The Spartacus Road - Hardcover

Stothard, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590203232 ISBN 13: 9781590203231

Publisher: Abrams Press, 2010

Synopsis

Today, his struggle is widely perceived as the fight for freedom, but this hasn¹t always been the case; the ancient Romans were embarrassed by Spartacus¹s victories over them; the Greeks admired him; and others viewed his uprisings as the embodiment of cruelty. In this fascinating and original work, Stothard retraces the journey taken by Spartacus and his army of rebels, taking us back to an ancient world which confronted similar issues to those we face today

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Stothard is the editor of the Times Literary Supplement and author of Alexandria and The Spartacus Road. From 1992 to 2002 he was the Editor of The Times. In 2012 he was chairman of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.

From Booklist:

Stothard is a classicist and the editor of the Times Literary Supplement. A decade ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; after a grueling regimen of surgery and chemotherapy, he managed to survive, and that struggle is interspersed with the struggle of the Thracian slave Spartacus and his followers to gain their freedom from Roman oppression in the first century BCE. This is a quirky, sometimes confusing work, part travelogue, part historical account, and part personal memoir. Stothard takes us across Italy, following in the footsteps of the slave army while recounting their triumphs and eventual destruction. He digresses to describe his personal struggle against a pernicious and formidable enemy. Stothard offers fine descriptions of the battles as Roman armies and the forces of Spartacus move across large areas of southern and central Italy. Spartacus himself remains an understandably murky charater, since accurate source material is sparse, but Stothard provides valuable insights into the nature of Roman society and culture in which as much as a third of the population may have endured various forms of slavery. --Jay Freeman

About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1590203232
• ISBN 13: 9781590203231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368