Spartacus - Historical Background
The story of the slave rebellion led by Spartacus really begins a lifetime earlier, in 146 B.C. Rome had finally and
conclusively defeated it's primary rival in the western Mediterranean, Carthage. For the
next century Rome would follow a haphazard expansionist policy that saw more and more
territory added to their control. Plunder and slaves poured into Rome. The social balance
was fundamentally upset. Wealthy absentee landowners bought up huge tracts of small farms
which was then worked by inexpensive slave labor. The displaced farmers poured into the
cities and a vast urban proletariat was born (to be manipulated later by the wealthy
politicians).
The Grandsons of the great Roman hero, Scipio Africanus, (Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus)
took the side of the farmers and made attempts at land reform from 133
to 121 B.C. Their efforts can to an unhappy end however, as both were cut
down in riots backed by the Senate. The reform efforts of the Gracchi and the opposition
these generated in the Senate constituted the foundation of the two political factions,
the populares and the optimates.
Around the end of the century (107 - 100 B.C.)
Rome faced serious violence within and a barbarian invasion from without. Gaius Marius, a
plebeian of the equestrian class, was elected consul and was designated by the Assembly of
Tribes as general in the African war against the wishes of the Senate. To build an Army to
meet the threat he reorganized the army by allowing landless men to enlist (and
therefore making the Army dependent on a successful general) and successfully concluded several
wars. Marius was elected to five consecutive consulships (though this was
unconstitutional) and then to a sixth consulship in 100. He became leader of the
populares.
In 88 B.C. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a
patrician leader of the optimates, was elected consul and designated by the Senate as
general in the war in Asia Minor although the Assembly had given this command to Marius.
Sulla marched his legions into Rome itself to enforce his appointment and to stop the
reform legislation of the populares; this was the first time in history that a Roman army
marched upon Rome. Sulla outlawed Marius and took up his command in Asia Minor. In 86
Marius returned to Rome and outlawed Sulla; he was elected to his seventh consulship and
led a five-day bloodbath against the optimates. Marius, however, died within the year.
From 82-79 B.C. Sulla returned to Italy
with his army and had himself proclaimed dictator. He conducted first
“proscriptions,” in which he posted lists of those condemned to be executed (the
Senate had asked him to publish these names with the following plea: “We do not ask
you to pardon those whom you have destined for destruction; we only want you to relieve
the anxiety of those whom you have decided to spare”). A large number of Roman
aristocrats associated with the populares (520, according to Sorbonne professor Francois
Hinard) were proscribed and their property confiscated. (Young Julius Caesar was among the
proscribed, but managed to bribe and beg his way out of it.)
Sulla strengthened the power of the Senate, weakened the power of the tribunes, and
stopped the grain dole. He passed a law that no army was to be stationed in or near
Rome—in effect, he banned standing armies in Italy—and no general was to lead
his army out of the provinces without permission of the Senate (Later, when Julius
Caesar crosses the Rubicon, he broke this law. It was a critical event in the Civil War with
Pompey.)
Sulla retired and died in 79.
In the mid 70s two important figures
emerged in Roman politics -- Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey
the Great. Crassus was the wealthiest man in Rome and a noble from an old plebeian family. Since he had
received very little support from the conservative nobles who dominated the Senate, he had
allied himself with the faction of the populares. Pompey had been a general under Sulla
and celebrated a triumph at the exceptionally young age of 24. He took command of the
Roman legions in Spain and put down a revolt led by the followers of Marius.
The Real Spartacus
The real Spartacus was a freeborn provincial from Thrace (Greek, but from the hill
country and not considered "a real Greek" by the Athenians or the Romans.) He
may have served as an auxiliary in the Roman army in Macedonia. He deserted the army, was
outlawed, captured and sold into slavery. He was eventually purchased by Lentulus Batiatus
and trained at his gladiatorial school in Capua.
73 B.C.: Spartacus escaped with 70-80
gladiators, seizing the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons. They camped
on Vesuvius and were joined by other rural slaves, overrunning the region with much
plunder and pillage, although Spartacus apparently tried to restrain them. His chief aides
were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus.
The Senate sent a praetor, Claudius Glaber against the rebel slaves with about 3000 raw
recruits hastily drafted from the region. The Romans were overconfident in approaching
Vesuvius. They thought they had trapped the rebels on the mountain, but Spartacus led his
men down the other side using vines, fell on the rear of the Roman soldiers, and routed
them.
Spartacus subsequently defeated two forces of legionary cohorts. He wanted to lead his
men across the Alps to escape from Italy, but the Gauls and Germans, led by Crixus, wanted
to stay and plunder. They separated from Spartacus, who passed the winter near Thurii in
southern Italy.
72 B.C.: Spartacus had raised about
70,000 slaves, mostly from rural areas. The Senate, alarmed, finally sent the 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 defeated the proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul at Mutina. The Alps were now open to the
rebels, but again the Gauls and Germans refused to go, so Spartacus returned to southern
Italy, perhaps intending to take ships to Sicily.
In the autumn, when the revolt was at its height and Spartacus had about 120,000
followers, the Senate voted to pass over the consuls and grant Imperium
(Commander-in-Chief of all the armies) to Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had been a praetor
in 73 B.C. but currently held no office.
Crassus was given six new legions plus the four consular legions. When one of Crassus'
legates attacked Spartacus with two legions, against orders, Spartacus roundly defeated
them. Crassus decimated the most cowardly cohort, then used his combined forces to defeat
Spartacus, who retreated to Rhegium, in the toe of Italy. Spartacus tried to cross the
straits into Sicily, but the Cilician pirates betrayed him.
Meanwhile, the Senate recalled Pompey and his legions from Spain, and they began the
journey overland; Marcus Licinius Lucullus landed in Brundisium in the heel of Italy with
his legions from Macedonia. When Spartacus finally fought his way out of the toe of Italy,
he could not march to Brundisium and take ship to the east because of the presence of
Lucullus.
71 B.C.: When Spartacus started north
some of the Gauls and Germans separated from him and were nearly defeated by Crassus
before Spartacus rescued them. The slaves gained one more minor victory against part of
Crassus' forces, but they were finally wiped out by Crassus' legions in a major battle in
southern Italy, near the headwaters of the Siler river. It is believed that Spartacus died
in this battle; there were so many corpses that his body was never found. The historian
Appian reports that 6000 slaves were taken prisoner by Crassus and crucified along the
Appian Way from Capua to Rome.
As many as 5000 slaves escaped and fled northward, but they were captured by Pompey's
army north of Rome as he was marching down the peninsula enroute from Spain; Pompey
subsequently tried to claim the glory of victory from Crassus, although he had not
actually participated in any of the battles. The Senate voted Pompey a triumph because of
his previous victory in Spain, but they decreed an ovation (a far less splendid and
prestigious parade) for Crassus because his victory had been merely over slaves. There
were no political purges or proscriptions after the rebellion was crushed.
70 B.C.: Pompey and Crassus were elected
consuls, although Pompey was six years too young for the office and had never held any of
the lower magistracies. As consuls, they repealed some of the unpopular laws of Sulla and
restored the power of the tribunes.
Significance of Spartacus
Quotation from Erich Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (University of
California Press, 1974) 20-21:
It was not the governing class alone that would react in horror to the prospect of a
slave insurrection. Whatever the grievances of men disenfranchised and dispossessed by
Sulla, they would have found unthinkable any common enterprise with Thracian or Gallic
slaves. It causes no surprise that Marxist historians and writers have idealized Spartacus
as a champion of the masses and leader of the one genuine social revolution in Roman
history. That, however, is excessive. Spartacus and his companions sought to break the
bonds of their own grievous oppression. There is no sign that they were motivated by
ideological considerations to overturn the social structure. The sources make clear that
Spartacus endeavored to bring his forces out of Italy toward freedom rather than to reform
or reverse Roman society. The achievements of Spartacus are no less formidable for that.
The courage, tenacity, and ability of the Thracian gladiator who held Roman forces at bay
for some two years and built a handful of followers into an assemblage of over 120,000 men
can only inspire admiration.
The Roman reaction was tardy and ineffective. . . . Error of judgment induced the
Senate to treat the uprising too lightly at the outset. By the time Rome took firm steps,
Spartacus' ranks had considerably swelled and the state's finest soldiers were serving
abroad. But Crassus' efforts obtained full support, and the revolt was wiped out in 71.
Characters in Film with a Recorded Historical Existence:
- Marcus Licinius Crassus (Lawrence Olivier)
- Marcus Publius Glabrus [real name was Claudius Glaber] (John Dall)
- Gaius Julius Caesar (John Gavin)
- Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov—won Academy Award for best supporting actor)
- Spartacus (Kirk Douglas)
- Crixus (John Ireland)
- Cilician pirates
Characters in Film with No Historical Record of Existence:
- Antoninus (Tony Curtis)
- Gracchus (Charles Laughton)
- Helena (Nina Foch) and Claudia (Joanna Barnes)
- Varinia (Jean Simmons)—only Plutarch
says Spartacus had a wife, a Thracian who was enslaved with him
- Marcellus (Charles McGraw)
- Draba (Woody Strode)
- Tigranes Levantes (Herbert Lom) -- though there was a King of Armenia named Tigranes
Source
Historical
Background for Spartacus by
Professor Barbara McManus, The College
of New Rochelle
Adapted with permission.
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