Narrowing Down

So far this week, I have been frantically searching for a visual image to illustrate something that has to do with the Spartacus War. I have found many of Kirk Douglas and the newer actor that played the role of Spartacus, but I get the feeling that isn’t going to cut it for this assignment. Now I am looking into trying to find a piece that may be a bit simpler that I can elaborate on. Not necessarily a painting, as most would be after date anyway, but perhaps a wall-cut or examples of the shackles that slaves would have worn. I am not entirely sure what I am going to use yet, but I will definitely have something nailed down by class on Thursday.

                In other news, I am now trying to decide exactly what direction that I am going to be going in this paper. As my style of writing is more biographical than argumentative, locking down a specific argument is proving to be slightly more difficult. I think I have landed on doing a semi-comparison with the first Sicilian Slave War and discuss the intentions of each. I would then look at the movements of Spartacus, and the separations and opinions within his army, and explain how the task for Spartacus was much different and the goal was much less clear. For this I have a source by Barry Baldwin which talks in a lot of detail about possible intentions, but also has a lot of points that could be argued.

                In conclusion, now that I have become closer to finishing up choosing a thesis I am able to begin to narrow some of the primary sources that I have been sifting through. Between all of the different collections that I have bought or ordered I have hundreds of smaller primary sources that I can choose from. Thankfully, many of them have to do specifically with the topic that I have chosen. I also, rather luckily seeing as it is a new idea, have many that also discuss the first Sicilian Slave War. As I’m supposed to be narrowing, I am also still ordering and trying to find new sources that could help the process along. I just recently ordered a volume set that was written by Appian that I found a lot of my secondary sources referenced in their writings. At this point, as our guest speakers recommended, I am still researching and seeing where it takes me. Thankfully I have a topic that I enjoy, and just enough time to do some final tweaking.