Kirk Douglas
He WAS Spartacus.

In Velario Argenteo
(Magno et Parvo)

It was in 1960 that a new generation learned who was Spartacus, the gladiator who rose in rebellion against Rome. This was when they saw the movie starring Kirk Douglas. Spartacus, we saw, led an army dedicated to wiping out the corrupt institution of slavery which was eating at the heart of the most refined empire and culture in history. For many, if Kirk wasn't really Spartacus, he was close enough.

Later generations learned about the Great Liberator through a number of television movies, not to mention the miniseries and a three season television program, both of which were broadcast after the Millennium. Spartacus even shows up in an animated cartoon, for crying out loud!

But the cinematic Spartacus has been popular as long as they've been making movies. The first film was released in 1909 and this was followed by a second in 1913. Both pictures were produced in Italy and were based on Raffaello Giovagnoli's novel, Spartaco. In 1926 the Soviet Union got into the act when it released Спартак¹ (Spartak).

It wasn't until 1953 that Spartacus shows up again in Sins of Rome and in 1965 in Challenge of the Gladiator. These were Italian swords-and-sandals movies which when dubbed in English made particularly popular entertainment for mid-20th century English speaking kids.

And of course there's the ballet. Yes, Спартак was a ballet written by the famous Russian composer Aram Khachaturian in 1954. Spartacus was a long time hero for the Soviet Union, and the ballet remains popular in Russia to this day.

With the rise of cable there were some actual documentaries about Spartacus for our viewing pleasure. These presentations tended to be less cavalier with the facts than other films and televisions productions. But as educational television increasingly became an oxymoron, the exposure of these programs to the public declined along with increasing obsolescence of the DVD.

But it's a good bet that none of the Boomers or Millennials learned about what is properly called the Third Servile War by reading those non-electronic devices with white flappy things in the middle². Of course, we saw there were fictionalizations going back to the 19th century well before the famous eponymous 1951 novel by Howard Fast. There's also been various "romance" or "costume" variants that crop up from time to time. But we're talking about actual primary historical source material.

There were a number of Roman historians who wrote down what actually happened in the Roman Empire. Or rather they wrote down what they thought happened after they read even earlier and now lost sources.

A surprise to history fans is there aren't that many - quote - "scholarly publications" - unquote - about Spartacus and his revolt based on these sources. But then it's not easy to write a 300 page book when all the known facts can be distilled into a few paragraphs.

The Third Time: (Not) The Charm

Well, if there was a Third Servile War, then there must have been a Second and a First Servile War. There were indeed.

As the name suggests, the Servile Wars were slave rebellions in Ancient Rome. The First was in 135 BCE when the slaves in Sicily got tired of being forced to work to the point of death. Under the leadership of two slaves, one was Eunus (who actually had a rather cushy job for a slave) and the other was Cleon (who did the actual fighting), the rebels plundered Sicilian towns and country estates. In 132 BCE they were defeated by the Roman generals Publius Rupilius and Lucius Calpurnius Piso³.

The Second Servile War broke out in 104 BCE. It also originated in Sicily where the governor, Publius Licinius Nerva, for reasons we won't dwell on, freed a large number of slaves. But after the rich farmers complained, Publius had second thoughts and re-enslaved the recently manumitted liberti. These former-but-now-slaves-again were understandably miffed and rose up in revolt. After the usual interval of devastation of various towns and estates, the rebellion was finally quashed in 100 BCE.

The Third Servile War was the one with Spartacus. What made this rebellion interesting was the type of slaves who led it. They were not the impoverished downtrodden servi. Instead they were the Roman equivalent of rock stars.

Famous Infamia

You see, these "slaves" (note quotes) were gladiators who were housed at the training school at Capua about 20 miles north and east of Naples. Naples and Capua are in the province of Campania which not only has a nice climate but was where rich guys liked to set up their massive farms and villas. It's also the area where many scholars believe gladiatorial games actually began.

You would think there wouldn't be any need to explain why men who were forced to fight to the death wanted to get away. But the truth is there are many reasons why they might have been perfectly content with their lot and wanted to stay put. To sort out the real reasons why the gladiators wanted out, a rehearsal of some misconceptions about gladiators and the "games" (ludi) is worth the slight digression.

Like rock stars of today, Roman gladiators were both idolized and deplored. Officially they were members of the class of people known as infamia. In Rome the infamia were people who had no protection accorded to Roman citizens. A number of professions were made up of infamia including actors. Such professions often were made up of slaves.

But gladiators, infamia or not, were hunks and they were athletic and brave. So they were the heart throbs of the girls (and the ladies) and the idols of Roman boys who imagined themselves becoming gladiators.

Officially this adulation was at the disapproval of proper parents⁴. There is an ancient Roman joke about how a kid was playing at being a gladiator with a helmet and sword when he heard his dad come in. Knowing his parents wouldn't approve of such behavior, he quickly hid the equipment and pulled out a book and started to read. But his dad came in and saw his son had forgotten to take the helmet off.

No, we didn't think it was very funny either.

The big surprise is that not all gladiators were slaves but some were free born men who had volunteered. Some were even well-to-do Roman citizens who became gladiators because they liked the excitement, craved the adulation of the public, and - last but not least - sought the attention of the ladies who kind of liked the "bad boy" image.

And there was, of course, the money.

Yes, gladiators were paid. The cash was usually taken as a percentage of the bets. Rubbish gladiators didn't get much but a star gladiator could retire as a wealthy man.

If he⁵ got that far. The lure of the fame, the babes, and the cash should not minimize that being a gladiator was not a cushy job. When you were taken into the training school, whether as a slave or a volunteer, you swore a sacramentum, an oath:

Uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari.

... which means ...

(I will endure) to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword (lit. "iron").

By swearing an oath, the gladiators were accepting a moral obligation to accept whatever it took to make them a swordsman, which is what the word "gladiator" actually means (from gladius, the short Roman military sword). If they broke various rules ("No talking in the kitchen, slave!"), they could - as the oath implies - be beaten, branded, and chained in their cells. The regimens were so strict that some gladiators committed suicide.

But at Capua, the big beef was not that the gladiators were being beaten, branded, or killed by the sword. It certainly wasn't that they had a high moral platform against the institution of slavery. No, their gripe was they weren't given enough time off to enjoy the fame, the babes, and the cash.

The owner of the gladiatorial school was a man known to us only as Lentulus Batiatus. Attempts to supply the additional mandatory names de rigueur of good Roman citizens are scholarly speculation. But from the first name we surmise he was of the patrician class. Lentulus was not only the owner of the school but also the lanista.

According to the Latin dictionaries, a lanista was the manager of a group of gladiators. He was the gentleman who picked out the gladiators, organized their training schedules, and arranged the matches. But if Lentulus was the lanista and owner both, then he may have had a less than savory reputation among the elite Romans.

You see, it was fine for a Roman gentleman to own a business. But no uppercrust homo nobilis would ever lower himself by having a (ptui) "job" - certainly not one of training or managing gladiators⁶. Not if he was a patrician.

Instead, the proper arrangement was for the owner to delegate the actual operations to someone else. Rich businessmen would normally work through a middle man. Sometimes the manager would even be a slave - one of the infamia.

It's pretty much a given that Lentulus would work with some middlemen. On the other hand, you get the distinct feeling that in him we have the rare combination of an upper crust Roman patrician who didn't mind soiling his hands with real work.

Lentulus may have had a middleman.

But to what extant Lentulus did the work himself or not, we do know one thing. He wasn't nice to his gladiators.

Lentulus kept his gladiators in "close confinement". That means he kept them in their cells when they weren't training or fighting in the arena. But we also read that their confinement was through "no fault of their own".

So in this case the depiction in the movie hits the mark pretty well. When Kirk and his fellow gladiators aren't getting trained or eating their meals, they're kept in their cells.

But hold on! you ask. Just what else are you going to do with gladiators? Let 'em run around the town on their own?

Well, yes, that's exactly what you would do. Reasons for keeping a gladiator in lockdown were similar to modern incarceratory practices. That is, lockdown was employed for some "fault" - breaking the rules and such - or when there was need for security (like bringing in a new bunch).

The living quarters in the schools may have been small cells but there were gladiators who were allowed to go around the town in their spare time. Some even had families and lived with them in normal houses or apartments. As we pointed out successful gladiators could become quite wealthy, and you couldn't expect millionaires, even if they were slaves, to return to a dungeon each night.

So the cause of one of the most famous slave revolts in history is that they weren't given the Roman equivalent of coffee breaks.

Who Was Spartacus?

Spartacus was from Thrace. That is, he was born in the region that falls across the western top of modern Greece, into Bulgaria, and leaning east into Turkey to contain the city of Istanbul. His native language would have been Greek and we learn that he was more Greek than Thracian.

Thrace, Greece, and Italy

Rather than weary the reader with qualifying phrases ad infinitum, we will mention that the source material of the Spartacus Rebellion (as we'll call it) is often contradictory and vague. Sometimes the ancient writers don't even get the names right. But we'll pick out what seems to make the most sense. For those interested, the source material is readily available online and for free.

Exactly when and where Spartacus fought the various battles are not known and Spartacus's early life is a complete mystery. In fact, some writers have suggested Spartacus being from Thrace isn't to be taken literally. Instead he may have been trained a Thraex, that is, a gladiator who was only dressed up as a Thracian for show and fought with Thracian weapons. Romans costumed their gladiators as if they were enemies of Rome. That way no one cared if they lost the fight.

But before he became a gladiator Spartacus had been a soldier allied with the Romans. Yes, Spartacus was fighting with the Romans. He and his group had been fighting alongside the Roman general and not very nice man, Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sulla had led the Romans during what historians call the Social Wars.

The Social Wars were when certain Italian allies of Rome, the Socii, rebelled against Rome. Rome had told other Italian cities that if they supplied soldiers for their never ending wars then everyone would get full Roman citizenship. But the Romans changed their minds and when the allies took exception to Rome's reversal, the Roman Senate sent in Sulla. And as we said, Spartacus ran off.

The Romans called such absconders latrones. The basic meaning of latro was "thief" but it can also be variously translated as "mercenary" (a soldier hired by a government to fight in a war), a "brigand" or "highwayman", (a bandit who lives in the countryside and preys on travelers), or more recently, a pawn - that is, the chess piece.

No one knows the specifics of why Spartacus ran away. He may have been irritated that Sulla treated his non-Roman allies like dirt. Or it may have been because he had committed some infraction and was slated for punishment. A third reason which is not exclusive of the others is that he decided to join a rebel army led by the Thracian leader Mithridates. Mithridates had been fighting against Rome in Thrace which as we said was where most people think Spartacus came from.

But Spartacus was captured and sold as a slave. With his robust physique and military experience it's no surprise that he came to the attention of Lentulus.

If the sources are to believed Lentulus made a big mistake by stocking his school mostly with Thracians and Gauls. Gaul is often equated with France and today we sometimes use the word "Gallic" when referring to French culture.

Gaul and Thrace
(and Italy and Greece)

But historically Gallia was the region of Western Europe north of Spain (the Pyrenees) and Italy (the Alps) and west of the Rhine River in Germany. It encompassed the modern countries not just of France and the western part of Germany but also Switzerland, part of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

There was also part of Gaul that was considered a separate province and was the part of modern Italy north of the Po River and south of the Alps. This was Gallia Cisalpina ("Gaul This Side of the Alps"). The main part of Gaul was dubbed Gallia Transalpina ("Gaul Across the Alps").

Both Gaul and Thrace had been conquered by Rome and their inhabitants did not take the occupation in good grace. Furthermore, having little diversity in the school meant that large groups of men could develop a sense of solidarity.

Most people have gotten the idea that Spartacus was the leader of the revolt. Actually there seems to have been a trio of gladiators in charge: Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus. Both Crixus and Oenomaus were from Gaul. Spartacus was a big cheese, yes, but it seems he did not have complete military authority as we usually think of it.

Our main source for the Spartacus War is The Life of Crassus by Plutarch. Written in Greek, the story is from Plutarch's Parallel Lives (Βίοι Παράλληλοι) which is a multivolume encyclopedia where each biography of a famous Roman is paired with that of a famous Greek. Crassus is compared to Nicias, whoever he was.

Plutarch doesn't mention Crixus and Oenomaus by name (neither of which we must point out is a Celtic name). The names are from The Epitome of Roman History by Lucius Annaeus Florus and The Civil Wars by Appianus Alexandrinus (Αππιανός Αλεξανδρεύς, who is better known as Appian). So you have to sift through the various accounts to determine just what Crixus and Oenomaus did.

The revolt started in 73 BCE. And yes, the breakout began in the kitchen but Spartacus did not drown the trainer in a vat of gravy. Instead in the kitchen there were implements that could serve as weapons. Even today meal times in prisons are considered tense and even dangerous situations.

All in all between 70 and 80 gladiators grabbed meat cleavers (κοπίς, a sharp curved knife) and roasting spits (ὀβελίσκος, skewer) and fought their way out. Once outside they commandeered a wagon that was bringing in extra gladiators' weapons. Then the men "sallied" out into the countryside.

Anyone who saw the movie remembers that Kirk meets Varinia (Jean Simmons) at the school when she was "provided" for him. But according to Plutarch, Spartacus was already married when he was sold in Rome and his wife - whose name we don't know - was with him. She was also a priestess of Dionysius, the god of wine whose worship was permitted only to women, foreigners, and yes, slaves. At one point as Spartacus was sleeping, his wife saw a snake had snuggled up on his face. She prophesied this meant her husband was meant to do great things. After the breakout she escaped with the others as probably did wives of other gladiators.

Moving on along the road, the band came across another wagon carrying supplies for the army. Naturally the loot included more weapons. Each man was now as well armed as any Roman soldier and were even more experienced in hand-to-hand combat.

So what to do now?

The best idea was to head north and move into Gaul. That way the Gauls could get home and Spartacus and his friends could head east and get back to Thrace. True, that would mean crossing the Alps, but if Hannibal could do it with some elephants, it should be a snap for well trained athletes. But instead the men went south and took refuge on a mountain which most historians, not wanting to argue with Appian and Florus, identify as Vesuvius.

That's certainly possible. During Spartacus's time the mountain was about 4000 feet tall with a flat summit quite suitable for a hosting a growing army.

On the other hand, Vesuvius doesn't quite fit with the picture of the unnamed "hill" (ὄρος)) described by Plutarch which had a summit accessible only by one route. Although maybe not a place for a casual stroll, the ways up and down Vesuvius don't offer major obstacles to experienced trekkers.

As soon as word got out about the escape, a detachment of soldiers stationed in Capua gave chase. But the gladiators did a volte face and bested the Romans on the road. Naturally they took the extra weapons.

We see that the escaped gladiators were a formidable force. But the Roman Senate still pooh-poohed the idea that there was a problem. A bunch of slaves fighting Roman soldiers? Ridiculum! Absurdum! They saw the whole brouhaha more as a jailbreak than a revolt or civil war. They didn't even bother calling on the experienced legions.

Instead they asked the general Gaius Claudius Glaber (called "Clodius" or Klodion - Κλωδίου - by Plutarch) to take care of the matter. But they didn't want him to spend too much. So Glaber recruited three thousand of any Tomus, Dickus, and Harrius that he could find. Glaber and his men headed toward Campania where they found the gladiators camping out on whatever mountain it was.

With only a narrow path to the top, Glaber decided that an open battle wasn't needed and that a simple siege would do quite fine, thank you. He set up a camp by the path. No doubt smiling behind his hand he waited for the slaves to come down and beg for peace.

But Spartacus and the rest simply made rope ladders out of vines. Then they climbed down the slopes on the other side.

So they slipped away, right?

Weeeeeeheeeeelllll, not quite. Instead, they snuck around and attacked the Romans from the rear. That's the last we hear of Glauber and his impromptu army.

Spartcus now had even more weapons, supplies, and transport at his disposal. Other slaves began joining him. Since about 30% of the Roman population was slaves, fresh recruitment was no problem.

It wasn't just slaves who joined him. Appian tells us that some of Spartacus's followers were free men and he picked up herdsmen and shepherds (βοτήρ and ποιμήν). Yes, these men could also have been slaves, but "sturdy" men who were also free could serve well as spies and scouts.

Part of Spartacus's secret to getting so many followers is that he divided the loot evenly. There was no gradation based on rank. It was his share-and-share alike philosophy that made Spartacus such a favorite of the Soviet Union whose leaders did everything except share and share alike.

Even though Glaber had failed to report for duty (and so was written down as a casualty), the Senate still didn't think the rebellion was too much of a deal. So they just handed the job over to another general, Publius Varinius (who Appian called Valerius).

Publius decided to be tricky. He'd divide his forces and come at Spartacus from two directions. He sent two officers, Lucius Furius and Lucius Cossinius, to handle the matter. Furius attacked with 2000 men and was stomped.

Cossinius had twice that number and figured he'd have no problem. But he didn't get a chance. As he was taking a leisurely bath at the salt spa at Salinae (Σαλίνας, possibly near Herculaneum at the foot of Vesuvius) Spartacus attacked. Although Cossinius managed to get away - it's terrible getting caught in the tub - his respite was temporary. He ended up getting whupped.

In the end, neither Furius nor Cossinius lived to fight another day. Plutarch tells us that after the battles Spartacus took the Romans' "baggage" - and presumably their weapons, food, and anything else worth taking. Spartacus got Cossinius's horse.

Well, if you want something done right you've got to do it yourself. So Publius himself followed Spartacus into Lucania. This is a region in the south central part of Italy with a coast on the Gulf of Tarentum. That's the body of water formed by the hollow of the bottom of the "boot" of the Italian peninsula.

Lucania and the Gulf of Tarentum

One of the problems is everyone, including Publius, thought that Spartacus and his buddies were still just a rag-tag group of latrones. The truth is they were a massive well-armed and well-trained army numbering in the tens of thousands. Publius was never able to defeat Spartacus although there were a number of battles.

Some sources say that at this point there was dissension in the ranks. Spartacus still wanted to go north and cross the Alps and get back to Thrace. Oenomaus seems to have disappeared - possibly killed - but Crixus was "full of confidence". He wanted to keep with the easy pickins that were in the south of Italy. Most of the other gladiators sided with Crixus and they "ravaged" (πορθέω) the country.

From this description it looks like Spartacus was far from being the real leader and in fact had difficulty controlling his men. On the other hand, some historians think that the divide in command may have actually been strategic. A single large army plundering localized areas would be hard to sustain. But if the forces were divided there would be more to go around.

Spartacus and Crixus

In any case Crixus headed toward the Adriatic Sea with 30,000 men. He made it to the small spur about ⅓ way up the east coast at Mount Garganus (the modern Mount Gargano). There he ended up fighting the general Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. Crixus came up the loser.

Spartacus headed back north according to his original plan. There he ran into the army of Gaius Cassius Longinus - not the famous Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar but the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, the region of Italy north of the Po River but south of the Alps. Florus says that Spartacus got as far as Mutina (modern Modena) which is only about 30 miles south of the Po River. Spartacus won the fight and Cassius barely escaped.

Spartacus and Cassius

Crassus Steps In

Finally it dawned on the Senate that they really had to do something. But how do you beat someone who has consistently thrashed everyone you sent? What kind of officer do you choose? The man with military experience? One skilled in strategic thinking? Even a professional soldier?

Nope, you go to the man with the money. The Senate asked the richest man in Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, to take over. Marcus, among other things, was the guy who had been bankrolling a young Julius Caesar who was moving his way up the political ladder

One thing that's worth a passing comment is that here it was a plebeian, a member of the - quote - lower orders - unquote - that had more money than a patrician. From his middle name, Licinius, we know that Marcus was the plebeian and Julius, of the Julian family, was the patrician

Crassus's wealth was gained in a number of ways, one of which was to wait until one of the many fires in Rome broke out. Then he'd send in a group of his slaves to quench the flames - but only if the owner would sell the property to him at a cut-rate price.

More and more slaves had been joining Spartacus's rebellion and the numbers soon reached 70,000. Since Cassius had been beaten near Mutina, Crassus more or less knew where to look. So he headed north toward the borders of Piceneum which was a region which was across the Italian peninsula and northeast of Rome.

Spartacus and Mummius

Crassus ordered one of his officers - we only know him as Mummius - to keep tabs on Spartacus. But he was not to actually engage in active battle or even begin a skirmish.

Mummius, though, decided to ignore the orders and attacked Spartacus. And yes, Mummius was beaten and many of the men survived only by throwing down their weapons and high-tailing it out of there. They all made their way back to Crassus.

Crassus was not pleased. He, we read, received Mummius "roughly" (ἐδέξατο τραχέως), and then he took the 500 men who had been the first to run away and divided them into groups of ten.

Each man drew a lot, and the soldier with the short end of the stick was beaten to death by the nine others. This was the traditional - although by then largely abandoned - punishment for cowardice. Called decimation, the process made an impression on the men. It was better to die in battle against Spartacus than be pummeled like potatoes by your army buddies.

For his part Spartacus decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Winter would be coming on and crossing the Alps was no longer an option. So he headed south.

On the way Spartacus stopped by his old stomping grounds of Campania. He destroyed the cities of Nuceria (Nocera south of Naples), Nola (close to Nuceria) and then moved south through Lucania pillaging the cities of Metapontum (modern Metaponto at the Gulf of Tarentum), and on to Thurii (down the coast a bit from Metapontum toward the Peninsula of Rhegium which is the "toe" - metatarsal, actually - of Italy. He finally reached the Straits of Messina only two miles across from Sicily where he found some pirates taking their ease.

Away Down South
(Click to Zoom In and Out.)

Now Spartacus had a great idea. Sicily was where the first two Servile Wars began and Spartacus figured the slaves there would willingly join in another. So why not cross the straits and get the whole island on his side? No Roman army could beat him then. So he made a deal with the pirates to ferry them across.

Unfortunately, pirates aren't the most reliable business partners. After they got their advance payment, they politely tipped their hats, got on their ships, and sailed away.

So now Spartacus had no ships to get to Sicily and Crassus was still in the area. Worse, as they moved back north, Spartacus found Crassus had made his men dig a ditch fifteen feet across and fifteen deep completely across Rhegium peninsula. It was 300 "stadia" long - about 35 miles - quite literally from sea to shining sea. From the dirt of the ditch, Crassus had the men build a wall for good measure. Spartacus was now hemmed in.

The Ditch (Maybe)

A little common sense casts some doubt on whether this undertaking really happened. If the ditch was 35 miles long, fifteen feet deep and fifteen feet wide, that means the army would have had to dig out a million and a half cubic yards of dirt. That's nearly 20 million tons of dirt. If he had 5000 engineers, then you're talking about each man having to heft 4000 tons apiece.

In fact, archeology does not support a trench across Rhegium. But there are trenches here and there as if some forts or camps had been constructed. That's more in line with what Crassus would order to keep Spartacus hemmed in.

But when Crassus wasn't looking, Spartacus managed to slip by. The traditional story about the trench has it that Spartacus filled part of it in. But it's more likely he just slipped through Crassus's fortifications. In any case, Spartacus managed to get about a third of his army though.

Crassus did attack a group of the rebels who had split off on their own and were camping at a lake. But Spartacus showed up in the nick of time and Crassus had to beat a retreat.

With a Little Help from His Competitors

Crassus now did something completely out of character. He told the Senate that he needed help. They should send word to two other generals, Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known from Shakespeare's plays as Pompey). Lucullus was fighting in Thrace against Mithridates who you'll remember was the rebel general that Spartacus may have wanted to join. Pompey was in Spain having just won the fight in another rebellion led by Quintus Sertorius. But the Senate did as Crassus said.

Immediately Crassus realized he had messed up. Even if he, Crassus, now won the war, Lucullus and Pompey could claim it was because they came in. So it would be best to beat Spartacus before the other two showed up.

To this end Crassus attacked yet one more group that had split off from Spartacus. Crassus managed to kill over 12,000 men. Only two of the rebels survived. But Spartacus had not been there.

Instead Spartacus had moved on to a place called Petelia which is possibly the modern Strongoli on the southwest point of the Gulf of Tarentum. One of Crassus's officer named Scrophas led an attack on the back of Spartacus's army. But as was happening so often Spartacus simply turned around and again beat the Romans.

To Petelia

All in all Spartacus had acted prudently and avoided fighting whenever possible. But now we read that his men were so full of themselves that they wanted to attack Crassus and refused to obey their officers - a status quo which seems to have been pretty much par for the course during the whole rebellion. Spartacus no longer had control of the situation, and against his better judgment he went along north with the men to face Crassus.

Some writers say Spartacus met the Romans at the mouth of the Sele River; others say it was near the headwaters. All we know is it was somewhere in the Lucanian valley in southwestern Italy. It may have been about 30 miles north of the Straits of Messina.

We read that Spartacus called for his horse. But rather than climbing in the saddle to cut a splendid figure, he killed the animal saying that if they won he could get a lot of new horses. If he lost he wouldn't need any. Soon the battle was on.

It was one thing to defeat a division or two here and there. But now the rebel army was facing all of Crassus's forces. According to one account there was literally Spartacus's Last Stand where his "companions" had run off (with friends like these ...), leaving Spartacus by himself and surrounded by Romans. Spartacus was wounded in the thigh with a spear before he was finally cut down.

The Final Battle (?)

The usual story is that Crassus crucified the surviving 6000 of Spartacus's men along the road from Capua to Rome. This story is told by Appian, not Plutarch. Appian wrote later than Plutarch, but no one really doubts the story as this is exactly what the Romans would have done. If nothing else, a spacing of between 50 and 100 feet between the dangling corpses must have put a damper on the holiday outings along the Appian Way.

We see then that Crassus did emerge as the hero, no?

Uh, well, no.

Part of Spartacus's army, about 5000 men, had gotten away. But then - you guessed it - Pompey showed up and wiped them out.

Naturally Pompey promptly informed the Senate how he fought the battle that ended the war. The Senate was most appreciative and voted Pompey a "triumph", the equivalent of a ticker tape parade where the winning general rode through the streets of Rome in a chariot pulled by white horses and his army marched with him.

And Crassus? Well, since he helped, the Senate gave him an ovation. This wasn't just a round of applause. An ovation was sort of a lower class triumph where the general didn't ride in a chariot but just walked in the parade.

Actually, Crassus said he didn't need no stinking triumph. So if the Senate wanted to vote him an ovation, well, that's fine with him.

Crassus modestly accepting only an ovation was actually a statement in itself. A triumph was supposed to be for fighting a foreign foe which meant the commander would bring back slaves, tribute, and riches to Rome. Fighting slaves in Italy was a minor affair and added nothing to the Republic's coffers. Anyone who accepted a triumph for defeating a slave revolt was just a swell-headed gloryhound. Crassus wasn't going to stoop to such a level.

Not like ...

Crassus for Governor

With the defeat of Spartacus, Crassus returned to Rome to continue his political career. He was elected consul along with, yes, Pompey. As you might expect for the richest man of Rome, Crassus was a "conservative" who usually sided with the nobiles. Pompey was an upstart - he actually had technically not met the requirements to serve as consul - and he was one of the populares, the political group who worked for the average Josephus and Josephina Blow.

A consulship lasted only a year since a crucial principle of the Roman Republic was limited tenure of office. Crassus then took the office of censor who was the political officer who could boot people out of the Senate. When that office lapsed - with a lot of booting you can be sure - Crassus continued to loan money to the up and coming Julius Caesar. Julius needed the money since he ended up establishing his own gladiatorial school at Capua.

Around 60 BCE and despite their political differences, Pompey and Crassus joined forces with the now 40 year old and rapidly balding Julius Caesar in what historians call the First Triumvirate. This was an informal association where each man agreed to help the other get what they wanted.

Eventually Julius got the governorship of Gaul which landed him enough of the "ready" so he that was able to pay his debts and enough power so he eventually became the Roman dictator for life (dictator perpetuo). Caesar's office of "dictator for life" only lasted about two months before a group of conspirators stabbed him in the forum - not to mention (as Plutarch tells us) in the βουβών (we'll leave the literal translation for the scholars). Of course, the office wasn't supposed to go beyond six months anyway.

Pompey's share was Spain. He also married Caesar's daughter, Julia, which although the marriage was part of a political deal turned out to be a surprisingly happy one. Pompey more or less gave up his political aspirations so he could spend all his time with his young bride. Unfortunately the marriage ended with Julia's death five years later.

Crassus got what was on the surface the best deal. He was appointed governor of Syria. This was the Roman province which occupied what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. The Eastern Mediterranean was one of the most civilized and richest parts of the Empire, and we would think that Crassus would now look forward to lolling around in its temperate clime for as long as he wanted.

Crassus, though, longed for true military glory - that is, defeating a real enemy of Rome not just a few miserable slaves. The Parthian Empire - encompassing modern Iran and Iraq - was just to the east - and conquering them would be a real feather in his helmet.

Crassus had been right on one thing. There was a big difference between fighting a well-trained foreign army and a group of rebel slaves - a big difference. The Parthians were among the toughest fighters in the ancient world and Rome never was able to conquer them.

After ineffectual attempts at fighting, Crassus was riding out to discuss a truce. But due to a misunderstanding, fighting broke out and Crassus was killed.

History hasn't been too kind to Crassus and neither were the Parthians. Far from seeing him as an honorable foe, the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat as a rebuke of his greed and then they cut off his head. Crassus ended up being used as a prop for Parthian plays.

From then on Crassus showed up mostly as an unsympathetic character in literature - plays, books, ballets, and of course, television and motion pictures. But the one picture everyone remembers is that of the rather priggish and pompous character played by the affable and informal Sir Lawrence "Larry" Olivier.

"I Am Kirk Douglas!"

Spartacus was, believe it or not, an independent production and not from one of the mega studios. The star and the executive producer both was Kirk Douglas who by 1960 was one of the most in-demand of Hollywood's leading men. First appearing on screen in 1946 at age 30, Kirk appeared in nearly 100 motion pictures. Among his most acclaimed roles was as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life released in 1956.

But like many actors who sometimes had to deal with studio bigwigs, Kirk had been looking to make a picture where he had the artistic control. To this end he formed Bryna Productions (which was named after his mother) and in 1958 he had a contract to make Spartacus.

Of course, he couldn't do everything himself. For Spartacus, Kirk hired a top director, Stanley Kubrick, who is best remembered for 2001: A Space Odyssey. The day-to-day producer of the movie was Ed Lewis.

But what everyone remembers is that the screenplay was by Dalton Trumbo and was based on the novel by Howard Fast. Both men had been blacklisted (and jailed) for not cooperating with the House Committee of Un-American Activities. Originally it was assumed that Dalton would have to use a pseudonym. But when Kirk was asked what name they should use, he said he simply replied, "How about 'Dalton Trumbo'?"

Spartacus was one of the biggest movies of the 20th century. It made $60,000,000 at the box office which translates after inflation to over half a billion. The profit margin was about 400 %. It's no surprise that Kirk's production company kept going for more than 20 years.

Spartacus does follow the gist of what happened. The gladiators escape, they form an army, fight the Romans and win, then fight the Romans and lose. But we've seen there are significant differences in the movie with if not reality, then with the historical sources.

We repeat: Spartacus and his men were not fighting against slavery per se. In fact, Greeks, including Thracians, all had slaves. In Rome even former slaves had slaves. No, Spartacus and his men rebelled because they were not being treated as they thought good gladiators should be treated.

Spartacus was no multicultural humanitarian. You'll remember in the movie Kirk stepped in and stopped his men from forcing two Roman prisoners to fight like gladiators. After he let the Romans go, Kirk gave a stirring speech.

What are we becoming? Romans? Have we learned nothing? What's happening to us? We look for wine when we should be hunting bread!

But what really happened was that when Crixus was killed, Spartacus staged a funeral celebration. Since gladiatorial combats were a traditional part of funeral rituals, he had the 300 Roman prisoners fight each other.

The sources also agree that Spartacus was killed in battle. So there was no "I am Spartacus!" scene and he didn't fight Tony Curtis to prevent him from being crucified. Spartacus was probably in his twenties or early thirties. Kirk as we all know made it much longer - to age 103.

The portrayal of Crassus by Sir Lawrence Olivier is probably as accurate as you can get. Larry's Crassus was rich, sour, and dissatisfied and not particularly nice.

Of course, Crassus did not, as in the movie, watch Kirk Douglas and Woody Strode fight in the arena at Capua. Crassus actually never laid eyes on Spartacus. But one thing the movie did get right was that Lentulus (played by Peter Ustinov) would have been reluctant to let his men give an exhibition bout to the death.

Gladiators were expensive and even in the actual games - the ludi - only 10% to 20% of the fights ended with a combatant being killed. However, a little elementary probability theory tells us that even at what looks like pretty favorable odds, an average gladiator would be pretty much guaranteed not to last more than 30 fights.

One character missing in the fight between Kirk and Woody was the referee. Yes, the referee, known as the summa rudis. Just as in modern boxing matches, gladiatorial combats had rules to follow.

And evidently the referees could blow a call as easily then as now. A gladiator named Diodorus was once fighting a man named Demetrius (yes, Demetrius the Gladiator). During the fight Diodorus knocked Demetrius down. But he let him live, thinking the referee would rule that he won.

Instead, the referee said that Demetrius had fallen accidentally. So the fight was resumed and in the end Diodorus was the one who ended up getting killed.

But that, as they say, is show business.

Show Business

 

References and Further Reading

The Spartacus War, Barry Strauss, Simon and Schuster, 2009.

"Sources for the Three Slave Revolts", Ancient History Sourcebook, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University.

"Gladiators", Tribunes and Triumphs.

Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents, Brent Shaw, Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2001.

The Life of Crassus, Plutarch, Penelope - University of Chicago.

The Life of Pompey, Plutarch, Penelope - University of Chicago.

"Plutarch on Spartacus", Rex Warner (Translator), Livius.org.

"Appian on Spartacus", John Carter (Translator), Livius.org.

Crassus, Plutarch, Bernadotte Perrin (Editor), Perseus, Tufts University.

The Life of Julius Caesar , Plutarch, Bernadotte Perrin (Editor), Perseus, Tufts University.

De Vita Caesarum, Divus Iulius (The Lives of the Caesars, The Deified Julius), Suetonius, Ancient History Sourcebook, Fordham University.

The Philogelos or Laughter-Lover (London Studies in Classical Philology Series, 10), Hierocles, Barry Baldwin (Translator and Editor), Brill Academic Publishers, 1983.

The World's Oldest Joke Book: Hundreds of Hilariously Terrible Ancient Jokes, Dan Crompton (Translator and Editor), Michael O'Mera Books, 2011.

Growing Up and Growing Old in Ancient Rome, Mary Harlow and Ray Laurence, Routledge, 2002.

"Roman Naming Practices", UNVR.

"Ancient Roman Names", Behind the Name.

"caesaries, caesariei", LatDict

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, Donald Robertson, St. Martin's Press, 2019.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, (Humphrey Carpenter, Ed.), Houghton Mifflin, 1981.

The Roman Amphitheatre: From Its Origins to the Colosseum, Katherine Welch, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

"Character in Sallust's Historiae: Sertorius, Spartacus, and Mithridatesa", Michael Dybicz, Thesis, Cornell University, 2009.

"Gladiators Were Strictly Refereed", Richard Alleyne, The Telegraph, February 23, 2006.

"Gladiator Laments Bad Refereeing in Ancient Epitaph", The Brock News, Brock University.

The Ancient World in the Cinema, Jon Solomon, Yale University Press, 2001.

"Kirk Douglas", Actor, Internet Movie Data Base.

"Spartacus", Character, Internet Movie Data Base.

"Spartacus in Popular Culture", Roman Cinematic Universe, Fandom,

Spartacus, The Numbers, Nash Information Services.

The Films of Kirk Douglas, Terry Thomas, Citadel, 1972.

"16 Epic Facts About 'Spartacus'", Roger Cormier, January 1, 2017.

Trumbo Family: Kirk Douglas Overstates Blacklist Role", Mitzi Trumbo, Salon, August 7, 2012.