if he was dead. Later, this spear became a holy relic of the Catholic Church, known as the Spear of Longinus. Legends even emerged claiming that "whoever holds this spear shall have all within a hundred and twenty feet submit to them, and the holder may command the fate of the world, but the one who loses it shall die instantly." These legends deceived many in later generations, and even Hitler once fanatically sought its power. It is said he even obtained this holy spear at one point, yet it did not grant him victory in the Second World War.

However, Oenomaus's singing did not stop; he continued to sing.

This verse had been sung once before, and because its lyrics and melody were very simple, many in the audience began to sing along. Only the priest, his face ashen, kept his head down and said nothing.

Unlike the previous choruses, this time the chorus sang the entire song from beginning to end. Of course, in actual history, the song should have had six verses. But Joseph, having transmigrated, could not perfectly recall all six. Because in the later Red Hare Kingdom, due to translation issues (some verses were nearly impossible to sing in Chinese), the song was generally only sung in three verses. Thus, as Joseph had plagiarized it, only the original first, second, and sixth verses remained.

As the second verse rang out, the entire theater suddenly fell silent. Over the years, under the influence of figures like Voltaire, the French were far from their former "piety" (though, to be honest, as the eldest daughter of the Church, France had committed no shortage of blasphemous acts in the past). Yet, a song that so directly negated religion still took everyone by surprise. However, due to the widespread dissatisfaction with the Church, this extreme rejection of religion only made the audience more excited, and as the chorus hit, more people joined in the singing.

Following this was the even more explicit sixth verse, filled with the passion of rebellion:

The priest had already quietly slipped away by this time, disappearing into the streets.

After the song finished, the entire theater remained quiet for a moment, and then a voice rang out: "That was amazing! That song was amazing! Can you sing it again?"

Immediately, the entire theater was filled with such pleas:

"Sing it again, I didn't catch all the words!"

"Please, sing it again."

"Sing it again!"

The curtain had already been lowered, and the actors and chorus were preparing to leave the stage, but under such demand, they had no choice but to sing the song again, and then again... in the end, they sang it a full six times. Clearly, this premiere was an unprecedented success.

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