10-30-2013, 02:52 PM
Thanks guys, so I guess there is no other evidence we know of as to the number of legions employed by the two consuls against Spartacus before the campaign of Crassus. Considering that the slave army at the time had swollen to 70-120,000 men (according to Appian) and that by the time, the Romans had already sustained a number of heavy defeats, I really find it strange that so relatively small an army was entrusted to BOTH consuls. Something is certainly wrong here and evidence to that is given by Plutarch, who writes that at least the one of the consuls fought with a large army, although he sadly gives no numbers, which can hardly mean a single legion.... I guess I will treat the data with skepticism and hope that more evidence somehow crops up in some text we have missed that may give an alternative, possibly more realistic, account.
