Publisher’s write-up:
‘You have probably heard of Spartacus …
He is dead famous for:
- Being quite a good gladiator
- Giving the Romans the run-around
- Looking an awful lot like Kirk Douglas.
But have you heard that Spartacus:
- Fought for the Romans as well as against them
- Once camped his army of rebel slaves inside a volcano
- Cut a deal with a bunch of double-crossing pirates?
Yes, even though he is dead, Spartacus is still full
of surprises. Now you can read the inside story in Spartacus’s diary, catch up
on all the latest battle results in The Daily Gladius, and find out how to keep
the mighty Roman Empire at bay with just
a few trusty followers and a cunning plan.’
This is a
biography on the young gladiator from Thrace who led a strong revolt against
the Mighty Roman Empire around 70 BC. The book is part of the Dead Famous
series from Scholastic (now published as Horribly
Famous) and is written by Toby Brown and illustrated by Clive Goddard.
Spartacus is
bored of herding sheep in Thrace and is looking for some excitement and joins
the Roman army to quell his boredom. However, he was handed very mundane tasks
and thus, deserts the army, gets married and as a punishment for deserting the
army, he is designated as a slave and sold to a gladiator academy, where he
performs very well. However, Spartacus
had the ambition of going back home and thus, leads a mutiny along with the
fellow gladiators successfully pulling down the gladiator academy, which is the
beginning of a mass rebellion by the slaves against the mighty Roman Empire.
The author did a
very good job at bringing out the character of Spartacus; thirsty for adventure
but not necessarily bloodthirsty, an astute tactician who could look at the
bigger picture wherein, he spared the lives of certain Roman captives, so that
peasants and other ordinary people are not intimidated by the slave army. The
book also brought out the conflicts within the army regarding the way of
handling the situation, such as Crixus, who didn’t agree with Spartacus’ rather
humane approach. The classes of people in the Roman Empire was also brought out
well, as to how slaves and gladiators were supposed to be at the lowest strata,
which was an added reason why Romans underestimated them and were also equally
embarrassed by such a rebellion.
The best aspect
of the book was certainly the illustrations of Clive Goddard; humours,
detailed, to the extent that in many cases, it covered both the pages to
portray a much clearer picture, an aspect which I have not seen in any of the
other books in the same series.
I read the book
nearly eight years ago, when I was
perhaps the target audience and I really enjoyed it and found it informative,
when I read it again now to refresh my memory, I didn’t enjoy it any less and I
would award the book a rating of eight
on ten.
Rating – 8/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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