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Spartacus

Spartacus was a slave who led the uprising against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. His wife was Calpurnia.

The insurrection was influenced, or possibly caused altogether, by Mikhyl Nevenskoi, a 22nd century neo-communist activist who had become the companion of the Time Lords the Colonel and Leora and had no qualms about preaching his principles wherever they travelled with no regards for established history. The party were subsequently the subject of a Celestial Intervention Agency investigation due to this blatant bit of interference. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]J. Andrew Keith, The Doctor Who Role Playing Game (FASA, 1986).)

Jamie McCrimmon, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright became caught up in the rebellion and helped Spartacus as much as they could before they had to let history take its course.

Ben and Polly had seen a film about him starring Kirk Douglas. Polly thought that the real Spartacus was nothing like Douglas but that he was nevertheless "a bit of a dish" with his long dark hair and the wicked look in his eye. (PROSE: The Slave War [+]Una McCormack, Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership (Short Trips, 2008).)

Ian Chesterton had also seen the film. When he was forced to fight Delos as a gladiator, he felt his situation was similar to Douglas' character's and recalled how in the film, the two combatants spared one another's lives and successfully turned on their captors. (PROSE: The Romans [+]Donald Cotton, adapted from The Romans (Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1987).)

When the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble landed in Pompeii in 79, shortly before the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the two both used "Spartacus" as an alias when meeting Lobus Caecilius and his family, leading Caecilius to first assume they were married, and then brother and sister. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]James Moran, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

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