Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents

The old adage that history is more often than not written by the victor is nowhere more highlighted than in the conflicts that arose between the Roman Republic and its slaves. Be aware that Spartacus dominates maybe only a quarter of the book. That said the author has titled it "Spartacus ad the Slave Wars" and not "Spartacus". The uninitiated may be surprised to realise that slave uprisings werent isolated to the Spartacus revolt but occured several times between 2nd and 1st C BC and on reasonable scales as to be a serious threat to Roman psyche. So 3/4 of the work is for contextural purpose: Capturing the background,value, usage and life of slaves and their positive and negative contribution on Ancient Rome. It also examines social attitudes and bias of Romans and non Romans to the slave and nowhere is this captured more than in the source documents that make up the bulk of this work. Narrative by the author is short once one passes the introduction chapter (that has some nice black and white maps covering the Spartacan slave war as well as slave routes in the Ancient Med), more often just pretext to lead the reader into the relevance of the document so one can assess the background events, setting, time frame etc it pertains to. The source documents can cover anything between a mere paragraph onwards to several pages. Written by statesmen, writers, historians, etc they are plucked from several centuries of contributors(2nd C BC - end of Empire)and give the work a more reliable and historical feel than if the book were simply endless narrative to limited references leading to conjecture by a modern historian. Yes its not solely about Spartacus but that is what makes it more interesting, for after combing through several pages of source documents purely about the Spartacan rebellion one will realise that the story is essentially twisted around the same loop and wisely Mr Shaw has not devoted the whole work to it. Of Spartacus the man, only a third party view from a Roman perspective exists and of his rebellion, the essential differences in the sources are often the contempt or praise (pending their performance) of the main Roman protagonists chosen to lead efforts to suppress it. Only modern times and popular culture has restored/saved a more sympathetic view of Spartacus (as covered in the introduction). No doubt he had his admirers then too but those opinions if expressed are long gone. Overall this work is a reminder that good things come in small packages.

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.

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.

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.