Sparticus broke out of a gladiatorial school in capua with 70 other men. Accounts differ about exactly what happened when he did it, says Mary beard. But i think for me the puzzle is, how surprised are we supposed to be at this? The whole idea of having the school is you would put on a bedt of display, not just slaughtering people. Anybody looking at this now says, this is an explosion waiting to happen.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Spartacus, the gladiator who led a major slave rebellion against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. He was an accomplished military leader, and the campaign he led contributed significantly to the instability of the Roman state in this period. Spartacus was celebrated by some ancient historians and reviled by others, and became a hero to revolutionaries in 19th-century Europe. Modern perceptions of his character have been influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film - but ancient sources give a rather more complex picture of Spartacus and the aims of his rebellion.
With:
Mary Beard
Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge
Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College, London
Theresa Urbainczyk
Associate Professor of Classics at University College, Dublin.
Producer: Victoria Brignell.