Customer Reviews

The Spartacus Road

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Before reading this book, my only memories of Spartacus were a short passage in a history of the last days of the Roman Republic and Kirk Douglas's emotional version of the Thracian slave in the Hollywood epic. This fine history, brutal as it is, fleshes out that first memory -- the revolt lasted almost three years -- and doesn't try to create a person in Spartacus, someone we really know nothing about except that he was a Thracian gladiator.

Instead, Stothard creates a vivid image of Italy as it was during those three years, allowing the reader to forget, after a great while, Kirk Douglas and the Hollywood version, and imagine what and who Spartacus might have been.

Stothard starts with what a gladiator was, the gladiatorial schools, their weapons and tactics, and the importance of gladiators in Roman society. Gladiatorial combat was, he writes, something between "show business" and "the opium of the people." It preoccupied the lower classes, helping to prevent them from focusing on their own misery and political impotence. Successful gladiators where famous and followed much like Kirk Douglas himself was during his prime as a Hollywood star.

Stars, of course, but stars who invariably died violently and in the prime of their young lives. The crowd came to see blood and slaughter; there was nothing make believe permitted in the grand shows. Death permeated the sands of the arenas.

All of the gladiators were slaves. Stothard argues that slavery was the Roman equivalent of mechanical energy and power in our culture. "Our civilization is built on gas, oil, coal, and the power they generate; that of Rome was built on the power of the human body, kept at work by brutal discipline and constraint." Romans went to war to secure slaves in vast numbers for the task of building Rome and expanding its power over the known world. The slaves were everywhere in Roman society, providing an immense array of services: teaching, nursing, accounting, mining, harvesting -- serving free Romans at every level of society.

Spartacus and his followers -- Stothard estimates that less than a third of the slaves they encountered joined his ranks -- were savage in the damage they inflicted on the towns and farms. After all, they had escaped a life in which they were to die for the entertainment of the Romans they encountered.

They battled the Roman legions for over two years, and finally were defeated by dissension among their leadership and the weight of numbers. The Romans crucified 6,000 slaves along both sides of the Appian Way from Capua to Rome, one every 40 yards or so. Spartacus himself was killed in battle before the final defeat.

Stothard is brilliant in describing Roman society and the landscape through which Spartacus and the legions battled. (One oddity -- there were no captions under the pictures in the version I read so I wasn't always sure where in Italy the events took place.) This book provided me with a view of Rome from an entirely new perspective, one I enjoyed very much.

Two points are worth making. This is a very violent history, and human life is worth very little; cruelty appears on almost every page. And, Stothard himself was suffering from cancer -- he calls his tumor "Nero" -- and some of the savagery involves his battle with his disease.

Robert C. Ross 2010

Spartacus did the unthinkable--he challenged Romans on their own turf and actually won some battles. The author visits many of the places where Spartacus spent time and contrasts what they are today and what they were during Spartacus' lifetime. I find such comparisons fascinating; they are a reminder that change is a constant and that life is brief. Peter Stothard, who has made a miraculous recovery from usually a fatal form of cancer, injects his own feelings about death in a thought provoking way into the narrative. He is never maudlin or banal, but instead asks us to try to put ourselves in Spartacus' shoes. What would we have done? What decisions did Spartacus take and what were the forces that compelled those decisions? Along the way, Mr. Stothard meets other pilgrims on Spartacus' road who take different tacts on historical touring. In all it is a journey worth taking and a book worth keeping.

I am only halfway through the book, but I can tell you that this is not for the average, run-of-the mill reader.
It is DEFINITELY a scholarly work, very interesting, but interspersed with Latin sentences and sometimes obscure citations, familiar only to an Oxbridge alumnus.
So, I would recommend it only if you are ready for some serious, dedicated reading.
If you, like me, expect an entertaining and interesting travelogue with references to ancient history, give it a second thought.

The author knows what he is talking about. The various options open to Spartacus and his army are explored with knowledge of the times, and what they did is explained as best it can be 2000 years later. The writing itself is beautiful. This is one of my favorite all time books, right up there with "Typoo".

This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is 3 books in one--history, travelogue and a description of one mans personal journey of inner exploration after recovering from cancer. I have been interested in Roman history since I studied Latin in high school. This book explores not just Spartacus' revolt, but the institutions of slavery and gladiatorial combat and its place in Roman society. As the author traces Spartacus' movements, he reports not only on modern day Italy and the travelers he meets, but on the nature of Roman life as reflected in the ruins he finds along the way. For me, it helped me understand better how Rome functioned as an organized society. He also brought a new perspective on travel and how to see my own journeys through new eyes. A great read. Even my wife, who is not interested in history books wants to read it.

I did not buy this, but borrow it from the library. It's so horrible, I regret making the 10 minute walk to pick it up. Within the first ten pages I could tell the book is way below the Oxford standard (he mentions having been an Oxford student), and was going NOWHERE quick. If someone says that this book was written for modern classicists, they are obviously retarded. Seriously...not a scholarly work. Many times have I had to stop, within the first 30 pages, to make sense of this authors mindless garble. For example: "But the poem was his and his alone. There was true magic in the number three. Or perhaps there was". I am definitely not the most educated person and yet still disapprove of the authors scantly prose. I also greatly despise when a written work is so utterly opinionated. I picked up this book because I wanted to know more about Spartacus. Historically speaking, I dont know anymore than before I read the first 30 pages. Which is sad if you ask me.