Tristan Hughes

Right, so how do we go from those successful ambushes and chasing away that guy naked from the swimming pool to this, you know, this pitched battle against two consuls?

Yes, because they've gone from Campania to the south, then, you know, mutinous.

All the way north.

Defeating everyone as they come.

Do they just keep going north towards the Alps?

Funny, isn't it?

So who is Marcus Licinius Crassus?

Crassus.

It wasn't just that, how much are you going to pay me?

So he's now got a sizable army at his back.

They're deciding we've got to deal with Spartacus now.

And Spartacus, in the meantime, has he just been, I'm sure he's hearing the reports of what's happening, but he's been marching south still?

Yes, it doesn't seem to be a very regular punishment.

The only other example that comes immediately to my mind is with another rebel a few decades later, Tacferinus in North Africa, where I think there's a similar case of a Roman army going out, being beaten by Tacferinus, being overconfident, and then the commander-in-chief orders another decimation.

So yes,

brutal, but doesn't seem to have been very regular.

And so what happens after this?

So Mummius is...

attack has not gone well, and they've had this brutal punishment.

But it seems like Spartacus, he's getting nearer and nearer Sicily of all places.