Free Essays

Spartacus' Revolt

Continued from: Gladiator Spartacus

Spartacus' revolt, 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 a competent soldier, but not much more than that. 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 Spartacus' 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 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.

Next, Lucullus had arrived in Brundusium after his victory over Mithridates.

When Spartacus learned about this, he decided to act immediately. Before the last fight, he ordered his horse to be brought to him. Then Spartacus 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. Having done so, Spartacus 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 never 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.