Compare And Contrast The Spartacus And The Slave Revolt

“The City of Sparta lies in the valley of the River Eurotas. Along with having a river close by; the Spartans were also enclosed by the mountains of Taygetos to the West and Parnon to the East.” Their society was a slave based culture, which allowed the Spartans to become the only full time fighting force in Ancient Greece. Their society was manned by two kings; one of which took the reins of the army in times of conflict or war, while the other king remained in Sparta and maintained society. However, the kings did not have complete power in ancient Sparta. They took two of the 30 seats of the gerousia, or the council of elders; this council of elders prepared possible legislation such as declaring war for a citizen assembly to reject or accept.

An individual on average would fight about three times a year, and for the rest of the time travel with the troop. The troops swore an oath to their master, and traveled from city to city looking for work (Roman Gladiator). The social class of the Gladiators was rather ironic in itself. On one hand they were considered slaves, that's the lowest class in a social structure, but on the other hand, some gained popularity and were looked upon as great warriors and heroes. Some rose to celebrity status in a short time as in the movie when Maximus became a hero to the public eye, worthy of praise of greater importance than even the king himself. In the movie this was a direct result in the downfall of Commodus, but this isn't factual, as Maximus is a fictional character. It just demonstrates the influence the Gladiators had on the public eye, he was the ‘Rockstar of the Roman Empire'.

Gladiators were mostly unfree individuals either condemned criminals, prisoners of wars who had lost their citizenship rights, although, some of them were volunteers who were mostly freedmen or very low classes of freeborn men who chose to be a slave for monetary rewards or for the fame. Gladiators were brought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat and would endure branding, chains, flogging or death by the sword and subjected to a rigorous training, fed on a high-energy diet, and given expert medical attention. Gladiators were famously popular in ancient from for seven centuries, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD fairly late in the Public occupied a prominent position in roman society, they would fight in massive

Gladiators trained as often as possible. Everything they wanted depended on them winning their matches, whether that was freedom or wealth. Mixed with the fact that they often died if they lost led to most gladiators willingly

Ancient Greece was comprised of small city-states, of which Sparta and Athens were two. Athens was renowned as a center of wisdom and learning. The people of Athens were interested in arts, music, and intellectual pursuits. Sparta, on the other hand, was recognized for its military strength. A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because he lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece.

The Slave Wars were a series of three slave revolts that took place within the Roman Republic between 135 BC to 71 BC. Spartacus led the third of these slave revolts that occurred from 73 BC to 71 BC. This third slave revolt was sparked by an incident that occurred when a group of slave gladiators escaped from their school (Spartacus pg. 130). Although some may say that Roman slaves may have had it moderately easy, In fact politically and socially slaves were treated poorly.

This is actually factual as for gladiators were actually trained under their managers, tested and marked for purchases. The purposes of a gladiator were not to fight in wars or battles but to battle against each other, animals and beasts solely for public entertainment in the ancient Rome. The portrayal of gladiators’ status in the Roman society as well as their roles for bloody thirsty and violent entertainment in the film is displayed true to the ancient Rome.

Spartacus: (c. 109–71 BC) One of the slave leaders who led a major revolt against the Roman empire, in the Third Servile War. Spartacus has become symbolic of

In the fourth chapter, “The Pathfinders”, Strauss explores reasons why local freemen and farmers of Italy would help Spartacus and his men, as well as the movements of Spartacus’ army in its earliest stages. It was critical that locals could help lead these rebels around regions that they couldn’t have understood on their own. Among one of these locals was a man known as the Picentine, who helped lead the rebels around the Eburine hills and avoid the Romans. In these movements, Spartacus continued his guerilla style against the Roman legions, eventually capturing standards of Roman centurions, as well as the fasces of the Praetor Varinius’s lictors, a symbol of power that led to Spartacus’ army swelling in size from either 40,000 to 120,000 men. Spartacus continued moving along the Ionian coast, plundering and taking cities by force, as well as continued training and arming of the army. By the start of 72 BC, the Roman’s would begin to take Spartacus much more seriously.

One trait every army must have to be successful is the willingness and drive to dominate. The Roman army took these traits to a whole different level. The Romans were very extreme in battle as well. They often enjoyed humiliating other city-states by burning them to the ground. In 264 B.C.E. a battle between other Greek city-states forced Rome and Carthage, who dominated the western part of the Mediterranean, into conflict. The First Punic War was for the control of Sicily.4 This battle lasted twenty-three years.4 The Romans were losing a lot of men, but they continued to battle on.4 Finally, the persistence paid off.4 The Romans learned how to fight by sea and cut off the Carthaginian supply line into

According to Shaw in “Spartacus and The Slave Wars”, prisoners of war enslaved at the end of the Second Punic War rebelled in 198 B.C. This slave uprising in central Italy is the first reliable report of one, although it was surely not the first actual slave uprising. There were other slave uprisings in the 180s. These were small; however, there were 3 major slave revolts in Italy between 140 and 70 B.C. These 3 uprisings are called the Servile Wars, since the Latin for 'slave' is servus. However these 3 slave wars did not all end in victory. As a matter of fact, the 3 slave revolts failed, ending in murder of the leaders. The reason why the slaves were defeated in the end was basically due to the fact that there was no ultimate goal. They

Roman Gladiators had many other talents other than fighting too. They were very good at gathering attention from the media. They had to try and make big names for themselves in order to establish a fanbase. They also had to have great work ethic because usually the strongest man won so it was constant training. They had to set their entire lives around gladiator fighting and keep up with their normal lives, although most of them were in jail they still had lives even while living in a cell.

By birth a Thracian, Spartacus was slaved by the Roman Army then trained as a gladiator. He served in an Roman auxiliary unit for some short time, vacated his duties and became an insurgent against the Romans. Upon his escape, he became the leader of 90,000 men in a revolt against Rome. The war started in 73 B.C., when Spartacus aided those in the Gladiator school to escape by utilizing kitchen utensils as weapons. The gladiators then took refuge on the side of Mount Vesuvius (which is near modern day Naples) led by Spartacus and his aides Crixus, Castus, Gannicus and

Slavery was the practice of taking a human being and making them do the work of another by force. This was practiced through out the ancient world and especially in Rome and Greece. Slaves were nothing more than just property to the ancient peoples. They didn't have the rights of citizens nor were they able to do what they want in most cases. Slaves had many tasks that they had to do, many of which included taking care of the masters house and kids, cooking and cleaning that house, herding the cattle for the farming families, being guards for some prisons, fighting for entertainment of the masses, and more common was sexual activities with the slaves.

Gladiator is in the manner that the main characters became slaves/gladiators and the aspect of how “freedom” is earned. Maximus on the other hand, was a Roman General that refused to serve for the Roman new emperor, Commodus, who had murdered his father, Marcus Aurelius, in order to obtain control of the Roman Empire. The biggest difference between Gladiator and Spartacus is the manner in which their respective freedom is earned. Gladiators freedom is earned thru defeating Commodus, who sentences Maximus to be executed. The story begins after he escapes his captors and rides off to his farm. This is after he discovers that his family has been murdered by said King/Emperor Commodus. Maximus collapses from exhaustion and is then picked up by slave traders and sold to Proximo, thus leading to his voyage of becoming a Gladiator and his fight against the King. Another difference is that Spartacus is pressured into fighting the best gladiator of the Roman army, upon the conclusion of his training however, he is defeated. Afterward he becomes leader of the Army of Slaves and in an effort to gain the slaves freedom back, he leads them to battle. After being captured, Spartacus ultimately has to fight it out with a slave who is also captured and the winner will be crucified. In Gladiator, Gladiators from all over the Roman