Spartacus Thesis

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Spartacus by Aldo Schiavone focuses on the actual history of Spartacus disregarding all the myths and legends. Spartacus, a Thracian soldier who was captured and sold into slavery by the Romans, was forced to train as a gladiator. A great soldier and gladiator Spartacus led the largest slave rebellion in the history of the Roman Republic in order to incite (stir up) the imperial system (extending of the empire) of the Roman Empire. In the past Spartacus has been thought of as a slave who was fought for his freedom. Schiavone takes all this and puts in in a different perspective, he bases Spartacus off fact not legend. Aldo Schaivones’ thesis is that Spartacus, and his army’s goal wasn’t to end slavery but to merely lead Italy into civil war against Rome. Schiavone supports this claim by using a number of different primary and secondary sources. One of the most common sources Schiavone uses is “Life of Crassus” by Plutarch, and “The Civil Wars” by…show more content…
With the lack of primary sources many of thoughts can lead to the production of myths. That’s why Schiavone uses all the sources to conclude the facts about Spartacus. Spartacus’s decision to stay in Italy led to the Florus’s source. He wrote that Spartacus and his army did not want to escape without getting revenge on the Romans. From this Schiavone links that Spartacus did not try to escape the empire, even thought he had many chances and kept recruiting more men. From Sallust’s Histories Schiavone continues that Spartacus was trying to initiate a strike on the Republic. As Schiavone said earlier slavery part of Mediterranean society, meaning that if Spartacus were to continue recreating more slaves Spartacus would strike the Republic. We can therefore conclude Schiavone’s reasoning and how the primary and secondary source information that Spartacus looked to take down the

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