It was simple mathematics, he told himself, there was more coin going out than coin coming in. The cost of maintaining Ludus Laeca was greater than what the reward of his house’s participation in the games. A shame that, he thought to himself as he poured a measure of wine into his goblet and walked to the window of his small office. I have but two gladiators who have it in them to one day be champions, he thought. Bricius and Agathias, though neither have been granted a primus or even a secundus match in the games. Heraus the Boar was a brutal killer, undefeated yet too fearsome a man to ever win the love of the crowd. Atticus looked out through the open window into the training yard of his modest ludus. On the sun-baked sand nearly two dozen men trained in the fighting arts, sweat pouring off of their well-muscled bodies as they struggled to keep pace with each other. The sound of wooden practice swords connecting with shield and flesh was a constant staccato.
