march against the enemy. Spartacus, however, avoided Crassus, and made
his way through Lucania to the sea, and, falling in with some Cilician
piratical vessels, in the Straits, he formed a design to seize Sicily,
and by throwing two thousand men into the island, to kindle again the
servile war there, the flames of which had not long since been
quenched, and required only a few sparks to set it again in a blaze.
The Cilicians[34] came to terms with Spartacus, and received his
presents; but they deceived him, and sailed off. Under these
circumstances, he marched back from the coast, and fixed his army in
the peninsula of the Rhegine territory. Crassus now came up, and
observing that the nature of the ground suggested what was to be done,
he resolved to build a wall across the isthmus, for the purpose of
keeping his soldiers employed, and cutting off the supplies of the
enemy. Though the undertaking was great and difficult, he accomplished
it, and completed the work, contrary to all expectation, in a short
time, by digging a ditch[35] from sea to sea, through the neck of
land, three hundred stadia in length, fifteen feet deep, and as many
wide; and above the ditch he raised a rampart of surprising height and
strength. At first Spartacus paid no attention to what was going on,
and treated it with contempt; but when forage began to fail, and he
wanted to advance further into the interior, he discovered the lines
of Crassus; and as there was nothing to be got in the peninsula,
taking advantage of a night when there was a fall of snow and a wintry
storm, he filled up a small part of the ditch with earth, and wood,
and the branches of trees, and so carried over a third part of his
army.

XI. Now Crassus was afraid that Spartacus might form a design to march
against Rome; but he was encouraged by many of the followers of
Spartacus quitting their leader, in consequence of some disputes, and