The Great Battles of Spartacus!

The Great Battles of Spartacus!
C3i-GBoH Module for Caesar: Conquest of Gaul
By Daniel A. Fournie
Introduction
This module covers the key battles of the
Spartacid or Third Servile War. Salinae, Mount
Garganus, Picenum, Camalatrum and Silarus
River. The five battles in this module were
some of the main large scale battles between
the Slave Army of Italy under Spartacus and
his gladiator lieutenants on one side and the
legions of Rome under her consuls, praetors,
pro-praetors and legates on the other.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to
play this module you need to have a copy of
Caesar: Conquest of Gaul (CCoG). For
some counters, you will also need SPQR and
the counter insert that came with this issue of
C3i. However, in case you don't have SPQR,
substitute counters from CCoG are listed.
Historical Notes
The Turmoil of the Late Republic
The Third Servile, or Spartacid, War was
the product of major demographic, social and
military currents during the Late Republic,
intersecting with one extraordinary leader.
We can begin this story in 146 BC when
Rome completed the destruction of two of
her greatest foes. After a brutal siege, Scipio
Aemilianus sacked Carthage, razed the city,
salted its fields and cursed the site. Meanwhile, in Greece, Lucius Mummius was
sacking Corinth, the last Greek city resisting
Roman rule. Rome was now supreme from
the Pillars of Hercules to the Cilician Gates
in Asia Minor. A major byproduct of Rome's
many victorious wars was a massive influx of
slaves. Eventually the slaves came to greatly
outnumber the free men, especially in Sicily
and southern Italy. The first of the great slave
revolts, or Servile Wars, engulfed Sicily in
135 BC. The Roman senate was no longer the
effective supreme war council it had been in
Hannibal's day. Civil strife had rendered the
Republic increasingly impotent. It took four
years to suppress this first major slave rebellion. Roman nobles were loathe to campaign
against mere slaves, and as long as the rebellion was safely confined to an island, it was
allowed to fester. Eventually, by 132 BC, all
the rebel slaves had been killed in battle or
executed. But the Republic did nothing to address the underlying causes of the rebellion—a
vast underclass of slaves and displaced proletariat exploited by a handful of rich plantation
owners, and peasant farmers continued to be
driven off their land.
The slaves were quiet for twenty-five years.
But Rome faced external threats as well. At
the Battle of Arausio on the Rhone River, the
German Cimbri and Teutones annihilated
two Roman armies, slaying 80,000 men in 105
BC. It was Rome's greatest defeat since Cannae. The road into Italy was open. Manpower
shortages forced Rome to call on her allied
client kings for troops. Nicomedes, the King
of Bithynia, complained that he could not
furnish soldiers because the rapacious Roman
tax farmers endured had enslaved too many of
his subjects. In response, the senate issued a
decree that all enslaved subjects of allied kingdoms should be emancipated. The governor
of Sicily began to implement this directive
and freed 800 slaves before the local land
owners pressured him to cease. However, the
unfulfilled expectation of manumission led to
a second great slave revolt in Sicily, in 104 BC.
Again, this rebellion was allowed to continue
for five years before the Romans suppressed
the last of the armed slaves.
Rome was free from major slave revolts for
the next three decades. However, the republic
was wracked with the Social War with her
Italian allies, followed by Civil War between
Marius and Sulla, while simultaneously fighting Mithradates of Pontus in Greece. Sulla
and his `optimates' emerged as the ultimate
victors in the Civil War, but Sertorius carried
on the `populares' cause in Hispania and created a senate in exile, while brilliantly fending
off the attacks of Pompey. Meanwhile, the
unrest caused by Mithradates' invasion of
Greece facilitated the raids of the Dacians,
Scordissi and Maedi along the Macedonian
and Thracian frontiers.
Enter Spartacus
Onto this stage a Thracian named
Spartacus appeared. Believed to have been
born around 109 BC, of his early life nothing is known. But by the early 70s BC he
was serving as an auxiliary alongside Rome's
legions on the wild Danube frontier. Spartacus learned much about soldiering, and also
how Rome's legions operated. After being
discharged or deserting, Spartacus was captured by slavers and shipped to Italy. Here he
was purchased by Lentulus Batiatus and sent
to train as a gladiator at his school outside
Capua. Spartacus was an able student, and
soon mastered not only fighting techniques,
but the training regimen of the gladiators.
But this remarkable fighter was not content to fight as a slave-gladiator. Spartacus
engineered a mass escape from the gladiator
school and ignited the Third Servile War in
73 BC. Spartacus escaped from the school
with just 78 fellow gladiators. After some
successful skirmishes with local guards, his
force set about raiding the countryside, freeing
more slaves to join their ranks. Spartacus set
up a base on the defensible slopes of Mount
Vesuvius.
Remembering the earlier Slave Wars in
Sicily, the senate in Rome took this outbreak
more seriously. They dispatched the praetors
Claudius Glaber and Publius Varinius with
3,000 men to suppress the rising. Glaber and
Varinius surrounded Spartacus at his base on
Mount Vesuvius, intending to starve out the
rebels. The Mountain was only accessible by a
narrow and difficult passage but Spartacus
had a plan. While some of the rebels rushed
the Roman camp from the mountain
Spartacus and the rest made ladders from the
vines that grew on the mountain and climbed
down and attacked at the same time. Attacked
from both sides the Roman camp fell in short
order. This victory over regular Roman forces
allowed Spartacus to expand his operations and
recruit growing numbers of slaves and
freemen.
With captured Roman arms and the training ;
techniques of the gladiators, Spartacus quickly
transformed an unruly mob into a real army.
The Battle of Salinae, 73 BC
In a second expedition against Spartacus,
the praetor Publius Varinius was sent against
the growing slave army. The Romans still
considered this a law enforcement operation,
rather than a military campaign. Their greatest
fear was that the rebel slaves would escape
and scatter. So Varinius split his forces under
the command of his subordinates Furius and
Cossinius, in order to surround the slaves.
While the Roman commands were separated,
Spartacus attacked. The slave army's attack was
led by Spartacus' able gladiator lieutenantsOenomaus, Crixus, Castus and Gannicus. The
slaves first defeated Furius' detachment, in a
sharp struggle. The slave general then moved
against Cossinius, and struck by surprise.
This Roman noble was almost captured while
bathing in the Salinae River. Cossinius made
his escape back to his camp but there he was
killed as the slave army stormed his ramparts.
Varinius was also nearly captured in a surprise
attack. Spartacus captured the Praetor's horse,
as he managed to escape on foot in the confusion. With this success, more slaves flocked to
the Spartacus' camp. According to the ancient
historians, his followers soon numbered
The Great Battles of Spartacus!
70,000, including many women and children.
Thousands of gladiators were freed from
schools across southern Italy, and these fighters became the hard core of Spartacus' Army.
The gladiators instituted massive training programs to transform all the slaves into fighters
during the winter of 73-72 BC. Likely, not all
Spartacus' followers had been slaves, but many
were free proletariat and landless peasants
who rallied to his call.
The Battle of Mount Garganus, 72 BC
Spartacus was an able strategist, and he
knew that his rag-tag army could not expect
to defy Rome indefinitely. Spartacus planned
to escape from Roman authority by crossing over the Alps, and headed north through
Apulia in the spring. He divided his evergrowing army into two columns. Spartacus
placed his lieutenant Crixus, a Gaul, in charge
of a force of 30,000 German and Gallic
slaves, while he maintained personal command of the remaining 40,000 fighters. Crixus
had become over confident after their many
victories and moved slowly as he allowed his
men to continue their raiding and pillaging.
Meanwhile, Rome sent both consuls, Lucius
Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius
Lentulus Clodianus, with two legions each,
after the slaves. Publicola, supported by the
Praetor Arius with a third legion, came upon
Crixus suddenly and forced a battle. Crixus
hastily formed his free slaves into a line of
battle on high ground at the base of Mount
Garganus. Crixus placed his raw German and
Gallic slave levies in front, and held his elite
gladiators back as a reserve with which to
counter-attack. But Publicola's legionnaires
cut the leading slave units to pieces, causing
panic to sweep through the rebel army. Crixus
was killed along with two-thirds of his of his
men. The survivors scattered, and many likely
re-joined Spartacus's main column.
The Battle of Picenum, 72 BC
Following the defeat of his lieutenant
Crixus, Spartacus again struck out north for
the Alps, moving into Picenum. Two Roman
armies opposed him. From the south the
consul Publicola pursued with his army, fresh
from his victory at Mount Garganus. To the
north his fellow consul Lentulus maneuvered
to block his path. The two Roman columns
attempted a pincer movement, to encircle the
slaves. An inviting gap, as if in error, was left
by the Roman command to invite Spartacus to
attempt a breakout, but instead Spartacus split
his army. In a brilliant campaign, Spartacus
left a small force to keep Lentulus busy, while
he led the main attack against Publicola. This
Roman army was defeated and Spartacus then
turned all his troops against Lentulus. The
second consular army was also smashed. The
Roman leaders escaped capture, but enormous
numbers of prisoners and equipment fell
into the hands of the slave army. Spartacus
sacrificed 300 Roman captives to the shades of
Crixus. Spartacus then resumed his march to
the Alps and freedom.
Enter Crassus
On his way north, Spartacus was met by
yet another Roman army under Cassius, the
governor of Cisalpine Gaul. Cassius commanded a praetorian army of ten thousand
men. In the battle that ensued, just north of
the River Po, Cassius was defeated and lost
many men, and he barely managed to escape
capture. There were now no Roman forces left
in Italy to stop the slave army from crossing
the Alps and escaping to freedom. However,
for reasons that remain obscure, the slave
army turned south back into Italy instead.
Some have speculated that most of Spartacus'
men preferred to continue plundering Italy.
According to one tradition, some of the slaves
and their families did cross into Gaul, but in
any case the main army turned back into Italy.
Rome faced a great crisis at this point. Besides
the war with Spartacus, the republic faced a
separatist `populares' force in Hispania under
Sertorius in the west, the growing power
of Burebista of Dacia in the north and the
empire of Pontus under Mithridates in the
east. It seemed the Roman Republic lacked
the power and cohesiveness to simultaneously
defeat her many foes.
Rome had run out of legions and generals
to fight Spartacus. One Roman saw this as an
opportunity. In the autumn of 72 BC, Marcus
Licinius Crassus offered to take the command against the slaves. The Senate readily
acquiesced. Crassus was a veteran commander
of the Civil Wars, a leading politician and
purportedly the richest man in Rome. Many
noble volunteers flocked to join him, and he
personally raised and equipped an army of
six legions. He formed two additional legions
from the survivors of the two consular armies
and other shattered forces. Meanwhile, the
victorious slave army was marching southwards again. Spartacus proposed a negotiated
settlement, but Crassus refused to consider it.
Next, Crassus assigned his deputy Mummius
two legions and gave him the task of harassing the flank of the slave army. Mummius was
to slow down the slave army while the main
force under Crassus waited on the border of
Picenum, expecting Spartacus would return
that way. But Mummius, seeking glory, upon
the first opportunity attacked the slaves on
The Great Battles of Spartacus! — A Caesar: Conquest of Gaul Module
his own. Mummius' detachment was routed,
and many of his legionnaires only survived by
abandoning their arms and fleeing. Crassus
subjected the remnants of Mummius legions
to decimation, a harsh punishment not in use
for many years. One man in each squad of
ten was chosen by lot and executed before the
whole army. This had the desired effect. The
legionnaires learned to fear Crassus more than
they feared Spartacus.
Spartacus slipped past Crassus and
retreated through Lucania into Bruttium and
toward the sea. He encamped at Rhegium
where he attempted to gain passage to Sicily
with the help of some Cilician pirate ships.
Spartacus judged he could open a new front
against Rome by fomenting another slave
rebellion in Sicily, where two great slave rebellions had occurred in the past six decades. But
the treacherous pirates (are there any other
kind?) deceived Spartacus. After coming to
terms with him and receiving payment, they
simply sailed away. When Crassus came
upon Spartacus at Rhegium, he decided to
exploit the engineering skills of his legions.
The Roman army built a wall and ditch across
the narrow neck of the isthmus, some 60
kilometers in length. It was not a completely
new project, as Dionysius of Syracuse had
first built his "Scylletian Wall" here to keep
northern tribes out some three centuries earlier. Spartacus was walled in. When provisions
began to fail he was forced to attempt a break
out. After two strenuous efforts to break free
his main force still remained trapped. Waiting
and watching for a weak spot, the opportunity
came one snowy night early in 71 BC. The
Slave army crossed the ditch and breached the
wall to gain its freedom, but only about a third
of Spartacus' men were able to escape. Crassus
hurried after them in pursuit. The great crisis
of the Roman Republic had passed. Unexpectedly, Sertorius had been assassinated by one
of his captains, allowing Pompey to crush
the separatist populares state in Hispania.
Meanwhile, Lucullus defeated Mithradates,
and drove his opponent into the wilds of the
Caucasus. With Crassus' successful operations
against Spartacus in Bruttium, Rome could
breath easier. Pompey now raced to Italy to
`assist' Crassus against Spartacus.
The Battle of Camalatrum, 71 BC
After Spartacus escaped the Roman siege
in Bruttium, the Gaulish and German section of his slave army again moved separately
under the command of Gannicus and Castus.
Crassus was now in a race, not with the
enemy, but with his rival Pompey. In addition,
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus was also on
his way from Macedon to provide assistance.
Crassus felt he had won this war on his own,
and now wanted to complete it before Pompey
and Lucullus could arrive and rob him of
some of his glory. Desperate to annihilate the
slaves before Pompey's arrival, Crassus gambled on a risky move. He dispatched Quintus
Marcius Rufus to make a flank march and
gain the rear of the Gallic detachment of the
slave army. Two Gallic women spotted Marcius' flanking force and ruined the surprise.
Marcius' command was in great danger until
Crassus, after a forced march, engaged the enemy in battle from the front. The two Roman
forces would have overwhelmed the Gauls had
not Spartacus come to their rescue. Crassus
scored an incomplete victory, and Spartacus
continued his retreat.
The Battle of the Silarus River, 71 BC
Spartacus found his army trapped between
the armies of Crassus to his front and Pompey
and Lucullus approaching from the rear.
Crassus had started construction of his camp
and the skirmish between slave scouts and
the Roman camp guards escalated. Spartacus
decided to fight the climatic battle now, before
the massive Roman reinforcements arrived.
Crassus, in response, launched a full-scale
attack. Spartacus, seeing that his army was
in jeopardy, killed his warhorse in front of
his troops, a clear sign of defiance could only
mean one thing — he would fight to the death.
As it became clear that the Slave army was
being defeated, Spartacus attempted to cut his
way through the Roman troops to get at Crassus, in one last desperate attempt to save the
day. Spartacus was cut down by an arrow. In
the end, thousands of men lay dead near the
River Silarus, with Spartacus simply one body
amongst the many. Amongst the booty captured were five legionary eagles that the slaves
had captured in earlier battles. Over 6,000
slave soldiers were captured, and Crassus had
them all crucified along the Appian Way
from Capua to Rome. Crassus had defeated
Spartacus, but Pompey managed to mop up a
few thousand slave fugitives, and took credit
for ending the rebellion. No slave rebellion on
the magnitude of Spartacus' War would ever
again wrack Rome. This was probably because,
with Spartacus' example in mind, much more
forceful measures were taken against minor
outbreaks in the future. More importantly, no
leader of Spartacus' caliber again emerged to
lead the slaves.
The Sources and Spartacus' Reputation
Spartacus only became a heroic figure in
the 19th and 20th Centuries, as a symbol of
oppressed peoples fighting for freedom. To
the Romans, he was a despicable, if capable,
outlaw. Since Roman historians took this view,
they were reluctant to record his campaigns
in detail. Therefore the descriptions of his
army and operations are woefully poor. He is
not usually regarded in the same class as the
`Great Captains' such as Alexander, Hannibal
and Caesar. However, his accomplishments
may have actually been greater. The 'Great
Captains' all benefitted from existing armies,
and the institutional support of their states.
Spartacus, on the other hand, created an
army from scratch. His slave armies included
peoples from all over the Mediterranean
world, with no common language, culture or
customs. With this polyglot force Spartacus
out-fought and out-maneuvered a series of
Roman commanders, leading professional
legions. Spartacus may very well have been
the equal of the accepted 'Great Captains.'
However, the poorly recorded history of his
campaigns makes a definitive judgment virtually impossible.
The main ancient sources are:
 Appian, Civil Wars 1.111-121.
 Florus, Epitome of Roman History 2.8.20.
 Orosius, Histories. 5.24.1 8
 Plutarch, The Life of Crassus and
-
The Life of Pompey
General Notes
The Gladiators
There were many types of gladiators,
equipped with exotic and varied arms and
armor. While their sword-fighting skills were
easily adapted from the arena to the battlefield, other specialties (such as the retiarius'
trident and net) were probably not as useful.
Since the gladiators comprised only a small
percentage of Spartacus' army, their greatest
value may have been as trainers and instructors. The list below outlines some of the basic
gladiator types:
Types of gladiator:
Andebate — limbs and lower torso protected
by mail armor, chest and back plate, large
vizored helmet with eye holes
 Dimachaerus — sword fighter, but using two
swords, no shield
 Equestrian — armored riders, chest plate,
back plate, thigh armor, shield, lance
 Essedarius — fights from war chariots
 Hoplomachus — Very similar to the Samnite,
but with a larger shield. His name was the
Latin term for a Greek hoplite.
 Laquearius — most likely much like the Retiarius, but using a 'lasso' instead of a net and
most likely a lance instead of a trident
 Myrmillo — large, crested helmet with vizor
(with a fish on its crest), little shield, lance
 Paegniarius — whip, club and a shield
which is fixed to the left arm with straps
 Provocator — like Samnite, but with shield
and lance
 Retiarius — trident, net, dagger, scaled armor
(manica) covering left arm, projecting shoulderpiece to protect the neck (galerus)
The Great Battles of Spartacus!
 Samnite — medium shield, short sword,
1 greave (ocrea) on left leg, protective leather
bands covering wrists and knee and ankle of
right leg (fasciae), large, crested helmet with
vizor, small chest plate (spongia)
 Secutor — large, almost spherical helmet with
eye holes or large crested helmet with vizor,
small/medium shield
 Tertiarius — substitute fighter
 Thracian — curved short sword (sica), scaled
armor (manica) covering left arm, 2 greaves
(ocreae)
The fighters' equipment as it is mentioned
above is not based on an absolute rule.
Equipment could vary to a point. A retiarius
for example did not necessarily always have
a manica on his arm, or a galerus on his
shoulder. The above descriptions are merely
rough guidelines.
Gladiator Leaders: Gladiator leaders are
either Gladiator Generals (G. Gen),
equivalent to "Tribal Chiefs" (TCs) in CCoG
or Gladiator Chiefs (G. Chief) equivalent to
"Chiefs" in CCOG. These counters are
provided with the C3i insert in this issue.
Gladiator Leader Names: Spartacus,
Crixus, Castus and Gannicus were the actual
gladiator-officers of the slave army. Three later
famous gladiator names are used for other
leaders.
1. We know Flamma from his gravestone "a
secutor, lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won
21 times, fought to a draw 9 times, defeated 4
times, a Syrian by nationality. Delicatus made
this for his deserving comrade-in-arms."
2. Hermes, according to the poet Martial,
was a great star, considered the master
swordsman of his day.
3. Rutuba was another star of the Coliseum.
Counters: come from either Caesar: Conquest of Gaul, SPQR (for Picenum and
Silarus only) or the insert included with this
issue of C3i. The counters From column in the
set-ups indicates the origin of the counter;
either CCoG for Caesar: Conquest of Gaul,
SPQR for SPQR or C3i for the C3i insert.
Substitute Counters: If you have only CCoG
but not SPQR, don't despair. You can
substitute counters from CCoG as follows:
 for SPQR (green) Numidian LI (1-10),
use CCoG (grey) Briton LI (1-10).
 for SPQR (light blue) Iberian LI (1-10),
use CCoG (blue) Helvet LI (3-12).
 for SPQR (brown) Pergamum & Achaea
LI (6), use CCoG (grey) Briton LI (11-16).
 for SPQR Macedon and Numidia LC
use CCoG (grey) Briton LC (1-2)
 for SPQR Iberian LN use CCoG
Helvet LN.
Maps: come from Caesar: Conquest of Gaul.
Set-ups: see the Spartacus GBoH/Simple
GBoH Inserts in this issue of C3i Magazine.
Special Rules:
1. Slave Tribes: The groups of units listed
in each scenario (Germans, N. Gauls,
S. Gauls, Belgae, Iberians, Africans, East,
Gladiators, Mounted Slaves, etc.) each function as a single "Slave Tribe," even when the
units may come from multiple tribes. Slave
Tribes (including BI, LI and GS) benefit
from Rule 6.8 (Barbarian Impetuosity)
and Rule 8.5 (Barbarian Ferocity).
2. Slave Command System: In general, the
Slave Armies follow Rule 4.5 (Tribal Command System). Gladiator Chiefs function
as Tribal Chiefs (Rule 4.52) except that
they may command any assigned Slave Tribe.
Gladiator Generals (Spartacus, Crixus and
Castus) may command an assigned Slave
Tribe, or an entire Slave Army. Chiefs listed
with a Slave Tribe may command all the
units in that Slave Tribe.
3. Spartacus as Elite Commander:
The provisions of Rule 5.5 (Caesar as
Elite Commander) applies to Spartacus
in all scenarios where he is present.
4. Labienus: The counter for this legate
may not be used in any of these scenarios.
5. Gladiator GS: These elite units may
belong to any slave tribe, or be formed
as their own tribe (at Mt Garganus).
Although they are HI (or LG?), they may
join any tribal line of BI and/or LI (standard
rules) or any Slave Tribe formation (Simple)
to which they are assigned. Gladiator GS
benefit from Rule 6.8 (Barbarian Impetuosity) and Rule 8.5 (Barbarian Ferocity) as if
they were BI of their assigned Slave Tribe.
SimpleGBoH Special Rules:
1.All Slave leaders use the smaller of the two
Command Ranges printed on the counter,
unless noted otherwise. A contiguous line
may NOT be used to extend the range.
Spartacus is also treated as an elite leader.
2.Units that are Out of Command may not
move adjacent to an enemy unit nor may
they leave a hex if already in an enemy ZOC.
Out of Command units may change facing
in an enemy ZOC, unless or until they have
an enemy unit in their ZOC. Units that
begin the turn in an enemy ZOC and move
out of that ZOC, may not move adjacent
to an enemy unit during the rest of the
movement turn.
Formation Charts
Both players have a Formation Chart that
describes the overall organizational capabilities of that army. Each row of the chart lists
the units in the Formation and the leader that
commands that Formation. If more than one
type of unit is given for a single Formation, all
units of those types must activate unless the
phrase and/or appears in that Formation entry.
In this case, the player can activate any combination of the unit types listed. However, if
a given type is activated, all units of that type
must activate. Formations without a Formation Commander are treated as Auxiliaries. A
dashed line denotes separate Formations that
are led by the same Commander.
Formation Groups
If a Formation has more than one commander listed, any one of the leaders listed
can be used to command that Formation
during that Player Turn. Allowable Formation Groups and their Commanders are either
indicated as separate entries on the Formation
Chart or indicated as notes. The Formations
can be activated as a group if the following
conditions are met:
•• the individual Formation Commander is
within Command Range of the Commander
of the group listed on the Formation Chart,
and
•• the Formation Commander is stacked with
or adjacent to a unit in his Formation
The Commander of the group is activated
and may move whether or not he commands
one of the Formations. If there is no Commander for the group, all listed Formations
may activate, however, the player must roll one
die for and compare the roll to each Formation Commander's Initiative Rating. If the
die roll is higher, the units in that Formation
are automatically Out of Command for the
player turn. If the die roll is a '9', only one of
the eligible Formations may activate — owning
player's choice. If a Formation is not automatically Out of Command, the Command status
is determined separately for each Formation
per 4.11. The player is not required to activate
all of the listed Formations.
Cavalry Formations
Formations listed as Cavalry Formations
on the chart may activate on every non-Seized
Player Turn along with any other Formation or group of Formations. The
Formation is automatically Out of
Command when
activated along with any other Formation. The
units may, however, leave an enemy ZOC at
the cost of 1 Hit.
Cavalry formations are defined as formations that contain only cavalry or chariot
mounted infantry units. There may be no
other types of units in these formations to be
eligible for this rule.