The astonishing story of Spartacus

It wasn't all about fighting Crassus. The extent of his slave rebellion is often underestimated.

Hello there, you beautiful denizens of the world,

JP's weekly is here. Now, what is in this newsletter?

Last week, I said, "I will probably talk about Spartacus in the next and share my early struggles with marketing my first novel."

So:

First, we will talk a bit about Spartacus. Yes, that famous gladiator. And some insight into my series on him. And since that took some space, I will defer the Marketing story for the next newsletter, so stay tuned. If you are ever interested in writing books (or want to know what authors go through promoting), you might enjoy or even get something out of my early experience. Do not worry. I will not bore you with unnecessary details.

The Spartacus Rebellion

Let's go.

Who has not heard of Spartacus? Just like Cleopatra, he is a larger-than-life figure. He probably caught our attention in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 Opus with Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, Peter Ustinov as Batiatus, and Laurence Olivier as Marcus Crassus. Great movie, based on Howard Fast's book. The movie immortalized "I am Spartacus," used in many other scenarios in future movies (though there is no historical record that it was ever said).

When I embarked on writing Spartacus, the same questions came up as when I wrote Cleopatra. Famous figures. Plenty of prior work. Who would want to read another dramatized account? There is also the hugely entertaining Showtime series. Well, given the scant historical sources, there is always a potential to offer a new perspective while building new drama. I think it is hard to grasp the extent of the Spartacus rebellion, and movies/TV series tend to focus on the most important or entertaining parts. Did you know that the revolt lasted nearly two years, and after Spartacus escaped from the gladiatorial school, he successfully defeated the well-organized Romans in at least 8 major battles, including defeating Consuls, and crossed the length of Italy from north to the south? It is astonishing when you think of his situation, the prevalent sentiments regarding slaves, and the very likely limited military training of his army. Not only that, were you aware that Spartacus almost got away? His army had reached the northern boundaries of Italy (what they called Cisalpine Gaul, where he defeated Caesar's assassin Cassius' father) and yet, for some reason, Spartacus turned and marched South again. I try to understand that.

Given that backdrop, I decided to split the series into three parts, exploring how he might have learned his organizational skills (Soldier), his life as a slave and the beginning of the revolt (Slave), and his battles and eventual end (Savior). It took about 7 months to complete it. The reality is we have very little historical record of Spartacus. The one nearest to his time, and from which other sources may have drawn, is Sallust's (written soon after the period of the Spartacus wars), and then Plutarch and Dio who wrote hundreds of years later. Sallust's account is fragmented and most of it is lost. Despite their general disdain and distaste for slaves, you can see them grudgingly accept that Spartacus was formidable (the slaves have left no record). That is quite an admission. We only have the scantest hints of Spartacus' early situation, and most of what we have are his battles. The general records on the lives of Slaves, Roman military organization, and Spartacus' battles help us infer or extrapolate about who he might have been. And I explore those theories, with, of course, a supporting cast of characters and drama.

The main difference between my series and the movie/TV is that my books focus heavily on the lives of the slaves. I stayed away from the stories of the elite and their proclivities. I tried to infuse as much reality as I could, (though these are novels, not academic treatises) based on what we know of the time. For example, the gladiatorial combats were not like how they showed in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and arenas were nothing like the Coliseum (we have an early Roman board for the one at Pompeii, they called it the Spectacula). During the Spartacus period, they were unlikely to be gratuitously murderous because it was expensive (it became a different story under the emperors who came about a century later). The schools were likely more disciplined rather than like a riotous prison with people getting killed every which way. And Batiatus, the name Plutarch mentions, was probably "Vatia." Of all my books, I felt the most emotional when I completed Spartacus. When you write nearly 300,000 words on the character, you form a certain sentiment, and mine was, how could a human endure so much?

He was an amazing man. If you want to immerse yourself in his world, give the Spartacus Rebellion series a try. “Slave,” the second book, is rated 4.7/5, so it appears readers are enjoying the books. Yes, there are battles. Yes, it can get grim and violent. But such were his times.

In other news

The Weave is now going through final refinements. The next few steps are finalizing the draft, initial proofreads, beta reads, final editorial, and then release. I will open a promo price pre-order just for my readers because how could I not?

As a parting shot:

(Yo, new readers, check out this poll on my cartooning abilities.)

Once again, may the new year bring you many joys!

Until next week,

Jay.