Escaping

I escaped with 70-80 gladiators. Before we escaped, we had found some knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons. We took them so we could survive by ourselves. We camped on Vesuvius and we joined other rural slaves. My chief aides were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus. The Senate sent a praetor, Claudius Glaber to fight against us. They were coming to find us in Vesuvius. They thought they had trapped us on the mountain, but I led my men down the other side using vines. We fell on the rear of the Roman soldiers, and routed them. I had defeated two forces of legionary cohorts. I wanted to lead my men across the Alps to escape from Italy, but Gauls and Germans, led by Crixus, wanted to stay. We separated and they went passed the winter near Thurii in southern Italy. I had raised about 70,000 slaves. They mostly came from rural areas where I found them. The Gauls and Germans were defeated by Publicola. This is when Crixus, my old chief aide, had been killed. My army and I had defeated Lentulus, and then Publicola. I now had 300 prisoners from these battles fight in pairs to the death.