science

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Spartacus: Blood and Sand rather than just read about it. In short: Spartacus: Blood and Sand is the first season of American television series Spartacus, which premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010. The series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus (played by Andy Whitfield), a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

Key takeaways

Spartacus: Blood and Sand belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Spartacus: Blood and Sand to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Spartacus: Blood and Sand from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is the first season of American television series Spartacus, which premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010. The series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus (played by Andy Whitfield), a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight, Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading up to the beginning of historical records.

Cast and characters

Slaves Andy Whitfield as Spartacus – a Thracian warrior who is condemned to slavery as a gladiator. After the death of Spartacus' wife, Sura, he becomes Mira's lover. Manu Bennett as Crixus – a Gaul who is Batiatus' top gladiator prior to Spartacus's arrival. He is Naevia's lover and Lucretia's unwilling lover. Peter Mensah as Oenomaus/Doctore – an African slave who serves as trainer of Batiatus' gladiators. Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur – a former gladiator from Syria whose leg was crippled in the arena by Crixus. He now serves Batiatus as a bookkeeper and henchman. Jai Courtney as Varro – a Roman citizen who sold himself to the ludus to support his family, and who soon becomes Spartacus' confidant and friend in the ludus. Antonio Te Maioha as Barca – nicknamed the "Beast of Carthage", he is one of Batiatus' most successful gladiators and serves as a bodyguard for his dominus. Eka Darville as Pietros – Barca's younger gay lover and partner. Lesley-Ann Brandt as Naevia – Lucretia's loyal body slave. She is Crixus' lover. Erin Cummings as Sura – Spartacus' wife. Katrina Law as Mira – a slave girl sent, under threat of death, to seduce Spartacus and become his lover. Ultimately she falls in love with him. Dan Feuerriegel as Agron – a new German gladiator recruit who helps Spartacus plot his uprising. He is also Duro's older brother. Andre Cunningham as Duro- a new German gladiator recruit and Agron's younger brother.

Romans John Hannah as Quintus Lentulus Batiatus – a lanista and Spartacus' dominus. Lucy Lawless as Lucretia – Batiatus' wife and Crixus' lover. Viva Bianca as Ilithyia – the daughter of Roman senator Albinius and wife of legatus Gaius Claudius Glaber. Craig Parker as Gaius Claudius Glaber – a legatus in the Roman Army who is responsible for Spartacus' enslavement. Craig Walsh Wrightson as Solonius – a former close friend, but now the greatest rival to the House of Batiatus. Brooke Williams as Aurelia – Varro's wife.

Style The program is preceded by a warning that it purports to portray a "historical portrayal of ancient Roman society that contains graphic violence and adult content". Incidental nudity and scenes of a sexual or of a violent nature are present throughout.

Episodes

The season premiere was simulcast on both Starz and Encore. On Encore, the premiere garnered 580,000 viewers.

Production On December 22, 2009, the show was renewed for a second season but its production was postponed after Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with early-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Starz announced in May 2010 that it would develop a six-episode prequel series, entitled Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, to allow star actor Whitfield to undergo medical treatment. The prequel featured both new and returning characters; it was headlined by John Hannah (as Batiatus) and Lucy Lawless (as Lucretia). Whitfield also provided a brief voice-over role. Filming began in New Zealand in the Summer of 2009. The prequel aired beginning January 2011. In June 2010, season two's pre-production resumed after Starz announced Whitfield was cancer-free. But when his cancer recurred, Starz replaced Whitfield (with the actor's consent) with Liam McIntyre as Spartacus for season two which is titled Spartacus: Vengeance. Andy Whitfield died on September 11, 2011.

International broadcast Three days after the US premiere, the series began airing in Canada on TMN beginning on January 25, 2010. RTL 5 announced in their January newsletter that Spartacus: Blood and Sand would debut in the Netherlands in March 2010. In the United Kingdom, Bravo began airing the series on May 25, 2010. Following the axe of the Bravo network on UK television, Sky1 picked up the rights to the series with plans to carry all subsequent seasons. The series was also scheduled to premiere in Poland on HBO Poland starting from June 19, 2010 and in Hungary on HBO Magyarország starting from June 1, 2010. The series aired in Ireland on TV3. In Brazil, the show aired on Globosat HD. In Turkey the show releases on CNBC-E TV, while in Italy Sky Television gained the rights of the series. In India and Pakistan, the show aired (as of June 2011) on HBO. In Slovenia, the series started airing on Kanal A on January 2, 2012, from Monday to Friday at 9.45 pm, and ended January 18, 2012.

Reception The premiere episode of the series set a record for Starz, with 553,000 viewers on their network, and another 460,000 on Encore, where the show was available only that weekend. For the rest of the season the show had an average of 1.285 million viewers. Critical reception of the first episode was mixed; the review aggregate website Metacritic which assigns a normalized average score out of 100 gave the show a score of 54% based on 22 reviews. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave it the grade B+, saying it "might prove to be the not-at-all-guilty pleasure of the season." Barry Garron of The Hollywood Reporter suggested that with "such thin stories... it's small wonder that sex and violence are used to take up the slack." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that John Hannah as Batiatus "keeps the show grounded with a persuasive portrait of a man engaged in a stressful daily business" and called Whitfield as Spartacus "handsome and buff and smart and beastly." Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald gave the season finale a positive review, rating it a B+. He commented on the improvement of the series throughout its first season.

Other media

Novels In 2012 Titan Books announced the publication of a series of novels based on Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The first, titled Spartacus: Swords & Ashes, was written by J.M. Clements and released on January 3, 2012. The second book in the series was Spartacus: Morituri by Mark Morris.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Spartacus: Blood and Sand claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Spartacus: Blood and Sand before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Spartacus: Blood and Sand ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Spartacus: Blood and Sand

In research: Spartacus: Blood and Sand appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Spartacus: Blood and Sand in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Spartacus: Blood and Sand is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 American television seasons, 2010s American LGBTQ-related drama television series, Nudity in television, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Spartacus: Blood and Sand outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Spartacus: Blood and Sand in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Spartacus: Blood and Sand means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Spartacus: Blood and Sand out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Spartacus: Blood and Sand in simple terms?

Why does Spartacus: Blood and Sand matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Spartacus: Blood and Sand?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Spartacus: Blood and Sand.