Crixus Defeated and Killed near Mount Garganus

As the consuls pushed south and east, Crixus—Spartacus’s Gallic lieutenant—operated with roughly 3,000 near Mount Garganus, the forested promontory above the Adriatic. Appian reports that a Roman force fell on his contingent and destroyed it; Crixus was killed [11]. The ground favored Roman method. The stony tracks leading inland from the coast toward Luceria channeled movement; once contact was made, Roman maniples could press with steadiness. The sounds told the tale: the rhythmic beat of pila on shields, then the grind of short swords at close quarters. A few bright red crests rose over the Roman line; then the Gauls’ shouts faded. Crixus mattered beyond numbers. He commanded loyalty among Gallic and Germanic fighters and balanced Spartacus’s authority. His banner had been seen near Nola and on the roads to Beneventum. News of his fall traveled quickly back across Campania and into Spartacus’s main camp, carried by riders passing through Capua and Nuceria. Loss hardened resolve. Spartacus would answer with a grim rite and then with victories against the consuls themselves. But the immediate cost was cohesion. The coalition had lost a voice that sometimes argued for battle and plunder over flight. Mount Garganus thus marks both a tactical Roman success and the beginning of an internal crisis within the rebellion. An army once led by a triad was now two.