How did Spartacus become a slave?
According to historians he was born a free man in Thrace. It is suggested that he was an auxiliary in the Roman Army. Auxiliaries (from Latin: auxilia = “supports”) formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army (30 BC284 AD), alongside the Roman citizen legions. Auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts, providing specialist support to the legions. It is possible that he deserted or committed a crime – the punishment being that he was sold as a slave. Slave Traders worked all of the Roman Republic and newly acquired ‘property’ were sold in Slave Auctions to the highest bidders. Did Spartacus originally work in a Salt mine? It is likely that Spartacus was purchased at an auction by Lentulus Batiatus the Slave Dealer and Lanista (Gladiator school owner) who operated in Capua, about 20 miles from Rome. In the movie our hero is depicted working in a Roman salt mine in the province of Libya. But this is possible as Roman prisoners were often given the task of salt
