Spartacus the Gladiator and real Warrior of his time..

Spartacus, we learn from Roman historians such as Plutarch, was a Thracian from northern Greece, on the borders of the Roman empire.

They were a tough, war-like people, renowned for brawling and brutality. On top of his natural talent as a fighter, he was trained as an auxiliary Roman soldier and fought on Rome's side against other barbarian tribes in that area. (Contrast this with Kubrick, who placed him, for some reason, in North Africa.

But then there was a falling-out. He may have switched sides and fought against the Romans or deserted and become a bandit.

the Romans put him in chains and sent him to Italy as a slave he was sold at the slave market to Lentulus Batiatus, the shrewd owner of a school for gladiators at Capua.The arena had man-on-man combat, lion-on-man, bear-on-bull and sometimes crucifixion..

Batiatusan entrepreneur and talent-spotter who trained up his acts and supplied them to the dozen or so gladiatorial arenas,ludus in Latin - is a generous word for what in reality was a series of dungeons around a sealed courtyard.

In the courtyard, they trained with wooden swords; these were dangerous men, and only a fool would hand them the real thing until they entered the ring,The skilful managed to stay alive longer than others,The Romans fixated, philosophically, on death thought the gladiators a privileged lot.

Plutarch tells us he was inspired by his slave-woman, a Thracian like him and a follower perhaps even a priestess of the god Dionysus. This mysterious and unnamed creature whispered in his ear that he was divinely destined for greater glory than death in the dust.

Spartacus,then set his mind to escape,He was a natural leader,and drew the other gladiators into his plan but i think this was a spur-of-the-moment thing..In the mean time Batiatus got wind of the plot and he sent in armed reinforcements to put down the insurrection...To ,Spartacus this was (Do or die)

They made for the kitchen and grabbed the only real weapons they could lay their hands on, cleavers and meat skewers. All 200 made a rush for it.The warders fought back and held the majority at bay. But 74 men, plus Spartacus's Thracian woman, made it through the gates and out onto the busy streets of Capua.No one was a match for the trained and desperate killers..

They took the arms and armour from the bodies of the soldiers they killed and headed for the hills,What followed over the next two years rattled Rome's sense of invincibility as Spartacus proceeded to outfox and then humiliate the greatest power in the world.

Spartacus,and his gang made it to Mount Vesuvius a day's march and settled down..From there they could raid the rich farms and villas below for food and riches,Spartacus escape drew other runaway slaves to join with him..Rome,In the mean while didnt take any of this seriously just a little local difficulty,So they sent 3,000 strong legion..They thought they were going in for a ( mopping-up operation)

They sealed off the only road up the mountain and set up camp to starve the insurgents into surrender(They were in no hurry they had lots of food and water)But Spartacus didn't He seized the initiative. On ropes made from vines growing on the hillside, he and his men silently lowered themselves at night down a steep rockface the legionnaires had left unguarded because they thought it impassable they charged the Roman camp.

The legionnaires were butchered while they slept..This was the first of a staggering nine humiliating defeats for the Roman army at the hands of Spartacus and his fast growing rebel army.The original 75 were now 10,000 more came every day. The numbers rose as high as 60,000.

Rome was pissed! A slave revolt could sink the superpower..Roman society was run on slavery But now, to every Roman's horror, the worms were turning..They knew Spartacus had to be crushed..But Spartacus kept his army on the move.. Raid and run was their only hope, a guerrilla war fought for month after month over thousands of miles.

Spartacus killed any of his prisoners, He pitted captured Roman soldiers against each other in gladiatorial fights to the death.The Romans were terrified of Spartacus and his gang..The problem was Spartacus could not control the Germans and the Celts he set out with or the thousands of liberated slaves..

Then it was just a matter of time, Rome got its act together and dealt with this dangerous enemy once and for all.Spartacus proved ruthless in his mission to stay ahead of the hunters,On another occasion his men escaped over a deep defensive ditch by filling it with bodies and charging over them.

Finally, Rome found the stomach and the skill to face Spartacus. He may have decided to stop running, perhaps over confident that after so many victories, another would fall into his lap.

In the spring of 71BC, on a plain in the Silarus valley in southern Italy, just 50 miles from Capua where the revolt had begun, the two armies lined up.At 40,000 apiece, they were matched in numbers but not in skill and training.Dramatically, Spartacus rode along the cheering ranks of his men.Then he stepped down and slaughtered his hourse in full view. If they won that day, there would be plenty of animals to choose from, he declaimed. And if they lost, well, he wouldn't need a horse anyway.

He led them forward on foot surrounded by his bodyguards, he went looking for the enemy general, Crassus, for a man-to-man fight..He never made Roman historians say his men deserted him and left him to die alone. But the propagandists would say that, wouldn't they?

Others describe how he was felled by a javelin and fought on one knee until he was overwhelmed. One thing is certain he died that day But they never found his corpse It was just one among more than 10,000 at the end of what was essentially a massacre.

Spartacus,Was not crucified along with his men that is pure fantasy..What is true is the rebels who weren't slaughtered at Silarus were pursued by Crassus into the hills and rounded up..Then, in an act of extravagant barbarism designed to ram home the point about slave rebellions, they were crucified, all 6,000 of them, at 40- yard intervals along the 140-mile road from Capua to the gates of Rome.

The rebellion was over..But the legend lived on, Spartacus the Roman gladiator and real warrior of his time..

Peace and thanks for flying sugarcookie1

Source:MailOnline : The book Spartacus (The Slave Revolt of Spartacus the Gladiator) By N.S. Gill

Spartacus- Gladiator War:
This video is about Spartacus,
Your time has come, fight with honor.
We can win or try dying by the sword.
theres only one way to become champion, never lose.

Come on people Spartacus is interisting

Wow, that was an interesting read. Thanks for writing that all up.

Funny, the Empire wasn't prepared for it's slaves rebelling. I have an ominous suspicion that today's Empire heeds history... I could be wrong though.

reply to post by Recouper


Thank you, Recouper im glad you enjoyed the read ive always loved the story of Spartacus ..OWS is doing the same thing right now but in our generation..Peace,sugarcookie1

reply to post by sugarcookie1


Brilliant thread thank you, my favourite topic is ancient history. The Spartacus story is also notable in that a young Julius Caesar was involved in the final push to bring him down and history states he was rather scathing of the inefficient tactics used to put him down.

It appears to be one of the things that made him decide to promote on merit within the legions he took on campaign throughout Spain, Gaul, etc. So, in other words, Spartacus was also indirectly responsible for the greater efficiency of the Roman killing machine!

reply to post by Flavian


Thank you Flavian, Im glad you enjoyed the read it was fun thread to put together one i enjoyed myself..And your right Spartacus had alot to do with teaching the Roman legion how to become a better killing machine.. Peace,sugarcookie1

This is a BBC documentary on Spartacus, Batiatus, and Crixus i thought was good..

Peace,sugarcookie1

I saw the frist showing of Spartacus: Vengeance on the Starz webpage it was good this should be a great season! ~~~peace,sugarcookie1

good post, i was recently researching a little about Spartacus, i found it most interesting how he just suddenly vanished and his body was never found.

Very nice read.

I was disappointed when I read that he made the Romans fight each other like gladiators. It looks like he lowered himself to the same level as his enemy.

Originally posted by camouflaged
good post, i was recently researching a little about Spartacus, i found it most interesting how he just suddenly vanished and his body was never found.

It was just one among more than 10,000 at the end of what was essentially a massacre...I think its a conspiracy only because they wanted to kill him so bad why wouldn't they look for his body he would have been a true trophy..Or they didn't want to bother because they had so many bodys to sort though or they didn't want him around because he would have been a martyr to many slaves..who knows..peace,sugarcookie1

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
Very nice read.

I was disappointed when I read that he made the Romans fight each other like gladiators. It looks like he lowered himself to the same level as his enemy.

Thank you Phoenix_...I don't understand myself why he did that unless he was trying to drive home a point and it probley gave his gang of slaves great pleasure to see this done you have to rember this was 71BC i think there feelings back then was an eye for an eye they were ruthless ..peace,sugarcookie1

reply to post by sugarcookie1


It would also depend upon how he met his final end - for example, if he had been hit by one of the Scorpion artillery pieces then there would be very little left of him to identify...........

Originally posted by sugarcookie1

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
Very nice read.

I was disappointed when I read that he made the Romans fight each other like gladiators. It looks like he lowered himself to the same level as his enemy.

Thank you Phoenix_...I don't understand myself why he did that unless he was trying to drive home a point and it probley gave his gang of slaves great pleasure to see this done you have to rember this was 71BC i think there feelings back then was an eye for an eye they were ruthless ..peace,sugarcookie1

More than being ruthless, Spartacus was a Thracian. At the time, a proud warrior race (in their own eyes at least). To be stripped of arms and enslaved and then made to fight for the pleasure of others would have been the ultimate humiliation for such a person. I honestly believe that making the Romans also fight as gladiators was a form of direct retribution. Yes it would also have served a greater purpose by sending a message to Rome but fundamentally i believe it would have been about blind rage and exacting retribution.

reply to post by _Phoenix_

I was disappointed when I read that he made the Romans fight each other like gladiators. It looks like he lowered himself to the same level as his enemy.

Morals were very,very different in those days. Roman empire, civilization with hundreds of years of cultural and philosophical background ,considered it perfectly moral to make people slaves or gladiators and to crucify rebels by thousands.
Spartacus was a son of its time. He behaved according to moral norms of his time and i am pretty sure that making gladiators out of Roman soldiers was not the worse thing his troops did.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

It would also depend upon how he met his final end - for example, if he had been hit by one of the Scorpion artillery pieces then there would be very little left of him to identify...........

Thats true Flavian..I didnt think about that there would have been very little left (yuck)
peace,sugarcookie1

Originally posted by Flavian

Originally posted by sugarcookie1

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
Very nice read.

I was disappointed when I read that he made the Romans fight each other like gladiators. It looks like he lowered himself to the same level as his enemy.

Thank you Phoenix_...I don't understand myself why he did that unless he was trying to drive home a point and it probley gave his gang of slaves great pleasure to see this done you have to rember this was 71BC i think there feelings back then was an eye for an eye they were ruthless ..peace,sugarcookie1

More than being ruthless, Spartacus was a Thracian. At the time, a proud warrior race (in their own eyes at least). To be stripped of arms and enslaved and then made to fight for the pleasure of others would have been the ultimate humiliation for such a person. I honestly believe that making the Romans also fight as gladiators was a form of direct retribution. Yes it would also have served a greater purpose by sending a message to Rome but fundamentally i believe it would have been about blind rage and exacting retribution.

Your right again that would have been the ultimate humiliation ..Well he sent plenty of messages to Rome he was a pain in the ass to them..Blind rage I'm sure had alot to do with it ..I cant even imagine living in that time period..sugarcookie1

Thank you op for the write-up on spartacus.

I follow the series, I remember the original movie as well.

Originally posted by matthewgraybeal
Thank you op for the write-up on spartacus.

I follow the series, I remember the original movie as well.

Your welcome matthewgraybeal,Im glad you enjoyed it peace,sugarcookie1