The battle to subdue the rebels took 4 years. A second uprising of slaves on the island of Sicily happened in 104 BC. Slaves numbering 70,000 took up arms to fight their guards and were successful until they were crushed two years later by Roman soldiers. One such revolt happened in Sicily in 135 BC. They were beaten, starved of food, forced to do labour while being whipped and trampled on by soldiers on horses, and even sent to the coliseum to fight wild animals barehanded. It happened frequently because slaves were treated horribly. Uprisings of slaves were not a new occurrence in Rome and in the provinces of the Roman Empire. They roamed and controlled most of southern Italy. Other slaves and escapees followed, and eventually Spartacus had a band of rebels totalling 90,000 to 120,000 – a virtual army. In 73 BC, he and 70 or 80 fellow gladiators escaped to Mount Vesuvius. He was caught and sold as a slave and was sent to a training school in Capua to train to be a gladiator. It is thought that he was originally a Roman soldier who escaped and was hunted as a deserter. Spartacus was a freedman born in Thrace, what is today Greece.
