Why did Spartacus turn South at Mutina instead of continuing North towards Thrace?
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I hesitate to try and answer this because I am not really sure there is an answer. I like to read about Roman history and I have heard of multiple theories as to why he turned back. I think the most believable is stated in the 2013 LiveScience article Spartacus: History of Gladiator Revolt Leader by Owen Jarus:
“Many theories have been proposed, but the best explanation was already hinted at in the ancient sources. Spartacus’s own men probably vetoed him,” writes Barry Strauss, a Classics professor at Cornell University, in his book The Spartacus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009). “In the past, they had never wanted to leave Italy; now success might have gone to their heads and aroused visions of Rome in flames.”
I have also heard these other reasons.
Spartacus was never fully in control of his men, he had already lost a large portion of his army to a rival commander Crixus, so it appears there were multiple individuals leading this group and the decision may not have ultimately been his to make. (also as rs.29 points out, his group was not all Thracian, why would a German or Briton want to go to Thrace.)
Once they saw the Alps they decided it would be easier to continue to plunder in Italy than to attempt to cross the mountains.
They had heard of other slaves (and revolts) in Sicily and were attempting to unite their two groups, possibly believing that it would be easier to defend Sicily.
They were greedy and overconfident and knew the best plunder was near at hand and not in Thrace.
He wanted to recruit more and believed the most "fertile" recruiting grounds were located in the south where Hannibal had successes and where the Samnites still had lingering resentments left over from the very recent "Social Wars."
There never was a plan at all to head to Thrace.
Unfortunately I think this is going to be one of those answers that we will never really know for sure.
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