Rome Government Document: The Spartacus Files 71 BC Report written by Gabrielus Andreus, government official The purpose of these files is to present to you, the members of the Senate, information regarding the Spartacus rebellion as well as a possible explanation to Spartacus' success in recruiting supporters. How it Happened Spartacus was born as a free man 40 years ago. When he was a teenager, he was trained to fight for one of the legions in the army. When Spartacus was asked to march and attack the people of his hometown, Thrace, he decided to desert the army. Consequently, our soldiers captured him and sold him into slavery as punishment. He was sold as a slave to the distinguished Capua school to learn how to be a gladiator. He spent years in training. It seems that during that time he planned an escape that eventually led to the deaths of thousands, including himself. …show more content…
Soon after this, our military sent an army in their pursuit. Surprisingly, Spartacus and the other gladiators defeated this army, so we sent another one, which was also defeated. As our military was trying to assemble a much larger army to deploy after Spartacus, he was doing the same. He was searching for and recruiting runaway slaves and freeing them from farms and villas to help him fight. After a couple of years of fighting and hiding, Spartacus was able to mobilize an army of about 100,000