Crassus   

money, by speaking and canvassing among the people for those who had
objects to obtain from them, he gradually gained as great honour and
power as Pompey had from his many famous expeditions. And it was a
curious thing in their rivalry, that Pompey's name and interests in
the city was greatest when he was absent, for his renown in war, but
when present he was often less successful than Crassus, by reason
of his superciliousness and haughty way of living, shunning crowds
of people, and appearing rarely in the forum, and assisting only some
few, and that not readily, that his interests might be the stronger
when he came to use it for himself. Whereas Crassus, being a friend
always at hand, ready to be had and easy of access, and always with
his hands full of other people's business, with his freedom and courtesy,
got the better of Pompey's formality. In point of dignity of person,
eloquence of language, and attractiveness of countenance, they were
pretty equally excellent. But, however, this emulation never transported
Crassus so far as to make him bear enmity or any ill-will; for though
he was vexed to see Pompey and Caesar preferred to him, yet he never
mingled any hostility or malice with his jealousy; though Caesar,
when he was taken captive by the corsairs in Asia, cried out, "O Crassus,
how glad you will be at the news of my captivity!" Afterwards they
lived together on friendly terms, for when Caesar was going praetor
into Spain, and his creditors, he being then in want of money, came
upon him and seized his equipage, Crassus then stood by him and relieved
him, and was his security for eight hundred and thirty talents. And
in general, Rome being divided into three great interests, those of
Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus (for as for Cato, his fame was greater
than his power, and he was rather admired than followed), the sober
and quiet part were for Pompey, the restless and hot-headed followed
Caesar's ambition, but Crassus trimmed between them, making advantages
of both, and changed sides continually, being neither a trusty friend
nor an implacable enemy, and easily abandoned both his attachments
and his animosities, as he found it for his advantage, so that in
short spaces of time the same men and the same measures had him both
as their supporter and as their opponent. He was much liked, but was
feared as much or even more. At any rate, when Sicinius, who was the
greatest troubler of the magistrates and ministers of his time, was
asked how it was he let Crassus alone, "Oh," said he, "he carries
hay on his horns," alluding to the custom of tying hay to the horns
of the bull that used to butt, that people might keep out of his way.
The insurrection of the gladiators and the devastation of Italy, commonly
called the war of Spartacus, began upon this occasion. One Lentulus
Batiates trained up a great many gladiators in Capua, most of them
Gauls and Thracians, who, not for any fault by them committed, but
simply through the cruelty of their master, were kept in confinement
for this object of fighting one with another. Two hundred of these
formed a plan to escape, but being discovered, those of them who became
aware of it in time to anticipate their master, being seventy-eight,
got out of a cook's shop chopping-knives and spits, and made their
way through the city, and lighting by the way on several wagons that
were carrying gladiators' arms to another city, they seized upon them
and armed themselves. And seizing upon a defensible place, they chose
three captains, of whom Spartacus was chief, a Thracian of one of
the nomad tribes, and a man not only of high spirit and valiant, but
in understanding, also, and in gentleness superior to his condition,
and more of a Grecian than the people of his country usually are.
When he first came to be sold at Rome, they say a snake coiled itself
upon his face as he lay asleep, and his wife, who at this latter time
also accompanied him in his flight, his countrywoman, a kind of prophetess,
and one of those possessed with the bacchanal frenzy, declared that
it was a sign portending great and formidable power to him with no
happy event.
First, then, routing those that came out of Capua against them, and
thus procuring a quantity of proper soldiers' arms, they gladly threw
away their own as barbarous and dishonourable. Afterwards Clodius,