Читать книгу The Warrior's Manifesto. Ideals for Those Who Protect and Defend онлайн

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Spartacus was enslaved by the Romans and pressed into death-reeking arenas for the amusement of elites who elevated themselves above others. The elites could do what they would with lesser peoples. They were Romans.

For Spartacus, life as a slave began in the ludus of Lentulus Batiatus at Capua. Existence was harsh in the ludus. To prepare for combat whose end was death to amuse spectators often meant death along the way.

Spartacus yearned for the freedom into which he was born, the freedom wrested from him by a Roman sword. As a skilled strategist burning with life, he hungered for an opportunity to shatter chains. When it tapped, Spartacus seized the day and slashed through his masters to the world beyond their cages. Other gladiators joined. They fought as warriors would, with whatever they could find: kitchen implements, training tools, bare hands. “Furor arma ministrat”²—rage finds its weapons. Some imagine him rallying his fellow gladiators with these words:

If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen, waiting for the butcher’s knife! If ye are men, follow me! Strike down yon guard, gain the mountain passes, and there do bloody work, as did your sires at old Thermopylæ! Is Sparta dead? Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins, that you do crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master’s lash? O comrades! warriors! Thracians! if we must fight, let us fight for ourselves! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors! If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle!³