1
The insurrection of the gladiators and their devastation of Italy, which is
generally called the war of Spartacus, had its origin as follows.
A certain Lentulus Batiatus had a school of gladiators at Capua, most of
whom were Gauls and Thracians. Through no misconduct of theirs, but owing to
the injustice of their owner, they were kept in close confinement and reserved
for gladiatorial combats.
2 Two hundred of these planned to make
their escape, and when information was laid against them, those who got wind of
it and succeeded in getting away, seventy-eight in number, seized cleavers and
spits from some kitchen and sallied out. On the road they fell in with wagons
conveying gladiators' weapons to another city; these they plundered and armed
themselves. Then they took up a strong position and elected three leaders. The
first of these was Spartacus, a Thracian of Nomadic stock, possessed not only
of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his
fortune, and more Hellenic than Thracian.
3 It is said that when he was first
brought to Rome to be sold, a serpent was seen coiled about his face as he
slept, and his wife, who was of the same tribe as Spartacus, a prophetess, and
subject to visitations of the Dionysiac frenzy, declared it the sign of a great
and formidable power which would attend him to a fortunate issue. This woman
shared in his escape and was then living with him.
1
To begin with, the gladiators repulsed the soldiers who came against them from
Capua, and getting hold of many arms of real warfare, they gladly took these in
exchange for their own, casting away their gladiatorial weapons as dishonorable
and barbarous. Then Clodius the praetor was sent out from Rome against them
with three thousand soldiers, and laid siege to them on a hill which had but
one ascent, and that a narrow and difficult one, which Clodius closely watched;
2 everywhere else there were smooth and precipitous
cliffs. But the top of the hill was covered with a wild vine of abundant
growth, from which the besieged cut off the serviceable branches, and wove
these into strong ladders of such strength and length that when they were
fastened at the top they reached along the face of the cliff to the plain
below. On these they descended safely, all but one man, who remained above to
attend to the arms. When the rest had got down, he began to drop the arms, and
after he had thrown them all down, got away himself also last of all in safety.
3 Of all this the Romans were ignorant,
and therefore their enemy surrounded them, threw them into consternation by the
suddenness of the attack, put them to flight, and took their camp. They were
also joined by many of the herdsmen and shepherds of the region, sturdy men and
swift of foot, some of whom they armed fully, and employed others as scouts and
light infantry.
4 In the second
place, Publius Varinus, the praetor, was sent out against them, whose
lieutenant, a certain Furius, with two thousand soldiers, they first engaged
and routed; then Spartacus narrowly watched the movements of Cossinius, who had
been sent out with a large force to advise and assist Varinus in the command,
and came near seizing him as he was bathing near Salinae.
5 Cossinius barely escaped with much
difficulty, and Spartacus at once seized his baggage, pressed hard upon him in
pursuit, and took his camp with great slaughter. Cossinius also fell. By
defeating the praetor himself in many battles, and finally capturing his
lictors and the very horse he rode, Spartacus was soon great and formidable;
but he took a proper view of the situation, and since he could not expect to
overcome the Roman power, began to lead his army toward the Alps, thinking it
necessary for them to cross the mountains and go to their respective homes,
some to Thrace, and some to Gaul.
6 But his men were now strong in numbers
and full of confidence, and would not listen to him, but went ravaging over
Italy.
It
was now no longer the indignity and disgrace of the revolt that harassed the
senate, but they were constrained by their fear and peril to send both consuls
into the field, as they would to a war of the utmost difficulty and magnitude.
7 Gellius, one of the consuls, fell
suddenly upon the Germans, who were so insolent and bold as to separate
themselves from the main body of Spartacus, and cut them all to pieces; but
when Lentulus, the other consul, had surrounded the enemy with large forces,
Spartacus rushed upon them, joined battle, defeated the legates of Lentulus,
and seized all their baggage. Then, as he was forcing his way towards the Alps,
he was met by Cassius, the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, with an army of ten
thousand men, and in the battle that ensued, Cassius was defeated, lost many
men, and escaped himself with difficulty.
1
On learning of this, the Senate angrily ordered the consuls to keep quiet, and
chose Crassus to conduct the war, and many of the nobles were induced by his
reputation and their friendship for him to serve under him. Crassus himself,
accordingly, took position on the borders of Picenum, expecting to receive the
attack of Spartacus, who was hastening thither; and he sent Mummius, his legate,
with two legions, by a circuitous route, with orders to follow the enemy, but
not to join battle nor even to skirmish with them.
2 Mummius, however, at the first
promising opportunity, gave battle and was defeated; many of his men were
slain, and many of them threw away their arms and fled for their lives. Crassus gave Mummius himself a rough reception, and when he
armed his soldiers anew, made them give pledges that they would keep their
arms. Five hundred of them, moreover, who had shown the
greatest cowardice and been first to fly, he divided into fifty decades, and
put to death one from each decade, on whom the lot fell, thus reviving, after
the lapse of many years, an ancient mode of punishing the soldiers.
3 For disgrace also attaches to
this manner of death, and many horrible and repulsive features attend the
punishment, which the whole army witnesses.
When
he had thus disciplined his men, he led them against the enemy. But Spartacus
avoided him, and retired through Lucania to the sea. At the Straits, he chanced
upon some Cilician pirate craft, and determined to seize Sicily. By throwing
two thousand men into the island, he thought to kindle anew the servile war
there,which had not long been extinguished, and needed only a little additional
fuel.
4 But the Cilicians, after coming
to terms with him and receiving his gifts, deceived him and sailed away. So
Spartacus marched back again from the sea and established his army in the
peninsula of Rhegium. Crassus now came up, and observing that the nature of the
place suggested what must be done, he determined to build a wall across the
isthmus, thereby at once keeping his soldiers from idleness, and his enemies
from provisions.
5 Now the task was a huge one and
difficult, but he accomplished and finished it, contrary to all expectation, in
a short, running a ditch from sea to sea through the neck of land •three
hundred furlongs in length and fifteen feet in width and depth alike. Above the
ditch he also built a wall of astonishing height and strength.
6 All this work Spartacus
neglected and despised at first; but soon his provisions began to fail, and
when he wanted to sally forth from the peninsula, he saw that he was walled in,
and that there was nothing more to be had there. He therefore waited for a
snowy night and a wintry storm, when he filled up a small portion of the ditch
with earth and timber and the boughs of trees, and so threw a third part of his
force across.
1
Crassus was now in fear lest some impulse to march upon Rome should seize
Spartacus, but took heart when he saw that many of the gladiator's men had
seceded after a quarrel with him, and were encamped by themselves on a Lucanian
lake. This lake, they say, changes from time to time in the character of its
water, becoming sweet, and then again bitter and undrinkable. Upon this
detachment Crassus fell, and drove them away from the lake, but he was robbed
of the slaughter and pursuit of the fugitives by the sudden appearance of
Spartacus, who checked their flight.
2 Before this
Crassus had written to the senate that they must summon Lucullus from Thrace and
Pompey from Spain, but he was sorry now that he had done so, and was eager to
bring the war to an end before those generals came. He knew that the success
would be ascribed to the one who came up with assistance, and not to himself.
Accordingly, in the first place, he determined to attack those of the enemy who
had seceded from the rest and were campaigning on their own account (they were
commanded by Caius Canicius “Gannicus” and Castus), and with this in view, sent
out six thousand men to preoccupy a certain eminence, bidding them keep their
attempt a secret.
3 And they did try to elude
observation by covering up their helmets, but they were seen by two women who
were sacrificing for the enemy, and would have been in peril of their lives had
not Crassus quickly made his appearance and given battle, the most stubbornly
contested of all; for although he slew twelve thousand three hundred men in it,
he found only two who were wounded in the back. The rest all died standing in
the ranks and fighting the Romans.
4 After the
defeat of this detachment, Spartacus retired to the mountains of Petelia,
followed closely by Quintus, one of the officers of Crassus, and by Scrophas,
the quaestor, who hung upon the enemy's rear. But when Spartacus faced about,
there was a great rout of the Romans, and they barely managed to drag the
quaestor, who had been wounded, away into safety. This success was the ruin of
Spartacus, for it filled his slaves with over-confidence.
5 They would no longer consent to
avoid battle, and would not even obey their leaders, but surrounded them as
soon as they began to march, with arms in their hands, and forced them to lead
back through Lucania against the Romans, the very thing which Crassus also most
desired. For Pompey's approach was already announced, and there were not a few
who publicly proclaimed that the victory in this war belonged to him; he had
only to come and fight and put an end to the war. Crassus, therefore, pressed
on to finish the struggle himself, and having encamped near the enemy, began to
dig a trench. Into this the slaves leaped and began to fight with those who
were working there,
6 and since fresh men from both
sides kept coming to help their comrades, Spartacus saw the necessity that was
upon him, and drew up his whole army in order of battle.
In
the first place, when his horse was brought to him, he drew his sword, and
saying that if he won the day he would have many fine horses of the enemy's,
but if he lost it he did not want any, he slew his horse. Then pushing his way towards
Crassus himself through many flying weapons and wounded men, he did not indeed
reach him, but slew two centurions who fell upon him together.
7 Finally, after his companions
had taken to flight, he stood alone, surrounded by a multitude of foes, and was
still defending himself when he was cut down. But although Crassus had been
fortunate, had shown most excellent generalship, and had exposed his person to
danger, nevertheless, his success did not fail to enhance the reputation of
Pompey. For the fugitives from the battle encountered that general and were cut
to pieces, so he could write to the senate that in open battle, indeed, Crassus
had conquered the slaves, but that he himself had extirpated the war.
8 Pompey, accordingly, for his victories
over Sertorius and in Spain, celebrated a splendid triumph; but Crassus, for
all his self-approval, did not venture to ask for the major triumph, and it was
thought ignoble and mean in him to celebrate even the minor triumph on foot,
called the ovation, for a servile war. How the minor triumph differs from the
major, and why it is named as it is, has been told in my life of Marcellus.
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