A force of Gauls and Germans, who had withdrawn from the main body and encamped some distance away, were attacked and destroyed by Crassus.Ĭrassus was now compelled to bring the war to a close on his terms and on an accelerated timeline. Once more southern Italy lay open to Spartacus, but disunion had gripped the rebel army. Under the cover of darkness and in the middle of a snowstorm, Spartacus’s army bridged the 15-foot- (5-metre-) wide ditch, scaled the wall, and forced the Roman lines.
In short order, he erected an impressive ditch and rampart fortification system that stretched some 40 miles (60 km) across the neck of the peninsula, Denied both the ability to maneuver his army and ready access to fresh supplies, Spartacus saw that his situation was desperate. While Spartacus was attempting to carry his rebellion to Sicily, Crassus endeavoured to end the war by effectively besieging the entire “toe” of Italy. The pirates who had agreed to transport his army proved untrustworthy, however, and Spartacus quickly found himself trapped in Bruttium (modern Calabria). Spartacus hoped to reignite these rebellions and to bolster his forces by recruiting freed slaves to his cause. There he intended to cross to Sicily, where the first two Servile Wars ( 135–132 bce and 104–99 bce) had been fought.
Spartacus defeated two legions under Crassus’s legate Mummius and withdrew towards the strait of Messina. Upon taking command, Crassus is said to have carried out a decimation of the consular armies that had taken the field against Spartacus in an attempt to restore order one in ten of the men were selected by lot and killed. The conduct of the war was now entrusted to the praetor Marcus Licinius Crassus.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Instead of attacking the capital, he passed on again into Lucania. Rather than crossing the Alps and returning home, however, Spartacus marched towards Rome itself. Freedom was within sight, and Plutarch characterized Spartacus as holding realistic views about his army’s chances of defeating a fully mobilized Rome. A force of some 10,000 men under Gaius Cassius, governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and the praetor Gnaeus Manlius was defeated at Mutina. According to Plutarch, Spartacus, with the main body of his army, defeated the consul Lentulus and then pressed towards the Alps. Garganus in Apulia by the praetor Quintus Arrius, but this defeat did little to check the revolt. The historian Appian suggests that at this point, Spartacus’s army numbered some 70,000 men.Ī force of escaped German slaves under Crixus was soundly beaten at Mt. The Senate at last despatched both consuls against the rebels (72 bce). The cities of Nola and Nuceria in Campania were sacked, as were Thurii and Metapontum in Lucania. The insurgents reoccupied Campania, and with the defeat of Gaius Thoranius, the quaestor of Varinius, they obtained possession of nearly the whole of southern Italy. Varinius followed, but was defeated in several engagements and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. The country there was also better suited for the kind of guerrilla warfare tactics that favoured Spartacus and his band. From Campania the rebels marched into Lucania, a region that had opposed Rome in several significant conflicts, most recently the Social War (90–88 bce). Before the Romans could act, the rebels slipped away, and when Varinius advanced to storm their lines he found them deserted. Groups of hardy and desperate men now joined the rebels, and when the praetor Publius Varinius took the field against them he found them entrenched like a regular army on the plain. In an audacious move, Spartacus’s forces clambered down the precipices and put the Romans to flight. In what year did the Roman Empire come to an end? How many hills was Rome built on? From Julius Caesar to the city-state’s legendary founders, test your knowledge of ancient Rome in this quiz.Ī hastily collected force of 3,000 men under either Claudius Pulcher or Claudius Glaber (sources vary) endeavoured to starve out the rebels.