I am Spartacus!

2. Mt Vesuvius

Roma, Lazio

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At this time, Mount Vesuvius was thought to be just an ordinary mountain and nothing more. Nobody was aware of the terrifying secret that lay within. It would be another hundred years before the mountain exploded into action and its hot ash and lava swamped the bustling market town of Pompeii and the richly elegant seaside resort of Herculaneum. News of Spartacus and his growing band of men soon reached the streets and piazzas of a panicked Rome. At this time, the city was poorly defended because its Senate, for fear of revolt, had introduced a law banning any standing army close to the city's walls. The ranks of the slave army rapidly grew as the poorly treated locals and shepherds in and around the foothills of Vesuvius rallied to the cause. Hearing that a force of 3,000 militiamen commanded by Claudius Glaber was heading towards them, Spartacus and his Gaul generals, Crixus and Oenamus, scaled the steep, slippery sides of Vesuvius and made camp on the summit of the sleeping volcano. Glaber's force was designed more for policing actions and was made up of poorly trained, raw recruits. So he decided - rather than risk an assault upon the difficult slopes - to besiege the only road that twisted its way around the mountain and wait to starve the renegades out. Not intent on being forced into submission, Spartacus ordered his men to cut off lengths of vine that covered the mountainside. Then, in the dead of night and using these simple ropes, the rebel army silently lowered themselves down the slope. They caught Glaber's ill-prepared sentries unaware, quickly overcoming them, and soon the gladiators were rampantly dispatching the sleeping soldiers as they slept in their beds. The majority of the dead were Roman soldiers, but the rebels did lose their Celtic leader, Oenomaus.