Spartacus

[premeginia]

After reading up on the acheivements of Spartacus, i just had to ask do you think he could have won?

[Ursus]

Against the combined might of the legions he would have lost sooner or later, especially given the internal divisions of his "army."

[Primus Pilus]

It depends on your definition of 'won'.

 

Could Spartacus have escaped north into Germania and established and maintained an independent 'raiding' force? I suppose so, but that wasn't the objective of a main part of his army. Even if they were all on the same page in that respect, escaping from Italy would've been one thing, moving an entire army unimpeded through hostile and already controlled Germanic territory may have been another.

 

Had the Cilicians taken Spartacus and his army to the east, whether to eventually serve as a mercenaries to a foreign king or to simply disperse throughout the population, I suppose one could consider that a victory of sorts. However, there is no possibility whatsoever that Spartacus would've continued to win military victories against Consular legions. Even had he defeated Crassus, Pompey was on the march from Hispania with battle hardened veterans. And to top it off, these men were not just veterans but had been fighting against the guerilla tactics of Sertorius and would've been well suited to face the 'gladiator army'.

[Roman bl00d]

I think Spartacus would have been defeated in the end if he remained in Italy fighting the Roman legions. The legions were armed better, had more training and more disiplin.

 

I also think that is he did retreat to the north Crassus and Pompey might have still chased him because if they let him get away he would have set a very bold revolt that many more would have been inspired by. But by burning all the slaves the remainder would be content and not revolt.

Edited December 21, 2005 by Roman bl00d

[phil25]

On balance, I would agree with Primus Pilus. Had the slave leaders agreed and left Italy, then they might just have been able to establish their own community somewhere - but as Roman Blood observes, it is likely that pomeius and crassus would have pursued them - if only so that no precedent or example existed for slaves thereafter.

 

In Italy, against the legions, they had no chance. If all else failed, Pompeius would have extirpated them by organisation and numbers as he did the pirates.

 

Phil

[P.Clodius]

He had 0% chance. Even had he managed to leave Italy the romans would have HAD to make an example of him and would have pursued him to the ends of the earth with their usual efficiency.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Spartacus himself probably hadn't much chance in Italy, but if he could have used his legendary leadership abilities to to unite the Germans... his chances would have been better.

 

Slightly on-topic, but weren't the Bacaudae a bunch of slaves who successfully resisted Roman authority for a long time? It's late empire, so my knowledge is scant.

[alekandros]

As was said, depends on the definition of "won"

In open confrontation in battle, eventually he would have been defeated. In his last battle, even if he had defeated Crassus, his forces would have been depleted and Pompey was right on his heels coming from Spain. I have no hesitance in saying that Pompey would have destroyed Sparticus's army.

Now, had Sparticus and his people taken their victory when they had it and gone off to the further regions, prehaps you could say they won. At the time that Sparticus's rebellion occured, things were already stewing in Rome and Sparticus quite possibly could have been forgotten until a time later then things had settled down.

[pompeius magnus]

Im afraid victory for Spartacus would have been impossible. Even if he had managed to defeat Crassus and his legions, if Spartacus moved on Rome, Pompeius would have been called back from his campaigns in the east and would have crushed spartacus. The remanants of his army were terribly punished, they were all crusified along a major road leading from Campania into Rome, that would have been enough to keep me in line for ever.

[M. Porcius Cato]

In the history of the institution, slave revolts were rarely successful. I can think of only one off-hand (Haiti). In contrast, small-scale organized escapes were fairly often successful. Perhaps if Spartacus had quietly made for Gaul he would have been better off.