Biography: Early Life. Throughout his rebellion, his army spent much of its time in rural areas and small towns, places that were poorly defended but had an abundance of slaves. As a consequence Crassus selected every tenth man from the consular legions by lot and had him executed, wrote Appian. Andy Whitfield, the British star of US TV drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand, has died at the age of 39. RELATED:14 Movies To Watch If You Love The Roman Empire. The mascot for the Ottawa Senators, Spartacat, is also named after him. Appian and Florus write that he intended to march on Rome itself. In the end they stayed, and roamed up and down Italy. They also advertise for all who see the film the merits of its informing philosophy. It was acclaimed as the first truly intelligent epic, but its director, the highly acclaimed Stanley Kubrick, has largely disowned it.Kubrick took the assignment, partially as a way of escaping the ill-fated One-Eyed Jacks project he was . [39] The Spartakiad was a Soviet bloc version of the Olympic games. Castus and Gannicus were defeated by Crassus, likely sometime before April, at the Battle of Cantenna. Eventually, Spartacus would find himself as a gladiator and earn quite a name for himself as one of the best fighters in the ring. Spartacuss cavalry was apparently unable to reach Crassuss missile throwers and archers. Like in the show, the house resided in Capua and functioned as a school for gladiators, new and experienced alike. Spartacus is said to have hacked down two centurions in this final attempt, however it was in vain. Also, while Spartacus was a real person who has inspired revolutionaries and filmmakers, scholars do not have an abundant amount of information about him. Due to the unquestionable devotion of his followers, though, everyone else eventually stands up and also declares, I am Spartacus. The show, however, spins this quote very differently. Stay in the now and enjoy every moment.". Back in Rome, the senate grew impatient and sent a large army led by the consuls Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. A Thracian by birth, Spartacus served in the Roman army, perhaps deserted, led bandit raids, and was caught and sold as a slave. While Spartacuss uprising was ultimately crushed his memory lives on, more so than the Romans who fought against, or otherwise opposed, him. Corrections? In one of the more powerful moments in Be Here Now, Vashti reminds her husband of how, before each scene in the Spartacus series, Andy would steel or rev himself up for the combat. Crixus was a Gallic gladiator and military leader in the Third Servile War between the Roman Republic and rebel slaves. [46] Spartacus now turned his forces around and brought his entire strength to bear on the legions in a last stand, in which the rebels were routed completely, with the vast majority of them being killed on the battlefield.[47]. Rather than try and openly battle Spartacus in southern Italy he built a system of fortifications centred on the Melia Ridge in an effort to trap Spartacus and starve his troops. [43] When Crassus refused, Spartacus and his army broke through the Roman fortifications and headed to Brundusium with Crassus's legions in pursuit. He was the one who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, escaped the gladiator school and led one of the most famous uprisings in Roman history. Spartacus was sold into slavery, perhaps due to rebellion against or desertion from the army. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Dramatizes is not quite the word for this bazaar of Blood and Sand in which almost everyone parades around in next to nothing and blood spurts fantastically out of punctured bodies in every episode. (Image credit: ), 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20 million suns found speeding through space with a trail of newborn stars behind it, Artificial sweetener may increase risk of heart attack and stroke, study finds. All sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader. At the same time, the Roman Senate, alarmed by the defeat of the praetorian forces, dispatched a pair of consular legions under the command of Lucius Gellius and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. For the narratives sake, Glaber was portrayed as the person who betrayed Spartacus and sold him into slavery. Crassus built trenches to block Spartacuss cavalry prompting a wild melee when Spartacuss men jumped in and tried to stop their construction. But if we are thus what we believe, in no small measure, Stoicism and Epicureanism and the other ancient schools reasoned that philosophy can be a guide for life. For even in its institutional forms, philosophy is all about assessing peoples beliefs, with a view to potentially rectifying them in the light of reasoned reflection. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Romans in Spartacus are all craven figures: manipulative and power-crazed or decadently debauched. [37] When Spartacus and his followers, who for unclear reasons had retreated to the south of Italy, moved northward again in early 71 BC, Crassus deployed six of his legions on the borders of the region and detached his legate Mummius with two legions to maneuver behind Spartacus. [41], At this time, the legions of Pompey returned from Hispania and were ordered by the Senate to head south to aid Crassus. How Much of Tacitus Agricola Can We Really Believe? Despite this, the show still finds a very clever way to incorporate Glaber into a larger role in the show (whether he needed this large amount of screen time or not) despite his small mark on history. Plutarch wrote that, just before the battle, Spartacus got off his horse, killed the beast, and told his men that if he won the battle, he would have many fine horses that belonged to the enemy, but if he lost he would have no need of a horse. The battle went poorly. In this scene, as Spartacus and his army are captured, Spartacus stands up declaring I am Spartacus as a means of hoping to spare the rest of his allies. They marched as far north as Gaul (modern-day France). Spartacus was a gladiator who was originally from Thrace. The slaves managed to break through the fortifications that Crassus had built to trap them, but were pursued to Lucania where the rebel army was destroyed. For example, gladiators who performed well were treated as free men and awarded great prizes, and sometimes even women. Furthermore, it is here where Spartacus began his rebellion with the escape of about 70 slaves. Spartacuss own men probably vetoed him, writes Barry Strauss, a Classics professor at Cornell University, in his book The Spartacus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009). Why he did this is a mystery. This story is told in the extraordinary documentary: Be Here Now: the Andy Whitfield Story. He is married to Senator Albinius's favored daughter, Ilithyia, who both supports her husband's actions politically and emotionally, by personally seeing to it that Glaber's greatest enemy, Spartacus, suffers as much pain as possible. [2] The philosopher Voltaire described the Third Servile War as "the only just war in history". The ethic of the gladiators is a kind of grim Stoicism, as this ancient philosophy is usually understood: one of joylessly facing down adversity, buoyed only by the hopeless hope of glory in the arena. A Thracian by birth, Spartacus served in the Roman army, perhaps deserted, led bandit raids, and was caught and sold as a slave. The Gladiator Mosaic at the Galleria Borghese. However, he was betrayed by the pirates, who took payment and then abandoned the rebels. After about a year, the group mobilized and started traveling throughout the Roman Empire. However, for reasons lost to history, Spartacus chose not to do this, instead turning his force around and heading back into Italy. Spartacus has long served as an inspiration to those seeking to revolt against oppressive rule. While the Strait of Messina is small, being only two miles (3.2 kilometers) wide at some points, Spartacus had several problems crossing it. How did Spartacus die in real life? What other fears do just the same! The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Stanley Kubrick directed Kirk Douglas in the film Spartacus, released in 1960. Spartacus was indeed a slave who led the Spartacus Revolt, which began in 73 BC. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Spartacus, a Thracian man, wasn't born to wealth or power. He was sent to the gladiatorial training school in Capua in 73 B.C.E. Spartacus's struggle has been inspirational to revolutionaries, politicians and writers since the 19th century. Spartacus was based on a slave who headed a revolt against the Romans in the 1st century BC. Rural slaves lived a life that better prepared them to fight in Spartacus's army. With his death his army fell apart and Crassus and the other Roman forces hunted down the remaining rebels. However, while Caesar lived during this rebellion and did personally know Crassus, he had no involvement in the events that transpired. Two volumes. Be Here Now, in this ancient light, gives a very different kind of answer to the Romans question: who is the real Spartacus?, or where you might find him. Be Here Now documents Whitfields battle with the disease between March 2010 and September 2011. He also certainly did not infiltrate Spartacus armies and spy on him in any manner. [26] At its height, Spartacus's army included many different peoples, including Celts, Gauls, and others. Why were the legionaries so successful, and how did they maintain that success for several centuries? At first, Rome did not regard the slave army as a serious force and did not send front-line troops against it; Spartacus' army defeats and defeats the first four armies. [29] They spent the winter of 7372 BC training, arming and equipping their new recruits, and expanding their raiding territory to include the towns of Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum. [42] Crassus feared that Pompey's involvement would deprive him of credit for defeating Spartacus himself. Throughout Spartacus was facinga dilemma escape home over the alps or continue attacking the Romans. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. Once free, the escaped gladiators chose Spartacus and two Gallic slavesCrixus and Oenomausas their leaders. [24], The rebels also defeated a second expedition against them, nearly capturing the praetor commander, killing his lieutenants, and seizing the military equipment. Spartacus, (died 71 bce), leader in the Gladiatorial War (7371 bce) against Rome. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. He turned to a group of Cilician pirates (as Plutarch called them) who frequented the area and, who Strauss notes, were equipped with speedy boats and navigational knowledge, things Spartacus needed to make the crossing successfully.