Spartacus and the Third Slave War

In 73BCE Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator led a band of fellow gladiatorial slaves into what became known as the Third Slave War. It was not the first time in Roman history that the slave class took up arms against the state. It began in the gladiator’s mess hall in Capua, where 70-80 of them armed themselves with ‘choppers and spits seized from a kitchen’ and overthrew the guards. Now out, they managed to acquire proper weaponry. Although the Roman military pursued the rebellion, Spartacus and his army managed to escape. From here, the slave forces grew over time to reach vast numbers of 70 -120,000 men, all fighting in a series of expeditions sent out by Rome to stop them. To the great concern of Rome, these battles continued for almost three years.

Over this period, the slave army had sacked at least four major towns and had won at least nine battles. Many of these men had seen previous military training and were causing Rome some serious problems! The battles also took place all across Italy; however, it was the battle in Lucania that was Spartacus’ last. He was cut down in his attempt to kill the Roman military general, Crassus.

We learn of these events from the ancient writers Plutarch, Appian, and Sallust. Plutarch provides a base structure for the events of the Third Slave War, with the writings of Appian and Sallust allowing for a more vibrant, fleshed out account of this event in Rome’s history. This is very much a summary of the events, and I would recommend further reading to get a fuller picture of the strategies used, and full impact Spartacus and his army had at this time.

The Amphitheatre of Capua and surrounding museums

Archaeological remains of Capua’s gladiatorial history are still present today, with Santa Maria Capua Vetere boasting the second largest amphitheatre in Italy after Rome’s Colosseum. The Amphitheatre of Capua (Anfiteatro Campano) is an impressive ancient site without the hustle and crowds of its big brother Colosseum. It was established by Augustus in the first century BC and is said to have seated approximately 60,000 spectators. This amphitheatre is where Spartacus fought as a gladiator.

The entry ticket to the amphitheatre also provides entry to the nearby Gladiator’s Museum (Museo dei Gladiatori). It is a modest museum that houses a selection of archaeological material and reconstruction models to give a bit more history to the site. If you still want to soak up the rich history of Capua, there is also the Capua Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico dell’Antica Capua) not too far away. Something to remember is that you will need to purchase your ticket for this museum back at the amphitheatre. The museum ticket does however also include entry to the nearby 2-3rd century AD Roman mithraeum, a shrine to the god Mithras: a popular god among the Roman military. Plenty there to make the trip worthwhile.

To find out more: Timetravelrome.

Author: written for Timetravelrome by Meaghan Zarb.

Sources:

Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 8-11.
Appian, Civil Wars, 1.116-120.
Sallust, The Histories, 3.64-66.
Nic Fields, Spartacus and the Slave War 73-71BC: A gladiator rebels against Rome, Oxford, Osprey Publishing Limited, 2009.
M. Cary and H.H Scullard, A History of Rome: Down to the Reign of Constantine, 3rd ed., Hampshire, The Macmillian Press Ltd, 1975.

Header photo: Spartacus from the From Blue Beetle. Picture in Public domain.

Led by the general Publius Quinctilius Varus, whose incompetence was unfairly exaggerated in the aftermath of the battle an effort to provide a scapegoat, the Roman army had been marching in line deep though the heart of the German forest when it was ambushed on all sides by a confederation of Germanic tribes. For hours the Romans managed to keep their assailants at bay, no mean feat considering their line was stretched to between 15 and 20 kilometres and they were fighting in dense forest and heavy rain, and as darkness fell on the forest Varus’ men hastily erected a fortified camp, which they held through the night.

Sallying forth from the camp the next morning into the open country around the Wiehen Hills, the Roman army suffered heavy losses. They fought throughout the day, continuing their desperate march west, and struggled into the night, with torrential rain hampering the Romans’ already hopeless attempts at fending off the German tribesmen. But Arminius, the German general behind the attack, was himself a Roman citizen – an auxiliary officer of Germanic origin trained in the arts of Roman warfare. He had laid his trap, and the Romans were marching straight into it.

That night, Arminius ambushed Rome’s straggling soldiers, drawing them into a decisive battle at the foot of the Kalkriese Hill. It was a massacre. Funnelled into a narrow strip between forest and swampland, the legionaries were attacked from all sides, their German aggressors taking cover behind temporary earthworks. Varus and his commanding officers fell on their swords or were cut down as they fled. Any survivors were either killed, enslaved or ransomed (though, curiously, anyone ransomed lost their right to return to Italy).

Suetonius tells us that the ghost of Teutoburg would haunt Augustus for the rest of his life. In the immediate months following the disaster, the emperor, his hair matted and beard unkempt, would dash his head against the palace walls crying, “Quintili Vare, legiones redde!” – Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions! Outside the imperial palace the battle had broader ramifications – ushering in a prolonged period of public mourning, and seeing Rome’s rampant imperial expansionism give way to a more cautious policy of consolidation.

Is there anything to see on the battlefield now ?

Until the late 1980s, our only evidence for where the Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place came from a line in Tacitus where he mentioned the saltus Teutoburgiensis between the Lippe and Ems rivers. Then in 1987, Tony Clunn, an amateur archaeologist armed with nothing but a metal detector, discovered a scattered trail of coins, none of which post-dated the Age of Augustus, and some leaden Roman sling bolts in the Kalkriese-Niewedder Senke near Osnabrück

Visitors to Kalkriese should visit the Varusschlacht Museum und Park Kalkriese. It comprises a vast outdoor section, which recreates part of the battlefield and its earthworks, and a watchtower, which gives an overview of the battlefield more broadly. Also part of the museum is a collection of artefacts recovered from the 24-kilometre corridor archaeologists have so far managed to excavate. Among its exhibits are spearheads, the remains of studded legionary sandals, and even a Roman ceremonial facemask, believed to have belonged to an officer.

Another attraction, at Detmold, some 100 kilometres southeast from the site of the battle, is the Hermannsdenkmal or “statue of Hermann”, completed in 1875. Hermann was the post-reformation name for Arminius, the Cheruscan war chief and victor against the Romans, possibly coined by Martin Luther, and widely endorsed in German nationalistic propaganda to become “Hermann the German.”

Bibliography:
J. R. Abdale, Four Days in September: The Battle of Teutoburg (Bloomington, 2013)

P. S. Wells, The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest (New York and London, 2003)

Featured photo: Steinbrüche bei Kalkriese by Curt Mühe is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

This article was written for Time Travel Rome by Alexander Meddings