Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
advantageous place, let in the light all day long; and the
thickness of the rock makes the air within pure and clear, all the
wet and moisture being carried off into the spring.
While Crassus remained here, the steward brought them what was
necessary, but never saw them, nor knew anything of the matter,
though they within saw, and expected him at the customary times.
Neither was their entertainment such as just to keep them alive,
but given them in abundance and for their enjoyment; for Pacianus
resolved to treat him with all imaginable kindness, and
considering he was a young man, thought it well to gratify a
little his youthful inclinations; for to give just what is
needful, seems rather to come from necessity than from a hearty
friendship. Once taking with him two female servants, he showed
them the place and bade them go in boldly, whom when Crassus and
his friends saw, they were afraid of being betrayed, and demanded
what they were, and what they would have. They, according as they
were instructed, answered, they came to wait upon their master who
was hid in that cave. And so Crassus perceiving it was a piece of
pleasantry and of goodwill on the part of Vibius, took them in and
kept them there with him as long as he stayed, and employed them
to give information to Vibius of what they wanted, and how they
were. Fenestella says he saw one of them, then very old, and
often heard her speak of the time and repeat the story with
pleasure.
After Crassus had lain concealed there eight months, on hearing
that Cinna was dead, he appeared abroad, and a great number of
people flocking to him, out of whom he selected a body of two
thousand five hundred, he visited many cities, and, as some write,
sacked Malaca, which he himself, however, always denied, and
contradicted all who said so. Afterwards, getting together some
ships, he passed into Africa, and joined with Metellus Pius, an
eminent person that had raised a very considerable force; but upon
some difference between him and Metellus, he stayed not long
there, but went over to Sylla, by whom he was very much esteemed.
When Sylla passed over into Italy, he was anxious to put all the
young men that were with him in employment; and as he dispatched
some one way, and some another, Crassus, on its falling to his
share to raise men among the Marsians, demanded a guard, being to
pass through the enemy's country, upon which Sylla replied
sharply, "I give you for guard your father, your brother, your
friends and kindred, whose unjust and cruel murder I am now going
to revenge;" and Crassus, being nettled, went his way, broke
boldly through the enemy, collected a considerable force, and in
all Sylla's wars acted with great zeal and courage. And in these
times and occasions, they say, began the emulation and rivalry for
glory between him and Pompey; for though Pompey was the younger
man, and had the disadvantage to be descended of a father that was
disesteemed by the citizens, and hated as much as ever man was,
yet in these actions he shone out, and was proved so great, that
Sylla always used, when he came in, to stand up and uncover his
head, an honor which he seldom showed to older men and his own
equals, and always saluted him Imperator. This fired and stung
Crassus, though, indeed, he could not with any fairness claim to
be preferred; for he both wanted experience, and his two innate
vices, sordidness and avarice, tarnished all the lustre of his
actions. For when he had taken Tudertia, a town of the Umbrians,
he converted, it was said, all the spoil to his own use, for which
he was complained of to Sylla. But in the last and greatest
battle before Rome itself, where Sylla was worsted, some of his
battalions giving ground, and others being quite broken, Crassus
got the victory on the right wing, which he commanded, and pursued
the enemy till night, and then sent to Sylla to acquaint him with
his success, and demand provision for his soldiers. In the time,
however, of the proscriptions and sequestrations, he lost his
repute again, by making great purchases for little or nothing, and
asking for grants. Nay, they say he proscribed one of the
Bruttians without Sylla's order, only for his own profit, and
that, on discovering this, Sylla never after trusted him in any
public affairs. As no man was more cunning than Crassus to
ensnare others by flattery, so no man lay more open to it, or
swallowed it more greedily than himself. And this particularly
was observed of him, that though he was the most covetous man in
the world, yet he habitually disliked and cried out against others
who were so.
It troubled him to see Pompey so successful in all his
undertakings; that he had had a triumph before he was capable to
sit in the senate, and that the people had surnamed him Magnus, or
the Great. When somebody was saying Pompey the Great was coming,
he smiled, and asked him, "How big is he?" Despairing to equal
him by feats of arms, he betook himself to civil life, where by
doing kindnesses, pleading, lending money, by speaking and
canvassing among the people for those who had objects to obtain
from them, he gradually gained as great honor and power as Pompey
had from his many famous expeditions. And it was a curious thing
in their rivalry, that Pompey's name and interest in the city was
greatest when he was absent, for his renown in war, but when
present he was often less successful than Crassus, by reason of
his superciliousness and haughty way of living, shunning crowds of
people, and appearing rarely in the forum, and assisting only some
few, and that not readily, that his interest might be the stronger
when he came to use it for himself. Whereas Crassus, being a
friend always at hand, ready to be had and easy of access, and
always with his hands full of other people's business, with his
freedom and courtesy, got the better of Pompey's formality. In
point of dignity of person, eloquence of language, and
attractiveness of countenance, they were pretty equally excellent.
But, however, this emulation never transported Crassus so far as
to make him bear enmity, or any ill-will; for though he was vexed
to see Pompey and Caesar preferred to him, yet he never minded any
hostility or malice with his jealousy; though Caesar when he was
taken captive by the corsairs in Asia, cried out, "O Crassus, how
glad you will be at the news of my captivity!" Afterwards they
lived together on friendly terms, for when Caesar was going
praetor into Spain, and his creditors, he being then in want of
money, came upon him and seized his equipage, Crassus then stood
by him and relieved him, and was his security for eight hundred
and thirty talents. And, in general, Rome being divided into
three great interests, those of Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, (for
as for Cato, his fame was greater than his power, and he was
rather admired than followed,) the sober and quiet part were for
Pompey, the restless and hotheaded followed Caesar's ambition, but
Crassus trimmed between them, making advantages of both, and
changed sides continually, being neither a trusty friend nor an
implacable enemy, and easily abandoned both his attachments and
his animosities, as he found it for his advantage, so that in
short spaces of time, the same men and the same measures had him
both as their supporter and as their opponent. He was much liked,
but was feared as much or even more. At any rate, when Sicinius,
who was the greatest troubler of the magistrates and ministers of
his time, was asked how it was he let Crassus alone, "Oh," said
he, "he carries hay on his horns," alluding to the custom of tying
hay to the horns of a bull that used to butt, that people might
keep out of his way.
The insurrection of the gladiators and the devastation of Italy,
commonly called the war of Spartacus, began upon this occasion.
One Lentulus Batiates trained up a great many gladiators in Capua,
most of them Gauls and Thracians, who, not for any fault by them
committed, but simply through the cruelty of their master, were
kept in confinement for this object of fighting one with another.
Two hundred of these formed a plan to escape, but their plot being
discovered, those of them who became aware of it in time to
anticipate their master, being seventy-eight, got out of a cook's
shop chopping-knives and spits, and made their way through the
city, and lighting by the way on several wagons that were carrying
gladiator's arms to another city, they seized upon them and armed
themselves. And seizing upon a defensible place, they chose three
captains, of whom Spartacus was chief, a Thracian of one of the
nomad tribes, and a man not only of high spirit and valiant, but
in understanding, also, and in gentleness, superior to his
condition, and more of a Grecian than the people of his country
usually are. When he first came to be sold at Rome, they say a
snake coiled itself upon his face as he lay asleep, and his wife,
who at this latter time also accompanied him in his flight, his
country-woman, a kind of prophetess, and one of those possessed
with the bacchanal frenzy, declared that it was a sign portending
great and formidable power to him with no happy event.
First, then, routing those that came out of Capua against them,
and thus procuring a quantity of proper soldiers' arms, they
gladly threw away their own as barbarous and dishonorable.
Afterwards Clodius, the praetor, took the command against them
with a body of three thousand men from Rome, and besieged them
within a mountain, accessible only by one narrow and difficult
passage, which Clodius kept guarded, encompassed on all other
sides with steep and slippery precipices. Upon the top, however,
grew a great many wild vines, and cutting down as many of their
boughs as they had need of, they twisted them into strong ladders
long enough to reach from thence to the bottom, by which, without
any danger, they got down all but one, who stayed there to throw
them down their arms, and after this succeeded in saving himself.
The Romans were ignorant of all this, and, therefore, coming upon
them in the rear, they assaulted them unawares and took their
camp. Several, also, of the shepherds and herdsman that were
there, stout and nimble fellows, revolted over to them, to some of
whom they gave complete arms, and made use of others as scouts and
light-armed soldiers. Publius Varinus, the praetor, was now sent
against them, whose lieutenant, Furius, with two thousand men,
they fought and routed. Then Cossinius was sent, with
considerable forces, to give his assistance and advice, and him
Spartacus missed but very little of capturing in person, as he was
bathing at Salinae; for he with great difficulty made his escape,
while Spartacus possessed himself of his baggage, and following
the chase with a great slaughter, stormed his camp and took it,
where Cossinius himself was slain. After many successful
skirmishes with the praetor himself, in one of which he took his
lictors and his own horse, he began to be great and terrible; but
wisely considering that he was not to expect to match the force of
the empire, he marched his army towards the Alps, intending, when
he had passed them, that every man should go to his own home, some
to Thrace, some to Gaul. But they, grown confident in their
numbers, and puffed up with their success, would give no obedience
to him, but went about and ravaged Italy; so that now the senate
was not only moved at the indignity and baseness, both of the
enemy and of the insurrection, but, looking upon it as a matter of
alarm and of dangerous consequence, sent out both the consuls to
it, as to a great and difficult enterprise. The consul Gellius,
falling suddenly upon a party of Germans, who through contempt and