Eight Days That Made Rome 2017 E02 The Spartacus Revolt Bettany Hughes (Presenter)
The revolt of the Thracian Spartacus in 73-71 BC remains the most successful slave revolt in the history of Rome. The rebellion is known as the Third Servile War and was the last of three major slave revolts which Rome suppressed. The Gaul Crixus also led the rebels. Although Crassus had defeated Spartacus on the field, the glory for the victory went to Pompey. Pompey arrived as the battle was ending and his troops engaged the fugitive slaves who ran from the field. Plutarch writes that "Pompey, in his dispatch to the Senate, was able to say that, while Crassus certainly had conquered the slaves in open battle, he himself had dug the war up by the roots" by eliminating any who might have continued the struggle. The 6,000 survivors of Spartacus' army were then crucified along the Appian Way from Rome to Capua, and their bodies left there to rot for years as a warning against any future insurrections.
The revolt of the Thracian Spartacus in 73-71 BC remains the most successful slave revolt in the history of Rome. The rebellion is known as the Third Servile War and was the last of three major slave revolts which Rome suppressed. The Gaul Crixus also led the rebels. Although Crassus had defeated Spartacus on the field, the glory for the victory went to Pompey. Pompey arrived as the battle was ending and his troops engaged the fugitive slaves who ran from the field. Plutarch writes that "Pompey, in his dispatch to the Senate, was able to say that, while Crassus certainly had conquered the slaves in open battle, he himself had dug the war up by the roots" by eliminating any who might have continued the struggle. The 6,000 survivors of Spartacus' army were then crucified along the Appian Way from Rome to Capua, and their bodies left there to rot for years as a warning against any future insurrections.