Spartacus turns north

nova2010

Banned
What if Spartacus after its victory against the Gellius legion turns to the Alpes instead to Southern Italy?
 
If Roman historians ever told the truth about anything, it was the nature of Spartacus and his "legions". He simply had no control over them unless they were under serious/immediate threat. As long as they were moving through Roman territory, looting and pillaging all the way, Spartacus could "lead" them. But to conduct an organized offensive operation without an engineering corps, a logistical train, a medical corps? No matter that Spartacus wanted to do it or not, he lacked the command and control over such a disorganized force. Also, it's not like Dacia, Dalmatia, or Germania were unoccupied at the time...
 
What if Spartacus after its victory against the Gellius legion turns to the Alpes instead to Southern Italy?

There is a possibility that Spartacus' gladiator accomplices were far more interested in doing as much damage to the Roman's homeland, and getting revenge on them than simply going home. Perhaps they couldn't go home anyway, due to the stigma of enslavement. On the otherhand, perhaps it was their own people whom enslaved them inthe first place, and sold them on to Roman merchants.

If they did go north, they would have no further purpose as an army, and would individually have to rely on the mercy of the Taurisci, Norici, the Helveti and other Alpine tribes. The gladiators might fare better than those rebel slaves that just escaped from farming estates, households and labour camps, due to their fighting skills. But given the varied ethnic and geographic origins of Roman slaves, some might have come from Africa and Asia, and would simply be heading into the great unknown had there been a consensus to head up north.
 
A huge slave army wandering around cisalpine gaul hasn't got many options other than attacking rome or sitting around with their thumbs up their arses waiting to be destroyed. And as Lysandros said, there were slaves from across the Mediterranean and Europe, so the army could have maybe held out untill Spartacus died (I'd give till maybe 60-50BC before he finally kicked the bucket) then they'd just collapse into brigands and were hunted down by the Romans.

A better idea for this would be what if Spartacus had succedded in attacking Sicilly. Lets say that instead of letting the pirates just go off to "gather their fleet", he took a hostage and mangaed to get them to come back. He invades the island cutting of Romes grain supply.
 
usertron2020 said:
If Roman historians ever told the truth about anything, it was the nature of Spartacus and his "legions". He simply had no control over them unless they were under serious/immediate threat. As long as they were moving through Roman territory, looting and pillaging all the way, Spartacus could "lead" them.
Exactly. Given the choice of working for a living or looting, the majority of the horde preferred the latter. Moreover, Spartacus did not exactly lead them. On more than one occasion the army drew up for battle with different faction apart from each other so the Romans were able to defeat them in detail.

Todyo1798 said:
A better idea for this would be what if Spartacus had succedded in attacking Sicilly. Lets say that instead of letting the pirates just go off to "gather their fleet", he took a hostage and mangaed to get them to come back. He invades the island cutting of Romes grain supply.
In reply the Romans put ten legions in to chase him and his horde into the mountains. A while later they are forced to come out to be defeated and crucified.

With all due respect to Spartacus, he could not do anything in Italy that Hannibal had not done and the Carthaginian got his arse kicked too. Not withstanding his reasons for fighting, taking on the Roman Republic was not the smartest thing to do. You either lost in the short term or you lost in the long term. Quit was not in the Republic's vocabulary.
 
Exactly. Given the choice of working for a living or looting, the majority of the horde preferred the latter. Moreover, Spartacus did not exactly lead them. On more than one occasion the army drew up for battle with different faction apart from each other so the Romans were able to defeat them in detail.
Indeed. This is a point that is quite often overlooked: Spartacus’ so-called “army” was more of a massive, disorganized, rioting mob then a proper military formation. There is also that fact that there was a substantial element of Italian, and more specifically, Samnite, rebels and insurgents in Spartacus’ force. Lucanian and Bruttian bandits, the rural poor of Campania and Samnium, and old Samnite rebels, veterans of the Social War, formed a large, and more possibly better trained part of the army, but likewise they had more interest in looting and pillaging Roman and Italian cities then in making a credible escape attempt. If Spartacus goes north, he will either be intercepted by the legions of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus returning from the Sertorian campaign in Spain, or the army will disperse among the Norici and Helvetian tribes of the Alps.

A better idea for this would be what if Spartacus had succedded in attacking Sicilly. Lets say that instead of letting the pirates just go off to "gather their fleet", he took a hostage and mangaed to get them to come back. He invades the island cutting of Romes grain supply.

Spartacus’ attacking Sicilia would be an even worse plan then attempting a breakout towards the Alps. Although Sicilia was still in many respects the ‘breadbasket’ of urbs Roma, with its fast latifundia estates, and had a long history of servile revolts (under Eunus-Antiochus in the late 130’s B.C., and under Salvius ‘Tryphon’ in the late 100’s B.C.), and the servile population would most likely rise up at the earliest opportunity, a landing on Sicilia just brings the Spartacus’ army closer to the legions of the proconsul of Macedonia, Lucius Licinius Varro Lucullus, who was already preparing to land his troops at Brundisium in , while Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus (or whomever is appointed to command the consular army in Italia) advance along the Italian peninsula from the north. Spartacus remains trapped in Sicilia, and the Roman legions box him in and annihilate him, and the army disperses into groups of bandits and insurgents. Either way, it simply means that the Roman proconsules will have more crosses to line the via Appia.
 
Traversing the Alps would have been a safer option with those in the Slave Army that shared the ethnic identity of Spartacus the Thracian and Crixus the Gaul. While trying to get help of the Cilician pirates into escaping to Sicily is an extreme long-shot, plus the island is close enough for Roman legions to be mobilized there.
 
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