The Third War servile , also named War of the Gladiators or War of Spartacus , was the last of a series of rebellions of slaves against the Roman République, known collectively under the name of servile Guerres. The Third servile War was the only one to directly threaten the Roman heart of the Italy and was doubly alarming for the Roman people between -73 and -71 because of the successes repeated against the Roman Armée with a band of rebellious slaves which increased quickly. The rebellion was finally crushed in -71 after all the military forces were concentrated in the hands of only one commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus. In spite of this victory, the revolt had indirect effects on the Roman policy during the following years.

Between -73 and -71, band of slaves fugitive (in the beginning an small group from approximately 70 Gladiateur S which ends up reaching a multitude of 120.000 men, women and children), wandered and made raids through the Roman province of Italy with a relative impunity under the command of several chiefs, of which the famous general gladiator Spartacus. The adults in good health of this band were one surprising but effective armed force which showed many times capacity to hold head with the Roman army, with the local patrols of Campanie, with the Roman militia and with the legion S trained under command Consul surface. Plutarque described the actions of the slaves like an attempt to escape their Masters and to flee through the Gaulle Cisalpine, whereas Appien and Florus painted the revolt as a civil war during which the slaves reflect in place a campaign to capture the town of Rome.

The growing concern of the Roman Senate caused by repeated military successes of the slaves and their forwardings against the Roman cities and the campaigns led finally Rome to send an army of eight legions under the rough but effective command of Marcus Licinus Crassus. The war finished in -71, after long and bitter retirement fighting vis-a-vis the legions of Crassus and the awakening that the legions of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus moved to encircle the rebellious slaves. The armies of Spartacus then tried to launch all their forces against the legions of Crassus and were completely destroyed.

Although the war of Spartacus is not notable historically for its unfolding in itself, its historical impacts were considerable, in particular the effect on the careers of Pompée and Crassus. The two generals used their success in the repression of the rebellion to accelerate their political career, using of their public acclamation and the implicit threat their legions to influence the consular elections of -70 in their favor. Their actions as consuls accelerated the subversion of the Roman political institutions and contributed finally to the transition from the Roman République towards the Roman Empire.

Slavery during the Roman Republic

See also: Slavery in ancient Rome, First servile War, Second servile War

With different degrees during the Roman history, the existence of a free labor force in the shape of slaves was a big factor of the economy. The slaves were included in the Roman labor force in various ways, in which the purchase with foreign merchants and the slavery of foreign populations by the military Conquête. When Rome was heavily militarily committed in its wars of conquest to the first and II E, of tens even of the hundreds of slaves were imported at the same time in the Roman economy. It had there a use limited slaves as servants, craftsmen and personal assistants, the majority being intended for the mine S and the zones Agricole S of Sicily and of the south of the Italy.

For the majority, the slaves were oppressed and severely treated during the republican period. Under the republican law, a slave was not regarded a person, but as a Propriété. The owners could misuse the slaves, wound them or even to kill them without legal consequences. Although there were many ranks and types of slaves, low (and most frequent) included/understood the individuals who worked in the fields and the mines, their life intended for hard physical work.

The strong concentration and the oppression to which the population slave was subjected led to the revolts. In -135 and -104 respectively, the first and the second servile war burst in Sicily, where an small group of rebels found on each occasion of tens of thousands of follower wishing to escape the life from oppression from a slave from Rome. Although these two rebellions were regarded as serious civil disorders by the Roman Sénat, and took several years of direct military intervention to be subdued, they were never regarded as a serious threat for the République. The Roman heart of Italy had never known a rising of slave, not more than the slaves had not been seen like a potential threat for the town of Rome. All that changed with the Third servile war.

The rebellion starts (- 73)

The revolt of Capoue

During the Roman Republic of I er, the plays of Gladiateur S were one of the most popular forms of entertainment. To provide the combatants for the tests, various schools of drive, or ludi , were established through Italy. In these schools, the prisoners of war and the criminals condemned (who were regarded as slaves) learned how the techniques necessary to fight with dead in the sets of gladiators. In -73, a group of 200 gladiators in the school of Capoue pertaining to Lentulus Batiatus prepared an escape. When their plot was betrayed, a group of 70 men seizes instruments of kitchen (pins and mincers) and managed to escape from the school as a combatant, carrying several carriages filled of weapons and armours of gladiators.

Once free, the escaped gladiators chose their chiefs, two Gallic slaves (Crixus and Oenomaus), and Spartacus, which one said either an auxiliary Thrace Roman legions condemned to slavery, or a prisoner taken by the legions. The nationality of Spartacus is prone to guarantee, since the thraces were a type of gladiators in Rome.

This group of slaves was able to beat a small troop sent to their continuation since Capoue, and it were equipped with the equipment soldiers taken in complement with their weapons with gladiators. The sources are somewhat contradictory on the order of the events which succeeded the escape immediately, but they generally converge on the fact that this band of fugitive gladiators plundered the area around Capoue, and recruited in its rows of many other slaves, for finally withdrawing itself with a position easier to defend on the Mount Vesuvius.

Defeat of the Praetorian armies

As the revolt and plunderings proceeded in Campanie, which was an area of holiday for the rich person and the influential people in Rome, who had their villa S there, the rebellion collected the attention of the Roman authorities quickly. It took time for Rome to carry out the extent of the problem, because the revolt of the slaves was seen like a large criminal wave than like an armed uprising.

However, Rome dispatched in -73 a military force under Praetorian authority to put an end to the rebellion. A Roman Praetor, Gaius Claudius Glaber, gathered a force of 3000 men in a militia. These men were “selected with haste and randomly, since the Romans did not regard that as a war, but a raid, a kind of vagueness of plundering”. The forces of Glaber besieged the slaves with the Mount Vesuvius, blocking the only access known to the mountain. The slaves being contained, Glaber was satisfied to wait until the hunger obliges them to go.

Although the slaves missed military training, the forces of Spartacus deployed their ingeniousness to benefit from materials available on the ground, and used intelligent and not very orthodoxe tactics to face the Roman armies. In answer to the head office of Glaber, the men of Spartacus manufactured cords and scales with the vines and the trees which pushed on the slopes of Vesuvius and used them to descend the abrupt rocks on the side of the mountain opposed to the Roman forces. They circumvented the base of Vesuvius, took the Roman army with reverse, and destroyed the men of Glaber.

The second forwarding, under the orders of the praetor Publius Varinus, was then dispatched against Spartacus. Apparently, Varinus seems to have separated its forces under the command from its subordinates Furius and Cossinius. Plutarque mentions that Furius ordered 2000 men, but neither the remaining number of men, nor the composition of this army (militia or legion) is known. These forces were also beaten by the army of the slaves: Cossinius was killed, almost captured Varinius, and the equipment of the armies was seized by the slaves. With this success, more and more of slaves joined the forces of Spartacus, just as of “many pastors and peasants of the area”, carrying its rows with 70.000 men. The rebellious slaves spent the winter -73 to arm and equip their new recruits, and extended their territory of Pillage S to reach the towns of Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum.

The victories of the rebels did not come without a cost. During one of these events, or probably during one of the raids of the winter -73, the chief Oenomaus was lost (undoubtedly during a battle) and is not mentioned any more after this date in the accounts.

Motivation and leadership of the escaped slaves

Towards the end of -73, Spartacus and Crixus were with the head of a broad troop of men armed with a skill shown to hold head with the Roman armies. What they intended to do of this force is somewhat difficult to determine for the modern historians. Since the Third servile war finished by the failure of the rebellion, there does not exist first hand information on the objectives and motivations of the slaves, and the historians who wrote on the war proposed contradictory theories.

Several recent accounts of the war claim that there was a division between factions in the army of the slaves, between the partisans of Spartacus, who wanted to escape through the the Alps towards freedom, and those which supported Crixus, and wished to remain in the south of Italy to continue the raids and plunderings. It is about an interpretation of the events based on the following thing: the areas that Florus pays as being attacked by the slaves include the towns of Thurii and Metapontum, which is geographically very distant from Nola and Nuceria. That indicates the existence of two groups: Lucius Gellius Publicola attacked finally Crixus and a group of 30.000 men who are described as being separated from the principal group ordered by Spartacus; Plutarque describes the wish of part of the fugitive slaves to plunder Italy, rather than to escape through the Alps. Although this division in factions is not contradicted by the traditional sources, there does not seem to be direct proof to support it.

The fiction, such as film of Stanley Kubrick of 1960 Spartacus, makes sometimes to Spartacus a combatant for the Liberté, fighting to change a corrupted Roman company and to put an end to institutional slavery. There still, that is not contradicted by the traditional historians, but there is no either historical account which mentions that the goal of the rebellious slaves was to put an end to slavery in the Republic, not more than none the acts of Spartacus seems to have been specifically accomplished with an aim of finishing some with slavery.

Even the traditional historians, who wrote only a few years after the facts, seem to be divided on the explanation of the reasons for Spartacus. Appien and Florus writes that it tried to go on Rome, although it is probably only about the reflection of the fear of the Romans. If Spartacus really thought of taking Rome, it is a goal which it has of giving up then. Plutarque writes that Spartacus wanted only to escape towards the Gaulle Cisalpine and to disperse his men so that they join their hearths of origin.

It is not certain that the slaves were a homogeneous group under the command of Spartacus. Although it is about an assumption nonknown as of the Roman historians, it may be that it is about their share of a projection of their model of military Hiérarchie of decision makings on the organization ad hoc of the slaves. It is certain that other chiefs of the slaves are mentioned (Crixus, Oenomaus, Gannicus, Castus), and we are not able to say starting from the historical evidence if they were allies, subordinates or even if they ordered their own groups and travelled in convoy with the men of Spartacus.

Defeat of the consular armies (- 72)

In spring -72, the fugitive slaves gave up their camping of winter and started to move towards north, towards the Gaulle Cisalpine.

The Roman Senate, alarmed by the extent of the revolt and the defeat of the Praetorian armies of Glaber and Varinius, dispatched two consular legions under the command of Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. At the beginning, the consular armies were successes. Gellius started the combat against a group of approximately 30.000 slaves ordered by Crixus, close to the Mount Garganus and killed two thirds of the rebels, of which Crixus itself.

At this time of the history, there exists a divergence in the traditional sources on the course of the events which cannot be reconciled to the entry in war of Marcus Licinius Crassus. The two most complete accounts of the war according to Appien and Plutarque bring back very different events. However, no account contradicts the other directly, but brings back distinct events, being unaware of events of the other account, and telling event single with this account.

The account of Appien

According to Appien, the battle between the legions of Gellius and the men of Crixus close to the Garganus Mount were the beginning of a long and complex series military operations which failed to cause a direct attack of the forces of Spartacus on the town of Rome.

After its victory over Crixus, Gellius moved towards north, according to the independent group of slaves ordered by Spartacus, which moved towards the Gaulle Cisalpine. The army of Lentulus was deployed to bar the road with Spartacus, and the consul hoped to be able to wedge the rebellious slaves between the two armies. The army of the rebellious slaves met the legion of Lentulus, beat it, was turned over, and destroyed the army of Gelluis, obliging the Roman legions with a disordered retirement. Appien claims that Spartacus carried out 300 Roman soldiers captured to avenge death for Crixus, in the kind ones to fight with dead the ones against the others like Gladiateur S. After its victory, Spartacus continued towards north with its partisans (approximately 120.000), as soon as possible, “having burned all the material useless, killed all its prisoners, and shot down all the beasts of burden to accelerate its déplacement".

The armed consular ones overcome went back to Rome to gather while the partisans of Spartacus moved towards north. The consuls again engaged the battle some share in the area of the Picenum, and were overcome once again.

Appien claims that at this time Spartacus changed its intention to go on Rome, which implies that it was the goal of Spartacus following its confrontation in Picenum. “He was still not considered ready for this kind of combat, since its forces were not suitably armed, since no city had joined it, only slaves, deserters, and the chiourme”. He thus decided to withdraw himself again towards the south of Italy. They took the town of Thurii and the surrounding countryside, armed, plundered the territories around, exchanged their spoils against bronze and steel with going (with an aim of manufacturing of advantage of weapons), and occasionally faced the Roman forces, which were each invariably beaten time.

The account of Plutarque

The description of the events by Plutarque differs from that from Appien to a significant degree.

According to Plutarque, after the battle between the legion of Gellius and the men of Crixus (that Plutarque describes like “Germains”) close to the Mount Garganus, the men of Spartacus started the combat against the legion ordered by Lentulus, overcame them, seized their provisions and equipment, and moved directly towards the north of Italy. After this defeat, the two consuls were raised of the command of their armies by the Roman Sénat and were recalled to Rome. Plutarque does not mention at all that Spartacus faced the legion of Gellius, nor which he faced the two legions in the area of Picenum.

Plutarque details then a conflict that Appien does not mention in its account. The army of Spartacus would have continued towards north until the area of Mutina (today Modena). There, a Roman army of 10.000 soldiers, ordered by the governor of Gaulle Cisalpine Gaius Cassius Longinus tried to bar the road with the army of Spartacus and was also overcome.

Plutarque does not refer any more to any event until initial confrontation between Marcus Licinius Crassus and Spartacus in spring -71, omitting walk on Rome and the retirement with Thurii described by Appien. However, as Plutarque is written that Crassus forced the partisans of Spartacus to withdraw themselves towards the south since Picenum, it can suppose that the rebels approached Picenum since the south at the beginning -71, which implies that they were withdrawn from Mutina to spend the winter in the center or the south of Italy.

The reason for this withdrawal towards the south is not explained, whereas there was apparently no reason for them not to escape through the Alps (the goal of Spartacus according to Plutarque).

The war under Crassus (- 71)

In spite of contradictions of the traditional sources on the events of -72, it seems there to have an general agreement on the fact that Spartacus and its partisans was in the south of Italy at the beginning of -71.

Crassus takes the command of the legions

The Senate, now alarmed by the rebellion apparently impossible to contain which shakes Italy, gives to Marcus Licinius Crassus the task to repress the revolt. Crassus had been Préteur in -73, and although it is known for his political and family connections, it did not have military reputation.

One allotted to him six new legions in addition to the two consular legions of Gellius and Lentulus, i.e. on the whole an army from approximately 40.000 to 50.000 trained Roman soldiers. Crassus treated its legions with a rough discipline, sometimes brutal, reactivating the punishment of Décimation of the unit within the army. Appien is not sure if it decimated the two consular legions for cowardice when it was named their commander, or if it decimated his whole army at the time of a later defeat (an event during which nearly 4.000 legionaries would have been carried out). Plutarque makes mention only decimation of 50 legionaries of a troop like punishment after the defeat of Mummius during the first confrontation between Crassus and Spartacus. Independently of what really occurred, the treatment of the legions by Crassus showed “which it was more dangerous for them than the enemy”, and stimulated them to obtain the victory rather than to run the risk to dissatisfy their commander.

Crassus and Spartacus

When the forces of Spartacus moved again towards north, Crassus deployed six legions on the borders of the area (according to Plutarque the first Bataille proceeded in the area of Picenum, according to Appien it was in the area of the Samnium), and detached two legions under the orders of its legate Mummius, to operate behind Spartacus, with the order not to start the combat with the rebels. When the opportunity arose, Mummius disobeys, tackled the forces of Spartacus, and was beaten. In spite of this initial defeat, Crassus started the combat against Spartacus, beat it, killing nearly 6.000 rebels.

The winds seemed to have turned in this war. The legions of Crassus were victorious in several confrontations, killing out of the thousands of rebellious slaves, and forcing Spartacus to withdraw itself towards the south through the Lucanie towards the straits close to Messine. According to Plutarque, Spartacus concludes a market with sicilian pirates to be transported him and 2000 men towards the Sicily, where it intended to encourage the local slaves with the revolt to obtain reinforcement. But it was betrayed by the Pirate S, which accepted the payment and gave up the rebellious slaves. Minor sources mention that the rebels tried to build boats to escape, but that Crassus taken of measurements not specified to prevent that the rebels can join Sicily, and they gave up their efforts.

The forces of Spartacus were withdrawn then towards Rhegium. The legions of Crassus followed them and as of their arrival built fortifications through the Isthme of Rhegium, in spite of the ceaseless raids of the rebellious slaves. The rebels then were besieged and deprived of provisioning.

The legions of reinforcement arrive: end of the war

At this time, the legions of Pompée turned over to Italy, after having subdued the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius in Hispanie.

Sources diverge to know if Crassus had asked reinforcement, or if the Senate benefitted only from the return from Pumped in Italy, which is certain, it is that it was ordered in Pompée to avoid Rome and to move towards the south to help Crassus. The Senate also sent reinforcements under the command of “Lucullus”, that Appien thought by error being Lucius Licinius Lucullus, ordering forces engaged at the time in the Third war of Mithridate, but which was actually Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, brother of the precedent and proconsul of Macedonia. As the legions of Pumped went since north, and that the troops of Lucullus unloaded with Brundisium, Crassus carried out that if it quickly did not put a term at the revolt of the slaves, the credit of the victory would be allocated to the general who would arrive with reinforcements, and thus it pushed its legions to finish the conflict quickly.

With the advertisement of the approach of Pumped, Spartacus tried to negotiate with Crassus to put a term at the conflict before the arrival of the Roman reinforcements. When Crassus refused, part of the forces of Spartacus broke containment and escaped towards the mountains from the east from Petelia (currently Strongoli) in the Bruttium (modern Calabria), with the legions of Crassus to its continuation. The legions managed to reach part of the rebels (ordered by Gannicus and Castus) isolated from the principal army, and killed 12.300 men. However, the legions of Crassus also underwent losses, when part of the escaped slaves were turned over to face the Roman forces which were under the command of an officer of cavalry named Lucius Quinctius and of the questeur Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, and beat them. The rebellious slaves were however not a professional army, and had reached their limit. They did not want to flee any more further, and from the groups of men separated from the principal army to attack independently the legions of Crassus which approached. As the discipline was lost, Spartacus turned over its army and carried all its forces to face the legions which came to its meeting. The forces of Spartacus then were completely beaten, the vast majority of the men were killed on the battle field. The final destiny of Spartacus itself is unknown, since its body was never found, but the historians consider that he perishes in the battle near his men.

Consequences

The rebellion of the third servile war was destroyed by Crassus.

The forces of Pompée never started the combat with the forces of Spartacus, but its legions which came from north captured 5.000 rebels who fled the battle, “that it did all to kill”

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