the legion commanded by Lentulus, defeated it, seized the Roman supplies and equipment, then pushed into northern Italy. After this defeat, both consuls were relieved of command of their armies by the Roman Senate and recalled to Rome. Plutarch does not mention Spartacus engaging Gellius' legion at all, nor of Spartacus facing the combined consular legions in Picenum. Plutarch then goes on to detail a conflict not mentioned in Appian's history. According to Plutarch, Spartacus' army continued northwards to the region around Mutina (modern Modena). There, a Roman army of some 10,000 soldiers, led by the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Gaius Cassius Longinus attempted to bar Spartacus' progress and was also defeated. Plutarch makes no further mention of events until the initial confrontation between Marcus Licinius Crassus and Spartacus in the spring of 71 BC, omitting the march on Rome and the retreat to Thurii described by Appian. As Plutarch describes Crassus forcing Spartacus' followers to retreat southwards from Picenum, it could be inferred that the rebel slaves approached Picenum from the south in early 71 BC, implying that they withdrew from Mutina into southern or central Italy for the winter of 72–71 BC. Why they might do so, when there was apparently no reason for them not to escape over the Alps—Spartacus' goal according to Plutarch—is not explained. The war under Crassus (71 BC) Crassus takes command of the legions Despite the contradictions in the classical sources regarding the events of 72 BC, there seems to be general agreement that Spartacus and his followers were in the south of Italy in early 71 BC. The Senate, alarmed at the apparently unstoppable rebellion, gave the task of putting it down to Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus had been a field commander under Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the civil war between Sulla and the Marian faction in 82 BC and had served under Sulla during the dictatorship that followed. Crassus was given a praetorship and assigned six new legions in addition to the two formerly consular legions of Gellius and Lentulus, giving him an estimated army of some 32,000–48,000 trained Roman infantry plus auxiliaries (there being quite a range in the size of Republican legions). Crassus treated his legions with harsh, even brutal, discipline, reviving the punishment of unit decimation within his army. Appian is uncertain whether he decimated the two consular legions for cowardice when he was appointed their commander or