“What if history remembered your fight not as a triumph, but as a failure? Would it still be worth it?”
Throughout history revolutions have always been demonized as chaotic and counterproductive, culminating in replacing a bad system with something worse. Revolutions have consistently and effectively been derided with alternatives such as gradual change, and concessions being seen as far more stable and agreeable. Undoubtedly, both statements have elements of truth to them, as there is rarely any revolution that does not contain violence, bloodshed and collateral damage to life and property.
This raises an important question – ‘Do we need violence/revolutions?’ To explore this, let us examine a famous slave revolt that took place in ancient Rome in 73 BC.
The Rise and Fall of Spartacus
Born in Thrace, Spartacus briefly served as a soldier in the Roman legions, before being enslaved and forced into becoming a gladiator. During this time, he along with 70 other slaves in a daring act of defiance, orchestrated an escape, breaking free from captivity using kitchen utensils and arming themselves with gladiatorial weapons.
From there, Spartacus with prior military experience was chosen alongside other two former slaves to lead this new rag-tag outfit in what French Philosopher Voltaire would later call “History’s only just war”. The Roman state was quick to try and quash this rebellion from growing. However, its initial attempts to subdue the slaves in the Third Servile war, failed miserably and the slave army began growing in numbers.
Ultimately however, the Roman army led by Marcus Licinius Crassus ultimately defeated the rebels during the battle of the Silarius River where Spartacus and his army met their end. Six thousand of the captured slaves were crucified and lined up along the road from Capua to Rome – a haunting reminder to those that dared challenge the Empire.
The Meaning of a Failed Revolution
So what can we learn from this revolution?
Contemporary historians are divided in what the goals for the revolt were. Some state that rather than abolish slavery, the goal was to escape Rome, others say that the slaves intended to march on Rome and unseat the Empire. These contrary objectives coupled with a poorly structured army was a major contributing factor towards the eventual defeat of the revolution.
In essence, a cynic could state with a good degree of factuality that this revolution was without clear objectives, not supported wholeheartedly by its own participants, participated in various kinds of its own atrocities (murdering and pillaging innocents) and eventually was a failure. So was this revolution all for nothing?
It certainly failed in achieving any meaningful change in the short term. Yet, centuries later Spartacus and his revolution lives on in the annals of history as a symbol of defiance, a picture of a possible future free from tyranny and a universal icon of struggle with millions still continuing to draw inspiration from it. Though slavery (formally) ended nearly 2000 years later, this uprising planted perhaps the first seed towards resistance and endurance.
The Legacy of Revolution
This article does not advocate for violent revolution to be the norm in the struggle for justice. It merely attempts to make rational sense of its popularity even after centuries of humanity’s existence. Seldom if ever do concessions or bargaining work as effective tools to bring about the winds of change, and history is the greatest testament to that. Revolutions – successful or not – serve as beacons of hope sent from a distant past towards a promising future through the dreary sands of time present.
In an ideal scenario, most would wish into existence a better and fairer world, yet such is not the story of humankind. The fact that revolution remains a powerful and moving attempt to see light in an ocean of darkness highlights the extent of injustice that exists to this very day on our planet. So before we are quick to critique a revolution for its failure, violence and anarchy, why not first question the fertile grounds that allow it to take root?
Alongside other two former slaves to lead this new rag-tag outfit in what French Philosopher Voltaire would later call “History’s only just war”. The Roman state was quick to try and quash this rebellion from growing. However, its initial attempts to subdue the slaves in the Third Servile war, failed miserably and the slave army began growing in numbers.
Ultimately however, the Roman army led by Marcus Licinius Crassus ultimately defeated the rebels during the battle of the Silarius River where Spartacus and his army met their end. Six thousand of the captured slaves were crucified and lined up along the road from Capua to Rome – a haunting reminder to those that dared challenge the Empire.
Revolution: A Necessitated Mess?
In this perhaps lies the answer to challenging the fallacious understanding of what a revolution means. Revolutions by nature are a messy and convoluted affair, for they are borne out of social upheaval and strife with a fierce pushback against the existing system and a violent attempt to replace the old with new. They emerge from desperation, when those in power refuse to listen to those they oppress.
While critics argue that revolutions unleash uncontrollable chaos akin to Pandora’s Box, they rarely acknowledge the injustices that make them inevitable. Violence that is seen as barbaric and gruesome has often remained not just a final resort, but the only one available in the cry for justice. Cast your minds to any historic revolution that has as ever changed the course of history. Have any of them ever occurred without any major violence?
The civil rights movement in the United States associated with Martin Luther King Jr also had the call to arms advocated by the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. Whilst Gandhi and the Congress peacefully marched for India’s independence, Bhagat Singh’s HSRA and Subhash Chandra Bose’s INA used violence in different capacities to unseat the British Empire in India.
Every similar event has violence at its beating heart as it often remains the only plausible course of action in the hands of the oppressed. Even with all its flaws, it still remains effective and the only real means for the oppressed not constrained by the oppressor. Two steps forward and one step back is still better than standing still.
