Since he was a slave it follows that the answer before his famous rebellion would be 'not much,' but I wondered if there was anything at all? I know we think he was Thracian, perhaps an ex soldier — this would certainly explain how we was able to lead an army. Any learned redditors who could shed some more light on this most famous of rebels would be much appreciated.
The two main sources on this would be Appian and Plutarch and they both agree that he was Thracian.
The confusion as to whether he was a member of the Roman army or a soldier who fought against the Romans comes from the difference in translation between the Loeb edition translated by White and the more modern translation in the Penguin Classic edition translated by John Carter.
In White's translation he writes
"At the same time Spartacus, 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..." (1.116)
I couldn't copy and paste the original Greek text here but here is the text to accompany it so I uploaded a photo...
http://i.imgur.com/FKM0mMB.png
I haven't got a copy of the penguin classic version to hand so I'm not sure if they both use the same source but Carter writes
"...who had once fought against the Romans..." (1.116)
So there is some confusion there, my Greek is pretty poor so I can't comment on which is correct but beyond that short passage there is very little if anything about Spartacus to be found.
