Episode four of war of the damned entitled decimation is probably the most violent if not the most violent of the series so far. For this season it is also a very tense episode the whole time in watching everything feels tense, there is tension everywhere just before the violence happens and its all released. There is quite the scene (the decimation) which contrasts both the rebel camp and the Roman camp at the same time as they both massacre people.
In this episode Crixus and Naevia continue their madness and are easily manipulated by the inserted Gaius Julius Caesar under the name Liciscus into the rebel camp. There is a battle between Gannicus and Crixus (shown below) over the death of Attius the friend of Gannicus by the hand of Naevia.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APBr3RHpgR0[/youtube]
While the previous events are interesting to watch they are not the highlight of the episode though. The violence of Crassus’ decimation in which in real life he was famous for bringing back to Rome. It’s basically a punishment for the soldiers to stop them deserting among other things in which the soldiers draw straws or stones like in this episode. The loser is killed by the surviving soldiers, nobody is safe! It’s quite scary to know it actually used to happen but like with many things in ancient times, they were violent times. The episode shows the full decimation by the way and Tiberius is not spared and pays quite the price for his foolish decision to attack Spartacus in the episode previous. Crassus is angry though, lesson taught I guess, don’t mess with Marcus Crassus!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q59NxPmnU9U[/youtube]
Apart from all this Caesar places himself firmly in rebel camp quite quickly. As he travels around we are shown the prisoner’s of war and even though they are kept alive it’s not like they have the good life, in fact probably better off dead as one woman Caesar encounters show’s us (because of all the abuse she had suffered). There is a different side to Caesar the character shown here in that I don’t know if he is feeling bad for the mistreated Romans or if he sees them merely as opportunity but the scene with him and the Roman woman was also a memorable and quiet if not intense scenes of the show this season.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJL8AV49Xx8[/youtube]
Overall this episode proved to be one of the best of the season so far. Certainly it was the most violent but maybe more violence is to come. I would say however that in all the episodes so far this showed the violence of wars in ancient times the best especially when prisoner’s of war and soldiers are concerned. It was an interesting episode but certainly a different type of violence compared to say that of Gladiator battles the show started with. But then again living in Rome could be most violent…
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