14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More Social Commentary than Military History, August 21, 2009
This review is from: Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71 BC: A gladiator rebels against Rome (Campaign) (Paperback)
Writing about ancient military campaigns is very difficult due to the paucity of sources and no matter how interesting the subject, historians cannot work around this fundamental problem. Nevertheless, some historians will try to push on, using speculation and filler material to cover gaps, hoping that readers will focus on the ends, rather than the means. Nic Fields' volume 206 in Osprey's campaign series, Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71 BC, follows this basic format. Even though the author admits that there are less than 4,000 worlds all told in ancient literary sources about Spartacus, he sets about to write a 25,000-word history of the famous gladiator-turned-rebel. There's no doubt that the legend of Spartacus still captures the modern mind, but there is just not enough here to write a viable military history and this volume is actually filled to the brim mostly with filler material and very few facts. To make matters worse, the author chooses to indulge in long-winded discussions about the legend of Spartacus, dragging in modern folks ranging from Voltaire, to Marx, Lenin, to Rosa Luxembourg and Che Guevara. Yes, there's even a photo of Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's film. Yikes!
The volume begins sensibly enough with a 5-page introduction about earlier slave uprisings in Sicily in 135-132 BC and 104-100 BC. Both witnessed slave rebellions that temporarily defeated local Roman militias but which were eventually crushed once the Roman Republic became sufficiently annoyed to send a two-legion consular army to deal with the rebels. Other than pointing out that dynamic, the introduction doesn't relate terribly well to the Spartacus uprising which did not take place in Sicily or under the same conditions. It doesn't appear that either Romans or rebels learned anything from these earlier slave rebellions. The author then provides a 3-page chronology, of which half covers events before Spartacus. Then departing from Osprey Campaign format, the author includes a 13-page section on the Roman social order to discuss slavery, piracy, gladiators and how these factors added up to rebellion. Most readers expecting a straight-up military history will likely view this section as a needless and even annoying diversion, while others may view it as filler material.
The author then jumps back into Osprey format with the normal sections on opposing commanders, armies and plans, none of which say very much. For example, the opposing commanders section only discusses Spartacus (of which the author admits we know next to nothing about the man) and his opponent, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Here we get the usual subjective evaluation: Spartacus was a great soldier and Crassus was a rich guy with an ego. Wasn't this how Kubrick portrayed them? The opposing plans section is better and at least doesn't try to con the reader with modern clap-trap about the rebels fighting for freedom - they wanted out of Italy, Period. Much of the section on the Roman army appears culled from the author's recent volume in the Battle Orders series, but adds little specific about the Roman units that fought in this campaign. In short, these introductory sections provide only a very skimpy foundation for discussing the campaign.
The campaign narrative per se is only 27 pages in length, but actually has barely a dozen pages of text. This is exceedingly thin. Other than broad actions - Spartacus marches north, Crixus splits off with his army, local Roman forces defeated in south - there is very little detail you can actually put your finger on. I'm not sure what kind of Spartacus-related archaeological excavations have occurred in Italy - the author makes only scant mention - but there must be more to go on than just fragments from Livy, Appian and Sallust. When I got to the point that the author discusses the destruction of Crixus' army at Mount Gargano I was struck by his failure to attempt any kind of military analysis. The Roman consular army clearly had to approach the rebel camp by means of a narrow mountain trail - why did the rebels not attempt an ambush? Simply waiting for the Romans to engage them in a set-piece battle seems remarkably foolish, even for rebels. The final show-down between Spartacus and Crassus is covered in a few short paragraphs. Game and match. A 4-page aftermath section covers the extermination of the rebel captives in gory detail, but fails to mention that there were no major slave rebellions after this one. A good historian might have asked, why? Instead, the author plows into a miserable 5-page section on the legacy of Spartacus, which is to say, how this legend was used to justify all sorts of criminal acts in later years. Most people who pick up this volume are not expecting to read about Marx or Lenin or other socialist cretins, but that's what you're going to get. This mis-step is partly compensated for with a final sections that offers good notes on the primary sources used and a nice bibliography and glossary.
The volume includes five 2-D maps (Sicily in 75 BC; Spartacus' movements, summer 73 BC; Spartacus' and Crixus' movements, spring 72 BC; Spartacus' movements, summer 72 BC; Spartacus' movements, spring 71 BC) and two 3-D BEV maps (Mount Garganus, 72 BC; the Silarus River, 71 BC). Simply put, the maps add almost nothing to this volume, due to lack of detail. On the other hand, the three battle scenes by Steve Noon (breakout at Capua; destruction of Crixus; Spartacus rushes at Crassus) aren't bad and several more would have been better than some of the social commentary. In short, there is more social commentary in this volume than military history and it really doesn't not deliver the kind of material that Osprey readers would expect.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71BC, November 7, 2011
This review is from: Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71 BC: A gladiator rebels against Rome (Campaign) (Paperback)
Nic Fields using original sources informs the reader of an ancient event. He has done this in numerous books in the Osprey series In his very readable style he notes that only about 4,000 words remain as to who Spartacus was, what he accomplished, and how the matter ended. Over looked by most writers, Fields points out that Spartacus's war from 73-71 BC was hardly the first. In fact there had been significant Slave Wars in 135-132 BC and 104-100BC, and successful to the point that the Roman province of Sicily was in more or less constant "slave revolt." Thus Spartacus was a late arrival. Regardless there was something unique about him. Director Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas turned the event into an iconic movie, still popular today. (Kubrick used the book by Howard Fast as his guide. Fast is worth looking up for his political beliefs.)Yes, it appears that Spartacus in the Spring of 71BC moved from the comparable safety of the coast and took the latest Roman army head-on. He apparently died trying to personally kill its leader Crassus, the richest man in Rome. Crassus is also worth investigating for his later career with Julius Casar and Pompey. His end in battle in present day Iraq is classical. But back to Spartacus and Dr. Fields. Fields has the unique ability to take primary sources from the ancient world, usually about famous battles or persons, and craft the thin material into very readable accounts of what probably happened. While Spartacus may have died on the side of a hill in 71BC, his name lives on. Clearly he was special in his own time.His rule was not absolute and he had co-leaders. He was able to organize armies of individuals from all over the Roman Empire, cut through personal issues, different languages, and organize them to fight in a cohesive way against the best warrior of his day, the Roman soldier. His downfall was beyond his control. Rome could not run our of citizen soldiers, thus Spartacus's defeat of two Roman armies was only a short set back for the empire. Naturally it did scare a lot of people. But what if Spartacus, as his associates apparently wanted to do, have moved directly on Rome ? Perhaps the ending would have been different. The legacy of Spartacus is still with us, in books, movies, scholarly works and a television series. Karl Marx , when asked who his heroes were, replied "Spartacus and Kepler." Fields' work should be considered as the final work on Spartacus. It covers all that is known, thus any more would be fiction.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Beginning, November 13, 2010
This review is from: Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71 BC: A gladiator rebels against Rome (Campaign) (Paperback)
This is a good beginning point for the study of Spartacus and the Gladiator Revolt against Rome. It gives the basics of what happened, how, and why and also includes a very good bibliography for further research if the reader is so inclined. I would highly recommend this book even for those who already have knowledge because of its bare bones approach to this historical incident.
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