As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.
Historical person
104 BCE–72 BCE
Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who escaped from a school at Capua in 73 BC and became the leading figure in a massive revolt of enslaved people and rural workers. His army defeated successive Roman forces and moved across Italy for two years. The rebels’ aims remain uncertain, and ancient accounts disagree over strategy and internal division.
The rebel force defeated several Roman armies and moved repeatedly through southern and northern Italy, but ancient sources disagree over Spartacus's ultimate strategic aims. Rome eventually gave Marcus Licinius Crassus extraordinary command against the uprising. In 71 BC Crassus trapped and defeated the remaining rebels in southern Italy; Spartacus was killed in the final fighting and thousands of prisoners were crucified along the Appian Way.
Captivating History’s Spartacus recounts the Third Servile War, the great slave uprising that shook the Roman Republic between 73 and 71 BC. Captivating History’s The Servile Wars follows the uprisings in Sicily and culminates in the rebellion led by Spartacus in Italy, explaining how large enslaved populations, brutal conditions and Roman military commitments created opportunities for resistance. Further fictional perspectives on Spartacus can be found in Steven Saylor’s Arms of Nemesis, Peter Darman’s Companions, Colleen McCullough’s Fortune’s Favourites, Peter Darman’s Parthian Dawn, and Peter Darman’s The Parthian.
Series
The Emperor series is a highly fictionalised retelling of Julius Caesar’s life and the violent end of the Roman Republic. It follows Caesar from youth through war, political ascent and conquest, then continues beyond his assassination into the struggle between Octavian, Antony and Caesar’s killers.
All books in this series
The Masters of Rome series reconstructs the final century of the Roman Republic from the rise of Gaius Marius in 110 BCE to the settlement that made Octavian Augustus in 27 BCE. Across seven novels, military commands, elections, family alliances, provincial wealth and personal patronage become instruments in…
All books in this series
The Parthian Chronicles follow Pacorus, a fictional Parthian prince whose life stretches across the violent politics of the first century BCE. The opening novel places him beside Spartacus during the Third Servile War; later volumes return him to Mesopotamia, where he becomes ruler of Dura and is drawn…
All books in this series
The Gladiator novels follow the young Marcus Cornelius Primus in the final decades of the Roman Republic. Enslavement, gladiatorial training and the search for his abducted mother draw him into the rivalries surrounding Julius Caesar, Pompey and the continuing memory of Spartacus’s revolt.
All books in this series
The Roma Sub Rosa series follows Gordianus the Finder through the last generation of the Roman Republic. His investigations begin in the aftermath of Sulla’s dictatorship and continue through slave revolt, aristocratic trials, Catiline’s conspiracy, Caesar’s civil war and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The series uses murder…
All books in this series
Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
