Roman troops
on campaign always constructed a defended camp to serve as a secure base
both for attack and defense. Every camp was built on a standard pattern,
usually a square, divided by streets, tent lines, and horse lines, and
surrounded by a ditch and rampart. As a Roman army completed its march,
a good campsite was chosen,
surveyors carefully laid out the skeleton of the place, and then the men
did the rest. The soldiers slept in leather tents, eight men to a tent.
The commander’s tent, known as the praetorium, served both
as his living quarters and the army’s headquarters. With three thousand
men as well as animals, Glaber’s camp probably covered about ten
acres.
Because the Romans prided themselves on attacking the enemy, the camp’s defenses were usually light. The ditch was normally only about three feet wide and deep, the rampart a low mound of earth topped with wooden stakes. Pickets were stationed outside the ramparts to warn of attack and to slow down the enemy. Of course, a dangerous and sly enemy required stronger defenses. But Glaber took Spartacus too lightly. The Romans, says one ancient source, “did not yet consider this a war but rather some raid, like an attack by bandits.” Glaber seems to have ordered no special security.
One ancient
source says the fugitives came from an unexpected direction; another,
that they surrounded the camp; another, that they came from a hidden exit
in a crevice. It is not clear that they outnumbered the Romans but they
did have the advantage of surprise: the ancients all agree that the Romans
were shocked—and well they should have been. Spartacus’s
men probably picked off the sentries and then fell on the men in their
tents. Without time to get into formation, the Romans had no choice but
to fight a series of melees, if they fought at all. The gladiators were
big, agile, and fast enough probably to have cut to pieces any man who
stood up to them.
Thracians, Germans, and Celts were all tall compared to Romans. Celts were known for their rapid and terrifying charges accompanied by battle cries and songs. The Thracians’ war cry had a special name in Greek, the titanismos. The Germans’ battle cry was a “confused roar” caused by putting their shields to their mouths; if the Germans with Spartacus didn’t have shields, they might have used animal skins instead.
Some of the Celts might have worn their hair long or had thick mustaches in the manner of Gallic nobles; some might have spiked their hair by washing it in chalky water, and then combed it up to make them look taller. It is possible that a few went into battle naked, except for a sword belt and torque, as a traditional Celtic sign of ferocity. Any women at the battle were prominently cheering their men on, as was the custom of Celtic, German, and Thracian women. Greek and Roman writers registered this practice with shock, and archaeology confirms it. In an immense mass grave of Gallic warriors in northern France, erected as a trophy of a battle in 260 B.C., one-third of the bones belonged to women: most of them, like the men, had fallen in the prime of life.
One thing seems likely: few of the insurgents went into battle without first drinking wine. This was standard procedure for both Celts and Thracians, and, for that matter, for most soldiers in the ancient world. The Romans faced attackers whose courage had been boosted by the fruit of Rome’s best grapes.
Another likelihood is that all of them prayed before beginning their charge. Each no doubt called on his native gods but they all might have shared a prayer to the god who guided the star of the man who had started it all: Dionysus, the god of Spartacus.
The sources all agree that the Roman soldiers fled. Triumphant and perhaps even shocked at the ease of victory, Spartacus’s forces took Glaber’s camp. They promptly plundered it. No doubt they found food, clothing, weapons, and possibly letters from the Senate.
No casualty figures survive from the engagement. Some men surely were killed or wounded, most of them Roman. The rebels stripped the arms and armor from the dead. Experienced soldiers knew that they had to move quickly before rigor mortis made it difficult to undress a corpse. The gladiators probably suffered fewer casualties, but one of them might have been their third leader, Oenomaus, the Celt. We know that he fell in an early battle.
Part of Spartacus’s success can be chalked up to Roman incompetence, but only part. Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus were shrewd soldiers. Rather than attack the enemy head-on they went after his weak point. They came up with an ingenious plan that maximized their minimal resources. They executed the plan with daring and efficiency. Rugged mountainous terrain did not concern them; Thracians would have felt at home in that kind of country. next