Spartacus was a Roman slave and gladiator, and leader of a famous slave revolt. He was sold into slavery, and trained at the gladiatorial school in Capua, north of Naples. He escaped in 73 BC, and took refuge on nearby Mount Vesuvius, where large numbers of other escaped slaves joined him. Leading his army of runaway slaves, which has been estimated to have reached 100,000 men, Spartacus defeated a series of Roman attacks using tactics which would now be called guerrilla warfare.
In 72 BC, Spartacus and his army marched north towards Gaul. They fought off a series of attacks from Roman forces, but then turned south. The Roman politician and general Marcus Licinius Crassus led an army south, and in the battle that followed, Spartacus is believed to have been killed. Around 6,000 of his followers, who escaped, were hunted down and crucified. Thousands of others were killed by the army of the Roman general Pompey. Though his attempt to win freedom failed, Spartacus’s struggle has been an inspiration to revolutionaries, politicians, and writers to this day.