Historian Barry Strauss On His New Book The Spartacus War, youtubeĪccording to a Wikipedia cross reference, Barry Strauss writes that there is no evidence that the real Spartacus wanted to abolish slavery, and freed only select individuals and seeked riches, and that ultimately, regardless of their good intentions they brought ruin and devastation to Italy. Is Spartacus based on a true story or a fictional character in history?Īccording to historian "Barry Strauss" Spartacus is based upon a real historic gladiator, though the real Spartacus differs slightly from how he is portrayed in the movies that always depict Spartacus as amongst the good guys fighting for the people, when in truth they were good guys fighting for their own freedom that done a lot of bad things in the process, such as taking advantage of poor policing in the roman world and going on a rampage through Italy killing a lot of innocent people and destroying a lot of property. Pompey’s army intercepted and killed many slaves who were escaping northward, and 6,000 prisoners were crucified by Crassus along the Appian Way. The Gauls and Germans were defeated first, and Spartacus himself ultimately fell fighting in pitched battle. Hemmed in by Crassus’s eight legions, Spartacus’s army divided. When his men refused to leave Italy, he returned to Lucania and sought to cross his forces over to Sicily but was thwarted by the new Roman commander sent against him, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Spartacus defeated the two consuls for the year 72 and fought his way northward toward the Alps, hoping to be able to disperse his soldiers to their homelands once they were outside Italy. Ultimately their numbers grew to at least 90,000. After defeating two Roman forces in succession, the rebels overran most of southern Italy. With about 70 fellow gladiators he escaped a gladiatorial training school at Capua in 73 and took refuge on Mount Vesuvius, where other runaway slaves joined the band. The inspiration behind this series is the Thracian Gladiator Spartacus, who led a slave uprising against the Roman RepublicĪ Thracian by birth, Spartacus served in the Roman army, perhaps deserted, led bandit raids, and was caught and sold as a slave.
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