The leader of the slave liberation revolution

Metawh1

13 Dec, 2022

Introducing Spartacus

Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who fought in the gladiatorial games of the Roman Republic, and is historically known as the leader of the slave liberation revolution in the Roman era, and although this is true to a large extent, it is worth noting that this revolution, or the rebellion movement was not the first of its kind.

the Roman Empire witnessed many revolutions and rebellions that lunched by The slaves, but all of them were low – level insurgency and did not succeed, as a few soldiers and gear were able to suppress this rebellion and control it.

Spartacus

Some historians believe that the repetition of weak, unplanned revolts was one of the main reasons that led to the success of the rebellion of the group of the slaves that Spartacus later led, as the Romans dealt with it in the beginning with meekness and contempt, because they believed that it was just a whirlwind that would end as the previous one ended.

The Gladiators’ War

This movement is known as the Third Servile War, the Gladiators’ War, or the Spartacus War, all of which refer to one historical event, which is the last episode of a series of slave rebellions known historically as (the Roman Slave Wars), and that confrontation lasted for three years, between (73 - 71 BC), and it passed through more than one different stage.

The first stage of revolution

The first stage is a rebellion that began with the process of escaping from inside the camp in which the slaves were holding by these gladiators, and the slaves at this stage used kitchen utensils, wooden pegs, and stones as weapons, and they were already able with these tools to confront the groups of guards, and were able to bypass the prison walls being held inside, and some sources indicate that Spartacus was the mastermind of the gladiators' rebellion, while other sources assert that he was only one of the participants in it, and that his inauguration as the leader of a group of fugitives estimated to number about 80 slaves came later.

The second stage

The second stage, in which Rome sent a group of military militias to confront the rebellion movement, but it happened late, after they realized that it differs from the previous rebellion movements, and that the rebels this time were trained gladiators, and that their movements were organized, and were according to pre-planned, and they did not try to escape randomly as they had expected, and during this time Spartacus had taken command of the group of slaves and was able to recruit more of them, until the number of rebellious slaves throughout Rome reached about 120,000.

Prepare for the revolution

Spartacus, who was called by his followers in that period the title of general of accounts of the Roman leaders, confused and changed the strategy of the rebellion movements, he stopped escaping, and began to prepare groups of his followers, to attack Roman patrols and pounce on their soldiers, killing them and obtaining supplies, horses, and armaments from them.

The outbreak of the uprising

And after Spartacus was trained in a gladiatorial school called a ludus, he sufficiently armed his followers, his attacks continued on the Roman villages, and fighting its protective forces and looting its wealth,
a gladiatorial school
but the real gain that the slaves gained, was the turn of public opinion in Rome against the Roman leaders, as they caused them great embarrassment, and showed them in the form of incapable of facing a group of rebellious slaves.

The third stage lies in the meeting of the Roman Senate and their decisions to limit the repeated victories of Spartacus and his followers, and the Council showed its fears of the victories of the rebels, and stressed that the continuation of this situation might eventually lead to the complete collapse of the Roman state, and Spartacus was already close to achieving this, so the leaders of Rome stop dealing with the matter as a rebellion movement, and they dealt with it with the logic of war, as they sent a large army of eight legions to confront the slaves.

The war between Rome and the slaves lasted for several bloody months, after which the Roman armies were able to besiege Spartacus and his followers, and they thought that the Romans would force them to surrender, after they cut off supplies and supplies, but the commander Spartacus refused to surrender to them, and he also thought it wise not to continue the war after losing many of his men, so he chose the legion of the commander Crassus as the weakest and the only gap in the siege of the Romans He concentrated all his forces on that side, and he used the element of surprise to his favor

After a long and bloody fight with that legion, Spartacus and his comrades were able to break the siege and withdraw from the battlefield.

This war officially ended with the withdrawal of the slaves, and the announcement of the Romans that they regained control of all parts of the country, but the fact of the matter was that the victory was an ally of the slave group, they inflicted the Great Rome with heavy losses, and most importantly, they inspired thousands of slaves in all parts of the country, condemning the policy of the Romans, paving the way towards the actual end of the policy of slavery, and this is Spartacus' greatest achievement and its greatest impact.