The Third Servile War , also called the Gladiator War and the War of Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last of a series of unrelated and unsuccessful slave rebellions against the Roman Republic, known collectively as the Roman Servile Wars. The Third Servile War was the only one to directly threaten the Roman heartland of Italy and was doubly alarming to the Roman people due to the repeated successes of the rapidly growing band of rebel slaves against the Roman army between 73 and 71 BC. The rebellion was finally crushed through the concentrated military effort of a single commander, Marcus... Licinius Crassus, although the rebellion continued to have indirect effects on Roman politics for years to come. Between 73 and 71 BC, a band of escaped slaves—originally a small cadre of about 78 escaped gladiators which grew into a band of over 120,000 men, women and children—wandered throughout and raided Italy with relative impunity under the guidance of several leaders, including the famous gladiator-general Spartacus.
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| Occurred: |
72 B.C. - 70 B.C.
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| Location: | Italia, Italy |