Spartacus is a Thracian from the 1st century AD. A peasant and then a fighter, he joins the Roman army, which immediately makes him a slave. His resistance leads his masters to send him to a place where men live only a few months, a marble mine, in one of the hottest parts of Africa. In this hellish place, he sees a child die, which makes him furious. He is then "saved" by Batiatus, who turns him into a gladiator. He befriends other gladiators, Draba and David, and meets a slave who will become his wife, Calicia.