Spartacus is a historical novel by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon, first published in 1933 under his real name of James Leslie Mitchell.
As its name suggests, it is an account of the great slave revolt in Ancient Rome, led by the former gladiator Spartacus.
In the first chapter, we are told how he was sold into slavery as a child and sexually abused by his first owner before being castrated and receiving his education.
She gives birth to a son, but while Spartacus is distracted leading his men, she is raped and murdered by Roman soldiers; her infant child is also killed.
The novel touches on Gibbon's views on human history, with Spartacus seen as a survivor of the prosperous but decadent Golden Age.