The Roman Gladiator Spartacus
Rohan asked,“What is a gladiator?”
Sir Dig-A-Lot began, “A gladiator was a swordsman who used to fight in an open arena with hardened criminals, other gladiators or wild criminals as entertainment for the crowd. This was done in ancient Rome.”
“Let me tell you about a Roman gladiator called Spartacus. He was a gladiator and a military leader who led the uprising of slaves in the Third Servile War.”
“Spartacus belonged to an Indo-European tribe called Thracian. He was born c.109 BC and was forced to enlist in the army when he grew up. However, Spartacus was a free man and ran away from the army.
When he was caught he was forced into slavery and as a punishment made a gladiator. In 73 BC, Spartacus along with 70 other gladiators escaped to fight the Romans and made an attempt to abolish slavery.
He defeated the Romans in two different battles when over 6000 Roman soldiers fought against an army of 70 with limited weapons. They used kitchen utensils and knives to raid the Roman camps and steal the weapons.
This inspired many slaves to join Spartacus in his fight and the Spartacus soon had over 100,000 people supporting him. All of them set camp in northern Italy. They stole food and other utilities from Romans and survived the winter. However, few people had the skills to fight.”
“The Roman way of life was dependent on slaves. The rich became rich only because they didn’t have to pay for making people work. With Spartacus gaining popularity, the Romans became agitated and prepared an army of over 50,000 soldiers against him. Spartacus was finally defeated and killed in the battle in the year 71 BC.”
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