Who Was Spartacus?

Spartacus was probably born in Thrace and eventually became a gladiator in Italy. In 73 BC, he and a relatively small group of gladiators escaped from a training school at Capua. What began as an escape quickly became something Rome could no longer ignore, as enslaved people, rural laborers, and others joined the rebellion. Ancient estimates of the army's eventual size vary considerably, and the surviving literary sources were written from the Roman perspective, so exact numbers should be treated cautiously.

What is certain is that Roman forces repeatedly failed to destroy Spartacus. For roughly two years, the rebels moved across Italy, defeated Roman armies, and created one of the greatest internal military crises of the late Republic. During the final phase of the war, Rome entrusted Marcus Licinius Crassus with command. Crassus was enormously wealthy, politically ambitious, and already one of Rome's most powerful men; he imposed much greater discipline on the campaign and eventually trapped the rebel forces in southern Italy. Spartacus was killed during the final fighting in 71 BC, his body reportedly never identified, and thousands of captured rebels were crucified along the Appian Way. The revolt was over, but some of the coins associated with this same historical period still survive.

What Money Would Spartacus Have Used?

There was no separate monetary system for Spartacus' army that we know of. If the rebels used coinage, and an army operating across Roman Italy inevitably needed access to money, supplies, and trade, they would have encountered the currency already circulating throughout the Roman Republic: Roman silver denarii, older Roman bronze coins still in circulation, and potentially local or regional coinages met as the army moved through Italy. Regular Roman Republican bronze production had largely declined by this period, so it would be misleading to imagine large quantities of newly struck small bronze being produced specifically during the revolt.

A Genuine Roman Coin from His Civilization

Ancient Rome, Authentic Roman Bronze

No Republican denarius of the revolt years is in stock right now, but this is a genuine Roman coin, real currency of the same civilization Spartacus fought. Ancient Rome · Authentic Bronze · from $19

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This distinction matters. An ancient coin does not need to contain Spartacus' portrait to belong to his historical world. A Roman denarius circulating in Italy between 73 and 71 BC could have passed through the hands of a soldier, merchant, farmer, enslaved person, Roman citizen, or theoretically even someone associated with the rebellion. We can never prove that an individual surviving coin was touched by Spartacus, but we can collect the actual currency of his lifetime.

Roman Denarii Around the Years of the Revolt

The Roman mint continued producing Republican silver coinage around the time of the uprising. One example is the denarius of C. Postumius, RRC 394/1, traditionally dated to 74 BC, immediately before Spartacus' revolt began; it depicts Diana on the obverse and a running hound with a spear on the reverse. Other Republican denarii are traditionally assigned to 73 and 72 BC, including issues of Q. Pomponius Rufus and Q. Crepereius Rocus.

However, the chronology of late Republican coinage is not perfectly fixed. Michael Crawford's chronology remains foundational, but later hoard studies have revised the proposed dates of a number of issues. For that reason, coins assigned to individual years around the Spartacus revolt should sometimes be described as traditionally dated rather than absolutely fixed to a specific calendar year. For collectors, the broader point remains powerful: Republican denarii survive from the narrow historical period in which Spartacus was challenging Rome.

The Aquillius Denarius and Rome's Earlier Slave Wars

One of the most evocative coins associated with this period is the serrated silver denarius of Manius Aquillius, RRC 401/1. The obverse depicts the helmeted personification Virtus, representing courage or martial excellence. The reverse shows a Roman warrior raising a fallen figure from the ground, with an inscription including SICIL, referring to Sicily. The type commemorates an ancestor of the moneyer, Manius Aquillius, who had fought in the suppression of the Second Servile War in Sicily.

Crawford traditionally dated the issue to 71 BC, the same year Spartacus' revolt ended, which creates an extraordinary historical parallel: Rome was again emerging from a massive war involving an army of formerly enslaved people, while a Roman moneyer was simultaneously celebrating an ancestor associated with victory in an earlier slave war. The date is not beyond dispute, later hoard-based chronologies have proposed that RRC 401/1 may have been struck several years later, so we should not present the coin as proven contemporary propaganda referring to Spartacus.

Crassus: The Man Who Defeated Spartacus

Spartacus did not ultimately fall to Julius Caesar, Pompey, or a Roman emperor. The commander most directly responsible for destroying his army was Marcus Licinius Crassus. Often remembered simply as "the richest man in Rome," Crassus had a career much larger than his fortune: his victory over Spartacus gave him significant military prestige, and he later entered the political alliance commonly called the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. But Caesar was building a spectacular record of conquest and Pompey had already celebrated major victories, so Crassus, who wanted greater military glory of his own, eventually took his ambition east, producing some of the rarest coins connected with his career.

The Silver Tetradrachms of Marcus Crassus

Crassus received the province of Syria before launching his invasion of the Parthian Empire. At Antioch, silver tetradrachms continued to be struck using the traditional design of the late Seleucid king Philip I Philadelphos, so they can look deceptively Greek or Seleucid to someone encountering them for the first time: the obverse shows the diademed head of Philip, and the reverse shows Zeus seated, holding Nike and a sceptre. But some examples carry an extraordinarily important control mark, KRA. Roman Provincial Coinage identifies Marcus Licinius Crassus as the magistrate connected with these issues (RPC I 4125b carries KRA with AN under Crassus; RPC I 4125a carries KRA with KA, associated with Crassus and Gaius Cassius). That makes these among the strongest surviving numismatic connections to Crassus himself. They do not show his face or spell out his Roman name; instead they demonstrate that Roman officials could take control of established local monetary systems rather than immediately replacing them with denarii. These tetradrachms are rare, and for a collector seeking a coin as directly associated with Crassus as possible, they belong near the top of the list.

A Possible Portrait, and the Crassus Family Name

Antioch also produced bronze coinage during Crassus' period in Syria (RPC I 4211 dated 55/54 BC, RPC I 4212 to 54/53 BC, the latter squarely within the period just before his eastern campaign). These bronzes depict a laureate head of Zeus and Zeus seated with Nike and sceptre, and unlike the tetradrachms they do not name him, so they are best described as coins struck at Antioch during the administration of Marcus Crassus rather than simply "coins of Crassus."

Is there an actual portrait coin of Crassus? Possibly. Bronze coins from Nysa-Scythopolis depict a bareheaded male portrait with Dionysus on the reverse. The traditional attribution identifies the portrait as Aulus Gabinius, Crassus' predecessor as governor of Syria, but the numismatist Rachel Barkay argued that a later portrait differs from known representations of Gabinius and may instead represent Crassus, so Classical Numismatic Group has catalogued examples cautiously as the head of "Crassus (or Gabinius?)." That uncertainty should remain explicit: it is not currently safe to describe the coin simply as a portrait of Crassus, but if the alternative attribution proves correct, these small provincial bronzes may preserve a possible contemporary portrait of the man who defeated Spartacus.

The Denarius of Publius Licinius Crassus

There is another Crassus coin that deserves special attention. Marcus Crassus' son, Publius Licinius Crassus, issued a silver denarius at Rome in 55 BC, and unlike his father's elusive coinage, this one carries the family name openly. The obverse depicts Venus; the reverse shows a female figure leading a horse, accompanied by military equipment; and the legend reads P CRASSVS M F, identifying the moneyer as Publius Crassus, son of Marcus (RRC 430/1, traditionally dated 55 BC). The precise meaning of the reverse imagery has been debated and should not be treated as a proven reference to Publius' cavalry experience or his later eastern campaign. What is certain is that the coin openly bears the CRASSVS name only two years before Publius accompanied his father into the war against Parthia, from which neither returned.

From Spartacus to Carrhae

The story that begins with Spartacus does not end in 71 BC. Crassus' victory helped establish him as one of the dominant political figures of the late Republic, but he wanted a conquest of his own. In 53 BC, Roman forces under Crassus advanced into Mesopotamia against the Parthian Empire, and the result was the Battle of Carrhae, one of the great military disasters in Roman history. Parthian forces under the commander Surena used highly mobile horse archers and heavily armored cavalry to devastating effect. Publius Crassus was killed during the fighting; Marcus Crassus also died before the campaign was over; Roman standards were captured and thousands of soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. The man who had destroyed Spartacus had himself led a Roman army to destruction.

Each step can be represented through genuine ancient coinage. Together, these coins allow a collector to build something much more interesting than a single "Spartacus coin", they allow you to build the story.

Spartacus Without a Portrait

Spartacus never became a king. He never became emperor. He did not build a dynasty, and as far as we know he never ordered a mint to place his face or name on money. That makes him unusual among the famous figures ancient coin collectors pursue: Alexander the Great can be approached through his enormous coinage, Julius Caesar appears directly on Roman denarii, Cleopatra VII struck recognizable royal issues. Spartacus left us nothing comparable.

Yet Roman coins may bring us remarkably close to his world. Silver denarii circulated while Rome fought his army. A famous Republican type recalled Rome's earlier war against enslaved rebels. The general who finally defeated him later left his identifying mark on coinage struck in Syria. And that general's son placed the name CRASSVS on a Roman denarius before both men disappeared into one of Rome's greatest military disasters. That is one of the reasons ancient coins can make history feel different. The people are gone. The armies are gone. The Republic they fought over is gone. The money survived.

Hold what the greats held.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ancient coin dates and attributions can change as new hoards, die studies, and scholarship refine our understanding. Kinzer Coins presents disputed identifications and chronologies as such rather than treating uncertain conclusions as established fact.

History wasn't just written. It was minted.