Arguably no other figure from Classical Antiquity has been idealized by posterity as the symbol of defiance in the face of tyrannical injustice, than Spartacus. Spartacus’ life story has inspired different people over the centuries, from the Haitian rebel leader Toussaint Louverture (“Black Spartacus”) in the eighteenth century, to German Marxists of the twentieth century, (who formed the Spartacist League), to sixties film directors, such as Stanley Kubrick. It’s ironic that this modern-esque view of Spartacus is ultimately derived from a few inconclusive passages in ancient sources. Stanley Kubrick’s film Spartacus 1960, depicts a rebel who leads an army of slaves against the oppressive empire of Rome, struggling to end the Roman institution of slavery, Kubrick’s film differs from historical sources Appian and Plutarch and Frontinus on Spartacus’ Cause. Religion and stratagem.
One of the more complete, though not necessarily accurate, accounts of Spartacus’ accomplishments is given by Plutarch; the last great slave rebellion had its cause in the “unjust behavior of their owners” (Plutarch, 131), two hundred planned an escape (mostly Thracians and Gauls) but owing to treachery only seventy two succeeded in…show more content… The narrator clearly states that Christianity was destined to “overthrow the pagan tyranny of Rome,” which is inaccurate since neither Plutarch nor Appian made any references to religion as being a motivator for Spartacus. According to Plutarch, Spartacus’s wife a Thracian was a “prophetess who was possessed by ecstatic frenzies that were part of the worship of Dionysus. She declared this was a sign of a tremendous and fearsome power that would bring him to an unfortunate end.”(132) since she was of the same tribe as Spartacus and Plutarch described him as more “Hellenic than Thracian”, he may well have been a polytheist, though nothing is specifically mentioned on his stance about the
