A. Sicily 136-132 BCE
Diodorus Siculus, Library
Books 34/35. 2. 1-48
1. When Sicily, after the Carthaginian collapse, had enjoyed sixty years of
good fortune in all respects, the Servile War broke out for the following
reason. The Sicilians, having shot up in prosperity and acquired great wealth,
began to purchase a vast number of slaves, to whose bodies, as they were
brought in droves from the slave markets, they at once applied marks and
brands.
2. The young men they used as cowherds, the others in such ways as they
happened to be useful. But they treated them with a heavy hand in their
service, and granted them the most meagre care, the bare minimum for food and
clothing. As a result most of them made their livelihood by brigandage, and
there was bloodshed everywhere, since the brigands were like scattered bands of
soldiers.
3. The governors (praetores) attempted to repress them, but since they
did not dare to punish them because of the power and prestige of the gentry who
owned the brigands, they were forced to connive at the pillaging of the
province. For most of the landowners were Roman knights (equites), and
since it was the knights who acted as judges when charges arising from
provincial affairs were brought against the governors, the magistrates stood in
awe of them.
4. The slaves, distressed by their hardships, and frequently outraged and
beaten beyond all reason, could not endure their treatment. Getting together
as opportunity offered, they discussed the possibility of revolt, until at last
they put their plans into action.
5. There was a certain Syrian slave, belonging to Antigenes of Enna; he was an
Apamean by birth and had an aptitude for magic and the working of wonders. He
claimed to foretell the future, by divine command, through dreams, and because
of his talent along these lines deceived many. Going on from there he not only
gave oracles by means of dreams, but even made a pretence of having waking
visions of the gods and of hearing the future from their own lips.
6. Of his many improvisations some by chance turned out true, and since those
which failed to do so were left unchallenged, while those that were fulfilled
attracted attention, his reputation advanced apace. Finally, through some
device, while in a state of divine possession, he would produce fire and flame
from his mouth, and thus rave oracularly about things to come.
7. For he would place fire, and fuel to maintain it, in a nut -- or something
similar -- that was pierced on both sides; then, placing it in his mouth and
blowing on it, he kindled now sparks, and now a flame. Prior to the revolt he
used to say that the Syrian goddess appeared to him, saying that he should be
king, and he repeated this, not only to others, but even to his own master.
8. Since his claims were treated as a joke, Antigenes, taken by his
hocus-pocus, would introduce Eunus (for that was the wonder-worker's name) at
his dinner parties, and cross-question him about his kingship and how he would
treat each of the men present. And since he gave a full account of everything
without hesitation, explaining with what moderation he would treat the masters
and in sum making a colourful tale of his quackery, the guests were always
stirred to laughter, and some of them, picking up a nice tidbit from the table,
would present it to him, adding, as they did so, that when he became king, he
should remember the favour.
9. But, as it happened, his charlatanism did in fact result in kingship, and
for the favours received in jest at the banquets he made a return of thanks in
good earnest. The beginning of the whole revolt took place as follows.
10. There was a certain Damophilus of Enna, a man of great wealth but insolent
of manner; he had abused his slaves to excess, and his wife Megallis vied even
with her husband in punishing the slaves and in her general inhumanity towards
them. The slaves, reduced by this degrading treatment to the level of brutes,
conspired to revolt and to murder their masters. Going to Eunus they asked him
whether their resolve had the favour of the gods. He, resorting to his usual
mummery, promised them the favour of the gods, and soon persuaded them to act
at once.
11. Immediately, therefore, they brought together four hundred of their fellow
slaves and, having armed themselves in such ways as opportunity permitted, they
fell upon the city of Enna, with Eunus at their head and working his miracle of
the flames of fire for their benefit. When they found their way into the houses
they shed much blood, sparing not even suckling babes.
12. They tore them from the breast and dashed them to the ground, while as for
the women -- and under their husbands' very eyes -- but words cannot tell the
extent of their outrages and acts of lewdness! By now a great multitude of
slaves from the city had joined them, who, after first demonstrating against
their own masters their utter ruthlessness, then turned to the slaughter of
others.
13. When Eunus and his men learned that Damophilus and his wife were in the
garden that lay near the city, they sent some of their band and dragged them
off, both the man and his wife, fettered and with hands bound behind their
backs, subjecting them to many outrages along the way. Only in the case of the
couple's daughter were the slaves seen to show consideration throughout, and
this was because of her kindly nature, in that to the extent of her power she
was always compassionate and ready to succour the slaves. Thereby it was
demonstrated that the others were treated as they were, not because of some
"natural savagery of slaves," but rather in revenge for wrongs previously
received.
14. The men appointed to the task, having dragged Damophilus and Megallis into
the city, as we said, brought them to the theatre, where the crowd of rebels
had assembled. But when Damophilus attempted to devise a plea to get them off
safe and was winning over many of the crowd with his words, Hermeias and
Zeuxis, men bitterly disposed towards him, denounced him as a cheat, and
without waiting for a formal trial by the assembly the one ran him through the
chest with a sword, the other chopped off his head with an axe. Thereupon
Eunus was chosen king, not for his manly courage or his ability as a military
leader, but solely for his marvels and his setting of the revolt in motion, and
because his name seemed to contain a favourable omen that suggested good will
towards his subjects.
15. Established as the rebels' supreme commander, he called an assembly and put
to death all the citizenry of Enna except for those who were skilled in the
manufacture of arms: these he put in chains and assigned them to this task. He
gave Megallis to the maidservants to deal with as they might wish; they
subjected her to torture and threw her over a precipice. He himself murdered
his own masters, Antigenes and Pytho.
16. Having set a diadem upon his head, and arrayed himself in full royal style,
he proclaimed his wife queen (she was a fellow Syrian and of the same city),
and appointed to the royal council such men as seemed to be gifted with
superior intelligence, among them one Achaeus (Achaeus by name and an Achaean
by birth), a man who excelled both at planning and in action. In three days
Eunus had armed, as best he could, more than six thousand men, besides others
in his train who had only axes and hatchets, or slings, or sickles, or
fire-hardened stakes, or even kitchen spits; and he went about ravaging the
countryside. Then, since he kept recruiting untold numbers of slaves, he
ventured even to do battle with Roman generals, and on joining combat
repeatedly overcame them with his superior numbers, for he now had more than
ten thousand soldiers.
17. Meanwhile a man named Cleon, a Cilician, began a revolt of still other
slaves. And though there were high hopes everywhere that the revolutionary
groups would come into conflict one with the other, and that the rebels, by
destroying themselves, would free Sicily of strife, contrary to expectations
the two groups joined forces, Cleon having subordinated himself to Eunus at his
mere command, and discharging, as it were, the function of a general serving a
king; his particular band numbered five thousand men. It was now about thirty
days since the outbreak.
18. Soon after, engaging in battle with a general arrived from Rome, Lucius
Hypsaeus, who had eight thousand Sicilian troops, the rebels were victorious,
since they now numbered twenty thousand. Before long their band reached a
total of two hundred thousand, and in numerous battles with the Romans they
acquitted themselves well, and failed but seldom.
19. As word of this was bruited about, a revolt of one hundred and fifty
slaves, banded together, flared up in Rome, of more than a thousand in Attica,
and of yet others in Delos and many other places. But thanks to the speed with
which forces were brought up and to the severity of their punitive measures,
the magistrates of these communities at once disposed of the rebels and brought
to their senses any who were wavering on the verge of revolt. In Sicily,
however, the trouble grew.
20. Cities were captured with all their inhabitants, and many armies were cut
to pieces by the rebels, until Rupilius, the Roman commander, recovered
Tauromenium for the Romans by placing it under strict siege and confining the
rebels under conditions of unspeakable duress and famine: conditions such that,
beginning by eating the children, they progressed to the women, and did not
altogether abstain even from eating one another. It was on this occasion that
Rupilius captured Comanus, the brother of Cleon, as he was attempting to escape
from the beleaguered city.
21. Finally, after Sarapion, a Syrian, had betrayed the citadel, the general
laid hands on all the runaway slaves in the city, whom, after torture, he threw
over a cliff. From there he advanced to Enna, which he put under siege in much
the same manner, bringing the rebels into extreme straits and frustrating their
hopes. Cleon came forth from the city with a few men, but after an heroic
struggle, covered with wounds, he was displayed dead, and Rupilius captured
this city also by betrayal, since its strength was impregnable to force of
arms.
22. Eunus, taking with him his bodyguards, a thousand strong, fled in unmanly
fashion to a certain precipitous region. The men with him, however, aware that
their dreaded fate was inevitable, inasmuch as the general, Rupilius, was
already marching against them, killed one another with the sword, by beheading.
Eunus, the wonder-worker and king, who through cowardice had sought refuge in
certain caves, was dragged out with four others, a cook, a baker, the man who
massaged him at his bath, and a fourth, whose duty it had been to amuse him at
drinking parties.
23. Remanded to prison, where his flesh disintegrated into a mass of lice, he
met such an end as befitted his knavery, and died at Morgantina. Thereupon
Rupilius, traversing the whole of Sicily with a few picked troops, sooner than
had been expected rid it of every nest of robbers.
*******
24. Eunus, king of the rebels, called himself Antiochus, and his horde of
rebels Syrians. Approaching Eunus, who lived not far away, they asked whether
their project had the approval of the gods. He put on a display of divine
transports, and when he learned why they had come, stated clearly that the gods
favoured their revolt, provided they made no delay but applied themselves to
the enterprise at once; for it was decreed by Fate that Enna, the citadel of
the whole island, should be their land. Having heard this, and believing that
Providence was assisting them in their project, they were so keenly wrought up
for revolt that there was no delay in executing their resolve. At once,
therefore, they set free those in bonds, and collecting such as lived near by
they assembled some 400 men in a certain field not far from Enna. After making
a compact and exchanging pledges sworn by night over sacrificial victims, they
armed themselves in such fashion as the occasion allowed; but all were equipped
with the best of weapons, fury, which was bent on the destruction of their
arrogant masters. Their leader was Eunus. With cries of encouragement to one
another they broke into the city about midnight and put many to the sword.
25. There was never a sedition of slaves so great as that which occurred in
Sicily, whereby many cities met with grave calamities, innumerable men and
women, together with their children, experienced the greatest misfortunes, and
all the island was in danger of falling into the power of fugitive slaves, who
measured their authority only by the excessive suffering of the freeborn. To
most people these events came as an unexpected and sudden surprise, but to
those who were capable of judging affairs realistically they did not seem to
happen without reason.
26. Because of the superabundant prosperity of those who exploited the products
of this mighty island, nearly all who had risen in wealth affected first a
luxurious mode of living, then arrogance and insolence. As a result of all
this, since both the maltreatment of the slaves and their estrangement from
their masters increased at an equal rate, there was at last, when occasion
offered, a violent outburst of hatred. So without a word of summons tens of
thousands of slaves joined forces to destroy their masters. Similar events
took place throughout Asia at the same period, after Aristonicus laid claim to
a kingdom that was not rightfully his, and the slaves, because of their owners'
maltreatment of them, joined him in his mad venture and involved many cities in
great misfortunes.
27. In like fashion a each of the large landowners bought up whole slave marts
to work their lands; . . . to bind some in fetters, to wear out others by the
severity of their tasks; and they marked all with their arrogant brands. In
consequence, so great a multitude of slaves inundated all Sicily that those who
heard tell of the immense number were incredulous. For in fact the Sicilians
who had acquired much wealth were now rivalling the Italians in arrogance,
greed, and villainy. And the Italians who owned large numbers of slaves had
made crime so familiar to their herdsmen that they provided them no food, but
permitted them to plunder.
28. With such licence given to men who had the physical strength to accomplish
their every resolve, who had scope and leisure to seize the opportunity, and
who for want of food were constrained to embark on perilous enterprises, there
was soon an increase in lawlessness. They began by murdering men who were
travelling singly or in pairs, in the most conspicuous areas. Then they took
to assaulting in a body, by night, the homesteads of the less well protected,
which they destroyed, seizing the property and killing all who resisted.
29. As their boldness grew steadily greater, Sicily became impassable to
travellers by night; those who normally lived in the country found it no longer
safe to stay there; and there was violence, robbery, and all manner of
bloodshed on every side. The herdsmen, however, because of their experience of
life in the open and their military accoutrements, were naturally all brimming
with high spirits and audacity; and since they carried clubs or spears or stout
staves, while their bodies were protected by the skins of wolves or wild boars,
they presented a terrifying appearance that was little short of actual
belligerence.
30. Moreover, each had at his heels a pack of valiant dogs, while the plentiful
diet of milk and meat available to the men rendered them savage in temper and
in physique. So every region was filled with what were practically scattered
bands of soldiers, since with the permission of their masters the reckless
daring of the slaves had been furnished with arms.
31. The praetors attempted to hold the raging slaves in check, but not daring
to punish them because of the power and influence of the masters were forced to
wink at the plundering of their province. For most of the landowners were
Roman knights in full standing, and since it was the knights who acted as
judges when charges arising from provincial affairs were brought against the
governors, the magistrates stood in awe of them.
32. The Italians who were engaged in agriculture purchased great numbers of
slaves, all of whom they marked with brands, but failed to provide them
sufficient food, and by oppressive toil wore them out .. . their distress.
33. Not only in the exercise of political power should men of prominence be
considerate towards those of low estate, but so also in private life they
should -- if they are sensible -- treat their slaves gently. For heavy-handed
arrogance leads states into civil strife and factionalism between citizens, and
in individual households it paves the way for plots of slaves against masters
and for terrible uprisings in concert against the whole state. The more power
is perverted to cruelty and lawlessness, the more the character of those
subject to that power is brutalized to the point of desperation. Anyone whom
fortune has set in low estate willingly yields place to his superiors in point
of gentility and esteem, but if he is deprived of due consideration, he comes to regard those who harshly lord it over him with
bitter enmity.
34. There was a certain Damophilus, a native of Enna, a man of great wealth but
arrogant in manner, who, since he had under cultivation a great circuit of land
and owned many herds of cattle, emulated not only the luxury affected by the
Italian landowners in Sicily, but also their troops of slaves and their
inhumanity and severity towards them. He drove about the countryside with
expensive horses, four-wheeled carriages, and a bodyguard of slaves, and prided
himself, in addition, on his great train of handsome serving-boys and
ill-mannered parasites.
35. Both in town and at his villas he took pains to provide a veritable
exhibition of embossed silver and costly crimson spreads, and had himself
served sumptuous and regally lavish dinners, in which he surpassed even the
luxury of the Persians in outlay and extravagance, as indeed he outdid them
also in arrogance. His uncouth and boorish nature, in fact, being set in
possession of irresponsible power and in control of a vast fortune, first of
all engendered satiety, then overweening pride, and, at last, destruction for
him and great calamities for his country.
36. Purchasing a large number of slaves, he treated them outrageously, marking
with branding irons the bodies of men who in their own countries had been free,
but who through capture in war had come to know the fate of a slave. Some of
these he put in fetters and thrust into slave pens; others he designated to act
as his herdsmen, but neglected to provide them with suitable clothing or
food.
37. Because of his arbitrary and savage humour not a day passed that this same
Damophilus did not torment some of his slaves without just cause. His wife
Metallis, who delighted no less in these arrogant punishments, treated her
maidservants cruelly, as well as any other slaves who fell into her clutches.
And because of the despiteful punishments received from them both, the slaves
were filled with rage against their masters, and conceiving that they could
encounter nothing worse than their present misfortunes began to form
conspiracies to revolt and to murder their masters.
38. On one occasion when approached by a group of naked domestics with a
request for clothing, Damophilus of Enna impatiently refused to listen. "What!"
he said, "do those who travel through the country go naked? Do they not offer
a ready source of supply for anyone who needs garments?" Having said this, he
ordered them bound to pillars, piled blows on them, and arrogantly dismissed
them.
39. There was in Sicily a daughter of Damophilus, a girl of marriageable age,
remarkable for her simplicity of manner and her kindness of heart. It was
always her practice to do all she could to comfort the slaves who were beaten
by her parents, and since she also took the part of any who had been put in
bonds, she was wondrously loved by one and all for her kindness. So now at
this time, since her past favours enlisted in her service the mercy of those to
whom she had shown kindness, no one was so bold as to lay violent hands upon
the girl, but all maintained her fresh young beauty inviolate. And selecting
suitable men from their number, among them Hermeias, her warmest champion, they
escorted her to the home of certain kinsmen in Catana.
40. Although the rebellious slaves were enraged against the whole household of
their masters, and resorted to unrelenting abuse and vengeance, there were yet
some indications that it was not from innate savagery but rather because of the
arrogant treatment they had themselves received that they now ran amuck when
they turned to avenge themselves on their persecutors. Even among slaves human nature needs no instructor in regard to a just
repayment, whether of gratitude or of revenge.
41. Eunus, after being proclaimed king, put them all to death, except for the
men who in times past had, when his master indulged him, admitted him to their
banquets, and had shown him courtesy both in respect of his prophecies and in
their gifts of good things from the table; these men he spirited away and set
free. Here indeed was cause for astonishment: that their fortunes should be so
dramatically reversed, and that a kindness in such trivial matters should be
requited so opportunely and with so great a boon.
42. Achaeus, the counsellor of King Antiochus [Eunus], being far from pleased
at the conduct of the runaway slaves, censured them for their recklessness and
boldly warned them that they would meet with speedy punishment. So far from
putting him to death for his outspokenness, Eunus not only presented him with
the house of his former masters but made him a royal counsellor.
43. There was, in addition, another revolt of fugitive slaves who banded
together in considerable numbers. A certain Cleon, a Cilician from the region
about Taurus, who was accustomed from childhood to a life of brigandage and had
become in Sicily a herder of horses, constantly waylaid travellers and
perpetrated murders of all kinds. On hearing the news of Eunus' success and of
the victories of the fugitives serving with him, he rose in revolt, and
persuading some of the slaves near by to join him in his mad venture overran
the city of Acragas and all the surrounding country.
44. Their pressing needs and their poverty forced the rebel slaves to regard
everyone as acceptable, giving them no opportunity to pick and choose.
45. It needed no portent from the heavens to realize how easily the city could
be captured. For it was evident even to the most simple-minded that because of
the long period of peace the walls had crumbled, and that now, when many of its
soldiers had been killed, the siege of the city would bring an easy success.
46. Eunus, having stationed his army out of range of their missiles, taunted
the Romans by declaring that it was they, and not his men, who were runaways
from battle. For the inhabitants of the city, at a safe distance (?), he
staged a production of mimes, in which the slaves acted out scenes of revolt
from their individual masters, heaping abuse on their arrogance and the
inordinate insolence that had led to their destruction.
47. As for unusual strokes of ill fortune, even though some persons may be
convinced that Providence has no concern with anything of the sort, yet surely
it is to the interest of society that the fear of the gods should be deeply
embedded in the hearts of the people. For those who act honestly because they
are themselves virtuous are but few, and the great mass of humanity abstain
from evil-doing only because of the penalties of the law and the retribution
that comes from the gods.
48. When these many great troubles fell upon the Sicilians, the common people
were not only unsympathetic, but actually gloated over their plight, being
envious because of the inequality in their respective lots, and the disparity
in their modes of life. Their envy, from being a gnawing canker, now turned to
joy, as it beheld the once resplendent lot of the rich changed and fallen into
a condition such as was formerly beneath their very notice. Worst of all,
though the rebels, making prudent provision for the future, did not set fire to
the country estates nor damage the stock or the stored harvests, and abstained
from harming anyone whose pursuit was agriculture, the populace, making the
runaway slaves a pretext, made sallies into the country and with the malice of
envy not only plundered the estates but set fire to the buildings as well.
Book 34/35. 3. 8, 11
8. The runaway "Syrian slaves cut off the hands of their captives, but not
content with amputation at the wrist included arms and all in the mutilation.
11. There was a certain Gorgus of Morgantina, surnamed Cambalus, a man of
wealth and good standing, who, having gone out hunting, happened upon a
robber-nest of fugitive slaves, and tried to escape on foot to the city. His
father, Gorgus, chancing to meet him on horseback, jumped down and offered him
the horse that he might mount and ride off to the city. But the son did not
choose to save himself at his father's expense, nor was the father willing to
make good his escape from danger by letting his son die. While they were still
pleading with one another, both in tears, and were engaged in a contest of
piety and affection, as paternal devotion vied with a son's love for his
father, the bandits appeared on the scene and killed them both.
Strabo, Geography
Book 6. 2. 6-7
6. In the interior is Enna, where is the temple of Demeter, with only a few
inhabitants; it is situated on a hill, and is wholly surrounded by broad
plateaus that are tillable. It suffered most at the hands of Eunus and his
runaway slaves, who were besieged there and only with difficulty were dislodged
by the Romans. The inhabitants of Catana and Tauromenium and also several
other peoples suffered this same fate.
Eryx, a lofty hill, is also inhabited. It has a temple of Aphrodite that is
held in exceptional honour, and in early times was full of female
temple-slaves, who had been dedicated in fulfilment of vows not only by the
people of Sicily but also by many people from abroad; but at the present time,
just as the settlement itself, so the temple is in want of men, and the
multitude of temple-slaves has disappeared. In Rome, also, there is a
reproduction of this goddess, I mean the temple before the Colline Gate which
is called that of Venus Erycina and is remarkable for its shrine and
surrounding colonnade.
But the rest of the settlements as well as most of the interior have come into
the possession of shepherds; for I do not know of any settled population still
living in either Himera, or Gela, or Callipolis or Selinus or Euboea or several
other places. Of these cities Himera was founded by the Zanclaeans of Mylae,
Callipolis by the Naxians, Selinus by the Megarians of the Sicilian Megara, and
Euboea by the Leontines. Many of the barbarian cities, also, have been wiped
out; for example Camici, the royal residence of Cocalus, at which Minos is said
to have been murdered by treachery. The Romans, therefore, taking notice that
the country was deserted, took possession of the mountains and most of the
plains and then gave them over to horseherds, cowherds, and shepherds; and by
these herdsmen the island was many times put in great danger, because, although
at first they only turned to brigandage in a sporadic way, later they both
assembled in great numbers and plundered the settlements, as, for example, when
Eunus and his men took possession of Enna. And recently, in my own time, a
certain Selurus, called the son of Aetna," was sent up to Rome because he had
put himself at the head of an army and for a long time had overrun the regions
round about Aetna with frequent raids; I saw him torn to pieces by wild beasts
at an appointed combat of gladiators in the Forum; for he was placed on a lofty
scaffold, as though on Aetna, and the scaffold was made suddenly to break up
and collapse, and he himself was carried down with it into cages of wild beasts
-- fragile cages that had been prepared beneath the scaffold for that
purpose.
7. As for the fertility of the country, why should I speak of it, since it is
on the lips of all men, who declare that it is no whit inferior to that of
Italy? And in the matter of grain, honey, saffron, and certain other products,
one might call it even superior. There is, furthermore, its propinquity; for
the island is a part of Italy, as it were, and readily and without great labour
supplies Rome with everything it has, as though from the fields of Italy. And
in fact it is called the storehouse of Rome, for everything it produces is
brought hither except a few things that are consumed at home, and not the
fruits only, but also cattle, hides, wool, and the like. Poseidonius says that
Syracuse and Eryx are each situated like an acropolis by the sea, whereas Enna
lies midway between the two above the encircling plains.
Florus, Epitome of Roman History
2. 7. 1-8
Though, in the preceding war, we fought with our allies, (which was bad
enough,) yet we contended with free men, and men of good birth: but who can
with patience hear of a war against slaves on the part of a people at the head
of all nations? The first war with slaves occurred in the infancy of Rome, in
the heart of the city, when Herdonius Sabinus was their leader, and when, while
the state was distracted with the seditions of the tribunes, the Capitol was
besieged and wrested by the consul from the servile multitude. But this was an
insurrection rather than a war. At a subsequent period, when the forces of the
empire were engaged in different parts of the world, who would believe that
Sicily was much more cruelly devastated by a war with slaves than in that with
the Carthaginians? This country, fruitful in grain, and, in a manner, a
suburban province, was covered with large estates of many Roman citizens; and
the numerous slave-houses, and fettered tillers of the ground, supplied force
enough for a war. A certain Syrian, by name Eunus, (the greatness of our
defeats from him makes us remember it,) counterfeiting a fanatical inspiration,
and tossing his hair in honour of the Syrian goddess, excited the slaves, by
command of heave as it were, to claim their liberty and take up arms. And that
he might prove this to be done by supernatural direction, he concealed a nut in
his mouth, which he had filled with brimstone and fire, and breathing gently,
sent forth flame together with his words. This prodigy at first attracted two
thousand of such as came in his way; but in a short time, by breaking open the
slavehouses, he collected a force of above sixty thousand, and being adorned
with ensigns of royalty, that nothing might be wanting to his audacity, he laid
waste, with lamentable desolation, fortresses, towns, and villages. The camps
even of praetors (the utmost disgrace of war) were taken by him nor will I
shrink from giving their names, they were the camps of Manilius, Lentulus,
Piso, and Hypsaeus. Thus those, who ought to have been dragged home by
slavetakers, pursued praetorian generals routed in battle. At last vengeance
was taken on them by our general Perperna for having conquered them, and at
last besieged them in Enna, and reduced them with famine as with a pestilence,
he threw the remainder of the marauders into chains, and then crucified them.
But over such enemies he was content with an ovation, that he might not sully
the dignity of a triumph with the name of slaves.
Orosius, Histories
Book 5. 6
In the consulship of Servius Fulvius Flaccus and Q. Calpurnius Piso, there was
born at Rome of a maid servant a boy with four feet, four eyes, a like number
of ears, twice as many as in the nature of man. In Sicily, Mount Etna cast
forth and spread vast fires which, like torrents flowing precipitously down the
neighboring slopes, burned up everything with their consuming fire and scorched
more distant places with glowing ashes which flew far and wide with a heavy
vapor. This kind of portent, ever native to Sicily, customarily does not
foretell evil, but brings it on. In the land of Bononia, the products of the
field came forth on trees. And in Sicily, the slave war broke out, which was
so serious and fierce, because of the number of the slaves, the equipment of
the troops, and the strength of its forces, that, not to mention the Roman
praetors whom it thoroughly routed, it terrified even consuls. For seventy
thousand slaves are reported to have been among the conspirators at that time,
not including the city of Messana which kept its slaves in peace by treating
them kindly. But Sicily was more wretched also in this respect, in that it was
an island and never with respect to its own status had a law of its own and
thus, at one time, was subject to tyrants and, at another, to slaves, or when
the former exacted slavery by their wicked domination or the latter effected an
interchange of liberty by a perverse presumption, especially because it was
hemmed in on all sides by sea, its internal evils could not easily pass out.
Indeed, Sicily nourished a viperous growth to its own destruction, increased by
its own lust and destined to live with its death. But in this respect, the
emotions of a slave tumult, insofar as it is of rarer occurrence among others,
to this extent is more ferocious, because a mob of free men is moved by the
urge to advance the fatherland; a mob of slaves to destroy it.
5. 9. 4-8
In addition, the contagion of the Slave War in Sicily infected many provinces
far and wide. For at Minturnae, four hundred and fifty slaves were crucified,
and at Sinuessa, four thousand slaves were crushed by Q. Metellus and Cn.
Servilius Caepio; in the mines of the Athenians also, a like uprising of the
slaves was dispersed by Heraclitus; at Delos also, the slaves, rising in
another revolt, were crushed by the citizens who anticipated the movement
without that first fire of the evil in Sicily, from which the sparks flaring
forth fostered these various fires. For in Sicily, after Fulvius, the consul,
Piso, the consul, captured the town of Mamertium, where he killed eight
thousand fugitives, but those whom he was able to capture he crucified. When
Rupilius, the consul, succeeded him, he regained by war Tauromenium and Enna,
the strongest places of refuge for fugitive slaves; more than twenty thousand
slaves are reported to have been slaughtered at that time. Surely, the cause
of such an inextricable war was pitiable. Undoubtedly, the masters would have
had to perish had they not met the haughty slaves with the sword. But yet in
the very losses of battle, which were most unfortunate, and in the more
unfortunate gains of victory, the victors lost as many as perished among the
conquered.
B. Sicily 104-100
Diodorus Siculus, Library
Book 36. 1-11
1. In Rome, at about the same time that Marius defeated the Libyan kings
Bocchus and Jugurtha in a great battle and slew many tens of thousands of
Libyans, and, later, took thence and held captive Jugurtha himself (after he
had been seized by Bocchus who thereby won pardon from the Romans for the
offences that had brought him into war with them), at the time, furthermore,
that the Romans, at war with the Cimbri, were disheartened, having met with
very serious reverses in Gaul -- at about this time, I repeat, men arrived in
Rome from Sicily bearing news of an uprising of slaves, their numbers running
into many tens of thousands. With the advent of this fresh news the whole
Roman state found itself in a crisis, inasmuch as nearly sixty thousand allied
troops had perished in the war in Gaul against the Cimbri and there were no
legionary forces available to send out.
2. Even before the new uprising of the slaves in Sicily there had occurred in
Italy a number of short-lived and minor revolts, as though the supernatural was
indicating in advance the magnitude of the impending Sicilian rebellion. The
first was at Nuceria, where thirty slaves formed a conspiracy and were promptly
punished; the second at Capua, where two hundred rose in insurrection and were
promptly put down. The third was surprising in character. There was a certain
Titus Minucius, a Roman knight and the son of a very wealthy father. This man
fell in love with a servant girl of outstanding beauty who belonged to another.
Having lain with her and fallen unbelievably in love, he purchased her freedom
for seven Attic talents (his infatuation being so compelling, and the girl's
master having consented to the sale only reluctantly), and fixed a time by
which he was to pay off the debt, for his father's abundant means obtained him
credit. When the appointed day came and he was unable to pay, he set a new
deadline of thirty days. When this day too was at hand and the sellers put in
a claim for payment, while he, though his passion was in full tide, was no
better able than before to carry out his bargain, he then embarked on an
enterprise that passes all comprehension: he made designs on the life of those
who were dunning him, and arrogated to himself autocratic powers. He bought up
five hundred suits of armour, and contracting for a delay in payment, which he
was granted, he secretly conveyed them to a certain field and stirred up his
own slaves, four hundred in number, to rise in revolt. Then, having assumed the
diadem and a purple cloak, together with lictors and the other appurtenances of
office, and having with the co-operation of the slaves proclaimed himself king,
he flogged and beheaded the persons who were demanding payment for the girl.
Arming his slaves, he marched on the neighbouring farmsteads and gave arms to
those who eagerly joined his revolt, but slew anyone who opposed him. Soon he
had more than seven hundred soldiers, and having enrolled them by centuries he
constructed a palisade and welcomed all who revolted. When word of the
uprising was reported at home the senate took prudent measures and remedied the
situation. Of the praetors then in the city they appointed one, Lucius
Lucullus, to apprehend the fugitives. That very day he selected six hundred
soldiers in Rome itself, and by the time he reached Capua had mustered four
thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. Vettius, on learning that Lucullus
was on his way, occupied a strong hill with an army that now totalled more than
thirty-five hundred men. The forces engaged, and at first the fugitives had
the advantage, since they were fighting from higher ground; but later Lucullus,
by suborning Apollonius, the general of Vettius, and guaranteeing him in the
name of the state immunity from punishment, persuaded him to turn traitor
against his fellow rebels. Since he was now cooperating with the Romans and
turning his forces against Vettius, the latter, fearing the punishment that
would await him if he were captured, slew himself, and was presently joined in
death by all who had taken part in the insurrection, save only the traitor
Apollonius. Now these events, forming as it were a prelude, preceded the major
revolt in Sicily, which began in the following manner.
2a. There were many new uprisings of slaves, the first at Nuceria, where thirty
slaves formed a conspiracy and were promptly punished, and the second at Capua,
where two hundred slaves rose in insurrection and also were promptly punished.
A third revolt was extraordinary and quite out of the usual pattern. There was
a certain Titus Vettius, a Roman knight, whose father was a person of great
wealth. Being a very young man, he was attracted by a servant girl of
outstanding beauty who belonged to another. Having lain with her, and even
lived with her for a certain length of time, he fell marvellously in love and
into a state bordering, in fact, on madness. Wishing because of his affection
for her to purchase the girl's freedom, he at first encountered her master's
opposition, but later, having won his consent by the magnitude of the offer, he
purchased her for seven Attic talents, and agreed to pay the purchase price at
a stipulated time. His father's wealth obtaining him credit for the sum, he
carried the girl off, and hiding away at one of his father's country estates
sated his private lusts. But when the stipulated time for the debt came round
he was visited by men sent to demand payment. He put off the settlement till
thirty days later, and when he was still unable to furnish the money, but was
now a very slave to love, he embarked on an enterprise that passes all
comprehension. Indeed, the extreme severity of his affliction and the
embarrassment that accompanied his failure to pay promptly caused his mind to
turn to childish and utterly foolish calculations. Faced by impending
separation from his mistress, he formed a desperate plot against those who were
demanding payment....
3. In the course of Marius' campaign against the Cimbri the senate granted
Marius permission to summon military aid from the nations situated beyond the
seas. Accordingly Marius sent to Nicomedes, the king of Bithynia, requesting
assistance. The king replied that the majority of the Bithynians had been
seized by tax farmers and were now in slavery in the Roman provinces. The
senate then issued a decree that no citizen of an allied state should be held
in slavery in a Roman province, and that the praetors should provide for their
liberation. In compliance with the decree Licinius Nerva, who was at this time
governor of Sicily, appointed hearings and set free a number of slaves, with
the result that in a few days more than eight hundred persons obtained their
freedom. And all who were in slavery throughout the island were agog with
hopes of freedom. The notables, however, assembled in haste and entreated the
praetor to desist from this course.
Whether he was won over by their bribes or weakly succumbed in his desire to
favour them, in any case he ceased to show interest in these tribunals, and
when men approached him to obtain freedom he rebuked them and ordered them to
return to their masters. The slaves, banding together, departed from Syracuse,
and taking refuge in the sanctuary of the Palici canvassed the question of
revolution. From this point on the audacity of the slaves was made manifest in
many places, but the first to make a bid for freedom were the thirty slaves of
two very wealthy brothers in the region of Halicyae, led by a man named Varius.
They first murdered their own masters by night as they lay sleeping, then
proceeded to the neighbouring villas and summoned the slaves to freedom. In
this one night more than a hundred and twenty gathered together. Seizing a
position that was naturally strong, they strengthened it even further, having
received in the meantime an increment of eighty armed slaves. Licinius Nerva,
the governor of the province, marched against them in haste, but though he
placed them under siege his efforts were in vain. When he saw that their
fortress could not be taken by force, he set his hopes on treason. As the
instrument for his purpose he had one Gaius Titinius, surnamed Gadaeus, whom he
won over with promises of immunity. This man had been condemned to death two
years before, but had escaped punishment, and living as a brigand had murdered
many of the free men of the region, while abstaining from harm to any of the
slaves.
Now, taking with him a sufficient body of loyal slaves, he approached the
fortress of the rebels, as though intending to join them in the war against the
Romans. Welcomed with open arms as a friend, he was even chosen, because of
his valour, to be general, whereupon he betrayed the fortress. Of the rebels
some were cut down in battle, and others, fearing the punishment that would
follow on their capture, cast themselves down from the heights. Thus was the
first uprising of the fugitives quelled.
4. After the soldiers had disbanded and returned to their usual abodes, word
was brought that eighty slaves had risen in rebellion and murdered Publius
Clonius, who had been a Roman knight, and, further, that they were now engaged
in gathering a large band. The praetor, distracted by the advice of others and
by the fact that most of his forces had been disbanded, failed to act promptly
and so provided the rebels an opportunity to make their position more secure.
But he set out with the soldiers that were available, and after crossing the
river Alba passed by the rebels who were quartered on Mount Caprianus and
reached the city of Heracleia. By spreading the report that the praetor was a
coward, since he had not attacked them, they aroused a large number of slaves
to revolt, and with an influx of many recruits, who were equipped for battle in
such fashion as was possible, within the first seven days the had more than
eight hundred men under arms, and soon thereafter numbered not less than two
thousand. When the praetor learned at Heracleia of their growing numbers he
appointed Marcus Titinius as commander, giving him a force of six hundred men
from the garrison at Enna. Titinius launched an attack on the rebels, but
since they held the advantage both in numbers and by reason of the difficult
terrain, he and his men were routed, many of them being killed, while the rest
threw down their arms and barely made good their escape by flight. The rebels,
having gained both a victory and so many arms all at once, maintained their
efforts all the more boldly, and all slaves everywhere were now keyed up to
revolt. Since there were many who revolted each day, their numbers received a
sudden and marvellous increase, and in a few days there were more than six
thousand. Thereupon they held an assembly, and when the question was laid
before them first of all chose as their king a man named Salvius, who was
reputed to be skilled in divination and was a flute-player of frenetic music at
performances for women. When he became king he avoided the cities, regarding
them as the source of sloth and self-indulgence, and dividing the rebels into
three groups, over whom he set a like number of commanders, he ordered them to
scour the country and then assemble in full force at a stated time and place.
Having provided themselves by their raids with an abundance of horses and other
beasts, they soon had more than two thousand cavalry and no fewer than twenty
thousand infantry, and were by now making a good showing in military exercises.
So, descending suddenly on the strong city of Morgantina, they subjected it to
vigorous and constant assaults. The praetor, with about ten thousand Italian
and Sicilian troops, set out to bring aid to the city, marching by night;
discovering on his arrival that the rebels were occupied with the siege, he
attacked their camp, and finding that it was guarded by a mere handful of men,
but was filled with captive women and other booty of all sorts, he captured the
place with ease. After plundering the camp he moved on Morgantina. The rebels
made a sudden counterattack and, since they held a commanding position and
struck with might and main at once gained the ascendant, and the praetor's
forces were routed. When the king of the rebels made proclamation that no one
who threw down his arms should be killed, the majority dropped them and ran.
Having outwitted the enemy in this manner, Salvius recovered his camp, and by
his resounding victory got possession of many arms. Not more than six hundred
of the Italians and Sicilians perished in the battle, thanks to the king's
humane proclamation, but about four thousand were taken prisoner. Having
doubled his forces, since there were many who flocked to him as a result of his
success, Salvius was now undisputed master of the open country, and again
attempted to take Morgantina by siege. By proclamation he offered the slaves
in the city their freedom, but when their masters countered with a like offer
if they would join in the defence of the city, they chose rather the side of
their masters, and by stout resistance repelled the siege. Later, however, the
praetor, by rescinding their emancipation, caused the majority of them to
desert to the rebels.
5. In the territory of Segesta and Lilybaeum, and of the other neighbouring
cities, the fever of insurrection was also raging among the masses of slaves.
Here the leader was a certain Athenion, a man of outstanding courage, a
Cilician by birth. He was the bailiff of two very wealthy brothers, and having
great skill in astrology he won over first the slaves who were under him, some
two hundred, and then those in the vicinity, so that in five days he had
gathered together more than a thousand men. When he was chosen as king and had
put on the diadem, he adopted an attitude just the opposite to that of all the
other rebels: he did not admit all who revolted, but making the best ones
soldiers, he required the rest to remain at their former labours and to busy
themselves each with his domestic affairs and his appointed task; thus Athenion
was enabled to provide food in abundance for his soldiers. He pretended,
moreover, that the gods forecasted for him, by the stars, that he would be king
of all Sicily; consequently, he must needs conserve the land and all its cattle
and crops, as being his own property. Finally, when he had assembled a force of
more than ten thousand men, he ventured to lay siege to Lilybaeum, an
impregnable city. Having failed to achieve anything, he departed thence,
saying that this was by order of the gods, and that if they persisted in the
siege they would meet with misfortune. While he was yet making ready to
withdraw from the city, ships arrived in the harbour bringing a contingent of
Mauretanian auxiliaries, who had been sent to reinforce the city of Lilybaeum
and had as their commander a man named Gomon. He and his men made an
unexpected attack by night on Athenion's forces as they were on the march, and
after felling many and wounding quite a few others returned to the city. As a
result the rebels marvelled at his prediction of the event by reading the
stars.
6. Turmoil and a very Iliad of woes possessed all Sicily. Not only slaves but
also impoverished freemen were guilty of every sort of rapine and lawlessness,
and ruthlessly murdered anyone they met, slave or free, so that no one should
report their frenzied conduct. As a result all city-dwellers considered what
was within the city walls scarcely their own, and whatever was outside as lost
to them and subject only to the lawless rule of force. And many besides were
the strange deeds perpetrated in Sicily, and many were the perpetrators.
11. Not only did the multitude of slaves who had plunged into revolt ravage the
country, but even those freemen who possessed no holdings on the land resorted
to rapine and lawlessness. Those without means, impelled alike by poverty and
lawlessness, streamed out into the country in swarms, drove off the herds of
cattle, plundered the crops stored in the barns, and murdered without more ado
all who fell in their way, slave or free alike, so that no one should be able
to carry back news of their frantic and lawless conduct. Since no Roman
officials were dispensing justice and anarchy prevailed, there was
irresponsible licence, and men everywhere were wreaking havoc far and wide.
Hence every region was filled with violence and rapine, which ran riot and
enjoyed full licence to pillage the property of the well-to-do. Men who
aforetime had stood first in their cities in reputation and wealth, now through
this unexpected turn of fortune were not only losing their property by violence
at the hands of the fugitives, but were forced to put up with insolent
treatment even from the free born. Consequently they all considered whatever
was within the gates scarcely their own, and whatever was without the walls as
lost to them and subject only to the lawless rule of force. In general there
was turmoil in the cities, and a confounding of all justice under law. For the
rebels, supreme in the open country, made the land impassable to travellers,
since they were implacable in their hatred for their masters and never got
enough of their unexpected good fortune. Meanwhile the slaves in the cities,
who were contracting the infection and were poised for revolt, were a source of
great fear to their masters.
7. After the siege of Morgantina, Salvius, having overrun the country as far as
the plain of Leontini, assembled his whole army there, no fewer than thirty
thousand picked men, and after sacrificing to the heroes, the Palici, dedicated
to them in thank offering for his victory a robe bordered with a strip of
sea-dyed purple. At the same time he proclaimed himself king and was
henceforth addressed by the rebels as Tryphon. As it was his intention to
seize Triocala and build a palace there, he sent to Athenion, summoning him as
a king might summon a general. Everyone supposed that Athenion would dispute
the primacy with him and that in the resulting strife between the rebels the
war would easily be brought to an end. But Fortune, as though intentionally
increasing the power of the fugitives, caused their leaders to be of one mind.
Tryphon came promptly to Triocala with his army, and thither also came Athenion
with three thousand men, obedient to Tryphon as a general is obedient to his
king; the rest of his army he had sent out to cover the countryside and rouse
the slaves to rebellion. Later on, suspecting that Athenion would attack him,
given the opportunity, Tryphon placed him under detention. The fortress, which
was already very strong, he equipped with lavish constructions, and
strengthened it even more. This place, Triocala, is said to be so named
because it possesses three fine advantages: first, an abundance of flowing
springs, whose waters are exceptionally sweet; second, an adjacent countryside yielding vines and olives,
and wonderfully amenable to cultivation; and third, surpassing strength, for it
is a large and impregnable ridge of rock. This place, which he surrounded with
a city wall eight stades in length, and with a deep moat, he used as his royal
capital, and saw that it was abundantly supplied with all the necessities of
life. He constructed also a royal palace, and a market place that could
accommodate a large multitude. Moreover, he picked out a sufficient number of
men endowed with superior intelligence, whom he appointed counsellors and
employed as his cabinet. When holding audience he put on a toga bordered in
purple and wore a wide-bordered tunic, and had lictors with axes to precede
him; and in general he affected all the trappings that go to make up and embellish the dignity of a king.
8. To oppose the rebels the Roman senate assigned Lucius Licinius Lucullus,
with an army of fourteen thousand Romans and Italians, eight hundred
Bithynians, Thessalians, and Acarnanians, six hundred Lucanians (commanded by
Cleptius, a skilled general and a man renowned for valour), besides six hundred
others, for a total of seventeen thousand. With these forces he occupied
Sicily. Now Tryphon, having dropped the charges against Athenion, was making
plans for the impending war with the Romans. His choice was to fight at
Triocala, but it was Athenion's advice that they ought not to shut themselves
up to undergo siege, but should fight in the open. This plan prevailed, and
they encamped near Scirthaea, no fewer than forty thousand strong; the Roman
camp was at a distance of twelve stades. There was constant skirmishing at
first, then the two armies met face to face. The battle swayed now this way,
now that, with many casualties on both sides. Athenion, who had a fighting
force of two hundred horse, was victorious and covered the whole area about him
with corpses, but after being wounded in both knees and receiving a third blow
as well, he was of no service in fighting, whereupon the runagate slaves lost
spirit and were routed. Athenion was taken for dead and so was not detected.
By thus feigning death he made good his escape during the coming night. The
Romans won a brilliant victory, for Tryphon's army and Tryphon himself turned
and fled. Many were cut down in flight, and no fewer than twenty thousand were
finally slain. Under cover of night the rest escaped to Triocala, though it
would have been an easy matter to dispatch them also if only the praetor had
followed in pursuit. The slave party was now so dejected that they even
considered returning to their masters and placing themselves in their hands.
But it was the sentiment of those who had pledged themselves to fight to the
end and not to yield themselves abjectly to the enemy that at last prevailed.
On the ninth day following, the praetor arrived to lay siege to Triocala.
After inflicting and suffering some casualties he retired worsted, and the
rebels once more held their heads high. The praetor, whether through indolence
or because he had been bribed, accomplished nothing of what needed doing, and
in consequence he was later haled to judgement by the Romans and punished.
9. Gaius Servilius, sent out as praetor to succeed Lucullus, likewise achieved
nothing worthy of note. Hence he, like Lucullus, was later condemned and sent
into exile. On the death of Tryphon, Athenion succeeded to the command, and,
since Servilius did nothing to hinder him, he laid cities under siege, overran
the country with impunity, and brought many places under his sway.
The praetor Lucullus, on learning that Gaius Servilius, the praetor appointed
to succeed him in the war, had crossed the Strait, disbanded his army, and set
fire to the camp and the constructions, for he did not wish his successor in
the command to have any significant resources for waging war. Since he himself
was being denounced for his supposed desire to enlarge the scope of the war, he
assumed that by ensuring the humiliation and disgrace of his successor he was
also dispelling the charge brought against himself.
10. At the end of the year Gaius Marius was elected consul at Rome for the
fifth time, with Gaius Aquillius as his colleague. It was Aquillius who was
sent against the rebels, and by his personal valour won a resounding victory
over them. Meeting Athenion, the king of the rebels, face to face, he put up
an heroic struggle; he slew Athenion, and was himself wounded in the head but
recovered after treatment. Then he continued the campaign against the
surviving rebels, who now numbered ten thousand. When they did not abide his
approach, but sought refuge in their strongholds, Aquillius unrelentingly
employed every means till he had captured their forts and mastered them. But a
thousand were still left, with Satyrus at their head. Aquillius at first
intended to subdue them by force of arms, but when later, after an exchange of
envoys, they surrendered, he released them from immediate punishment and took
them to Rome to do combat with wild beasts. There, as some report, they
brought their lives to a most glorious end; for they avoided combat with the
beasts and cut one another down at the public altars, Satyrus himself slaying
the last man. Then he, as the final survivor, died heroically by his own hand.
Such was the dramatic conclusion of the Sicilian Slave War, a war that lasted
about four years.
Florus, Epitome
2. 7. 9-12
Scarcely had the island recovered itself; when it passed from the hands of a
Syrian slave to those of a Cilician. Athenio, a shepherd, having killed his
master, formed his slaves, whom he had released from the slave-house, into a
regular troop. Then, equipped with a purple robe and a silver sceptre, and
with a crown on his head like a king, he drew together no less an army than the
fanatic his predecessor, and laying waste, with even greater fury, (as if
taking vengeance for his fate,) villages, fortresses, and towns, he vented his
rage upon the masters, but still more violently on the slaves, whom he treated
as renegades. By him, too, some armies of praetors were overthrown, and the
camps of Servilius and Lucullus taken. But Aquilius, following the example of
Perperna, reduced the enemy to extremities by cutting off his supplies, and
easily destroyed by famine forces which were well defended by arms. They would
have surrendered, had they not, from dread of punishment, preferred a voluntary
death. Not even on their leader could chastisement be inflicted, though he fell
alive into our hands, for while the people were disputing who should secure
him, the prey was torn to pieces between the contending parties.
Cassius Dio, Roman History
Book 27 fragment 101
Publius Licinius Nerva, who was praetor in the island, on learning that the
slaves were not being justly treated in some respects, or else because he
sought an occasion for profit -- for he was not inaccessible to bribes -- sent
round a notice that all who had any charges to bring against their masters
should come to him and he would assist them. Accordingly, many of them banded
together, and some declared they were being wronged and others made known other
grievances against their masters, thinking they had secured an opportunity for
accomplishing all that they wished against them without bloodshed. The
freemen, after consultation, resisted them and would not make any concessions.
Therefore Licinius, inspired with fear by the united front of both sides and
dreading that some great mischief might be done by the defeated party, would
not receive any of the slaves, but sent them away, thinking that they would
suffer no harm or that at any rate they would be scattered and so could cause
no further disturbance. But the slaves, fearing their masters because they had
dared to raise their voices at all against them, organized a band and by common
consent turned to robbery.
Fragment 104
The people of Messana, not expecting to meet with any harm, had deposited in
that place for safe-keeping all their most valuable and precious possessions.
Athenio, a Cilician who held the chief command of the robbers, on learning
this, attacked them while they were celebrating a public festival in the
suburbs, killed many of them as they were scattered about, and almost took the
city by storm. After building a wall to fortify Macella, a strong position, he
proceeded to do great injury to the country.
C. The War with Spartacus
Plutarch, Crassus
8-11
8. 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 waggons 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 country- woman, 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.
9. 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, the praetor, took the
command against them with a body of three thousand men from Rome, and besieged
them within a mountain, accessible only by one narrow and difficult passage,
which Clodius kept guarded, encompassed on all other sides with steep and
slippery precipices. Upon the top, however, grew a great many wild vines, and
cutting down as many of their boughs as they had need of, they twisted them
into strong ladders long enough to reach from thence to the bottom, by which,
without any danger, they got down all but one, who stayed there to throw them
down their arms, and after this succeeded in saving himself. The Romans were
ignorant of all this, and, therefore, coming upon them in the rear, they
assaulted them unawares and took their camp. Several also, of the shepherds
and herdsmen that were there, stout and nimble fellows, revolted over to them,
to some of whom they gave complete arms, and made use of others as scouts and
light-armed soldiers.
Publius Varinius, the praetor, was now sent against them, whose lieutenant,
Furius with two thousand men, they fought and routed. Then Cossinius was sent
with considerable forces, to give his assistance and advice, and him Spartacus
missed but very little of capturing in person, as he was bathing at Salinae;
for he with great difficulty made his escape, while Spartacus possessed himself
of his baggage, and following the chase with a great slaughter, stormed his
camp and took it, where Cossinius himself was slain. After many successful
skirmishes with the praetor himself, in one of which he took his lictors and
his own horse, he began to be great and terrible; but wisely considering that
he was not to expect to match the force of the empire, he marched his army
towards the Alps, intending, when he had passed them, that every man should go
to his own home, some to Thrace, some to Gaul.
But they, grown confident in their numbers, and puffed up with their success,
would give no obedience to him, but went about and ravaged Italy; so that now
the senate was not only moved at the indignity and baseness, both of the enemy
and of the insurrection, but, looking upon it as a matter of alarm and of
dangerous consequence sent out both the consuls to it, as to a great and
difficult enterprise. The consul Gellius, falling suddenly upon a party of
Germans, who through contempt and confidence had straggled from Spartacus, cut
them all to pieces. But when Lentulus with a large army besieged Spartacus, he
sallied out upon him, and, joining battle, defeated his chief officers, and
captured all his baggage. As he made toward the Alps, Cassius, who was praetor
of that part of Gaul that lies about the Po, met him with ten thousand men, but
being overcome in the battle, he had much ado to escape himself, with the loss
of a great many of his men.
10. When the senate understood this, they were displeased at the consuls, and
ordering them to meddle no further, they appointed Crassus general of the war,
and a great many of the nobility went volunteers with him, partly out of
friendship, and partly to get honour. He stayed himself on the borders of
Picenum, expecting Spartacus would come that way, and sent his lieutenant,
Mummius, with two legions, to wheel about and observe the enemy's motions, but
upon no account to engage or skirmish. But he, upon the first opportunity,
joined battle, and was routed, having a great many of his men slain, and a
great many only saving their lives with the loss of their arms. Crassus rebuked
Mummius severely, and arming the soldiers again, he made them find sureties for
their arms, that they would part with them no more, and five hundred that were
the beginners of the flight he divided into fifty tens and one of each was to
die by lot, thus reviving the ancient Roman punishment of decimation, where
ignominy is added to the penalty of death, with a variety of appalling and
terrible circumstances, presented before the eyes of the whole army, assembled
as spectators.
When he had thus reclaimed his men, he led them against the enemy; but
Spartacus retreated through Lucania toward the sea, and in the straits meeting
with some Cilician pirate ships, he had thoughts of attempting Sicily, where,
by landing two thousand men, he hoped to rekindle the war of the slaves, which
was but lately extinguished, and seemed to need but little fuel to set it
burning again. But after the pirates had struck a bargain with him, and
received his earnest, they deceived him and sailed away. He thereupon retired
again from the sea, and established his army in the peninsula of Rhegium; there
Crassus came upon him, and considering the nature of the place, which of itself
suggested the undertaking, he set to work to build a wall across the isthmus;
thus keeping his soldiers at once from idleness and his foes from forage. This
great and difficult work he perfected in a space of time short beyond all
expectation, making a ditch from one sea to the other, over the neck of land,
three hundred furlongs long, fifteen feet broad, and as much in depth, and
above it built a wonderfully high and strong wall. All which Spartacus at
first slighted and despised, but when provisions began to fail, and on his
proposing to pass further, he found he was walled in, and no more was to be had
in the peninsula, taking the opportunity of a snowy, stormy night, he filled up
part of the ditch with earth and boughs of trees, and so passed the third part
of his army over.
11. Crassus was afraid lest he should march directly to Rome, but was soon
eased of that fear when he saw many of his men break out in a mutiny and quit
him, and encamped by themselves upon the Lucanian lake. This lake they say
changes at intervals of time, and is sometimes sweet, and sometimes so salt
that it cannot be drunk. Crassus falling upon these beat them from the lake,
but he could not pursue the slaughter, because of Spartacus suddenly coming up
and checking the flight. Now he began to repent that he had previously written
to the senate to call Lucullus out of Thrace, and Pompey out of Spain; so that
he did all he could to finish the war before they came, knowing that the honour
of the action would redound to him that came to his assistance. Resolving,
therefore, first to set upon those that had mutinied and encamped apart, whom
Gaius Cannicius and Castus commanded, he sent six thousand men before to secure
a little eminence, and to do it as privately as possible, which that they might
do they covered their helmets, but being discovered by two women that were
sacrificing for the enemy, they had been in great hazard, had not Crassus
immediately appeared, and engaged in a battle which proved a most bloody one.
Of twelve thousand three hundred whom he killed, two only were found wounded in
their backs, the rest all having died standing in their ranks and fighting
bravely.
Spartacus, after this discomfiture retired to the mountains of Petelia, but
Quintius, one of Crassus' officers, and Scrofa, the quaestor, pursued and
overtook him. But when Spartacus rallied and faced them, they were utterly
routed and fled, and had much ado to carry off their quaestor, who was wounded.
This success however, ruined Spartacus, because it encouraged the slaves, who
now disdained any longer to avoid fighting, or to obey their officers, but as
they were upon the march, they came to them with their swords in their hands,
and compelled them to lead them back again through Lucania, against the Romans,
the very thing which Crassus was eager for. For news was already brought that
Pompey was at hand; and people began to talk openly that the honour of this war
was reserved to him, who would come and at once oblige the enemy to fight and
put an end to the war. Crassus, therefore, eager to fight a decisive battle,
encamped very near the enemy, and began to make lines of circumvallation; but
the slaves made a sally and attacked the pioneers.
As fresh supplies came in on either side, Spartacus, seeing there was no
avoiding it, set all his army in array; and when his horse was brought him, he
drew out his sword and killed him, saying, if he got the day he should have a
great many better horses of the enemies', and if he lost it he should have no
need of this. And so making directly towards Crassus himself, through the
midst of arms and wounds, he missed him, but slew two centurions that fell upon
him together. At last being deserted by those that were about him, he himself
stood his ground, and, surrounded by the enemy, bravely defending himself, was
cut in pieces.
But though Crassus had good fortune, and not only did the part of a good
general, but gallantly exposed his person, yet Pompey had much of the credit of
the action. For he met with many of the fugitives, and slew them, and wrote to
the senate that Crassus indeed had vanquished the slaves in a pitched battle,
but that he had put an end to the war. Pompey was honoured with a magnificent
triumph for his conquest over Sertorius and Spain, while Crassus could not
himself so much as desire a triumph in its full form, and indeed it was thought
to took but meanly in him to accept of the lesser honour, called the ovation,
for a servile war, and perform a procession on foot.
Florus, Epitome
2. 8. 20
We may, however, support the dishonour of a war with slaves, for though they
are, by their circumstances, subjected to all kinds of treatment, they are yet,
as it were, a second class of men, and may be admitted to the enjoyment of
liberty with ourselves. But the war raised by the efforts of Spartacus I know
not by what name to call, for the soldiers in it were slaves, and the
commanders gladiators; the former being persons of the meanest condition, and
the latter men of the worst character, and adding to the calamity of their
profession by its contemptibleness. Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus, breaking
out of the fencing school of Lentulus escaped from Capua, with not more than
thirty of the same occupation, and, having called the slaves to their standard,
and collected a force of more than ten thousand men, were not content with
merely having escaped, but were eager to take vengeance on their masters. The
first theatre for action that attracted them was Mount Vesuvius where, being
besieged by Clodius Glaber, they slid down a passage in the hollow part of the
mountain, by means of ropes made of vine branches, and penetrated to the very
bottom of it; when, issuing forth by an outlet apparently impracticable, they
captured, by a sudden attack, the camp of the Roman general, who expected no
molestation. They afterwards took other camps, and spread themselves to Cora,
and through the whole of Campania. Not content with plundering the country
seats and villages, they ravaged, with terrible devastation, Nola and Nuceria,
Thurii and Metapontum. Being joined by new forces day after day, and forming
themselves into a regular army, they made themselves, out of osiers and beasts'
hides, a rude kind of shield, and out of the iron from the slave-houses forged
swords and other weapons. And that nothing proper might be wanting to the
complement of the army, they procured cavalry by breaking in the herds of
horses that came in their way, and conferred upon their leader the ensigns and
fasces that they took from the praetors. Nor did he, who of a mercenary
Thracian had become a Roman soldier, of a soldier a deserter and robber, and
afterwards, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator, refuse to receive
them. He afterwards, indeed, celebrated the funerals of his own officers, who
died in battle, with the obsequies of Roman generals, and obliged the prisoners
to fight with arms at their funeral piles, just as if he could atone for all
past dishonour by becoming, from a gladiator, an exhibitor of shows of
gladiators. Engaging next with the armies of the consuls, he cut to pieces
that of Lentulus, near the Apennines, and destroyed the camp of Gaius Cassius
at Mutina. Elated by these successes, he deliberated (which is sufficient
disgrace for us) about assailing Rome. At length an effort was made against
this swordsman with the whole force of the empire, and Licinius Crassus avenged
the honour of Rome, by whom the enemies (I am ashamed to call them so) being
routed and put to flight, betook themselves to the furthest parts of Italy.
Here, being shut up in a corner of Bruttium, and attempting to escape to
Sicily, but having no ships, and having in vain tried, on the swift current of
the strait, to sail on rafts made of hurdles and casks tied together with
twigs, they at last sallied forth, and died a death worthy of men. As was
fitting for a gladiator captain, they fought without sparing themselves.
Spartacus himself, fighting with the utmost bravery in the front of the battle,
fell as became their general.
Appian, The Civil Wars
1. 111
The following year, which was in the 176th Olympiad, two countries were
acquired by the Romans by bequest. Bithynia was left to them by Nicomedes, and
Cyrene by Ptolemy Apion, of the house of the Lagidae. There were wars and wars;
the Sertorian was raging in Spain, the Mithridatic in the East, that of the
pirates on the entire sea, and another one around Crete against the Cretans
themselves, besides the gladiatorial war in Italy, which started suddenly and
became very serious.
116. At the same time Spartacus, a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a
soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a
gladiator, and was in the gladiatorial training-school at Capua, persuaded
about seventy of his comrades to strike for their own freedom rather than for
the amusement of spectators. They overcame the guards and ran away, arming
themselves with clubs daggers that they took from people on the roads and took
refuge on Mount Vesuvius. There many fugitive slaves and even some freemen
from the fields joined Spartacus, and he plundered the neighboring country,
having for subordinate officers two gladiators named Oenomaus and Crixus. As
he divided the plunder impartially he soon had plenty of men. Varinius Faber
was first sent against him and afterward Publius Valerius, not with regular
armies, but with forces picked up in haste and at random, for the Romans did
not consider this a war as yet, but a raid, something like an outbreak of
robbery. When they attacked Spartacus they were beaten. Spartacus even
captured the horse of Varinius; so narrowly did a Roman praetor escape being
captured by a gladiator.
After this still greater numbers flocked to Spartacus till his army numbered
70,000 men. For these he manufactured weapons and collected apparatus.
117. Rome now sent out the consuls with two legions. One of them overcame
Crixus with 30,000 men near Mount Garganus, two-thirds of whom perished
together with himself. Spartacus endeavored to make his way through the
Apennines to the Alps and the Gallic country, but one of the consuls
anticipated him and hindered his march while the other hung upon his rear. He
turned upon them one after the other and beat them in detail. They retreated
in confusion in different directions. Spartacus sacrificed 300 Roman prisoners
to the shade of Crixus, and marched on Rome with 120,000 foot, having burned
all his useless material, killed all his prisoners, and butchered his pack
animals in order to expedite his movement. Many deserters offered themselves
to him, but he would not accept them. The consuls again met him in the country
of Picenum. Here was fought another great battle and there was too, a great
defeat for the Romans.
Spartacus changed his intention of marching on Rome. He did not consider
himself ready as yet for that kind of a fight, as his whole force was not
suitably armed, for no city had joined him, but only slaves, deserters, and
riffraff. However, he occupied the mountains around Thurii and took the city
itself. He prohibited the bringing in of gold or silver by merchants, and
would not allow his own men to acquire any, but he bought largely of iron and
brass and did not interfere with those who dealt in these articles. Supplied
with abundant material from this source his men provided themselves with plenty
of arms and continued in robbery for the time being. When they next came to an
engagement with the Romans they were again victorious, and returned laden with
spoils.
118. This war, so formidable to the Romans (although ridiculous and
contemptible in the beginning, considered as the work of gladiators), had now
lasted three years. When the election of new praetors came on, fear fell upon
all, and nobody offered himself as a candidate until Licinius Crassus, a man
distinguished among the Romans for birth and wealth, assumed the praetorship
and marched against Spartacus with six new legions. When he arrived at his
destination he received also the two legions of the consuls whom he decimated
by lot for their bad conduct in several battles. Some say that Crassus, too,
having engaged in battle with his whole army, and having been defeated,
decimated the whole army and was not deterred by their numbers, but destroyed
about 4,000 of them. Whichever way it was, he demonstrated to them that he was
more dangerous to them than the enemy. Presently he overcame l0,000 of the
Spartacans, who were encamped somewhere in a detached position, and killed
two-thirds of them. He then marched boldly against Spartacus himself,
vanquished him in a brilliant engagement, and pursued his fleeing forces to the
sea, where they tried to pass over to Sicily. He overtook them and enclosed
them with a line of circumvallation consisting of ditch, wall, and paling.
119. Spartacus tried to break through and make an incursion into the Samnite
country, but Crassus slew about 6,000 of his men in the morning and as many
more towards evening. Only three of the Roman army were killed and seven
wounded, so great was the improvement in their morale inspired by the recent
punishment. Spartacus, who was expecting from somewhere a reinforcement of
horse no longer went into battle with his whole army, but harassed the
besiegers by frequent sallies here and there. He fell upon them unexpectedly
and continually, threw bundles of fagots into the ditch and set them on fire
and made their labor difficult. He crucified a Roman prisoner in the space between the two armies
to show his own men what fate awaited them if they did not conquer. When the
Romans in the city heard of the siege they thought it would be disgraceful if this war against gladiators
should be prolonged. Believing also that the work still to be done against
Spartacus was great and severe they ordered up the army of Pompey which had
just arrived from Spain, as a reinforcement.
120. On account of this vote Crassus tried in every way to come to an
engagement with Spartacus so that Pompey might not reap the glory of the war.
Spartacus himself, thinking to anticipate Pompey, invited Crassus to come to
terms with him. When his proposals were rejected with scorn he resolved to
risk a battle, and as his cavalry had arrived he made a dash with his whole
army through the lines of the besieging force and pushed on to Brundusium with
Crassus in pursuit. When Spartacus learned that Lucullus had just arrived in
Brundusium from his victory over Mithridates he despaired of everything and
brought his forces, which were even then very numerous, to close quarters with
Crassus. The battle was long and bloody, as might have been expected with so
many thousands of desperate men. Spartacus was wounded in the thigh with a
spear and sank upon his knee, holding his shield in front of him and contending
in this way against his assailants until he and the great mass of those with
him were surrounded and slain. The remainder of his army was thrown into
confusion and butchered in crowds. So great was the slaughter that it was
impossible to count them. The Roman loss was about 1,000. The body of
Spartacus was not found. A large number of his men fled from the battlefield to
the mountains and Crassus followed them thither. They divided themselves in
four parts, and continued to fight until they all perished except 6000, who
were captured and crucified along the whole road from Capua to Rome.
121. Crassus accomplished his task within six months, whence arose a contention
for honors between himself and Pompey.
Orosius, Histories
5. 24. 1-8
1. In the six hundred and seventy-ninth year after the founding of the City, in
the consulship of Lucullus and Cassius, seventy-four gladiators at Capua
escaped from the training school of Cn. Lentulus. These immediately, under the
leadership of Crixus and Oenomaus who were Gauls, and Spartacus, a Thracian,
occupied Mount Vesuvius. Rushing down from there, they captured the camp of
Clodius, the praetor, who had encircled them in a siege, and when he had been
driven into flight, they turned their complete attention to plundering.
2. Then, going about through Consentia and Metapontum, they gathered together
huge forces in a short time. For Crixus was reported to have had a multitude
of ten thousand, and Spartacus three times as many; Oenomaus had already been
killed in an earlier battle.
3. And so when the fugitives were confusing everything with slaughters,
conflagrations, plunderings, and defilements, at the funeral of a captive woman
who had killed herself out of grief for her outraged honor, they presented a
gladiatorial performance with four hundred captives, that is, those who had
been the ones to be viewed, were to view, namely, as trainers of gladiators
rather than as commanders of troops.
4. The consuls, Gellius and Lentulus, were sent against them with their army.
Of these, Gellius overcame Crixus who fought very bravely, and Lentulus, when
overcome by Spartacus, fled. Later also, both consuls, after having joined
forces in vain, fled, suffering heavy losses. Then the same Spartacus, after
defeating C. Cassius, the proconsul, in battle, killed him.
5. And so, with the City terrified with almost no less fear than when Hannibal
was raging at the gates, they became alarmed and sent Crassus with the legions
of the consuls and a new complement of soldiers. 6. He presently, after
entering battle with the fugitives, killed six thousand of them, but captured
only nine hundred. Then, before he approached Spartacus himself in battle, who
was laying out a camp at the head of the Silarus River, he overcame the Gallic
and German auxiliaries of Spartacus, of whom he killed thirty thousand men with
their leaders. 7. After he had organized his battle line, he met Spartacus
himself and killed him with most of the forces of the fugitives. For sixty
thousand of them are reported to have been killed and six thousand captured,
and three thousand Roman citizens were recovered. 8. The remaining gladiators,
who had slipped away from this battle and wandered off, were killed by many
generals in persistent pursuit.
18-19. Apart from those three very vast wars, that is, the Pamphylian, the
Macedonian, and the Dalmatian, although, too, that great Mithridatic War, by
far the longest of all, the most dangerous, and the most dreadful, was
concealed as to its true character; still, while the Sertorian War in Spain was
not yet ended, rather while Sertorius himself was still living, that war
against the fugitive slaves, to describe it more accurately, that war against
the gladiators, caused great horrors which were to be seen by few, but
everywhere to be feared. Because this war is called the war against the
fugitive slaves, let it not be held of little consequence because of the name.
Often in that war, individual consuls and sometimes both consuls with their
battle lines joined in vain were overcome and a great many nobles were slain.
Moreover, there were more than one hundred fugitives who were slain.
