The name of Spartacus has, not least thanks to modern cinematography, entered the realm of legend. Everyone knows the gladiator, a mere slave who, through his ingenuity, managed to bring the incredible power of Rome to its knees.

In reality, despite his enduring fame, very little reliable information survives regarding the historical figure of Spartacus. This scarcity of evidence is primarily due to the nature of the surviving sources: only one contemporary witness, as far as current scholarship is aware, left any testimony concerning him. The principal accounts, in fact, come from the historians Plutarch (46 CE – 125/127 CE) and Appian (95 CE – 165 CE), both of whom, as their chronological limits indicate, wrote long after the events of Spartacus’s revolt in 73 BCE.

Plutarch offers a concise biographical sketch of the rebel: “Spartacus was a Thracian of nomadic stock, not only distinguished for his courage and strength, but also for his intelligence and prudence, being worthy of a higher rank.”

Appian, writing some decades later, confirms Spartacus’s Thracian origin, describing him as “a Thracian, once a soldier of the Romans, later taken prisoner and sold as a gladiator.”

Beyond Spartacus’s ethnic background, what deserves particular attention in Plutarch’s statement is the phrase “worthy of a higher rank.” These words appear to suggest noble birth, an interpretation seemingly corroborated by Diodorus Siculus (90 BCE – 27 BCE), who was closer in time to the actual events. The Sicilian historian observes: “His name seems to indicate that Spartacus was a descendant of the dynasty of the Spartocids, founded by Spartokos I, the Thracian who, in the late fifth century BCE, ruled over the Cimmerian Bosporus.” Unfortunately, beyond this brief mention, there is no concrete evidence to confirm or refute the hypothesis of Spartacus’s noble lineage.

In modern times, the historian Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) also advanced the theory that Spartacus had royal origins. However, his argument lacks any firm actual foundation. Many contemporary scholars, nonetheless, continue to regard the remarks of Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch as possessing a certain degree of plausibility, sufficient at least to suggest the elevated condition of one of the greatest scourges that Rome had ever known.