Ancient Rome · 73–71 BCE
Who Was Spartacus? The Slave War Against Rome
In short
- Seventy-eight gladiators broke out of Capua in 73 BCE and grew into an army that beat several Roman forces while Rome's best troops were abroad.
- Spartacus's aims are unknown, and no ancient source says he wanted to end slavery.
- Crassus crushed the revolt in 71 BCE; the victorious generals then pressed Rome for power.
In 73 BCE seventy-eight gladiators broke out of a training school at Capua armed with kitchen cleavers and spits. By the end of the next year their leader, a Thracian named Spartacus, had beaten both consuls in battle, and the Senate was handing the war to the richest man in Rome.
The school at Capua
In the last two centuries BCE, conquest brought millions of enslaved people into Italy; modern estimates of the slave population there in the late Republic range from about one to three million. Some were trained to fight for entertainment in schools called ludi. One at Capua belonged to a man named Lentulus Batiatus. Plutarch says its fighters, mostly Gauls and Thracians, were kept in close confinement through no fault of their own.
Two hundred of them planned a break-out. When the plot leaked, seventy-eight got away, seized cleavers and spits from a kitchen, and then robbed wagons carrying gladiators' weapons. They chose three leaders. The first was Spartacus, a Thracian whom Appian describes as a former soldier with the Romans who had been taken prisoner and sold.
An army on Vesuvius
The rebels camped on Mount Vesuvius. A praetor, Gaius Claudius Glaber (Plutarch calls him Clodius), marched out with 3,000 men and blocked the only path down. Plutarch says the rebels wove ladders from wild vines, climbed down the cliffs on the far side and attacked the Romans from behind.
News of the victory drew in herdsmen and field slaves from the surrounding estates. Appian gives the rebel army 70,000 men and later 120,000, figures that are probably exaggerated, but the rebels beat several Roman forces. Rome's best armies were far away, fighting Sertorius in Spain and Mithridates in Asia Minor, so Spartacus faced hastily raised troops.
Why not go home?
In 72 BCE the Senate sent both consuls. Crixus, another of the rebel leaders, had split away with 30,000 followers, and a consul destroyed his force near Mount Garganus in Apulia. Spartacus then beat both consuls in turn. Appian says he sacrificed 300 Roman prisoners to the spirit of Crixus.
Appian says Spartacus was heading for the Alps when the consuls tried to trap him. Plutarch says he had hoped to lead his followers over the mountains so that they could go home, some to Thrace and some to Gaul, but they would not listen and preferred to plunder Italy. After beating the governor of Cisalpine Gaul in the north, the army turned south again. What Spartacus wanted in the end is unknown. No ancient writer says he meant to abolish slavery, and later authors who call him a champion of the oppressed are reading their own hopes into the story.
Crassus takes command
The Senate now gave the command to Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had fought for Sulla and was said to be the richest man in Rome. Appian says he raised six new legions. When part of his army broke and ran, Plutarch says, he revived an ancient punishment, decimation: he divided five hundred of the men into fifty groups of ten and had one man in each killed.
Spartacus tried to cross to Sicily, where two earlier slave revolts had shaken the island. Plutarch says Cilician pirates took his gifts and sailed away. Crassus then dug a ditch and built a wall across the toe of Italy to pin the rebels in, but on a snowy night Spartacus filled part of the ditch and broke out.
The end on the Appian Way
In 71 BCE Crassus brought the main rebel army to battle in southern Italy. Plutarch and Appian both say Spartacus died fighting, surrounded; Appian adds that his body was never found. Pompey, returning from Spain, cut down about five thousand fugitives and wrote to the Senate that he had finished the war.
Appian says six thousand captives were crucified along the whole road from Capua to Rome, the Appian Way. Crassus received only an ovation, a lesser honour than a triumph, because the war had been against slaves. Both generals stood for the consulship of 70 BCE without disbanding their armies, and both were elected.
In their own words
“The first of these was Spartacus, a Thracian of Nomadic stock, possessed not only of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his fortune, and more Hellenic than Thracian.”
Plutarch, Life of Crassus 8.2, c. 100–120 CE
Translation by Bernadotte Perrin (Loeb Classical Library, 1916). Plutarch wrote nearly two centuries after the revolt, drawing on earlier historians who are now lost, and his portrait is generous to a defeated enemy.
Why it happened
- Roman conquest had brought huge numbers of enslaved people to Italy, often held in harsh conditions on estates and in gladiator schools.
- Rome's best armies were fighting abroad, so the first forces sent against the rebels were hastily raised.
- Success drew in slaves and herdsmen from estates across southern Italy, and the rebels could live off the land.
What happened next
- Crassus and Pompey, both with armies at the gates, were elected consuls for 70 BCE and dismantled parts of Sulla's constitution.
- A decade later Crassus and Pompey joined Julius Caesar in the private alliance that carried Caesar to power. Read the story →
- Slavery went on unreformed, and no slave revolt on this scale ever broke out in Italy again.
Why it still matters
From 1916 German socialists who opposed the First World War signed their illegal newsletters “Spartacus”, and their group became known as the Spartakusbund, the Spartacus League. At the turn of 1919 it became the German Communist Party, and on 15 January 1919 its leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered in Berlin. The “I'm Spartacus!” scene in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film is invented: no ancient source records it.
Key people
- Spartacus
- Thracian gladiator who led the best-known slave revolt in Roman history
- Crixus
- Rebel commander who split from Spartacus and was killed in 72 BCE
- Marcus Licinius Crassus
- Roman general and property speculator, said to be the richest man in Rome, who crushed the revolt in 71 BCE
- Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey)
- General who intercepted fugitives and claimed credit for ending the war
Key terms
- Ludus
- A gladiator school, where owners housed, fed and trained fighters for hire.
- Servile War
- Modern name for Rome's three slave revolts; Spartacus led the third (73–71 BCE).
- Decimation
- Punishment of a unit by killing one man in ten, chosen by lot.
- Ovation
- A lesser victory parade than a triumph, in which the general entered Rome on foot instead of in a chariot; Plutarch says Crassus got one because his enemies were slaves.
Test yourself
Which Roman general finally defeated Spartacus's main army in 71 BCE?
- Pompey
- Marius
- Sulla
- Crassus
Show the answer
Crassus. The Senate gave Crassus the command late in 72 BCE, and Appian says he finished the war within six months. Pompey arrived from Spain afterwards and only caught fugitives, though he claimed the credit. Marius and Sulla were already dead.
The full lesson in the app ends with 5 questions like this one.
Connected stories
- Marius, Sulla and the Army That Changed Rome: Crassus and Pompey rose in Sulla's wars, and the example of generals with private armies gave them leverage over the Senate in 70 BCE.
- Caesar Crosses the Rubicon: Crassus and Pompey later formed the alliance with Caesar that made his career.
- The Gracchi and the Crisis of the Republic: The Gracchi tried to answer Rome's land and labour problems by law; the slave war showed what happened when the system ignored those who had no vote at all.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Spartacus and the gladiators revolt?
Roman conquest had brought huge numbers of enslaved people to Italy, often held in harsh conditions on estates and in gladiator schools. Rome's best armies were fighting abroad, so the first forces sent against the rebels were hastily raised. Success drew in slaves and herdsmen from estates across southern Italy, and the rebels could live off the land.
What happened after the revolt of Spartacus?
Crassus and Pompey, both with armies at the gates, were elected consuls for 70 BCE and dismantled parts of Sulla's constitution. A decade later Crassus and Pompey joined Julius Caesar in the private alliance that carried Caesar to power. Slavery went on unreformed, and no slave revolt on this scale ever broke out in Italy again.
Which Roman general finally defeated Spartacus's main army in 71 BCE?
Crassus. The Senate gave Crassus the command late in 72 BCE, and Appian says he finished the war within six months. Pompey arrived from Spain afterwards and only caught fugitives, though he claimed the credit. Marius and Sulla were already dead.
What is the main primary source for “Spartacus and the Slave War”?
Plutarch, Life of Crassus 8.2 (c. 100–120 CE). Translation by Bernadotte Perrin (Loeb Classical Library, 1916). Plutarch wrote nearly two centuries after the revolt, drawing on earlier historians who are now lost, and his portrait is generous to a defeated enemy.
Sources
- Plutarch, Life of Crassus 8–11, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (Loeb, 1916)
- Appian, Civil Wars 1.116–120, translated by Horace White (1899)
- Brent D. Shaw, Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents (2001)
- Barry Strauss, The Spartacus War (2009)
Images are credited under each picture. Paintings and photographs come from public collections via Wikimedia Commons; scenes with no surviving image are marked as illustrations.
