Spartacus and Slave Wars

Rating:
Summary: Is this all the available information?
Review: I'm a big fan of sourse books for students and scholars both because they enable us to focus on a particular topic in some detail and to discuss the problems in using primary and ancient sources. I think that Brent Shaw's introduction and commentary throughout are excellent but I have one big question: is this all the evidence he could find out about agricultural slaves and gladiators? Having read the 'handbooks' some of the passages are drawn from, I think there is more out there. Likewise I think there is more evidence for how gladiators lived and were viewed/treated by freepeople that could shed further light on the causes and reactions to the three biggest slave wars in Rome's history.

Rating:
Summary: Is this all the available information?
Review: I'm a big fan of sourse books for students and scholars both because they enable us to focus on a particular topic in some detail and to discuss the problems in using primary and ancient sources. I think that Brent Shaw's introduction and commentary throughout are excellent but I have one big question: is this all the evidence he could find out about agricultural slaves and gladiators? Having read the 'handbooks' some of the passages are drawn from, I think there is more out there. Likewise I think there is more evidence for how gladiators lived and were viewed/treated by freepeople that could shed further light on the causes and reactions to the three biggest slave wars in Rome's history.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, great professor
Review: This was a textbook for Prof. Shaw's Slavery & Society in Ancient Rome class, which I took.

Other reviewers have praised the introduction, and rightly so. It includes a great introduction to the political, social, and economic forces behind agrarian slavery; a summary of the servile wars themselves; an exploration of various artistic representations of Spartacus; and raises questions about historical accuracy and the ancient authors' representation of Spartacus.

The translations in this book are wonderful. We also used Thomas Wiedemann's "Greek and Roman Slavery," but Shaw's translations are easier and more interesting to read--engaging, concise, and lucid. The selections, at least for the section on the Spartacus war itself, are quite comprehensive in scope. The documents for the other sections provides a sense of how various factors played into the slave wars. The information in this book is very "digestable," without being inadequate or excessive.

The bibliography is also excellent, and proved to be VERY useful for further research. The sources are categorized by subject. Subjects range from the general ("Slaves & Slavery", "Slave Wars: General") to the two wars themselves ("The Sicilian Slave Wars", "The Spartacus War"). There are also sources for comparative slavery, Spartacus in historical writing and fiction, and various artistic representations (i.e. Spartacus in film).

This book is accessible for students' use as a textbook, but I also recommend it as a valuable resource for people interested in the slave wars, slave resistance in general, and agrarian slavery.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, great professor
Review: This was a textbook for Prof. Shaw's Slavery & Society in Ancient Rome class, which I took.

Other reviewers have praised the introduction, and rightly so. It includes a great introduction to the political, social, and economic forces behind agrarian slavery; a summary of the servile wars themselves; an exploration of various artistic representations of Spartacus; and raises questions about historical accuracy and the ancient authors' representation of Spartacus.

The translations in this book are wonderful. We also used Thomas Wiedemann's "Greek and Roman Slavery," but Shaw's translations are easier and more interesting to read--engaging, concise, and lucid. The selections, at least for the section on the Spartacus war itself, are quite comprehensive in scope. The documents for the other sections provides a sense of how various factors played into the slave wars. The information in this book is very "digestable," without being inadequate or excessive.

The bibliography is also excellent, and proved to be VERY useful for further research. The sources are categorized by subject. Subjects range from the general ("Slaves & Slavery", "Slave Wars: General") to the two wars themselves ("The Sicilian Slave Wars", "The Spartacus War"). There are also sources for comparative slavery, Spartacus in historical writing and fiction, and various artistic representations (i.e. Spartacus in film).

This book is accessible for students' use as a textbook, but I also recommend it as a valuable resource for people interested in the slave wars, slave resistance in general, and agrarian slavery.