Gaia was a Roman citizen with very little repute. She was good friends with Lucretia, wife of the lanista, Batiatus. Gaia sought to earn herself a wealthy husband, and so she moved into Lucretia's household and helped Batiatus promote his gladiator business to some of the more prominant citizens of Capua. Gaia was able to charm many rich men into supporting the House of Batiatus, but she would never be able to earn a husband. When Lucretia was hosting an orgy, Gaia tried to seduce Batiatus' rival, Tullius, who beat her to death with her own wig stand.Batiatus' father was appalled by the act, but he did not want his reputation to be ruined by spreading knowledge of a crime being committed in his house, so he ordered his guards to dispatch Gaia's body from the cliff, claiming that she got drunk and stumbled in the night. He then demanded that the slaves remove all of Gaia's belongings and scatter salt to remove any traces of her death from the villa. Lucretia was heart-broken that her friend should be forgotten in such a way, but her personal slave Melitta said that she and the other slave girls would lie about performing the salt ritual, keeping it a secret from the men.Lucretia then devised a plan to avenge Gaia's death by poisoning his wine and blaming it on Tullius. Batiatus and some of his gladiators killed Tullius, and Lucretia took comfort in knowing that Gaia's death had been avenged. The truth of her tainting the wine was never discovered. Show less «