Battle of Mount Vesuvius

Battle of Mount Vesuvius
Part of the Third Servile War
The Gladiator Mosaic at the Galleria Borghese
Date 73 BC Location Mount Vesuvius, Italy Result Rebel victory Start of the Third Servile War.
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Rebel Army
Commanders and leaders
Gaius Claudius Glaber	Spartacus
Strength
3,000 militia	70-100 Gladiators[1]

The Battle of Vesuvius was the first conflict of the Third Servile War which pitted the escaped slaves against a military force of militia specifically dispatched by Rome to deal with the rebellion.

When the militia, led by the Roman Praetor Gaius Claudius Glaber, besieged the group of escaped slaves on Mount Vesuvius, Spartacus's men adopted unusual tactics, rappelling down the steeper cliff face opposite the Roman forces, flanking and defeating them.