Third Servile War - Motivation and Leadership of The Escaped Slaves

Motivation and Leadership of The Escaped Slaves

By the end of 73 BC, Spartacus and Crixus were in command of a large group of armed men with a proven ability to withstand Roman armies. What they intended to do with this force is somewhat difficult for modern readers to determine. Since the Third Servile War was ultimately an unsuccessful rebellion, no firsthand account of the slaves' motives and goals exists, and historians writing about the war propose contradictory theories.

Many popular modern accounts of the war claim that there was a factional split in the escaped slaves between those under Spartacus, who wished to escape over the Alps to freedom, and those under Crixus, who wished to stay in southern Italy to continue raiding and plundering. This appears to be an interpretation of events based on the following: the regions that Florus lists as being raided by the slaves include Thurii and Metapontum, which are geographically distant from Nola and Nuceria.

This indicates the existence of two groups: Lucius Gellius Publicola eventually attacked Crixus and a group of some 30,000 followers who are described as being separate from the main group under Spartacus. Plutarch describes the desire of some of the escaped slaves to plunder Italy, rather than escape over the Alps. While this factional split is not contradicted by classical sources, there does not seem to be any direct evidence to support it.

Fictional accounts—such as Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus—sometimes portray Spartacus as an ancient Roman freedom fighter, struggling to change a corrupt Roman society and to end the Roman institution of slavery. Although this is not contradicted by classical historians, no historical account mentions that the goal of the rebel slaves was to end slavery in the Republic, nor do any of the actions of rebel leaders, who themselves committed numerious atrocities, seem specifically aimed at ending slavery.

Even classical historians, who were writing only years after the events themselves, seem to be divided as to what the motives of Spartacus were. Appian and Florus write that he intended to march on Rome itself—although this may have been no more than a reflection of Roman fears. If Spartacus did intend to march on Rome, it was a goal he must have later abandoned. Plutarch writes that Spartacus merely wished to escape northwards into Cisalpine Gaul and disperse his men back to their homes.

It is not certain that the slaves were a homogeneous group under the leadership of Spartacus. While this is the unspoken assumption of the Roman historians, this may be the Romans projecting their own hierarchical view of military power and responsibility on the ad hoc organization of the slaves. Certainly other slave leaders are mentioned—Crixus, Oenomaus, Gannicus, and Castus—and we cannot tell from the historical evidence whether they were aides, subordinates, or even equals leading groups of their own and traveling in convoy with Spartacus' people.