The Revolt of Spartacus is the third scenario of the Enemies of Rome campaign in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. The gladiators of Spartacus must fend off the legions of Rome and protect the emancipated slaves.
This is the reworked version of the scenario Spartacus in the original game, which showed the same conflict from the perspective of Crassus and the Roman army.
Scenario instructions[]
Description[]
| “ | Central Italy, 73 to 71 BCE From Thracian mercenary to Roman soldier to gladiator slave, you have known much bloodshed, Spartacus, but precious little freedom. You and your fellow gladiators made a daring escape from your bonds and defied the Roman authorities. Your success inspired other slaves to throw off their yokes and join your slave army. While the Romans call themselves free citizens, slavery is everywhere in the Republic, and you have found no shortage of willing followers. Now, in a fit of irony, the Roman Senate sends Rome's wealthiest man, Marcus Crassus, to defeat your slave revolt. He is ruthless and will give no quarter to the freed slaves under your command. Defeat Crassus and inspire more of your brothers and sisters to fight for their freedom. | ” |
| —In-game section | ||
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age:
Bronze Age - Starting resources: 200 food, 200 wood, 100 stone
- Population limit: 50
- Starting units:
- 10
Villagers
- 10
Objective[]
- Destroy the Roman army before it destroys the rebellious slaves.
Hints[]
- Research Writing as soon as possible so you can track the Roman invasion force.
- It may be best to protect only a small portion of your allies, rather than attempting to protect the entire region.
Players[]
Player[]
- Player ( Romans): The player starts with many Villagers but no army in the western corner of the map. There is plenty resources nearby, but the player should not waste too much time since the freed slaves are quite a distance away and under attack.
Allies[]
- Freed Slaves ( Romans): The freed slaves occupy almost the entire eastern part of the map with dozens of farms and other buildings as well as Villagers. Unfortunately, they are defenseless except for a few Watch Towers. They will be wiped out if not defended by the player.
Enemies[]
- Crassus ( Romans): The Roman army starts off with a large force at the north-eastern edge of the map. Luckily, not all of it will attack at once - most of it will stay back in their base, and move slowly.
Strategy[]
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Researching Writing will reveal the attacks on Italy and allow the player to build up their forces accordingly. The Roman forces consists of Post-Iron Age Roman troops, such as Legions, Cataphracts, Centurions, Helepolises, Heavy Catapults, as well as a few Scouts.
A composition to aim for can be Long Swordsmen or Legions, Cavalry, Ballistae or Helepolises, and a few Priests.
If there is a surplus of wood, building a Dock to the south will allow food income from fishing, and also Triremes can be sent upriver to deal some damage.
History[]
Historical notes[]
| “ | Although Roman citizens enjoyed many rights during the Republic, the same could not be said of Rome's slaves, who numbered 35-40% of Italy's population. Rome's wars of expansion contributed to the number of slaves, with ancient sources citing the capture and sale of thousands of men, women, and children with every conquest. Because slaves often retained skills from their previous lives, they worked a variety of occupations; from household servants, farmhands, and miners, to even accountants and physicians. Nevertheless, the lives of most Roman slaves were nasty, brutish, and short, and many slaves made efforts to escape. If caught, fugitive slaves would be killed or branded on the forehead with letters signifying their status as fugitives. Slave collars have survived with inscriptions promising rewards for the return of the slave if he or she ran away. Gladiators were only a small percentage of Rome's slave population, but they captured the Roman imagination. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals for the entertainment of audiences throughout the Republic and the Empire. The fact that gladiators were trained warriors, often prisoners of war, with access to weapons made them potentially dangerous. Little is known of Spartacus' life before he became a leader in the slave uprising which would become known as the Third Servile War (73 – 71 BCE). According to one writer, Spartacus was a Thracian who served as an auxiliary with the Roman army, but had been sold as a gladiator as a punishment for desertion. In 73 BCE, Spartacus escaped with 70 other gladiators from a gladiatorial training school at Capua, in Southern Italy. They recruited other slaves from the area and established a base at Mount Vesuvius. The Romans sent troops to besiege the slaves but Spartacus and his men twice defeated them, recovering weapons from the Romans. These victories encouraged more slaves to revolt until Spartacus' rebellion numbered 70,000. With so many slaves in open revolt, the Roman authorities acted quickly, dispatching legions to crush the uprising. Surprisingly, Spartacus and his army triumphed again. Then, in a decision still debated by historians, Spartacus, rather than continuing north to freedom in Gaul, turned his army south, plundering through Italy. The Senate, faced with a seemingly unstoppable rebellion, assigned Marcus Licinius Crassus to defeat Spartacus. Crassus was famously the wealthiest man in Rome and would be a future Triumvir with Pompey and Caesar. He was also known for his brutal discipline. The Roman historian Appian writes that after a unit of Crassus' men were defeated by the slaves, he had the unit decimated (every tenth man killed) for cowardice. This treatment demonstrated to the legions that the fate for displeasing their commander would be worse than anything their enemies could do to them. At the Battle of the Silarus River (71 BCE), Crassus decisively defeated Spartacus and ended the rebellion. Roman writers stated that Spartacus died on the battlefield, but his body was never recovered. Some 6,000 slaves were captured and crucified on a 120-mile-long stretch of the Appian Way, the road from Rome to Capua. | ” |
| —In-game section | ||
Victory[]
| “ | Against all odds, you defeated the Roman legions and ordered Crassus, Rome's richest man, flogged. With Rome's large slave population now in open revolt, the city itself will fall to your army. You have not only won freedom for yourself, Spartacus, but for tens of thousands. | ” |
| —In-game section | ||
Loss[]
| “ | While your men are unwilling to identify you to Crassus, it is no bother to the Roman consul. He simply orders all six thousand of you to be crucified. | ” |
| —In-game section | ||
Trivia[]
- In this scenario, the player plays as the slave army against the Roman Republic. This has been flipped from the original version, where the player acted from the perspective of Crassus, and had to put down the slave uprising. This was most likely done so that the scenario plays from the perspective of an enemy of Rome, as the campaign name suggests and is the case in the other scenarios.
