The Romans urge Pompey to aid Metellus
But when Perperna had wrought this shameful deed, he found that the name of Sertorius was still powerful among the Spaniards. Many of them, now that their great leader was no more, forgot his faults, and with the devoted enthusiasm of their nation threw themselves into the flames of his funeral pyre. A few days after the death of Sertorius, Perperna attempted to lead the soldiery against Pompey, but he sustained an ignominious defeat. His men were dispersed, and he was taken prisoner. When brought before Pompey, he endeavoured to gain favour by handing him letters which had been interchanged by Sertorius with some of the chief men at Rome. But Pompey, with prudent magnanimity, threw the letters into the fire and refused to hear him. In the course of a year the last relics of the Marian party in Spain were extinguished.
Before this was effected, Rome was engaged in conflict with Mithridates. [The history of this war will be given later in the chapter.] But here must be noticed a formidable outbreak that took place in Italy, and threatened the very existence of the state. This was:
THE WAR OF THE GLADIATORS
[73-72 B.C.]
For the purpose of the barbarous shows which were so much enjoyed at Rome, it was the custom to keep schools for training gladiators, who were let out by their owners to the ædiles. At Capua there was a large school of this kind; and among the gladiators in training there was Spartacus, a Thracian, who had once led his countrymen against Roman commanders, but now, having been taken prisoner, was destined to make sport for his conquerors. He persuaded about seventy of his fellow-bondsmen to join him in breaking loose; better it was, he argued, to die in battle on the open field, than on the sand of the amphitheatre. This handful of brave men took up a strong position upon Mount Vesuvius, where Spartacus was presently joined by slaves and outlaws of all descriptions. The gladiators, old soldiers like himself, supplied him with officers. Œnomaus and Crixus, the former a Greek, the latter a Gaul, acted as his lieutenants. He enforced strict discipline; and, so long as he was able, obliged his followers to abstain from acts of rapine. Two Roman prætors attacked him, but they were beaten with loss, and the numbers of his army swelled every day. All this happened in 73 B.C., after the Mithridatic War had broken out, and before the Sertorian War was ended.
In the next year (72 B.C.), the same which witnessed the murder of Sertorius, Spartacus had become strong enough to take the offensive. He had to face a formidable power, for both consuls were ordered to take the field. But, at the head of more than one hundred thousand men, he forced the passes of the Apennines and entered Picenum. His subordinates, however, proved unmanageable; and Spartacus, aware that the power of Rome must prevail, bent all his energies towards forcing his way across the Alps, in the hope of reaching some remote region inaccessible to Rome. As he pressed northwards, he was assaulted by both the consuls, but defeated them both, and made his way to Cisalpine Gaul; but here he was repulsed by the prætor Cassius, and obliged by the impatience of his followers to retrace his steps. Still, every other Roman officer who dared to meet him was defeated; at one time the brave gladiator is said to have meditated a descent upon Rome itself. But he relinquished his desperate plan, and spent the remainder of the year in collecting treasure and arms. Little discipline was now observed. The extent of the ravages committed by the bands under his command may be guessed from the well-known line of Horace, in which he promised his friend a jar of wine made in the Social War, “if he could find one that had escaped the clutches of roaming Spartacus.”
The management of the war was now committed to Crassus, who had really won the battle of the Colline Gate. Ever since the triumph of Sulla he had lived quietly at Rome, profiting by the proscription to buy up property cheap; and after that period he had been busied in making the most profitable use of the large fortune which he had amassed.
[72-71 B.C.]