Week 2 SPARTACUS

Question 1

Where Spartacus is located

Answer 1

Italy (Rome)

Question 2

Spartacus date

Answer 2

73-70 BC (End of Hellenistic Greek/Roman Republic)

Question 3

Oligarchy

Answer 3

Population ruled by a small, powerful, elitist group of people

Question 4

Who were the slaves made up of

Answer 4

Conquered free individuals who were hostage

Question 5

General who allowed poor people serve in the army

Answer 5

Marius in 100 BC

Question 6

Loyalty change in the army

Answer 6

Marius allowed poorer people receive goods and benefits

Question 7

Reasons for Marius reforms

Answer 7

• needs more manpower
• social change
• loyalty shift
  Professionalization of the army

Question 8

Slave revolts in Sicily

Answer 8

• 135 BC - 132 BC
• 104 BC - 100 BC

Question 9

Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus (133 - 132 BC)

Answer 9

Individuals who mobilized the poor citizens for their own benefit
(Power, food, status, etc.)

Question 10

Marius and Sulla (88 - 86 BC)

Answer 10

Two ambitious generals that compete for absolute power using their supporters as power

Question 11

Social wars (90 - 88 BC)

Answer 11

Rome’s Italian Allies rebelled, demand the rights of Roman citizenship
- Sulla fights them and gets even more power from his successful campaigns

Question 12

Sulla (Dictator 81 - 79 BC)

Answer 12

Individual who took the senate hostage and brought the Roman army into Rome.
- demanded absolute power and killed many people

Question 13

Pompey

Answer 13

Young, ambitious soldier who recieved the army to have campaigns. Far off during Spartacus

Question 14

Crassus (main villain character in Spartacus and reality)

Answer 14

Ambitious young man who wishes to have more power and the main enemy in Spartacus)

Question 15

Stage set Senate

Answer 15

Many of the senate stage set is not actually round, rather square

Question 16

Senator Gracchus, Glaberus, Legion of Rome

Answer 16

Spartacus characters that does not exist in real life

Question 17

Julius Ceasar, Pompey

Answer 17

Characters in Spartacus that are not currently at the scene but exist in the real world at the time

Question 19

Gladiators

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Spartacus rebellion according to Plutarch and Appian

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Spartacus action inaccuracies

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Character of Spartacus in history

Answer 22

• 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)

Question 23

Chatacter of Spartacus inaccuracies in film

Answer 23

• generous with help
• rebellious
• Thracian, born a slave
• untrained, uneducated, never had a woman
• Self-sacrificing
• died in crucifixion

Question 25

Spartacus in Modern imagination

Answer 25

Many oppressed populations used Spartacus as their hero (French revolution, Marxist hero, Italian resistance against Nazi rule)

Question 26

Contemporary American context in Spartacus

Answer 26

- 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]

Question 27

Hollywood blacklist in 1900s

Answer 27

- 300 Hollywood actors, directors, musicians blacklisted for having communist sympathies - the Hollywood 10

Question 28

Spartacus (1960)

Answer 28

- 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

Question 29

Draba (Spartacus)

Answer 29

- 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

Question 30

Homosexuality/Bisexuality (Spartacus)

Answer 30

- Scene cut out by for being taboo and sensitive (despite it being subtle) as oysters and snails

Question 31

Film effects in Spartacus

Answer 31

- mighty music, intermission, ending, etc. - color - wide-screen format - huge landscape - huge crowds