The Gladiators. A Tale of Rome and Judæa

by G. J. Whyte-Melville

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE TRAINING-SCHOOL

  But Licinius had an ordeal to go through on the following day, which wasespecially painful to the kind heart of the Roman general. When the termsof the combat were explained to the person chiefly interested, that youngwarrior eagerly accepted the challenge as affording an opportunity forindulgence in those feats of arms which early education had rendered sopleasing to his martial disposition. He could vanquish two such men as thetribune, he thought, at any exercise and with any weapons; but his facesank when he learned the penalty of failure, and a shudder passed throughhis whole frame at the bare possibility of becoming a slave to anyone buthis present master. It nerved him, however, all the more in his resolutionto conquer; and when Licinius, reproaching himself bitterly the while,promised him his liberty in the event of victory, Esca's heart beat fastwith joy and hope and exultation once more.

  A thousand vague possibilities danced through his brain; a thousand wildand visionary schemes, of which Mariamne formed the centre figure. Lifethat had seemed so dull but one short week ago, now shone again in therosy light with which youth--and youth alone--can tinge the long perspectiveof the future. Alas for Licinius! he marked the glowing cheek and thekindling eye with a sensation of despondency weighing at his heart.Nevertheless the lot was cast, the offer was accepted. It was too late forlooking back. Nothing remained but to strain every nerve to win.

  In all bodily contests, in all mental labours, in everything which humannature attempts, systematic and continuous training is the essentialelement of success. The palm, as Horace says, can only flourish where thedust is plentiful; and he who would attain a triumph either as an athleteor a scholar, must cultivate his natural abilities with the utmostattention, and the most rigid self-denial, ere he enters for the prize. Itis curious, too, how the mind, like the body, acquires vigour andelasticity by graduated exertion. The task that was an impossibilityyesterday, is but a penance to-day, and will become a pleasure to-morrow.Let us follow Esca into the training-school, where his muscles are to betoughened, and his skill perfected for the deadly exercises of the arena.

  It is a large square building, something like a modern riding-house,lighted and ventilated at the top, and is laid down three inches deep insand, an arrangement which increases, indeed, the labour of all pedestrianexertion, but renders a fall comparatively harmless, and accustoms thepupil, moreover, to the yielding surface on which hereafter he will haveto struggle for his life. Quoits, dumb-bells, ponderous weights, andmassive clubs are scattered in the corners, or propped against the wallsof the edifice, and a horizontal leaping-bar, placed at the height of aman's breast, denotes that activity is not neglected in the acquisition ofstrength. Beside these insignia of peaceful gymnastics, the _cestus_ hangsconspicuous, and racks are placed at intervals supporting the deadlyweapons and defensive armour with which the gladiator plies his formidabletrade. There are also pointless spears, and blunted swords for practice,and a wooden figure, hacked and hewed out of all similitude to an enemy,on which the cuts and thrusts most in request have been dealt over andover again with increasing skill and severity.

  At one end of the building paces the master to and fro; now glancing withwary eye at the movements of his pupils; now pausing to adjust someimplement of instruction; now encouraging or chiding with a gesture; andanon catching up, as though in sheer absence of mind, one of the idleweapons, and whirling it round his head with a flourish that displays allthe power and skill of the practised professional. Hippias, the retiredgladiator, is a man of middle age, and of somewhat lofty stature, renderedmore commanding by its lengthy proportions, and the peculiar setting on ofthe head. Constant exercise, pushed, indeed, to the verge of toil, andcontinued for many years, has toughened each shapely limb into thehardness and consistency of wire, and has rendered his large frame leanand sinewy, like a greyhound's. All his gestures have the graceful pliantease which results from muscular strength, and his very walk--light,smooth, and noiseless--is like that of a panther traversing the floor ofits cage. His swarthy complexion has been deeply tanned by exposure toheat and toil, but the blood courses healthfully beneath, and imparts awarm mellow tint to the skin. The fleshless face, in spite of a worn eagerlook, and a dash of grey in the hair and beard, is not without a wilddefiant beauty of its own; and though its expression is somewhat dissoluteand reckless, there is a bold keen flash in the eye, and the man isobviously enterprising, courageous, and steel to the backbone.

  The Roman ladies, with that depravity of taste which marks a generaldeterioration of manners and morality, delighted at this period to choosetheir favourites from the ranks of the amphitheatre. There was a rage forwarlike exercises, Amazonian dresses, imitations of the deadly sports,played out with considerable skill and ferocity, nay, for the very personsof the gladiators themselves. It was no wonder then, that the handsomefencing-master, with his reputation for strength and courage, should havebeen a marked man with the proud capricious matrons of the Imperial City.The favour of each, too, was doubtless his best recommendation to the goodgraces of the rest; and Hippias might have sunned himself in the smiles ofthe noblest ladies in Rome.

  He made but little account, however, of his good fortune. The peachesfallen on the ground are doubtless the ripest, yet they never seem sotempting as those which sun themselves against the wall, a hand's-breadthabove our reach. Nor can a man pay implicit obedience to more than onedominion (at a time); and unless the yoke be _very_ heavy, it is scarceworth while to carry it at all. Hippias was neither dazzled nor flatteredby the bright eyes that looked so kindly into his war-worn face. He loveda flask of wine nearly as well as a woman's beauty--two feet of pliantsteel and a leathern buckler far better than either; nevertheless, amongstall the dainty dames of his acquaintance, he was least disposed toundervalue Valeria's notice, the more so, that she rarely condescended tobestow it on him; and he took more pains with her fencing lessons, thanthose of any other female pupil, and stayed longer in her house than inthat of any lady in Rome. He approved of her strength, her resolution, herquickness, above all her cold manner and her pride, besides admiring herpersonal charms exceedingly, in his own practical way. There is a gleam ofinterest, almost of tenderness in his eyes, as he pauses every now andthen in his walk, and reads a line or two from a scroll he carries in hishand, which Myrrhina brought him not an hour ago.

  The scroll is from Valeria. She has heard of Esca's peril--nay, she hasherself brought it on his head; and who knows the price it cost herhaughty wilful heart? Yet in all her bitter anger, vexation, shame, shecannot bear to think of the noble Briton down on the sand, writhing andhelpless at the mercy of his enemy. It is the weapon now she hates, andnot the victim. It would give her intense pleasure, she feels, to seePlacidus humbled, defeated, slain. Such is the sense of justice in awoman's breast; such are the advantages gained by submission at anysacrifice to do her bidding. We need not pity the tribune, however, in hisdealings with either sex; he is well able to take care of himself.

  Valeria accordingly sat her down and wrote a few friendly lines to thefencing-master, who had always stood high in her favour, and whose frankbold nature she felt she could trust. Womanlike, she thought it necessaryto fabricate an excuse for her interest in the Briton, by affirming thatshe had staked heavily on his success in the coming contest. She adjuredHippias to spare no pains in counsel or instruction, and bade him come tosee her without delay, and report the progress of his pupil. He raised hiseyes from the scroll, and watched the said pupil holding his own gallantlyat sword and buckler with Lutorius.

  "One, two--Disengage the blade! A feint at the head, a cut at the legs, andcome in over the shield with a lunge! Good! but scarce quick enough. Trythat again--the elbow turned outwards, the wrist a little higher. So--oncemore. Now, look at me. Thus."

  The combatants paused for breath, Hippias seized a wooden foil, and,beckoning to Hirpinus, engaged him in the required position, for Esca'sespecial benefit. Train
ed and wary, the old gladiator knew every feint andparry in the game. Yet had those blades been steel, Hirpinus would havebeen gasping his life out, at the master's feet, ere the close of theirsecond encounter. Hippias never shifted his ground, never seemed to exerthimself much, yet the quickest eye in Rome was puzzled to follow themovements of his point, the readiest hand to intercept it where it fell.Again he pitted Esca and Lutorius in the mimic strife, and stood withwell-pleased countenance to watch the result. The Briton had, indeed, lostno time in beginning a course of instruction which he hoped was to ensurehim victory and its reward--his much desired freedom. That morning Hirpinushad brought him to the school; and the veteran gladiator watched, with aninterest that was almost touching, the preparations which were to fit hisyoung friend for a career that at best must end ere long in a violentdeath. Hippias was delighted with the stature and strength of his newpupil. He had matched him at once with Lutorius, a wiry Gaul, who wassupposed to be the most scientific swordsman of "the Family," and smiledto observe how completely, with an occasional hint from himself, theBriton was a match for his antagonist, who had expected an easy victory,and was even more disgusted than surprised. As the encounter wasprolonged, and the combatants, warming to their work, advanced, retreated,struck, lunged and parried; now traversing warily at full distance--nowdashing boldly in to close, the other gladiators gathered round, excitedto unusual interest by the excellence of the play, and the dexterity ofthe barbarian.

  "He is the best we've seen here for a lustre at least," exclaimed Rufus, agigantic champion from Northern Italy, proud of his stature, proud of hisswordsmanship, but above all, proud that he was a Roman citizen, though agladiator; "those thrusts come home like lightning, and when he misses hisparry, see, he jumps away like a wild-cat. Faith, Manlius, if they matchhim against thee at the games, thou wilt have a handful. I would stake myrights as a Roman citizen on him, toga and all, barbarian though he be.What, man! he would have thee down and disarmed in a couple of passes!"

  Manlius seemed to think so too, though he was loth to confess it. Heturned the subject by vowing that Lutorius must be masking his play, andnot fighting his best, or he never could be thus worsted by a novice.

  "Masking his play!" exclaimed Hirpinus indignantly, "let him unmask, then,as soon as he will! I tell thee this lad of mine hath not his match in theempire. I shall see him champion of the amphitheatre, and first swordsmanin Rome, ere they give me the wooden foil with the silver guard,(9) andlay old Hirpinus on the shelf. I shall be satisfied to retire then, for Ishall leave some good manhood to take my place."

  "Well crowed!" replied Manlius, not quite pleased at the value placed onhis own prowess in comparison. "To hear thee, a man would say there neverwas but one gladiator in Rome, and that this young mastiff must pull usall down by the throat, because he fences like thyself, wild and wide, andby main strength."

  "It is no swordsmanship to run in like a bull and take more than yougive," observed Euchenor, listening with his arms folded, and anexpression of supreme contempt on his handsome features.

  "Nevertheless his blows fall thick and fast, like a hailstorm, andLutorius shifts his ground every time the young one makes the attack,"argued honest Rufus, who had not a grain of either fear or jealousy in hisdisposition; and who considered his profession as a mere trade by which hecould obtain a livelihood for wife and children in the meantime, and aremote chance of independence with a vineyard of his own beyond theApennines, should he escape a violent death in the amphitheatre at last.

  "He thrusts too often overhand," observed Manlius, "and his guard isalways open for the wrist."

  "He is a strong fencer, but he has no style," added Euchenor; and theboxer looked around him with the air of a man who closes a controversy byan unanswerable argument.

  Hirpinus was boiling over with indignation; but his eloquence was by nomeans in proportion to his corporeal gifts, and he could not readily findwords to express his dissent and his disdain. Banter, too, and a coarse,good-humoured sort of wrangling, was the usual form by which difference ofopinion found expression in the training-school. Quarrelling, amongst menwhose very trade it was to fight to the death, seemed simply absurd; andto come to blows except in public and for money, a mere childish waste oftime. Indeed, with all their contempt for death, and their extraordinarycourage when pitted against each other to amuse the populace, thesegladiators, perhaps from the very nature of their profession, seem to havebeen unsuited for any sustained efforts of energy and endurance. Whenbanded together under the eagles, they were often so undisciplined incamp, as by no means to be relied on before an enemy. Perhaps there wassomething of bravado in the flourish with which they entered the circus,and hailed Caesar with their greetings from _those about to die_!(10)Moreover, they had to fight in a corner, and with the impossibility ofescape. Courage is of many different kinds. Men are brave from variousmotives--from ambition, from emulation, from the habit of confrontingdanger; some from a naturally chivalrous disposition, backed by strongphysical nerves. The last alone are to be trusted in an emergency; and areally courageous man faces an unexpected and unaccustomed peril, if notwith confidence, at least with an unflinching determination to do hisbest.

  Hirpinus turned upon Euchenor, for whom he had no great liking at anytime.

  "You talk of your science," said he, "and your Greek skill, against whicheven our Roman thews and sinews are of no avail. Dare you stand up to thisbarbarian with the _cestus_ on? Only to exchange half a dozen friendlybuffets, you know, in sheer sport."

  But Euchenor excused himself with great disdain. Like many anothersuccessful professor, he owed no inconsiderable share of his fame to hisown assumption of superiority, and the judgment with which, whenpracticable, he matched himself against inferior performers. Champions whoexist on their reputation, such as it is, are not to peril it lightlyagainst the first tyro that comes, who has everything to gain and nothingto lose by an encounter with the celebrity; whereas the celebrity derivesno additional laurels from a triumph, and a defeat tends to take the verybread out of his mouth. Euchenor said as much; but Hirpinus was notsatisfied, till the subtle Greek, who had learned the terms of the matchin which Esca was engaged, observed carelessly, that all the time theBriton had to spare should be devoted to practice in the part he was aboutto play before the Emperor. The suggestion took effect upon Hirpinus atonce. He sprang across the school to where the master had resumed hiswalk. The old gladiator positively turned pale while he entreated Hippiasto instruct his pupil in all the scientific devices by which those deadlymeshes could be foiled.

  "Nothing but art can save him," said he, in imploring accents, whichseemed almost ludicrous from one of his Herculean exterior. "Courage andstrength, ay, and the activity of a wild-cat, are all paralysed when thataccursed twine is round your limbs. I know it! I have felt it! I was downunder the net myself once. If a man is to die, he should die _like_ a man,not like a thrush caught in a springe. He must learn, Hippias, he mustpractise day by day, and hour by hour; he must study every movement of thecaster. Pit him against Manlius, he is the best netsman in the Family. Ifhe learns to foil _him_, he will take the conceit out of Placidus readilyenough. I tell you I shall not be easy till I see him with his foot on thegay tribune's breast!"

  "Patience, man," replied Hippias, "thou fearest but one thing in theworld, and that is a fathom of twine. Thinkest thou all others are scaredat the same bugbear? Mind thine own training,--thou art yet too lusty byhalf to go into the circus,--and leave this young barbarian to me."

  The master kept up his influence amongst these lawless pupils, partly by areserved demeanour and a silent tongue, partly by never suffering hisauthority to be disputed for a moment. To have said as much as he now didwas tantamount to a confession of interest in the Briton's success; andHirpinus resumed his own labours with a lightened heart, whilst Esca, inall the delightful flush of youth and health, and muscular strengthdeveloping itself by scientific practice, plied his antagonist withredoubled vigour, and enjoyed his pastime to the u
tmost.

  It was like taking an old friend by the hand to grasp a sword once more.