Andy Whitfield, the British star of US TV drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand, has died at the age of 39. This was a well-established source for slaves, and Spartacus was just one of the many who made the trek into Italy. Around 6,000 of his followers who escaped were hunted down and crucified. Spartacus was sold into slavery, perhaps due to rebellion against or desertion from the army. It is a matter, not of words, but of facts. In the past, they had never wanted to leave Italy; now success might have gone to their heads and aroused visions of Rome in flames.. In this scene, as Spartacus and his army are captured, Spartacus stands up declaring I am Spartacus as a means of hoping to spare the rest of his allies. However, while the legend of Spartacus is based on true events, much of the legend is still fictional. Yet even Pierre Hadot, the philologist-turned-philosopher famous for re-emphasing the often-forgotten existential dimension of classical philosophy, at the end of his life begrudgingly admitted the extraordinary parallels between the kind of Buddhism which assisted Andy Whitfield in his final years, and ancient Stoic, sceptical and Epicurean ideas. By the end of 71 BC, Spartacus was encamped in Rhegium (Reggio Calabria), near the Strait of Messina. Spartacus waged a brilliant guerrilla campaign against a strong and well-organized enemy, but he could not prevail against a fully mobilized Rome. Gannicus was a Celtic slave, who together with the Thracian Spartacus, Crixus, Castus and Oenomaus, became one of the leaders of rebel slaves during the Third Servile War (73-71 BC). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [50] If escaping the Italian peninsula was indeed his goal, it is not clear why Spartacus turned south after defeating the legions commanded by the consuls Lucius Publicola and Gnaeus Clodianus, which left his force a clear passage over the Alps. Thracians were known to be good horseman, able to tame even wild horses. Initial treatment indicated remission. At the same time, the Roman Senate, alarmed by the defeat of the praetorian forces, dispatched a pair of consular legions under the command of Lucius Gellius and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. We can readily imagine the kinds of beliefs a person in Andy Whitfields situation could have formed, absent philosophical direction: What have I done to deserve this? Spartacus attempted to lead his rowdy band back home to their native lands, but they preferred to stay and increase their ill-gotten gains. Why he did this is a mystery. Spartacus: 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate (& 5 Things That Are Completely Fabricated), 15 Best Movies Set In Ancient Rome, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes), Quintus Batiatus might not make a lot of sense in the show, 14 Movies To Watch If You Love The Roman Empire, whether he needed this large amount of screen time or not, The Most Historically Accurate Movies, According To IMDb, 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate In Peaky Blinders (& 5 That Aren't). While it may have made for good drama, it is also one of the shows biggest inaccuracies. Rome in the 1st century BC By the 1st century BC, Rome had gathered supreme control of the Mediterranean in a series of bloody wars. Yet we can still say in modern English that Whitfield, truly, responded philosophically to what his fate delivered him. Andy travels to India to a retreat; spends time with his father. Ancient writers say that he lost thousands of soldiers in the break out. [4], The Greek essayist Plutarch describes Spartacus as "a Thracian of Nomadic stock",[5] in a possible reference to the Maedi tribe. For the narratives sake, Glaber was portrayed as the person who betrayed Spartacus and sold him into slavery. "Andy was an inspiration to all of us as he faced this very personal battle with courage, strength and grace," he added. A Roman soldier who deserted but was later recaptured. While Glaber himself was very real, there is nothing to suggest that the two men knew each other by anything other than reputation. He was a heavyweight gladiator called a murmillo. With around 3,000 Romans in pursuit, the escapees headed for Mount Vesuvius, where heavy forest provided cover. In the end they stayed, and roamed up and down Italy. For those unfamiliar with it, Spartacus was a Starz original TV series that ran from 2010-2013 and focused on the legend of the famous figure. RELATED:14 Movies To Watch If You Love The Roman Empire. Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic philosopher-emperor of the late second century CE indeed penned a series of meditations in which he enjoins himself to, exactly, be here now: Do not disturb yourself by thinking of the whole of your life. In an interview with the Deadline Hollywood website last year, Whitfield said having cancer had taught him some important lessons. [53][54], Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, often referred to himself as Spartacus within written correspondences.[55]. In time, he even succeeded in getting non-slaves to join his rebellion. [1] His name means "one with curly hair" in Gaulish. Furthermore, it is here where Spartacus began his rebellion with the escape of about 70 slaves. Strauss notes that he was a wealthy individual, able to raise a large army and pay them, at least in part, out of his own pocket. He turned to a group of Cilician pirates (as Plutarch called them) who frequented the area and, who Strauss notes, were equipped with speedy boats and navigational knowledge, things Spartacus needed to make the crossing successfully. Spartacus (approximately 100-71 BCE), was a gladiator from Thrace who led a major revolt against Rome. More broadly, Spartacusbecame a symbol of the oppressed, and hada formative impact on Karl Marxs thinking, among others. Everyone above a certain age in this broad sense has a philosophy of life, which in turn shapes what they feel and do. RELATED:15 Best Movies Set In Ancient Rome, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes). In 72 BC Spartacus and his army marched north towards Gaul (the Roman term for a region covering France, the Low Countries and northern Italy). The growth of Spartacuss force was aided by other factors. Dan has his regular catch-up with Simon Elliott on all things Roman. Conditions were ripe for a massive slave revolt. Although the Cilicians made an agreement with Spartacus and accepted his gifts, they deceived him and sailed away, wrote Plutarch. The series focused on Spartacus during three key moments in his life, from his time as a slave all the way to his death. Who, today, remembers Crassus? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. He was sold as a gladiator to be trained at the school in Capua. NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth this week. Florus described him as one "who, from a Thracian mercenary, had become a Roman soldier, that had deserted and became enslaved, and afterward, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator". [6] Appian says he was "a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator".[7]. Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin University, Matthew Sharpe works at Deakin. In his business dealings Plutarch said that he had a scheme where he bought up the burning properties and the buildings in the neighborhood of those alight, as the owners would surrender them for a small sum of money out of fear and uncertainty. (Translation from Roman Social History: A Sourcebook, Routledge, 2007). Gellius then proceeded to advance on Spartacus from the south while Lentulus, who was apparently ahead of Spartacus, drove in from the north. Whitfield's Spartacus co-star Lucy Lawless also paid tribute to the actor in a statement to EW: "Andy Whitfield left an indelible mark on all of us in the Spartacus family," she said. In 71 B.C.E., General Marcus Licinius Crassus defeated the rebel army at Lucania, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Naples. [27] Of the slaves that joined Spartacus ranks, many were from the countryside. Asked by his distraught children on his deathbed what was happening, Whitfield responded with a sage-like magnanimity little beneath that of a Socrates: I am going to go to sleep now as my body wont work any more. Manu Bennet asCrixus played an especially big role, much like the real Crixus did. Human beings are creatures who form beliefs about our lives and the world in which we live and die. Pompeys army intercepted and killed many slaves who were escaping northward, and 6,000 prisoners were crucified by Crassus along the Appian Way. In many ways, however, the real story of the series Spartacus unfolded off-screen. Spartacus is thought to have been killed in the battle. Gladiator & Slave. Gaius Claudius Glaber is a Roman commander awarded the title of Legatus, and later Praetor. Now seriously alarmed, the Romans sent in a second military force under Publius Varinius. Season one of Spartacus focuses heavily on how the legend began. For the most part, the show does a fantastic job of incorporating characters from Spartacus actual background into the TV show in a way that works with the narrative. He even speaks briefly of her before she died, and he then accepts the wine in good faith, collapsing after he has had his cup. Spartacus suddenly rushed at them and engaged them in battle. The show's attention to detail really helped build the narrative in a believable fashion, making the show all the more appealing. Spartacus (Greek: Sprtakos; Latin: Spartacus; c. 10371BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. A favorite character in popular fiction, he was not crucified, and there was no Im Spartacus! moment as seen in the famous 1960 Stanley Kubrick film. 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. Spartacus led the third and largest slave revolt against Rome. Paperback. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. [29] They spent the winter of 7372 BC training, arming and equipping their new recruits, and expanding their raiding territory to include the towns of Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum. Around 130 BC there had been a huge, sustained uprising in Sicily, and smaller conflagrations were frequent. As each round of treatment raises hopes of remission, and each round of news disappoints those hopes, we watch Andy and Vashti responding, and finally conceding to the inevitable. While the Starz show was praised for its historical accuracy, that doesn't quite mean that it got everything about the man right. This was more than a century before it erupted and, in Spartacus time, the mountain was actually covered with vines and had fertile farmland nearby. Little is known about him beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory. Though Spartacus himself may have never encountered some of these situations, they certainly took place as part of the gladiator culture. Classical historians were divided as to the motives of Spartacus. Find out more about how the BBC is covering the. Instead, they blocked off the main route up Vesuvius, pitched camp and tried to starve him out. Let not your thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which you may expect to befall you: but on every occasion ask yourself: what is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing? When the Romans fled, the slaves seized their camp, Plutarch wrote. Spartacus was indeed a slave who led the Spartacus Revolt, which began in 73 BC. This man, and another person named Publius Valerius, whom they despatched later, did not command the regular citizen army of legions, but rather whatever forces they could hastily conscript on the spot, wrote Appian, a writer who also lived in the second century A.D. (translation by Brent Shaw). He also certainly did not infiltrate Spartacus armies and spy on him in any manner. Although much of the evidence for Spartacus existence is anecdotal, there are some coherent themes that emerge. Appian and Florus write that he intended to march on Rome itself. Several sports clubs around the world, in particular the former Soviet and the Communist bloc, were named after the Roman gladiator. In this area, since 1899, there have been finds of armour and swords of the Roman era. When did Spartacus sell slavery? Spartacus was around 30 years old at the time he started his revolt,[17] which would put his birth year around 103 BC. While the enslavement part is certainly true, only theories exist that suggest the two sides originally worked together.