The slaves from the adjoining plantations deserted
and joined them. The fire spread, Spartacus proclaimed universal
emancipation, and in a few weeks was at the head of an army with which he
overran Italy to the foot of the Alps, defeated consuls and praetors,
captured the eagles of the legions, wasted the farms of the noble lords,
and for two years held his ground against all that Rome could do.
Of all the illustrations of the Senate's incapacity, the slave
insurrection was perhaps the worst. It was put down at last after
desperate exertions by Crassus and Pompey. Spartacus was killed, and six
thousand of his followers were impaled at various points on the sides of
the high-roads, that the slaves might have before their eyes examples of
the effect of disobedience. The immediate peril was over; but another
symptom had appeared of the social disease which would soon end in death
unless some remedy could be found. The nation was still strong. There was
power and worth in the undegenerate Italian race, which needed only to be
organized and ruled. But what remedy was possible? The practical choice of
politicians lay between the Senate and the democracy. Both were alike
bloody and unscrupulous; and the rule of the Senate meant corruption and
imbecility, and the rule of the democracy meant anarchy.
[1] "Unum hoc dico: nostri isti nobiles, nisi vigilantes et boni et fortes
et misericordes erunt, iis hominibus in quibus haec erunt, ornamenta
sua concedant necesse est.
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