Spartacus: The Most Successful Rebellions In History

Most of the gladiators were criminals or prisoners of war that were forced to fight in the arena. Although they were considered slaves, they surprisingly had a better standard of living than most lower class Romans. Because they were financial investments, they had access to doctors and medicine, better food, and exercise. As the gladiator became more and more popular, he would attract greater crowds, making him more valuable, which led to getting him a better lifestyle. For this reason, some free citizens, aristocrats, and even emperors would join in hoping to increase their own wealth. Even slaves would train and fight hard because they could purchase their freedom once they accumulated enough wealth.

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

After this victory, Spartacus and his forces continued to surprise and defeat multiple praetors and their legions, but eventually another leader by the name of Crixus would join Spartacus in leading the gladiators and slaves and convince the army to continue plundering instead of trying to cross the Alps.

Spartacus was said to have lead the slave riot along with two other slaves by the names of Crixus and Oenamus (Czech). Spartacus and his fellow leaders led a revolt of about 200 gladiators, armed with kitchen utensils and anything else they could find to fight with. Although they had large numbers they only made it out with about 70 men (Czech). After the army made it out of the school they hit the streets and found a wagon full of gladiator weapons that they used against Roman officials (Gill). They then took the much better weapons from the officials they had killed (Gill). These escaped gladiators used their skills in the streets of Capua, raiding houses and finding anything they could for supplies. Picking up rural slaves as they went, their numbers and confidence grew. When they finally stopped their raids they started to make their way up a volcano by the name of Vesuvius

Spartacus, translating to “from the city of Sparta” in Latin, was a Roman gladiator who began as a “Thracian, born among pastoral nomadic people” according to Plutarch. This northern area of Greece that holds the title of Spartacus’ birth place was believed to be one of Rome’s earliest enemies. Historians suspect his birthdate to be around that of 109BC and know his date of death to be 71BC. This gives him a lifespan of around 37 years. Minimal information is documented prior to his rise to fame. One of the first pieces discovered about Spartacus timeline was in 78BC when he was incarcerated and forced to train as a gladiator. This enslavement was most likely due to either deserting his cause or committing a crime and sold as a slave as a form of punishment, although often the accusations that put people into slavery were unfair and biased due to aspects such as race and gender. Because of

Spartacus was among these great gladiators and he won the great gladiator tournament. This action, made Spartacus have a very powerful name among the people of Rome and among the slaves of Rome. Slaves looked up to Spartacus as if he was a leader of the slaves.

Spartacus was captured and placed into slavery; where he was sold to a Gladiator training camp in Capua, Rome. He perfected the art of hand to hand combat to kill any opposing gladiator in the Arena all the while Spartacus devised a plan to escape with other gladiators. Spartacus escaped from slavery and defeated multiple waves of Roman Legions by conquering small towns and villages while gaining material and support, using his unconventional tactics thinking, and by training ordinary men in the art of warfare by his gladiators.

The history of Sparta was the great exception to the political evolution of the city-states. Despite the fact that Spartans in the end were all Greek, Sparta failed to ever move in the direction of democratic rule. Instead, its government evolved into something more closely resembling a modern day dictatorship. If the Spartans had followed the other Greek city-states in their political practices they might have been able to avoid their own downfall and could have even become stronger.

Most of the time gladiators fought in arenas but sometimes the ruler forced others to fight. Gladiators had the opportunity to regain their freedom but it was nearly impossible. For a gladiator to gain back their freedom, they had to survive 5 years of fighting (5 to 10 fights in total) when only a few made it out of one fight alive. If a gladiator won, along with their freedom, they would get laurels, money, donations from the crowd and a rudis which was a wooden sword which allowed you to become a gladiator trainer. The gladiator’s fights were roman

Spartacus and the Slave Wars, although published in 2001, compiles documents written from around 79 BCE. The author, Canadian Historian Brent Shaw, compiled translated posters, letters, records, graffiti's, tax declarations, etc. from Greek and Latin sources. Considering the book, Spartacus and the Slave Wars, is a compilation of works it can be considered as a volume focusing on Ancient's slave life, their resistance, and accounts of there "rebellions." In chapters titled Gladiators, Fugitive Slaves, and Maroon Communities, we see more of a focus on this; providing us specific accounts, from Roman citizens, of the nature of a gladiator, different kinds of slaves and their forms of rebellion, and the communities that they later organized known as Maroon Communities.

When speaking of Roman gladiators, many people tend to have misconceptions of who they really were and their status in society. A vast amount of people are lead to believe that all gladiators were slaves and lived under harsh conditions. Even though most gladiators were slaves and prisoners of war, a lot of them were low class men who wanted to attain glory and fame, others were

Most of the records are fragmentary and distant in time from actual events. Spartacus’s famous contemporaries, Julius Caesar and Cicero, both in their thirties at the time of the revolt, make small but valuable references to Spartacus and the Roman campaign against him. The hero that is Spartacus has a very complex story that blends legend, history, romance, crusade, liberation and politics. Strauss, an ancient historian, uses a variety of historical resources to seek answers to the many questions of Spartacus and to fill out the personality of him and the details of his revolt.

The lives of gladiators were strict and harsh. Many gladiators were forced to fight after being caught as a criminal or being enslaved and were then bought and conscripted to gladiator schools (Mccoss). Gladiators were not always slaves or criminals though. Some men signed contracts with gladiator schools on their own free will. Usually these men were

Many people trained and became gladiators. To start off most gladiators were prisoners of war, slaves, and criminals. “Free men started to enrol as gladiators. Some were ex- soldiers, some wanted the adulation (fame) and the glory and some

Then, in 73 BC, me and 70 other gladiators broke out of the school and went to Mt. Vesuvius for refuge. Rome sent thousands of troops, but we defeated all of them. With the more battles we won, the more people joined us and by the end we had more than 70,000 people on our side. Then, the battle came, the Roman army sent 50,000 soldiers and we were defeated,