FAQ

Who was Spartacus?

I go into this in a little more detail in this blog post, but the short and quick answer, produced by extensive, is that we actually have no concrete idea. All we really know is that a gladiator named Spartacus, along with around seventy of his fellows, freed themselves from their ludus in Capua and started the Third Servile War, an insurrection that swept the length of Italy. It is thought that he originated in Thrace, and indeed, for the purposes of the novels, I have opted to follow that interpretation, but this theory is based partly on the fighting style he adopted as a gladiator – that of the Thracian – and on many occasions, gladiators were encouraged not to use the style that depicted their homeland.

The source material on the Third Servile War is depressingly limited, the more so because the Romans in fact wrote about this war in great detail, but none of those sources surviving to the present day. We are therefore restricted to works that in many cases only deal incidentally with the war, as well as the archaeological record, which leads to an awful lot of guesswork and assumptions. Much of the army Spartacus led was in fact composed of Gauls, though we can assume that many other peoples of the Roman Republic and the lands beyond its borders were represented. As for the personality of Spartacus, we are forced to make assumptions and guesses – far more so than with other figures of the period, about whom we have far more reliable source material to work with.

How reliable is the source material we have?

Probably not very, depressingly. An examination of the state of the Roman Republic in this period shows much that they would rather not have remembered. The concept of the impartial historian was at best in its infancy, most histories written to prove some sort of moral or philosophical point rather than out of a desire to relay a historical narrative – those that are not out and out propaganda, designed to enhance the standing of whomever sponsored the production of the work in question. One obvious element that is missing is the attitude of the non-Roman Italian population; the Third Servile War takes place less than two decades after the Social War, when most of Italy rose against Roman rule. It beggars believe that recalcitrant groups such as the Samnites did not involve themselves in some manner – even simply as liberated slaves.

This is important, largely because to understand the motivations and goals of Spartacus and his followers, it is vital to understand the strategic situation within which he operated. Whatever he hoped to accomplish, and I believe that those goals altered considerably over the course of the war, he would have been dependent on support, allies, the possibility even of reinforcement from some means. Further, the motivation of those who followed him is equally important, whether they were simply fighting for their freedom, for plunder, or for revenge. Motivation is the most important aspect of any narrative, and this is one area in which we are forced to make educated guesses.

Why did you decide to write about Spartacus?

I’ve been fascinated by Ancient Rome for as long as I can remember, but I think my adult interest in the topic began through listening to the excellent ‘History of Rome’ podcast over a lot of very long, very late nights at work some years ago. That got me interested again, and started me reading around the subject, as well as reading a thundering lot of Roman-era fiction, much of which I intend to review here on this blog over the coming weeks and months. You’ll be completely unsurprised to hear that I was/am also a fan of the ‘Spartacus’ series released a few years ago, an exciting action/adventure saga that I can strongly recommend.

Spartacus as a historical character has always intrigued me, and for Rome in general, it is an extremely interesting time, one that has actually not been very well covered in fiction. There are many excellent novels about the time of Caesar, or the Julio-Claudian period, and latterly there has been a trend towards the Third Century AD, with several series about that period, but poor Spartacus has been far less served, and never in the truly epic context that I feel the saga deserves; that’s the reason I decided to take it on myself, ultimately. I wanted to delve deeper into the motivations, the intrigues, the depths of the story, and from a narrative point of view, in one sense, the lack of source material is almost an advantage! With Caesar, say, there is a veritable mountain of material to master, but for Spartacus, it is all encompassed in a fairly small book…

If I want to read about this era myself, where should I start?

There must be thousands, tens of thousands of books on the history of Rome, but for this specific period, I would recommend Tom Holland’s ‘Rubicon’ as an excellent history of the Late Republic, with Barry Strauss’ ‘Spartacus War’ as a look at the specific period in question. If you want to look at the source material for yourself, then the book to pick up is ‘Spartacus and the Slave Wars’, translated by Brent D. Shaw. Between them, these three will certainly get you started – and for a more general overview, perhaps I should recommend the ‘History of Rome’ podcast once more, still available online.