SOTIRIOS F. DROKALOS

Pen & Sword Books

30th May 2026 in UK and US

The revolt of gladiators and slaves led by Spartacus is one of the most famous events of ancient history. Often cast in ideological terms, it is frequently removed from the actual political, social, and economic context in which it happened and portrayed as a symbol of freedom and a precursor of modern revolution. However, the views of ancient historians and the Italian peninsula’s populations who experienced the uprising were very different.

This book reconsiders the broader phenomenon of the slave uprisings during the final century of the Roman Republic. Rather than viewing Spartacus and the previous revolts through the lens of modern narratives, Sotirios F. Drokalos situates them within the transformation of Roman society in a period marked by civil conflicts, elite competition, agrarian crisis, and expanding reliance on forced labour.

Based mainly on primary sources, the book confronts prevailing modern myths and presents a rigorously documented, accessible account that integrates military, economic, and political history and analysis. From the fields of Sicily and the mines of Laurion, to the gladiator schools of Capua, the book explores the conditions that sparked the revolts, the tactical successes of the insurgents, and the fierce Roman response that ultimately crushed them.

Spartacus and Rome’s Servile Wars examines the three slave wars of the Roman era in their historical context, offering a balanced and critically informed account of them as part of the tensions that prepared Rome’s transition from republic to empire.

April 2025 in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada

Before the rise of Rome, the Greeks and Carthaginians were, for centuries, the two most powerful nations of the Western Mediterranean. From the Pillars of Hercules to Sicily and Cyrenaica, the Greeks and the Carthaginians founded cities, created trade routes, interacted with each other as competitors and collaborators, and often went to war. However, the long conflict between the Western Greeks and the Carthaginians has been neglected by modern historians, even though the wars between them are definitely among the greatest, longest, and most dramatic clashes of great powers in history when it comes to the historical breadth and the forces involved. Sotirios Drokalos gives these epic events the attention they deserve.

The competition and conflicts between Greeks and Phoenicians in the West began by the time of the first colonizations during the eighth century BCE and the development of the cultural and economic activity of the two cultures. They intensified after the Greek colonies’ consolidation and Carthage’s rise as the most significant Phoenician city and a commercial empire during the sixth century BCE. Especially from the beginning of the fifth century BCE and for the next roughly 200 years, the Western Mediterranean was the field of a ruthless bipolar confrontation between the Greeks of the West and the Carthaginians, marked by the actions of remarkable personalities of the ancient world. This historical clash, apart from the vast and bloody battles, the invasions of one side by the other, the sieges and the mass slaughters, also included elements of cultural interaction and exchange, consisting essentially of a practical test of constitutions, social systems, and political views. Under this prism, studying that tumultuous era could be necessary today to better understand Mediterranean and European historical evolution.

BOOKS IN ITALIAN AND GREEK

by Sotirios F. Drokalos:

• How and Why Christianity Prevailed, Anoicthi Poli, Athens, 2021 (2018). [in Greek]
• Alessandro Magno e pensiero strategico moderno, Edizioni Saecula, Zermeghedo (Vicenza), 2020.
• Spartacus, Gnomon, Athens, 2018. [in Greek]
• Greeks Against Carthaginians, Gnomon, 2017. [in Greek]
• Imperialismo Romano. Espansione romana e teoria delle relazioni internazionali, Saecula, Zermeghedo (Vicenza), 2015.
• Cristianesimo Sanguinario. La devastazione del mondo greco-romano, Yume, Torino, 2014.

SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS

by Sotirios F. Drokalos:

• Facing the Axis Powers. How Greece tried to counter Mussolini and Hitler in WWII, MA thesis in Italian (2020), self-published in English on Amazon KDP, 2023. Get it on Amazon

See more about my books in Italian and Greek on my archive website: www.sotiriosdrokalos.com (under construction)