⛓️Spartacus
Latin nameSpartacus
The gladiator who led a revolt that made Rome tremble for two years
Soul of the Legions · Commanders
Slave revoltGladiatorThe Third Servile War
Who they are
Spartacus was a Thracian who had served in Rome’s auxiliaries before being reduced to a gladiator. In 73 BC he and some seventy comrades cut their way out of the gladiator school at Capua with kitchen knives and made a base of Mount Vesuvius. Rome at first sent local troops to suppress them, and he routed them with a surprise attack down the cliffs on vine ropes; the rebel army snowballed to a hundred and twenty thousand, ranged over Italy for two years, and beat Roman armies nine times, including the combined forces of two consuls. He once led his army to the foot of the Alps — over which every man could go home — yet the army turned south, for reasons that remain a mystery. In 71 BC, Crassus, with ten legions and after restoring the "decimation" to tighten discipline, cornered them at the southern tip of the peninsula, and in the decisive battle Spartacus fell, his body never identified. Six thousand prisoners were crucified along the Appian Way, all the way from Capua to Rome.
Primary sourcesPlutarch, Life of CrassusAppian, The Civil Wars
Key stories
The vine ropes of Vesuvius
Three thousand Roman soldiers blocked the one path down Vesuvius and camped to let hunger finish the siege. The gladiators wove the wild vines on the summit into long ropes and lowered themselves down the back cliff the Romans thought no one could descend, then circled around behind the enemy camp for a surprise attack — and wiped it out. This battle raised a "gladiator riot" to a "war": the opponent was no runaway slave but a commander who understood the Roman army. For the next two years Rome had to treat him as it had treated Hannibal.
The crosses of the Appian Way
In the last battle Spartacus killed his own horse: "If I win I will have my pick of the enemy’s horses; if I lose I will need none." He charged on foot straight for Crassus himself, killed two centurions, and died fighting. Crassus crucified all six thousand prisoners along the two hundred kilometers of road from Rome to Capua, and forbade taking down the bodies — one every few dozen meters, so every slave on the road could see clearly. The terror achieved its aim: there was never another large slave revolt in Rome. But two thousand years later the name "Spartacus" became the universal codename for every rebel.
Echoes today
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
SpartacusKubrick’s 1960 film and the later TV series made him a global symbol of revolt against slavery; the line "I’m Spartacus" is still quoted everywhere.