Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Paperback)

by Brent D. Shaw (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Here Shaw provides a virtually comprehensive collection of translated sources for Rome's major slave wars, superbly contextualized for the undergraduate student. As a bonus, the reader gets an eye-opening essay on Spartacus as a modern historical icon, the best short introduction to the nature of Roman rural slavery that one is likely to find, and a thoughtfully selected bibliography. Even specialists in ancient slavery will have much to learn from Shaw's incisive analysis."

Product Description

In this examination of the Roman institution of slavery, Brent Shaw presents a compelling selection of the ancient testimony relating to Spartacus and the slave wars. In 73 B.C., in the heart of Rome’s Mediterranean empire, a slave named Spartacus ignited one of the most violent episodes of slave resistance in the history of the Roman Empire — indeed in the world annals of slavery. Organizing 80 original Greek and Latin source translations into topical chapters on the daily life of slaves trained as gladiators and those who labored on farms in Italy and Sicily, Shaw includes accounts of revolts that preceded and anticipated that of Spartacus. In a carefully crafted introductory essay, Shaw places Spartacus in the broader context of first and second century B.C. Roman Italy and Sicily and explains why his story continues to be a popular symbol of rebellion today. The volume also includes a glossary, chronology, selected bibliography, 3 maps, an annotated list of ancient writers, and questions for consideration.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; annotated edition edition (January 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312183100
• ISBN-13: 978-0312183103
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #352,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, great professor, January 19, 2002

By	Anon. (USA) - See all my reviews

This was a textbook for Prof. Shaw's Slavery & Society in Ancient Rome class, which I took.

Other reviewers have praised the introduction, and rightly so. It includes a great introduction to the political, social, and economic forces behind agrarian slavery; a summary of the servile wars themselves; an exploration of various artistic representations of Spartacus; and raises questions about historical accuracy and the ancient authors' representation of Spartacus.

The translations in this book are wonderful. We also used Thomas Wiedemann's "Greek and Roman Slavery," but Shaw's translations are easier and more interesting to read--engaging, concise, and lucid. The selections, at least for the section on the Spartacus war itself, are quite comprehensive in scope. The documents for the other sections provide a sense of how various factors played into the slave wars. The information in this book is very "digestable," without being inadequate or excessive.

The bibliography is also excellent, and proved to be VERY useful for further research. The sources are categorized by subject. Subjects range from the general ("Slaves & Slavery", "Slave Wars: General") to the two wars themselves ("The Sicilian Slave Wars", "The Spartacus War"). There are also sources for comparative slavery, Spartacus in historical writing and fiction, and various artistic representations (i.e. Spartacus in film).

This book is accessible for students' use as a textbook, but I also recommend it as a valuable resource for people interested in the slave wars, slave resistance in general, and agrarian slavery.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Slave Wars as the Romans Saw Them, June 29, 2008

By	Kyle Richie (Kentucky) - See all my reviews

In the last two centuries of the Roman Republic, three major slave wars shook the Roman yoke. The first two servile wars were on the important island of Sicily and left thousands dead. The final servile conflict was to go down in history as the rebellion of a gladiator named Spartacus (though he really became the supreme leader later in the struggle). Shaw has presented us with a very interesting book in which he presents ancient Roman sources describing the rebellions. While this is generally a one sided view, it is the best we really have in terms of documents on the conflicts. While some of the numbers of dead and combatants may be exaggerated by the Roman authors at times, their accounts give us insite into a fascinating and horrifically brutal period of turmoil. The author himself adds some commentary that is useful to the reader and assists in forming a better ideal of the struggles. Overall, I recommend this book to those interested in the history of pre-Imperial Rome or interested in the Spartacus Revolt.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is this all the available information?, May 28, 2003

By	TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I'm a big fan of sourse books for students and scholars both because they enable us to focus on a particular topic in some detail and to discuss the problems in using primary and ancient sources. I think that Brent Shaw's introduction and commentary throughout are excellent but I have one big question: is this all the evidence he could find out about agricultural slaves and gladiators? Having read the 'handbooks' some of the passages are drawn from, I think there is more out there. Likewise I think there is more evidence for how gladiators lived and were viewed/treated by freepeople that could shed further light on the causes and reactions to the three biggest slave wars in Rome's history.