[TV] Spartacus - Where did his name come from?

[Alcsaar]

So we all know Spartacus as a gladiator, slave revolt leader. However I heard something interesting while rewatching the Spartacus series recently. When they initially determine what they will call him, one of the people says "The way he fights, like the legend of the Thracian king of old, Spartacus he was called"

So this would imply that Spartacus, the great warrior, was actually named after a Thracian King. However, I could find any records of an actual Thracian King/leader named Spartacus other than this Spartacus. Was it a fictional character made up for the story?

[MyndZero]

I think his name was just Spartacus...?

[Alcsaar]

I think his name was just Spartacus...?

Not to take its credibility as 100% accurate, or even close, but in the show one of the leading points of the second episode is him telling the other gladiators not to call him Spartacus because it wasn't his name, and at the end of the first episode they clearly say "Never thought to ask him his name, we'll call him Spartacus after the Thracian king"

[Arrowstormen]

Spartacus means "from city of Sparta", so most likely the name was simply given to him because he was a great "barbaric" warrior. As far as I know Spartacus the gladiator was the guy who made the name famous, and I can't find anything about somebody named Spartacus before him.

[Raldazzar]

Spartacus means "from city of Sparta", so most likely the name was simply given to him because he was a great "barbaric" warrior. As far as I know Spartacus the gladiator was the guy who made the name famous, and I can't find anything about somebody named Spartacus before him.

as far as I know, this is correct. Spartans were trained to be mighty warriors, Spartacus was a captured thracian from the roman auxiliary and he fought like a beast and was given that name.

now, that is as good of a reason as I've ever found.. sadly it's something that is somewhat.. lost. as in, we will never know who truly called him that first, or their particular reason for doing so. we will also never know his REAL name :<

Most of the names are as accurate as they can be, but whether the names are their actual, we will never know, the only confirmed one is Oenemaus I believe? as he was listed in some of the house records? or something akin to that.

[hellhamster]

This should be a good read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War

[Arrowstormen]

This should be a good read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War

Man, Spartacus was such an awesome show. If I didn't have so much to watch, I'd totally rewatch it.

[ParanoiD84]

By jupiters cock one off the best shows in years. Was so sad after the last episode.

[Hishiro]

Man, Spartacus was such an awesome show. If I didn't have so much to watch, I'd totally rewatch it.

I liked the guy they had as Sparticus in season 1 better than the guy who replaced him. Sad that he got cancer and was unable to finish the show.

[Ratyrel]

So we all know Spartacus as a gladiator, slave revolt leader. However I heard something interesting while rewatching the Spartacus series recently. When they initially determine what they will call him, one of the people says "The way he fights, like the legend of the Thracian king of old, Spartacus he was called"

So this would imply that Spartacus, the great warrior, was actually named after a Thracian King. However, I could find any records of an actual Thracian King/leader named Spartacus other than this Spartacus. Was it a fictional character made up for the story?

That explanation was made up for the show. The Thracian king they're referring to was called Sparadokos, father of the better known Seuthes I. Neither Appian nor Plutarch knew much about the actual gladiator's origins. Here are the sources in translation:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...%3Achapter%3D8

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...Asection%3D116

[Alcsaar]

I liked the guy they had as Sparticus in season 1 better than the guy who replaced him. Sad that he got cancer and was unable to finish the show.

He was going to finish the show but he passed away

[The Afterlife]

Even it being an old post, well 4 years is alot less then the 2090 years that the man behind the legend's hearth stopped beating.

But the name spartacus means bearer of spear in Thracian Language,


And Thrace had like 5 kings named Spartakus or Spartokos or resemblence of them.
Even having a Spatacoid or similair in pronouncement, as a bloodline of rules named similiar to Spartacus.

Too bad Roman History is written down by well the Romans....

And they did not did their best to preserve other culture's , more whenever they see oppertunity to destroy other culture's and history to replace it with their own believes of they being 1st degree humans, and all others being a secondairy human life form.

Tho I even might read something about Thracian ruins in the area of uhm well Thrace, called different now then those days tho.

But please, do not believe those historians that wrote about him ( more then 100 years later ), since those, while being Greek or whatever origin, They lived in the Roman Empire,

Which mass murdered anyone who spoke against either their emperor or spoke badly about Roman's history.
Altho it's no offence to call a dead man dead, so when a defeat of Roman's occured, they only used to to learn futhur generations about why they were defeated.

But for all I know, their might be living a 1000's people in Thrace around 80-70 BC that were called Spartacus after their previous dynasty of rules...

But he was not one of them, but he is the only one that is recorded in Roman History.

That is is not written down by victors due to their cultural believes, does not mean it never happend or never was.

Please think before pissing on legends.

Oh yeah generally it's believed that Thracians are desendends from Spartans,
This might explain the poluliarity of the name, amongst Thracian tribes,
Greece had alllllllloooot of colonies around mediterainian and Black Seas.

So it's possible that the truth behind the stories is that Greeks ( probally Spartans in that perticular region) made colony there, and their people started to mix with Dacian tribes who were later pushed back to beyond the river as natual border, while some of those tribes trades and mixed with their new "inhabitants'

And over the time of maybe 100's of years they grey their own culture and claimed their own identity, With showing much of Greek influance on Thrace, but also Visa Versa, due to Dacian influences to the north and west of Thrace.

With kind regards,


The Afterlife

[hellhamster]

Even it being an old post, well 4 years is alot less then the 2090 years that the man behind the legend's hearth stopped beating.

But the name spartacus means bearer of spear in Thracian Language,


And Thrace had like 5 kings named Spartakus or Spartokos or resemblence of them.
Even having a Spatacoid or similair in pronouncement, as a bloodline of rules named similiar to Spartacus.

Too bad Roman History is written down by well the Romans....

And they did not did their best to preserve other culture's , more whenever they see oppertunity to destroy other culture's and history to replace it with their own believes of they being 1st degree humans, and all others being a secondairy human life form.

Tho I even might read something about Thracian ruins in the area of uhm well Thrace, called different now then those days tho.

But please, do not believe those historians that wrote about him ( more then 100 years later ), since those, while being Greek or whatever origin, They lived in the Roman Empire,

Which mass murdered anyone who spoke against either their emperor or spoke badly about Roman's history.
Altho it's no offence to call a dead man dead, so when a defeat of Roman's occured, they only used to to learn futhur generations about why they were defeated.

But for all I know, their might be living a 1000's people in Thrace around 80-70 BC that were called Spartacus after their previous dynasty of rules...

But he was not one of them, but he is the only one that is recorded in Roman History.

That is is not written down by victors due to their cultural believes, does not mean it never happend or never was.

Please think before pissing on legends.

Oh yeah generally it's believed that Thracians are desendends from Spartans,
This might explain the poluliarity of the name, amongst Thracian tribes,
Greece had alllllllloooot of colonies around mediterainian and Black Seas.

So it's possible that the truth behind the stories is that Greeks ( probally Spartans in that perticular region) made colony there, and their people started to mix with Dacian tribes who were later pushed back to beyond the river as natual border, while some of those tribes trades and mixed with their new "inhabitants'

And over the time of maybe 100's of years they grey their own culture and claimed their own identity, With showing much of Greek influance on Thrace, but also Visa Versa, due to Dacian influences to the north and west of Thrace.

With kind regards,


The Afterlife

Thracians had nothing to do with Spartans, being in the complete other side of Greece, which was the equivalent of being on the other side of the world.

[The Afterlife]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_the_Cimmerian_Bosporus

Since i'm new i'm not allowed to post links, due to a new account, google finds the text above

The list of thracian kings, including lots of names resembeling Spartacus.

Uhm it's the Thracian mtyhology that says they desent from Spartans,

Shows in the series aswell:


I am a Thrace, It is in my blood.

Their own mythology says they desent from Spartans.

The truth in it.... Is like most myths, an eternal debat absent dna research..
I did not made it up, probally found it somewhere on the internet a long time ago when I did more research on the matter
Might even be from the same source the television network Stars got it from... who knows
To me personally the list of kings called Spartacus is acknowledgement to this mythology
But that's my opinion, Would gladly see of information that either confirmes it or bust it... Maybe we should contact Mythbusters ?

I'll try to relocate the source I've learned it from, Im not looking to get my right in a discussion of any kind, Just trying to pass on what I've learned thus far

[hellhamster]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_the_Cimmerian_Bosporus

Since i'm new i'm not allowed to post links, due to a new account, google finds the text above

The list of thracian kings, including lots of names resembeling Spartacus.

Uhm it's the Thracian mtyhology that says they desent from Spartans,

Shows in the series aswell:


I am a Thrace, It is in my blood.

Their own mythology says they desent from Spartans.

The truth in it.... Is like most myths, an eternal debat absent dna research..
I did not made it up, probally found it somewhere on the internet a long time ago when I did more research on the matter
Might even be from the same source the television network Stars got it from... who knows
To me personally the list of kings called Spartacus is acknowledgement to this mythology
But that's my opinion, Would gladly see of information that either confirmes it or bust it... Maybe we should contact Mythbusters ?

I'll try to relocate the source I've learned it from, Im not looking to get my right in a discussion of any kind, Just trying to pass on what I've learned thus far

Thracians had nothing to do with Spartans. The word Spartan was used to describe an able bodied warrior, as that was the trait they were most famous for, but the word Spartacus itself has zero connection to the city state in the Peloponnese. Spartans were famous and influential, even when they lost their power after the Peloponnesian war with Athens, that's why their name pops up everywhere .

Don't take history lessons from tv shows. While Spartacus, the TV show, was kinda correct in the broad sense, a lot of it is overdramatised or uses written accounts in a hyperbolic and artistic manner.

[Shadowferal]

hmf; Spartacus

Spartacus (Greek: Σπάρτακος Spártakos; Latin: Spartacus; c. 111–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable. However, all sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader.

The Greek essayist Plutarch describes Spartacus as "a Thracian of Nomadic stock",[3] in a possible reference to the Maedi tribe.[4] Appian says he was "a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator".[5]

Florus described him as one "who, from a Thracian mercenary, had become a Roman soldier, that had deserted and became enslaved, and afterward, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator".[6] The authors refer to the Thracian tribe of the Maedi,[7][8][9] which occupied the area on the southwestern fringes of Thrace, along its border with the Roman province of Macedonia - present day south-western Bulgaria.[10] Plutarch also writes that Spartacus' wife, a prophetess of the Maedi tribe, was enslaved with him.

The name Spartacus is otherwise manifested in the Black Sea region. Five out of twenty Kings of the Thracian Spartocid dynasty of the Cimmerian Bosporus[11] and Pontus[12] are known to have borne it, and a Thracian "Sparta" "Spardacus"[13] or "Sparadokos",[14] father of Seuthes I of the Odrysae, is also known.