Benutzer:Baiofs/Dritter Sklavenaufstand (Spartacus-Aufstand)

The Third Servile War, also called "The War of Spartacus" by Plutarch, was the last of a series of unrelated and unsuccessful slave rebellions against Rome, known collectively as the Servile Wars. From 73 to 71 BC, an army of escaped slaves, eventually numbering around 120,000, under command of the famous gladiator-general Spartacus, raided the Italian countryside; defeated several Roman armies sent out to capture or destroy them; attempted to escape northwards to freedom over the Alps in Cisalpine Gaul; and, for reasons that are unclear, turned back southwards to occupy parts of southern Italy. The war ended in 71 BC, when after a long and bitter fighting retreat before the legions of Marcus Licinius Crassus, and knowing that the legions of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Lucullus were moving in to entrap them, the armies of Spartacus launched their full strength against Crassus' legions, and were utterly destroyed.

While "The War of Spartacus" is noteworthy in its own right (it has inspired several novels, and at least one major motion picture), the Third Servile War was significant to the larger history of ancient Rome mostly by the effect it had on the careers of Pompey and Crassus, who would go on to play larger roles in the subversion of Roman political institutions, and help bring about the violent transformation of the Republic into the Empire.

The Capuan revolt

In the first century BC, gladiatorial games were one of the more popular forms of entertainment in Rome. In order to supply gladiators for the contests, several training schools, or Ludi, were established throughout Italia. In these schools, prisoners of war and condemned criminals — who were considered slaves — were taught the skills required to fight to the death in the gladiatorial games. In 73 BC, a group of some 200 gladiators in the Capuan school owned by Lentulus Batiatus plotted an escape. When their plot was betrayed, a force of about 70 men seized implements from the kitchen ("choppers and spits"), fought their way free of the school, and seized several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor.

Once free, the escaped gladiators chose leaders from their number, selecting two Gallic slaves — Crixus and Oenomaus — and Spartacus, who was said to be a Thracian auxiliary from the Roman legions, condemned into slavery for desertion. The ethnicity of these three leaders is questionable however, as 'Thracians' and 'Gauls' were also types of gladiators.

These escaped slaves were able to defeat a small force of troops sent after them from Capua, and equip themselves with captured military weaponry, not just their gladiatorial weapons. Sources are somewhat contradictory as to the order of events immediately following the escape, but it seems to be agreed that this band of escaped gladiators plundered the region surrounding Capua, recruited many other slaves into their ranks, and eventually retired to a more defendable position on Mount Vesuvius.

Defeat of the praetorian armies

The crater wall of Mount Vesuvius, which could have acted as natural fortifications for the escaped gladiators and slaves.

As the revolt and raids were occurring in Campania — which was a "vacation region" of the rich and influential in Rome, and the location of many estates — the revolt quickly came to the attention of Roman authorities. However, it took Rome some time to realize the scale of the problem, viewing the slave revolt as more of a "major crime wave" than as an armed rebellion.

A Roman praetor, Caius Claudius Glaber, mustered a force of 3,000 men, not, it should be noted, as legions, but "anyone they could quickly conscript on the way" (Appian) to put down the slave raids. Glaber's forces besieged the slaves on Mount Vesuvius, blocking the only known way down off the mountain. With the slaves thus contained, Glaber was content to wait until starvation forced the slaves to surrender. In response, Spartacus' men built themselves ropes and ladders from vines and trees growing on the mountain, and rappelled down the cliffs on the opposite side of the mountain from Glaber's forces. They then moved around the base of Vesuvius, outflanked the army, and defeated it in detail.

A second force, under the praetor Publius Varinus was dispatched against Spartacus. For some reason, Varinus seems to have split his forces under the command of his subordinates Furius and Cossinius. It is mentioned that Furius commanded some 2,000 men, but the strength of the remaining forces does not appear to be known. These forces were also defeated by the army of escaped slaves, Cossinius killed, Varinus nearly captured, and the equipment of the armies seized by the slaves. With these successes, more and more slaves were flocking to the Spartacan forces, swelling their ranks to some 70,000. With such numbers, the slave raids of the surrounding territories grew to include Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum.

Dissent among the escaped slaves

There now was a division within the slave armies as to what their ultimate goal should be. Some, pleased with their success, believed that they should stay in southern Italia and continue to raid. Others realized that Rome would eventually send seasoned legions to put down the revolt. Sources are unclear as to what this second group intended. Appian and Florus write that the latter group intended to march on Rome itself (a goal later abandoned), while Plutarch writes that this second group merely wished to escape northwards into Cisalpine Gaul and disperse back to their homes. Despite the Hollywood depiction of their motives in the movie Spartacus, at no time was it a goal of the rebel slaves to end slavery in the Roman republic, nor to free all slaves. The rebel slaves divided, one group under Crixus, staying in southern Italia, and the other under Spartacus moving northwards towards Cisalpine Gaul.

Defeat of the consular armies

Alarmed by the size of the revolt, and the defeat of the praetorian armies of Glaber and Varinus, Rome now dispatched a pair of consular armies under the command of Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus.

Initially, the consular armies were successful. Gellius' forces defeated Crixus' men at Mount Garganus in Apulia, and then moved northwards, following the slaves under Spartacus who were heading for Cisalpine Gaul. The legions of Lentulus were deployed to bar Spartacus' path, and the consuls hoped to trap the rebel slaves between the two armies. Spartacus' army met Lentulus' legions, defeated them, and then turned to destroy Gellius' forces near Picenum. According to the sources, Spartacus executed some 300 Roman soldiers to avenge the death of Crixus, forcing them to fight each other to the death as gladiators. Both consuls were relieved of command of their armies by the Roman Senate and recalled to Rome.

Moving northwards again, the rebel army clashed with an army of 10,000 led by the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Cassius, near Mutina, and likewise destroyed them.

Even though there seemed to be no bar to Spartacus' forces escaping over the Alps, there seems to have been further disagreement amongst the rebelling slaves as to what to do. Rather than escaping northwards, the army moved back into southern Italia. According to Appian, they seized the town of Thurii and the surrounding countryside, arming themselves, raiding the surrounding territories, trading plunder with merchants for bronze and iron (with which to manufacture more arms), and clashing occasionally with Roman forces which were invariably defeated. During the occupation of the countryside around Thurii, Spartacus' forces grew to some 120,000 escaped slaves.

Crassus takes command of the legions

Now alarmed at the apparently unstoppable rebellion occurring within Italia, the Senate gave the task of putting down the rebellion to Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus had been a praetor in 73 BC, and although he was known for his family and vast wealth, he had no reputation as a military commander. Crassus looked upon the slave rebellion as an opportunity to gain a military reputation for himself.

He was assigned six legions in addition to the four formerly consular legions of Gellius and Lentulus. Sources differ whether Crassus decimated the former consular legions as punishment for cowardice (Appian writes that some 4,000 soldiers were executed in this fashion), or whether Crassus decimated a cohort of soldiers after a later defeat, but it is agreed that Crassus decimated some of his troops for cowardice, making him "more to be feared than a defeat at the hands of the enemy", according to Appian.

When the forces of Spartacus began moving once again on Picenum, Crassus deployed eight of his legions on the borders of the district, and detached two legions under his legate, Mummius, to maneuver behind Spartacus, but gave them orders not to engage the rebels. When an opportunity presented itself, Mummius disobeyed, attacked the Spartacan forces, and was subsequently routed. It was 50 soldiers of these forces that Crassus was later said, by some sources, to have executed through decimation instead of the defeated consular armies. Whether he used decimation in this case or not, he severely disciplined the defeated legions. Thus disciplined, the forces of Crassus engaged some 10,000 of the rebel slaves who had separated from the main body of rebels, and defeated them.

The tide seemed to have turned in the war. Crassus' legions were victorious in several engagements, killing thousands of the rebel slaves.

Spartacus retreated south through Lucania to the straits near Messina. According to Plutarch, Spartacus made a bargain with Cilician pirates to transport him and some 2,000 of his men to Sicily, where he intended to incite a slave revolt there and gather reinforcements. However, he was betrayed by the pirates, who took payment and then abandoned the rebel slaves. Florus records that there were some attempts at raft and shipbuilding by the rebels, as a means to escape, but this was eventually abandoned.

Spartacus' forces then retreated towards Rhegium. Crassus' legions followed, and upon arrival, Crassus' legions built fortifications across the isthmus at Rhegium, despite harassing raids from the rebel slaves, besieging Spartacus and cutting off his supplies.

Reinforcement legions arrive; the end of the war

Marble bust of Pompey the Great

At this time, the legions of Pompey were returning to Italia, having put down the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius in Hispania.

Sources disagree whether Crassus had requested reinforcements, or whether the Senate simply took advantage of Pompey's return to Italia, but Pompey was ordered to bypass Rome and head south to aid Crassus. The Senate also sent reinforcements under the command of "Lucullus", mistakenly thought by Appian to be Lucius Licinius Lucullus, commander of the forces engaged in the Third Mithridatic War at the time, but who appears to have been a general stationed in Thrace. With Pompey's legions marching out of the north, and Lucullus' troops landing in Brundisium, Crassus quickly realized that if he did not put down the slave revolt quickly, credit for the war would go to the general who arrived with reinforcements, and thus spurred his legions on to end the conflict quickly.

Wanting to forestall Pompey, Spartacus attempted to negotiate with Crassus. When Crassus refused, Spartacus' forces broke out of confinement, and fled toward Brundisium with Crassus' legions in pursuit. Realizing that Lucullus' forces were in Brundisium, the rebels swung north. Crassus' legions followed, and managed to catch a portion of the rebel slaves, under the command of Caius Canicius and Castus, separated from the main army. Crassus' legions attacked, and according to Plutarch, killed 12,300 of the rebels.

Spartacus' forces now retreated into the mountains of Petelia, and turned to meet a portion of Crassus' forces under command of an officer named Quintus and the quaestor Scrophas. Once again the legions were routed. According to Plutarch, the rebel slaves were unwilling to flee any further. With discipline of his army breaking down, and his men spontaneously attacking the oncoming legions of Crassus, Spartacus brought his entire army to bear on Crassus' forces. In this last major action, Spartacus' forces were finally routed completely, with the vast majority of them being killed on the battlefield. The eventual fate of Spartacus himself is unknown, as his body was never found, but he is accounted by historians to have perished in battle along with his men.

Aftermath of the war

The rebellion of the Third Servile War had been utterly annihilated by Crassus.

Pompey's forces did not directly engage Spartacus' forces at any time, but his legions moving in from the north were able to intercept and capture escaping refugees from the battle. One estimate places the number of captured slaves at approimatly 5,000. Because of this, Pompey sent a dispatch to the Senate, saying that while Crassus certainly had conquered the slaves in open battle, he himself had ended the war, thus claiming a large portion of the credit and earning the enmity of Crassus.

While most of the rebel slaves had been killed on the battlefield, some 6,000 survivors had been captured by the legions of Crassus. As an object lesson, all 6,000 were crucified along the road between Rome and Capua. It is unclear as to whether those slaves captured by Pompey while fleeing the battle were among those crucified.

Pompey and Crassus would reap political benefits for having put down the rebellion. Both Crassus and Pompey returned to Rome with the legions, although they refused to disband them, and encamped them outside Rome. Both men stood for the consulship of 70 BC, even though Pompey was inelligible to do so because of his age, nor had he ever served as praetor or quaestor. None-the-less, both men were elected consul for 70 BC. Some historians claim that it was the implied threat of the legions which ensured the election of the two generals as consuls..

Bibliography

The similarity of events depicted in the classical works has caused some to speculate that those authors have all based their works on lost histories of Livy.

• Appian, "Civil wars", Penguin Classics; New Ed edition, 1996. ISBN 0140445099.
• Fagan, Garret G., "The History of Ancient Rome: Lecture 23, Sulla's Reforms Undone", The Teaching Company. [sound recording:CD].
• Grout, James, Gladiators article of the Encyclopædia Romana. URL accessed March 8, 2006
• Livius,Titus (Livy), "Periochae", K.G. Saur Verlag, 1981. ISBN 3519014890
• Matyszak, Philip, "The enemies of Rome", Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN 0-500-25124-X.
• Mommsen, Theodor, "The History of Rome, Books I-V", project Gutenburg electronic edition, 2004. ISBN 0415149533.
• Florus, Publius Annius, "Epitome of Roman History". Harvard University Press, 1984. ISBN 0674992547
• Pennell, Robert Franklin, "Ancient Rome : from the earliest times down to 476 A. D.", IndyPublish.com, 2003. ISBN 140438006X.
• Plutarchus,Mestrius (Plutarch), "Plutarch's Lives" v.2, Modern Library, 2001. ISBN 0375756779.

Notes

• References to the Marmsen and Pennell texts are based on the Project Gutenburg e-text edition of the books. Refernces are therefore given in terms of line numbers within the text file, and not page numbers as would be the case with physical books.
• References to the "classical" works of Livy, Plutarch, Appian, and Florus are given in the traditional "Book:verse" format, rather than edition-specific page numbers.
• All references from Plutarch are taken from the "Life of Crassus".

External links

• Livy Histories. 95:2
• Livy Histories. 96:1 and 97:1.
• Appian's The Civil Wars at LacusCurtius.
• Plutarch on Spartacus at Livius.org.
• Appian on Spartacus at Livius.org.
• Florus on Spartacus at Livius.org.
• Spartacus: Historical Background

Fictional accounts

There have been several fictional accounts of the events of the Third Servile War, mostly told from the perspective of Spartacus and his army of escaped slaves.

• Spartacus, a historical novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, published in 1933.
• Spartacus, a historical novel, by Howard Fast, published in 1951.
• Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film adaptation of Howard Fast's novel, starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier.