The n*ked guys of "Spartacus: House of Ashur"

 

Link to the n*de photos

Spartacus (103-71 BCE) was a Thracian slave who escaped from a gladiator school with 70 of his followers and started the Third Servile War: 120,000 enslaved persons rebelling against the oppressive Roman Republic. 

In 1951, Howard Fast self-published Spartacus, a novel about the slave revolt, as a protest against his incarceration during the McCarthy Era witch hunts.  

The 1960 movie version starred Kirk Douglas as Spartacus.  It famously includes a scene, cut from the theatrical release but restored in 1991, where the power-hungry  senator Crassus and his slave Antonius (Sir Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis) discuss being gay, in severely closeted terms, as the eating of oysters vs. the eating of snails: "It is all a matter of taste, is it not?" 

The 2004 movie (aired during two nights on the USA network) starred Goran Višnjić as Spartacus, and upped the participation of his wife, transforming the story into a heterosexual romance.

A Spartacus tv series, with seasons given different names (Blood and Sand, Gods of the Arena, and War of the Damned), aired on Starz between 2010 and 2013.  It starred Andy Whitfield (left), and after his death Liam McIntyre.  A lot of n*de guys, such as James Wells as Totus and Manu Bennett as Crixus (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

Plus there were several gay characters, including Spartacus' best friend Agron.

Assyrian slave Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) becomes one of the series' primary antagonists when he collaborates with the Romans in their attempt to bring down the slave rebellion.  Eventually beheaded.  Shouldn't that be Asher, one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel?

He has returned in Spartacus: House of Asher (2025), a sort of sequel which posits that he killed Spartacus, returned to life, and now runs a gladiator school.

From a civil war to a school?  Trying to minimize political references that could get you in trouble in the fascist state?

I'm out of space, so let's just look at the n*de guys (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

Lucas Blas: Spanish teen idol with at least three gay/trans roles and a lot of boyfriends. Bonus n*de Spanish dudes

Link to the n*de photos.

Spanish actor Luca de Blas or Lucas Blas appeared on the teen idol website with the usual teenage beefcake and bicep photos.

Quite a lot of beefcake and bicep photos.

But when I started looking at his works, I found something else.

I found a boy wearing a crown of flowers.

Everyone else in the village wears sacks over their heads, but Lucas is not afraid to show his true face to the world.  Even when he is in prison, he weaves himself a crown of flowers.

The villagers grab him and take him to a church to be sacrificed.  He begins to bleed.  The singer, gay musician Dulzano, jumps in, but it is too late; Luca dies in his arms.

It is the music video Jota de la Luna (2025), with lyrics that recall gay poet Garcia Lorca, giving us a poignant view of homophobia and the need to be who you are. 

We must bring flower to flower/ when summer dries the blood of the Reaper

And open our hearts to sleepless birds
When winter knocks trembling at the door
When night falls I will say it
When the clear night arrives

I found an episode of Bosé, a biography of the famous gay (or "trisexual") singer Miguel Bosé (n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).  Lucas plays  the young gay singer Carlos Berlanga, whose "¿A quién le importa?", released in 1986, became a gay anthem during the AIDS pandemic.

Who cares what I do?

Who cares what I say?

I am this way, and this way I'll stay

Nothing can change me.

I found Lucas wearing makeup, approaching his mother, arguing with her, trying to hug her. Later he grows his hair long and puts on a dress, suggesting trans identity, or maybe a femme gay boy.  It was Ali (2021), a short film that won four prizes and seven nominations: "A desperate cry of child abandoned by his mother, who cannot give him love": 

More after the break