Spartacus
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- This article refers to the Roman slave who staged a rebellion against his masters. For other uses see Spartacus (disambiguation).
Spartacus, who was believed to be a Thracian, was enslaved by the Romans and led a large slave uprising in modern-day Italy during the period 73 BC to 71 BC. His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated many Roman legions in several engagements. This conflict is known as the Third Servile War or the Gladiator War and is one of the three slave rebellions of ancient Rome.
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Origins
Many sources claim that Spartacus was a Thracian, enslaved either when captured fighting against Rome or after being outlawed for mutinying or deserting from the Roman auxiliary forces in Macedonia. (The auxiliary forces were made up entirely of men from subject lands who willingly fought for the Romans.) That he was actually a Thracian is debated. While the Roman army was indeed campaigning in Thrace and Macedonia at the age Spartacus was likely to have been enslaved, Roman gladiators at that time were always one of two types: Gauls and Thracians. One did not actually have to be a Gaul or Thracian in order to be trained in one of the two schools of gladiatorial style, so Spartacus may have later become known as "Thracian" simply because he was trained in the Thracian gladiator style. Plutarch described Spartacus as "intelligent and cultured, being more like a Greek than a Thracian".[1] Spartacus means "from the city of Sparta" in Latin. [2]
Whatever his origins, we know that Spartacus was trained at the gladiatorial school of Batiatus, named after its owner Lentulus Batiatus in Capua. Spartacus took his ideas from Blossius of Cumae, which can be summarized as: "the last will be the first [and vice versa]." (This is also a frequent Biblical quote of Jesus Christ, made early in the next century after Spartacus.)
Rebellion
In 73 BC, Spartacus and over seventy followers revolted, including the gladiator Jaunus Maximi who had inspired Spartacus but later died in a battle against Pompey and Crassus.Template:Fact Seizing the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons, the slaves fled to the caldera of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples. There they were joined by other rural slaves. The group overran the region, plundering and pillaging, although Spartacus apparently tried to restrain them. His chief aides were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus. His numbers were swelled by other runaway slaves until it eventually grew into an army allegedly composed of 90,000 escaped slaves. The slave-to-Roman citizen ratio at that time was very high, making this slave rebellion a very serious threat to Rome. The Senate sent a praetor, Claudius Glaber (his nomen may have been Clodius; his praenomen is unknown), against the rebel slaves, with about 3000 raw recruits hastily drafted from the region. They trapped the rebels on Vesuvius, but Spartacus led his men down the other side of the mountain using vines, fell on the rear of the soldiers, and routed them.
Military Success Continues
Spartacus' forces defeated two more Roman legions sent to crush them before settling down to spend the winter on the south coast, manufacturing weapons. At this point, Spartacus' many followers were not all able-bodied males; some of them were women, children, and elderly men who tagged along. By spring they marched towards the north and Gaul. The Senate, alarmed, finally sent two consuls (Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus), each with two legions, against the rebels. The Gauls and Germans, who had separated themselves from Spartacus, were defeated by Publicola, and Crixus was killed. Spartacus defeated Lentulus, and then Publicola. At Picenum in central Italy, Spartacus defeated the consular armies, then pushed north and at Mutina (modern-day Modena) they defeated yet another legion under Gaius Cassius Longinus, the Governor of Cisalpine Gaul ("Gaul this side of the Alps").
Choice to Remain in Italy Longer
Spartacus had apparently intended to march his army out of Italy and into Gaul (modern-day Switzerland and France) or maybe even to Hispania to join the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius. However, he changed his mind, possibly under the pressure of his followers, who wanted more plunder. There are theories that say 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 BC, Spartacus was encamped in Rhegium (Reggio Calabria), near the Straits of Messina (the "tip of the Italian boot").
Spartacus's deal with Cilician pirates to get them to Sicily fell through. In the beginning of 71 BC, eight legions of Crassus isolated Spartacus's army in Calabria. The Roman Senate also recalled Pompey from Hispania, and Lucullus from northern Anatolia where he was campaigning against Rome's most obstinate enemy Mithridates VI of Pontus.
Spartacus managed to break through Crassus's lines, and escaped towards Brundisium (modern-day Brindisi), but Crassus's forces intercepted them in Lucania, and Spartacus was killed in a subsequent battle at the river Silarus. After the battle, legionaires found and rescued 3,000 unharmed Roman prisoners in their camp.
Approximately 6,000 of the captured slaves were crucified along the Via Appia, (or the Appian Way,) from Capua to Rome. Crassus never gave orders for the bodies to be taken down, thus travelers were forced to see the bodies for years, perhaps decades, 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.
Legend
Although it will never be known for certain why his forces turned back south when they were on the brink of escaping into Gaul, it will always be regarded as his 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. Even though he had no training as a military commander, Spartacus is still regarded as a genius in a war where he had a definite disadvantage in numbers and supplies.
Regardless of the outcome, Spartacus was a legend even during his own lifetime. Those who joined him came great distances to do so, believing he could deliver them to freedom. This legend and his name has lived on to modern times.
Our original sources about the Spartacus revolt are the works of historians Plutarch, Appian, Florus, Orosius, and Sallust.
Spartacus in modern times
Political
- Spartacus has been a great inspiration to revolutionaries in modern times, most notably the Spartacist League of Weimar Germany.
- The Spartakiad was a competition similar to the Olympic games for countries of the Soviet bloc.
- Karl Marx said Spartacus was his hero.
- Noted Latin American Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was also a strong admirer of Spartacus.
- Spartacus has been compared by many to American Civil War abolitionist John Brown, citing both their "extreme" views of slavery (respective of their time periods),and willingness to follow their own path, regardless of the consequences; in both cases they are killed due to their beliefs.
Fictionalisations of his life
Film
- Most famously, adaptation of Fast's novel in 1960
- In 2004, Fast's novel was adapted as "Spartacus", a made-for-TV movie or miniseries by the USA Network, with Goran Višnjić in the main role.
- Silent movie
Literature
- Howard Fast wrote the historical novel Spartacus.
- Arthur Koestler also wrote a novel about Spartacus called The Gladiators.
- There is also a novel Spartacus by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
- Sparticus is a prominent character in the novel Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough. McCullough subscribes to the theory that Sparticus 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 Spartacus' children (Dzieci Spartakusa) by the Polish writer Halina Rudnicka.
Theatre
- Spartacus was also a ballet written by composer Aram Khachaturian.
- Spartacus is the name of a musical by Jeff Wayne from 1992.
Other
- The videogame " God of War " was loosely based on the trails of Spartacus and his rebellion (though mainly based on Ares the greek god of war).
- The video game Spartan: Total Warrior was also loosely based on the journey of Spartacus.
- Adam Weishaupt, Freemason and supposed founder of the Illuminati, used "Spartacus" as a nom de plume.
- A Chicago based grafitti artist The Infamous Mr.ZIN uses Spartacus as a model.
- In the 2003 movie, The Recruit, James Clayton (played by Colin Farrell), creates a webcast software program called "Spartacus", that can gain control of all webcast devices in a particular area. The students who created the program in the film say it was named for "the slave revolt."
- The player-controlled spaceship in the space simulation game Independence War: Defiance was dubbed the Spartacus, with a gladiator crudely emblazoned across its hull.
- The name of the character Sportacus in the children's television program LazyTown is a pun on Spartacus.
Further reading
- Appian. Civil Wars. Translated by J. Carter. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1996)
- Florus. Epitome of Roman History. (London: W. Heinemann, 1947)
- Orosius. The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. Translated by Roy J. Deferrari. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964).
- Plutarch. Fall of the Roman Republic. Translated by R. Warner. (London: Penguin Books, 1972).
- Sallust. Conspiracy of Catiline and the War of Jugurtha. (London: Constable, 1924)
External links
- Spartacus' Revolt - An article and excerpts from the original Roman sources.
- 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 Batesbg:Спартак
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