Spartacus led a slave revolt against the Roman Republic (he died in 72 BC), before the Empire even existed.
We generally consider the period from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius as the Golden Age of Rome. This marked a transition from the Republic to the Empire.
Yes, the slave revolt led by Spartacus was during the Republican period. I don’t think I said it was during the Empire period. I mentioned the slave revolt because of the allusion to homosexuality in the movie. In any case, thanks for the correction.
The Romans considered the Jews and Christians to be atheists and threats to their system because they [the Jews and Christians] rejected the Roman gods and Roman morality. Eventually, the sexual immorality, material excess, slavery, and the subjugation of nations that marked Rome were undermined. But, we could mention yet other forms of corruption such as increasingly draconian taxation, bread and circuses for the urban masses, and the hiring of barbarians to fill the legions.
Having said all this, the decline of Rome occurred over several hundred years. For a long time, the best place in the world remained Rome, with its aqueducts, fountains, architecture, libraries, art, etc.
Even with the fall of Rome, Eastern Rome or Byzantium continued on for a long time, and it [Eastern Rome] was succeeded by Kievan Rus before it fell, and the church survived the fall in both the east and the west.
So, when I said that we may have the opportunity to join in saying “I’m Spartacus,” it was borderline fanciful. Will any of us be put to the sword by the emerging new world order? I would say some of us have already been, and others of us will soon be. We are living in an age of martyrs, and our enemies are manifold.