The Gladiators (1939) is the first novel by the author Arthur Koestler; it portrays the effects of the Spartacus revolt in the Roman Republic. Published in 1939, it was later reprinted in other editions. Introduction The book is the first of a trilogy, including Darkness at Noon (1940), and Arrival and Departure (1943), which address idealism going wrong. This is a common theme in Koestler's work and life. Koestler uses his portrayal of the original slave revolt to examine the experience of the 20th-century political left in Europe following the rise of a Communist government in the Soviet Union. He published it on the brink of World War II. Originally written in German, the novel was translated into English for other audiences and was published in 1939. In the UK it was translated by the German-born, British writer and artist Edith Simon. The manuscript of the German version, for which no publisher had been found, was lost during Koestler's flight at the Fall of France; the German edition finally published after the war had to be re-translated from English. In 1998 the British critic Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote of the novel: "In The Gladiators, Koestler used Spartacus's revolt around 65BC to explore the search for the just city, the inevitable compromises of revolution, the conflict of ends and means, the question of whether and when it is justifiable to sacrifice lives for an abstract ideal." Plot In 73 BCE, forty gladiators escape from the school at Capua belonging to Lentulus Batiatus. They seize weapons and armour and flee southwards, pillaging and killing. They quickly attract followers to their cause; runaway slaves, freemen, young and old. Leadership falls nominally to Spartacus the Thracian and Crixus the Gaul. Spartacus, who has some military training, tries to form the mob into an army in the Roman style. They eventually retire to a more defensible position on Mount Vesuvius, from where they defeat and massacre a Roman army sent against them. Still largely directionless, they move south into the Campania in the direction of the south coast, looting many fortified towns. They divide into two large groups; that led by Crixus moves north against Rome. They are massacred and those not killed in battle are crucified along the Appian Way. Crixus, however, escapes and rejoins the other group. They establish a camp outside the wall of the coastal city of Thurium. The inhabitants are mainly