Executed 71 B.C.E.
Slave, Gladiator, And Revolutionary

The People's Champion. The Thracian-born slave Spartacus had once served as an auxiliary in the Roman army and had been sent to Capua to train as a gladiator. In 73 B.C.E. Spartacus escaped from the training school. With several companion escapees, Spartacus led a revolt, having attracted Thracian, Celtic, and German fugitives. His army, numbering approximately ninety thousand, defeated several Roman armies. The renegade gladiators and fugitives plundered Italy as they moved up and down the peninsula until Crassus caught and executed Spartacus in 71 B.C.E. All of Spartacus's followers who had been caught were then crucified along the Appian Way. Although the gladiators who escaped from Capua had been slaves, they did not attempt to recruit runaway slaves from the towns around Italy. Instead they attracted downtrodden and disillusioned country folk. The experience is a reminder...