The Battle of Mount Vesuvius was fought in 73 BC at the start of the Third Servile War between the Roman Republic and Spartacus' slave army. The slave rebels launched a surprise attack on Marcus Publius Glabrus' six cohorts on the mountainside and annihilated them, with just 14 Roman soldiers surviving the disaster.
Background[]
In 73 BC, the Thracian slave Spartacus and 70 other gladiators escaped from the lanista Lentulus Batiatus' gladiatorial school in Capua, using choppers and spits to fight their way free from the school and seize several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor. These fugitive gladiators pillaged the countryside of southern Italy, freeing slaves as they went, gathering recruits to their cause, and defeating and looting Roman soldiers sent to stop them. Spartacus' followers soon had the size of an army, and they retired to a more defensible position on Mount Vesuvius, where the rebels and their families established a makeshift settlement and fort.
The recently-appointed commander of the garrison of Rome, Marcus Publius Glabrus, was charged by the Roman Senate with leading six cohorts of the garrison to crush the slave uprising. His appointment had been secured by his political patron Marcus Licinius Crassus, who sought for him to be a pawn in his rivalry with Gracchus and the Senate, but Gracchus cleverly arranged for Glabrus to leave Rome with his soldiers, appointing his own pupil Julius Caesar as temporary commander of the Rome garrison in Glabrus' absence.
Battle[]
The Roman troops marching up Mount Vesuvius
Glabrus and his army deployed on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius at sunset and set up camp, but the complacent Roman commander neglected to surround his camp with moat and stockade, as he was confident that his sentries would ensure that there would be no attack by night. The Roman soldiers underestimated their rivals, and they instead held celebrations at their camp and paid little attention to staying on their guard.
Spartacus' lieutenants Crixus, Dionysius, and David scouted out the Roman defenses and revealed that the Roman camp was unfortified, motivating Spartacus to launch an assault on the Roman cohorts in their camp at night. The Romans were taken completely by surprise, and the slaves set fire to their camp, causing great panic. Glabrus was captured in his command tent while laying on his stomach, playing dead with the hope that he would not be captured, and Spartacus had him taken in front of the slave army and humiliated. Spartacus broke his legate's baton to symbolize the breaking of the Senate's power, and he instructed Glabrus to return to the Senate with the broken baton and tell them that the slaves would march south and leave Italy by ship, and that the slaves would defeat any army sent by Rome to stop them.
Aftermath[]
Glabrus on trial before the Senate
Glabrus returned to the Senate and told them of the disastrous defeat; he notified them that just 14 Roman soldiers had reported for duty that day. The Senate was appalled when Glabrus admitted that he had not made the necessary preparations for encamping, and Gracchus decided that, as Glabrus' sponsor, Crassus should pass judgment on Glabrus' fate. Crassus decreed that, as per the usual punishment for disgracing Rome's military, Glabrus should be denied fire, water, food, and shelter within 400 miles of Rome. However, Crassus refused to dissociate himself from his friend and decided to lay down command of his legions and retire to private life. This caused fears among Gracchus and his Populares that Crassus would use this opportunity to seize power for himself. Oppius Atius Statius claimed that Crassus had acted on a point of honor (to which Gracchus responded that it was "patrician honor" and was superficial), while Servius Pompilius Volusianus claimed that Crassus was the only man in Rome who hadn't yielded to "republican corruption" (to which Gracchus responded that he would rather take a little republican corruption and republican freedom than live under Crassus' dictatorship and no freedom).