1 Marcus: So, these games tomorrow night... I suppose there'll be criminals thrown to the lions too?
2 Julius: No, they've stopped that for now.
3 Julius: The Senate is investigating claims of bribery and corruption.
4 Marcus: Oh?
4 Julius: Yeah. Some chap named Androcles.

Androcles.

I originally wrote this comic using "Christians" rather than "criminals", and Daniel instead of Androcles. It would have worked almost as well that way, but I think the story of Androcles is actually a closer match to what they're saying here. It was in fact my original intent, but I got the stories of Androcles and Daniel muddled in my head. There's also the fact that Daniel would be a serious anachronism, whereas Androcles is supposed to have actually interacted with Romans.

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2018-02-07 Rerun commentary: It seems that where sport occurs, various other things are inevitable.

The original script for the movie Gladiator had images of gladiators in the arena sponsoring products, with signs and billboards indicating what products their fans should buy. This was based on historical fact, as this actually happened. However, the film producers decided not to show this, as they feared modern audiences would think it was unrealistic.