Spartacus Rebellion - Roman Servile Wars DOCUMENTARY

[Music] Spartacus's rebellion was the last and most important of the slave uprisings known as the servile wars unlike the two previous servile wars the third threatened the very core of the Republic as Spartacus and his army terrorized mainland Italy for three years the wall had long reaching and profound consequences as well as cementing Spartacus as an icon for revolutionaries throughout history the war would also act as a springboard for the political careers of some of Rome's most influential figures who would eventually contribute to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire shoutout to Hart sabayon for and Paradox Interactive for sponsoring this video Hart's fine for is one of our favorite strategy games and you can try it for free for a limited time ending on the 1st of March so download the game by clicking the link in the description this game offers a total strategic war on land sea and air in a world war 2 setting assume control of any historical nation in a single campaign or in both competitive and cooperative cross-platform multiplayer for up to 32 players experience the full history of world war 2 using the deep political military and diplomatic systems the new DLC called flare resistance adds secret agents espionage missions and new options for resistance and much more support our channel and play hearts of iron 4 for free by clicking the link in the description the first to surveil wars had been focused on Sicily where there was a huge concentration of disenfranchised slaves however this problem was not unique to Sicily alone but was prevalent throughout Magna Graecia including southern Italy thousands of these in slaves were put to work on latif India large farming estates but many others particularly those with military experience were sent to gladiator schools Ludi in order to fight in the room and games one of the largest gladiator schools was in Capua and it is here that Spartacus was sent Spartacus was a Thracian who had served as either a mercenary or auxilary for the Roman army before in unknown circumstances being imprisoned and sent to the gladiator school lentil as Batiatus the owner of the school was known as a particularly cruel master and as a result in 73 BC two hundred of the gladiators formed a plan to try and escape they were betrayed but before they could be stopped approximately 70 seized what weapons they could from the kitchens choppers knives and spits and fought their way out of the school as they escaped they managed to steal granite Oriole arms and armor thus equipped they took up a defensive position outside of Capua preparing to face the small force Batiatus had sent to recapture them here they nominated Spartacus as their leader and two Gauls crixus and galino mouse as his lieutenants together these three led the gladiators in the defense easily fighting off Batiatus as men and taking as much of their weapons and armor as possible with this immediate threat handled the gladiators proceeded to plunder the countryside around Capua attacking estates in the area and gathering more and more former slaves to their cause swelling their numbers to perhaps a few thousand they equipped as many of them with the captured arms as they could before retreating to a highly defensible position on Mount Vesuvius as the revolt was happening in Campania close to Rome itself and with many lands in the being owned by influential politicians the Senate acted faster than they had in the previous surveil wars however they were still seeing the event not as a full-blown revolt or start of a war but war is a collection of simple bandits as a result when they took action they only sent a praetor Gaius Claudius Glaber with 3,000 hastily assembled militia as opposed to professional legionaries clabber was hesitant to attack a trained force in such a well defended position and so instead opted to block the only passage of the mountain hoping to force spartacus into surrendering but the latter proved himself a cunning leader using the vines and trees in the area Spartacus's force made long ladders and ropes allowing them to climb down these steep sides of the mountain without being noticed quickly they marched around the base of the mountain and fell upon glaber's men from behind taken completely by surprise blabbers force was almost totally destroyed following this victory even more flocks to Spartacus he was a popular leader providing as many of them as he could with captured weapons and dividing the spoils of war equally among his force a second force possibly a full legion under the praetor Publius Varinius was also sent against Spartacus however for some reason Varinius had decided to split his force between two legate's furious and Casillas furious his force of 2,000 was forced to give battle and was quickly defeated while Cassini's leading his men to reinforce Furius was caught in camped by a river and slaughtered with the praetor only just escaping with his life after these successes Spartacus's numbers grew to almost 70,000 with the captured Roman camps providing still more equipment for his growing army with his force now considerably larger Spartacus felt confident enough to spend the remainder of the year raiding southern Italy including NOLA new career theory Atma Ponton these towns did try and put up some resistance and in one of the raids when no mouse was killed but Spartacus's force were so large and still growing that it would be effectively unstoppable save for with a consular army alarmed by Spartacus's success against the pretas and his proximity to Rome the Senate did indeed decide to send both their consoles Lucia's galius public color and næss lentil is cloudy honest with consular armies 20,000 men each to handle what the Romans finally realized was a large and organized revolt the fact that both the consuls were sent against Spartacus shows just how fearful the Senate was of Spartacus even at the very height of the previous serve our walls only one console had been sent at the start of 72 BC these two armies set out to finally crush the uprising the events of this year are vague and not well documented but there seems to have been some division between Crixus and Spartacus Crixus appears to have wanted to remain in southern Italy raiding the country and hopefully gathering more men to the cause while Spartacus was intent to push north possibly through Cisalpine Gaul to freedom as a result the army became split with 30,000 staying with Crixus in the south the rest possibly 60,000 heading north with Spartacus this divide would prove to be the first major setback for the former slaves public Allah was able to catch Crixus his army and forced it to give battle near mount gog honest they had proved themselves a formidable force but without the leadership of Spartacus a consular army was too much for Crixus to handle though he and his men fought hard and bravely they were destroyed by the Romans with 20,000 including Crixus losing their lives and the remainder fleeing to the countryside Spartacus continued his march north but his road was blocked by Claudie honest public caller following his victory over Crixus was quickly marching north as well hoping to catch Spartacus between their two armies Spartacus knew that being caught between two consular armies on either side would spell disaster and so determined to defeat them in detail first he turned his attention to the most immediate threat Claudius despite having a full consular army it seems ko Deanna's had underestimated just how many men Spartacus would have with him probably assuming that his numbers would be similar to Crixus rather than delaying until public Holika desist him Claudie Ana's gave battle and a combination of numbers and Spartacus his leadership resulted in a comprehensive victory for the rebel troops capitalizing on this victory Spartacus quickly marched to face public caller before word of his colleagues defeat could reach him public Allah too was quickly defeated both consular armies retreating to Rome to regroup in a desperate attempt to regain some honor and avoid public disgrace the two consuls tried to combine the remnants of their two forces to face Spartacus again in picking up but were once again defeated Spartacus is victory over two consuls brought even more followers to his banner giving him perhaps as many as 120,000 including civilians he briefly considered marching on Rome itself but quickly realized that despite his numbers his army did not have the engineering skills needed to take a city with such formidable defenses instead not wishing to be caught in winter in the north of Italy Spartacus again headed south spending the winter raiding the country and trading plunder with merchants in exchange for even more weapons and armor it was now the third year of the war so far despite a few setbacks Spartacus had the best of the fighting defeating craters and consuls in the field as a result when the elections for the praetor ship came around few candidates could be found most fearing being forced to face Spartacus however one man Marcus lakenya's Crassus seized upon the opportunity Crassus was one of the wealthiest men in Rome and had been steadily climbing the curses Honora Crassus was no stranger to warfare having served admirably as one of solos commanders during the civil war in 82 BC but he knew that to progress to the highest rank of consul he needed to secure himself a notable military victory personally as a result evylyn tiered himself for the praetor ship even offering his own wealth to help fund the war effort he was quickly given full command of the war and assigned six new legions as well as the remnants of public collars and Claudius's armies a total of around 30 to 50,000 legionaries plus auxiliaries Crassus his first order of business was to instill discipline in his men the legions had performed poorly thus far against Spartacus breaking quickly and shaming the Republic Crassus understood that this was not due to a lack of training but due to the soldiers fear of Spartacus himself and so Crassus decided to make his men fear him even more upon taking command of the two consular armies that had been defeated so soundly by Spartacus Crassus ordered they'd be decimated they were divided into groups of 10 drew lots and were then forced to kill one out of the ten the one that had drawn the short straw this was an ancient form of discipline in the Roman army but had the desired effect of making Crassus his troops fear him even more than the enemy Crassus next sent two legions under the command of one of his legis mummies to march behind Spartacus his army in order to cut off its retreat and to scout their army giving him strict orders not to engage however mummy Asst perhaps wanting to win glory for himself disobeyed this order and attacked Spartacus from behind once again though the legions were routed and mamiya's was forced to return to Crassus Crassus was furious at Maria's for his insubordination and at the legions for routing once again he gathered the 500 who had initially led the rout and decimated them in front of the rest of his army following this Crassus moved his entire force to face Spartacus despite Spartacus's successes he was nervous about facing kratos's eight legions with his roughly 70,000 men instead Spartacus decided to withdraw to lucania in southern Italy whilst here he attempted to negotiate passage with some pirates to Sicily hoping to leave some of his army there to stir up another rebellion and bring reinforcements however despite staking the payment the pirates betrayed Spartacus and abandoned him this gave Crassus enough time to catch up to Spartacus near Rig 'i'm utilizing his army size and skill Crassus began construction of a palisade and ditch across the Isthmus 37 miles long Spartacus his force kept harassing the workers but that had little effect and Spartacus was still apprehensive about facing Crassus his full force head-on the fortifications were soon complete Spartacus found himself trapped and running short on provisions with Crassus his armies stretched across the line Spartacus tried to focus on one point to force a way through but the Roman fortifications held and six thousand of Spartacus's men were killed assaulting the fortified legions seemed hopeless fortunately for Spartacus however a fierce snowstorm blew in one night hampering visibility seizing the opportunity Spartacus again focused his army on one point in the line filling the Roman ditch and over running the palisade slipping away with 50,000 men into lakenya thanks trying to push to Brundusium the Senate became nervous upon hearing this fearing that Spartacus had outmaneuvered Crassus and would march on Rome as a result they sent Pompey the great who had recently returned from fighting another revolt in Spain south to assist Crassus furthermore they also requested Marcus Terentius Varro lucullus brother of the more famous Lucas lakenya's lucullus bring reinforcements from his governorship in Macedonia to help however Crassus was far from finished approximately 20,000 led by Kanaka sand casters were still trapped by the rim in fortifications and Crassus was determined to finish them off first Crassus approached them cautiously sending two legged sand 6,000 men to stealthily seize some high ground behind their camp however they were spotted by locals who rushed to inform Kanaka sent casters of their position the former slaves quickly fell upon the Romans their superior numbers allowing them to almost completely encircle the Legionaries the fighting was brutal the Romans desperately trying to buy time for Crassus its main force to arrive their foes equally desperate to cut away through before being encircled fortunately for the Romans and Crassus had moved fast and his main force soon arrived it was now Kanaka sand casters who were encircled their warriors fought back fiercely trying to cut her way out of the encirclement but despite their bravery they stood no chance assailed from all sides when the fighting was over 12,000 former slaves were dead with this force neutralized Crassus now turned his attention to Spartacus following his army to Brundusium there were minor skirmishes as the two forces marched Crassus picking off small groups who tried to break away from Spartacus and forged their own escape and Spartacus routing Crassus his Scout cavalry however just as Spartacus is army was about to reach print is iam they heard that new colors had landed in the area with reinforcements Spartacus desperately tried to make a truce with Crassus but was scornfully rejected instead he started marching his army north through Campania to try and escape but once again he got word of Pompey's army from the north this proved to be the final straw for three years now Spartacus and his men had fought as free men Antley has no desire to return to being slaves but now with three armies closing in from all sides escape and so freedom seemed impossible Spartacus and his men instead marched south back to lakenya to face Crassus however Crassus did not want Pompey lucullus claiming his glory and so had been keeping close to his enemy and the two met at the Solaris River in Campania where Spartacus and his remaining troops would make their last stand the forces were roughly evenly matched Spartacus with fifty thousand remaining fighters and Crassus with forty thousand including a few thousand cavalry before the battle began Spartacus killed his own horse proclaiming that if he won the day he would have plenty of other horses to choose from and if he lost that he would not need one his point was clear retreat would not be an option Spartacus would fight to the death Spartacus is army charged the Roman ranks crashing into the maniples walls of shields despite the majority of Spartacus is army being slaves originally they had been trained by Spartacus gladiator followers armed with thundered Roman weapons and had three years of experience fighting legionaries the battle was long and bloody neither side being able to make decisive headway Spartacus seeing Crassus on a horse behind the front ranks desperately tried to fight through to his enemy cutting down two Centurions who tried to block him despite receiving numerous wounds eventually however the gladiator general was surrounded alone and cut down by Crassus his bodyguard his death sent throughout his army and with their leader slain they broke whilst the initial fighting had been brutal the battlefield now became a slaughter by the end 36 thousand former slaves lay dead compared to just one thousand Romans the remnants fleeing to the countryside processes men quickly pursued them capturing 6,000 all of whom he crucified along the Appian Way from Rome to Capua another 5,000 were taken by Pompey's forces coming from the north again all of whom were killed finally putting an end to the third servile war Rome would never again see a slave revolt of this scale and Spartacus would become an inspiration for others fighting for their freedom throughout history the third servile war is also crucial to the history of the Roman Republic Pompey would play that as he had captured the last remnants of Spartacus s army he had put the final stop to the rebellion claiming a part of Crassus his glory furthermore both generals now had not only popularity with the people for defeating what at the time was considered the greatest threat to Rome itself since Hannibal but also large armies mere miles from Rome's gates as a result in the next year 70 BC both men were elected consul Crassus would never forgive Pompey for claiming part of his glory but eventually alongside Julius Caesar they would form the first triumvirate and thus further accelerate the downfall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire we always have more stories to tell so make sure you are subscribed 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Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 721,273

Keywords: slave revolt, roman empire, roman republic, roman history, ancient rome, roman army, third servile war, marcus licinius crassus, atlantic slave trade, kings and generals, julius caesar, spartacus, pompey, sicily, bbc documentary, full documentary, slave rebellion, rome, legion, legionary, Oenomaus, crixus, Castus, Gannicus, Mount Vesuvius, Cantenna, Silarius River, ancient battles, roman battles, decisive battles, history lesson, history channel, documentary film, military history

Id: RvaXBKUDG-Y

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020