Some of the tension in Nasir's muscles eased. Maximus had bled for Rome but he had lost all to it, just as Nasir had lost most of his life to it. They had more in common than he originally thought.

The hostility in his voice dropped although sympathy was withheld. "I swore I would never be enslaved again but they have stripped choice from me. The gods do not look favorably upon us that we have lost freedom twice. How did you come to lose it the first time?"

Desertion, Nasir suspected. It had been as such for some of the slaves that joined Spartacus's cause.