Rome sent another army of 6,000 soldiers. They killed nearly all 3,000 of the soldiers. He and the gladiators used the vines from local trees to rappel down the side of the mountain and sneak up behind the Roman forces. Spartacus, however, had a different idea. Glaber surrounded the slaves at Mount Vesuvius and decided to wait them out. Rome sent an army of 3,000 men led by Claudius Glaber. They fled to Mount Vesuvius near the city of Pompeii, gathering more slaves as they went. They were able to steal their weapons and armor and fight their way free. In 73 BC, Spartacus led seventy gladiators in an escape from the gladiator school. He became tired of risking his life for the entertainment of others. He must have had both fighting skills and luck to survive. He was ordered into the arena to fight animals or other gladiators. He was sent to a gladiator school where he was trained to fight. Spartacus was a slave who was forced to fight for the entertainment of the Romans. He was a Thracian who joined the Roman army as a young man. Not a lot is known about Spartacus' early life.
