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The Spartacus War (Book Review)

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The Spartacus War (Book Review)
The Spartacus War
Strauss, Barry
NY: Simon & Schuster, 2009
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
ISBN-13: 9781416532064

March 05, 2013

The Spartacus War By, Barry Strauss

Sparta is a gladiator and slave best known for leading the slave rebellion in Italy against the Rome in 73-71 B.C. Ancient writers seem to have admired Sparta's military skills, but they doubted the slaves' success. They were happy when the rebellion was extinguished and social order was once again restored. Spartacus now seems to be an inspiration to many. People seem to enjoy the idea of an underdog rising to power to overthrow a much more powerful force. It is compelling and tragic that an armed rebellion of slaves could have achieved much against its ferocious Roman Republic.
Barry Strauss writes about The Spartacus War, and the story of the life of Spartacus. The legend of Spartacus should suet the interest of any reader, especially historians. For those who want a romantic journey, or a crusade about ethnic conflict, this is for you. The Spartacus War tells of the history Spartacus, one of the most popular figures from ancient history. It should appeal to those who want to understand rebellion of the gladiator slaves. The book seems to have a lot of historic situations, ranging from the enslavement of Spartacus to his death by Cassius.

Spartacus is a symbol of power; but what was the reality? Barry Strauss is a historian at Cornell University. Being so Spartacus himself left no autobiography, Barry Strauss had to dig into historic records from ancient Greek, Rome and Italy to help uncover the mystery of Spartacus. Strauss had to go by the writing of ancient aristocrats. The problem is they seem to be biased towards Spartacus. Most of them focused on the threat that
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