Gannicus

Gannicus
Slave Leader
Personal details
Born	Unknown
Died	71 BC Lucania
Nationality	Gallic[1][2]
Military service
Battles/wars	Third Servile War

Gannicus or Cannicus was a Gallic^[1][2][3] slave, who together with the Thracian Spartacus, and the fellow Gauls Crixus and Castus, alongside the Nubian Oenomaus, became one of the leaders of rebel slaves during the Third Servile War (73–71 BC). In the winter of 71 BC, Gannicus, along with Castus, broke off from Spartacus, taking a large number of Celts and Germans with them, marking the second detachment of the rebellion. Gannicus and Castus met their end in Lucania near Mount Soprano (Mount Camalatrum), where Marcus Licinius Crassus, Lucius Pomptinus and Quintus Marcius Rufus entrenched their forces in battle and defeated them.

In popular culture

• Gannicus is portrayed by Dustin Clare in the Starz television series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena and sequels Spartacus: Vengeance and Spartacus: War of the Damned.^[4] He is depicted as a freed former gladiator, from the House of Batiatus, who agrees to join Spartacus' cause to honor friend Oenomaus after he falls in the rebellion.
• Gannicus was portrayed by Paul Telfer in the 2004 miniseries Spartacus – He commands the rebel cavalry. In the miniseries, he is portrayed as a Thracian.

References

1. Winkler 2008, p. 222
2. Bury 1994, p. 331
3. Strauss 2009, p. 213
4. Starz. "Gannicus". Retrieved April 16, 2010.

Ancient sources

• Titus Livius, Periochae zu Buch 97.
• Plutarch, Crassus 11, 2–3.
• Frontin 2, 4, 7; 2, 5, 34.

Secondary literature

• Bury, John Bagnell (1994). The Cambridge Ancient History , Volume 9. Cambridge University Press.
• Strauss, Barry (2009). The Spartacus War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-3205-6.
• Winkler, Martin M. (2008). Spartacus: Film and History. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-4707-7726-5.