Teen Writes English Novel About Ancient Rome
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
A 15-year-old Korean girl has released a thick volume written in English, dealing with ancient Roman history. ``Rebellion'' authored by Lee So-young, a ninth grader at Daechi Middle School, revolves around the Third Servile War or the War of Spartacus (73-71 B.C.).
She said it took one-and-half-years to finish writing the 603-page book. Lee mixed her fresh imagination with the facts in this work of historical fiction.
``When I was 13, I was given a parrot by a friend. I named it Caesar because I had read a book in which a dog is named Napoleon and I thought the idea was cool. After that, I came to develop interest in Caesar and Roman history,'' Lee told The Korea Times.
Lee, who lived in France for one year and in the United States for three, used to write short stories in English but this is the first time for her to finish a full novel.
``I read an English-written book in one or two days in the past, but now as I am busy studying, I usually read one book over three or four days,'' she said.
She is interested in social science, languages and world history and recently read books about Roman history. Lee said that first she wanted to write about Caesar but as there have been so many novels that deal with the figure, she changed her subject.
``There are fewer historical records about Spartacus, compared to Caesar, although the two figures were contemporaries. So I could develop a more fictional imagination about the figure,'' she said.
Lee searched historical resources through the Internet to verify that she used an accurate historical background. She said that she admires American author Dan Brown, renowned for ``The Da Vinci Code'' and ``Angels and Demons.''
When she began writing the novel, her teachers and friends encouraged her to finish her story. But her mother worried because it was important for her to concentrate more on studying.
``But after my first book was published, no one was happier than my mother,'' she said.
The book revolves around the Third Servile War, one of the most ambiguous wars in world history. Not only is this because the slave army did not keep records of what happened, but also because the Romans were ashamed that it took them so long and so many lives to conquer a revolt by mere slaves, and thus they were reluctant to write the history of the revolt.
Later on in history, some classical Roman writers, including Appian and Plutarch, recorded facts about the war; however, their accounts of what happened differ greatly from each other. The motivation of the slave army is also not known ― Appian claims that it was to march on Rome itself, while Plutarch argues that Spartacus merely wished to escape Italy and move to Gaul.
In 73 B.C., around 70 gladiators escaped Lentulus Batiatus's gladiator school and using their weapons, defeated a legion based in Capua. Spartacus and his followers plundered the rich region around Capua, Campania, having set up a base on Mt. Vesuvius. Even at this point, the Romans considered the slaves an insignificant matter, something more like a crime wave than a real threat.
Later that year, the Roman senate sent Gaius Claudius Glaber as praetor to put down the rebellion. However, it was evident that the Romans did not think of the gladiators as threat, as they did not give Glaber a regular legion to command, but a militia comprising of 3,000 men.
Meanwhile, the rebels split into two groups, one under the leadership of Spartacus and the other under the control of Crixus. The exact motivation for this division is unknown.
The author captures this ambiguous part of the historical record and evokes her imagination to describe the friendship between the ambitious but innocent Roman Octavius Lupus and the rash gladiator Spartacus.
Lee portrays the twist of fate that destroys their fledgling friendship in which Octavius joins the legions to help suppress a cataclysmic slave rebellion against Rome led by Spartacus.
With their numbers swelling daily, the rebels roam about, leaving panic-stricken Romans behind. The rebellion had to be stopped yet this was harder than expected. The book depicts Octavius building up intense grief; his conflict with his most trusted friends; and a dramatic change in his character as he struggles through the war ― outwardly and inwardly, physically and emotionally. Its shows how Octavius is able to survive the intense moral conflict, deaths of loved ones and treacherous conspiracies that threaten not only his career but also his life.