We may, however, support the dishonor of a war with
slaves, for though they are, by their circumstances, subjected to all kinds of
treatment, they are yet, as it were, a second class of men, and may be admitted
to the enjoyment of liberty with ourselves. But the war raised by the efforts
of Spartacus I know not what name to call, for the soldiers in it were slaves,
and the commanders gladiators; the former being persons of the meanest
condition, and the latter men of the worst character, and adding to the
calamity of their profession by its contemptibleness. Spartacus, Crixus, and
Oenomaus, breaking out of the fencing school of Lentulus, escaped from Capua,
with not more than thirty of the same occupation, and, having called the slaves
to their standard, and collected a force of more than ten thousand men, were
not content with merely having escaped, but were eager to take vengeance on
their masters. The first theatre for action that attracted them was Mount
Vesuvius. Here, being besieged by Clodius Glaber, they slid down a passage in
the hollow part of the mountain, by means of ropes made of vine-branches, and penetrated
to the very bottom of it; when, issuing forth by an outlet apparently
impracticable, they captured, by a sudden attack, the camp of the Roman
general, who expected no molestation. They afterwards took other camps, and
spread themselves to Cora, and through the whole of Campania. Not content with
plundering the country seats and villages, they ravaged, with terrible
devastation, Nola and Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum. Being joined with new
forces day after day and forming themselves into a regular army, they made
themselves, out of osiers and beasts' hides, a rude kind of shields, and out of
the iron from the slave-houses forged swords and other weapons. And that
nothing proper might be wanting to the complement of the army, they procured
cavalry by breaking in the herds of horses that came in their way, and
conferred upon their leader the ensigns and fasces that they took from the
praetors. Nor did he, who of a mercenary Thracian had become a Roman soldier,
of a soldier a deserter and robber, and afterwards, from consideration of his strength,
a gladiator, refuse to receive them. He afterwards, indeed, celebrated the
funerals of his own officers, who died in battle, with the obsequies of Roman
generals, and obliged the prisoners to fight with arms at their funeral piles,
just as if he could atone for all past dishonors by becoming, from a gladiator,
an exhibitor of shows of gladiators. Engaging next with the armies of the
consuls, he cut to pieces that of Lentulus, near the Apennines, and destroyed
the camp of Caius Cassius at Mutina. Elated by which success, he deliberated
(which is sufficient disgrace for us) about assailing the city of Rome. At
length an effort was made against this swordsman with the whole force of the
empire, and Licinius Crassus avenged the honor of Rome, by whom the enemies (I
am ashamed to call them so) being routed and put to flight, betook themselves
to the furthest parts of Italy. Here, being shut up in a corner in Bruttium,
and attempting to escape into Sicily, but having no ships, and having in vain
tried, on the swift current of the strait, to sail on rafts made of hurdles and
casks tied together with twigs, they at last sallied forth, and died a death
worthy of men. As was fitting under a gladiator captain, they fought without
sparing themselves. Spartacus himself, fighting with the utmost bravery in the
front of the battle, fell as became their general.
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