Publius Varinius was a Roman praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...

 in 73 BC and proconsul

Proconsul

A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...

 in 72 BC and suffered several defeats against Spartacus

Spartacus

Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...

' rebellious slaves during the Third Servile War

Third Servile War

The Third Servile War , also called the Gladiator War and the War of Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last of a series of unrelated and unsuccessful slave rebellions against the Roman Republic, known collectively as the Roman Servile Wars...

. The history has gaps in it and all we know is that an advance force of 2,000 led by Varinius legate Lucius Furius was defeated and that a later encounter also ended in defeat another 4,000 men. The rebels sacked Varinius camp with an estimated 10,000 men, women and children but mostly men.

Selected ancient sources

• Sallust, Histories 3.95-98 Maurenbrecher.
• Frontinus, Strategemata 1.5.22.
• Plutarch, Crassus 9.4-6.
• Appian, Civil Wars 1.116.
• Florus, Epitome 2.8.5 (Varinius is the unnamed general whose camp was attacked)
• Some of these sources are available in English translation from the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/3slaverevolttexts.htm).
• The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss