DD+War+&+Weaponry+Spartacus

Spartacus was a slave who lead a revolt against the Romans. His army consisted of around 100,000 slaves at its largest. They travelled the length of Italy twice and took on the might of the Roman empire.

Spartacus was born in an area of the Roman empire called Thrace. He was brought up as sheperd, protecting sheep from wolves and bears. He was recruited into the Roman army and served under the command of Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Life was hard in the Roman army, with harsh punishments and bad food. Spartacus soon decided to desert. Before he was captured in early 73 BC he got married to a woman who claimed she could see into the future, otherwise known as a 'prophetess'.

Spartacus and his wife were sold to a gladiator school owned by Lentulus Batiatus. During his time at the school Spartacus was taught how to compete in gladiatorial contests while his wife worked in the kitchens, preparing barley for the slaves' meals.

During his time at the gladiator school, Spartacus competed in an arena against gladiators from Pompeii. Spartacus and his fellow gladiators won the battle. Some of the gladiators who competed with Spartacus became good friends with him. They planned a breakout from the gladiator school that was to happen during breakfast in the days after the gladiatorial contest at Pompeii. Over 200 gladiators and other slaves from Batiatus' school took part in the breakout.

In the breakout from the gladiator school, Spartacus first distracted the mess hall guards, while the other gladiators knocked them out. When the mess hall guards had been overpowered, the gladiators grabbed weapons from the kitchen and used them to cut down the other guard blocking their exit from the school. Instead of running away from the school once they had escaped, they stayed around to defeat anyone who was sent after them. Only around 70 of the gladiators and other slaves made it out alive.

Once out, the gladiators escaped to Mount Vesuvius, a dormant volcano. They hid in the crater while the magistrate Claudius Glaber recruited 3,000 local Roman citizens to hunt down the slaves. Glaber was also given a Fasces a Roman symbol of power shaped like an axe. On the way to Mount Vesuvius, Spartacus, his fried Crixus and the other slaves vandalized many villas along the Roman countryside. Many slaves were freed from the houses of rich Romans.

Spartacus set up camp inside the crater of Mount Vesuvius, with Crixus continually travelling into the countryside to raid Roman villas for supplies and slaves. Many fights broke out between the increasingly larger amounts of escaped slaves and Spartacus was eventually voted as a leader, being one of the original planners of the gladiator school breakout. Spartacus' friends Crixus, Castus and Oenomaus were elected as his lieutenants.

When Claudius Glaber finally reached Spartacus' camp, he sent his troops up the mountainside to take the camp. This turned out to be a bad idea since the Romans who reached the top were already tired from climbing and were easily defeated by the gladiators at the crater's edge. Glaber eventually gave up this idea after an entire day of no success. Instead, Glaber tried to starve the gladiators out, setting up camp at the end of the only path out of the crater. With the hot sun beating down on them and no water to drink, some slaves sneaked down to the Roman camp and gave themselves up.

Spartacus soon came up with a plan to sneak out of the crater and attack the Roman troops. They first gathered all of the vines growing near the crater's edge and weaved them into ropes. They used the ropes to lower themselves down the mountainside on the far side of Glaber's camp. They then marched quietly around behind the camp and quickly took out the guards. Once the guards were out of the way they attacked and defeated the small Roman army.

When Glaber retreated he left behind his Fasces and dozens of Roman soldiers. The soldiers were made to clean up the scene of the battle. They then let them go to show that they were more civilized than the Romans. Since the slave army had now grown to 6,000, Crixus, Castus, and Oenomaus led a small army of slaves to raid nearby towns for food.

Word of Glaber's defeat soon reached Rome and three Roman generals, Varinius, Cossinius and Furius. It had been decided that Furius would track the slaves without engaging them in combat and keep Varinius informed of the slaves' movements. Varinius would then decide where and when to attack. The problem was that Furius was confident that his 2,000 strong army could take on the untrained band of slaves. Spartacus realized this and set a trap for Furius and his soldiers:
 * 1) Crixus took 100 men to the back of the army of slaves to protect the slaves that could only move slowly.
 * 2) The slow-movers and their guards would move as slowly and lag as far behind as possible.
 * 3) When Furius appeared to attack in a gully the slaves escaped through it, away from the Roman soldiers.
 * 4) Furius sped his soldiers up to catch the escaping slaves.
 * 5) The rest of the slaves in Spartacus' army (now nearly 10,000 strong) doubled back behind Furius' soldiers.
 * 6) The slaves attacked from both the front and the back of the Roman army, defeating Furius.

After Furius' defeat, Spartacus knew that Varinius would try to unite his and Cossinius' armies. To get the best chance of success he divided the slaves into two groups to defeat the two different armies.

Spartacus sent out spies to keep track of the two Roman commanders. He soon recieved word that Cossinus had moved his soldiers north to Campania (an Italian area of the Roman empire) to stop Spartacus from moving his army north. While Cossinius was visiting the famous baths in the area Spartacus led a small band of slaves to get rid of him. Cossinius managed to escaped to his camp where he was killed along with most of his army.

Out of the three commanders, the only general left was Varinius, with his army of 2,000 soldiers. He set up camp close to Spartacus to track his movements. Spartacus thought of another cunning plan to deal with Varinius and his troops: During the battle, Spartacus captured Varinius' white horse and another Fasces.
 * 1) He took corpses and clothed and armed them.
 * 2) He tied the corpses to stakes around the camp and left a fire burning to make it look like the camp was still occupied.
 * 3) The slave army snuck away from the camp during the night.
 * 4) In the morning when Varinius discovered that the slave camp was deserted he followed the slaves into the country.
 * 5) Spartacus defeated Varinius in a fast series of battles where Varinius barely escaped capture.

After Varinius' defeat, and with winter becoming ever closer, Spartacus knew that Rome wouldn't send any more soldiers after him. He travelled through southern Italy, gathering more and more slaves until his army numbered almost 100,000. Many cities the slave army passed were ravaged by Crixus and the slaves that followed him. This was bad for the slave army since they needed a place to stay for the winter. Spartacus eventually reached the city of Thurii and persuaded the town officials to supply the slave army during winter.

Fights became more frequent in Spartacus' army of slaves (now called the Free Slave Army) and eventually Spartacus issued an order that no gold was to be looted from any Roman towns. Instead of gold, Spartacus decided that the Free Slave Army needed lots of iron to create weapons and armour. This didn't go well with Crixus who decided to round up his followers (20-30,000 of them) and separated from the rest of the Free Slave Army. He set up a small camp next to the Free Slave Army. Near the end of winter, Spartacus recieved news that the two new Consuls (leaders of Rome), Lucius Gellius and Lentulus Clodianus, had been sent after him. The people of Thurii were anxious for Spartacus to move his army away from their town since they would get into trouble if the Roman senate found out they were harbouring the Free Slave Army. Spartacus moved the army north to make sure it wasn't trapped between four 4,000 man strong Roman legions and the Mediterranean sea.

The now highly trained slaves in the Free Slave Army were split into six groups. There were the slaves from Gaul, Spartacus' Thracian guard, the cavalry, the latest arrivals to the Free Slave army (who helped carry the baggage equipment), one group with a mixture of various slaves and Roman citizens and finally the slaves who were too old or young to fight.

Crixus and his army of around 30,000 slaves had taken a very different route to Spartacus, moving around southern Italy looting and vandalising Roman towns. He and his men soon became surrounded by Gellius and his troops on Mount Garganus. The Romans attack plan would only work if the two slave armies didn't join up, so Gellius waited until Spartacus was as far away as possible before attacking Crixus. When Gellius' soldiers attacked most of the slaves were either drunk or asleep. Crixus organised his men and attacked but he was already fighting a losing battle. He sent a message to Spartacus asking for help.

Meanwhile, Spartacus was already facing Clodianus in battle. Clodianus' Roman legions were overwhelmed by the well-trained slaves and the soldiers retreated, suffering heavy casualties. Spartacus met Gellius' troops as he marched south. Gellius had hoped to sneak up on the Free Slave Army while they were battling Clodianus' forces. Already weakened by Crixus' slaves, Gellius was soon defeated by Spartacus.

When Spartacus arrived at Crixus' camp, he found that 20,000 of Crixus' army, including Crixus himself had been killed. In honour of his dead friend, Spartacus organized a gladiatorial contest between 600 captured Roman soldiers.

Even though many Roman citizens were afraid that Spartacus would take on Rome itself, Spartacus knew that his army wasn't strong enought to take on the full might of Rome. What he really wanted to do was to move his army north through the Alps and let the slaves go back to their homelands. The slaves soon arrived in Cisapline Gaul (one of Rome's north Italian provinces). They soon ran into the troops guarding northern Italy from barbarians. Spartacus easily defeated these forces and there were finally no obstacles between the Free Slave Army and the Alps.

While Spartacus and his army was resting in Cilsapline Gaul, Rome had elected a 'dictator' for this emergency situation. Dictators were elected when the senate couldn't deal with a crisis that had arisen. With Rome's two best generals, Pompey the Great and Lucius Licinius Lucullus, fighting in Spain and Turkey, the only man who could rise to the occasion was Marcus Licinius Crassus.

When Spartacus heard about Crassus being appointed dictator, he tried to motivate his soldiers to get them across the alps. The problem was that many of Spartacus' men were either poor Romans or slaves that had been born in Italy. Most of the slaves were pigging out on the rich food looted from the region.

Spartacus decided that the Free Slave Army's best option, was to free the slaves in Sicily (an island south of italy). Rome depended on the corn and wheat grown and harvested by the Sicilian slaves. Once all the Sicilian slaves had been freed, Rome would fall from starvation.

Unfortunately, Spartacus' plan didn't go as well as he'd hoped. The Free Slave Army needed proper boats to cross the Strait of Messina. Spartacus offered the lots of gold and valuables to Heracleo the pirate king in exchange for 1000 good quality ships. To help fill this quota, Spartacus ordered the Free Slave army to collect lots of gold whenever they raided a Roman town. After no response from the pirates it was found that Heracleo was friends with the Sicilian governor and now he knew all about Spartacus' planned attack. While Spartacus had been trading with the pirates in southern Italy, Crassus had built a 35 mile long wall across southern Italy. It was covered in spikes and also consisted of a wide trench in front of the wall. Spartacus tried negotiating with Crassus but he refused. Spartacus was forced to brake through the wall by filling in the trench with various objects and attacking a weakpoint of the wall revealed by a captured Roman soldier.

Many slaves were killed in the breakthrough of the wall. The Gaulish slaves (led by Gannicus and Castus) formed a seperate group as the Free Slave Army split again. The remaining 60,000 slaves set out for the port of Brundism to capture some ships and use them to sail north.

Crassus set up a sneak attack on the Free Slave Army. He split his army into two groups. The first group of about 6,000 soldiers, hid on a nearby hillside behind some bushes and plants. The rest of his army would attack the slaves. The hidden 6,000 troops would jump out and slaughter the Free Slave Army from behind. The plan failed because two women from the Free Slave Army spotted Crassus' soldiers hiding. They ran to tell Spartacus who attacked the soldiers when they were least expecting it. Even though all of the 6,000 hidden soldiers had been killed, Crassus still ordered his men to attack the Free Slave Army. Over 12,000 slaves were killed, but bothe Crassus and Spartacus eventually withdrew since their armies were becoming tired.

There was soon some more bad news for Spartacus. Rome had called Pompey and Lucullus back to Italy to defeat the Free Slave Army. Lucullus had landed his army at Brundism, which meant that Spartacus couldn't reach the port without running into Lucullus' troops.

Two of Crassus' deputies, Scrofa and Quintus, raided the slave camp. They were met with the full might of the Free Slave Army and Scrofa only just managed to escape. This defeat caused the Free Slave Army to become overconfident, as though they'd just defeated Crassus himself.

With Romans closing in on all sides, and the Free Slave army not recruiting any more new slaves, the stage was set for the Free Slave Army's final battle. They chose to take on Crassus rather than Lucullus or Pompey since Crassus' forces were already weakened and it would force Pompey back to Rome to defend the city. This was good for Crassus because it gave him a chance to defeat the Free Slave Army and recieve all the credit before Pompey's army reached him. Both forces camped on the Silarus river.

After an invigorating speech by Spartacus, the Free Slave Army charged the Roman lines. The Romans held and the slaves couldn't break through. Spartacus was killed during the battle and went down fighting. The Free Slave Army was eventually defeated by Crassus' soldiers. The slaves who didn't die in the battle ran away and ran straight into Pompey. He captured the slaves and told Rome that he had finally crushed Spartacus' rebellion.

Instead of letting the 6,000 remaining slaves live, Crassus crucified them all on wooden crosses on the road from Capua, the scene of the original gladiator breakout, to disencourage any other slave rebellions. The Romans also recovered five fasces, five Roman eagles (carried by Roman legions), 26 battle standards (carried by Roman battalions) and 3,000 Roman citizens.

The story of Spartacus has been made into both a movie and a ballet.

Recently, many countries in northern Africa, such as Libya, Egypt and Tunisa have rebelled against their leaders. These rebellions started in Tunisa and were copied by other countries. All these countries were ruled by a dictator who was cruel and refused to relinquish his power. The Egyptians managed to get rid of their president, Hosni Mubarak, but the Libyans are still trying to kick out Muammar Gaddafi. It was a long, hard struggle for the people of Egypt, but unlike Spartacus, the Egyptians defeated their dictator.

Home