Cossutius

Cossutius
First appearance	S0E03: Paterfamilias S2E04: Empty Hands
Last appearance	S2E05: Libertus
Profession	Roman Noble
Race	Roman
Relationships	Varus (Friend) Publius Varinius (Friend, deceased) Diona (Victim, deceased)
Status	Deceased (Killed by Spartacus)
Actor/Actress	Jason Hood

Cossutius is a Roman of high social standing, and a friend of Quintilius Varus.

Appearance

Cossutius appears as a typical Roman, wearing cloth robes and sporting a low-cut dark hairstyle, and has prominent cheek bones typically coupled with a smile. He also appears to wear mascara.

Personality

Morally bankrupt, Cossutius is a very promiscuous Roman, as is shown by his treatment of Diona and other slaves, and he enjoys the delights of sexual pleasure and sensational partying. His indiscriminate behavior also applies to his own slaves, none of them virgins to his accord. Cossutius is sadistic and unrepentant, laughing in amusement as Diona is later publicly executed, and later when he takes part in the torturous death of Acer.

Cossutius is a Roman of the upper social strata, as not only does he reside with the upper class of Rome, but also has the power to hold his own games in the arena.

Gods of the Arena

Cossutius and Varus talking to Lucretia & Gaia.

Cossutius is first seen when Varus brings him to the House of Batiatus to enjoy Lucretia's offering of her slaves for sexual displays. Varus suggests they use Melitta as an example for the sexual pleasures of th

Cossutius selecting his wares.

e guests, however Lucretia saves her from further infidelity and embarrassment by offering instead her two virgin personal maids, Naevia and Diona. Diona is chosen instead, because Cossutius believes he can inflict more pain on her and make a more prominent point. 

Cossutius with Diona.

To bed her, he chooses a dirty, smelly, and bloody gladiator, Rhaskos. Cossutius makes a point that beauty and grotesque things coexist together. Cossutius proceeds to rape her anally, leaving her spirit completely broken. It is through hearing about such pleasures from Varus and Cossutius that further Romans become interested in the House of Batiatus, leading to the rise of Batiatus' social standing, and later an orgy 

Cossutius laughing at Diona's death.

party taking place within his ludus. Cossutius is a spectator in the pulvinus at the Games of the New Arena, where he laughed mockingly at the brutal execution of the escaped slave, Diona, whom he recognized even from a distance. He later enjoys the rest of the games, and revels in the bloodshed of the gladiators. Following Gannicus' victory, he remarks to Batiatus how he may procure Gannicus for his own upcoming games.

Vengeance

Cossutius appears at a gathering of nobles at Batiatus' former ludus, where he takes great delight in helping to torture captured rebel gladiator Acer to death (personally tearing off his breast), before enjoying the orgy that follows.  

Cossutius is killed by Spartacus.

Later, when Oenomaus, Crixus and Rhaskos are sentenced to execution ad gladium in the Capua Arena, Cossutius attends the spectacle with Glaber, Varinius and the other Roman nobles in the pulvinus. He personally insults Glaber's lineage when bringing up one of Glaber's distant relatives who had failed to defend Capua, during Rome's war with Hannibal. Glaber is visibily angered and unable to respond, to which an amused Ilithyia confirms Cossutius' suspicion. Cossutius then smirks at the Praetor before turning to watch the games again.

When Mira and the other former gladiators set fire to the arena, chaos ensues. Cossutius is killed by Spartacus - impaled by a hurled spear meant for Glaber (who dodges)- in the confusion.

Trivia

• Cossutius, Titus and Gannicus are the only three characters from the prequel who return for season two, but did not appear in season one (Titus appears via flashback, as he died in Gods of the Arena).
• As mentioned on the Blu-ray commentary for Vengeance, Cossutius was originally supposed to die by the spear going through his mouth (symbolically portraying a fellatio-like death), instead of his shoulder/chest. The special effects for this proved too costly, however, so this was changed to a body hit instead.
• Glaber appears to hold disdain, disgust, or at least severe dislike for Cossutius to judge by his slow, growly, "Good Cossutius." when they meet in Batiatus's former ludus during a celebration for the Capua elite. Glaber's dislike of Cossutius would have hardened when he was asked directly by Cossutius if it was his ancestor whom lost the first battle to Hannibal during the Second Punic War (which Ilithyia casually affirmed).
• Cossutius, as a local magnate in Capua, would have been one of the Curiales or Decuriones, composed of landowners and merchants, who governed as local councillors in the various cities and towns in the Roman Republic.
• Cossutius belongs to the Gens Cossutia, a Plebeian family from Umbrian town of Caesena (modern Casena), but mostly part of the mercantile Equestrian class of the Roman Republic. In his youth, Gaius Julius Caesar was briefly married to a girl named Cossutia. Another member of the Gens Cossutia, named Marcus, reportedly lived in the Province of Sicilia during the administration of Gaius Verres, at the time of the Third Servile War.

Quotes

"I would however, gauge the freshness of your offerings."

"I shall have this one... she's considerably tighter."

"This world is filled with the grotesque and the divine."