Transcript Spartacus and the Slave Revolt

Spartacus and the Slave Revolt
Chris Hagin
Early Life of Spartacus
 Born in Thrace
 Trained in
Roman army as
an auxiliary
Enslaved
 Spartacus became
a slave in 73 BC in
the service of
Lentulus Batiates.
 His master taught
at a ludus in
Capua, where
gladiators were
trained.
 Later in the same year, Spartacus and two
Gallic warriors led a rebellion at the school
Spartacus and 80 other gladiators
successfully escaped the training
school using kitchen appliances
 When the band of escaped gladiators
encountered Roman soldiers, they
attacked the soldiers and easily overcame
their defenses, taking the soldiers’
superior weapons
 On the way towards the Alps, Spartacus et al
picked up 70,000+ slaves. Most wanted to
pillage the countryside – not fight the Roman
legionnaires
 The Senate did nothing at first
 Once the Senate
agreed Spartacus was a
threat, General Crassus
was sent to exterminate
Spartacus’s slave army
(at this point it was
wandering south and
east of Rome)
 At Brundisium,
Crassus’s army
killed 60,000
slave-soldiers
and crucified
6,000 more
along the road
leading back to
Rome –
Spartacus was
never found
Gauls surrounding Roman cohort
Gauls make last desperate charge
against Germanic phalanx
Persian war host against Seleucids