The Treasures of Spartacus!

Ok we all loved the movie, maybe the shows. And it occurred to me, we know Spartacus actually happened, throughout central and southern Italy especially.

We also know that they raped and pillaged. And collected a vast hoard of treasure.

And let's face it, what do a bunch of marauders do when they get their hands on tons of Gold and Silver? THEY BURY IT!

Friends, acquaintances, people I don't know! How reasonable is it that at least 1% of Spartacus' army would have buried their share? Out of an Army of approximately 30,000 that's 300 undiscovered buried treasure sites across Italy!

But wait! The more conventional estimate (hardly conservative) is 120,000 men pillaging and raping.

That's right friends. If only 1 out of a hundred men buried a gold vase here or a bag of silver coins, that's still 12,000 buried treasure sites.

I think we should consider getting grant money to go in search of the "Lost Treasure of Spartacus", at the least we could make bank off a history channel special....

www.livius.org...

Here it says Spartacus gave equal shares to approximately 120,000 men, so that means the probability of buried treasure is very high. So the next area of research should focus on the spoils of war for Crassus and Pompey.

Did they record any spoils? Were there any? If so how much? From these figures is it reasonable to assume that the spoils represent the entirety of the hoard, or is it reasonable to think many rebels were burying their treasure.

If the Rebels buried a significant amount of treasure, why did Crassus and Pompey kill all the Rebels rather than have them take them to buried treasure?

Are there social/economic factors to influence these decisions such as low morale of Roman soldiers if they knew there was buried treasure all over the country side (hard to prevent desertions).

Let's start digging?!

reply to post by FreeMason


You might want to research Italian and EU metal detecting statues & what happenes to 'found horde' laws.

Hanslune
reply to post by FreeMason

 

You might want to research Italian and EU metal detecting statues & what happenes to 'found horde' laws.

Well I think more importantly, first, we should research ancient records or references to the treasures Spartacus would have seized, surely Crassus or Pompey would record or mention any great hoard they recovered. And once such a record is found we can begin to trace the steps backward and worry about finding any such treasures.

FreeMason

Hanslune
reply to post by FreeMason

 

You might want to research Italian and EU metal detecting statues & what happenes to 'found horde' laws.

Well I think more importantly, first, we should research ancient records or references to the treasures Spartacus would have seized, surely Crassus or Pompey would record or mention any great hoard they recovered. And once such a record is found we can begin to trace the steps backward and worry about finding any such treasures.

You may find something, odds are good if you dig in ancient city areas that you might find something but I hate to burst the bubble it won't be treasure from spartacus. At some points they estimate the total entourage of people including families between three to five hundred thousand. Not warriors, but all the people following them etc. These are estimated and the total number is not really known. They paid most of the money for food and other goods and weapons. It was not all about take, it really was like robin hood. There were so many people they were overwhelmed. No you won't find much from the merry band of peasants.

They could have won or at least escaped but he made mistakes and tried to save too many.

The Bot

reply to post by dlbott


What you might find are caches of valuables hidden by Roman citizens when the revolt overtook them. In troubled times people tended to bury stuff.

Hanslune
reply to post by dlbott

 

What you might find are caches of valuables hidden by Roman citizens when the revolt overtook them. In troubled times people tended to bury stuff.

This too, then killed or too dislocated to reclaim it.

As for the "Robin Hood" Comment.

No, the Roman Government first treated the Third Servile war as a "Pirate raiding party" so the entire purpose of Spartacus was to plunder and escape. The only reason his army grew is because of his 1 man 1 share policy. Unlike the Roman legions where a General had something like 50% of the shares, Spartacus' army's shares are thought to have been closer to 1 per person.

Spartacus began turning away refugees, he wanted soldiers and warriors, not peasants and slaves seeking freedom.

His actions cry out pirate and pirates bury their treasure. And as far as I can tell, Crassus never bragged about recovering that treasure. Even tho the Roman government lamented the loss of treasure to Spartacus' warbands.