His whole career is covered in a variety of ancient sources but even then there are really very few words written about him in those books. Even adding in the other two major slave revolts, the information would cover a handful of pages. I'll put a list of the sources and some links at the end. Modern writers have expanded on this and tried to reconcile the sometimes contradictory statements with a greater or lesser degree of success.
I won't try to write a resume of the wars - there is enough online. I'll concentrate on what I did to build a 15mm wargames army for DBMM.
There are times where the purchase of a new army creeps up on you in a number of insidious ways until, before you know it, you find yourself immersed in lead.
The next step was that my interest in the late Republic grew. I thought the slave revolts sounded interesting, but not very practical to get an army.
Soon after, we had a DBA competition at my club based around the late Republic. I had time, so I thought I'd give the slaves a go. After all, its only twelve elements - less than sixty figures. No problem.
I made a start on adding to the DBA army to get ready for a DBMM100 game although that was cancelled. Then I thought I'd get them done to play DBMM200. Before I knew it, I was suggesting to my doubles partner that we took a 500 AP army to the Burton doubles.
That was in October I think. I already had a lot of the lead and added more to it, some of it due to Xyston bringing out more packs which I thought would mix well and partly to replace stuff I bought at Derby and promptly lost. Christmas should have seen plenting of painting time but I was struck low by various ailments so I was still basing and painting the week before the competition. It didn't help that on the final night, I checked the list and found I was a cavalry general short. I had suitable figures and managed to get him done, finishing the base at 6.30 in the morning before setting out for Burton!
The DBMM slave revolt list is split by period to represent the three major revolts, each being seen as having its distinctive features. Mine has been built for Spartacus's rebellion but I used some sources for the earlier periods for a but of inspiration.
The army is composed of, in DBMM terms, ex-slaves (horde superior), ex-slaves in Roman gear (blade inferior), gladiators and veterans (blade ordinary), shepherds (psiloi inferior), Gallic and German veterans (warband ordinary and superior) and cavalry (cavalry ordinary).
The Gladiators
http://www.livius.org/a/1/romanempire/gladiators_sIBCE_mus_munchen.JPG is an intersesting 1st century BC depiction of gladiators.
UPDATE: http://archive.archaeology.org/image.php?page=0709/trenches/jpegs/gladiators2.jpg is a fairly recently recovered 1st century BC frieze of gladiators.
For those who still want to use gladiator figures, there are some useful comparison figures of various manufacturers at Irregular Wars . He also has shots of various period civilians.
The fighters accompanying them are Principes and Triarii from the Republican Roman range. I've taken off the feathers from the helmets. There are also one or two of the Carthaginian veterans in Roman armour. I've also used some lictors - "his men brought to their leader the insignia and fasces captured from the praetors" (Florus). It helps to identify the generals from afar. One of the standard bearers has lost his hand in a previous fight (also known as a miscast).
The shields are mostly a mix of the Xyston Roman shields, Italian scuta, Samnite shields and a few Gallic ovals. Some have been hacked about to give that 'one unlucky previous owner' look. There are pila holes in some though these can't really be seen and wasn't worth the effort. A few have been painted to look as if the leather outer layer has begun to fall off. Exactly what Republican Roman shield designs were is the source of much debate. I've used some patterns from the early Empire, a few inspired by a later painting of gladiators and some from a Republican monument. In some cases I have painted the same design but different colours. This may have been a way of distinguishing cohortes. Some are plain red with a yellow strip across the top or either side of the boss. I've imagined these as being local troops with a shield giving the name of their city. I have no evidence for this!
I wanted the warband to look different enough to be identified easily but still like recently freed slaves. There is a picture in the Osprey Spartacus book showing an attack by Crixus's Germans who look as if they have recently trotted over the Alps. I doubt that many would have had the time, the resources or the inclination to get themselves trousers made.
These are from Xyston's Skythian range. They look very similar to the 'ancile' - the shield of Mars. There are shields of this type shown on the Munatius Plancus mausoleum which _may_ be Gallic going by some of the other equipment also shown. The best photos I've seen are in D'Amato and Sumner.
To increase the ease of identifying the elements and also for effect, I used quite a few velites wearing animal skins and put some dogs on the stands. More on this later...
The horde and shepherds are mostly Xyston psiloi with the odd figure from OG15s and Mirliton which I had lying around. There are also some of Xyston's more recent releases such as Numidians and Judaeans. A few have shields and I might get around to adding some more - I have lots spare. Many of the javelins have been left with a black point - Sallust says that initially the slaves used fire to hardened the wooden points of the javelins. Later on, stocks of metal allowed new weapons to be made to supplement those captured. Some of this iron may even have been the ex-slaves' chains.
The dead Romans are some from Freikorp. I bought these when they first came out so must be around 25 years old.
The shepherds were a group of slaves whose lives were rather different from those who worked the latifundia by day and were locked in barracks at night. Instead, the shepherds roamed with their sheep and were often armed to protect their flocks. More unscrupulous owners used them as a private army, raiding neighbours' property, or expected the slaves to provide themselves with food and clothing by force of arms. I feel their grading as Ps(I) in DBMM may be a bit harsh but this is part of the result of the way psiloi are counted.
There is a description of them in one of the early wars as wearing wolf and boar skins, and being accompanied by fierce dogs. I decided that most of the more aggressive types could represent the warband - especially as Gallic slaves were favoured as shepherds. I had enough left over to mix a few into the psiloi though. My doubles partner also did a psiloi element with one shepherd and four sheep :).
broken. These wouldn't have been truly wild but some of the herds may have been effectively feral. Strauss puts quite a lot of emphasis on the effectiveness of these cavalry although the sources don't say a great deal. The figures are a mixture of Xyston Greeks and Judaean horsemen. Their Numidians would also mix pretty well.
The camp is protected by a palisade. One of the Stratagems describes how the slaves evaded one Roman force by propping up bodies with the camp, giving enough time to escape. This is Baueda's palisade.
This is the first camp I've done with a bit of a story. It also helped to use up most of the female and child figures which I'd managed to acquire.
So far, the army has been used in five games, all at 500AP and against opponents that are moderately close in history. I really prefer historical match-ups but in competition you can't be so choosy. The strength of the army is its size. In some games we tried to be too clever which just ended up with commands being defeated in detail. Our best results were when we massed the troops, spreading the losses. The horde are quite effective against light troops - they are probably better against light horse and cavalry than the mass of blades since they don't recoil and if they are lost the effect is less damaging. One has to be careful not to end up putting them behind other troops who then die, so the wings need protecting with something else.
Sources:
Also from Attalus, the fragments from Sallust which aren't all included above
6 comments:
Very nice research on your army!
Hi.
Saw your post on TMP.
You did an impressive there. Congratulations. And your painting job is quite good too.
I chose a different path for my Spartacus army, opting for a more Kubrick feel. But I'll try to follow your guidelines.
Cheers
Seb
Thanks.
I like the Kubrick approach too :)
Hi there
Nice army.
Please could you tell me who makes the figure in the very bottom picture - the one shaking his right fist above his head?
Cheers
Hugh
Hi Hugh
He is the Cato figure from Xyston. He is found in the Scipio pack http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_12_44&products_id=281
IMHO, one of the best 15mm figures I've seen.
Thanks
Another Xyston pack on my wish list!
:)
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