Week 2 SPARTACUS Flashcards
Where Spartacus is located
Italy (Rome)
Spartacus date
73-70 BC (End of Hellenistic Greek/Roman Republic)
Oligarchy
Population ruled by a small, powerful, elitist group of people
Who were the slaves made up of
Conquered free individuals who were hostage
General who allowed poor people serve in the army
Marius in 100 BC
Loyalty change in the army
Marius allowed poorer people receive goods and benefits
Reasons for Marius reforms
- needs more manpower
- social change
- loyalty shift
Professionalization of the army
Slave revolts in Sicily
- 135 BC - 132 BC
- 104 BC - 100 BC
Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus (133 - 132 BC)
Individuals who mobilized the poor citizens for their own benefit
(Power, food, status, etc.)
Marius and Sulla (88 - 86 BC)
Two ambitious generals that compete for absolute power using their supporters as power
Social wars (90 - 88 BC)
Rome’s Italian Allies rebelled, demand the rights of Roman citizenship
- Sulla fights them and gets even more power from his successful campaigns
Sulla (Dictator 81 - 79 BC)
Individual who took the senate hostage and brought the Roman army into Rome.
- demanded absolute power and killed many people
Pompey
Young, ambitious soldier who recieved the army to have campaigns. Far off during Spartacus
Crassus (main villain character in Spartacus and reality)
Ambitious young man who wishes to have more power and the main enemy in Spartacus)
Stage set Senate
Many of the senate stage set is not actually round, rather square
Senator Gracchus, Glaberus, Legion of Rome
Spartacus characters that does not exist in real life
Julius Ceasar, Pompey
Characters in Spartacus that are not currently at the scene but exist in the real world at the time
Gladiators
Originally for funeral games and religious rituals
- slaves and criminals but also professional fighters who fight to the death
- Extremely popular
- however, they do not receive the same benefits as citizens
Spartacus rebellion according to Plutarch and Appian
- group of enslaved gladiators who went to the alps and fought many armies
- They end up in Soutern Italy after going around for a while
- Crassus given command and defeated the slaves
- Spartacus died in battle after the Cilician pirates betray them
Spartacus action inaccuracies
Progress of the slave army decided very fast and ignored the Alps, many of the fights weren’t put in (reducing heroism)
- Reasonings being to avoid glorifying a revolt against law and order
Character of Spartacus in history
- free character from Thrace, educated and civilized as a Greek man
- already married to a Prophetess wife
- Couldn’t control his slave army unified
- Forbid the collection of Gold and silver
- Died in battle (body never found)
Chatacter of Spartacus inaccuracies in film
- generous with help
- rebellious
- Thracian, born a slave
- untrained, uneducated, never had a woman
- Self-sacrificing
- died in crucifixion
Spartacus in Modern imagination
Many oppressed populations used Spartacus as their hero (French revolution, Marxist hero, Italian resistance against Nazi rule)
Contemporary American context in Spartacus
- created during the Cold War, “red threat” of Senator McCarthy, Soviet fear in America
- The power of propaganda of the spread of Communism
- house committee of un-american activities (HUAC) [I’m Spartacus scene involves HUAC, Gracchus faces interrogation scene]
Hollywood blacklist in 1900s
- 300 Hollywood actors, directors, musicians blacklisted for having communist sympathies
- the Hollywood 10
Spartacus (1960)
- Based on a book by blacklisted author Howard Fast called Spartacus
- book was created in prison, hugely successful
- Dalton Trumbo (screenplay writer) was also one of the blacklisted Hollywood 10
- Backed up by Universal Studios
- However many of the political meanings were watered-down and lost in the movie
- Heavily against slavery
Draba (Spartacus)
- character in Spartacus that refused to kill and opposed oppression
- one of the first actors who received a strong actual character while being a black man
Homosexuality/Bisexuality (Spartacus)
- Scene cut out by for being taboo and sensitive (despite it being subtle) as oysters and snails
Film effects in Spartacus
- mighty music, intermission, ending, etc.
- color
- wide-screen format
- huge landscape
- huge crowds
