Spartacus by Chante

Social Studies 3/26/01

During the school year we watched a movie called Spartacus.  Spartacus was a Roman slave turned gladiator. He wanted to be a free person and didn’t want to be a gladiator. He shows no fear and he is very tough.  Spartacus always helped other slaves. He would even fight off guards to help a slave friend. Roman life is very different from our lives in America today. For fun we watch sports or watch game shows but Romans watched gladiators fight lions and get killed or fight each other and get killed.

We also give women the same rights as men. Back in Rome women had no say in the government. Spartacus wanted freedom more than anything in the world. He also wanted to know about the world that was not a slave world because he had never seen it. He was born a slave. He wanted so badly to live in a regular world.  He didn’t want to be a slave anymore. But, he had no choice he had been born a slave and in Rome you have certain ranks and if you were a slave you would always be a slave.

Varenia was the first woman that Spartacus had ever been up-close to. He had never seen a woman in his life so he didn’t want to use her he wanted to take care of her and be nice to the first woman he had ever met.

Crassus was afraid of Spartacus because Spartacus had a larger army than Crassus. Crassus was afraid that Spartacus and his army would beat his own army because of all of the people he had.

The slave army did not identify Spartacus after the battle because they didn’t want to lose their leader. They didn’t want Spartacus to be killed or hurt because Spartacus was their role model.

Caesar betrayed Dracus because he wanted power and he turned his back on Dracus'  power. Julius Caesar was a betrayer and a liar. He always betrayed the people that he promised things to.

Batiatus was the owner of the gladiator school. He was a rich snob in the beginning but when the slaves started the revolt he lost money and he became a soft caring person.

I learned that in Rome specially chosen slaves were turned into gladiators so they could entertain the higher class of people in Rome. I also learned that people who had more money had more power. One other thing that I learned there were more slaves than citizens in Rome.

The phrase “One person can make a difference” refers to Spartacus because he was the one person who started the revolt by sticking the trainer of the gladiator’s head in the soup and all of the slaves followed him. That is why Spartacus is one person who made a difference.

I think that the movie stayed alive for a long time. The movie showed me how slaves were treated in Rome.