The underlying problem here is just how we make sense of sparticus, isn't it? Because neither any ancient sources nor any modern sources have the foggiest clue what was going on in the head of these guys. So you say, so why didn't they go over the alps? Well, maybe that's cause they changed their mind. Maybe there were guys who were who were contesting spartacus control. And so the whole, a story of motivation, becomes terribly circular,. because you're inferring it romfrom what is supposed to have happened before you go.
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.