Spartacus and his followers (fellow slaves) escaped from the gladiator life and seized with them a wagon of weapons and fled to Mount Vesuvius

Spartacus

During the age of 120BC and 70BC, a roman slave, formerly a soldier, forced to earn his living and literally his life through gladiator fighting became a leader of a uprising or rebellion against the Roman Empire. An unsuccessful and failed attempt to free slaves from the oppression of the great Roman Empire, when the opportunity came, Spartacus and his “followers” (fellow slaves) escaped from the gladiator life and seized with them a wagon of weapons and fled to Mount Vesuvius, Spartacus’s main intentions was to escape from Italy but his group wanted to plunder and pillage the area and he found it hard to restrain them. After this the Senate of the Roman Empire made their first mistake, they sent a inexperience head of the army with 3,000 men to kill Spartacus and his “troops”. After the Roman’s set up camp, Spartacus staged a surprise attack while the Roman’s slept successfully slaying them all. Then as other escaped slaves heard of this victory, they joined Spartacus’ army with rumors of his army totaling 120,000 slaves.

Then followed Spartacus continued military success even though his army of slaves were inexperience in combat, Spartacus hid them and trained them to fight like proper soldiers. Spartacus went on to defeat another 2 roman legions and now there were elderly people as well as women with children joining him. Spartacus during battle, was known for his tact of seeking out the leader of the army and killing him, this would cause chaos within the enemy army if they saw their leader fall in battle and they might even break ranks. His success continued as he defeated legion after ...

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Unfortunately, the advantage of surprise was lost to him in his last battle as a man named Crassus cornered Spartacus with 8 legions of soldiers, as Spartacus strength was waning and as he broke through the lines of Roman Soldiers, he was intercepted at the river by more forces from Pompey. Soon after this the battle was lost. Over 6,000 of Spartacus’ followers were crucified but Spartacus body was never found. He was believed to be dead but among the dead or crucified, his body was never identified. Meanwhile Crassus left the crucified bodies of the slaves on the wooden crucifixes for years after the battle. Some slaves that escaped were later found, intercepted and killed. The man Pompey took full credit and Crassus himself received little.

The reason I choose Spartacus as the person I admire is because he showed courage and hope which spread to his followers and fellow friends. He believed in freedom no matter who you are. That everyone should be equal and not enslaved by the Romans. He was also a brilliant military tactician showing numbers of force isn’t everything. There were many times he was outnumbered 3 to 1 yet he overthrew the opposition with the advantage of surprise. And a man as intelligent as him took action at the first opportunity he had. He might still be alive if he had left Italy at the first chance he had yet his friends had held him back and he stayed. His belief that none should be enslaved was just and for that the Roman’s crucified the survivors of the battle. Although his body was never found, he lives on in legend and spirit as a figure of admiration and inspiration.

I would like to acknowledge Wikipedia for it’s help in researching and aiding to extend my knowledge of Spartacus.

Information about Spartacus can be found at the following URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus

Arfan Rauf, S4 English, Mr Bowser