A destructive constant throughout the Roman Empire's history was the institution of slavery. It was a byproduct of the state's military and territorial growth and supported the empire's economy. The great majority were employed for difficult, manual labour, although a small number found employment as servants, artisans, or in other skilled and useful jobs. Slaves were used as comparatively cheap labour in the mining, building, and agricultural industries. While some were able to achieve freedom, many others never achieved it and lived their entire lives as property.

Slaves came in large quantities to the Roman world as a result of the Republican era's expansion of the Roman state, particularly in the second century BCE. Large populations of people were reduced to slavery as the Roman Empire grew, first through Italy and then gradually beyond. They were no longer free agents; instead, they became property and became a part of the Roman Empire. Thus, it should come as no surprise that there were several slave uprisings at this time. There were three of what were called the Servile Wars. Probably the most well-known of these is the last one. Spartacus, the gladiator who fought Rome's strength in the Third Servile War, is to blame for this.

Spartacus: History and Origins

Spartacus was probably of Thracian heritage. Spartacus would lead the revolt against Roman rule in the Third Servile War. A group of people that once occupied vast areas of eastern and southern Europe were known as the Thracians. The Balkans and portions of Asia Minor made up the majority of their domain. Their existence outside the bounds of classical Greco-Roman civilization led to a negative perception of them as fierce warriors who belonged to a barbaric culture.

Even during the siege described in Homer's Iliad, a Thracian king named Rhesus had come to Troy's aid. The Greek heroes Odysseus and Diomedes assassinated Rhesus in the middle of the night while he was sleeping in his camp and took his renowned warhorses, despite their outward displays of courtesy. The study of thracology, a contemporary form of archaeological research, has made significant contributions to dispelling stereotypes of barbarism and highlighting the complex realities of Thracian civilization. The Thracians were brought under the Achaemenid Empire in the fifth century BCE, and in the latter part of the fourth century, Alexander the Great and the Macedonians once more subdued them.

Spartacus's personal life story is not as well known. Given his position as a slave in Roman civilization, this is hardly surprising. Though it is frequently contradictory, the sources that describe the events of the Third Servile War do include some information. For example, based on how the manuscript is read, Plutarch claims that Spartacus was of Thracian ancestry and Nomadic stock, or possibly Maedic stock (a Thracian tribe). He is quick, though, to remind out that this man, the one who would bring the Romans so many problems, was shrewd, brave, and more like a conventional Hellene than a Thracian in temperament and character. According to the historian Florus, Spartacus was a former Roman soldier who fled and ended up as a slave—a narrative that Appian also recounts in his Civil Wars.

The Gladiator's Life

The greatest performers in the Roman Empire were gladiators. From the Republic era until the fifth-century Christian empire outlawed the performances, they battled and lost their lives to appease the masses. The popularity of gladiatorial fights throughout the Roman world is attested to by the amphitheatres dotting the vast stretches of the empire, despite their contested beginnings (most researchers argue for a Campanian foundation). The Flavian Amphitheatre, also called the Colosseum, was the greatest amphitheatre when it was constructed in Rome by Emperor Vespasian. Even though these shows were extremely popular, the gladiators themselves were frequently members of the lowest social classes; they were either executed criminals or slaves. This explains in part why Emperor Commodus' gladiatorial persona offended the Roman nobility so much!

The Samnite, the Gaul (later dubbed Murmillo), and the Thracian were the names of the first gladiators, who were named after the rivals of the newly formed Roman state. It was known that Spartacus had been taken prisoner by the legions, regardless of his precise background. He was trained as a gladiator as a slave at Lentulus Batiatus's ludus, or gladiator training facility, close to Capua. The remnants of this city's amphitheatre—the second largest in the world after Rome's Colosseum—are what make it famous today. It's interesting to note that Spartacus' background didn't seem to matter much, as the Thracian turned into a murmillo!

In 73 BCE, Spartacus and the other gladiators started conspiring. The Capua plan involved perhaps seventy slaves in total. They were quick to pillage supplies and enlist adherents in the surrounding region after fighting their way out of the ludus and beating several soldiers sent after them. Spartacus was chosen by the gladiators and other slaves to be their commander after they withdrew to a more easily fortified location on Mount Vesuvius.

Communist coup in 1919, in the political unrest that accompanied Germany's early Weimar Republic years. But Spartacus did not discover an afterlife among Europeans alone. Among his many monikers, Toussaint Louverture was known as the Black Spartacus, the commander of the slave uprising that foreshadowed Haiti's independence from France in the early 19th century. But unlike his ancient counterpart, this modern Spartacus actually contributed to the fall of an empire, as Haiti defeated France in 1804.

And just who was Spartacus? The historical record continues to be mysterious about the Thracian prisoner who transformed into a rebellious gladiator. Though it was the most recent in a long line of social and political violence eruptions that became more frequent as the Republic's competitiveness increased in the first century BCE, the Third Servile War still shook Rome. So, as historians, it would be more appropriate to inquire as to who Spartacus has been and who he might be next.