This immediately captured the attention of the Roman Senate, which sent a number of legions to fight the slave force and kill Spartacus himself, but not before he made his mark on Roman history. Then, over a period of about two years until 71 BC, he freed a number of slaves and trained them to form an army of 70,000 individuals. Those in power were resting on their laurels.įirst Spartacus convinced some 70 fellow gladiators to revolt and escape to the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. However, despite repeated slave uprisings, the Romans never took them seriously. It was estimated that at its peak the number of slaves in Rome was around one and a half million. But as history has proved time and again, while you may take away a soldier’s freedom, the warrior’s fierce will for independence is never surrendered.īefore he was enslaved and forced to fight in the Roman arenas, not much was known about him, largely because the Romans never bothered to document the early lives of gladiators. Spartacus, a Thracian by birth, was a soldier captured in war and then sold into slavery to fight as a gladiator. Without a doubt, the most famous gladiator in the whole of Roman history was Spartacus. This animosity eventually led to his assassination which was plotted by Roman senators who repeatedly stabbed him to death. It was when he famously crossed the Rubicon and took control of Rome as a dictator that his opponents silently turned upon him. He also led expeditions to Germany and Britain, both of which were foreign territories to Rome at that time.īut his ruthless success also gave rise to a number of political enemies, who plotted against him time and again. The conflict in Gaul was proving to be the biggest obstacle to the path of Roman glory, and it was his brilliant campaign to conquer Gaul which led to his success, his strategies still being studied by training generals to this day. Even though most people may not have the slightest idea when it comes to ancient Rome, chances are that they will still have heard of the prodigious Roman emperor (and self-appointed dictator) Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar is arguably the most well known of the ancient Romans. He went on to win many decisive battles with his new army, the famous ones being the battles of Aquae Sextiae and Campi Raudii, where his victories saved the republic from a seemingly inevitable barbarian defeat. But once Marius took over, men from the provinces could sign up for the army and in time become Roman citizens. However, he is best known for the changes he brought about to the Roman military legions, dramatic and influential reforms that forever changed the rules of engagement.Īt a time when attacks and invasions from barbarian and German tribes posed a huge threat to the entire Roman Republic, he saw the need to increase recruitment which was significantly down because of the strict standards that had been set for potential soldiers. A cunning tactician, Gaius Marius also held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times in a row. This legendary Roman general and statesman single handedly evolved the Roman army into one of the most effective and well-organized fighting bodies the world has ever seen. Eventually, he was assassinated in a riot sparked by his senatorial opponents. With the plight of peasant workers worsening every day, the rise of slave labor further degraded the peasants, and for obvious reasons, his ideas were not popular with the Senate and the Roman elite who owned much of land. However, he is best known for his ideologies and practices of equality between the upper-class elite and lower-class peasants. Even though this move was resented by the Roman Senate which felt that the Roman army had given up without a fight, Tiberius recognized the fragility of Roman power. Even though Tiberius Gracchus came from one of Rome’s elite families, he was known for his struggles on behalf of the poor people of Rome, and made commendable efforts to bring relief to the lives of the have-nots along with his brother Gaius Gracchus.Īs a distinguished officer during the Third Punic War, it was his negotiating skills that saved the lives of more than 20,000 Roman soldiers when they found themselves in dire straits in Numantia.
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