Ben Kane

Yeah, that's specialised because only a Thracian warrior would have used one of them.

So they may have had some of them.

But, I mean, in the night time, you're wielding one of them, even if it's sharp and you chop someone with it.

Yeah.

Maybe it's more the armor as well, I guess.

Yeah.

Well, again, the legionaries Glaber commanded would have had the armor, we think, and weapons of a typical Republican legionary, which was male shirt, simple Montefartino helmet.

larger shield than you're used to seeing on TV, a Republican scutum, which is bigger top and bottom and curved, and one or two throwing javelins, and probably a dagger as well.

So, you know, great equipment for if you're trained how to use weapons, just because you've never used a particular, you know, if you've used one kind of gun, it's usually quite easy to work out how to use another type of gun.

I still want to ask because it's interesting to think about how they're now kitted out.

Well, it brings us on to the, which we'll talk about later, his successes in battle.

Did he train them in the Roman fashion?

Because it's quite possible, indeed, there's even a suggestion there may have been a Roman or two helping them to do that.

Because at the time, there was a general called Sertorius who was in Spain, who was a rebel against the Republic.

And there is some reference in the texts to potentially, and obviously I used it in my novels,

a Roman soldier from Sertorius coming to Italy and joining Spartacus to help train his men, because that would help bring down the Republic, which would help Sertorius.

I love the story of Sertorius.

Yeah, so it's thought that he broke out of the Ludus or the gladiator school in the spring of 73 BC and that he was on Vesuvius into the summer of 73 BC when Gleyber came to basically get beaten and run away.

And then the army swelled in size massively, potentially beyond 10,000, potentially up to 30,000 or even more.

Wow.