Spartacus (109?--71 bce), the slave who rebelled
against Rome, has been a source of endless fascination,
the subject of myth-making in his own time, and of
movie-making in ours. Hard facts about the man have
always yielded to romanticized tales and mystifications.
In this riveting, compact account, Aldo Schiavone
rescues Spartacus from the murky regions of legend and
brings him squarely into the arena of serious history.
Schiavone transports us to Italy of the first century
bce, where the pervasive institution of slavery
dominates all aspects of Roman life. In this historic
landscape, carefully reconstructed by the author, we
encounter Spartacus, who is enslaved after deserting
from the Roman army to avoid fighting against his native
Thrace. Imprisoned in Capua and trained as a gladiator,
he leads an uprising that will shake the empire to its
foundations. While the grandeur of the Spartacus story
has always been apparent, its political significance has
been less clear. What were his ambitions? Often depicted
as the leader of a class rebellion that was fierce in
intent but ragtag in makeup and organization, Spartacus
emerges here in a very different light: the commander of
an army whose aim was to incite Italy to revolt against
Rome and to strike at the very heart of the imperial
system. Surprising, persuasive, and highly original,
Spartacus challenges the lore and illuminates the
reality of a figure whose achievements, and whose
ultimate defeat, are more extraordinary and moving than
the fictions we make from them.
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