“So?” Fred the Red said. “That is not my concern. Guards, take Hilarius away!”
Luke begged for just one minute alone with his friend, and Fred the Red granted it.
“Listen to me,” Luke whispered to David. “I know a trick. It worked for me. It will work for you too.”
“Yeah? What?”
“Get the guy close to you, close enough to look in his eyes,” Luke said. “Then, act really terrified, point over his head, and shout, ‘Look out behind you!’ When he turns around to see what’s behind him, smack him as hard as you can on the side of his head with your sword. He won’t know what hit him.”
“That actually worked?” David asked, disbelieving. “That’s the oldest trick in the book.”
“It’s the year 79,” Luke replied. “They don’t have books.”
“Okay, I’ll try it,” David said as the guards grabbed him by the arms again.
“Here is your weapon, Hilarius,” said Fred the Red as he handed David a long spear with three short prongs at the end. It looked like an oversized fork. In later centuries, it would be called a trident.
David looked at it with disbelief.
“Are you joking?” he asked. “What am I supposed to do with this thing? Catch a fish?”
“It is a very dangerous weapon,” Fred the Red assured him. “It is the weapon of Neptune, the god of the sea.”
“It looks like a toy,” David complained. “How come Luke got a regular sword and I have to use this thing?”
“It is not your only weapon,” Fred the Red said as one of the guards handed him a cloth bag. “You will have something else as well.”
He reached into the bag and pulled out a large net made from thick rope.
“Really?” David asked. “You’re giving me a net? Am I going to be playing volleyball out there? You’re putting me on, right?”
But it was no joke. Just as some gladiators fought with two long swords and some fought with one curved short sword, others were given a trident and a net. As I mentioned earlier, the Romans liked to mix things up to keep the crowd interested.
David wasn’t happy, obviously.
“That’s it?” he asked. “All I get is a weird-looking fork and a net? I need a hand grenade, or a bazooka, or something. Don’t I at least get a shield?”
“You are a net-man!” Fred the Red told him, as if that explained it all.
“This is it,” David mumbled, shaking his head. “I’m gonna die.”
But he had no choice. David put on his helmet and picked up the trident and net. Fred the Red led him to the same gate where Luke had entered the arena. David waited for the gate to be pulled up and his name to be announced. He was trembling with fear. Luke broke away from the guard who was holding him and ran over to his friend.
“You can do this, David!” Luke said. “I survived. So can you.”
“I’m scared, man.”
“Look, the other guy is gonna have the same weapons you do,” Luke told him. “So it will be a fair fight. Remember what I told you. Use the look-behind-you trick. It’ll work. Good luck.”
“What if I don’t make it?” David asked. “What if the guy is twice my size?”
“Keep telling yourself that he’s just a man,” Luke said, his hand on David’s shoulder. “He gets up in the morning and puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like you do.”
“Just a man,” repeated David, closing his eyes. “Just a man.”
“Good. Now go get him!”
“Our next gladiator,” announced the guy with the megaphone, “another slave battling for the first time in Pompeii, is the one, the only . . . Hilarius!”
The gate was raised slowly. David stepped out into the light and the gate lowered behind him. The crowd erupted into cheers. The people of Pompeii had rarely seen a gladiator with dark skin. The novelty was fascinating to them.
“Hilarius! Hilarius! Hilarius!”
“My name is David!” shouted David.
He stood there and looked all around the arena, just as Luke had when he was introduced. Then he peered at the gate on the other side to see who would emerge from that end.
“And now . . . his opponent,” announced the guy with the megaphone, “all the way from Naples . . . is the brave, the strong . . . They call him . . . Panthera!”
The gate was slowly lifted up. And out of the gate walked . . .
A tiger.
“Oh, shoot!” David shouted.
CHAPTER 16WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
YES, IT WAS A TIGER. PANTHERA TIGRIS, IF YOU want to get technical about it.
Just like human life during the Roman Empire, animal lives were cheap. Teams of hunters were sent all over Europe, Asia, and Africa with instructions to bring back deer, bears, lions, tigers, and leopards, as well as more unusual animals to excite the crowd—elephants, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches, and crocodiles. Sometimes the animals would be sacrificed in hopes of pleasing the gods. And sometimes they became part of the gladiator shows, either fighting against other animals or against people. Gladiators who fought animals were called venatores.
“Hilarius! Hilarius! Hilarius!” chanted the crowd.
David just stood there in front of the iron gate for a moment, stunned. He had assumed his opponent would be some kind of a beast, but he wasn’t expecting a real beast. The crowd roared in approval when the tiger entered the arena.
“He’s just a man, eh?” David asked angrily without turning around to face Luke, who was a few feet behind him on the other side of the gate.
“I’m sorry, dude,” Luke said.
“He puts his pants on one leg at a time, eh?” David asked.
“Really sorry.”
“He’ll have the same weapons as I do, eh?” David asked.
“Seriously, man. I’m so sorry.”
“I guess he won’t be falling for the old look-behind-you trick, will he?” David asked.
The tiger slinked around, sniffing the ground. It didn’t seem to notice there was a gladiator on the other side of the arena.
“How come you got to fight a plain old guy,” he shouted behind him at Luke, “and
