The slaves could hear the crowd from their cells, the bloodlust echoing around, seeming to shake the walls, but they were all chanting one name. Spartacus.
That name has resonated through the centuries, becoming synonymous with revolution, sacrifice and gladiatorial combat. But his beginnings weren’t quite as glorious. Hailing from Thrace, the area that is now the Greek border with Macedonia, Spartacus began to gain a reputation as a formidable soldier. He served as a mercenary under the Romans, before deserting. The Romans would hunt him down, capturing him while he was asleep.
Marched into Rome as a slave, Spartacus was sold to Lentulus Batiatus, the owner of a gladiator school in Capua. Home to an amphitheatre second only to the Colosseum, Capua became iconic for the gladiators it produced. As Suetonius recorded, ‘There was a famous gladiator school in Capua, made up exclusively of slaves of great strength and stature, who were trained to give life to violent shows where only the winners had a chance at survival’.
Spartacus was among them, rising through the ranks as a murmillo, a heavyweight gladiator that fought with a large shield and gladius. According to Plutarch, he was a man with ‘a great spirit and great physical strength’. Locked away in the cells of the gladiator school, hauled out to the rapturous applause of the almost 40,000-strong crowds, Spartacus’ reputation began to grow.
All the while, he and around two-hundred of his fellow slaves began to plot their escape. As the time came for their breakout, everything went wrong. Someone in their contingent betrayed them, cutting down the window for escape in half. In the end, only seventy-eight managed to react in time. Racing through the school, they grabbed whatever they could from the kitchens. Armed with knives, spits or metal utensils from the cookhouse, the gladiators overpowered the guards, stealing their weapons, racing outside. Finding some wagons laden with their gladiatorial weapons and armour, they equipped themselves and grabbed all that they could carry. Quickly, the soldiers stationed in the school and nearby rallied, racing after the escaped slaves. Dispatching them without too much difficulty, the escapees headed towards the mountains. Setting up camp on Mount Vesuvius (that would become infamous as the volcano that wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum), they elected leaders: Spartacus, Crixus and Oenomaus.
News of their escape quickly spread. Clodius, a praetor (high-ranking military commander), set out from Rome with 3,000 men. Surrounding Spartacus’ position on Mt. Vesuvius, Clodius set out to starve the slaves into submission. With great ingenuity, the slaves used vines and branches to create ladders, lowering themselves down behind the Roman camp. Taking them completely by surprise, they massacred them.
Running rampant through the camp, confusion was the slaves’ greatest weapon. Killing some as they slept, slaughtering those who had just moments earlier been laughing and joking around the fire, the slaves stole their equipment and captured the camp. This early defeat was an embarrassment for the Romans, and a powerful statement of intent for the slaves. This victory led thousands of farm hands and slaves from nearby properties to join the cause. The escape was becoming a revolt. The Capuan authorities sent militias after the escapees, hoping to quell this insurrection before it reached the central Roman powers. Despite being slaves, these men had spent years being taught how to fight and kill. The Romans had been the architect of their own downfall.
The militias were no match for the gladiator-led slaves. As the victories continued, becoming more impressive each time, the rebellion continued to grow. As Spartacus led with fairness, equally dividing the spoils to all those involved, thousands of farmhands, shepherds, servants and farmers began to join. Quickly, their numbers were in the tens of thousands. The central Roman authorities were beginning to take notice.
The blood-soaked wave of rebellion swept across Italy, led by one man. Spartacus’ defiant stand against the Roman Republic inspired thousands to break free of their enforced servitude, and join the cause. With the fame of his brutal and impressive victories spreading, the slave army soon numbered over 150,000 men.
Having pillaged the nearby towns and villages, the slaves used them to restock and supply their camps. By now, the slave force had also divided into two armies: one led by Spartacus, mostly made up of those from Thrace and slaves from the surrounding area, and the other led by Oenomaus and Crixus, primarily consisting of Celtic tribesmen, those from Gaul and western Europe. The army led by Spartacus’ allies made its way northwards, aiming to head over the Apennines, and back to Gaul.
Despite being extremely effective themselves, the rebellion was also helped by the fact that the Republic forces were spread thin, putting down another rebellion in Spain. Attempting to muster whatever army they could, the Republic decided to combine the forces of two of their most revered generals: Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodanius, compiling an army of over 50,000 men. Seeing the division of Spartacus’ forces as an opportunity, the Romans targeted the 30,000-strong contingent led by Crixus. Ambushing them in the foothills of Mount Garganus, the Roman forces slaughtered the rebels. Crixus and Oenomaus are killed, and the rebellion suffered its first loss.
Emboldened and with a taste for blood, Gellius’ legions turned their attention to Spartacus himself. Before Gellius could reach him however, Luntulus jumped the gun, attempting to trap Spartacus in the narrow Apennine paths. Spartacus, potentially filled with confidence at having never personally lost to the Roman forces, or as an emotional response to the loss of Crixus and Oenomaus, leading his men headlong into Luntulus’ legions. The victory was emphatic. Luntulus is routed, his forces destroyed.
Spartacus, cold and ruthless, executed three hundred Roman captives, as a blood-soaked message to Rome. Gellius, arriving a few days later, clashed with Spartacus’ larger force, in the mountains. Drenched in the blood of his fellow slaves and the collapsing Roman legionnaires, Spartacus rallied his men, personally leading them head-first into Gellius’ army. The battle was brutal. And the slaves came out on top yet again.
Sending a wounded Gellius and a handful of survivors back to Rome, Spartacus was sending a very clear reminder: Rome would need a miracle to bring this rebellion down. By the spring of 71 BC, the Roman Republic was almost on its knees. A Thracian gladiator was leading a rebellion that was tearing Italy apart. This was the largest slave revolt Rome had ever seen, and it could have been utterly catastrophic. The economy of the Republic could have collapsed, the stability of its societal structures was at risk, the very foundations of the Republic being shaken.
But then emerged Marcus Licinius Crassus. He was one of the most well-respected, revered and feared generals in the Republic. Known as a brutal commander, executing any rebels he found, and unafraid to use decimation (the act of drawing lots in groups of ten, and for nine to execute the other one by stoning or clubbing) as a consequence of complaints or insubordination from his own men. He was given an army of around 40,000 legionnaires, with the goal of crushing the insurrection.
Realising that Crassus was unlike any commander he’d faced before, Spartacus attempted to barter a truce. Sensing weakness, Crassus struck, scything into the rebel forces, his ruthlessly efficient and well-trained men obliterating Spartacus’ army. The slaves rallied, but Crassus was too strong. Spartacus ordered a retreat and scrambled for a way to escape.
Seeing Sicily as a potential option, Spartacus made a deal with a band of pirates to transport 2,000 of his men over to the island. Spartacus and his forces raced down south, relentlessly pursued by Crassus. Like any predator, Crassus had tasted blood and now he was on the hunt. Clipping at Spartacus’ heels, wearing the rebel forces down in small battles and skirmishes, Crassus watched as Spartacus tried to send his men to Rhegium. Crassus reacted immediately, building fortifications on the border, cutting off the slaves’ supply lines. Spartacus was being hemmed in.
The pirates had betrayed them.
There was no ship to Sicily. Crassus was bearing down on them. Roman reinforcements were flooding in. Pompey, a legendary general, was joining the fray. Spartacus tried to broker a truce again, but Crassus refused to even hear him.
The slaves continued to fight with all the ‘great spirit and strength’ that had set them apart as gladiators. But it was too much. The battle was turning into a slaughter. Spartacus himself, deep in the midst of the battle, saw Crassus atop his horse, surveying the carnage. Trying to fight his way through, Spartacus wanted Crassus’ head.
He wouldn’t make it. Nor would the rest of the rebels. Crassus cut them to pieces. Spartacus’ body was never found. 6,000 slaves were captured alive. They were crucified along the Appian Way, every thirty or forty metres. For years after, the crosses remained, the ultimate illustration of Roman dominance and brutality. Spartacus has gone down in history as the symbol of revolution. Voltaire called his insurrection the ‘only moral war in history’. Whatever your view on the morality of war, the impact and legacy of Spartacus is undeniable.
In media, history and public consciousness, Spartacus is the image of the revolutionary. A brutal soldier, a gifted leader and clever tactician, Spartacus was undone by Roman efficiency, and the betrayal of pirates. He is the gladiator who goes down in history as the man who brought Rome to its knees.
Written by Zachary Peatling, Public History MA. Issue 6 Leadership & Revolution, Autumn 2021.
Illustration by Jasmine Fry.
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