I was tired. I was sick of it. The crowd screamed my name, "Leo-Regulal! -Magna Leo-Regula!!," but I could only think of the man before me whose life I had just crushed. His name was Ammicus, a lean and sinewy Greek with blonde hair and dark brown eyes, a former Roman slave but now a dying gladiator. I kneeled down over the dying man and stammered, "I am sorry Ammicus--" but he broke me off.

"Do not be sorry Leo, we knew this day would came. Here-take this." Then he reached under his breastplate and gave me. a golden chain with silver circle attached to it. An image of a great war-ship and several large Greek letters stood out from the many pictures and words engraved upon the silver circle,, but I could not make out what the letters read before he put it in~ my hands and said quickly, "Take this to my mother. She lives in Ephesus. Please, Leo, leave this place and take this to my mother, it...it is all I have."

"But Ammicus --"

"Flee, Leo, flee!" he said with effort for his lungs began to fall him. Then the soldiers came and took away the sword with which I had slain Ammicus. They dragged Ammicus away through the dust and I knew I would never see him again. At that moment I felt a total hatred and rage that I had never felt before. I had always loathed the Romans, but now my hatred had deepened. They had taken away the last thing that mattered to me, and they had forced me to do it for them! They pitted friend against friend in the Coliseum for the entertainment of all the fat, lazy Romans that came by the hundreds every day.

With a yell, my rage turned into action, and I attacked one of the guards. With a blow to his face that was so violent I felt his nose break beneath my fist, he went down into the dust. Quickly I pulled his sword out of his sheath and flew on the others. I became half mad with abomination of the Romans, and it seemed I did not control the sword, but it had its own mind. Down went one guard in front of me and then another.

A group of six soldiers fell upon me, their swords shining in the setting sun and their red cloaks flailing behind them wildly, trying to stop my rampage. My sword began to swing wildly and uncontrollably. My eyes could not penetrate through the thick dust all around me, but when it had cleared all six Roman guards lay slain around me.

While I looked on the dead soldiers around me and realized that none of them had even injured me thoughts of my own invincibility entered my head. "Yes, I am invincible," I whispered to my half-mad self, and with a great war cry, I charged at two Roman guards with spears ready to be thrown at me. They let the spears fly when there was a distance between us of fifteen feet. I put my shield up and swiftly dodged the whining spears while they passed by my head and continued my charge at them. Before they could -get their swords out I, with two swift thrusts, stabbed the soldier on the right underneath his breastplate and pierced the man on the left in his side.

Running at top speed, I continued my charge. Breaking through several groups of soldiers trying to block my path, I reached a side entrance where the soldiers came into the arena. A fat, unshaven, and slightly drunk Roman guard blocked the entrance, and cursing violently, he thrust his sword for my belly. I saved myself with a quick step to the right and followed it up with a swift blow to the back of the Roman's head with the hilt of my sword whilst he fell through the vacancy where my body had been a moment earlier.

I ran through the side entrance and up several stairs, taking them three at a time. Unfortunately, the stairs led to miniature barracks where several soldiers loitered about. Before they could react I sprinted through the room and down a set of stairs, dimly lit by four torches. Good, I thought to myself, I am heading into the tunnels. No one knew the tunnels better than I. There I could easily hide from the guards in the dark passages. The darkness down there was so thick I could almost feel the blackness circling round me, its long spindly fingers reaching for my throat.

When I reached the end of the stairs I ducked into a dark corridor and crouched down. The anger against the Romans that had started my escape left my mind and replaced itself with a cool but desperate cunning, which I would now need to escape this Coliseum. Light from a torch danced along the walls as soldiers passed by, their sandals flapping-on the cold stone floor. My breathing had slowed and my mind became calm. Yes, yes, I knew where I sat. This corridor continued to where the animals were kept. I looked over the map of the Coliseum in my head to find a route of escape. From the animal cages I would go left, then right, another right, right, straight through a three-way split, left, left, and then a final right that led to a small guard house and through there to freedom.

Standing up to start my journey through the dark depths of the Coliseum, I felt a sharp pang in my left side. My hand-reached down to feel something wet and sticky covering my side. It was blood. "So they did wound me," I thought to myself. I was not invincible after all.

To stop the bleeding, I ripped off part of my garment and wrapped it around my midsection. I began walking slowly and softly, not wanting to disturb any man or beast. After several minutes, I reached the end of that passage and heard the roar of lions and tigers and the low rumble of elephants and hippopotami kept here until the Romans brought them out into the daylight and slaughtered them by the hundreds. A disgusting spectacle that they had made me be a part of. For that was how I received my name, Leo-Regula, which means Lion-Ruler.

In my first appearance in the arena they pitted me defenseless against four lions. Well, I was intended to be defenseless. I had actually pulled a small dagger out of a soldier's cloak when they dragged me into the arena. I killed two of the lions with it and, strangely, the other two seemed to accept me as the new leader of the pack and we turned on the soldiers. Unfortunately they killed the lions and recaptured me. After that incident I received my name, Leo Regula, and became wildly popular with the Roman Coliseum-goers. I, who hated every Roman I ever saw, became one of the most popular persons in Rome and the talk of the city. Very odd.

For I truly did hate the Romans. I was one of the Germanic "Barbarians," as the Romans called us, and had become a slave-boy at eight years old. They had sacked and burned my village in retaliation against Huodolf, a strong chieftain in our area who raided Roman forts and towns. They killed my mother and my father in the slaughter and took me and a hundred others as slaves. I escaped six years later and joined Huodolf's small army. But the Romans ambushed and surrounded us. Huodolf and all who had joined with him died, except for me. I was wounded in the battle and fell unconscious. Instead of killing me as they did all the other wounded men, they saw my youth and sold me as a slave again.

This time I did not try to escape from my new master, for where would I escape to? My family was killed and Huodolf's rebels destroyed. I had almost resigned myself to the life of a slave six years later when my master was murdered in his sleep. Roman law says that when a slave-owner is murdered, his slaves should be executed, as they are the most obvious suspects. Though I was nothing but a slave, I did not want to die and fought back when they came to imprison us. In the scuffle, I killed a rather high ranking soldier with his own sword. For that they threw me in the arena with the four lions.

I met Ammicus for the first time after facing the lions. They put me into a Gladiator school with Ammicus and many others. A friendship quickly ignited between us, for the Romans enslaved us both in our childhood and we had been slaves for most of our lives. We understood each other's pain.

Ammicus and I became young, up-and-coming gladiators quickly in the Coliseum after we left the school. We toppled old favorites of the Roman populace and had spectacular battles that entertained the blood-thirsty crowds. By the end of our first year in the Coliseum we became the top Gladiators in all of the Roman Empire. At our pinnacle of fame and glory, Ammicus brought something into my mind
then that I had tried to suppress but knew would be true.

"Leo, you know one day they will make us fight each other." Ammicus said softly.

I denied it quickly, "Never!"

"And why not? We are the two best gladiators in the Coliseum now! The Romans are split between who favors Ammicus and who favors Leo-Regula. They will have a grand battle between us and the Coliseum will be filled to bursting! It will happen."

"Ahh," I sighed wistfully. "Yes, you are right. But when it happens we must refuse to fight."

"But they will kill us both if we were to refuse."

"Well it is better to die together than to kill each other."

"No, it isn't!" Ammicus declared with urgency. "One of us must live on to do something about this Roman Empire, to fight against it. When we face each other someday one must die so the other can live to fight again. Swear it to me Leo, that you will fight with all your strength and skill in the arena, and I will swear as well."

"Ammicus, we mustn't -- "

"Swear it!"

I gave another sigh and said slowly, "l swear it."

"I swear it also." Our eyes met then, and there was something deep and sad in his that I did not understand at the time, but did now. He knew he was the one that must die so the other one could live to fight again. He had the same look in his eyes when we met in the arena this day.

My recollection was interrupted by a dim light and shouts, "There he is! Kill the dog!" I turned to see many soldiers behind a centurion with a torch in his hands, more soldiers than I would like to fight off. My legs started off at sprint immediately, and I tried to lose the soldiers in the many tunnels and passageways. With my wound, I could not run at my full speed and the soldiers gained on me. My legs began to feel like iron weights, and my breathing was heavy and laborious. I gave one last effort to make it to the guardhouse, one last effort to escape the Coliseum. But it was in vain. The shouts had reached the ears of other soldiers and now fifteen of them stood in my path.

No, they could not stop me, this accursed Coliseum could not stop me, now that I neared this close to freedom. My old war companion's rage and madness returned to me, and I sprang upon the soldiers, sword and shield swinging wildly through man, air, stone, and iron alike. They were falling before me like lambs before a wolf, and before I knew what I had done, I realized I stood outside of the Coliseum, in the fresh air and warm sun. I raised my hands up to give a shout of victory, but while I did so, I fell flat on my face and felt a great weariness come over me. "Why was this?" I wondered to myself until I saw my wounds. There were punctures from swords and spears all over me. My breath came in gasps. I would not live much longer. I laughed grimly up at the walls of the Coliseum, "So here I am to die. But I still have defeated you, cursed Coliseum. I have escaped you and will die outside your walls. You have not destroyed me!"

But what of Ammicus' mother, this necklace and circle must go to her. I looked around and saw a small, dark-haired boy staring at me, by the look of his clothes a slave. "Boy!" I shouted with the breath I had left. He looked at me with curiosity but much fear. His feet started to step backwards away from me when I shouted again, "Boy! Please, I am dying, you must do an errand for me."

At that he ran towards me. I pulled out the circle and put it into his hands while he leaned over me. "You must take this to Ammicus the Gladiator's mother in Ephesus when you are older. Are you a slave?"

"Yes." He whispered.

"Then you must escape from bondage and take this to her. Then, then you shall raise up all slaves against these Roman taskmasters and destroy them. Promise me, promise Leo-Regula that you will do this, boy."

His eyes were filled with wonder as he realized who who I was. I asked him hoarsely again, "Promise me, boy, promise me to destroy the Romans and all their wickedness, promise me!" There was a moment of indecision in the boy's eyes, but then they were filled with a grim determination and he replied, "I promise."

"Thank you, thank you." I rasped with my last breath and saw the sun turn red as it set. Then darkness began to come over me. Now both of us have died, Ammicus, but this child will live on to fight. Do not worry, Ammicus, the necklace will go to your mother. Our part of the struggle with the Romans is finished, but this boy will carry it on.

My part has been finished, and now I will rest from my struggle, rest for evermore.