BOOKS: The Spartacus Wars

Taking advantage of my streaming Netflix membership, I recently watched the Starz mini-series Spartacus Blood and Sand. Well__ the bodies are certainly buff, but historical accuracy is certainly lean. Actually Roman gladiators were probably more akin to Sumo wrestlers. The men wear loincloths and the women wear curtains__sometimes. The show should have been called: Spartacus: Gratuitous Rex. When I saw the title of the series it sparked my interest because I had recently read, Barry Strauss’ book, The Spartacus War. Anyone who has read the book will know that not much is really known about Mr. Sparatcus. Strauss even apologizes for the lack of reliable primary sources about his subject matter and does his best to piece things together. What we do know for sure was that Spartacus was a Balkin slave turned gladiator who led a slave rebellion in 73BC armed with kitchen utensils. Yes__ that’s how it started with pots and pans. The Romans didn’t give weapons to their slaves you see. Apparently big things can be a brewin’ in the kitchen because Spartacus and his 700 warriors and 60,000 followers beat the stuffing out of several Roman Legions until he meet his match in the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus who killed him dead. Spartacus’ body was never found, unlike the Kirk Douglas movie where he is crucified. The ironic thing about this story is that Crassus’ rival Pompey stole his victory by sending a letter to the Roman Senate saying that Cassius had merely defeated a bunch of slaves and he Pompey had actually put down the rebellion, know historically as the Third Servile War. Here in attests to the fact that what went on in the Roman Senate was often much more interesting then what went on in the batttle field. But getting back to Strauss’ book, he does do a nice job at portraying the political and social milieu of Italy during the late Republic and the permanent mark that the Spartacus left on the Roman psyche. Read the book first then watch the series for dessert.