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Erratum to: Crassus’ Command in the War against Spartacus (73–71 BCE): His Official Position, Forces and Political Spoils

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Published/Copyright: March 1, 2015
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Klio
From the journal Klio Volume 97 Issue 1

Summary

Late in 72 BCE, Spartacus’ stunning series of victories over the consuls L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus and then the proconsul C. Cassius Longinus (cos. 73) triggered a dearth of candidates for the consular and praetorian elections for 71. This deadlock was broken only when M. Licinius Crassus announced that he would run for praetor, declaring he was prepared to accept the command against Spartacus. Immediately following his election, Crassus began preparing, probably receiving a grant of delegated praetorium imperium to bridge the interval between election and assumption of office. Having raised no less than six legions, personally advancing the funds required, he also took command of the two consular legions in the field. By means of this enormous army as well as his relentless efforts and strict discipline, he managed to put an end to this protracted and inglorious war in the span of six months. At some point in the summer or early autumn of 71, the equestrian proconsul Cn. Pompeius Magnus, back from Spain, decided he would settle for nothing less than another public triumph and the consulship itself. In order to secure these top prizes, he brazenly refused to disband his army, instead using it as leverage, just as he had already done in 81 and 77.

Crassus, for his part, felt he could not fall behind, and entered into an unlikely if formidable alliance with his political rival. As both men ran on a strong popullaris platform, the Senate now found itself between hammer and anvil. Consequently, the Conscript Fathers had little choice but to grant Pompeius as well as Crassus the required dispensations from the Cornelian Law. Although they subsequently honoured their popular commitments as consuls, that neither Pompeius nor Crassus chose to disband their armies until sometime late in their tenure suggests that their entente was anything but cordial. Interestingly, it was Crassus who defused this dangerous stalemate by making the decisive first move towards formal reconciliation, albeit in the face of massive public pressure. Paradoxically, the defining features of Sulla’s new constitutional arrangement were buried by two of his foremost associates as they first trampled two critical Cornelian laws in order to seize a joint consulship and next passed legislation restoring the powers of the tribunes of the plebs and altering the balance of power in the court juries.

Keywords: M. Licinius Crassus; Spartacus; Prätur; lex Cornelia; Konsulat

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Published Online: 2015-3-1
Published in Print: 2015-7-1

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2014-9000
Keywords for this article
M. Licinius Crassus; Spartacus; Prätur; lex Cornelia; Konsulat

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. The Geography of the Hittite Empire and the Distribution of Luwian Hieroglyphic Seals
  3. Zwischen Vergemeinschaftung und Anarchie. Zur Konzeption und Wahrnehmung polisübergreifender Beziehungen in klassischer Zeit
  4. Athenion of Athens Revisited*
  5. Der Krieg und die Liebe – Untersuchungen zur römischen Venus
  6. Quod nunc Rubrum ad mare patescit: the mare Rubrum as a frontier of the Roman Empire
  7. Cassius Dio, Caracalla, and the Senate
  8. Die Gründung Konstantinopels zwischen Sagenkreisen und Zeitzyklen:
  9. Archäologie, Geschichte und Münzen
  10. Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt. Das Leben eines fast vergessenen Althistorikers und Altorientalisten1
  11. Literaturkritik
  12. Peter Fibiger Bang – Walter Scheidel (Hgg.), The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
  13. Andreas Schachner, Hattuscha. Auf der Suche nach dem sagenhaften Groβreich der Hethiter
  14. Véronique Chankowski – Pavlos Karvonis, Tout vendre, tout acheter. Structure et équipments des marchés antiques, Kolloquium Athen 16.–19. Juni 2009
  15. Angelos Chaniotis (Hg.), Unveiling Emotions. Sources and Methods for the Study of Emotions in the Greek World
  16. Michael Meier-Brügger (Hg.), Homer, gedeutet durch ein großes Lexikon. Akten des Hamburger Kolloquiums vom 6.–8. Oktober 2010 zum Abschluss des Lexikons des frühgriechischen Epos
  17. Anna Missiou, Literacy and Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens
  18. Ian Worthington, Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece
  19. Marc Steinmann, Alexander der Große und die „nackten Weisen“ Indiens. Der fiktive Briefwechsel zwischen Alexander und dem Brahmanenkönig Dindimus
  20. Barbara Demandt, Die Wohltaten der Götter. König Eumenes II. und die Figuren am großen Fries des Pergamonaltars verrätselt – enträtselt
  21. Francesco de Angelis – Jens-Arne Dickmann – Felix Pirson – Ralf von den Hoff (Hgg.), Kunst von unten? Stil und Gesellschaft in der antiken Welt von der ‚arte plebea‘ bis heute
  22. Rafael Brägger, Actio auctoritatis
  23. Annie Allély, La déclaration d’hostis sous la République romaine
  24. Vera Sauer, Religiöses in der politischen Argumentation der späten römischen Republik. Ciceros Erste Catilinarische Rede – eine Fallstudie
  25. Johannes Wienand, Der Kaiser als Sieger. Metamorphosen triumphaler Herrschaft unter Constantin I.
  26. Alessandro Pagliara, Retorica, filosofia e politica in Giuliano Cesare
  27. Jochen Schultheiß, Generationenbeziehungen in den Confessiones des Augustinus. Theologie und literarische Form in der Spätantike
  28. Jaime Alvar, Los cultos egipcios en Hispania
  29. Roger Shaler Bagnall, Eine Wüstenstadt. Leben und Kultur in einer ägyptischen Oase im 4. Jahrhundert n. Chr.
  30. Daniel E. Harris-McCoy, Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica. Text, Translation, & Commentary
  31. Anne Jacquemin – Dominique Mulliez – Georges Rougemont, Choix d’inscriptions de Delphes, traduites et commentées
  32. Volker Michael Strocka – Simon Hoffmann – Gerhard Hiesel, Die Bibliothek von Nysa am Mäander
  33. Benjamin Fourlas, Die Mosaiken der Acheiropoietos-Basilika in Thessaloniki. Eine vergleichende Analyse dekorativer Mosaiken des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts, 1: Textband, 2: Tafeln
  34. Friedrich Münzer, Kleine Schriften, herausgegeben von Matthias Haake und Ann-Cathrin Harders, mit einer Einführung von Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp
  35. Erratum to: Crassus’ Command in the War against Spartacus (73–71 BCE): His Official Position, Forces and Political Spoils
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