Spartacus << SPAHR tuh kuhs >> (?-71 B.C.) became famous as the leader of a major slave revolt in Italy . The revolt lasted from 73 to 71 B.C. and was disastrous for both the slaves and the Romans.
Spartacus was born in Thrace , a region northeast of Greece . His people were nomadic herders. Spartacus joined the Roman army but later deserted it. He then was captured and enslaved by the Romans and sent to train as a gladiator .
In 73 B.C., Spartacus and two Gauls led a group of 74 gladiators who escaped from their training school at Capua in central Italy. They occupied a position on nearby Mount Vesuvius and decisively drove back several Roman forces. As many as 70,000 slaves escaped and joined Spartacus.
Spartacus cleverly argued that the escaped slaves should travel north, leave Italy, and scatter to their homelands while the Romans still were unprepared to deal with them. But the majority favored remaining in Italy to loot it. Although the slaves experienced some defeats in 72, Spartacus successfully led many of them north to Cisalpine Gaul (now northern Italy). Spartacus’s group then turned back south for some reason and fought its way far down Italy to Thurii.
By then the Roman military leader Marcus Licinius Crassus had received a special command to put down the revolt. Crassus raised a large army and drove Spartacus even farther south. Spartacus evidently hoped to evacuate his men from Italy across the narrow Strait of Messina to Sicily , but he could not. The fighting continued, with both sides experiencing victories and defeats. Eventually, in 71, Crassus’s army was victorious, Spartacus was killed, and 6,000 captured slaves were crucified . The Roman general Pompey slaughtered 5,000 others who fled north after the final battle.