Spartacus

For many years, the name of the Thracian slave Spartacus struck fear into the hearts of the Roman people. It served to remind them of the danger that constantly menaced the continued existence of their state – the danger of an uprising of the enormous slave population, which might destroy the Roman nation. Scholars have calculated that in ancient Italy the slaves outnumbered the free citizens 3 to 1. If these slaves, who resented the brutal treatment they received as household and plantation labourers, had succeeded in uniting under capable leadership, no armies could have withstood them. There were many slave uprisings in the history of Rome, but the most formidable was that headed by Spartacus in 73 BC. After escaping from the school of gladiators at Capua, he fled to Mount Vesuvius, where he collected an army of runaway slaves like himself. For two years he terrorized Italy, defeating army after army sent against him from Rome. The insurrection was finally crushed by the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus. Spartacus and 6,000 of his followers were slain.