"[Spartacus] was a Thracian from the nomadic tribes and not only had a great spirit and great physical strength, but was, much more than one would expect from his condition, most intelligent and cultured, being more like a Greek than a Thracian. They say that when he was first taken to Rome to be sold, a snake was seen coiled round his head while he was asleep and his wife, who came from the same tribe and was a prophetess subject to possession by the frenzy of Dionysus, declared that this sign meant that he would have a great and terrible power which would end in misfortune... " - Plutarch, Life of Crassus

Spartacus is the world's most famous slave, and one of the most notorious figures of ancient Rome. A slave enamored of freedom and willing to fight and die for it, he became especially popular in the years following the Enlightenment, after which he was widely viewed as a poignant champion of liberty in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result, he became a symbol during struggles like the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the struggle for emancipation. To this day, his dual life as a gladiator and a "freedom fighter" fascinates audiences around the world. His tale, a blend of violent spectacle and civil rights, has been adapted for film (Stanley Kubrick's memorable Spartacus), television (Starz's popular television series), and in literature (appearing in everything from historical novels to comics). To this day, Spartacus is a popular first name in central and southern Italy, and his name has been adopted by sports teams like FC Spartak Moscow and FC Spartak Plovdiv. The Soviet Union's internal version of the Olympics, the Spartakiad, also derived its name from Spartacus.

The reasons for Spartacus's enduring appeal are obvious, but his uprising has overshadowed the fact that his was actually the third such uprising against the Roman Republic in a short span. Preceding this, the First and Second Servile Wars had already demonstrated that revolts against Rome and the whole institution of slavery could gain momentum. , and these earlier uprisings provided a blueprint for the larger attempt by Spartacus to win freedom.

All three of these revolts came about because of the Roman practice of enslavement, and as such, any analysis of the Servile Wars requires an understanding of what was involved in the institution of slavery within the Roman system. In the modern world, it is hard to imagine acceptance of the concept of "the animated tool," as Aristotle put it to justify the system of enslavement and the treatment of slaves. In antiquity, however, there is no evidence of any moral opposition to the concept of slavery. Even the Stoics, who are credited with being concerned about the institution and counted among their ranks Epictetus, who was an ex-slave himself, restricted their debates to attempts to find a correct definition of slavery. For Romans, slavery was simply an accepted fact of life and essential to the maintenance of their economy.

While Rome was not alone in the ancient world in maintaining a system of enforced bondage, due to the size of its empire and control over much of the known world for hundreds of years, it had the largest number of people enslaved and was the most dependent on slaves for its economy. An exception to this, but on a much smaller scale, would be the Greek city-state of Sparta, where the slave class of helots outnumbered the free citizens by about seven to one. Rome's slaves never accounted for anything near that proportion of its population, but the centrality of slavery to the Roman economy and its importance to imperial success cannot be overstated. As a result, the slave uprisings represented a vital threat to Rome, and the Romans who dealt with them would become some of the most famous men of their day, leaving a permanent mark on Roman politics.

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• Publication Date: July 5, 2023
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• Print Length: 120 Pages
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