“[addressing his new slave recruits] I am Proximo. I shall be closer to you for the next few days, which will be the last of your miserable lives, than the bitch of a mother that brought you screaming into this world. I did not pay good money for you for your company, I paid it so that I could profit from your death and as your mother was there at your beginning, so I shall be there at your end. And when you die, and die you shall, your transition shall be to the sound of…[claps his hands]...Gladiators, I salute you....[Proximo gives the gladiators a talk of encouragement before they go out for their first fight] Some of you are thinking you won’t fight, some that you can’t. They all say that until they are out there. Listen. [the crowd can be heard stamping their feet, cheering. Proximo draws a sword and starts demonstrating] Thrust this into another man’s flesh and they will applaud and love you for that. You may begin to love them for that. [he slams the blade into the table] Ultimately, we’re all dead men, sadly we cannot choose how, but we can decide how we meet that end in order that we are remembered as men.”