The alternate history drama series on Starz, Spartacus: House of Ashur, shows more intent in this week’s episode 3, as we have moved past the initial establishing episodes and more interesting events now take place in Rome. The latest fighter that Dominus Ashur had brought to his ludus, Achillia, still struggles to show any promising skills at being a successful gladiator, and her position also continues to be challenged by some of the other gladiators, who still protest against a woman being present amidst them. Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 3 features Doctore Korris venturing out on a mission across the city, which lands him in some serious trouble, as the web of politics is neatly spun.
Spoiler Alert
Did Ashur learn anything about Achillia’s past?
Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 3 begins with Ashur finding out about the public oath that his doctor, Korris, had taken in front of all the gladiators to personally hurt and injure anyone who would try to attack Achillia. Although Ashur is the one to have selected Achillia to be his gladiator and had wanted to keep her safe from the other men at his ludus, he is not too happy about Korris having taken charge and essentially threatening the warriors representing his family. Soon after, Ashur goes to check on the progress of his warriors and is evidently disheartened by Achillia’s inability to fight properly still, as she keeps getting defeated by her opponents in the training exercises. She is unable to put to use the exceptional combative skills that she had earlier shown at the market against the soldiers. There is something distracting her from the gladiator arena, it seems, and Ashur soon realizes that this is indeed why she is unable to fight properly.
While discussing the matter with Hilara, who is technically his concubine, Ashur learns that Achillia has some menacing scratch marks on her hand, which surely indicates something treacherous that must have happened in her past. What strikes Ashur initially about this information is the manner in which Hilara had gotten to know of it, after he directly asked her the same. Hilara states that she had had the chance to look at Achillia from a close distance and had not only noticed the scratch marks on her hand but also a certain gloomy look in her eyes, which made it all the more certain that something from the past keeps bothering her. Hearing this, Ashur thinks that Hilara must have brought Achillia into the house in his absence, which is quite alarming to him. But he is even more stunned and even angered to learn that she had visited the prison cells and had approached Achillia during this time, without any guards giving her protection, as he seemingly fears that something dangerous could have happened to her.
Once his misunderstandings with Hilara are somewhat ironed out, Ashur closely watches the training once again and realizes that Achillia is indeed not using one of her hands to its full extent, either nursing some injuries or mentally not being able to use it properly for some reason. Therefore, he decides to solve this mystery and sort out this issue, as he is genuinely in a hurry to get Achillia trained to become his gladiator, who he wants to defeat the Ferox Brothers to avenge the humiliation his family had earlier faced. Taking matters into his own hand, Ashur enters the training arena himself, adorning the garb of a training gladiator, and decides to fight against Achillia himself in an effort to make her experience the tough performance that is expected of her. Ashur’s plan seems to put extreme pressure on Achillia, hoping that she would either channel her anger and frustration into lashing out against him in the arena, which will help her gain confidence, or that she would at least break down and open up about the events from her past that are keeping her from being able to fight properly.
Ashur spends almost the entire day sparring with Achillia over multiple sessions in front of the whole ludus, which is currently being trained by Celadus, as the original Doctore, Korris, is away on a different mission. But the result is the same after all the sessions and rounds—Achillia is defeated every time and is even brutally injured by Ashur, who does not treat her any different from the other gladiators in his ludus. Achillia does break down eventually; when asked why she has been failing repeatedly, she helplessly admits that she is just not good enough and does not possess the skills required to be a gladiator. Although it seems like she would talk about her past at this moment, the Nubian woman seems to gather herself and stop herself from revealing anything, perhaps because the whole scene takes place in front of all the other male warriors at the ludus. Based on some short glimpses of the past that are shown to us later on, it seems like Achillia had been forced upon by some men in her village, and she understandably does not want to recount the story in front of the male warriors, some of whom had tried to attack her similarly.
However, Ashur does not pay any heed to Achillia’s words of defeat, nor to his inability ultimately to find out about what had happened to her in the past. Instead, he chooses to lend a hand of support towards her, first by reminding her that nobody’s past grievances or crimes mattered inside the gladiator arena, where a warrior must simply fight with all their might till the very end. Then, when some of the men raise doubts about whether Achillia should even be considered a gladiator since she has not proven herself through any trials, Ashur shuts them down by stating that being the Dominus of the house, only he needs to be impressed by her skills, and that he has already found her to be very worthy. To put all doubts to rest, Ashur brands Achillia with the seal of his house at the end of the episode, officially marking her as a gladiator representing the house and its ludus.
Is there trouble brewing inside Ashur’s own house?
Despite the seeming unity inside the house of Ashur, there might be some trouble brewing, with a slight inkling of it given in this episode. Firstly, some of the warriors had already expressed their dislike towards their master, Ashur, in the previous episodes, and some more continue to be the same way this time around. Technically they do not pose any danger because of the fact that the warriors are slaves who are kept by the houses owning the ludus only for the purpose of making them fight. But more concerningly, there seems to be a complication growing between the two concubines of Ashur, Hilara and Messia. A sense of jealousy refuses to go away, as in the previous episode, Hilara had grown resentful of Achillia’s presence, fearing that her master would now make the Nubian woman perform sexual favors for him, but had eventually realized that this was definitely not on the cards.
This time around, it is Messia who grows jealous in an indirect manner, after she expresses a desire to have a secret affair with Hilara, whom she really fancies. But Hilara turns down her advances, saying that she sees Messia only as a good friend and nothing more. Soon afterwards, when Ashur comes to his chamber after a long day of fighting and gets intimate with Hilara right away, Messia joins in, seemingly only so that she can fulfill her desires of making love to her beloved Hilara. However, Hilara, who is of a superior position among the concubines, does not like the act and takes charge over the situation, telling Messia to go away and prepare wine for the lovers and wait for them to be done. Messia is obviously not pleased by the order at all but has no option but to follow it. She might turn into a scornful lover in the future episodes and decide to harm Hilara for having rejected her romance and also for humiliating her, or she might turn against Ashur for having technically deprived her of the love of Hilara. In the second case, Messia might go on to become a significant character sought by the rival families.
Where does Korris go on his day out?
After Korris sets out from the house of Ashur, he passes through the market, where he comes across the noblewomen of the city, including Horatia, the wife of the aedile; friend Modesta; and Cossutia, the wife of the senator, Gabinius. They indirectly mock him for the loss that the gladiator representing Ashur had suffered only a few days back before reminding Korris how he is technically just a slave to Ashur. Korris is sharp in his replies, as he states that he is no slave, as he earns money for his services as the doctor, but leaves the place before things get too heated. He visits the fighting pits, where unofficial and illegal fights take place, with people betting on these fights. Here, he comes across an old acquaintance named Fides, who happens to be a mercenary-for-hire, it seems. Korris is not very happy with this meeting, especially since Fides soon threatens to reveal the secrets from his past to his Dominus, Ashur.
Breaking his nose in a swift blow, Korris moves away from Fides and focuses on more pressing matters, and he soon happens to come across Opiter, the leader of another influential family in the city with their own ludus. It is Opiter who reaches out to Korris, and this is when the Doctor’s mission is revealed—he is traveling to the house of Anubis to get hold of grains for the household that he serves. Opiter stops him after hearing of his plan and states that he must have gotten some wrong information, since Anubis does not have any spare grains to give out. Instead, Opiter states, his house has quite a lot extra, and he would be happy to help Korris out if he accompanies him. Korris does not mind this change of plan, and he agrees to spend the rest of the day with his new company.
Back at the house of Opiter, the man puts on a show for Korris, in which two gladiators fight each other while being naked, before they start making love after a quick switch of orders. Opiter reveals that this entertaining act that he puts up at his house is quite popular among many, especially the noblewomen of the city who often come to watch and even indulge in the act. Korris is surprised at this information and even more shocked to learn that Horatia and Cossutia participate in the act to pleasure themselves, clearly without their husbands having any clue about it. Finally, Opiter proposes a deal to the Korris—that he leaves the house of Ashur and instead becomes the Doctore at his ludus. It seems like Opiter has some other plans behind trying to bring Korris to his house, as he might eventually want to take advantage of the fact that the noblewomen are physically attracted to Korris and might love to spend more time with him at his house. Korris even indulges in the plan, which makes him look quite suspicious, as he had originally set out on a mission for Ashur, whom he now seems keen on betraying.
What was Korris’ real mission?
However, it is only after Korris returns to the house of Ashur late at night that details about his real mission are revealed. The Doctor had been sent out by Ashur to pretend to be visiting the pits on the way towards the house of Anubis to get hold of grains. In reality, Korris had visited the pits only because he knew that Opiter frequents the place, and his plan never entailed going to Anubis but simply to make Opiter believe so. Since Opiter has close ties with Cossutia, who, in turn, holds strong influence over the aedile, he had been specifically targeted by Ashur. Perhaps Ashur knew that Opiter had a professional, and seemingly even a sexual, fancy towards Korris, and so he sent out his doctor to be ‘poached’ by the nobleman.
Korris had entertained the idea of him possibly joining the house of Opiter only to ensure that the latter would convince Cossutia to let the house of Ashur send gladiators to the arena once again so that they can cleanse their public image following their previous defeat. Thus, before leaving the place, Korris had indeed told Opiter that the only way he might go on to serve his ludus as a Doctore is if Opiter convinced Cossutia to let the house of Ashur enter the arena once more so that his arc as a Doctore who had redeemed himself after a previous defeat can be completed. It is now certain that Opiter will try his best to ensure that this happens, which is obviously going to help Ashur out.
Who ordered the hit on Korris?
However, after leaving the house of Opiter, Korris had been cornered by a group of masked goons while he passed through the dark alleys of the city. Although it initially seemed like a sudden attack by thieves who only wanted to take his money away, it soon became clear that this was a proper hit ordered on his life. The mercenary he had met earlier, Fides, turns out to be the leader of the group, and Korris somehow manages to escape the place, with only a few stab wounds on his body. Since Fides is known to often work with the house of Proculus, both Korris and Ashur believe that it must have been Proculus who had carried out this heinous act. They even vow to take revenge against Proculus by attacking his family, either directly or otherwise, which will only create more chaos. This is because Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 3 reveals at the very end that it was not Proculus who had ordered the hit on Korris, but Cossutia, the scheming wife of Gabinius.
Throughout the episode, Cossutia had been extremely perplexed by the fact that her husband had been seeking to grow political ties with Ashur, essentially to take advantage of his closeness to Crassus. Cossutia deeply resents Ashur, and she is even more outraged when Gabinius tells her to let their only daughter, Viridia, make proper acquaintance with Ashur, as the young woman has been quite a fan of the protagonist after his valiant victory over Spartacus. She is also then seen taking a letter addressed to her husband, reading it, and tossing it into the fire, ensuring that Gabinius never learns of whatever had been said in the letter. Now, it is revealed to be she who tries to have Korris killed, seemingly to weaken the house of Ashur in this manner. Also, the fact that she appoints Fides to do the act might also be important, as suspicion would naturally fall on Proculus, whom the mercenary is known to work with. It is perhaps all her plan that Ashur will now attack Proculus vengefully, with the latter being revealed to be completely innocent, and so Ashur would finally be seen as a war-mongering man by Gabinius.
