Gladiators - Spartacus
Spartacus, the hero of one of the most stirring episodes in Roman history, was a man of low origin; it is said that he belonged to a family of shepherds; he was born in Spartica, a little bourg of Thrace, from which place he has taken his name. The qualities he possessed were so heroic, that Plutarch declared he should be regarded rather as a true Greek than as a harharian. According to the account of Caecilius, in his history of the servile war, Spartacus was taken prisoner, brought to Rome, and sold for a slave in the year of the city 670. He remained not, however, long in this condition; he undertook not only to set himself free, but to break the chains of the slaves, his companions. And he succeeded.
At Capua there was a large gladiatorial school; and Spartacus was among the gladiators in training there. By one account he had once served as a Roman soldier, had then turned brigand, and now, having been taken prisoner, was destined to make sport for his captors. He persuaded about seventy of his fellow-bondsmen to join him in breaking loose ; better it was, he argued, to die in battle on the open field, than on the sand of the amphitheater.
This handful of brave men took up a strong position upon Mount Vesuvius, where Spartacus was presently joined by slaves and outlaws of all descriptions. The gladiators, old soldiers like himself, supplied him with officers. Oenomaus and Crixus, both of Gallic origin, acted as his lieutenants. He enforced strict discipline ; and, so long as he was able, obliged his followers to abstain from acts of rapine. Spartacus and his associates at first formed a band of robbers, and not only escaped the regular troops that were sent against them, but made great havoc among them, and thus acquired arms and ammunition, with which they must have been very scantily provided at the beginning. Spartacus now proclaimed the freedom of the slaves, and numbers flocked to him from all parts of southern Italy, which was either lying quite waste, or covered with slaves.
The consequences of Sulla's devastations in those districts now became visible at once; for there were no freemen to check the insurrection. Two Roman commanders attacked him, but they were beaten with loss, and the numbers of his army swelled every day. All this happened in 73 BC, after the Mithridatic War had broken out and before the Sertorian War was ended.
In the next year (72 BC), the same which witnessed the murder of Sertorius, Spartacus had become strong enough to take the offensive. He had to face a formidable startaaa power, for both Consuls were ordered to take the matter in field. But at the head of more than 100,000 men [by one account] he forced the passes of the Apennines and entered Picenum. His subordinates, however, proved unmanageable ; and Spartacus, aware that the power of Rome must prevail, bent all his energies towards forcing his way across the Alps, in the hope of reaching some remote region inaccessible to Rome. As he pressed northwards, he was assaulted by both the Consuls, but defeated them both.
Great consternation now prevailed at Rome. The news of the disaster to Lentulus and Poplicola and their splendid armies was regarded as a calamity. Indignation raised to its highest pitch and was only equalled by mortification and shame. A gladiator,*6 and slave, who, all his lifetime had been a poor man, earning a scanty living by manual toil, had combined audacity with genius, gathered the menial hordes" that worked the estates of haughty landlords and in eight battles, at hand-to-hand combat and at the test of strategem, endurance, valor and prowess had worsted, overthrown and annihilated the patrician gentry of Rome. Lentulus was recalled and disgraced. His humiliation has always been a mystery to readers of history. The true light of the affair has been shut out-so dark was the history of this matter kept for ages from the reader's mind.
His successes seem to have raised Spartacus, or at least his followers, above the mere hope of escaping from Italy ; he again turned southward, and is said to have meditated a descent upon Rome itself. But Spartacus relinquished this desperate plan, and spent the remainder of the year in collecting treasure and arms. Little discipline was now observed. The extent of the ravages committed by the bands under his command may be guessed from the well-known line of Horace, in which he promised his friend a jar of wine made in the Social War, "if he could find one that had escaped the clutches of roaming Spartacus."
It was now nearing the time of the Roman Comitiae, or the assembly of Roman citizens for voting for new officers. Among these officers consuls were to be elected. But so great was the terror which Spartacus had inspired that no candidates were to be found. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that whoever should be elected consul would have to go in person to meet the dreaded gladiator. Finally, after much hesitation, Marcus Licinius Crassut, consented to be nominated and of course, received the full vote and confidence of the people.
The management of the war was now committed to Crassus, who had really won the battle of the Colline Gate. Ever since the triumph of Sulla he had lived quietly at Rome, profiting by the Proscription to buy up property cheap ; and after that period he had been busied in making the most profitable use of the large fortune which he had amassed. He was now elected Praetor and invested with the command. Accordingly, Crassus, prepared for the campaign against the great guerilla chieftain with six [some say eight] full legions of Roman soldiers mustered for the occasion.
Crassus took the field with the six [or eight] new legions, to be added to the remains of the Consular armies. The disorganised battalions of these armies he punished by the unjust and terrible penalty of decimation. He took 500 of the most cowardly, divided them into 50 platoons and these into decades, one of whom was by lot, put to death; in this way recalling an ancient military usage of punishment. This kind of punishment in fact, is the mark of the greatest infamy; for as the execution is public, in sight of the whole army, circumstances that are awful and affecting follow. But this horrible chastisement came late ; but his rigor was successful in restoring discipline.
When Crassus arrived in Cis-Alpine Gaul, near the city of Mutina, where the army of Spartacus lay, he studied closely the traits of his antagonist and concluded to adopt the tactics of Fabius who had previously been successful over Hannibal, by worrying him and not giving battle. After harassing Spartacus in rear and flank for some time he sent the pro-consul, C. Cassius Longinus, around on the other side with orders to be watchful and goad the enemy, without hazarding an engagement; but the fox-witted gladiator, with apparent indifference, allured this Roman into an idea that he could safely go beyond his orders, and attack a wing of the workingmen who were in reality, impatient for the fray. At a weak moment, least suspected and least watched, Spartacus gave the welcome order of battle. The shout went up and with it came the force of the onset. Cassius was crushed by the unexpected blow and completely routed. The field of Mutina covered with the slain, remained with the workingmen.
The gladiator made good his retreat to the south, with the view of crossing over into Sicily and rekindling the servile war in that island ; he had even agreed with a squadron of Cilician pirates to convey 2000 of his men across the straits ; but the faithless marauders took the money and sailed without the men. Crassus now came up, and having driven him into a neck of land near Rhegium, there shut him up by drawing intrenchments round his army. Twice in one day did Spartacus endeavor to break through the lines ; twice he was thrown back with great slaughter. But he continued to defend himself with dauntless pertinacity.
At length, however, in the third year, Crassus baffled the slaves. They possessed large establishments for the manufacture of arms; and they firmly believed that they might conquer and govern the greater part of Italy, though they would not, perhaps, destroy Rome. This plan of theirs would not indeed have been impossible, unless Rome had drawn its forces together from all quarters; but they were thwarted by Crassus and their own divisions. It appears that after the failure of Spartacus to reach Sicily, a revolt of prodigious extent took place in his army. Crassus met the seceders and a terribly bloody battle took place near Croton, on the banks of a lake in lower Lucania. Of the heaps of slain none were wounded in the back; all falling in the ranks performing the bravest acts of valor. At last, overcome by numbers they were forced to yield a little, giving the Romans an advantage which they took and killed 12,300, or as Livy, quoted by Frontin, probably more correctly puts it, 35,000 of the seceders, on the spot.
The Senate, hearing that Pompey was on his way back from Spain, joined him in the command with Crassus, and gave him opportunity for gaining fresh distinction. Crassus, afraid of losing his laurels, determined to try an assault; but Spartacus eluded his attack by forcing a passage through the lines and marching upon Brundusium, where no doubt he hoped to seize shipping and make escape from Italy. But M. Lucullus had just returned with a force of veteran soldiers from Macedonia to Brundusium.
Spartacus, foiled in his intention, turned like a wolf at bay to meet Crassus. A fearful conflict ensued, which remained doubtful till Spartacus was wounded by a dart through the thigh. Supported on his knee, he still fought heroically till he fell overpowered by numbers. Most of his followers were cut to pieces, but a division of 5000 made their way northwards, where Pompey fell in with them on his way home from Spain and slew them to a man. Great numbers of the fugitives were overtaken and crucified. Every one of the 6,000 who fell prisoners at the battle of Silarus and in the mountains was hung on the cross along the Appian way; and for months their bodies dangled there to delight the vengeance-loving gentry who, on their drives to and from the cities of Rome and Capua, rejoiced to behold such sights.
To Crassus undoubtedly belongs the credit of bringing this dreadful war to a close. In six months he had finished his work. But Pompey had been so favored by circumstances, that he claimed the honor of concluding not only the Sertorian war, but also the war with Spartacus. In fact, he had not much cause for boasting in either case.
This fragment of history derives chiefly from the works of Plutarch, Livy, and Sallust. As an escaped rebel slave, gathering around himself other slaves and objects of the most despised condition, and daring to brave the majesty of the republic of Rome, he was regarded by the Roman authorities, people, and historians, with the utmost contempt. His successes, arising partly therefrom, but principally from the great qualities he possessed and displayed of perfect prudence and hardihood, extorted, it is true, for a while, admiration from terror. But the interval during which this lasted was too short to insure its fair transmission to the page of history.
The strange reticence of the historians regarding the touch of a creature of lowly condition by an optimate of Rome is apparently the cause of the suppression of histories which gave the details. There is one authority, however, which brings some of these marvels to light This is Vellejus Paterculus whose History of Eome was early mutilated in all the manuscripts except one, which survived until it was printed late in the Middle Ages. The exploits of Spartacus are consequently smothered up in the Roman annals; and it is only here and there that there are glimpses, unwillingly imparted, of his real greatness.
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