Is there anything in this world that justifies the death of thousands upon thousands of people? Many people believe there is always an alternative to war, always another way to settle an issue. But, most of these people are free people that live in a free country with a free lifestyle. What if someone has never been blessed with freedom? Or in the case of many Roman slaves, what if someone has felt what it is like to be free, then had their freedom snatched right out from underneath them? Would action be justified then? The slaves of ancient Rome thought so, as have many other peoples who have been repressed around the world. Throughout the course of history many wars have been fought and many lives taken in pursuit of freedom. …show more content…
"Seventy-two of them made good their escape, grabbing kitchen knives and cooking skewers on their way out" (Shaw 131). Over a three year period these seventy-two gladiators led by Spartacus would, against all odds, reach in excess of seventy thousand men and reek havoc on multiple Roman armies. None of this could have been accomplished without the courageous, tactical leadership of Spartacus.
Spartacus was a skilled and courageous warrior whose leadership single handedly won battle after battle for the slaves against the Romans. Spartacus "not only possessed great spirit and bodily strength, but he was more intelligent and nobler than his fate" (Shaw 132). A spirited, strong, intelligent, and noble man, Spartacus outwitted the brilliant Roman generals sent to crush his rebellion many times. For example, Spartacus and his army were trapped on the peninsula of Rhegium facing a heavily fortified wall and a fifteen foot deep trench built by Crassus in hopes of containing the rebels. Though there seemed to be no way out, "Spartacus was able to get across the trench that Crassus had excavated to hem him in by filling it during the night with bodies of prisoners and cattle that he had killed and by crossing over on top of them" (Shaw 157). Or when he was "besieged on Mount Vesuvius, this same
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.
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
The legendary Spartan King, Leonidas and 300 of his formidable royal body guards, led a coalition of Greek warriors against a much larger opponent, the Persian King Xerxes. Against the odds, the Greeks stood their ground and deterred Xerxes’ Army for three days at the Thermopylae Pass, known as the Hot Gates. Xerxes might have won the tactical battle, yet, the Spartans proved superior training, equipment, and intimate familiarity with the terrain were critical force multipliers. The Spartan power, willpower, and determination came from an undying sense of patriotism and duty. 300 Spartans and countless Greeks may have lost their lives at the Thermopylae Pass, nonetheless their courage rallied the Greek states to fight and prevail against a tyrant. The in-depth preparation, tactical expertise, loyalty, and courage these warriors displayed are the defining factors that made this battle a strategic win for the Greeks and would ultimately lead to the Persian Kings defeat.
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.
Spartacus, born in 109 B.C. ,Who became known during the 3rd Servile war. The Thracian gladiator, played a major role by unifying slaves in an uprising during the Roman Republic. At first Spartacus served in the Roman Army. Spartacus was captured and sold into slavery. In 73 BC he ran away from the Gladiator Training School with 700 gladiators. When they escaped, everybody voted Spartacus to be leader.
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.
When he was tired of it, Spartacus led 70 gladiators to fight and escape the gladiator school. They were able to steal weapons and armor on the way as well. They gathered more slaves along the way to escape to mount Vesuvius near Pompeii. Rome
Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960) gives audiences a spectacular showing of two opposing ideologies coming head to head. In Spartacus, the Roman Empire faces one of the greatest threats to the empire it had ever faced. That enemy was named Spartacus. Spartacus was the unlikeliest of heroes. He was a simple slave who showed no extraordinary skills or talents, except for his fierce rebellious spirit. When push came to shove, that spirit did not allow Spartacus to stand by and do nothing as the Romans continued to do as they pleased with whomever they wanted. In a moment of rage, Spartacus kills the trainer of the gladiators and as consequence, inspires the other gladiators to fight back against the oppression they had been forced to live under.
As I said before they were treated unfairly and such and just where thrown into battle they actually had a check up with the doc to see what kind of Gladiator they were Heavy armored, light armored and such more gladiators. Some gladiators who fought the Roman Empire straight on were crowned as victors, for taking out a Roman
What can be said about the accuracy of the historical references shown in the movie “Gladiator?” “Gladiator” is both accurate and inaccurate in its historical perception of the Roman Empire in AD 180, although there is a larger amount of inaccurate references than there is of accurate ones. This will be an evaluation of areas of the movie “Gladiator” that contain historical accuracies and inaccuracies in the portrayal of the Roman Empire. We will focus first on the inaccuracies and accuracies of Romans’ military strategies and weapons in “Gladiator,” followed by the historical events and important figures of the Roman Empire, and we will end with the politics and governmental structure of the Roman Empire. For instance, the last great battle
This meeting has been called to discuss murmurs that have risen referring back to the tragedies of 430BC-402BC and the possibility of them happening once more; of course, I refer to the Peloponnesian Wars. Today in council we will discuss the immediate causes of the wars and what we, as a progressive and united nation, can do to prevent it from happening in the future. The overview of this section of council will address the following: To what extent did exterior forces motivate Sparta to go to War?
Hi, it’s Jacob again, and I’m about to time travel back to the past again. Today I will be going back to ancient Sparta, more specifically to the battle of Thermopylae. This time I will be taking the shape of a Spartan soldier. I’m hoping that I will get the chance to fight beside king Leonidas. I won’t find out here, let’s go.
How would one have behaved sitting for hours surrounded by 50,000 cheering and shouting Romans, while down in the arena the gladiators played a bloody game with death? Would one enjoy the slaughter, the horror, the stench of blood, the cruelty? Would one find themselves being carried away by the intense atmosphere, the screams and stamps, the applause thundering down into the arena from the galleries above, or would any feeling of excitement, exhilaration even, have been stifled by disgust at the cruel blood bath on show? Romans had a tremendous enthusiasm for the gladiator games, their popularity was utterly unprecedented. Their society shaped to all the violence and brute force that the Romans were being exposed to caused more cruelty and brutality around them.
Previous Roman actions have raised the question whether they recognized their slaves as things or people. Of course, there are economic advantages in support of slavery. However, when human lives are under constant danger and torture, the economic advantages must be forgotten. Although the slaves of Ancient Rome played a pivotal role in the society, their actions were never approved. After careful consideration, it is evident that the Romans recognized slaves as things rather than people. This conception is mainly due to three factors. They include: slaves being put on the market, the physical cruelty towards the slaves, and the slaves being mistreated to the point of revolt.
There are two Spartacus’s, the legend and the man. The legend of Spartacus portrayed throughout the 1963 film and the man Spartacus as told to us by historians, seam to lead very different lives. Where the story deviates from the facts and becomes legend, it does so in order to create a character that represents an idea. For our main character Spartacus, we have a representation of freedom from oppression and hope. The film is “based on true story”, where fact and fiction come together to give us the audience and interpretation of legend. The method of narrative, which tends to be the primary method of storytelling in historical films, is not to be considered an attempt at a factual recreation of history, for the history as told to us by historians of the time, paints Spartacus as very different person, one