Everything you've said is extremely cearand is tet is a lot of it contested? Or are we in the clear about all those facts? Probably the snake on the face is an anecdote that comes up with a lot of people in the ancient wrld, where er they are found with snakes or other interesting eagles and things like that. But apart from that, the em his background in thrace seems very likely. And certainly, obviously he was in em capua. There are one or two writers who say that his extreme military competence might have been accrued from having first been a mercenary in the roman army. But that's not so clear. Mary may be referred to the nature
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.