⛓️Spartacus
Ancient Roman Gladiator, Leader of the Great Slave Revolt Against the Roman Republic
One Legend Remembered for Life · Small Roles, Famous Names
The Third Servile WarThe Gladiator RevoltA Symbol of Resistance to Slavery
Who they are
Spartacus (c. 111–71 BC) was of Thracian origin, by tradition having served in the Roman army before falling into slavery and being sold into a gladiator training school; in 73 BC he, with some seventy gladiator companions, escaped from the training school at Capua, swiftly drawing a great body of runaway slaves and poor peasants to join, the rebel army for a time swelling to tens of thousands, defeating the armies Rome sent to suppress it many times, and ranging across northern and southern Italy for two years. This large-scale revolt, called the "Third Servile War," was the largest and longest-lasting slave resistance movement in ancient Roman history, and at last the Roman magnate Crassus massed heavy forces to encircle and crush the rebel army, Spartacus himself dying in battle, and thousands of captured rebels were crucified along the Appian Way as a warning, in an exceedingly cruel way, to deter later possible resistance. Though this revolt ended in failure, Spartacus was thereafter repeatedly retrospectively cast in the historical narrative of modern socialism and the workers’ movement as a classic symbol of the spirit of "resisting oppression and striving for freedom," and Karl Marx himself gave him high praise.
Primary sourcesAppian, Roman HistoryPlutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Crassus"
Key stories
The Prison Break Revolt of the Gladiator School
In 73 BC Spartacus, with some seventy gladiator companions, using kitchen implements as weapons, successfully broke out of a gladiator training school at Capua, then occupied the treacherous terrain near Mount Vesuvius, using unexpected tactics such as rappelling down by rope to defeat the local Roman troops sent to suppress them many times; news of the revolt spread swiftly, and a great body of runaway slaves and poor peasants longing to break free of bondage came to join, the rebel army thereby swelling rapidly.
The Crosses of the Appian Way
This large-scale revolt of nearly two years was at last encircled and suppressed by the heavy forces massed by the Roman magnate Crassus, Spartacus himself dying in battle, and the Roman authorities, to deter other slaves from daring to resist again, ordered some six thousand captured rebels crucified at intervals along both sides of the Appian Way from Rome to Capua, stretching dozens of kilometers — this exceedingly cruel mode of mass execution is one of the bloodiest and most terrifying records of ancient Rome’s suppression of slave resistance.
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.
The film Spartacus and "I am Spartacus"The fictional "I am Spartacus" episode of the 1960 Hollywood film Spartacus (the rebels vying to claim to be Spartacus to protect his true self) thereafter became a classic cultural reference in English for collective solidarity and shared responsibility, though the episode itself has no source basis and is purely film artifice.