The Spartacus War
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The Spartacus War
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Narrated by:
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Ray Grover
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By:
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Barry Strauss
About this listen
The Spartacus War is the extraordinary story of the most famous slave rebellion in the ancient world, the fascinating true story behind a legend that has been the inspiration for novelists, filmmakers, and revolutionaries for 2,000 years.
Starting with only 74 men, a gladiator named Spartacus incited a rebellion that threatened Rome itself. With his fellow gladiators, Spartacus built an army of 60,000 soldiers and controlled the southern Italian countryside. A charismatic leader, he used religion to win support. An ex-soldier in the Roman army, Spartacus excelled in combat. He defeated nine Roman armies and kept Rome at bay for two years before he was defeated. After his final battle, 6,000 of his followers were captured and crucified along Rome's main southern highway.
The Spartacus War is the dramatic and factual account of one of history's great rebellions. Spartacus was beaten by a Roman general, Crassus, who had learned how to defeat an insurgency. But the rebels were partly to blame for their failure. Their army was large and often undisciplined; the many ethnic groups within it frequently quarreled over leadership. No single leader, not even Spartacus, could keep them all in line. And when faced with a choice between escaping to freedom and looting, the rebels chose wealth over liberty, risking an eventual confrontation with Rome's most powerful forces. The result of years of research, The Spartacus War is based not only on written documents but also on archaeological evidence, historical reconstruction, and the author's extensive travels in the Italian countryside that Spartacus once conquered.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2009 Barry Strauss (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about The Spartacus War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-02-24
great insight into the history
really good insight if you're a follower of this type of history. the narration could be better.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Zazafraz
- 21-12-24
Truly a man of his own.
Even the hardest lovers of the Roman Republic and Empire has to admit the harshness of their treatment of everyone surrounding them - both allies and enemies. The way they used slaves is beyond repulsive, and that’s how Spartacus steps into the history books and the common imagination. A brilliant, brave, charismatic and unique leader, who Karl Marx called ‘the first socialist’, and later Romans would respect as a man and leader.
Great book, thorough, and gives insight into the many people, individuals and as groups, who played a part in this important historical period. Plenty of time is spent focussing not directly on the man itself to spread out the world he was in, to which one can only appreciate. A lot more to the man but movies and tv shows, as entertaining as they may be.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Dave
- 27-10-10
Will the real Spartacus please stand...
This book freely admits that the evidence for the Spartacus war is thin on the ground and often contradictory, so if you only wanted to stick to known facts than you could barely fill a pamphlet. As it turns out 6+ hours is a pretty good length as the author does much to flesh out the facts with a good background of the period and a number of suppositions which may or may not be true but help to keep the story going. I can't vouch for the authenticity, but the book does well in telling the story and describing the world in which it occurred.
I found the American accent of the narrator jarring at first, but he reads well enough. The repeated insertion of modern names for ancient places is quite annoying, particularly when they are little different, but anyone interested in the Republican Roman world will enjoy this book.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Garreth Byrne
- 30-07-24
author does well given limited information to draw from
author manages to paint a vivid picture of the Spartucus and his army marauding up and down Italy in search of freedom and vengeance. disappointing that there is so little information to draw from but that author does well nonetheless. the narrator seems to be frequently mispronouncing words.
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