Draba’s Legacy and the Spectacle of Sacrifice

This chapter explores how STARZ Spartacus reworks and inverts the pivotal scene of the private fight between Spartacus and Draba for Crassus' viewing pleasure in Kubrick's iconic 1960 film. While the new series omits the figure of Draba, the chapter argues that his influence reveals that, in contrast to the elite Romans in the earlier film, the Romans of the series—ruthlessly ambitious Batiatus, and vengeance-minded Lucretia and Ilithyia—are far more base in their political scheming and sexual desires. The chapter examines the series' staging of two bespoke fight exhibitions that draw on the Draba scene to present a narrative of decline that highlights the degeneracy of the Roman spectators and ultimately leads to rebellion.

Introduction: Reimagining a New Spartacus

This introductory chapter discusses the highly successful television series Spartacus, which aired on the premium cable network STARZ from 2010 to 2013. The story of Spartacus, the historical Thracian gladiator who led a slave uprising against the Roman Republican army from 73 to 71 BC, has inspired numerous receptions over the centuries in a variety of different media, while the figure of the rebel slave leader has often served as an icon of resistance against oppression in modern political movements and popular ideologies. Here, the chapter looks into the production history of the STARZ series and how the series itself treads familiar ground at the same time as it explores new territory.

The Rape of Lucretia

This chapter looks closely at the dominant female character of the first three seasons of the series—Lucretia, the wife of the gladiatorial ludus master Batiatus. It maintains that Lucretia's sexual choices and, in particular, her relationship to the act of rape as portrayed in the series present an ongoing reflection on the depiction of rape in modern historical fiction to assert power and to demean women. As the chapter argues, the question of rape in Spartacus is fraught with issues of power and its abuse, and it exposes how the series creators make a significant and meaningful distinction between implicit rape, which is depicted non-violently and often performed silently by extras, and the violent, explicitly abusive rape of named characters.

Upward Mobility in the House of Batiatus

This chapter considers the depiction of the ambitious, ruthless couple Batiatus and Lucretia and their scheming aspirations to turn their ludus into the foremost gladiator spectacle business in Capua. Although their plans for upward mobility utilize violence, sexual manipulation, and multiple murders, the chapter claims that this does not diminish the characters' appeal to viewers, due to a pair of robust and sympathetic performances by the actors who play them. This chapter argues that the series successfully uses visual and narrative strategies to do something innovative within both the epic cinematic tradition and the Spartacus reception tradition: STARZ Spartacus invites the audience to transfer their allegiance away from the Roman elite and the rebel slaves, and identify with the cunning bourgeois boot-strappers at the head of the House of Batiatus.

A New Crassus as Roman Villain

This chapter examines the historical Crassus as reimagined in the STARZ Spartacus series by means of clever adaptations and modifications. It argues that Crassus undergoes a transformation, as he is sexualized by the addition of a tender romance with a slave woman, Kore—an affair turned bitter by the machinations of an invented son named Tiberius—and by his gladiator-style physical conditioning regimen. The result is a compelling characterization that is not a product of its literary and cinematic predecessors but is remarkably consistent with the ancient source material and respectful of at least some of the realities of period.

Building a New Ancient Rome

This chapter investigates how the world of ancient Rome is portrayed onscreen in the Spartacus series by assessing the physical sets—including the buildings and cities, interior design, and furniture—as well as the art direction in terms of color and costume design. With productions set in particular periods or places, the physical set and mise-en-scène provide vital clues as to when and where they are conceived as taking place. This chapter thus analyzes the distinctive look of the physical settings of the series, especially the villas and the cities (Capua, Sinuessa, and Rome), arguing that Spartacus offers a vision of a dark and turbulent new Rome that owes as much to contemporary thinking as to its past, both historical and cinematic.

Social Dynamics and Liminal Spaces

This chapter focuses on those liminal spaces that highlight the power struggles of the series' main characters. Spartacus, the titular character of the series and the face of the struggle to escape Roman servitude, exists in a liminal space for the duration of the series, since he is always shown to be in-between worlds. Hence, this chapter examines the obvious liminality of concrete physical thresholds, such as cliffs and balconies, and then moves on to spaces that function as gateways to change while being physically more self-enclosed. These spaces in-between and at the margins, as this chapter shows, reveal and facilitate acts of transgression, transformation, and resistance. Such liminal spaces ultimately reflect Spartacus' own journey, as he finds himself in spaces of transition and transformation, with each place presenting special challenges.

The Life and Death of Gannicus

This chapter turns to another hero in the series, Gannicus, in discussing the portrayal of the messianic death given to this character. It argues that Gannicus experiences an anti-heroic journey as he resists the role of rebel or leader until the very end of the series; as such, he is sharply juxtaposed to both Spartacus and Crixus but also complements these other characters in underscoring their very deficiencies. The chapter analyzes Gannicus' symbolic death by crucifixion to demonstrate how his death showcases the transformations of the rebel leader, Spartacus, by complicating and multiplying the paradigm of the single hero, just as audiences are invited to rediscover the true meaning of freedom.

Memories of Storied Heroes

This chapter explores how the slaves of Batiatus' ludus rebuild their individual identities by redefining categories of value and connection, gender and family, as they are stripped of their past and end up becoming a band of brothers with their own loyalties and narratives of meaning. As this chapter shows, a number of these narratives are embedded within Roman artifacts, such as the herms in Batiatus' villa or the rudis of Gannicus: for instance, the amphitheater of Capua functions as a visible expression of imperial prestige, deployed as a tool of local power that resonates all the way to the city of Rome.

Violence and Voyeurism in the Arena

This chapter explores the different forms of violence portrayed in the series—principally the gladiatorial violence in the arena; violence in the streets, including beatings and murders; and sexual violence perpetrated on slaves but also on Roman citizens. It points out that through scenes of graphic bodily dismemberments and eviscerations, the series asks its audience to contemplate the difficult distinction between morally justified bloodshed and the fetishized conventions of gore, conventions popularized in various subgenres of the horror film, in particular the “splatter film” and the “meat flick.” Despite its slippery tendency to celebrate violence both attached and unattached to a moral perspective, the chapter maintains that the series offers a unique window on the embodiment of violence in the ancient world.