Q 01/05

Spartacus came from which ancient region, largely in what is now Bulgaria?

A) Illyria

B) Thrace

C) Macedonia

D) Dacia

Answer · why

B) Thrace

Thrace: Plutarch calls him a Thracian of nomadic stock yet 'more Hellenic than Thracian', crediting the slave with a wit and culture above his fortune...

Q 02/05

Ancient accounts say Spartacus had been what before he was enslaved and made a gladiator?

A) A tribal chief's bodyguard

B) A sailor on a grain ship

C) A soldier with the Romans

D) A shepherd of Lucania

Answer · why

C) A soldier with the Romans

A soldier with the Romans: Florus says he went from mercenary to soldier, then deserter and highwayman, before his strength made him a gladiator, so R...

Q 03/05

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

A) A Roman noblewoman

B) A Greek physician

C) A gladiator's daughter

D) A prophetess

Answer · why

D) A prophetess

A prophetess: when a snake coiled on the sleeping Spartacus's face as he waited to be sold in Rome, Plutarch says, she declared it the sign of a great...

Q 04/05

The gladiator school Spartacus broke out of was based at which city?

A) Neapolis

B) Rome

C) Pompeii

D) Capua

Answer · why

D) Capua

Capua: when the city sent troops after the runaways, the gladiators beat them, took their army weapons and threw away their own arena gear as dishonou...

Q 05/05

Who owned the gladiatorial school from which Spartacus escaped?

A) Publius Varinius

B) Gaius Cassius Longinus

C) Sempronius Gracchus

D) Lentulus Batiatus

Answer · why

D) Lentulus Batiatus

Lentulus Batiatus: Plutarch blames the breakout on his injustice, saying he kept his gladiators in close confinement through no misconduct of their ow...