Spartacus biography gladiator
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Spartacus
"possessed not only of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his fortune"
Plutarch,(VIII.2)
A Thracian by birth who had been sold as a slave to a gladiatorial school in Capua, Spartacus was one of seventy-eight men who escaped and took refuge in the caldera of Mt. Vesuvius (Plutarch, Life of Crassus,VIII.2). By 72 BC, as other fugitive slaves and freedmen joined, they grew to an army of seventy thousand (Appian, Civil Wars, I). Defeating the legions sent against them, Spartacus and his dock fought their way to Cisapline Gaul, from where they intended to disperse to their homelands. But then, inexplicitly, they marched south igen for more plunder. The Senate, which had dismissed the threat as no more than the brigandage of gladiators and slaves, appointed Marcus Licinius Crassus (reputedly the richest man in Rome and later, a member of the First Triumvirate) to put down what was regarded as an insurrection that now h
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Spartacus (died 71 BC)
Spartacus ©Roman slave and gladiator, and leader of a famous slave revolt. He has become a modern-day inspirational figure.
Little is known of the early years of Spartacus. He is thought to have been born in Thrace (modern day Balkan region) and it has been suggested he was in the Roman army. He was sold into slavery and trained at the gladiatorial school in Capua, north of Naples.
Spartacus escaped in 73 BC and took refuge on nearby Mount Vesuvius, where large numbers of other escaped slaves joined him. Their insurrection came to be known as the Third Servile War, or the Gladiators’ War. Leading his army of runaway slaves, which has been estimated to have reached , men, Spartacus defeated a series of Roman attacks using tactics which would now be called guerrilla warfare.
In 72 BC Spartacus and his army marched north towards Gaul (the Roman term for a region covering France, the Low Countries and northern Italy). They fought off a series of attac
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Spartacus
Thracian gladiator who led a slave revolt
For other uses, see Spartacus (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Spartocus or Sportacus.
Spartacus[a] (; c.–71BC) was a Thraciangladiator (Thraex) who was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.
Historical accounts of his life come primarily from Plutarch and Appian, who wrote more than a century after his death. Plutarch's Life of Crassus and Appian's Civil Wars provide the most comprehensive details of the slave revolt. Despite being a significant figure in Roman history, no contemporary sources exist, and all accounts were by those not directly involved, significantly later, and without perspectives from slaves or eyewitnesses. Little is known about him beyond the events of the war, and surviving accounts are contradictory. All sources agree he was a former gladiator and accomplished military leader.
Spartacus is describe