Chapter 51: Absorbing the Leaders

Chapter 51: Absorbing the Leaders

“Oenomaus is right,” said Crixus. “These dock workers and sailors make good soldiers. Besides, there are many port towns in Campania, and there are far more laborers and sailors than just a few hundred. If we don’t let them join, other sailors and laborers who want to join will hesitate...” Crixus looked around and whispered, “We can promise them to join first, and then slowly figure out a way to disperse them and assign them to different units.”

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” objected Hamilcar. “If we’ve made a promise, we should keep it. Otherwise, they will feel dissatisfied, and if the soldiers are not united, it will be troublesome in battle.”

“So, you disagree with them joining?” Crixus asked impatiently.

Hamilcar replied in a deep voice, “We can allow them to join and form their own team. I believe that Artemus will be their leader. We can also allow him to participate in our Military Commanders Assembly. That way, through assembly, we can make Artemus enforce every resolution passed in the meeting. That’s how we can control them!”

Crixus, Oenomaus, and Artorix were taken aback.

Crixus exclaimed indignantly, “This man named Artemus didn’t incite a rebellion at the gladiator school, nor did he fight alongside us and defeat the Roman army. What qualifications does he have to participate in our Military Commanders Assembly? If a person like him can easily participate in our assembly, what will the soldiers think?”

Crixus’ words were met with agreement from Oenomaus and Artorix.

“Maximus, do you have any suggestions?” Spartacus timely asked, shifting everyone’s attention to Maximus, who had been silent all along.

Maximus cleared his throat and said loudly, “If all we wanted to be was a band of bandits, occasionally plundering and harassing the Romans, then it wouldn’t matter if we didn’t accept these laborers and sailors. But now we are fighting against the most powerful force in the Mediterranean, the Romans. Only by uniting everyone we can unite and strengthening our forces do we have a chance to defeat the Romans and gain freedom. Otherwise, we will only be defeated and perish.”

“We are not afraid of death,” Crixus retorted coldly.

“We are indeed not afraid of death, but if there is hope of victory, why don’t we try our best?” Maximus countered without showing any weakness.

“I agree,” Hamilcar quickly spoke up. Since it was his suggestion in the first place, it was only natural for him to express his agreement.

Surprisingly, it was not Artorix but Crixus who agreed next. He was easily convinced. On one hand, Spartacus did make sense, and on the other hand, the Second Cohort had just suffered a setback due to the medical team’s incident. So, he would rather let Artemus in than see Maximus gain equal rights as him at this moment.

In the end, Hamilcar’s proposal easily received approval.

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Artemus led his team to join the uprising and became a commander, establishing the Fifth Cohort.

This move by the rebellion triggered a chain reaction. Over the next two days, dock laborers and sailors kept joining, and the rebel army’s numbers exceeded 5,000. As a result, the leaders decided to send three cohorts to Campania to rescue more gladiators.

Under the leadership of Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus, the First, Second, and Third Cohorts swiftly marched north along Via Annia early in the morning. It only took them a day to reach Capua.

After escaping from Capua, the gladiators had gone straight to Vesuvius and had been causing trouble in the south for over two months. The people of Capua never expected the rebel army to suddenly come back. Without enough time to bring all the residents and supplies from outside the city walls into the city, they hastily closed the city gates.

The panicked Capuans could only stand on top of the city wall, helplessly watching as the rebel soldiers swept through the surrounding areas of Capua, breaking through one gladiator school after another. They recruited nearly 1,000 gladiators and seized a large amount of supplies before smoothly returning to their camp.

With the strengthened power of the rebel army, their activities were no longer confined to the northern region of Vesuvius. They began expanding into the entire Vesuvius area, even threatening nearby towns and occasionally blocking Via Annia.