WI Spartacus goes to Sicily

According to some sources, Spartacus wanted to flee to Sicily with hundreds of his men and start a rebelion there, but was betrayed by the pirates who had agreed to cross them.

What if they had managed to cross? Sicily was full of unhappy slaves working in plantations and in the mines, and had a history of slave rebelions.

Could spartacus' arrival had sparked a general rebellion? If so, what's the best case scenario for them? How much can they achieve? And what would the effects of this be in Roman politics?
 
Don't see the Romans ever just letting it be, though. Can Spartacus ever get strong enough to escape the Roman sphere or sack Rome itself?
 

maverick

Banned
Basically, the Second Servile War all over again.

Pompey already made a name for himself by crushing rebels in Sicily, so maybe he's called earlier from Hispania and he defeats Spartacus rather than Crassus?
 
The Romans would just keep trying and eventually win.

They simply have much more manpower.
 
The Romans would just keep trying and eventually win.

They simply have much more manpower.

Well, France was much more powerfull than Haiti, and...

But, I know, Haiti was far away, and even so, France only abandoned because it had to face other world powers greater than her. Sicily was too close, and Rome didn't have to face a competing world power at that stage.

So, you all think the slaves loose? How much can they hold the islands for?
 
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Don't see the Romans ever just letting it be, though. Can Spartacus ever get strong enough to escape the Roman sphere or sack Rome itself?

I don't think he could sack Rome, let alone destroy it. The only way he could sack Rome would be if, when he's close to Rome, a slave uprising starts within Rome itself, and Rome is sacked by the plebe and by Roman slaves... and Spartacus'men just join in.

Anyway, this is a very unlikely scenario, because everybody in Rome (including the slaves) depended on the Roman State for food (cheap or free grain). They might cause riots if angry, but they wouldn't completely destroy the state that grants them food. And they wouldn't do something that would make them killed by Roman legions.

As for escaping, some say his original plan was to flee to Gaul. If he does so with enough of his men, they might escape Roman sphere of influence and become something similar to one of the many tribes that existed...
 

maverick

Banned
Sicily was often the center of rebellions or the last holdout in a civil war.

I don't know what the record is, maybe two years, but I think that during the second servile war they lasted for a about a year.
 
Sicily was often the center of rebellions or the last holdout in a civil war.

I don't know what the record is, maybe two years, but I think that during the second servile war they lasted for a about a year.

OK, see. So, it'd be unlikely for them to last more than 3 or 4 years, wouldn't it?
 

maverick

Banned
OK, see. So, it'd be unlikely for them to last more than 3 or 4 years, wouldn't it?

I think that lasting for a year might be stretching it.

The problem is that Sicily is Rome's granary, so they're not just going to sit on their thumbs, they'll react even faster and call Pompey, since he was the last guy to crush a rebellion in Sicily.

Then again, according to this site, one rebel managed to hold Sicily for several years during one of the Republic's last civil wars.
 
I think that lasting for a year might be stretching it.

The problem is that Sicily is Rome's granary, so they're not just going to sit on their thumbs, they'll react even faster and call Pompey, since he was the last guy to crush a rebellion in Sicily.

Then again, according to this site, one rebel managed to hold Sicily for several years during one of the Republic's last civil wars.

Yeah, I seem to recall Pompey's cousin or nephew or some sort of relation holding onto Sicily for a few years, but I think that was because for at least a time his possession was confirmed by Caesar, and because by that time Egypt could be counted on for grain shipments.
 
There is also the matter of Spartacus holding his rabble together. On two occasions it divided into two and the Romans went onto the stuff the non-Spartacan led contingent. No doubt it would divide on Sicily and Crassus (because he gets there first) stuff half of the rabble before Pompey turns up.

The fact is that Spartacus can run anywhere he likes but it is within the territory of the Republic he would eventually lose because the Romans have better logistics.
 
I'm sure I heard somewhere that they had a chance to escape across the Alps into Barbarian country, but turned back. I'm not sure exactly why. Did they want to do just one more bit of looting before they left? Or was the prospect of living among the Barbarians just too scary when they were used to living (even as slaves) in the Roman world?
 
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I'm sure I heard somewhere that they had a chance to escape across the Alps into Barbarian country, but turned back. I'm not sure exactly why. Did they want to do just one more bit of looting before they left? Or was the prospect of living among the Barbarians just too scary when they were used to living in the Roman world?

Both theories have been suggested.
 
I'm sure I heard somewhere that they had a chance to escape across the Alps into Barbarian country, but turned back. I'm not sure exactly why. Did they want to do just one more bit of looting before they left? Or was the prospect of living among the Barbarians just too scary when they were used to living (even as slaves) in the Roman world?
It should be taken into consideration that crossing the Alps would not have been easy. Better looting and pillaging than trying to cross the mountains. Add the fact that Spartacus and his men had routinely been kicking the Romans' butt and it starts to look a bit of a no brainer to stay in Italy.
 
Well, France was much more powerfull than Haiti...

And Sicily doesn't have yellow fever and malaria nor did Haiti feed Paris.

Rome is not going to allow a slave revolt to succeed and Rome is not going to allow the island which provided most of her grain prior to the conquest of Egypt to fall into the hands of another power.

Besides, if Spartacus had really wanted to go to Sicily, crossing the Straits of Messina wouldn't require help from pirates. The straits are only 3 miles across at their widest, you can row across them in a fishing punt if you have to.

In order to truly escape Rome, Spartacus needs to leave the known world. In order to hound another enemy to death, look at how long and assiduously Rome followed Hannibal in his wanderings after the Second Punic War.
 
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