I am Spartacus!

16. Cries of the Appian Way

Roma, Lazio

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After the battle, the remaining renegades were hunted down as they wove and dodged their way around the Italian countryside. Crassus' forces were too depleted to take on the task of tracking down the remnants of the slave army, so that dubious honor fell to Pompey as he traveled southwards through the Peninsula. In total, the General and his men trapped and caught more than 6,000 slaves hiding and cowering in the woods, hills and mountains of Central Italy. Those who lived suffered an even more terrible fate. To deter any other such further antics, the Appian Way that ran between Capua and the Circus Maximus in Rome rang out with the painful, writhing cries of crucified rebels. General Pompey was given the honor of putting down the revolution. He was trumpeted into Rome on a four-horse chariot with cheering crowds to mark his progress through the streets, and he also earned the duty of sacrificing an ox. This celebration occurred despite the fact that his mission was merely one of searching out and destroying the remaining rebels on the run. General Crassus, upon his return to Rome, was given the less glamorous accord of an ovation. Crassus walked through the streets wearing a crown of bay leaves sacrificed a sheep. These parades brought an end to the war, and although no trace of Spartacus was ever found, his name has been immortalized in the annals of history.