Free Essays

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 Spartacus 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 Spartacus' 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 runaway gladiators 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.

Spartacus' men managed to get proper soldiers' arms after defeating Capuan citizens who came out to fight 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 present during the fight ended up shifting over to the Spartacus' side⁹.

Despite all their defeats, the Romans still did not see Spartacus as a big danger to them. They considered Spartacus' war to be just a raid, so the forces they led were just men picked up in haste, not the regular armies. They first sent out Varinius Faber against him, and then Publius Valerius. 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 revolting gladiator¹⁰.

The gladiators 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 killed. The Spartacus' men 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.

These activities finally 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 Spartacus 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, Spartacus managed to occupy the mountains around Thurii and to capture the city itself¹⁸.

Continued here: The End of the Revolt of Gladiator Spartacus