Spartacus: The True History of Rome's Greatest Hero and the Third Servile War

By Patrick Kelly

In the modern Louvre of Paris, you can find, amidst a collection of other French sculptures, a 2.12 meter-tall marble statue of Spartacus, naked, broken chains hanging from his wrists, his eyes showing both a pensive serenity and a cold aggression. The piece was sculpted by Denis Foyatier in 1830, as an addition to l’allee des grands homes (the Avenue of Great Men) in the Jardin des Tuileries. It was moved to the Louvre in 1877.

You may have heard the name Spartacus before, as he has long been a symbol of the fight against repression. In a nutshell, he was a soldier turned gladiator turned runaway slave that fought Rome as leader of a massive slave army. But who really was he? What kind of life did he live? What do we know of his origins? Those are some questions that will be answered in this eBook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Dec 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465841360

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Introduction

In the modern Louvre of Paris, you can find, amidst a collection of other French sculptures, a 2.12 meter-tall marble statue of Spartacus, naked, broken chains hanging from his wrists, his eyes showing both a pensive serenity and a cold aggression. The piece was sculpted by Denis Foyatier in 1830, as an addition to l’allee des grands homes (the Avenue of Great Men) in the Jardin des Tuileries. It was moved to the Louvre in 1877.

You may have heard the name Spartacus before, as he has long been a symbol of the fight against repression. In a nutshell, he was a soldier turned gladiator turned runaway slave that fought Rome as leader of a massive slave army. But who really was he? What kind of life did he live? What do we know of his origins? Those are some questions that will be answered in this article. We’ll begin by getting a background of the times and environment.

A Snapshot of Rome, BC

Welcome to the final decades of the Roman Republic. About 23 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, Augustus will become the first Emperor of Rome. But in those tragic and somewhat chaotic years before, the dying Old Republic saw catastrophes, one after the next. Spartacus’ rebellion would be only one of them.

Rome is often remembered for its strength, solidarity, glory, and beauty. But also, Rome was mostly slaves. At one point, more than half of the population of the City of Rome itself was made up of slaves, whether criminals, war captives, children sold or abandoned by their parents, or those that were too poor to pay off their debts as freemen.

The Roman Senate was a political system developed to govern over a single city-state in central Italy. But now, it bore the weight of the world, and the system as a whole was quickly collapsing. The first century BC was one of uprisings and rebellions, of power struggles and coups. In fact, Spartacus’ Slave War was not the first, but the third of its kind in less than a hundred years.

This was the setting into which Spartacus merged onto the world scene. Before we can get into what is known of the details of his life, though, let’s first take a look at the original sources by which, we can reconstruct the life of this Thracian Gladiator turned Freedom Fighter.

Reconstructing History

Just how does one go about understanding the distant past? There are no eyewitnesses to interview, no video coverage to analyze, and no photographs to inspect. If only we had a time machine! Biographers could travel back to Spartacus’ childhood, to his military career, gladiatorial battles, rebellion, and eventual death. Then the written account we have today would be more sure and insightful.

But, unfortunately, very little is written about Spartacus, and the recorded accounts are neither sure nor insightful. Nonetheless, the few written sources we have, give us something to sink our teeth into.

Caius Sallustius Crispus was one of the writers that left some information about Spartacus and his Slaves War. He was a politician and military officer who lived from about 86 to 35 BC. That means that Sallust is the only of the three writers we’ll consider here that would have been alive at the same time as Spartacus.

Sallust was born in Amiternum a provincial town in the Sabine highlands of Central Italy. In the beginning of this political career, he was involved with the populares. A popularis was an aristocrat who would bypass the senate by getting the backing of the people at large. Caesar was an example of such an elite populist.

Around 55 BC, he became a quaestor, and three years later he was elected as one of the tribunes of the people. In 50 BC, Sallust was expelled from the senate by censors because of malicious gossip calling him immoral. But that didn’t end his career. Within about a year, his relationship with Caesar allowed him to be elected again as a quaestor.

Latter, he fought as an officer under Caesar, and was eventually installed as governor of Africa Nova. Governorship and relations with Rome were good to Sallust, as he grew quite wealthy, owning lavish homes in Africa and Italy.

After the death of Caesar, Sallust traded his sword for a pen and began to write on the histories of Rome, especially about the decay of the Roman state.

Spartacus’ rebellion is certainly mentioned in Sallust’s Historiae, though much of his writings have been lost with time. It’s purely by luck that out of the few fragments that survived, some speak of Spartacus.

Appian, or Appianus, was an Alexandrian Greek who also wrote about the time of the Third Slave War. It seems he practiced law in Rome, though he rose to office in