Spartacus

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This article refers to the Roman slave. For other uses see Spartacus (disambiguation).

Spartacus was a Roman slave, who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy, (then the Italian Peninsula), during 73 BC-71 BC. His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated many Roman legions, in what is known as the Third Servile War, one of the three slave rebellions of ancient Rome. This war was also known as the "Gladiator War".

Contents 1 History 2 Spartacus in modern times 3 Further reading 4 External links

History

Many different sources claim that Spartacus was either a captured Thracian soldier, or a mutineer who had served in the Roman Army in Macedonia. One of the most common theories is that Spartacus fought in the Roman Army as an auxiliary. The auxiliary forces were made up entirely of men from subject lands, who willingly fought for the Romans. Spartacus deserted the army, was outlawed, captured, sold into slavery, and trained at the gladiatorial school of Batiatus, owned by Lentulus Batiatus, in Capua. He took his ideas from Blossius of Cumae, which can be summarized as: "the last will be the first [and vice versa]." (This is also a frequent Biblical quote of Jesus Christ, made early in the next century after Spartacus.)

In 73 BC, Spartacus broke out of a gladiator school with over seventy followers, seized the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons, and fled to the caldera of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples. There they were joined by other rural slaves. The group overran the region, plundering and pillaging, although Spartacus apparently tried to restrain them. His chief aides were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus. Eventually, he raised a rebel army allegedly composed of 70,000 escaped slaves. The slave-to-Roman citizen ratio at that time was very high, making this slave rebellion a very serious threat to Rome. The Senate sent a praetor, Claudius Glaber (his nomen may have been Clodius; his praenomen is unknown), against the rebel slaves, with about 3000 raw recruits hastily drafted from the region. They thought they had trapped the rebels on Vesuvius, but Spartacus led his men down the other side of the mountain using vines, fell on the rear of the soldiers, and routed them.

Spartacus's forces defeated two more Roman legions sent to crush them before settling down to spend the winter on the south coast, manufacturing weapons. At this point, Spartacus's many followers were not all able-bodied males; some of them were women, children, and elderly men who tagged along. By spring they marched towards the north and Gaul. The Senate, alarmed, finally sent two consuls (L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus), each with two legions, against the rebels. The Gauls and Germans, separated from Spartacus, were defeated by Publicola, and Crixus was killed. Spartacus defeated Lentulus, and then Publicola. To avenge Crixus, Spartacus had 300 prisoners from these battles fight in pairs to the death. At Picenum in central Italy, Spartacus defeated the consular armies, then pushed north and at Mutina (modern-day Modena), they defeated yet another legion of Cassius Longinus, the Governor of Cisalpine Gaul ("Gaul this side of the Alps").

Spartacus had apparently intended to march his army out of Italy and into Gaul (modern-day France). However, he changed his mind, possibly under the pressure of his followers, who wanted more plunder. There are theories that say that some of the non-fighting followers did, in fact, cross the Alps and go home. The rest marched back south, and defeated two more legions under Marcus Licinius Crassus, who at that time was the wealthiest man in Rome. At the end of 72 BC, Spartacus was encamped in Rhegium (Reggio Calabria), near the Straits of Messina (the "heel of the Italian boot").

Spartacus's deal with Cilician pirates to get them to Sicily fell through. In the beginning of 71 BC, eight legions of Crassus isolated Spartacus's army in Calabria. The Roman Senate also recalled Pompey from Hispania, and Lucullus from northern Turkey.

Spartacus managed to break through Crassus's lines, and escaped towards Brundisium (modern-day Brindisi), but Crassus's forces intercepted them in Lucania, and Spartacus was killed in subsequent battle at the river Silarus. The last survivors fled north, but were killed by Pompey, who was coming back from Roman Iberia.

Approximately 6,000 of the captured slaves were crucified naked along the Via Appia, from Capua to Rome. Crassus never gave orders for the bodies to be taken down, thus travelers were forced to see the bodies for years, perhaps decades, after the final battle.

Around five thousand slaves, however, escaped the capture. They were later destroyed by Pompey, which enabled him also to claim credit for ending this war. After the army had been broken up, legionaires found 3,000 unharmed Roman prisoners in their camp.

Our original sources about the Spartacus revolt are the works of historians Plutarch, Appian, Florus, Orosius, and Sallust.

Spartacus in modern times

Spartacus has been a great inspiration to revolutionaries in modern times, most notably the Spartacist League of Weimar Germany.

• Howard Fast wrote the historical novel Spartacus. He was hired to adapt his novel as a screenplay, but experienced difficulty working in a screenplay format. Dalton Trumbo (working under the pseudonym "Sam Jackson" due to being on the Hollywood blacklist), was hired to replace Fast. In 2004, Fast's novel was adapted as a made-for-TV movie by the USA Network.

• Arthur Koestler also wrote a novel about Spartacus called The Gladiators.

• There is also a novel Spartacus by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

• The Italian writer Rafaello Giovagnoli wrote his historical novel, Spartacus, in 1874. His novel has been subsequently translated and published in many European countries.

• In Trumbo's screenplay, Spartacus is depicted as a sort of early communist, who fights against the wealthy Roman establishment, by liberating the slaves. Stanley Kubrick directed the film Spartacus in 1960, starring executive producer Kirk Douglas in the title role.

• The movie was re-released in 1967 and again in 1991, with restored scenes that had been cut for being too racy in 1960.

• In a scene near the end of the film, all of the slaves declare, "I am Spartacus!" This phrase has passed into popular culture and and was spoofed in the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

• Spartacus was also a ballet written by composer Aram Khachaturian.

• The Spartakiad was a competition similar to the Olympic games for countries of the Soviet bloc.

• Adam Weishaupt, Freemason and supposed founder of the Illuminati, used "Spartacus" as a nom de plume.

• Karl Marx said Spartacus was his hero.

• In the 2003 movie, The Recruit, James Clayton (played by Colin Farrell), creates a webcast software program called "Spartacus", that can gain control of all webcast devices in a particular area. The students who created the program in the film say it was named for "the slave revolt."

• Spartacus is the name of a musical by Jeff Wayne from 1992.

• During 2004, the miniseries "Spartacus" was released, with Goran Višnjić at main role.

Further reading

• Appian. Civil Wars. Translated by J. Carter. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1996)
• Florus. Epitome of Roman History. (London: W. Heinemann, 1947)
• Orosius. The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. Translated by Roy J. Deferrari. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964).
• Plutarch. Fall of the Roman Republic. Translated by R. Warner. (London: Penguin Books, 1972).
• Sallust. Conspiracy of Catiline and the War of Jugurtha. (London: Constable, 1924)

External links

• Spartacus' Revolt - An article and excerpts from the original Roman sources.
• "Spartacus"- Movie starring Kirk Douglas