"We destroyed
the images most thoroughly and ground them into rubble - so that no trace of it
remains. So, did we destroy Spartacus and his army. So will we in time - and necessarily destroy
the very memory of what he did and how he did it."
That was the declaration of the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus after defeating Spartacus and his army. It
was almost fully realized through systematic silence; the story of Spartacus
was little known. It is hardly mentioned
in the history books. However, his name has frequently been invoked by revolutionaries
such as Adam Weishaupt in the late 18th century and Karl Liebknecht, Rosa
Luxemburg, and the other members of the German Spartacus League of 1916–19. We are greatly indebted to Howard Fast for resurrecting the
history of Spartacus and interpreting the significance of his heroic slave war
for liberation.
Spartacus was the leader in the Gladiatorial War (73–71 BC) against the mighty Empire of Rome.
A Thracian, an Indo-European tribe, by birth, Spartacus was sold as a slave. With about 70 fellow gladiators he escaped a gladiatorial training school at Capua in 73 BC and took refuge on Mount Vesuvius. There other runaway slaves joined in his band. They defeated two Roman forces in succession. Ultimately their numbers grew to at least 90,000. Spartacus’s army defeated the two consuls for the year 72 BC and fought his way northward toward the Alps, hoping to be able to disperse his soldiers to their homelands once they were outside Italy. But he was thwarted by the new Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus with eight legions of Roman army. Spartacus' army divided, part of it defeated. Spartacus himself ultimately fell fighting in pitched battle. Pompey's (Another military and political leader) army intercepted and killed many slaves, and 6,000 prisoners were crucified by Crassus along the Appian Way, the strategically most important roads of ancient Rome which connected Rom to southeast Italy.
Howard Fast was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century, was born in New York City as the son of a factory worker, in 1914. He dropped out of high school and published his first novel “Two Villages” at the age of 18. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. In 1943, he joined the American Communist party.
In 1948 all the leaders of the American communist party
including the General Secretary were arrested and charged under the ‘Alien
Registration Act’. This law made it illegal for anyone in the United States
"to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the
government".
In 1950 Fast was ordered to appear before the ‘House of Un-American Activities
Committee’ because he had contributed to the support of a hospital for Popular Front forces during the
Spanish Civil War. Before
the committee, he refused to give the name of the fellow members of the
communist party. The court sentenced him to three months in prison. After the incident he try to publish his
novel ‘Spartacus’. Eight major publishers rejected it saying that they wouldn’t
even look at the work of a traitor. Realised that he was blacklisted, he formed
his own company, the Blue Heron Press, and published ‘Spartacus’ in 1951.
He left the party in 1956, disillusioned by the Soviet
Union's own stunning revelations of Stalin's terror and the spread of
anti-Semitism there. He wrote a book about his political experiences, "The
Naked God", publishe in 1957. "I was part of a generation that
believed in socialism and finally found that belief corroded and
destroyed," he declared.
"That is not renouncing Communism or socialism. It's
reaching a certain degree of enlightenment about what the Soviet Union
practices. To be dogmatic about a cause you believe in at the age of 20 or 30
is not unusual. But to be dogmatic at age 55 or 60 shows a lack of any learning
capacity." he said in an interview in 1981.
"The only thing that infuriates
me," he once commented, "is that I have more unwritten stories in me
than I can conceivably write in a lifetime."
Howard
Melvin Fast, “the American”; died on March 12, 2003
****
‘The American’ is the name of his 1946 Novel.
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