Spartacus
Spartacus (c. 109 B.C.E.-71 B.C.E.), according to Roman historians, was a slave who became the leader (or possibly one of several leaders) in the unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic known as the Third Servile War. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and the surviving historical accounts are inaccurate and often contradictory.
Born a Thracian, Spartacus may have been a soldier who deserted the Roman Army, was captured, and sent to the gladiator school at Capua. In 73 B.C.E., some 70 gladiators escaped to Mt. Vesuvius, where they were joined by slaves and farm workers. There, the ragtag group was transformed into a first-class fighting force. At first, the Romans were slow to respond to the uprising, with Spartacus defeating local armies in three sharp engagements. The slaves then raided all of southern Italy, where their forces grew to 70,000 men. In 72, the Senate sent two consuls with four legions against the slaves. Spartacus defeated the two consuls in separate battles in central Italy, after which he tried to lead the slaves north to freedom beyond the Alps. However, they chose to turn back to Italy to further plunder and enrich themselves. Threatening Rome itself, Spartacus returned to southern Italy, a move that would prove a strategic mistake.
In the autumn of 72, the Senate made Marcus Licinius Crassus leader of the war against the slaves. He recruited six additional legions, taking up a protective position in south-central Italy from which he built a wall and ditch across the toe of Italy to contain the revolt. Encouraged after defeating to of Crassus’ lieutenants at Calabria, Spartacus fought a major battle with Crassus. In it, the uprising leader and 60,000 of his men fell. Spartacus's body was never found. In a huge display of public cruelty, Crassus crucified 6,000 prisoners from the battle along the Via Appia from Capua to Rome.
Ancient depictions of Spartacus
Spartacus's origins
The ancient sources do not agree on Spartacus's origins. Plutarch describes him as "a Greek of nomadic stock," and said Spartacus's wife, a prophetess of the same tribe, was enslaved with him. Others suggest his origin as the territory of present Bulgaria. Appian said he was "a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator." Florus said he "had become a Roman soldier, of a soldier a deserter and robber, and afterwards, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator." Most agreement is that Spartacus was born a Thracian.
Third Servile War
Revolt leading to the Third Servile War
Spartacus was trained at the gladiatorial school (ludus) near Capua, belonging to Lentulus Batiatus. In 73 B.C.E., Spartacus and some 70 followers escaped from the gladiator school of Lentulus Batiatus. Seizing the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons, the slaves fled to the caldera of Mount Vesuvius, near modern-day Naples. There they were joined by other rural slaves. The group overran the region, plundering and pillaging. Spartacus's intention was to leave Italy and return home. His chief aides were gladiators from Gaul and Germania, named Crixus, Castus, Gannicus, and Oenomaus. Other runaway slaves joined, increasing the numbers to several hundred.
The slave-to-Roman citizen ratio at that time was very high, making this slave rebellion a very serious threat to Rome. However Rome did not believe slaves could defeat their legions so they failed to take adequate action. All of Rome's experienced legions were away. The Senate sent an inexperienced praetor, Claudius Glaber (his nomen may have been Clodius; his praenomen is unknown), against the rebels, with a militia of about 3,000. They besieged the rebels on Vesuvius blocking their escape, but Spartacus had ropes made from vines and with his men climbed down a cliff on the other side of the volcano, to the rear of the Roman soldiers, and staged a surprise attack. Not expecting trouble from a handful of slaves, the Romans had not fortified their camp or posted adequate sentries. As a result, most of the Roman soldiers were still sleeping and killed in this attack, including Claudius Glaber. After this success many runaway slaves joined Spartacus until the group grew into an army of allegedly 120,000 escaped slaves.
Military success continues
Spartacus is credited as an excellent military tactician and his experience as a former auxiliary soldier made him a formidable enemy, but his men were mostly former slave laborers who lacked military training. They hid out in the Caldera on Mount Vesuvius which at that time was dormant and heavily wooded, and this enabled them to train properly for the fight with the Romans.
Due to the short amount of time expected before battle, Spartacus delegated training to the Gladiators who trained small groups, and these then trained other small groups and so on leading to the development of a fully trained army in a matter of weeks. By spring, they marched north towards Gaul.
The Senate, alarmed, sent two consuls, Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, each with a legion, against the rebels. Crixus wanted to stay in Italy and plunder, but Spartacus wanted to continue north and so, along with around 30,000 Gaul and Germanic supporters, Crixus left Spartacus and was later defeated by Publicola. Crixus was killed in battle. Spartacus first defeated Lentulus, and then Publicola. At Picenum in central Italy, Spartacus defeated the consular armies, then pushed north. At Mutina (now Modena), they defeated yet another legion under Gaius Cassius Longinus, the Governor of Cisalpine Gaul ("Gaul this side of the Alps"). By now, Spartacus's many followers included women, children, and elderly men who tagged along.
Choice to remain in Italy
Apparently, Spartacus had intended to march his army out of Italy and into Gaul (now Belgium, Switzerland, and France), or maybe even to Hispania to join the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius. But he changed his mind and turned back south, the sources say, under pressure from his followers, for they wanted more plunder. Although it is not known for certain why they turned back when they were on the brink of escaping into Gaul, it is regarded as their greatest mistake. Perhaps their many victories made them overconfident, or perhaps they believed that they would escape to Sicily as planned, and could plunder more in the meantime. There are theories that some of the non-fighting followers (some 10,000 or so) did, in fact, cross the Alps and return to their homelands.
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 B.C.E., Spartacus was encamped in Rhegium (Reggio Calabria), near the Strait of Messina. Spartacus's deal with Cilician pirates to get them to Sicily fell through. In the beginning of 71 B.C.E., eight legions of Crassus isolated Spartacus's army in Calabria. With the assassination of Quintus Sertorius, the Roman Senate also recalled Pompey from Hispania; and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus from Macedonia.
Spartacus managed to break through Crassus's lines and escape towards Brundisium (now Brindisi), but Pompey's forces intercepted them in Lucania, and the slaves were routed in a subsequent battle at the river Silarus, where Spartacus is believed to have fallen. According to Plutarch, "Finally, after his companions had taken to flight, he (Spartacus) stood alone, surrounded by a multitude of foes, and was still defending himself when he was cut down".[1]According to Appian, "Spartacus was wounded in the thigh with a spear and sank upon his knee, holding his shield in front of him and contending in this way against his assailants until he and the great mass of those with him were surrounded and slain"; The body of Spartacus was not found.[2]
After the battle, legionaries found and rescued 3,000 unharmed Roman prisoners in their camp. Some 6,600 of Spartacus's followers were crucified along the via Appia (or the Appian Way) from Brundisium to Rome. Crassus never gave orders for the bodies to be taken down, thus travelers were forced to see the bodies for years after the final battle. Around 5,000 slaves, however, escaped the capture. They fled north and were later destroyed by Pompey, who was coming back from Roman Iberia. This enabled him also to claim credit for ending this war. Pompey was greeted as a hero in Rome while Crassus received little credit or celebration.
Legacy
Spartacus's struggle, often seen as the fight for an oppressed people fighting for their freedom against a slave-owning aristocracy, has found new meaning for modern writers since the nineteenth century. The figure of Spartacus, and his rebellion, has become an inspiration to many modern literary and political writers, who have made the character of Spartacus an ancient/modern folk hero.
Politics
Toussaint L'Ouverture and his successor Jean-Jacques Dessalines led the slave rebellion of the Haitian Revolution (1791—1804), where the armies of Spain, Britain and Napoleon Bonaparte's France were defeated. Toussaint was called the "Black Spartacus" by one of his defeated opponents, the Comte de Lavaux.
Spartacus has been a great inspiration to revolutionaries in modern times, most notably the Spartacist League of Weimar Germany, as well as the Spartacus anti-fascist organisation in the 1970s' Austria. Karl Marx said Spartacus was his hero, citing him as the "finest fellow" antiquity had to offer. Noted Latin American Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was also a strong admirer of Spartacus. Founder of the Bavarian Illuminati Adam Weishaupt often referred to himself as Spartacus within written correspondences.
Artistic
Film
Most famously, Stanley Kubrick's 1960 cinematic adaptation of Howard Fast's novel as Spartacus. The film, about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War, stars Kirk Douglas as the rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. The film also stars Peter Ustinov, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus. The catchphrase "I'm Spartacus!" from this film has been referenced in a number of other films, television programs, and commercials.
The development of Spartacus was partly instigated by Kirk Douglas's failure to win the title role in William Wyler's Ben-Hur. Douglas had worked with Wyler before on Detective Story, and was disappointed when Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead. Not wanting to appear beaten, he decided to upstage Wyler, and create his own epic, Spartacus, with himself in the title role.
Literature
Howard Fast wrote the historical novel Spartacus. Arthur Koestler wrote a novel about Spartacus called The Gladiators. There is a novel Spartacus by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon. * Spartacus is a prominent character in the novel Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough. McCullough subscribes to the theory that Spartacus was a renegade Roman soldier, but sticks to the historical account that his body was never found. * The Italian writer Rafaello Giovagnoli wrote his historical novel, Spartacus, in 1874. His novel has been subsequently translated and published in many European countries. * There is also a novel The students of Spartacus (Uczniowie Spartakusa) by the Polish writer Halina Rudnicka. Spartacus and His Glorious Gladiators, by Toby Brown, is part of the Dead Famous (series) of children's history books
Performance
Spartacus is a ballet, with a score by composer Aram Khachaturian. The German group Triumvirat released the album Spartacus in 1975. The Farm's debut LP in 1991 was titled Spartacus. Jeff Wayne released his musical retelling, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus in 1992. Phantom Regiment, a World Class (formerly Division 1) drum corps of Drum Corps International, performed a show entitled "Spartacus" depicting the show through music and visual movement for their competitive field show in 1981, 1982, and 2008. Their 2008 program won World Championship Finals.
Sport
Spartak football club and Spartak sport society are named in honor of Spartacus. The Spartakiad was a competition similar to the Olympic games for countries of the Soviet bloc. Swiss Professional Cyclist Fabian Cancellara has been given the nickname "Spartacus." In the Soviet Union, a nation-wide Olympic-like event was organized in honor of Spartacus. This event was called the Spartakiad. Sport clubs in Eastern Europe were named Spartak (Slavic pronunciation) after Spartacus. The most famous is Spartak Moscow. Spartacus 7s is the name of an international rugby sevens team created in 2006.
Other
Spartacus Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Spartacus.
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bradley, Keith R. Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140 B.C.E.–70 B.C.E. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-31259-0
- Rubinsohn, Wolfgang Zeev. Spartacus' Uprising and Soviet Historical Writing. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1987. ISBN 0-9511243-1-5
- Spartacus: Film and History, edited by Martin M. Winkler. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2007. ISBN 978-1405131802
- Trow, M.J. Spartacus: The Myth and the Man. Stroud, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-7509-3907-9
External links
- Spartacus Article and full text of the Roman and Greek sources.
- "Spartacus"—Movie starring Kirk Douglas and Sir Peter Ustinov
- "Spartacus"—TV-Mini-series starring Goran Višnjić and Alan Bates l
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