Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome

Spartacus

The time of the 176th Olympiad was not a peaceful one for the Roman Empire. While Sertorian was raging in Spain, the Mithridatic in the East, and pirates on the entire sea¹, Italy was convulsed by a serious slave rising under the Thracian gladiator Spartacus ².

The disturbance started suddenly in the six hundred and seventy-ninth year after the founding of the City, in the consulship of Lucullus and Cassius, in the city of Capua. Roman, by name Lentulus Batiates, held a school of Cn. Lentulus, where he trained gladiators. Two hundred of them decided to “strike for their freedom rather than the amusement of spectators”⁴ , formed a plan to escape, but were discovered.

Seventy-eight of them learned about it in time to anticipate their master, got chopping knives and spits out of a cook’s shop and made their way through the city⁵. They chose three captains: Gauls Crixus and Oenomaus, and Spartacus, a Thracian of one of the nomad tribes⁶. Plutarch described the latter as a man “not only of high spirit and valiant, but in understanding, also, and in gentleness superior to his condition”. He had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but then was taken as a prisoner and sold to be a gladiator. In his first year of slavery in Rome, a snake coiled itself on his face while he was sleeping, which was said to be an indication of great power to him, which, however, was going to lead to an unhappy outcome⁷.

The men seized several wagons that were carrying gladiators’ arms to another city, armed themselves and, finally, took refuge on Mount Vesuvius. There, many runaway slaves and even some freemen from the fields joined them.

They got proper soldiers’ arms after defeating Capuan citizens who came out against them⁸. After this Clodius Glaber, the praetor, led three thousand Roman men against the gladiators and besieged them within a mountain. There was only a narrow path from it, and it was carefully guarded. The slaves, however, managed to cut down some of the wild vines growing on the top and twist them into strong ladders long enough to reach to the bottom of the mountain. Thus, they came down and captured the Roman camp. Some of the shepherds and herdsmen that were there shifted over to the Spartacus’ side⁹.

Varinius Faber was first sent against him, and then Publius Valerius. At that point, Romans did not see this as a war yet, but as a raid, so the forces they led were just men picked up in haste, not the regular armies. When they attacked Spartacus they were beaten. Spartacus had even captured the horse of Varinius, which shows how close was the praetor to being seized by the gladiator¹⁰. They were being joined by new forces day after day. By that time, Oenomaus had already been killed in an earlier battle. But, Crixus was reported to have had around ten thousand people and Spartacus three times as many.

Next general on the Spartacus’ victories’ list was Cossinius. Him, accordingly to Plutarch, the Thracian missed by very little of capturing in person while he was bathing in Salinae. The Roman camp was again stormed and taken, while Cossinius himself was slain. The gladiators spread their control to Cora, and through the whole of Campania¹¹. After this even greater numbers flocked to Spartacus till his army numbered 70 000 men¹². But, having become confident in their numbers, they stopped listening to their commander, they went about plundering not only in villages but also Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum.

Their activities alarmed the Roman government. The Senate not anymore viewed this matter as a small raid, but as a true war. Suddenly the Senate changed from not paying much attention to the Thracian, to sending both their consuls Gellius and Lentulus with large armies to fight him. Gellius overcame one of the gladiators’ leaders, Crixus, near Mount Garganus. Lentulus with his army attempted besieging Spartacus near the Apennines. Spartacus defeated his chief officers and captured all his belongings¹³. As a result, Spartacus crucified 300 Roman prisoners “to the shade of Crixus”¹⁴.

The success was so delighting that, after burning all his useless material, and killing all his prisoners, Spartacus advanced to Rome. Many Roman deserters offered to join him, but he would not accept them. The consuls joined their forces and met him again in the country of Picenum. Here took place another great battle and another great defeat for the Romans¹⁵. In addition to this, Spartacus, after beating Gaius Cassius and his ten thousand men, in a battle at Mutina, killed the praetor of Gaul¹⁶.

After this Spartacus changed his intention of marching on Rome. He was planning to take his army over the Alps, so that all of them could go to their own home place: some to Thrace and some to Gaul. “Great and terrible” ¹⁷ Thracian, despite all his success, could not compete with the force of the whole empire. His whole army was not suitably equipped, for no entire city has joined him, but only slaves and deserters. However, he occupied the mountains around Thurii and captured the city itself¹⁸.

This war, so frightening to the Romans, had now lasted three years¹⁹. The City was just as terrified as when Hannibal was raging at its gates²⁰. The Senate was quite displeased with the consuls and ordered them not to intervene anymore. There were three generals in the country able to cope with this situation: Crassus, Lucullus and Pompey. Crassus was no more than a competent soldier; Lucullus (even though had angered the Senate) was a brilliant strategist and administrator. Yet, Pompey proved no less able in administration and had the qualities of leadership that Lucullus lacked²¹.

In 72 BC Licinius Crassus, a man distinguished among the Romans ”for birth and wealth”²² was appointed general over six new legions of men. Great many of nobles volunteered to go with him, partly out of friendship, and partly to earn honour for themselves. This task gave Crassus the chance to do something to deserve the kind of fame that would advance him further than his praetorship. He even used his own money to recruit more soldiers.

Having trained his men, Crassus decided to stay on the borders of Picenum, expecting Spartacus to come that way and sent his lieutenant, Mummius, with two legions, to monitor the enemy, but to battle under no circumstances. He, despite the orders received, joined the skirmish and lost large number of his men, while others fled to save their lives. When the survivors returned, Crassus rebuked the lieutenant and used the ancient Roman punishment of decimation on his soldiers. This meant dividing the five hundred that were the beginners of the flight into fifty tens and having one of each die by lot. Having thus dealt with his men, Crassus led them against the enemy²³.

Spartacus at this time was having negotiations with some Cilician pirate ships on the topic of his escape to Sicily. He was planning to revive the slave war on the island. But after the pirates received their promised payment, they deceived him and sailed away²⁴. Spartacus, therefore, quit the idea and established his army in the peninsula of Rhegium. This was where to Crassus came to get him.

The general got his soldiers to dig a ditch and to build a wall across the cape. At first, Spartacus did not worry too much about this, but when his provisions started running out, he realized how bad the situation was. So, he took a chance and in a snowy, stormy night filled up part of the ditch with earth and boughs of trees, and passed the third part of his army over to the other side²⁵.

Spartacus no longer dared to go into battle with his whole army, but harassed the besiegers by frequent sallies here and there. He crucified a Roman prisoner in the space between the two armies to show his own men what fate waited for them if they did not win.

Crassus’ fear of Spartacus marching directly to Rome disappeared when he saw great many of his men desert him. He began to regret asking the Senate to call Lucullus out of Thrace and Pompey out of Spain. Now the general wanted to finish the war before they came, in order to get the honour for all the action for himself. But news was already brought that Pompey was close and people began to talk plainly that the honour of this war was reserved to the one who would at once force the enemy to fight and, thus, put an end to this war²⁶.

When Spartacus learned that Lucullus had just arrived in Brundusium after his victory over Mithridates, he decided to act immediately. Before the last fight, he ordered his horse to be brought to him. Then the Thracian drew out his sword and killed him, saying that if they won he would have a great many better horses of the enemies, and if they lost he would have no need of this one²⁷. Thus, he went into the battle. The struggle was long and bloody. In his last hour being deserted by those around him, Spartacus was wounded in the thigh with a spear and sank upon his knee. The remains of his army were thrown into panic. The slaughter was so great that the dead were impossible to count. Spartacus’ was cut in pieces. His body was not found²⁸.

Crassus, as proconsul in command of six legions, was said to have crushed Spartacus’ revolt with “ruthless efficiency”²⁹.

All the survivors of the battle, 6 000 in total, were crucified along the whole road from Capua to Rome, called the Appian Way³⁰. Around five thousand slaves, however, escaped the capture. They were later destroyed by Pompey, which enabled him also to claim credit for ending this war.

Spartacus’ revolt sent a clear to message to the Roman people. It became obvious that slaves would not always be going along with their destiny, and can become a dangerous force against the empire. This threat would be present in the lives of the slave owners in Rome ever since. The episode also became foreshadowing of the tensions between Crassus and Pompey.