Spartacus: The Gladiator (67 page)

It is a tragedy that little more than four thousand words about Spartacus survive from ancient texts. No one truly knows why this is. I like to believe that the Romans didn’t want a man who trounced their armies on multiple occasions remembered or glorified. After all, it’s the victors who write history. The losers generally get demonised or forgotten. Not Spartacus, thankfully. Perhaps this was because the Romans actually held him in some regard – we’re told that ‘he possessed great spirit and bodily strength’; he was also ‘more intelligent and nobler than his fate’. While the dearth of information means that much detail about Spartacus and his rebellion has, tantalisingly, been lost forever, it also offers the novelist a huge gift: being able to fill in the gaps. It also allows less room for criticism – hopefully! A wealth of knowledge survives from the Roman Republic of the first century BC, which allows the background to be described, and the tapestry of the story to be woven richly around Spartacus. As always, I have stuck to historical detail whenever possible in this tale. Where I deviated from it, I will explain why.

Spartacus (Latin for Sparadakos, which can conceivably be interpreted as ‘famous for his spear’) is usually understood to have come from Thrace, a region covering much of modern-day Bulgaria and beyond. However, this is not a definite fact. He is described in one ancient text as a nomadic ‘Thracian’ of the Maedi people, but this does not completely prove his racial origins, because other texts simply record him as a ‘Thracian’. In other words, he may have been forced to fight as a Thracian gladiator in the arena. Yet the Thracians were recorded as being a fierce, warlike people. Many of them also served as mercenaries with the Roman legions, so in my mind it fits that Spartacus came from Thrace.

We know that for a time, he fought for Rome (as a non-citizen, this would have been in the auxiliaries). It was common for Thracian auxiliaries to fight as cavalry, and it is generally thought that Spartacus may have done so as well. We do not know why Spartacus was enslaved, so my account of his return to his tribe, his encounters with Ariadne and the treacherous Kotys, and his purchase by Phortis are fabricated, but his innocence is not. He really was a gladiator in the ludus in Capua. While Kotys and Phortis are fictional characters, Lentulus Batiatus did exist. So did Spartacus’ woman/wife, who is stated to have been a priestess of Dionysus. History has not honoured us with her name, so I picked the name Ariadne, who in legend married no less a figure than the god Dionysus.

Spartacus’ dream about the snake and its portent is recorded. In these secular days, it is hard to imagine how important the details of his vision could have been to his followers. Two thousand years ago, people believed in a multitude of all-powerful gods. They were superstitious in the extreme and lacked our understanding of science and nature. Random events such as the way a flock of birds flew, whether sacred chickens ate or not and where lightning bolts struck could have immense significance, and determine people’s actions and deeds. In my mind, for Spartacus to have a priestess of Dionysus – a god revered by slaves – as his wife could only have added to his appeal.

It was my decision not to allow Spartacus to fight as a Thracian gladiator. I felt that it was a way for his resentment to increase even further. In the late Republic, there were just three classes of gladiator, which I have detailed. Life in a ludus was much as I have described, but Crassus’ visit to the school is fictional. So too are the scenes in Rome, although Crassus’ manner of purchasing burning buildings is documented, as is his wealth, astute political ability and his rivalry with Pompey. Restio is a product of my imagination, but Spartacus’ escape attempt
was
betrayed, which is probably why only seventy-odd gladiators escaped. He didn’t have a young Roman follower called Carbo, but Crixus and Oenomaus were real men who got away with him. Oenomaus was killed soon afterwards; it was my decision to make this in the first battle. Castus and Gannicus are mentioned later in accounts of Spartacus’ life, but I felt that they would add to the story by being present from the start.

The fighters marched to Vesuvius, where they were besieged by Glaber and his men. The astonishing account of how they abseiled down cliffs using vine ropes and put three thousand soldiers to flight is true. Glaber’s fate is unknown, but we know that Varinius, Furius and Cossinius were next to be sent to deal with the insurrection. In the meantime, Spartacus was recruiting strong, tough slaves to his cause – farm workers and herders were natural candidates for his army. The rebel Sertorius is known to have sent military advisers to another enemy of Rome, Mithridates of Pontus. It’s not impossible then to think that men like Navio became involved with Spartacus.

There are few details of the battles that followed in the autumn of 73 BC other than that the slaves won them decisively, and that Cossinius was disturbed in a swimming pool, pursued and killed in his camp. The precise details of that priceless scene are my doing. As far as I know, there is no evidence for the use of whistles by Roman officers to relay commands. Trumpets and other instruments were used for this purpose. However, whistles have been found in sites all over the Empire, including in the proximity of the legionary fortresses at Chester in the UK and Regensburg in Germany. It’s not too much of a jump after that for me to have them in the hands of centurions during a battle. A whistle could have been very useful in getting the attention of men who were only a few steps away.

The manner of Spartacus’ withdrawal from Varinius’ forces in the dead of night is as the texts describe. Mention is made of his desire to march north to the Alps, but apparently his men thought of ‘nothing but blood and booty’. Whether Crixus and the other Gauls were at the centre of the argument over what the slaves should do at that point is unknown, but given the later schisms in their army, it seems likely that they were. Little information survives about what the slaves did next, but details of the atrocities of the attack on Forum Annii remain. Other towns and settlements met the same fate. Intriguingly, some archaeological discoveries from the ‘heel’ of Italy may date to the time of Spartacus. A warehouse portico discovered in the ruins of Metapontum was destroyed during this period. A small grey vase was found buried under a house in Heraclea and dated to the same timeframe. It was filled with over five hundred silver coins and a gold necklace. Most of the coins can be dated to between 100 and 80 BC, and many are of low denomination, which is unusual for such finds, and may mean that the trove was buried in haste.

Setting the location of Varinius’ defeat at Thurii is fiction; however, he was beaten decisively, losing his horse and many of his standards to Spartacus’ forces. His fate is unknown. Crixus split from Spartacus’ main army eventually – I made it after the clash with Varinius. Twenty to thirty thousand men followed him. As I mentioned before, we don’t know when Castus and Gannicus joined the rebellion. In my version of the story, they were there from the days in the ludus and stayed with Spartacus when Crixus left. The slaves’ journey north through Italy is shrouded in mystery, but they marched along the Apennine Mountains and had their path blocked by the consul Lentulus. Scant details of the battle that followed survive: Lentulus was defeated; his men fled the field, leaving their baggage train; many standards were lost.

By the time I’d got to this stage, it was clear that Spartacus’ story wasn’t going to fit in one novel. I punted the idea of a second book to my editor, who responded with huge enthusiasm. It’s going to be written back-to-back with this novel, and is scheduled for release in late 2012. My mind is in overdrive thinking about it already.

The list of references for Spartacus is shorter than normal, because of the aforementioned lack of material. Apart from my Roman history texts, the main books I used were an excellent book on the whole rebellion called
The Spartacus War
by Professor Barry Strauss;
Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents
by Brent D. Shaw, which details every little scrap of ancient text about the man;
Spartacus and the Slave War 73–71 BC
, an Osprey book by Nic Fields; another Osprey title,
The Thracians
by Chris Webber was recently added to in a fantastic way by his textbook
The Gods of Battle
, which I recommend highly. The brilliant website
www.RomanArmyTalk.com
has to be mentioned too – it’s a wonderful place to find out anything and everything about the Roman army, and its members are always quick to answer any queries. Going to the RAT conference in York this year was extremely enjoyable; the lectures were excellent, and it was great to put faces to so many names.

As ever, I am hugely grateful to a large number of people. Rosie de Courcy, my editor, and Charlie Viney, my agent, are fantastic people to work with, and I deeply appreciate all that you do for me. Thank you very much to everyone at Preface, Cornerstone and other departments of Random House: it’s all your hard work that helps my books to do so well. I’m grateful to Leslie Jones, a reader of mine, for his input on Sertorius and his intelligence officers. Claire Wheller, you’re an incredible physio, and thank you for keeping my RSIs at bay. Arthur O’Connor, an old veterinary friend, has to get a big mention too. He is the ‘wall’ off which I bounce my ideas and finished manuscripts. He invariably comes up with great ideas as well as lots of ‘homework’. I am always immensely appreciative of them. Thanks, Arthur!

Cheers and good wishes to all of you wonderful readers out there. It’s because of you that I am able to keep writing. Please pop by my website
www.benkane.net
any time. You can also look for me on Facebook or Twitter: @benkaneauthor. And last but not least, thank you to Sair, my lovely wife, and Ferdia and Pippa, my wonderful children. I love you all very much.

Glossary

Abella: modern-day Avella.

acetum
: sour wine, the universal beverage served to Roman soldiers. Also the word for vinegar, the most common disinfectant used by Roman doctors. Vinegar is excellent at killing bacteria, and its widespread use in Western medicine continued until late in the nineteenth century.

alopekis
: a typical Thracian cap made of fox-skin. It came in two styles, pointed or with a low crown.

amphora
(pl.
amphorae
): a large, two-handled clay vessel with a narrow neck used to store wine, olive oil and other produce.

aquilifer
(pl.
aquiliferi
): the standard-bearer for the
aquila
, or eagle, of a legion.

as
(pl.
asses
): a small bronze coin, originally worth two-fifths of a
sestertius
.

Asia Minor: a geographical term used to describe the westernmost part of the continent of Asia, equating to much of modern-day Turkey.

atrium
: the large chamber immediately beyond the entrance hall in a Roman house. This was the social and devotional centre of the house. It had an opening in the roof and a pool, the
impluvium
, to catch the rainwater that entered.

Attic helmet: a helmet type originating in Greece, which was also widely used elsewhere in the ancient world.

auctoratus
(pl.
auctorati
): a free Roman citizen who volunteered to become a gladiator.

aureus
(pl.
aurei
): a small gold coin worth twenty-five
denarii
. Until the time of the early Empire, it was minted infrequently.

auxiliaries: Rome was happy to use allied soldiers of different types to increase their armies’ effectiveness. For most of the first century BC, there was no Roman citizen cavalry. It became the norm to recruit natural horsemen such as German, Gaulish and Spanish tribesmen.

ballista
(pl.
ballistae
): a two-armed Roman catapult that looked like a crossbow on a stand, and which fired either bolts or stones with great accuracy and force.

Belenus: the Gaulish god of light. He was also the god of cattle and sheep.

Bithynia: a territory in north-west Asia Minor that was bequeathed to Rome by its king in 75/4 BC.

Brennus: the Gaulish chieftain who is reputed to have sacked Rome in 387 BC. (Also a character in my book
The Forgotten Legion
!)

bucina
(pl.
bucinae
): a military trumpet. The Romans used a number of types of instruments, among them the
tuba
, the
cornu
and the
bucina
. To simplify matters, I have used just one of them: the
bucina
.