Taking as many as 30, men, including a contingent of German and Gallic gladiators, Crixus broke with Spartacus to plunder neighboring villages and towns.
No longer considering the gladiator uprising as a mere outbreak of brigandage, the Roman senate decided to send two more armies against the slaves in the spring of 72 bc. It was relatively easy to follow the trail left by Crixus and his band as they levied tribute in the Apulia region at the heel of the Italian peninsula.
Gellius sent two legions under his praetor Quintus Arrius to hem in the gladiators against the coast. Surprised by the Romans near Mount Garganus, Crixus found himself surrounded. Despite furious fighting, the Gaul and two-thirds of his army were cut down. Spartacus, meantime, had made good use of his winter respite while camped in the Appenines. His men scoured the area, raiding estates and towns, particularly in search of horses. The slave leader hoped to build and train a cavalry unit to be his eyes as his rabble marched toward the Alps.
Towns such as Consentia and Metapontum were stormed, their newly released slaves joining ranks with Spartacus and swelling the army to more than 70, Any freed slaves capable of bearing arms received rudimentary training.
In the spring of 72 bc, the gladiator army trekked northward, pursued by the consuls and their legions. In three separate engagements, Spartacus first defeated Lentulus, who had attempted to surround the slaves, and then both Gellius and the praetor Arrius, who had recently slain Crixus and his Gauls.
To appease the ghost of Crixus, Romans were sacrificed or forced to fight each other as gladiators. Surprisingly, Spartacus chose to lead his slaves back into Italy. Perhaps a contingent of his gladiators preferred looting the peninsula as Crixus had, and Spartacus may have feared that a further division of his force could be disastrous if Roman legions pursued them and forced them into battle.
He may have even entertained the idea of raiding Rome, the source of enslavement of so many peoples. For whatever reasons, the Thracian led his mob southward. Rome was beside itself with anxiety.
The gladiator army was estimated at between 75, and , With the losses of the various legions, the city was short of available troops and able commanders. The most experienced generals, such as Quintus Metellus and Gnaeus Pompey, were stationed with their battle-hardened legions in rebellious Spain, while Lucius Lucullus kept an eye on troublesome Asia Minor.
For the moment, only poorly trained local levies remained to defend Rome. The Roman senate finally gave supreme military command to the praetor Marcus Crassus, the only man who offered to take the post. A multimillionaire, Crassus had built his fortune through astute real estate deals. More important, he had gained valuable experience while serving under the command of the great Roman general Sulla, who died in 78 bc.
Crassus inherited the remnants of the legions of Publius Varinius that had fled the battlefield in their earlier disastrous engagement with the gladiators, in addition to several newly raised legions. Crassus ordered his lieutenant Mummius to lead two of the new legions in a circle behind the slave rabble, but, as Plutarch notes, not to join battle nor even skirmish with them.
Unfortunately for Crassus, Mummius unwisely attacked the gladiators from the rear, obviously thinking that he would have the advantage of surprise. In the ensuing melee, many of the legionaries were slain, and hundreds of others broke rank and fled.
Crassus was livid with anger. Lots were drawn in each group, with one unlucky soldier chosen for execution. The entire army was forced to witness the deaths of their comrades as warning to any others who considered disobedience. With discipline re-established, the new general proceeded to retrain and rearm his troops.
Each soldier became proficient in the use of the short-bladed gladius , ideal for either thrusting or slashing. In addition, the Roman levies were drilled in the use of the pilum , an iron-headed spear whose metal neck, extending to a wooden shaft, would snap downward after hitting an object to prevent its being thrown back by an enemy.
The legions were also divided into regiments, called cohorts, of men each and were instructed how to maneuver on the field of battle. A complete legion stood ready for action with roughly 5, men. With eight new legions under his command, Crassus pursued Spartacus the length of Italy, getting the best of him in a running battle in the Lucania region in the south.
Stung, the gladiator army limped through Bruttium on the toe of the Italian peninsula, finally reaching the coastal city of Rhegium across the Strait of Messina from Sicily. Spartacus managed to contact Sicilian pirates, paying them handsomely from gold and treasure looted from countless estates to ferry thousands of his men to Sicily, where he hoped to rekindle the slave rebellion that had erupted there barely a generation earlier. The pirates, however, deceived the rebels.
They accepted the payment but failed to take their fleet to the approved rendezvous. Spartacus's struggle has been inspirational to revolutionaries, politicians and writers since the 19th century. The Spartacist League was a revolutionary socialist group, formed in Germany in , which unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the government in Search term:.
Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Use these classroom resources to teach middle schoolers about the empire of ancient Rome. Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, a rule that lasted less than one year before he was famously assassinated by political rivals in 44 B.
On March 15, 44 B. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Image Spartacus Spartacus was an ancient Roman slave and gladiator who led a rebellion against the Roman Republic. 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.
In time, he even succeeded in getting non-slaves to join his rebellion. Spartacus continued to ambush and defeat Roman units while freeing slaves in the countryside and gathering supplies.
Each man may have commanded 10, troops. By the spring of 72 B. This did not work out well for the rebels. The Roman force under Gellius caught up with Crixus, killing the leader along with many of his rebels.
Gellius then proceeded to advance on Spartacus from the south while Lentulus, who was apparently ahead of Spartacus, drove in from the north. Spartacus was trapped between two armies likely equipped with better arms and armor then he had. But one thing neither commander appears to have counted on was that Spartacus had built up a sizable cavalry force in the preceding months.
Thracians were known to be good horseman, able to tame even wild horses. Gellius was then either defeated by Spartacus or forced to retreat. Spartacus had not only escaped the trap but had mauled the Roman army, allowing his troops to march to the Alps. However, for reasons lost to history, Spartacus chose not to do this, instead turning his force around and heading back into Italy. Why he did this is a mystery.
He notes that other factors may also have been involved. Spartacus may have received news of Roman advances in Thrace that made him doubt that he and the other Thracians in his army could return home safely. Whatever the reasons were Spartacus led his army back south, through Italy, overcoming resistance along the way, until they arrived at the Strait of Messina, in hopes that they could cross over to Sicily, an island of agriculture and slaves waiting to be liberated.
While the Strait of Messina is small, being only two miles 3.
0コメント