-71 b.c

Spartacus, a slave trained as a gladiator, leads a slave revolt against the Roman Republic. Political figures in Rome plot to aid or hinder him for their own purposes.

"Set in Ancient Rome, Blood and Sand reimagines Spartacus as a seventeen-year-old girl. When Attia is sold as a slave to the House of Timeus, no one knows she's actually the warrior princess of Thrace, and the last of her people. She is given to Xanthus, a fellow slave and gladiator champion of Rome, as a gift from his master. Attia and Xanthus begin to build a trust through their shared skill in combat and a driving desire to seek revenge on the Roman leaders who wiped out their respective homes. While their burgeoning love leaves them both with something to lose, Attia never takes her eyes off her goal of vengeance"--OCLC.

The slave and gladiator Spartacus has been the subject of myth making in his own time and of movie making in ours. Aldo Schiavone brings him squarely into the arena of serious history. Spartacus emerges here as the commander of an army, whose aim was to incite Italy to revolt against Rome and to strike at the very heart of the imperial system.