In 77 b. c., Rome sent one of its leading generals, Pom-pey (PAHM-pee; 106-48 b. c.), to put down an uprising in Spain. Only a few years later, Pompey had to rush back to Rome in order to deal with a new force that threatened the very heart of Roman power, both for the nobiles and for the populates: a slave revolt.
Its leader was Spartacus (SPAHR-tuh-kuhs), a Thracian slave sent to a school in Capua for the training of gladiators (GLAD-ee-ay-tohrz). Gladiators were warriors who fought to their deaths in a ring, watched by cheering spectators. The spectators paid good money for this form of “entertainment,” and they expected to see the death of at least one of the two combatants in a match. No wonder, then, that Spartacus and the other slaves at the gladiatorial (glad-ee-uh-TOHR-ee-uhl) school revolted in 73 b. c. Within a short time, they had an army of more than 120,000.
Slavery was the foundation of ancient Rome's great wealth. Rome was not about to allow the slave revolt, sometimes called the Gladiatorial War (73-71 B. C.), to proceed unchecked.
The Death of Spartacus. Drawing by H. Vogel.
Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by permission.
Not only did Rome call back Pompey, but it sent another army under the control of Crassus (KRA-suhs; c.
115-53 B. C.), an ally of Sulla who had become incredibly wealthy by buying up property confiscated under the dictatorship. In the final battle, Spartacus himself died rather than be captured— a wise choice, since the Romans crucified some 6,000 slaves along the Appian Way (AP-ee-uhn), the main road from Capua to Rome.
Pompey went on to deal with a group of pirates threatening the eastern Mediterranean. As the power of Greece had ebbed and Roman control of the region had remained uncertain, the pirates had returned. In 67 B. C.,
Pompey broke their hold, thus making
The area safe for shipping. The following year saw his destruction of the other principal challenge to Roman control over the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor: Mithradates. Mithra-dates had allied with his son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia, against Rome. The defeat of both men gave Rome lands that stretched from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Pompey's victory in the east was marred at home, however, by a revolt whose leader was Catiline (KAT-uh-leen; c. 108-62 b. c.) Catiline might have overthrown the government in 63 b. c., but the noted orator Cicero (SIS-uh-roh; 106-43 b. c.) helped foil his plan. Catiline was executed the following year.
To prevent the rise of another Catiline, Pompey proposed to form a new government. He had come out of the wars with Spartacus and Mithradates as one of the most powerful men in Rome, but he was wise enough to recognize that he could not rule on his own. Therefore he turned to Crassus, whose wealth, if nothing more, made him a formidable ally. These two formed an alliance with another soldier-statesman,
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