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The military historian Barry Strauss has taught for many years at Cornell University, where he directs the Program on Freedom and Free Societies. Among his recent books are The Trojan War: A New History and The Battle of Salamis. (He's also written a memoir, Rowing Against the Current: Learning to Scull at Forty.) Don Yerxa talked with Strauss about his new book, The Spartacus War, published in March by Simon & Schuster.
Why did you want to write a book about Spartacus?
Although a lot of great scholarship has been devoted to the subject, I felt there was a need for a popular book that could bridge the gap between the movie and the technical studies. But also I think that Spartacus is very much a character for our times. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was a terrorist or a jihadist, but he was an insurgent with a religious dimension whose men terrorized the civilian population and created big problems for an imperial power, which had to learn to put down a revolt it was ill-equipped to handle.
Who was the "real" Spartacus, and how does he compare to Kirk Douglas' character in Kubrick's 1960 film?
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that the Kubrick film isn't complete fiction. The truth is that Spartacus really was a slave and a gladiator in Capua, Italy, and he really did lead a revolt. As the movie shows, it started in the kitchen of the gladiatorial barracks with the men using basic kitchen utensils to fight the guards and break out. And it's even true that Spartacus had a ladylove as he did in the movie, though the real woman was quite different. But there are some significant differences as well. The movie Spartacus was born a slave and was the son and grandson of slaves, but the real Spartacus was born free. He came from Thrace, roughly equivalent with today's Bulgaria. And far from being a lifelong opponent of Rome, he started out as an allied soldier in the Roman army. He fought for Rome. His fate, ending up as a slave and gladiator, was quite unexpected and quite unjust. The Romans themselves admitted that Spartacus was forced to become a gladiator even though he was innocent.
So what went wrong? We don't precisely know, though the sources allow us to make several suggestions. I think the most likely explanation is that Spartacus, while on campaign with the Romans, campaigned against other Thracians. Spartacus was taken prisoner, and as often happens to prisoners of war, he was sold back to the Romans as a slave. Now he might have expected that the Romans would intervene to ransom him. And he certainly had every right to expect the Romans not to buy him as a slave themselves. So if that is in fact what happened, Spartacus had a justified sense of outrage at how he had been mistreated.
The other huge difference between the movie and what actually happened is more subtle. The movie depicts Spartacus as someone who was against slavery philosophically and who wanted to create a world in which slavery wouldn't exist. But we simply can't say that was true of the real Spartacus. We have very little evidence that there were people in antiquity who were opposed to slavery outright. There is very little evidence of an ancient abolitionist movement and no evidence that abolition was Spartacus' motive. In fact, the closest we come to understanding his motive from the sources, which are sadly lacking, is that he wanted to take the army he raised out of Italy back to his native land of Thrace.
How was Spartacus able to forge a military force that defeated several Roman legions and remained a threat for over two years?
Spartacus started out with some military experience. He fought with the Romans and perhaps for Thrace as well. He was also, I would guess, a natural. He seems to have been well versed in what you needed to do to organize an army and use that army against the Romans. Some of that came from experience, some from natural ability. The most complete contemporary Roman source we have for him, the historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus (or simply Sallust), says that Spartacus was outstanding not only for his strength but also for his intelligence. He was a very smart man. The core of his rebel army had some experience in combat as trained gladiators, and it is reasonable to suppose that some of the other men who joined the revolt had military experience as well. Spartacus was a leader of very considerable skill. He knew what he was facing with the Romans. He understood the topography. Thracians were particularly good at unconventional warfare—ambushes, raids, night attacks, trickery, and the like—which served Spartacus very well in the difficult campaign against Rome.
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