The Real Spartacus Was Absolutely Chilling

Born in 111 BC, Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who became one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War. After escaping captivity, he went on to establish a massive slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Although not much is known about his life outside of the war, it is agreed that he was a former gladiator turned successful military leader. Today, he is viewed as a symbol for the oppressed fighting against the powers that controlled them, although his intentions remain unclear. So, take a look back to see how one man went from an enslaved gladiator to one of the most revered war heroes in ancient history.

He Was In The Roman Army

Drawing of Roman soldier
The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images
The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images

Initially, Spartacus was a member of the Roman army. Yet, he didn't particularly like being ordered what to do or risking his life for something he didn't care about. So he fled the army to live on his own terms.

In addition, some historians even argue that Spartacus was a Roman auxiliary officer, meaning he would have volunteered to enlist. After illegally leaving the army, he was eventually captured and sold into slavery as punishment for deserting. His days as a gladiator were about to begin.

ADVERTISEMENT

He Was Sold Into A Gladiatorial School

ADVERTISEMENT
Slaves being taken away
Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Spartacus was purchased by a man named Lentulus Batiatus, who was quick to enroll the former soldier in the gladiator school in Capua, a school that Batiatus owned himself. This school that Spartacus was forced into was notorious for its harsh treatment of its slaves, with Batiatus being particularly ruthless.

ADVERTISEMENT

It's believed that the treatment of the Gladiators by the trainers and Batiatus is one of the key reasons that Spartacus made an attempt to escape slavery.

ADVERTISEMENT

He Was Trained As A Heavyweight Fighter

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Murmullo gladiator
Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images
Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Under Batiatus, Spartacus was trained to fight as a heavyweight gladiator called murmillones. These were a type of gladiator during the Roman Imperial Age, which was established to replace the earlier Gallus, named after the warrior of Gaul.

ADVERTISEMENT

Typically, these warriors were armed with a gladius, or sword, a shield, leather belt, along with other small pieces of armor. Their fighting style was for men with large builds that could wield a sword, shield, and wear a heavy helmet. They would also typically fight against other murmillones.

ADVERTISEMENT

Establishing Themselves At Mount Vesuvius

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Picture of Mount Vesuvius
Carlo Hermann/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images
Carlo Hermann/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

It's common knowledge that Mt. Vesuvius is a volcano that erupted in 79 AD, obliterating the nearby town of Pompeii. Around 100 years before the eruption, the volcano was used as a strategic hideout by Spartacus and his initial band of followers to escape the Roman legions that were on their tails.

ADVERTISEMENT

At the time, the Romans knew that they were up in the mountain and had plans to enact a siege in an attempt to starve out the rebels into submission.

ADVERTISEMENT

We Know What We Do About Spartacus Mostly From Plutarch

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Statue of Spartacus
LL/Roger Viollet via Getty Images
LL/Roger Viollet via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Most of what we know about Spartacus and his uprising are from the writings of a man named Plutarch. An ancient historian, Plutarch roamed throughout Greece and the Roman Empire around 70 AD. During his travels, he wrote extensively about Alexander the Great, the Spartans, and Spartacus.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to Plutarch, Spartacus' wife, prophetess, had a dream of Spartacus sleeping with a snake on his face not long after his capture in Rome. She took this vision as "the sign of a great and terrifying force which would attend him to [an]...issue." A great and terrifying force was exactly what he was.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Roman Government Made A Huge Mistake

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Spartacus and his men
Bettmann/Getty Images
Bettmann/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

One of the main reasons that Spartacus and his fellow slave-gladiator revolt was so successful was mostly because of the Roman government. At the beginning of the revolt, the Romans didn't see Spartacus and his army as nothing more than a rag-tag group of hooligans that were no real threat at all.

ADVERTISEMENT

With this mindset, they refused to send main military forces to put it down, but instead, assumed that the police would be able to handle it. They were sorely wrong.

ADVERTISEMENT

Assembling An Army

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Spartacus movie
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

After his initial escape from the gladiator school and establishing himself at Mount Vesuvius, Spartacus and his men began recruiting other slaves and soldiers to their cause. Two years later, he was at the head of an army of more than 90,000.

ADVERTISEMENT

During this time, Rome sent several military forces to defeat Spartacus, but to no avail. The first commander to take them on was praetor Claudius Glaber, who was defeated after Spartacus and his men escaped using vines on the side of Mount Vesuvius to attack from behind. Spartacus then went on to defeat a slew of other forces Rome threw at him.

ADVERTISEMENT

He Made An Unfortunate Deal With Pirates

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Painting of pirates
Bettmann/Getty Images
Bettmann/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Since Spartacus' plan to march across the Alps didn't work out, he tried to make it to to the Italian coast to sail to Sicily. Unfortunately, he made the wrong deal with a group of Cilician pirates from Asia Minor that had plundered the Mediterranean coastline for decades and had their eye on Sicily as well.

ADVERTISEMENT

Spartacus made it to the Strait of Messina, expecting to be ferried by the pirates to Sicily. However, the pirates never showed up, putting Spartacus between a rock and a hard place.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Final Battle

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Spartacus dying in battle
Bettmann/Getty Images
Bettmann/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

After the pirates had betrayed him and his men, Spartacus came face-to-face with Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome's richest and influential political figures. Crassus brought with him eight legions, and to prove a point, killed every tenth man in the two units who had previously been defeated by Spartacus, to show that defeat would not be tolerated.

ADVERTISEMENT

Spartacus offered to make a peace treaty but was rejected. Spartacus and Crassus met on the battlefield in 71BC. Crassus' army overwhelmed Spartacus' troops, resulting in his death, and the end of the rebellion.

ADVERTISEMENT

His Body Was Never Found

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Drawing of a battle
Bettmann/Getty Images
Bettmann/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

After Spartacus' death on the battlefield on the banks of the Silarus, now known as the Sele River, his body was never found, although some say differently. The battle had been so violent and bloody that it almost seemed impossible that anyone would have been able to identify him, especially considering that the Romans had won.

ADVERTISEMENT

And since there was no way to tell exactly how many soldiers had died on each side, it's estimated that 36,000 people in total lost their lives.

ADVERTISEMENT

His Intentions Are Still Unclear

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Terracotta soldiers
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

According to historian and author Barry Strauss, Spartacus and his army were a bit more controversial than what we have been led to believe by Hollywood. For example, while he and his army were supposedly fighting for their freedom, it's often overlooked that they were also pillaging innocent people's homes on their marches up and down Italy.

ADVERTISEMENT

Furthermore, it's still debated over what Spartacus' motivations were behind his revolt, with many historians claiming it was unlikely to put an end to slavery in the region.

ADVERTISEMENT

Cassius Punished The Remainder Of Spartacus' Army

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Crassus on a horse
The Print Collector via Getty Images
The Print Collector via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

After the majority of Spartacus' army had been annihilated by Cassius' forces, there were only around 6,000 of them left alive. Of course, there was no way that Cassius was going to let them go, and instead, sentenced them to horrible deaths.

ADVERTISEMENT

All of the remaining men of the rebellion were ordered to die by crucifixion, one of the harshest forms of capital punishment established by the Roman Empire. All 6,000 survivors were then crucified along the Appian Way between Rome and Capua as a sign to all other slaves that might have a similar idea.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Rebels Split Their Forces

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Relief of two men fighting
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

At one point during the fighting, Spartacus and his Lieutenant Crixus parted ways, although the reason why isn't exactly clear to historians. One possible reason is that the split could have been a tactical maneuver by the two leaders of the army to confuse the Romans.

ADVERTISEMENT

On the other hand, some claim that Crixus left Spartacus in order to pillage the Roman countryside on the way to Rome. Either way, it was detrimental to the war effort with Crixus taking around 30,000 soldiers with him.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Split Of The Army Proved To Be Fatal

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Men fighting
Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images
Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

After Crixus left Spartacus with around 30,000 of the army's men, Crixus and those who followed him were attacked and defeated by the Roman Army. Upon hearing the death of his closest friend, Spartacus took his revenge by sacrificing 300 of his Roman captives.

ADVERTISEMENT

However, he did so in a rather poetic yet gruesome fashion. Instead of just executing the soldiers, Spartacus had a version of his own gladiatorial games in which he forced the Roman soldiers to fight to the death.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fights Weren't Always To The Death

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
GettyImages-108547952-65182
Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Modern popular culture may depict gladiatorial battles as a free-for-all with the last man standing as the victor, in reality, many of the fights followed strict regulations. Gladiators were often matched according to their size and skill with referees on hand to stop a fight if someone becomes seriously wounded. In some cases, both gladiators were able to leave the Colosseum with honor if they put on a good show.

ADVERTISEMENT

Furthermore, gladiators were an investment and cost a lot of money to house, train, and feed, which meant the last thing promoters wanted to see was them killed. Of course, many did die, with historians estimating between one-in-five or one-in-ten fights resulting in death.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hollywood Loves Him

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Kirk Douglas as Spartacus
Universal
Universal
ADVERTISEMENT

One of the best-known film adaptations of Spartacus' life is director Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus. Starring Kirk Douglas and based on Howard Fast's novel of the same name, the film went on to win four Academy Awards and became the most profitable film in Universal Studios' history.

ADVERTISEMENT

The story of Spartacus has also been adapted for television with over-dramatized shows such as Spartacus on Starz premium cable network. Surely, we will be seeing Spartacus on the big screen again eventually.

ADVERTISEMENT

Spartacus Left Behind Quite The Legacy

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Drawing of Louverture
Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT

Spartacus' uprising against Rome has inspired other oppressed individuals to do the same. For example, Toussaint Louverture, a leader of the slave revolt that led to the independence of Haiti, has been called the "Black Spartacus."

ADVERTISEMENT

Furthermore, Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, often referred to himself as Spartacus. Karl Marx, one of the founders of communism, has sited Spartacus as one of his heroes, describing him as "the most splendid fellow in the whole of ancient history."