I also think…well, I have a theory that Americans in particular may be primed to regard American slavery as The Actual Worst Ever™ if they've ever thought about slavery as a historical institution at all. For which there are solid political reasons but which, in my experience, does sometimes make it hard to get students to take Roman slavery seriously. Or not seriously, per se, but we have a lot more concrete evidence about what slavery in the Americas was like, and even then we too often fail to convey the reality of it. The Romans sort of look good in comparison no matter what.

And yes, media portrayals definitely contribute to this. I actually think the Spartacus TV show, and hell, the HBO Rome show, weren't totally terrible, but those aren't much to set against the weight of everything else ever produced about the Romans. They were and still are fascinating; I share this fascination and, yes, affection. It is extremely complicated.