 Barry Strauss argues that the crisis really started with "The Spartacus War" in 73 BC, adding that, because the dangers were unappreciated, "Rome faced the crisis with mediocrities".Thornton Wilder, in his novel, "The Ides of March", focuses on the period c. 69 BC to 44 BC as the Crisis.Pollio and Ronald Syme date the Crisis only from the time of Julius Caesar in 60 BC.