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Champion, Europe, Gladiator, Silver
While this Champion has a revealed 1-handed weapon card, gain +1 ATK. While this Champion has a revealed shield card, gain +1 DEF.
Spartacus was the self-liberated, murmillo gladiator who led the Gladiator War, the largest slave revolt in Roman history. Rome made him fight; he made Rome bleed.
Imagine being trained as a killing machine by one of history’s most brutal empires, rising from slavery to challenge that empire’s rule, and making your base camp on one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world. You. Are. SPARTACUS‼
Little is known about Spartacus before his rise to terrifying juggernaut. Historians Plutarch and Appian place his origin in Thrace and suggest he was a Roman soldier or auxiliary who, possibly due to desertion, was enslaved along with his wife. Here’s where Rome made a huge mistake. Selling him to a gladiator training school (a ludus) in Capua, where he was trained as a heavyweight murmillo gladiator—armed with a scutum (shield), gladius (sword), and cassis crista (helmet). Ludus life was brutal, and modern folks wouldn’t survive a single punishment.
Spartacus, now a highly trained gladiator-beast, plotted an escape with 70 others. Armed only with kitchen tools, they fought their way out, seized wagons of weapons and armor, defeated the soldiers sent after them, and freed nearby slaves who joined their cause. They headed to Mount Vesuvius and set up a defensive base.
Rome, still underestimating them, sent a militia of 3,000 to starve them out by blocking the only known path down the mountain. But Spartacus had his crew make ropes from vines and scale the steep side of Vesuvius, ambushing the militia from behind and annihilating them. This kicked off the Third Servile War.
Rome kept sending forces—and kept losing. Spartacus now had to arm 70,000 freed slaves and allies. His force marched up the Italian peninsula, possibly aiming to escape to Cisalpine Gaul, defeating Roman armies along the way. The Senate panicked and sent six legions (~40,000 men) under Crassus, plus reinforcements led by Pompey and Lucullus. Spartacus, now commanding around 120,000 followers, was a full-blown threat.
He wasn’t just a fighter—he was a tactician, a symbol, and a nightmare for Rome’s elite. His movement wasn’t just rebellion—it was revolution. He gave hope to the hopeless and turned slaves into soldiers.
After being betrayed by Cilician pirates he’d hired to ferry his people to safety, Spartacus turned back and launched a final assault on Crassus before Pompey and Lucullus could arrive. The rebels fought savagely but were ultimately routed and crucified. Ancient historians agree Spartacus died in that final battle—but his body was never found.
