⚔️ Spartacus | Rome’s Largest Slave Revolt | 73–71 BC What you’re seeing: Pre-dawn on Mount Vesuvius (Campania, near Pompeii)—Spartacus’s followers descend vines/ropes through ash and fog toward their own camp, regrouping before an ambush on nearby Roman forces. Who was Spartacus? A Thracian (possibly Maedi), likely a former soldier, enslaved and trained as a gladiator in Capua—remembered as a disciplined field leader. Sources: Plutarch (Crassus, Pompey), Appian (Civil Wars I), Florus, Livy (fr.), Sallust (fr.). How did it start (73 BC)? ≈70 gladiators escaped Capua (owner Lentulus Batiatus), armed from roadside wagons, and took refuge on Vesuvius. Why did it happen? Latifundia slave labor; post-Sulla turmoil (land seizures, debt); harsh gladiator control; weak early militia response; some poor freemen joined. Where (modern Italy): Capua & Vesuvius (Campania); Samnium (central-south); Apulia/Puglia (Crixus defeated near Monte Gargano); Cisalpine Gaul (Emilia-Romagna) near Mutina/...