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===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.
===How accurate was it?===
Spartacus is a great movie but like all Hollywood historical epics, it is not history. The movie was developed by a talented group of people who wanted to entertain and their priority was to make the motion picture a commercial success. The scriptwriters and directors adopted the facts of the life of Spartacus and turned them into a great movie. They shaped the story of the Thracian and his role in the Third Servile War to meet their own needs and they also created a Spartacus who had modern values, one that the real-life Spartacus could never have had. Hollywood in this period was all about glamor and the picture makers produced a historical epic that still entertains us almost sixty years after it was made. Accuracy was often sacrificed to the need to produce a spectacle. Yet, despite the many inaccuracies in the movie, it is largely true to the story of Spartacus. It could be said that on balance that while the movie is not totally correct it is much more historically accurate than the average Hollywood blockbuster.
