I think one reason I avoided it was because I’ve seen the Stanley Kubrick film umpteen times (and I’d watch it again tonight if I had it) and I kind of assumed that that is the last word on the Spartacus story. This book has been around a few years – since 2012 – but had passed me by as I was busy reading other books by Ben Kane. Spartacus: The Gladiator takes the story up to the moment when the slave army has inflicted its first great defeat on Rome. It is here - against the unbelievable brutality of gladiatorial life - that Spartacus and Crixus the Gaul plan the audacious overthrow of their Roman masters, escaping to Vesuvius, where they recruit and train a huge slave army - an army which will keep the might of Rome at bay for two years and create one of the most extraordinary legends in history. Betrayed again to the Romans by his jealous king, Spartacus - and with him Ariadne - are taken in captivity to the school of gladiators at Capua. But here he quickly falls foul of his overlord, the Thracian king, who has set his heart on Dionysian priestess, Ariadne - later to become wife of Spartacus. Ben Kane's brilliant novel begins in the Thracian village to which Spartacus has returned, after escaping from life as an auxiliary in the Roman army.

This of course is grist to the novelist's mill. In historical terms we know very little about Spartacus the man - partly because most contemporary Roman historians were keen to obliterate his memory and prevent him from attaining mythic status. The first of two epic novels which tell the story of one of the most charismatic heroes history has ever known - Spartacus, the gladiator slave who took on and nearly defeated the might of Rome, during the years 73-71 BC.

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Ben kane spartacus series