One modern author estimates that Spartacus was c. Five out of twenty Kings of the Thracian Spartocid dynasty of the Cimmerian Bosporus and Pontus are known to have borne it, and a Thracian 'Sparta' 'Spardacus' or 'Sparadokos', father of Seuthes I of the Odrysae, is also known. The name Spartacus is otherwise manifested in the Black Sea region. Plutarch also writes that Spartacus's wife, a prophetess of the Maedi tribe, was enslaved with him. The authors refer to the Thracian tribe of the Maedi, which occupied the area on the southwestern fringes of Thrace, along its border with the Roman province of Macedonia – present day south-western Bulgaria. įlorus described him as one 'who, from a Thracian mercenary, had become a Roman soldier, that had deserted and became enslaved, and afterward, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator'.

Appian says he was 'a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator'. The Greek essayist Plutarch describes Spartacus as 'a Thracian of Nomadic stock', in a possible reference to the Maedi tribe. Although this interpretation is not specifically contradicted by classical historians, no historical account mentions that the goal was to end slavery in the Republic. The philosopher Voltaire described the Third Servile War as 'the only just war in history'. This rebellion, interpreted by some as an example of oppressed people fighting for their freedom against a slave-owning oligarchy, has provided inspiration for many political thinkers, and has been featured in literature, television, and film. All sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader. Little is known about him beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Near the Strymon river in present-day Bulgaria The Death of Spartacus by Hermann Vogel (1882)

Spartacus rome spartacus gladiator