They were no match for a proper Roman citizen. You might admire their skill with a sword, but you were never in any doubt about their depravity and lack of moral fibre. To the Romans, gladiators were the lowest of the low. These days we tend to over-glamourize the status of gladiators. All agree he had been reduced to slavery and had been condemned to fight as a gladiator. One ancient text claims he had once fought in the Roman army before being imprisoned.
Our sources have him coming from Thrace, roughly modern Bulgaria. We know little about the precise background of Spartacus. What makes the Spartacus story different is the status of the protagonist. Roman history is not lacking in acts of bravery or self-sacrifice.
