Post #2

(6 YEARS LATER…)
Salve, amici. The year is now 27 BC, and Augustus Caesar is now in power.
I had an interesting day today. Very interesting.

Well, for the experienced gladiators like me, the choice is either see if we can go out in the city... or we can train (which, if you're experienced like me, you generally have enough training to take a break for a day—the newbies, not so much… if they want to survive). Sometimes our lanista will not let us out, as he is a cruel man (he used to be a soldier in the Roman army, as I believe I've said before). However, today he did. So I got a bit of my money from winning games, and I headed out to explore the city. Now, some of my Thraex gladiator friends are fairly well-known and can always find some fans to hang out with, and they went to do that, but I found that a waste of time so I went off on my own. I went to the Circus (hey, a gladiator needs some entertainment of his own, too!) and cheered for the Albati, the white team. I left, and after I looked around to buy an elusive cleaning kit for my sword (which I still haven't found one yet that was good quality, unfortunately... someone know of any weapon cleaning kits that are a good value?), I decided to head back to the barracks. Of course, it's just my luck that a robbery happened at the shop I had just left. There's a lot of details, but the shortened version is that they blamed me for it all. I'm in HUGE trouble with the lanista now, but I am his best gladiator so I know he won't do anything to permanently damage me. Well, he won't do it himself, at least. He doesn't want to hurt his profits, you know.

Update: I just found out what my punishment is. There is a gladiator fight staged for tomorrow at 3:00 PM. One of the gladiators fighting in it is one of the best gladiators that has fought in the arena for a long time. He's won all of his fights (plus has gotten extra awards) and trains every moment of his life. He is a Retiarius, but apparently he is allowed more armor than most as he fights better with it (that's bad for his opponents). He has THE best lanista (head of the barracks) and doctores (trainers) that I've heard of, too. He has killed every other gladiator he has fought, even though sometimes he was told not to by the game referee. He does it anyways, which is not a very good thing for his lanista, but the crowds love it; even though his lanista has to pay for most of the deaths of the other gladiators to their lanistae, Romans come from all around to watch him fight so it brings in good profits for him. You've probably heard of this guy. His name is Publius, I believe. I may be good, but I might not be this good. So you may think, why is my lanista doing this? Probably because he's going to get a profit either way. Either I will win and he is going to get more money from my fame, or I will lose and he will get paid for me dying. Most likely the latter. I did say he was cruel, didn't I? How fun for me, eh? Wish me luck… and come watch the fight!