He defeated time and again the armies sent to crush him and gave hope to thousands of the enslaved and dispossessed where none had previously existed. This is the story of Spartacus.

Spartacus, was born around 107 BC, the exact date is unknown, in Thrace, modern day Bulgaria. He was known to have been an auxillary soldier in the Roman Army before deserting. He was captured, however, and sold into slavery where he was put to work in the salt mines of northern Greece. He was described by Florus as being, ” a deserter, a robber, and afterwards because of his considerable strength a gladiator.”  He is believed to have been married to a dark haired beauty whom the Roman’s described as a sorceress. Spartacus was obviously an educated man to the extent that Plutarch believed he must have been of Hellenic (Greek) extraction rather than Thracian, and some believed him to be of noble blood.

In 73 BC, he was sold to the gladiatorial school of Lentulus Batialus near Capua in Italy. Gladiators were well fed and cared for but the training regime could be brutal and harsh. Not long after his arrival Spartacus and 70 other gladiators stole knives from the kitchen, attacked their guards, and escaped into the surrounding countryside. This event caused little stir in Rome, slave revolts were not uncommon and had always been easily suppressed. Still the ratio of slaves to citizens in Italy was extremely high and in common with most slave societies in history the Roman’s lived in constant fear of the enemy within.

Spartacus, though, was different, he was a trained soldier and an educated man, and his rebellion coincided with the bulk of the Roman army being abroad. Pompey, the titular leader of Rome, though it was still formally a republic, was away fighting in Spain, while Rome’s leading General, Lucullus was in Asia-Minor waging war against that perennial thorn in Rome’s side, Mithridaites. Spartacus was not slow to exploit the situation. Even though he had few men to begin with he effectively came to dominate the area around Capua and runaway slaves and poor labourers began to flock to his banner. This caused him a huge headache, however, for all these people had to fed and found shelter. Also many of them were the elderly, women and children, and most of the men had not had any military training. It has been estimated that as many as 100,000 joined his band and they enjoyed their moment of vengeance, destroying villas and looting them of their property; but Spartacus wanted more than this, he had a plan, he was going to take them out of Italy and to freedom. As Spartacus’s power based spread the Senate was forced to act. They despatched an army of 3,000 men under an ambitious young Praetor Clodius, to crush the rebellion. He besieged Spartacus on the hills and woods around Mount Vesuvius. But Clodius was arrogant and complacent and he had not bothered to fortify his camp. Spartacus had his men lower themselves down the clifftops to the rear of Clodius’s camp by vines and attacked it in the dead of night. It was a rout, Clodius’s army was utterly destroyed. Even more people now flocked to  Spartacus.

Still the Senate in Rome remained undeterred and continued to send armies south to suppress the revolt. and Spartacus continued to defeat them both by ambush and even in open battle. After destroying the 4,000 strong army of Varinius he made the prisoners fight as gladiators and crucified the survivors in celebration of his victory. But Spartacus still intended to escape Italy and began to march his army north towards Gaul. This decision caused a split in his ranks, however. Crixtus, a Gaul himself, and Spartacus’s effective second-in-command wanted to attack Rome itself. Spartacus wouldn’t hear of it. Crixtus abandoned his camp taking 30,000 men with him. Spartacus continued north. As he neared Cisalpine Gaul the Governor of the region, Caius Cassius tried to block his route with 10,000 men but was soundly defeated, the path to Gaul and freedom now lay open. Then, surprisingly, Spartacus turned south. It has been suggested that he was forced to remain in Italy by his people who wanted more plunder. After all, they had defeated every Roman army sent against them and the country lay wide open and undefended as did the many plush Roman villas in their path. Unbeknown to them, however, the Senate, no longer complacent, had recalled 4 veteran legions from Spain. Crixtus, was intercepted near Apulia by 2 legions led by Quintus Arias and his army annihilated, Crixtus being killed in the fighting. Spartacus, was more successful smashing the army of Cornelias Lentullus.

Supreme command of the Roman army was now given to Marcus Lucinius Crassus, who had volunteered to do the job. Crassus was by far the wealthiest man in Rome with an estimated personal fortune of 200,000,000 sesterti but while he had political clout he lacked political credibility. In a society where glory and honour, and not just money, was everything, he needed a military victory. He was extremely ambitious and he wanted a Triumph, he wanted to be able to parade through the streets of Rome in a golden chariot with columns of bedraggled, manacled slaves following in his wake, and the air echoing to the cheers of the crowd. On first contact with Spartacus, however, half of his army turned and ran. To restore discipline to the ranks he applied an old custom known as decimation. The most cowardly Cohort was singled out and all of its 500 legionaires were forced to draw lots, 1 in every 10 was then executed. With his army now reinforced to over 40,000 he continued to pursue Spartacus south. Arriving at the port of Brundisium, Spartacus arranged with the Cillian pirates for a fleet of ships to take his people across the Straits of Messina, but they failed to turn up. Having been forced further and further south and now with nowhere else to go he camped at Rhegium (Reggio) in Calabria where he was besieged by Crassus. His people may have been weighed down by plunder but they had no food, they were starving, Spartacus had to give battle. He managed to break through Crassus’s siege lines but the chase was now on. His army was caught in the open and in the ensuing battle decisively defeated. Plutarch wrote that, ” Finally, after his companions had taken to flight, he (Spartacus) stood alone, surrounded by a multitude of foes, he was still defending himself when he was cut down.” His body was never found.

Some 6,000 slaves who had escaped the battle fled north, desparate now to get to Gaul, but they were intercepted and captured by the legions of Pompey, now returned from Spain. To the chagrin of Crassus, Pompey received the plaudits for ending the slave revolt, even though he had not participated in any of the battles, and he was awarded a Triumph for his exploits in Spain. Crassus was denied this honour being told that fighting slaves wasn’t worthy of one. In his fury he had 6,000 slaves crucified along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome. He never ordered their removal and their corpses remained hanging for years to come.

Crassus, still wanting his triumph and desparate to match the military exploits of his partners in the ruling triumvirate, Pompey and Julius Caesar, in 53 BC took an army and invaded Parthia. His army went down to disastrous defeat. Visiting the Parthian camp in the hope of being able to buy himself out of a parlous situation he was taken prisoner. Because of his known love of money he had molten gold forced down his throat and his head cut off.

The Spartacus revolt was the most serious slave rebellion to threaten Rome but it was never an ideological or anti-slavery movement. Spartacus merely wanted freedom for himself and his people. He never sought plunder and was as much undone by the avarice and greed of many of those within his own camp (especially amongst the Germans and Gauls) as he was by the Roman army. Yet he fought a successful two year battle for liberty with an army of largely untrained men, women, children, the old and sick, in the beating heart of the Roman Empire itself. It was a remarkable achievement.