Spartacus was born a freeman. He joined
the army, but he ran away. When he was caught, he was sold into slavery to
work as a gladiator. Some gladiators were freemen. But most, like
Spartacus, were slaves, who had been sold to a gladiator school. When these
men were not fighting, they were locked up in the gladiator school, to make
sure they did not escape.
One day, in 73 BCE, Spartacus did just
that - he escaped. Around 70 other gladiators escaped with him. They armed
themselves with knives from the cook's shop. They found a wagon full of
gladiator weapons. They stole those, too. They camped on Mount Vesuvius.
Rome sent an army of 3000 soldiers to capture the
runaway slaves. Spartacus attacked from the rear. The Roman army was defeated.
Rome tried again. This time they sent 6000 men. Spartacus won that battle as
well.
When other slaves first heard that
Spartacus had escaped, some ran away and joined Spartacus. But when Spartacus
and his men defeated the Roman army, many slaves ran away to join him. The
people knew Spartacus. He was a gladiator. He was famous. Rome's slaves felt
if they could reach Spartacus, Spartacus would keep them safe. In
a very short amount of time, Spartacus and his followers had swelled from 70
to over 100,000 people.
Rome was terrified. The wealthy Roman way of life was
dependant upon slaves. That is one reason so
many poor Roman citizens were out of work. Slave labor was free.
About 1/3 of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves. Wealthy citizens
could not allow this revolt to succeed, not if they wanted to keep their
lifestyle.
Catching Spartacus was not easy.
Spartacus and his followers spent their first winter with plenty of good food
that they stole from the surrounding countryside. They prepared for battle.
They made weapons. They drilled. The gladiators taught others how to fight
like a gladiator.
Spartacus and his
followers were hunted for two years. They defeated
every effort to capture them. When Rome finally caught
up with him, they killed Spartacus
and everyone with him.
