- The scene shifts to the inside of a covered colonnade. It looks like it's an outdoor café.
- An older man, covered in robes, is sipping from a small cup.
- His name is Proximo, as we learn when a gentleman approaches him.
- The man starts to butter him up, but Proximo is having none of it. He grabs the guy's hand really hard, and complains that the giraffes he sold him won't mate.
- He wants his money back, but the guy won't give it to him. Proximo squeezes his hand harder.
- The guy relents a little, and says he'll give him a special price on something else: his "new stock."
- Proximo goes with the man, and asks if any of these men fight (he has a "match coming up").
- Some are good for fighting, some for dying, he tells him.
- He finds Maximus, notices a tattoo on his arm, just below that nasty wound, and points out that that tattoo is the mark of the legion. Proximo knows this is a bona fide Roman soldier.
- Proximo makes him an offer (6 for 1,000), but the man doesn't like it. Proximo starts to leave, but then they reach an agreement.
- Soon the caravan is under way, back to Proximo's place.