Marcus Licinius Crassus: Encyclopedia II - Marcus Licinius Crassus - The Revolt of Spartacus

Marcus Licinius Crassus - The Revolt of Spartacus

Crassus had worked his way up to serving as praetor when the revolt of Spartacus and other ex-gladiators flamed into a general slave insurrection, an event that gave Crassus his greatest success in a career which longed for - but did not achieve - military glory. Rome had initially sent a praetor, Titus Glaber, against the growing hordes of gladiators, escaped slaves and camp followers holed up with Spartacus near Mt. Vesuvius. To Rome's dismay and surprise, Spartacus's despised slave army quickly routed the soldiers and went on to defeat two legionary cohorts. By 72 BC, almost 70,000 slaves had joined the rebellion. Spartacus's forces then separately defeated the legions of the two reigning consuls near Picenum and also the legions of Gaius Cassius at Mutina in northern Italy. Historians estimate that Spartacus now had over 100,000 men, women, and children with him. Having failed to escape across the Alps, Spartacus’s army had returned to southern Italy.

Pompey was in Hispania, fighting the great Marian general, Sertorius, and was unavailable. In the autumn of 72, the Senate gave Crassus consular imperium to head the war against Spartacus. He personally raised and funded six new legions, and was given the remnants of the four consular legions. In a battle with the slave hordes, two of Crassus's legions were initially defeated. Crassus used the feared and rarely used tactic of decimation to punish the weakest troops. All the soldiers drew lots and a tenth of the cohort (those with the marked lots) were beaten to death by fellow legionaries. This maneuver motivated the legion and Crassus then defeated Spartacus in battle. The slave leader began a retreat to Rhegium in hopes of transporting his army to Sicily but the pirates he had paid for the transport had abandoned him. Crassus quickly ordered a giant wall build across the "toe" of Italy, the likes of which had never been seen, leaving Spartacus trapped.

To bring a swift end to the campaign, the Senate called back Pompey and his legions from Hispania. In response, Crassus quickly attacked Spartacus's army when they tried to escape to Brundisium, and delivered a killing blow. Spartacus’s army was largely destroyed and his body was never found in the mounds of the dead. Clean-up operations proceeded, and Crassus hunted down and destroyed the rebel remnants. He then took another effective and brutal step: he wanted to set an example never to be forgotten as a warning against future slave revolts. All 6,000 rebels were crucified naked at short intervals along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome and then left to rot.

Pompey, who arrived with his extra legions at the tail end of the Spartacan campaign, managed to capture 5,000 survivors of Crassus's battles fleeing north of Rome. He tried to take credit for concluding the campaign, which infuriated Crassus. Crassus was apparently somewhat sensitive about his achievement; but putting down a large army of slaves was not viewed in the same light as Pompey's achievements in putting down a foreign enemy. Crassus was only eligible for an ovation, a minor triumph, although Pompey demanded and received a full triumph for his achievements against the Spaniards.

Crassus became friends with one of his young military tribunes, Julius Caesar, during the year-long campaign. He had shown that he was an effective military leader capable of remarkable ruthlessness - the decimation of his own soldiers and the salutary example of what happened to captives falling into his hands.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Revolt of Spartacus", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki