Spartacus begins with three young Romanpatricians – Caius, his sister Helena and her friend Claudia, commencing a journey from Rome to Capua along the Via Appia a few weeks after the final suppression of the slave revolt. The road is lined by "tokens of punishment" – slaves crucified in the immediate aftermath of the revolt. During the first day of their travel the party encounter several representative individuals; a minor politician, a prosperous businessman of the equestrian class, an eastern trader and a young officer of the legions; all of whom give their respective perspectives on the rising. On arrival at a palatial country villa where they are to spend the night, the trio meet with other guests, both historical and fictional, who either played key roles in the events just finished or who have sufficient perception to analyze the significance of slavery as an institution within the Roman Republic. From the encounters at the Villa Salaria, the focus of the novel moves to occasions before and during the actual rising of the slaves. The emphasis is on Spartacus, his life in the mines and as a gladiator; his character, powers of leadership and dreams of a just society where exploitation and cruelty have been eliminated. Spartacus had been born a free man in his homeland of Thrace, but he was captured as a young man and sold as a slave in the gold-mines of Libya. Eventually, he and several Thracian slaves, including his comrade Gannicus, are bought by a wealthy nobleman, Lentulus Batiatus, who owns and trains a large number of gladiators at his estate near the Italian city of Capua. There, Spartacus and Gannicus meet a large number of Africans, Gauls, and Thracians who train and fight as gladiators for the roaring applause of Roman crowds. There, Spartacus and Gannicus meet and befriend three fellow gladiators, a large red-headed Gaul named Crixus, a Jew named David, and a dark-skinned African named Nordo. Spartacus trains and fights as a gladiator, while adjusting well to the comforts of the ludus that Batiatus and his trainers provide for them. He eventually meets and begins a romantic relationship with a golden-haired German girl named Varinia, who is one of several dozen female slaves that Batiatus keeps for the pleasure of his gladiators. But Spartacus and many of his fellow gladiators yearn for freedom, and after being harassed by the prison guards one day, the gladiators and female slaves rise up in revolt against their Roman master. Led by Spartacus and Crixus, the rebels overwhelm their trainers and prison guards, force Lentulus Batiatus to retreat from his villa to Capua, and destroy the city garrison sent to stop them.
Narrative structure
The novel changes between third-person omniscientpast and presenttenses. The narrative structure is based on several members of the Roman ruling hierarchy who, using the past tense, are shown meeting to relate tales of the events in Spartacus's life and uprising. The tales are told in the present tense directly by the narrator, with details going far beyond the Romans' possible knowledge. The novel deviates from and extends known historical facts. In particular, the real Gaius Gracchus died about ten years before the birth of Spartacus.
Theme
The novel's central theme is that man's most basic universal values are freedom, love, hope, and finally life. Oppression and slavery strip these away until the oppressed have nothing to lose by uprising. Oppressive systems are held together by political systems. Spartacus stands as an eternal symbol of how man must fight against political systems that oppress man's values:
Publication
Howard Fast self-published the novel in the United States during the McCarthy era in 1951. He began writing it as a reaction to his imprisonment for charges stemming from his earlier involvement in the Communist Party USA. He had refused to disclose to Congress the names of contributors to a fund for a home for orphans of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War. He was imprisoned for three months in 1950 for contempt of Congress. The final page of the first edition describes some of his difficulties in publishing: The cover illustration of the first edition is by African-American artist Charles White. In the 1991 paperback version, the author has a short introduction, "Spartacus and the Blacklist", which expands on the conditions surrounding the writing and publishing of the work.
