"As for the captain of the cavalry..." Spartacus thought for a moment and looked at Antonix: "The gladiator who first noticed the Capua army's movement and rushed back to inform us when you went scouting was called..."
"Oh... Omacle." Antonix interjected, "He's quite clever and a good rider."
"I suggest he lead the cavalry," said Spartacus.
Cross hesitated for a moment. Although Omacle was a Gaul, he was one of the few who didn't quite listen to him. But not wanting to appear envious or narrow-minded, he said reluctantly, "I... have no objections."
Spartacus continued, "We now have quite a few things, and we will gain more spoils in the future. To prevent everyone from fighting over them and creating chaos, we need to manage these spoils well. Also, we have more and more people now. Ensuring everyone is well-fed is not easy. We need to form a supply team to manage resources and provide enough food for everyone. I suggest appointing Hamilcar as the supply team captain, with Maximus assisting, temporarily managing twenty people. What does everyone think?"
Everyone agreed to this. The gladiators were passionate about fighting and killing, and they knew nothing about logistics and supply. They were eager for someone to take on these complex tasks. So Cross just glanced at Maximus without further insult and said seriously, "Spartacus, our biggest problem now is the lack of weapons and armor. Hamilcar just mentioned that after occupying this manor, apart from getting ten sets of City Guard equipment from the guards we killed, we haven't found any other weapons. At least half of the joined slaves have no weapons. Are we to let them fight the Romans barehanded?"
Spartacus was about to speak when Maximus coughed, "Can I say a few words?"
"If you have a solution, speak out," Spartacus, interested, watched Maximus. This young man's understanding of Italy was something other gladiators did not have, and this was why he was tolerant and valued him. Of course, his half-Thracian blood also played a part.
"I don't have a solution, I just want to tell everyone—" Maximus combined his knowledge from his past life about Ancient Rome with the protagonist's personal experiences and said seriously, "Decades ago, all City State citizens in Italy with some means had one or two sets of weapons at home, always ready to respond to their City State's call, to fight alongside the Roman army. But since Rome began recruiting unemployed people with money and directly providing weapons to form armies, these Italians no longer needed to prepare weapons themselves. Therefore, there are probably no weapons in the homes and farms of the people in the Campagna region, only in towns where City Guards are formed as per Rome's requirements, they have armories providing weapons for City Guards."
"You mean... we should attack the towns to seize their armories..." Antonix frowned.
"No, I'm only telling you about the weapon distribution in the Campagna region, to give you an idea," Maximus explained quickly.
"The Campagnians are not good at fighting, but neither are we good at sieging. To avoid heavy casualties, we won't consider sieging for now," Spartacus pondered. "We can only try to collect more weapons after attacking these farms. Slaves without weapons can use sharpened sticks and wooden swords, like we did in training before, those can also kill people."
Everyone nodded and resonated with this.
"However, Maximus, what you said reminded me that City State citizens throughout Italy have not equipped themselves with weapons for decades, so they likely haven't trained for combat either. They surely don't have the capability to fight us. As long as we can defeat the Roman army, we won't have anything to worry about!" Spartacus said with great enthusiasm.
Everyone was infected by his passion and was very excited.
Cross shouted, "No wonder those Capua People fight like women, turns out that's the reason. The Romans are hateful, but they did well in this regard."
Everyone laughed.
Maximus also laughed along, but he thought of the historical end of Spartacus and others.
Spartacus said with a smile, "Today we have found a place to settle and have so many new brothers joining us, we should celebrate! Hamilcar, Maximus, your first task as the supply team is to prepare us a lavish dinner and bring up dozens of bottles of good wine from the cellar for everyone to enjoy!"
"I agree wholeheartedly!" everyone shouted excitedly.
Maximus was equally delighted because he had earned Spartacus and the others' recognition through his efforts and gained some authority. Even though he was only assisting Hamilcar in the supply team, it was a significant step forward.
............
Gaius Claudius Grabo, from the illustrious Claudius family in Rome, was the youngest of the eight Legal Officers in the Roman Senate. Although he had only been a Legal Officer for a short time, he was not lacking in war experience. In his youth, he had followed the Roman Army to Little Asia to fight against the King of Pontus and later marched with Sula into Rome. While he was not yet entrusted by Sula like Lucullus and Pompey, he was nonetheless valued, ensuring a relatively smooth career in Roman politics over the years.
As a Legal Officer, he wished to advance further—to become a Governor. However, there were many competitors, and he lacked notable battle achievements or strong support, and even receiving a nomination seemed difficult, leaving him at a loss. But in recent days, he discovered an opportunity.
A group of low-status gladiators caused an upheaval at the Capua Gladiator School and then escaped to the Vesuvius Volcano Region. They seized the highlands, raided farms, killed locals, and rallied slaves, growing ever larger and disrupting the entire Vesuvius Region's peace, even threatening nearby towns and the safety of the Roman Road. More importantly, they harmed the interests of Roman Elders and Nobles in the area. Consequently, recently Elders had proposed dispatching troops to eliminate these rebels, quickly passing the resolution.
Although the news suggested that these bandits had grown to several thousand, the Elders only permitted deploying half a legion, indicating that they did not take these bandits seriously. Nonetheless, if he could swiftly defeat them and restore peace to the Vesuvius Region, it would undoubtedly earn him some goodwill from most Elders and recognition of his abilities.
Seeing this, Grabo actively campaigned to lead the troops.
According to regulations, a Legal Officer had command authority, and other Legal Officers were not inclined to garner the minor achievement of quelling a small group of rebels, so Grabo easily took on this task. However, there was no existing army in Rome, so he had to first issue a recruitment notice on the square. The news quickly spread throughout the city, and a large number of unemployed poor flocked to the War God Square.
For his first time as a commander, Grabo was cautious. Based on the information he had collected, although most in the rebel group were a motley crew of slaves, the leading group were gladiators. While the gladiators were not adept at military strategy, their personal combat skills were formidable. When the Germanic Cimbri invaded, the Roman Army suffered consecutive defeats, prompting the Senate to urgently appoint Marius. Marius considered the recruits too inexperienced to fend off the ferocious barbarians and learned from his colleague Rutitius Rufus to train some gladiators' methods on his soldiers. The process was extremely rigorous, with soldiers continuously getting injured, but after a few months, the new recruits greatly improved their personal combat abilities, laying a solid foundation for eventually defeating the Cimbri.