Spar'ta-cus, a Thracian soldier, who was taken
prisoner by the Romans, reduced to slavery, and trained
as a gladiator. Having escaped with a number of his
associates, he became leader of a numerous band, and
defeated Claudius Pulcher, who was sent against him
about 73 R>c. Having proclaimed freedom to all slaves
who should join him, he raised a powerful army and defeated
several times the consuls sent against him. He
was prudent as well as brave. His army amounted to
about 100,000 men, and was invincible until dissensions
arose among them. In 71 B.C. he was blockaded by
M. Licinius Crassus at Rhegium, and killed in a battle
which ended the great Servile war. Spartacus was an
extraordinary man, and had the qualities of a hero.
See Livv,
"
Epitome;" Merimeb, "Guerre sociaie;"
"
Nouvelle
Biographie Generale."
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Spartacus ( Greek: Σπάρτακος; Latin: Spartacus[1]) (c. 109–71
BC) was the most notable leader of the slaves in the Third
Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman
Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of
the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes
contradictory and may not always be reliable.
Spartacus' struggle, often seen as oppressed people fighting
for their freedom against a slave-owning aristocracy, has
found new meaning for modern writers since the 19th century.
The rebellion of Spartacus has proven inspirational to many
modern literary and political writers, making Spartacus a folk
hero among cultures both ancient and modern...
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A famous fighter, by birth a Thracian, and successively a
shepherd, a soldier, and a chief of banditti. On one of his
predatory expeditions he was taken prisoner, and sold to a
trainer of gladiators. In B.C. 73 he was a member of the
gladiatorial company of Lentulus, and was detained in his
school at Capus, in readiness for the games at Rome. He
persuaded his fellow-prisoners to make an attempt to gain
their freedom. About seventy of them broke out of the
trainingschool of Lentulus, and took refuge in the crater of
Vesuvius. Spartacus was chosen leader, and was soon joined
by a number of runaway slaves. These were blockaded by C.
Claudius Pulcher at the head of three thousand men, but
Spartacus attacked the besiegers and put them to flight. His
numbers rapidly increased, and for two years (B.C. 73-71) he
defeated one Roman army after another, and laid waste Italy,
from the foot of the Alps to the southernmost corner of the
peninsula. After both the consuls of the year 72 had been
defeated by Spartacus, M. Licinius Crassus, the praetor, was
appointed to the command of the war. Crassus carried on the
contest with vigour and success; and, after gaining several
advantages over the enemy, at length defeated them on the
River Silarus in a decisive battle, in which Spartacus was
slain. The character of Spartacus has been maligned by the
Roman writers. Cicero compares the vilest of his
contemporaries to him: Horace speaks of him ( Carm. iii. 14,
19) as a common robber; none recognize his greatness, but
the terror of his name survived to a late period of the
Empire. Accident made Spartacus a shepherd, a freebooter,
and a gladiator; nature formed him a hero. The excesses of
his followers he could not always repress, and his efforts
to restrain them often cost him his popularity. But he was
in himself not less mild and just than he was able and
valiant.
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