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The Spartacus War

Full Title: The Spartacus War
Author: Barry Strauss
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 02 February 2010
ISBN 1416532064
Dewey Decimal: 937
Availability:Ready for order

Price: $10.20

Editorial Reviews

  • Product Description

    The Spartacus War is the extraordinary story of the most famous slave rebellion in the ancient world, the fascinating true story behind a legend that has been the inspiration for novelists, filmmakers, and revolutionaries for 2,000 years. Starting with only seventy-four men, a gladiator named Spartacus incited a rebellion that threatened Rome itself. With his fellow gladiators, Spartacus built an army of 60,000 soldiers and controlled the southern Italian countryside. A charismatic leader, he used religion to win support. An ex-soldier in the Roman army, Spartacus excelled in combat. He defeated nine Roman armies and kept Rome at bay for two years before he was defeated. After his final battle, 6,000 of his followers were captured and crucified along Rome's main southern highway.

    The Spartacus War is the dramatic and factual account of one of history's great rebellions. Spartacus was beaten by a Roman general, Crassus, who had learned how to defeat an insurgency. But the rebels were partly to blame for their failure. Their army was large and often undisciplined; the many ethnic groups within it frequently quarreled over leadership. No single leader, not even Spartacus, could keep them all in line. And when faced with a choice between escaping to freedom and looting, the rebels chose wealth over liberty, risking an eventual confrontation with Rome's most powerful forces.

    The result of years of research, The Spartacus War is based not only on written documents but also on archaeological evidence, historical reconstruction, and the author's extensive travels in the Italian countryside that Spartacus once conquered.

Customer Reviews

  • "I am Spartacus!" "No, I am Spartacus!"

    The title reminds me of the comedian Billy Crystal's routine that contains those lines, lifted from the movie "Spartacus" starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, and a good movie it was! After that diversion, let's discuss the book.

    The author concedes at the outset that there is a paucity of surviving information about Spartacus and his revolt, requiring any author to rely upon conjecture, culled from often contradictory material. He does, in my opinion, a tremendous job in pulling everything together, even though the events he relates may not have occurred in the way, and at the places, he proposed. This is history written with a very large question mark.

    I enjoyed reading the book very much. It's not dry, as can be some works written about events more than two centuries in the past. All I can say is that the author does his best to present a coherent narrative of his speculation, and it's up to the reader to either accept or reject this approach. I came to the book with an open mind on the subject, and after finishing it I feel that I have been informed quite well about Spartacus and his slave followers, and about the reaction of the Roman state to the danger these desperate men appeared to place on the city and the republic. Read it and draw your own conclusions.

  • A biography of the first order

    With so many speculative views and ideologies impressed on the character and vicissitudes of Spartacus, a more scholarly account has been wanting for decades. In light of meagre ancient sources, and to an even lesser extent the archaeological evidence, Barry Strauss has managed to produce an account that is not only comprehensive and detailed (as far as one could go), but also very readable to a modern enthusiast. The book would be ideal reading for fans of the television series "Spartacus:Blood and sand" who desire to discover somthing more factual behind what they have been watching.
    (Jansen-NYC)

  • The Spartacus War

    Enjoying this book. My nephew is the person I bought it for. He is completely into the book.

  • Spartacus made human

    Many reviews state the obvious to this book and any others on Spartacus. There is limited reliable information on Spartacus. However Barry Strauss does bring the real Spartacus to life. While I am a huge fan of the Hollywood movie with Kirk Douglas, it has created a romanticised view of Spartacus. Barry Strauss cuts through the idealized Spartacus and attempts to place him in his time and shows the real man. I learned a great deal on the slave revolt with Spartacus because of this great book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Spartacus.

  • exciting story, well researched

    Barry Strauss is a master storyteller and leading ancient historian. With impeccable research and personal observations of all the significant places in Spartacus's rebellion, he brings this heroic tale to life for a modern audience.

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