Historical Standpoint on Stanley Kubrick\'s 1960 Film Spartacus

¶ … movie Gladiator made a number of people turn their attention to what might be called the Ur Roman History Movie - Spartacus. But while most of us know the film for Charlton Heston's lean, pre-NRA president look or for the fact that it enjoys a cult standing among gay men of a certain age, very few of us have probably thought much about the real history that lies behind the movie. Indeed many people may well not even know that there was a real person named Spartacus who did in fact lead the Gladiatorial War against Rome in the years 73 to 71 BCE.

While some of the facts about Spartacus's life are relatively well-known, others can only be guessed at. It is known that he was born in Thrace, a region of the Southeastern Balkans that now lies partly in Turkey, partly in Greece and partly in Bulgaria.

It is also known that Spartacus served in the Roman Army, a not uncommon career path for an ambitious man from the (relatively) outer provinces. While the position one held at birth mattered a great deal more in Rome than it does today in the United States (or at least somewhat more) it remained true at this period of Roman history that a person could substantially improve - or lower - their position through their own actions. (Although it should be noted that this was substantially less true for women than for men.)

Had Spartacus not deserted the army, his career in public service to Rome might well have netted him lifelong financial security if not wealth and a respectable place in any Roman gathering.

However, he did desert the army and is known to have led bandit raids against Roman forces. It was because of these raids that he was captured and sold as a slave. And it was as a slave that he became a gladiator. The custom of gladiatorial fights seems to stem from the Etruscans (an Italian people who were absorbed into the Roman Empire). Gladiators would fight at funerals with the purpose of killing or dying: Those who died served as companions in the afterlife to the one being interred. This historical source of gladiatorial conflict as part of a funereal ceremony was no doubt responsible for the tradition of mortal combat in the arena.

After they became incorporated into Roman public life, gladiatorial fights grew in popularity - and elaborateness.

At shows in Rome these exhibitions became wildly popular and increased in size from three pairs at the first known exhibition in 264 BC (at the funeral of a Brutus) to 300 pairs in the time of Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC). Hence the shows extended from one day to as many as a hundred, under the emperor Titus; while the emperor Trajan in his triumph (ad 107) had 5,000 pairs of gladiators. Shows were also given in other towns of the Roman Empire, as can be seen from the traces of amphitheatres.

Although gladiators might be drawn from a wide variety of different social realms, the majority of them were either slaves or criminals; indeed it is difficult to imagine that anyone with any other career path open to him (or sometimes her) would willingly enter the arena as a gladiator.

There were apparently compensations for the very short life expectancy that gladiators "enjoyed." Many of them became famous, and those that were "according to the satires of Juvenal, enjoyed the favours of society women." This hardly seems like sufficient compensation or inducement to join the gladiatorial ranks. But for those slaves like Spartacus, of course, there was no choice.

Spartacus escaped from a Capua gladiatorial training camp in 73 BCE and made his way to Mt. Vesuvius, where he joined with other escaped slaves and formed an informal army.

This force of slaves succeeded in defeating two Roman forces, and then moved outward from their initial position to occupy most of southern Italy - a feat that they were able to accomplish because their numbers kept growing, rising to at least 90,000.

After defeating the two consuls in 72, Spartacus and his men fought their northward toward the Alps, hoping to be able to escape from Italy altogether and the reach of Roman law. However, his men chose not to leave Italy, and so Spartacus returned with them to Lucania. At this point, the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus trapped Spartacus's soldiers with a force of eight legions. Spartacus himself was killed in the fighting while many other salves were killed by Pompey's army as they tried to flee over the Alps. Crassus crucifed 6,000 slaves along the Appian Way.

Stanley Kubrick's movie is not entirely faithful to the historical facts - it is, for one thing, much less bloody and terrible than what actually occurred - but Howard Fast, on whose work the movie was based tried to provide as accurate a book as possible, not only in regards to historical detail but also true to the emotions that these slaves must have felt. However, he was careful to make the book as accurate as reasonably possible.

The idea for the book came to him while he himself was in prison:

was imprisoned for contempt of Congress for refusing to "name names" to the House Un-American Affairs Committee. This set me to thinking a great deal about prison, and when I was released, I began a very intense study of ancient slavery and imprisonment, particularly with a set of books (rare books today) called "The Ancient Lowly."... In these books, extensive information on the Spartacus revolt was available. I've always been interested in ancient history and ancient Rome, having dutifully read various histories of ancient Rome. I also had a smattering of Latin and a friend who taught Latin.