Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua

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"Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua" is a rhetorical monologue written by Elijah Kellogg for a student competition at Bowdoin College in 1842, and later published by Epes Sargent, one of the judges, in his 1846 School Reader. [1] The piece, written as if it were an actual declamation by Spartacus to his fellows during the slave rebellion against the Roman Empire known as the Third Servile War, became popular in collections of rhetoric in the late 19th century. [2]

Rhetoric art of discourse

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Along with grammar and logic, it is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the capacities of writers or speakers needed to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. Aristotle defines rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion" and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law or for passage of proposals in the assembly or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies, calls it "a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics". Rhetoric typically provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. The five canons of rhetoric or phases of developing a persuasive speech were first codified in classical Rome: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

Elijah Kellogg American missionary

Elijah Kellogg, Jr. was an American Congregationalist minister, lecturer and author of popular boy's adventure books.

Bowdoin College private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine. At the time Bowdoin was chartered, in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth College, and The University of Maine.

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Third Servile War war

The Third Servile War, also called by Plutarch the Gladiator War and The War of Spartacus, was the last in a series of slave rebellions against the Roman Republic, known collectively as the Servile Wars. The Third was the only one directly to threaten the Roman heartland of Italia. It was particularly alarming to Rome because its military seemed powerless to suppress it.

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Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Batiatus was the Roman owner of a gladiatorial school in Capua. It was from this school that, in 73 BC, the Thracian slave Spartacus and about 70 to 78 followers escaped. The break-out led to the slave rebellion known as the Third Servile War.

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Crixus was a Gallic gladiator and military leader in the Third Servile War between the Roman Republic and rebel slaves. Born in Gaul, he was enslaved by the Romans under unknown circumstances and trained as a gladiator in Capua. His name means "one with curly hair" in Gaulish.

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Oenomaus was a Gallic gladiator, who escaped from the gladiatorial school of Lentulus Batiatus in Capua. Together with the Thracian Spartacus and the fellow Gauls Crixus, Castus and Gannicus, he became one of the leaders of rebellious slaves during the Third Servile War

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Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who, along with the Gauls Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable. However, all sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader.

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The Spartacus Maxi-Trial was a series of criminal trials that were specifically directed against the activities of the powerful Casalesi clan of the Camorra. The trial was opened at the Corte d'Assise of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta. It was named after the historical gladiator, Spartacus, who led a rebellion of slaves beginning near Vesuvius against the ancient Roman Empire. It was named as such, in recognition of the need to fight a revolt in the Casalesi clan's territory. The trial was initially chaired by its president, Catello Marano on 1 July 1998. It continued until 19 June 2008, when its final verdict was eventually read.

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Spartacus: Gods of the Arena is a television miniseries broadcast by American cable TV Starz, as a prequel to Spartacus, which premiered January 21, 2011. The series follows the character Gannicus, the first gladiator representing Lentulus Batiatus to become Champion of Capua. Cast members and characters reprised from the original series include John Hannah as Batiatus, Lucy Lawless as Lucretia, Peter Mensah as Oenomaus, Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Naevia, Antonio Te Maioha as Barca, and Manu Bennett as Crixus.

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Spartacus is a British television series produced in New Zealand that premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010, and concluded on April 12, 2013. The fiction series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BCE led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic departing from Capua. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading up to the beginning of historical records.

Battle of Mount Vesuvius

The Battle of Vesuvius was the first conflict of the Third Servile War which pitted the escaped slaves against a military force of militia specifically dispatched by Rome to deal with the rebellion.

<i>The Gladiator</i> (play) play written by Robert Montgomery Bird

The Gladiator is a tragic melodrama in five acts written by Robert Montgomery Bird originally starring Edwin Forrest. It first premiered on September 26, 1831 at the Park Theatre in New York City.

References

  1. Mitchell, Wilmot B., ed. Elijah Kellogg, the Man and His Work: Chapters From His Life and Selections From His Writings (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1903), p. 116.
  2. "Rev. Elijah Kellogg Dead; Was Author of 'Sparticus [sic] to the Gladiators' and Many Stories for Boys -- His Quaint Life". The New York Times , March 18, 1901.