Reading on Spartacus

Being able to read about Spartacus, through Florus, Plutarch, and Appian, really gave me a different perspective on the movie Spartacus (1960).  Knowing that the historical context that is placed in the movie is not completely accurate, but that some of it was kept in the movie really helped me try to piece some of the movie together.  It was interesting to know that the death of Spartacus is not the same depending on whose story you are reading.  In the movie he is crucified and in the ancient sources there is one where he is hurt and his body was never found and in another he died in the battlefield.  One of the things that I noticed form all of the three ancient sources were that they all made Spartacus the hero of the story and that is also something that I noticed from the movie.  Even though Spartacus ended up losing the battle he was still made to be the hero of the story, even though 6,000 slaves were crucified after the battle.  I guess in a way, the fact that all of these slaves wanted to sacrifice themselves for Spartacus made him a hero but I think he would have been more of a hero if he had sacrificed himself for all of the slaves.  Another thing that I noticed was never mentioned in the ancient sources that was mentioned in the movie was Varinia and their son.  I think that Varinia and the baby were two characters that were just there for the movie, I think that they were just the love interest and a way of keeping time for the movie because throughout the entire movie we do not really know how much time has gone by.  I think that by reading the ancient sources I was able to form a better understanding of the slaves standing up and revolting and I think that the idea of making that into a movie was good but in the end the movie just needed a little bit of more editing.