SLAVE REBELLIONS IN ANCIENT ROME

RESISTING SLAVERY IN ANCIENT ROME

Keith Bradley of the University of Notre Dame wrote for the BBC: “ A Roman senator named Pupius Piso once ordered his slaves not to speak unless spoken to. He had no time for idle talk. He also arranged an elegant dinner-party at which the guest of honour was to be a dignitary named Clodius. “At the appropriate time all the guests arrived except Clodius. So Piso sent the slave responsible for having invited the guest of honour to see where he was - several times - but still Clodius did not appear. In despair Piso finally questioned the slave: 'Did you send Clodius an invitation?' 'Yes.' 'So why hasn't he come?' 'Because he declined'. 'Then why didn't you tell me earlier? 'Because you didn't ask.' [Source: Professor Keith Bradley, BBC, February 17, 2011. Bradley is the Eli J Shaheen Professor of Classics, Concurrent Professor of History, and Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His special interests are in Roman social and cultural history, particularly the history of slavery and of the family. |::|

“This anecdote was recorded, about A.D. 100, by the Greek moralist Plutarch. It is a story that presupposes a constant tension between slave and master in the ancient Roman world, and is a striking illustration of how a lowly Roman slave could outwit his superior master. |::|

“Technically Roman slaves were the property, the chattels, of their owners, held in a state of total subjection. But to outwit an owner as Piso's slave did was to win a victory in the game of psychological warfare that always existed between master and slave. |::|

“For unlike other forms of property, slaves were human beings with minds of their own, and they didn't always obey their owners as unthinkingly as they were supposed to. They had the capacity to resist the absolute authority their owners formally exercised, and when Piso's slave crushingly embarrassed his master by obeying his instructions to the letter, for a moment (at least) he placed Piso in the inferior position that he normally occupied himself. He found, in other words, a way to assert himself, to exert power against the powerful, so that the asymmetrical roles of master and slave were suddenly inverted.” |::|

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Slave Rebellions in Ancient Rome

Keith Bradley of the University of Notre Dame told the BBC: “The most obvious way was through open rebellion. In 73-71 B.C. the gladiator Spartacus famously led an uprising of thousands of slaves in central Italy, formed an army that defeated several Roman legions, and at one point threatened Rome itself. [Source: Keith Bradley, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“Earlier there had been similar large-scale rebellions on the island of Sicily. But open rebellion was also the most dangerous form of resistance, because the stakes were enormously high. The greater the size of the rebellion, the greater the likelihood was of betrayal from within, and the greater the threat was of serious retaliation, re-enslavement or death. |::|

“Spartacus himself died in battle, and thousands of his captured followers were crucified. The slave rebels in Sicily were likewise thoroughly suppressed. It isn't surprising that they had no successors, or that their rebellions achieved nothing of lasting value for Roman slaves. |::|

“Still, the Romans always feared another Spartacus. The philosopher Seneca tells of a proposal that was once made in the Roman senate requiring slaves to wear distinctive clothing so that they could be easily recognised. But once the senators realised that the slaves might then become conscious of their strength, and make common cause against their masters, they abandoned the idea. |::|

Alternatives to Slave Rebellions in the Roman Era

A Slave Market in Ancient Rome by Gerome

Keith Bradley of the University of Notre Dame told the BBC: “ Many slaves probably internalised their social inferiority, and accommodated themselves to servitude without thinking in terms of resistance. Others responded more violently, and sometimes tragically. Those who fought against Rome knew that they could be sent to the slave-market if taken as a prisoner-of-war. They are often said to have killed themselves rather than face the prospect of enslavement - a clear indictment of the horrors involved in the sudden transition from freedom to slavery. Images of the vanquished committing suicide are still visible on the Column of Trajan in Rome. [Source: Professor Keith Bradley, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“At other times, slaves who were unable to tolerate their conditions assaulted their owners. In the mid-first century A.D. an anonymous slave murdered his master, a high official in the imperial administration, either because the master had reneged on a promise to set the slave free or because the two were rivals in a sexual intrigue. The aftermath was disastrous. Roman law required a man's slaves to come to his aid if he were attacked, under penalty of death. The law was enforced against those slaves who had not come to the victim's aid in this case, and all the slaves in the household - allegedly 400 of them - were executed, even though most of them could not possibly have known anything about the murder. |::|

“There were other ways to alleviate the burdens of slavery. One was to try to escape, either to return to an original homeland or simply to find safe refuge somewhere. Romans labelled runaway slaves 'fugitives', and as the greatest modern historian of ancient slavery, Moses Finley, has remarked, 'fugitive slaves are almost an obsession in the sources'. This suggests that the incidence of running away was always high.” See Runaway Slaves |::|

Day-to Day Resistance by Roman Slaves

Keith Bradley of the University of Notre Dame told the BBC:“Running away was less dangerous than rebellion, but it was still a hazardous enterprise. Slave-catchers apart, Roman law forbade the harbouring of fugitives, so slaves on the run were always in danger and if caught could be savagely punished. To many therefore it must have made sense not to risk life and limb by running away, but to carry out acts of wilful obstruction or sabotage that harmed slave-owners' interests at minimal risk to themselves. [Source: Professor Keith Bradley, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“Slaves, for example, might steal food or other supplies from the household. Those in positions of responsibility might falsify record books, and embezzle money from their owners, or arrange for their own manumission (setting free). Ordinary farm labourers might deliberately go slow on the job, or injure the animals they worked with to avoid work - or they might pretend to be ill, destroy equipment, or damage buildings. If your job was to make wine and you had to produce a certain quota, why not add in some sea-water to help things along? Almost any slave could play truant or simply waste time. |::|

a dead slave from Pompeii, identified by his shackles

“All these petty forms of day-to-day resistance appealed to Roman slaves. They allowed slaves to frustrate and annoy their owners, and offered the satisfaction of knowing that their owners' powers were not absolute - that even the most humble of human beings could take action to empower themselves. |Owners complained that their slaves were lazy and troublesome - instead of working they were always pilfering food or clothing or valuables (even the silverware), setting fire to property (villas included), or wandering around the city's art galleries and public entertainments. |::|

“But it was in the decisions they made to cause vexation that slaves most forcefully expressed their humanity, and their opposition to the institution that oppressed them. Their sporadic acts of defiance created a permanent undercurrent of low-level resistance to slavery that was deeply embedded in Roman society. The slaves were motivated not by a sense of class solidarity - Rome's slave population was far too heterogeneous for that - but by the desire to find ways in which, as individuals, they could find relief from their subject status, if only tempor “The relationship between slaves and masters at Rome was a contest fought in the arena of the mind. Masters could draw on all the weapons of law, status and established authority - there was never in Roman history any movement to abolish slavery - whereas slaves had little more to fight with than their wits. But as Plutarch's story symbolically shows, the lines of battle had to be constantly redrawn, as slaves matched their will against the will of those who owned them. And it was not always the masters who won.” |::|

Slave Revolts Between 134 and 71 B.C.

The Christian historian Orosius (A.D. 385-420) wrote in “Histories” 5.9 and 5.24: Under the year 134 B.C.: “In Sicily Piso, the consul, captured the town of Mamertium, where he killed 8,000 runaway slaves; and those whom he was able to capture alive he crucified.” Under the year 131 B.C.: “When Rutilius succeeded him as consul, he recaptured in war Tauromenium and Henna, the strongholds of the fugitive slaves; it is reported that more than 20,000 slaves were slaughtered at that time.

“In the year 73 BC, in the consulships of Lucullus and Cassius, 74 gladiators escaped from the games of Gnaeus Lentulus at Capua. Under their leaders Crixus and Oenomaeus, Gauls, and Spartacus, a Thracian, they immediately occupied Mount Vesuvius. Thence they burst forth and stormed the camp of the praetor Clodius, who had surrounded them in a siege, and with him driven into flight they plundered the entire camp. From there, after marching through Consentia and Metapontum, they gathered a huge force in a short time. It is reported that Crixus had a crowd of 10,000, and Spartacus three times that number. But Oenomaeus had already been killed in the previous fighting.”

Under the Year 71: As soon as Crassus began the fighting against the runaways, he killed 6,000 of them, and captured 900 alive. Then before taking on Spartacus himself, who was menacing the camp at the head of the Silaris river, he defeated his Gallic and German auxiliaries, of whom he killed 30,000 together with their leaders. Finally he smashed Spartacus himself, who had come against him in a pitched battle, together with the majority of his army of runaway slaves ... the remainder, who had gotten away from this battle and were wandering around, were wiped out thanks to constant hunting parties under various leaders.

First Servile War

A slave revolt in Sicily in 135-132 B.C., sometimes called the First Servile War, was an unsuccessful slave rebellion against the Roman Republic in Enna on the island of Sicily led by Eunus, a former slave claiming to be a prophet, and Cleon, a Cilician (from present-day Turkey) who became Eunus's military commander. After some minor battles won by the slaves, a larger Roman army arrived in Sicily and crushed the rebels. [Source: Wikipedia]

Florus (A.D. c. 74 - c. 130) wrote in “Epitome of Roman History” 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.” [Source: Florus (A.D. c. 74 - c. 130 ), “Epitome of Roman History,” 7. 1-8]

The Christian historian Orosius (A.D. 385-420) wrote in “Histories” 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.”

Cleon Leads Another Slave Revolt and Defeats the Romans

Diodorus Siculus wrote: “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. [Source: Diodorus Siculus (wrote 60-30 B.C.), Bibliotheke Books 34/35. 2. 1-48]

“Their pressing needs and their poverty forced the rebel slaves to regard everyone as acceptable, giving them no opportunity to pick and choose. 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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

Romans Put Down the Revolt and Punish the Revolting Slaves

Florus (A.D. c. 74 - c. 130) wrote in “Epitome of Roman History” 7. 1-8: “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.”

Diodorus Siculus wrote: “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. [Source: Diodorus Siculus (wrote 60-30 B.C.), Bibliotheke Books 34/35. 2. 1-48]

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Second Servile War — Slave Revolt in Sicily in 104-100 B.C.

The Slave Revolt in Sicily in 104-100 B.C., called the Second Servile War, was an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic on Sicily. In 104 B.C., the Consul Gaius Marius — the leader of the Roman Republic — decreed that any allied/friendly Italian should be released if they were in Roman slavery as part of an effort to recruit soldiers for a battle. Around 800 Italian slaves were released in Sicily, angering many non-Italians who thought they would be released as well. Many of these abandoned their masters, incorrectly believing they had been freed. A rebellion broke out when they were ordered back to servitude by the Governor. The rebellion was led a slave named Salvius, who after being elected leader of the rebellion assumed the name Tryphon, from Diodotus Tryphon, a Seleucid ruler. He amassed an army containing thousands of trained and equipped slaves, including 2,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, and was joined by a Cilician named Athenion and his men from the west of Sicily. The Roman consul Manius Aquillius quelled the revolt only after great effort. It was the second of a series of three slave revolts in the Roman Republic, all fueled by same slave abuse in Sicily and Southern Italy. [Source: Wikipedia]

Florus (A.D. c. 74 - c. 130) wrote in “Epitome of Roman History”: “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. [Source: Florus (A.D. c. 74 - c. 130 ), “Epitome of Roman History,” 2. 7. 9-12]

slaves carrying amphora

Dio Cassius (c.155-235 A.D.) wrote: “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. [Source: Dio Cassius (c.155-235 A.D.), “Roman History,” Book 27 fragment 101]

“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.”

Third Servile War — Spartacus and the Great Roman Slave Rebellion

Spartacus (died 71 B.C.) was a slave from Thrace trained to be a gladiator who launched a slave rebellion that threatened Rome with the third major slave revolt in a 60 year period, with Spartacus’s being the closest to Rome itself and the last major slave rebellion to threaten the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire.

The historian William Stearns Davis wrote: “In 73 B.C. the "Speaking Tools" - as the Romans called their slaves, especially those upon the great estates of Southern Italy — burst loose in a terrible insurrection to quell which taxed the whole power of the government. Despite the sympathy one must have for these slaves and their gallant leader, their success would have been a calamity to civilization. An army of such brutalized wretches could only destroy; they could never have erected a firm and tolerable government. After these outbreaks and the havoc and terror spread by them, the Romans out of sheer fear seem to have begun to treat their slaves less harshly than before. [Source: William Stearns Davis, ed., “Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,” 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 90-97].

From what little we know Spartacus fought gladiator battles mostly in the Pompeii and Naples area. Seizing an opportunity, he and 78 other slaves, armed only with kitchen utensils, broke out of their barracks and escaped from a gladiator training center in Capua. Spartacus launched a rebellion from a base on Mt. Vesuvius. He and his army of runaway slaves grew and ravaged Italy for three years from 73 to 71 B.C. .

The slave army swelled to 100,000 to 120,000 men. They fought the Roman legions, defeating one army after another that was sent to subdue them. A famous poem by Elijah Kellog goes: “If ye are men — follow me!...if we must fight, let us fight for ourselves. If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors!If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble honorable battle!”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024