These praetors , including Gaius Claudius Glaber and Publius Varinius, underestimated the training and ingenuity of the enslaved fighters. Glaber thought he could lay siege to the redoubt of enslaved people at Vesuvius, but the enslaved people dramatically rappelled down the mountainside with ropes fashioned from vines, outflanked Glaber's force, and destroyed it. By the winter of 72 BCE, the successes of the army of enslaved people 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, some 32, to 48, trained Roman fighters, plus auxiliary units. Crassus correctly assumed the enslaved people would head north to the Alps and positioned most of his men to block this escape. Meanwhile, he sent his lieutenant Mummius and two new legions south to pressure the enslaved people to move north.
Mummius had been explicitly instructed not to fight a pitched battle. He had ideas of his own, however, and when he engaged the enslaved people in battle, he suffered defeat.
Spartacus routed Mummius and his legions. They lost not only men and their arms, but later, when they returned to their commander, the survivors suffered the ultimate Roman military punishment—decimation, by order of Crassus. The men were divided into groups of 10 and then drew lots. The unlucky one in 10 was then killed. Meanwhile, Spartacus turned around and headed toward Sicily, planning to escape on pirate ships, not knowing that the pirates had already sailed away.
At the Isthmus of Bruttium, Crassus built a wall to block Spartacus' escape. When the enslaved people tried to break through, the Romans fought back and killed about 12, of them.
Spartacus learned that Crassus' troops were to be reinforced by another Roman army under Pompey , brought back from Spain. In desperation, he and the people he enslaved fled north, with Crassus at their heels.
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. Slave insurrections were not really new to Rome.
Extreme cruelty to slaves had sparked a revolt on the island of Sicily in BC. More than 70, slaves had taken up arms and effectively battled local militia until a Roman army triumphed over the rebels two years later. A second servile war erupted on the island in BC, when 40, slaves rampaged through its farmlands.
After four years of bloody fighting, the last remnants of that rebel horde were captured by Roman consul Manius Aquillius and shipped to Rome to fight wild beasts in the arena. But those revolts had been in far-off Sicily. The new insurrection threatened Rome itself, a city where a great percentage of the inhabitants were slaves. To make matters worse, several legions had already been demolished by the slave army. Forming the nucleus of the threat were gladiators—prisoners of war, convicts and slaves specially trained to fight and kill one another as entertainment for crowds packing amphitheaters throughout Latin lands.
Notoriously tough and highly skilled, the gladiators surging toward Rome had little to lose. Facing death in the arena on an almost daily basis, these warrior-slaves felt their only key to freedom lay in crushing Rome itself. Combats between trained warriors had first surfaced to commemorate funerals during the First Punic War in BC. In BC, 74 gladiators fought each other during a three-day span as part of special funeral ceremonies for wealthy Romans.
The first officially sponsored gladiatorial games were held nearly 70 years later, and they were an instant success with the public. The gladiators took their name from the Latin word gladius , the short sword favored by many of the combatants.
Early gladiators were outfitted with an ornately wrought visored helmet, a shield and an armored sleeve worn on the right arm, after the fashion of Samnite warriors defeated by Rome in the late 3rd century BC. Samnite-style gladiators relied on their swords. Other gladiator styles evolved from the national themes of the lands conquered by Rome. Thracian-style gladiators, for instance, carried a sica— a curved, short-bladed scimitar—and a round buckler.
Gaul-style gladiators wielded long swords and rectangular or oval shields. Another gladiator type, more exotically accoutered and called retiarius , fought with a trident, a dagger and a fishing net strung to the wrist by a thong and designed to ensnare an opponent and draw him into harpooning range. Pairing the warriors was done by drawing lots. Mercy was rarely offered in the arena, with crowds often controlling the immediate fortunes of a wounded gladiator by signaling or calling for life or death.
Man, a sacred thing to man, is killed for sport and merriment. A number of gladiator training schools sprang up throughout Italy, concentrated near the town of Capua, north of present-day Naples. At such schools, gladiators received training in a variety of weapons, though they usually specialized in one.
Diets were carefully observed, and a strict exercise regimen was maintained. Discipline and punishment were harsh. It may have been pure brutality that convinced 78 gladiators to rebel at the school of Lentulus Batiatus, near Capua, in 73 bc. The gladiators, who had been severely mistreated, sallied from their quarters and overpowered their guards with cleavers and spits seized from some kitchen, reported Roman historian Plutarch. Armed with these familiar—if not military-issue—weapons, the little band had suddenly become a dangerous fighting force.
Masterminding the revolt, according to the sources, was Spartacus, a Thracian by birth who may even have once served as an auxiliary in the Roman army before being sold into slavery. Sharing command were two Gauls: Crixus and Oenamus. The triumvirate raided the countryside, terrorizing landowners in the lush Campania farming district.
Field hands and house slaves, many armed with farm tools and kitchen utensils, declared their own freedom by joining the gladiators.
As word of the insurrection spread, Spartacus led his force up the slopes of the dormant volcano Vesuvius. Close on his heels was a hastily assembled army of 3, militia under the command of Clodius Glaber.
Poorly trained and untested, the militia was usually sent to control riots or outbreaks of brigandage, while the solid legions of the regular army were used primarily in foreign conquests. Glaber deployed his troops at the base of Vesuvius and blocked the sole road leading to its crest.
In his mind, the gladiators were effectively cut off from the plains and could be starved into submission. Not about to be besieged, however, Spartacus ordered his men to hack the abundant vines growing near the crest and fashion them into crude ladders.
After sunset, the slaves descended on their ladders and fell upon the few sentries Glaber had bothered to post. In minutes, the gladiators were slashing their way through the slumbering Roman camp, routing the militia and seizing valuable stocks of military arms and armor.
Hermann Vogel. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Western European civilization that became a major part of ancient Rome. Mount Vesuvius. Roman Empire. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Related Resources. Ancient Rome. View Collection. View Article. Garganos in which Crixus was killed, Spartacus defeated the two consuls in separate battles in central Italy. At this point he attempted to lead the slaves north to freedom beyond the Alps.
But after they defeated the governor of Cisalpine Gaul at Mutina Modena , they elected to turn back to Italy to plunder and enrich themselves. Spartacus not only threatened Rome itself but again defeated both consuls in a major battle in Picenum.
The Romans no longer dared face him in the field. He then returned to southern Italy and again made Thurii his headquarters.
In the autumn of 72 the Senate transferred the command against the slaves to Marcus Licinius Crassus, who held no public office at the time. He recruited six additional legions and took up a protective position in south-central Italy.
After an initial defeat Crassus won a victory over a contingent of the slaves. That winter he built a wall and ditch across the toe of Italy to contain Spartacus, whose attempts to escape to Sicily with his army failed.
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