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Today we know very little about Spartacus the man – partly because contemporary Roman historians were keen not to eulogise his successes. This of course is grist to the novelist’s mill.
Ben Kane’s latest novel begins in the Thracian village to which Spartacus has returned, after serving as an auxiliary in the Roman army. He quickly falls foul of his overlord, the tribal king, who has set his heart on Dionysian priestess, Ariadne – later to become Spartacus’ wife.
Betrayed to the Romans by his jealous king, Spartacus – and with him Ariadne – are taken in captivity to the gladiator school at Capua. It is from here – against the unbelievable brutality of gladiatorial life – that Spartacus and Crixus the Gaul plan their escape to Vesuvius, where they recruit and train a huge slave army. An army which will keep the might of Rome at bay for two years and create one of the most extraordinary legends in history.
57 Comments
@ClassicFictionLover: you’re welcome. Any time you’d like more suggestions, please ask.
when is the next installment of spartacus due out
@ceaser68: August 16th!
Hi Ben we met at History in the Court on the 29th Sep, I wore the Kilt,
Just to say, I have read all that you have written and eagerly await the next installment of Spartacus, and then the next in the Hanibal series,
I may have helped to push Spartacus into no3 position as I had the book pre-ordered on Amazon, and then I also downloaded it to my kindle. (you owe me a book)
Keep up the good work.
Will you continue to write Roman novels? or would you try something different?
I have always found the Times of Clovis or Charlemane around the 8-9th century of great interest as it is almost pre-history, this would give you almost unlimited license to create a tail of your own imagination.
@plato: Hi there! Cheers for buying the book twice! Sadly, the ebook doesn’t count towards bestseller status – yet. This is because there are so many vendors (Amazon, Sony, iTunes etc) that compiling the data has not yet been centralised. It will be soon, I am told…
As for new novels, well, I will be pitching to my publishers for a new contract some time this year. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, but if I told you them, I’d have to kill you.
For the forseeable future, it’s Roman, but I do have other time periods in mind as well. Not Wars of the Roses any more, however!
Hi Ben – nearly at the end of your first book – decided to go straight to Startacus on Audiobook – looking forward to starting that in the next few days – great writing and well done on the No.3 bestseller!
@Mightywhite: Thanks a lot for your good wishes. Very pleased that you like The Forgotten Legion too!