One can tolerate, indeed, even the disgrace of a war against slaves; for although, by force of circumstances, they are liable to any kind of treatment, yet they form as it were a class (though an inferior class) of human beings and can be admitted to the blessings of liberty which we enjoy. But I know not what name to give to the war which was stirred up at the instigation of Spartacus; for the common soldiers being slaves and their leaders being gladiators — the former men of the humblest, the latter men of the worst, class — added insult to the injury which they inflicted upon Rome.

Florus, Epitome of Roman History on the Spartacus War

“Although he was an innocent man, Spartacus was sentenced to the arena” Marcus

Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE)

We know that Spartacus forbid his followers to bring gold or silver into his camp – back then even our runaway slaves were more noble!

Pliny the Elder, Natural History

The war with Spartacus (= Third Servile War: 73-71 BCE)

Our major sources:Plutarch (c. 40-120s CE)Appian (c. 90-160 CE)Florus (c.100-150 CE)

Also mentioned by: Cicero, Varro, Julius Caesar; Horace; Frontinus

Slave army leaders:

Leaders: Spartacus, Crixus, Oenomaus, Gannicus and Castus

Thrace

(Capuan amphitheatre (this dates to the period of Augustus, so is later than that of Spartacus, but is on the same site and retains some features of the older amphitheatre)

Gladiator cells in Pompeii

Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus breaking out of the ludus of Lentulus escaped from Capua with not more than thirty other gladiators, and, having called the slaves to their standard and collected a force of more than 10,000 were not content with merely having escaped but were eager to take vengeance on their masters Florus

At the same time Spartacus, a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold to become a gladiator and was in the gladiatorial training-school at Capua, persuaded about seventy of his comrades to fight for their own freedom rather than for the amusement of spectators. They overcame the guards and ran away, arming themselves with clubs and daggers that they took from people on the roads and took refuge on Mount Vesuvius. .

Appian, Civil Wars

A man called Lentulus Batiates trained a large number of gladiators in Capua, most of them Gauls and Thracians, who were kept imprisoned for this object of fighting one with another, not for any fault they had committed, but simply because of the cruelty of their masters. Two hundred of these formed a plan to escape, but when their plan was discovered, seventy-eight men who became aware of the discovery in time to anticipate their master got chopping knives and spits from a kitchen and made their way through the city; encountering several wagons that were carrying gladiators' arms to another city, they seized these and armed themselves. Plutarch, Crassus

Opening phase of the war from the initial breakout from Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Vatia/Batiatus’s ludus

Mt. Vesuvius

Stage 1: Vesuvius vs. Gaius Claudius Glaber

The first theatre for action that attracted them was Mount Vesuvius where, being besieged by Clodius Glaber, they slid down a passage in the hollow part of the mountain by means of ropes made of vine branches, and reached its very bottom; when, bursting out from an apparently impossible outlet they captured the camp of the Roman general, who expected no assault, by a sudden attack . Florus

They overcame the guards and ran away, arming themselves with clubs and daggers that they took from people on the roads and took refuge on Mount Vesuvius. There many fugitive slaves and even some freemen from the fields joined Spartacus and he plundered the neighbouring country, having Oenomaus and Crixus, both gladiators, as his lieutenants. As he divided the plunder impartially he soon had plenty of men. Varinius Faber was first sent against him and afterward Publius Valerius - these did not have regular armies, but forces gathered quickly and at random, for the Romans did not consider this a war as yet, but a raid, something like an outbreak of robbery.

Appian

21 The same Spartacus, when besieged on the slopes of Vesuvius at the point where the mountain was steepest and because of that, unguarded, plaited ropes of willows from the woods. Letting himself down by these, he not only made his escape, but by appearing in another area struck such terror into Clodius that several cohorts gave way before a force of only seventy-four gladiators.

Frontinus, Strategems (c.35-103/4 CE)

Stage II: movement from Vesuvius

Second set of Roman defeats

The praetor Publius Varinius was now sent against them; they fought and routed his lieutenant, Furius, and his two thousand soldiers. Then Cossinius was sent with considerable forces to give his assistance and advice, Spartacus barely missed capturing him in person as he was bathing at Salinae and Cossinius made his escape with great difficulty while Spartacus captured his baggage. Following the pursuit with a great slaughter, Spartacus stormed and captured his camp and Cossinius himself was killed in the camp. After many successful skirmishes with the praetor himself, in one of which he took the praetor’s lictors and horse, he began to be great and terrible; Lucius Cossinius was another praetor; we know nothing else about him. Plutarch, Life of Crassus

This Spartacus, when surrounded by the troops of the proconsul Publius Varinius, placed stakes at short intervals before the gate of the camp; then setting up corpses, dressed in clothes and furnished with weapons, he tied these to the stakes to give the appearance of sentries when viewed from a distance. He also lit fires throughout the whole camp. Deceiving the enemy with this empty show, Spartacus silently led out his troops during the night.

Frontinus, Stratagems

Turning runaway slaves and shepherds into an army:

And that nothing proper might be forgotten for fitting out their army, they got a cavalry by breaking in the herds of horses that they encountered and gave their leader the ensigns and fasces that they took from the praetors. Nor did he, who had gone from being a mercenary Thracian to a Roman soldier, from a soldier to a deserter and robber, and afterwards, because of his strength, a gladiator, refuse to receive them. He afterwards, indeed, celebrated the funerals of his own officers who died in battle with the ceremonies used for Roman generals, and obliged the prisoners to fight with arms at their funeral pyres, just as if he could atone for all past dishonour by becoming from a gladiator an exhibitor of shows of gladiators.

Florus

72 BCE and the defeat of the consular armies

L. Gellius Publicola

Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus

+ exconsul G. Cassius Longinus

117. Rome now sent out the consuls with two legions each. One of them defeated Crixus and his 30,000 men near Mount Garganus; two-thirds of his men died with him. Spartacus tried to make his way through the Apennines to the Alps and Gaul, but one of the consuls anticipated him and hindered his march while the other hung upon his rear. He turned upon them one after the other and beat them in detail. They retreated in confusion in different directions.

Appian, Civil Wars

Spartacus War movement according to Plutarch

Spartacus War movement according to Appian

Marcus Licinius Crassus

c.114-53 BCE

When he arrived at his destination he received also the two legions of the consuls whom he decimated by lot for their bad conduct in several battles. Some say that Crassus, too, having engaged in battle with his whole army, and having been defeated, decimated the whole army and was not deterred by their numbers, but destroyed about 4,000 of them. However it happened, he demonstrated to them that he was more dangerous to them than the enemy. Presently he overcame 10,000 of the Spartacans, who were camped somewhere apart from the main army, and killed two-thirds of them. He then marched boldly against Spartacus himself, defeated him in a brilliant battle, and pursued his fleeing forces to the sea, where they tried to get to Sicily. He overtook them and enclosed them with a line of circumvallation consisting of ditch, wall, and paling.

Appian on Crassus’ decimation

When Marcus Crassus had constructed a ditch around the forces of Spartacus, the latter at night filled it with the bodies of prisoners and cattle that he had slain, and thus marched across it

Frontinus, Stratagems