Servile War, Third (Gladiators' War or Spartacus, Revolt of)

The Third Servile War, also called the Gladiator War and The War of Spartacus by Plutarch, is the last of a series of unrelated and unsuccessful slave rebellions against the Roman Republic, known collectively as the Servile Wars.

The Third Servile War is the only one to directly threaten the Roman heartland of Italia and is doubly alarming to the Roman people due to the repeated successes of the rapidly growing band of rebel slaves against the Roman army between 73 and 71 BCE.

The rebellion is finally crushed through the concentrated military effort of a single commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus, although the rebellion will continue to have indirect effects on Roman politics for years to come.Between 73 and 71 BCE, a band of escaped slaves—originally a small cadre of about 78 escaped gladiators which grows into a band of over 120,000 men, women and children—wanders throughout and raids Italy with relative impunity under the guidance of several leaders, including the famous gladiator-general Spartacus.

The able-bodied adults of this band are a surprisingly effective armed force that repeatedly shows they can withstand the Roman military, from the local Campanian patrols, to the Roman militia, and to trained Roman legions under consular command.

Plutarch described the actions of the slaves as an attempt by Roman slaves to escape their masters and flee through Cisalpine Gaul, while Appian and Florus depicted the revolt as a civil war in which the slaves waged a campaign to capture the city of Rome itself.The Roman Senate's growing alarm about the continued military successes of this band, and about their depredations against Roman towns and the countryside, eventually leads to Rome's fielding of an army of eight legions under the harsh but effective leadership of Marcus Licinius Crassus.

The war ends in 71 BCE when the armies of Spartacus, after long and bitter fighting, retreating before the legions of Crassus, and realizing that the legions of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus are moving in to entrap them, launch their full strength against Crassus' legions and are utterly destroyed.The Third Servile War is significant to the broader history of ancient Rome mostly in its effect on the careers of Pompey and Crassus.

The two generals use their success in putting down the rebellion to further their political careers, using their public acclaim and the implied threat of their legions to sway the consular elections of 70 BCE in their favor.

Their actions as Consuls greatly further the subversion of Roman political institutions and contribute to the eventual transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

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