Page 19 - SagaOfBarak2

Truth said, these bold gladiators, unless they all be fools or dreamers were
always expecting their violent demise to come to them at the dawn of every day
whilst fighting in the arena.
Alas this cruel brutal passing of life was contrived merely to entertain and satisfy
a crowd of braying, brainless, bloodthirsty fools, the ever fickle Roman mob.
Thus standing against Rome’s legions were obviously men who of course were
well familiar with the sting of pain also the everyday sight of death.
Now though, these men fought with a bitter hate filled grudge to help them on
their way to death or glory, or even both come to that.
Others who rallied to this brave noble heroic, though somewhat reckless cause
were made up of all other manner of man, women even child.
These were the downtrodden, the beaten and the abused, indeed all of those
robbed of their liberty and freedom, in truth it must sadly be said that under
Roman tyranny these folk numbered many.
It was calculated that within the very walls of Rome itself, these slaves far
outnumbered Roman citizens by a margin of perhaps as much as some ten to one.
Indeed this was a mixed collective, a mass of people from here, there and
everywhere people who were no longer willing to continue with their life of
struggle and servitude under harsh Roman rule.
Aye here was a vagabond army made up not only of arena warriors, but also of
house slaves, farm workers and the so called hitherto unimportant menials who
had served their Roman masters long and hard.
But no longer now though, were these folk unimportant things, far from it, as
vast numbers of these poor people now fought bravely to be heard and accounted
for.
All of this rebellion finally coming to a head after putting up with daily abuse,
long hours and even longer years of hard, thankless slavery and servitude.
Perhaps what was even more important and more dangerous to Rome was the
fact these so called rebels also fought for not only their freedom but for their very
lives itself.
As obviously there was no going back now, oh no, thus being so, then their
choice was very simple, they must be victorious in their quest or otherwise they
must all die in the trying.
Of course though, just as ever in the everyday normal run of all things, there
was also in these humble but noble ranks all manner of lesser principled men.
Bandits, cut-throats, desperados and all other murderous outlaws of every kind
had also thrown in their lot with the fast growing army of rebels.
Obviously this as the uprising, to these no goods, well here was an opportune
chance to such as the likes of them to herald much profit and good fortune.

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