Changes

==Spartacus and his wife==

Kubrick’s movie pays a great deal of attention to Spartacus relationship with his unofficial wife Varina who is also a slave at the Gladiatorial School owned by Batiatus. In the movie, Spartacus falls in love with her and. later she flees with him from their master Batiatus and becomes his companion. Spartacus did have a wife, but we do not know her name, she was a different figure from the character portrayed by Jean Simmons. Spartacus wife was also a Thracian and Plutarch claims that she was enslaved with him. She was a prophet and claimed to be able to see into the future and probably played a very important role in the army of ex-slaves <ref> Arrian, iv</ref>. As a seer, she would have been consulted by the leadership of the slave rebellion, such as on the best strategies to adopt and what would be the outcome of a battle. It also seems likely that Spartacus wife had a following among the rank and file and that she was one of the key players in the rebellion. The wife of Spartacus was a much more complex and important figure than the character portrayed in the movie.

==Death of Spartacus==

Perhaps one of the most famous final scenes in all cinematic history are those in Kubrick’s Spartacus. In the finale of the motion picture, Spartacus and his army of ex-slaves suffer total defeat at the hands of Crassus. The final battle and its outcome are accurate and the Romans virtually annihilated the rebels. The 1960 movie shows Spartacus surviving the battle and being taken prisoner which was not the case. The Thracian was according to several Roman authors killed in the battle. He is reported to have been killed as he led a charge against Crassus and his body was later identified by his enemies. The leader of the slave revolt died very bravely and the manner of his death greatly impressed even his Roman foes. The Kubrick picture has Spartacus after the final battle, captured but his captors did not recognize him and presumed him to be another slave. This is simply not accurate as he had been killed on the battlefield<ref>Plutarch, iv</ref>. Crassus in the motion picture orders the survivors of the rebellion to be crucified all along the Appian way, the main southern highway to the City of Rome. This was recorded in the works of Roman historians. Thousands of men who had joined the rebellion were publicly crucified and their bodies left on crosses for months. The movie shows Spartacus being crucified with his followers. Spartacus was not crucified as he was already dead and this is an inaccuracy in the movie. Crassus knew that the Thracian had been killed and did not try and seek out Spartacus as shown in Kubrick’s movie<ref> Plutarch, iv</ref>. It is simply not the case that the Romans sought to find out if Spartacus was among their prisoners and the famous scene where the ex-slaves all sentenced to death declare that ‘I am Spartacus’ could not have occurred.