Spartacus: the gladiators’ revolt, 73–71 BC

Italy. Spartacus, 73–71 BC. Capua, 73 BC. At a school that trains gladiators, a Thracian named Spartacus plans an escape. About seventy break out with kitchen knives and spits and seize a wagon of gladiators’ weapons. They hide on Mount Vesuvius, then green with vines. Roman troops block the only path down. At night they twist the vines into ladders and climb down the cliffs behind the Romans. Runaway slaves and herdsmen join by the thousand. They beat army after army, even both consuls. Spartacus leads them north, towards the Alps and home. Then the army turns back. No one knows why. Rome gives the war to Crassus, its richest man. When a unit flees, he executes one man in ten. Cornered at the toe of Italy, Spartacus pays pirates to ship his men to Sicily. They sail off with the money. Crassus walls off the toe of Italy from sea to sea. On a snowy night, the rebels break out. 71 BC. Crassus brings the rebels to battle somewhere in southern Italy. Spartacus fights his way towards Crassus and is cut down. His body is never found. The historian Appian says 6,000 captives were crucified along the road from Capua to Rome. Whatever the movies say, Spartacus did not die on a cross. “I’m Spartacus” was invented for a 1960 film.