“… a free man … would often think that an Athenian was a slave … for, so far as clothing and general appearance are concerned, the common people here are no better than the slaves …”Footnote 1 So said the Old Oligarch about 5th century BC Athens, but the reality of being a slave was not that they were indistinguishable from freemen out and about in the city or countryside. Slaves, for the most part, had no agency and no control over what they wore, ate or did and there were very many of them. One of the reasons the Spartans did not feel comfortable campaigning away from Sparta for extended periods of time was because of the threat from the Helots, the subjugated population of Laconia and Messenia. Slaves might have been useful and responsible for allowing the wealthier classes to pursue activities such as warfare (Sparta) or rhetoric and philosophy (Athens), and we can wonder whether empires such as that of Rome might have been rather different with a non-slave society. In short, slaves were everywhere and the people of an ancient society depended on them for the smooth running of their lives. In The Burning Road, Harry Sidebottom tackles the fear of these numerous subjugated people rising up and fighting for freedom, and in Historia Magazine, in November 2021, he explained the background to this gripping novel. There were three major slave revolts in the ancient world, two in Sicily in the second century BC and, what is perhaps the most famous of all, Spartacus' revolt in 73-71BC. Sidebottom suggests that the Roman response to Spartacus' revolt was so complete that slaves were wary of reprising the event, but The Burning Road is set in Sicily in AD 265 during the reign of the emperor Gallienus, long after this, and the premise is that after the battle of Milan in AD 260, many of the defeated Alamanni tribesmen could have been relocated to Sicily as shepherds. If this were the case then there would be a large groundswell of discontent towards their Roman masters and with the emergence of a charismatic leader (Soter in the novel), the circumstances were right for revolt. Sidebottom knows his history and the detail in this novel is phenomenal. We have clear pictures of seafaring, villa life, the perils of a shepherding life and most of all the dangers of travel in the Roman world. Sicily is a beautiful island, and the people are immensely welcoming, but even now there are moments in the central parts of the island that make you look over your shoulder at the approach of a stranger, and Sidebottom captures these moments in detail. The characters are well drawn – Ballista is a well-known character for those who are familiar with the 'Warrior of Rome' series – but the slaves, townsfolk and shepherds who are met along the way are rounded and believable and there is a wealth of detail about their lives and hopes. The maps at the beginning of the novel are helpful in tracing the route taken and descriptions of the towns and cities are detailed and clear. This is important in the later parts of the novel – spoilers! This is an accessible novel for people of all levels of knowledge of the ancient world, but teachers might want to keep it for the slightly older age-groups as there are a couple of scenes of a sexual nature and some fairly gory deaths. That aside, I would recommend it as background reading as Sidebottom's evident scholarship and ability to write a gripping story shine through.
Open access
