the escapees started training other runaway slaves to fight.The group
went on to defeat several small Roman armies sent to stop them. Even
the two consuls then in office—Gellius and Lentulus—failed to stop
Spartacus.
The Senate then tried to deal with what had become a full-blown
crisis. Seeing the consuls as useless and knowing that Pompey was
away on a military expedition in Spain, the senators worriedly debated
what to do. Crassus viewed this as an opening for him to acquire per-
sonal glory and offered to lead an army against Spartacus. Perhaps be-
cause he had many friends among the senators, they accepted his offer.
For various reasons, however, Crassus and his soldiers initial-
ly made little headway against the slaves. As a result, the Senate
begged Pompey to hurry home from Spain and aid in the effort to
stop Spartacus, a move that alarmed Crassus. The latter knew, Plu-
tarch wrote, “that the credit for the success would be likely to go not
In French artist Jean Gerome’s famous 1872 painting
Pollice Verso
(“Thumbs Down”), a victorious gladiator prepares to slay his fallen
opponent. The slave Spartacus was training for such work when he
escaped and began threatening Rome.
