Spartacus was a Roman slave who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy, then the Italian Peninsula in (73 - 71 B.C.). His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the "Third Servile War". Other names for the war include the Gladiator War.
Different sources claim that Spartacus was either a captured Thracian soldier or a deserter who had served in the Roman Army for while. One of the most common theories is that Spartacus fought in the Roman Army as an auxiliary. The auxilary forces were made up entirely of men from captured lands who willingly fought for the Romans.
In 73 BC he broke out of gladiators' school, owned by Lentulus Batiatus at Capua with between 70 and 80 followers and fled to the caldera of Mount Vesuvius (near Naples). There he raised a rebel army composed of allegedly 70000 escaped slaves.
Spartacus's forces defeated two Roman legions sent to crush them. They spent the winter on the south coast manufacturing weapons. At this point, Spartacus's many followers were not all able-bodied males---several of them were women, children, and elderly men who tagged along. By spring they marched towards the north and Gaul. They defeated two legions on the way. At Mutina (modern-day Modena) they defeated yet another legion of Cassius Longinus, the Governor of Cisalpine Gaul.
Spartacus had apparently intended to march his army out of Italy and into Gaul. However, he changed his mind, possibly under the pressure of his followers who wanted more plunder. There are theories that say that several of the non-fighting followers did in fact cross the Alps and go home. The rest marched back south and defeated two more legions under Marcus Licinius Crassus, who at that time was the wealthiest man in Rome. At the end of 72 BC Spartacus was camped in Rhegium (Reggio Calabria) near the Straits of Messina.
Spartacus's deal with Sicilian pirates to get them to Sicily fell through. In the beginning of 71 BC, eight legions of Marcus Licinius Crassus isolated Spartacus's army in Calabria. The Roman Senate also recalled Pompey from Iberia and Lucullus from northern Turkey.
Spartacus managed to break through Crassus's lines and escape towards Brundisium (modern-day Brindisi). Crassus's forces intercepted then in Lucania and Spartacus was killed in subsequent battle. The last survivors fled north but were killed by Pompey, coming back from Iberia.
Approximately six thousand of the captured slaves were crucified along the Via Appia from Capua to Rome. Crassus never gave orders for the bodies to be taken down, thus travelers were forced to see the bodies for years, perhaps decades, after the final battle. Legionnaires found 3000 unharmed Roman prisoners from his camp. Spartacus's body was never identified.
Many revolutionaries and the like have used the name Spartacus. They include Adam Weishaupt and left-wing Spartacus League of Weimar Republic Germany. See Spartakus.
Howard Fast wrote the historical novel Spartacus. In it, Spartacus is depicted as a sort of early communist who fights against the wealthy Roman establishment by liberating the slaves.
Stanley Kubrick made his film Spartacus based on it in 1960 starring Kirk Douglas in the title role. The movie was re-released in 1967 and again in 1991, with "restored" scenes that had been cut for being too racy in 1960.
Spartacus was also a ballet written by composser Aram Khachaturian.