 Sentenced to spend out the rest of his adult life laboring in the harsh deserts of Egypt, the Thracian slave Spartacus gets a new lease on life when he is pruchased by the obese owner of a Roman gladiator school. Moved by the defiance of an Ethopian warrior, Draba, Spartacus leads a slave uprising which threatens Rome s status quo. As Spartacus gains sympathy within the Roman Senate, he also makes a powerful enemy in form of Marcus Lucinius Crassus, who makes it a matter of personal honor to crush the rebellion.