![]() "I learned just how much of Spartacus' war was fought in the mountains," he said. Strauss augmented his research with historical reconstruction and extensive travels to the Italian sites where the war unfolded. When you put this all together, you've got a rebel army that ends up being very successful in fighting the Romans" - until the Romans brought in troops from the other fronts and installed a new general, Crassus, to put down the rebellion. "Spartacus, as a Thracian, comes from a country that excels in guerrilla warfare. When rebellion broke out in Italy, the Romans were forced to send in inexperienced men to fight "gladiators, slaves and shepherds - the tough guys of the countryside. Spartacus was able to take advantage of this."Īt the time, Rome was at war in Spain and in what is now Turkey. Spartacus' story is also a story of imperial overstretch - a case of an empire that was stretched thin in terms of its military resources. Romans had difficulty fighting them in battle. His soldiers "were Thracians, Germans and Celts - groups thought of as barbarians, as very strong and tough. Spartacus also wanted to get back to Thrace, which is now Bulgaria. "He was sold into slavery, was mistreated by the Romans and wanted to get revenge." "The reality is Spartacus was an allied soldier who fought in the Roman army," he said. "From the ancient evidence, we only have the story from the point of view of the Romans - and nothing written or recorded by the rebels themselves."Īmong the myths Strauss challenges in his book are the motivations for the conflict and the belief that Spartacus had fought against the Romans before being enslaved. "I found things that other people overlooked, or they weren't interested in," he said. ![]() Spartacus led a slave rebellion against the Roman army from 73-71 B.C., immortalized in novels and on film - but until now, English-language scholars have avoided writing books about the war "because the evidence is deeply problematic," said Strauss, who pieced together archaeological and written evidence, as other scholars had. "I got interested in the subject of insurgencies because of what's going on in today's world," said Strauss, a professor of history and classics and incoming history department chair. "The Spartacus War," Barry Strauss' new book on one of the most famous conflicts in ancient history, sheds light for the first time on the slave rebellion, the rebels' tactics and why they were ultimately defeated.
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