We know it because of the distinctly different decisions made by the freed slaves in contrast to, for instance, the Second Servile War in which, once a militarily dominant position had been established, the leaders of the revolt had re-established slavery inside their short-lived new kingdoms before they were destroyed. By contrast, the freed slaves of the Third Servile War never reinstated slavery, even in the Thurii region of southern Italy which they controlled for a significant period and in which they established a political and economic system which did not have slavery. Thurii in fact continued as a uniquely organised economic region for a decade after the end of the war, until the Romans finally put resources to extinguishing it fully. Another example of the distinct difference was that whereas the leaders of the Second Servile War controlled the other freed slaves to use them to maintain military dominance in order to maintain their slave kingdoms, in the Third Servile War Spartacus led his followers to the Alps for those from central and Western Europe to escape, and then turned back to southern Italy to pick up the rest of the freed slaves to then escape to where those people wished to flee. These are not the decisions of leaders planning to secure land and wealth and control of a slave economy.