Tag: spartacus

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Spartacus was sold, in 73 B.C., into the service of Lentulus Batiates, a man who taught at a ludus for gladiators in Capua. That same year Spartacus and two Gallic gladiators led a riot at the school. Of the 200 slaves at the ludus, 78 men escaped, using kitchen tools as weapons. Three Gallic slaves, Crixus, Oenomaus and Castus, became, along with Spartacus, the leaders of band. Seizing a defensive position in the mountains near Vesuvius, they attracted thousands of slaves from the countryside – 70,000 men, with another 50,000 women and children in tow. The slave rebellion happened at a moment when Rome’s legions were abroad. The raids carried out in the Campanian countryside by Spartacus’ men fell to local officials to mediate. These praetors, including Gaius Claudius Glaber and Publius Varinius, underestimated the training and ingenuity of the slave fighters. Glaber thought he could lay siege to the slave redoubt at Vesuvius, but the slaves dramatically rappelled down the mountainside with ropes fashioned from vines, outflanked Glaber’s force, and destroyed it. By the winter of 72 B.C., the successes of slave army alarmed Rome to the degree that consular armies were raised to deal with the threat. Marcus Licinius Crassus was elected praetor and headed to Picenum to put an end to the Spartacan revolt with 10 legions, plus auxiliary units. Spartacus’ escape route was blocked at Brundisium by a third Roman force recalled from Macedonia. There was nothing left for Spartacus to do but to try to beat Crassus’ army in battle. The Spartacans were quickly surrounded and butchered, although many men escaped into the mountains. Only a thousand Romans died. Six thousand of the fleeing slaves were captured by Crassus’ troops and crucified along the Appian Way, from Capua to Rome. Spartacus’ body was not found. X