60 Fun Facts About Spartacus

Spartacus was a gladiator from which region, in what is now Bulgaria?

He may have belonged to the Maedi tribe near the Strymon river.

According to Appian, what had Spartacus been before he was enslaved and sold as a gladiator?

Florus adds that he was a mercenary who deserted and was enslaved before his strength got him picked as a gladiator.

According to Plutarch, Spartacus's wife, enslaved with him, was what?

She belonged to the Maedi tribe.

The gladiatorial school Spartacus escaped from was near which city?

The 6,000 crosses after the war lined the road from Rome to that same city.

Who owned the gladiatorial school from which Spartacus escaped?

Peter Ustinov won an Oscar playing him in the 1960 film.

What type of heavyweight gladiator was Spartacus?

They carried a large oblong shield and an 18-inch straight-bladed sword.

Roughly how many gladiators broke out of the school with Spartacus in 73 BC?

Some 200 had been in on the plot, but it was betrayed before most could act.

What did the escaping gladiators arm themselves with as they fought their way out?

They then seized wagons of real gladiatorial weapons and armour outside.

On which mountain did the escaped gladiators first make their defensible camp?

It would not erupt and bury Pompeii for another 150 years.

Which two Gallic slaves were chosen as leaders alongside Spartacus?

Roman writers may have projected their own hierarchy onto what was a looser, shared leadership.

How did Spartacus's men escape the Roman militia besieging them on the volcano?

They then attacked the unfortified Roman camp from behind and killed most of the militia.

Which praetor led the first Roman force, a militia, that besieged Spartacus on the volcano?

Rome treated the outbreak as a policing matter, its legions being busy in Spain and against Mithridates.

To roughly what size did Spartacus's army swell at its height?

Rural slaves, herdsmen and shepherds flocked to him, along with some veterans of the Social War.

Which rebel leader was killed with about 30,000 followers near Mount Garganus in 72 BC?

According to Appian, Spartacus avenged him by making 300 Roman prisoners fight each other to the death as gladiators.

Which Roman, said to be the wealthiest in Rome and the only volunteer, was given command against Spartacus?

He was put in charge of eight legions, upwards of 40,000 trained soldiers.

Which ancient punishment did Crassus revive to discipline his legions?

One man in ten was killed so the rest would fear their commander more than the enemy.

Per Plutarch, Spartacus paid which group to ferry 2,000 men to Sicily, only to be abandoned?

He had hoped to ignite a fresh slave revolt on the island.

Crassus trapped the rebels with fortifications across the isthmus at which town near Messina?

Spartacus eventually broke through the lines and headed north again.

Whose legions, returning from Hispania, made Crassus rush to finish the war for fear of losing credit?

That general later told the Senate that Crassus had won the battle but he had ended the war.

What happened to Spartacus's body after the final battle in 71 BC?

Plutarch, Appian and Florus all say he died in the battle; Appian adds that his corpse was never identified.

How many captured survivors of the revolt were crucified along the Appian Way?

The crosses lined more than 100 miles of road from Rome to Capua.

According to Plutarch, what did Spartacus want to do after defeating the consular legions in 72 BC?

Appian and Florus instead say he meant to march on Rome; the sources contradict each other.

Both victorious generals of 71 BC used their armies camped outside Rome to win which office for 70 BC?

One of them was technically too young and had never been praetor or quaestor.

Which Enlightenment philosopher called the Third Servile War 'the only just war in history'?

No ancient account, however, claims that Spartacus aimed to abolish slavery.

Which Haitian revolutionary leader has been called the 'Black Spartacus'?

He led the slave revolt that ended in Haiti's independence.

Which founder of the Bavarian Illuminati called himself Spartacus in his letters?

Karl Marx, for his part, called Spartacus the most splendid fellow in the whole of ancient history.

Which philosopher called Spartacus a 'real representative of the ancient proletariat'?

The German Spartacus League of 1915–18 became a forerunner of the Communist Party of Germany.

What was the Spartakiad?

The name was also used for mass gymnastics displays held every five years in Czechoslovakia.

Which NHL team's mascot, Spartacat, is named after Spartacus?

Countless Spartak sports clubs across the former communist bloc also bear his name.

Which Soviet Armenian composer wrote the 1956 ballet Spartacus?

Camille Saint-Saëns had written a Spartacus Overture almost a century earlier, in 1863.

Which novelist's blacklisted, self-published 1951 book was the basis of the 1960 film?

He wrote it in prison after refusing to name names to HUAC.

Which German playwright's second play, written before 1920, was originally titled Spartacus?

It was later renamed Drums in the Night.

Who directed the 1960 film Spartacus?

It is the only film he directed without complete artistic control, and he later distanced himself from it.

Who played Spartacus in the 1960 film and executive-produced it through his company Bryna Productions?

He took on the project partly because he had lost the lead in Ben-Hur to Charlton Heston.

Which original director of the 1960 film was removed after three weeks of shooting?

He went on to direct El Cid a year later; David Lean had turned the job down earlier.

Which blacklisted Hollywood Ten member wrote the 1960 film's screenplay and was publicly credited by Douglas?

He had been paid under the pseudonym Sam Jackson; the credit helped end the blacklist.

Which US president crossed a picket line to watch Spartacus in 1960, helping end the blacklist?

The National Legion of Decency had picketed theatres showing it.

Which actor won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the gladiator-school owner in the 1960 film?

The film won four Oscars from six nominations, including cinematography, art direction and costume design.

Who played Crassus in the 1960 film?

Charles Laughton played his senatorial rival Gracchus and John Gavin played Julius Caesar.

Which actress played Spartacus's wife Varinia, a fictional character, in the 1960 film?

Jeanne Moreau turned the part down and Sabine Bethmann was fired after two days of filming.

Which actor played Antoninus, the slave who first shouts 'I'm Spartacus!' in the film's famous scene?

The scene mirrors HUAC hearings where witnesses were pressed to name names.

How did Kubrick's crew record the crowd noise for the film's huge scenes?

A Michigan State–Notre Dame crowd shouted Hail, Crassus! and I'm Spartacus! into three-channel equipment.

In which country were the film's battle scenes shot, using about 8,000 soldiers as the Roman army?

Kubrick directed the armies from specially built towers on a plain outside Madrid.

What was the budget of the 1960 film, then a daunting sum for its 30-year-old director?

His previous film Paths of Glory had cost under $1 million.

When the 'oysters and snails' bath scene was restored in 1991, who redubbed the late Olivier?

He had been Olivier's protégé at the National Theatre and was suggested by Olivier's widow, Joan Plowright.

Which 1970 film finally overtook Spartacus as the highest-grossing film in Universal's history?

Spartacus was selected for the National Film Registry in 2017.

Which rival star was developing his own Spartacus film, The Gladiators, when Douglas began his project?

He gave up when the weather turned and made The Magnificent Seven instead.

Whose 1960 score, using an ondioline, produced the standard 'Love Theme From Spartacus'?

He gathered antique instruments including a sarrusophone, a Chinese oboe and bagpipes.

Which actor starred as Spartacus in the Starz television series that began in 2010?

Liam McIntyre took over the role after Whitfield's death.

Which actor played Spartacus in the 2004 television miniseries adapted from Fast's novel?

Alan Bates co-starred.

Besides Appian's Civil Wars, which work by Plutarch is a main ancient source on Spartacus?

No eyewitness account survives, and none was written from the slaves' side.

Per Plutarch, how many legionaries of one cohort did Crassus decimate after his legate Mummius was routed?

Appian thought whole legions may have been decimated, which would mean up to 4,000 executions.

According to Appian, how did Spartacus avenge his fallen Gallic co-leader in 72 BC?

He then burned his baggage and killed his prisoners to speed the march north.

One etymology derives the name Spartacus from Thracian words meaning what?

Five of twenty kings of the Thracian Spartocid dynasty bore nearly identical names.

How many rebels under Gannicus and Castus died when Crassus caught them apart from the main army?

The main army then turned for a last stand in the Sele valley of Lucania.

A modern estimate that Spartacus was about 30 when the revolt began puts his birth in roughly which year?

Nothing certain is known about his early life beyond his Thracian origin.

Spartacus is described as having been born near which river in Thrace?

He possibly belonged to the Maedi tribe, which lived on the southwestern fringes of Thrace in what is now south-western Bulgaria.

Which German group of 1915-18, a forerunner of the Communist Party, took the gladiator's name?

The communists' January 1919 revolt in Berlin became known as the Spartacist uprising.

Which Darkness at Noon author also wrote a novel about Spartacus called The Gladiators?

Other Spartacus fiction includes Ben Kane's 2012 novels and Robert Montgomery Bird's 1831 play The Gladiator.

The rebels' winter raids of 73-72 BC took in Nola, Nuceria, Metapontum and which other town?

The army spent that winter training, arming and equipping the recruits who had swelled its ranks.