Book
The Risen
First published 2016
In 73 BCE, a group of gladiators escape from a training school at Capua and begin the uprising remembered as the Third Servile War. Spartacus emerges as the revolt’s most powerful leader, drawing enslaved people, fugitives and fighters from different backgrounds into an army capable of defeating successive Roman forces. Durham presents the rebellion through multiple viewpoints, including Spartacus, his companion Astera, Roman soldiers and enslaved children caught between the two sides.
As the revolt expands across Italy, disagreements over strategy and the ambitions of commanders such as Crixus complicate the rebels’ chances of escape. Rome eventually gives Marcus Licinius Crassus extraordinary authority to destroy the uprising, while Pompey’s return to Italy closes another route to survival. The novel treats Spartacus not simply as a legendary gladiator but as the leader of a diverse and unstable coalition confronting the military and social power of the late Roman Republic.
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