A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

892 SPARTAC US. SPARTACUS.
In B. c. 72 his ranks contained 70,000 men. The trenches, and getting beyond the lines of Crassus.
senate, now awakened to its danger, sent two con- Rome was once more panic-struck, and even Crassus,
sular armies against him, and the praetor Q. Arrius although eager to finish the war unaided, sumco-operated with a third. Crixus had already se- moned Cn. Pompey from Spain and L. Licinius
parated himself from Spartacus, and was routed Lucullus from Thrace. The jealousy of the slaves
and slain by Arrius, near Mount Garganus, in themselves terminated the contest. The Gauls seApulia. Oenomaus had fallen previously. Spar- vered themselves from Spartacus and chose two of
tacus, bent on escape rather than victory, pressed their countrymen for leaders, Granicus and Castus.
northward through Picenum. One consular army, Apart from their great chief they were powerless.
however, under Cn. Cornelius Lentulus [LENTU- Granicus and Castus, with 30,000 of their followers,
LUS CLODIANUS, NO. 24], awaited him north of were slain in the neighbourhood of Croto, and
the Po; another, under Gellius Poplicola, pressed the disgrace of Rome was in part wiped out by
upon his rear. He attacked and defeated both the recovery of its eagles and fasces. Crassus
separately, and, with a bitter irony, forced his now repented of his application to Pompey and
Roman captives to fight as gladiators at the funeral Lucullus, and hastened to bring the war to an end.
games which he celebrated to the manes of Crixus. Near Petelia Spartacus was once more victorious,
He had now 100,000 men in arms, and meditated and defeated L. Quintius and Tremellius Scrofa,
an attack on Rome itself. The consuls of 72 the quaestor of Crassus. His followers, instead of
sustained a second defeat in the territory of Pice- hastening to the Alps and escaping to Gaul and
num. But success was in the end fatal to Spar- Thrace, compelled Spartacus to march southward
tacus. His victorious bands refused to evacuate and engage Crassus. Spartacus offered to negotiate.
Italy, and forced him to return to the south. His His terms were contemptuously rejected. He then
winter-quarters at Thurii exhibited the spectacle attempted to seize the shipping in the harbour of
of a great fair, whither merchants resorted to buy Brundisium, but Lucullus had just landed there
the plunder of the peninsula. Spartacus, it is said, from Epirus. Near the head of the river Silarus
interdicted gold and silver from his camp, but pur- Spartacus encountered the Romans for the last
chased brass and iron, and established armouries on time. A skirmislh between the pioneers of Crassus
a large scale. At the comitia of B.c. 71, there and the slaves, brought on a general engagement.
were at first no candidates for the praetorship. To Like Warwick at Barnet, Spartacus slew his wvarthe praetors was assigned the Servile War, and the horse in front of his army, and prepared for death.
name of'Spartacus intimidated all ranks. M. Li- Long after victory was hopeless he was traced by
cinius Crassus [No. 17] at length offered himself. heaps of slain; but in the carnage that closed the
He was unanimously elected, and numerous volun- day, his body was irreparably lost. About 5000
teers enrolled themselves. Eight legions were sent of his men, under one Publipor, made their way
into the field. But for a while victory remained into the north of Lucania, where they were mnet
with Spartacus. In the north, whither he seems and slain by Cn. Pompey, who boasted that Crassus
to have moved early in the spring of 71, he de- had routed the slaves, but that he himself had cut
feated, near Mutina, the proconsul C. Cassius Lon- up the war by the roots. Six thousand fugitives
ginus [No. 10], and the propraetor Cn. Manlius. impaled on each side of the Appian road between
In the territory of Picenum he routed Mummins Capua and Rome, attested the fears and the cruelty
[No. 7], a legatus of Crassus. But this was the of the conquerors, and contrasted with the humanity
term of his unbroken success. The Roman legions of Spartacus, in whose camp at Rhegium were
had been disheartened and disorganised by defeat. found surviving three thousand Roman prisoners.
Crassus decimated the soldiers of Mummius, The character of Spartacus, like that of Hanand restored discipline. The slaves again divided nibal, has been maligned by the Roman writers.
themselves, were twice defeated by Crassus, and Cicero compares the vilest of his contemporaries to
Spartacus was driven to the extreme point of him: Horace (Carne. iii. 14. 19) speaks of him as
Bruttium. Crassus drew strong lines of circum- a common robber: none recognise his greatness,
vallation around Rhegium, and by his superior but the terror of his name survived to a late
numbers prevented the escape of the slaves. The period of the empire (Sidon. Apollin. Carrn. ix.
next design of Spartacus was stamped with his 253; Themist. Or. ix.). Accident made Spartacus
usual genius. Sicily had recently been the theatre a shepherd, a freebooter, and a gladiator; nature
of a fierce and desolating Servile War. It was formed him a hero. The excesses of his followers
suppressed but not extinguished. Had Spartacus he could not always repress, and his efforts to
once crossed the straits he would have been wel- restrain them often cost him his popularity. But
comed by thousands of followers and been master he was in himself not less mild and just than he
of the granary of Rome. The seas were at. that was able and valiant. He preferred his Thracian
time swept by Cilician pirates, little less formidable cottage and freedom to the throne of Italy. Of
than the slaves by land. With them Spartacus all contemporary characters the mind dwells with
negotiated a passage to Sicily, but they impoliticly, most complacency on those of Sertorius and Sparas well as treacherously, received their hire and tacus. But the one, nobly born and befittingly
abandoned him. He failed in an attempt to pass trained, sullied his name by the murder of the
over to Sicily on rafts and wicker-boats, and the Spanish hostages at Huesca; the other, a peasant
works of Crassus were daily rendering escape less by birth, a slave by compulsion, saved the lives of
practicable. To stop the desertion which was be- his captives. The most terrible guerilla chieftain
ginning to thin his ranks, Spartacus crucified a recorded in history was unstained by the vices of
Roman prisoner as a token of the mercy his fol- his conquerors, and, had circumstances favoured
lowers might expect from the besiegers. In two him, would have rivalled the fame of Viriarathus
efforts to force his way out, Spartacus lost 12,000 and Wallace. (Plut. Crass. 8-12, Ponlp. 21, Cat.
men; but he finally succeeded on a tempestuous lein. 8; Liv. Epit. xcv. xcvi. xcvii.; Vell. ii. 30;
winter night, in throwing fascines over the Roman Flor. iii. 20; Eutrop. vi. 7-; Oros. v. 24, 35;