Spartacus and the Slave Rebellions: What the Sources Tell
The slave rebellions that took place from circa 135-71 B.C.E. shook the Romans’ idea of stability and peace immensely. The First and Second Servile Wars led people to believe that the senate and consuls had less control over the people of Rome. After the Servile Wars were put to rest by Roman armies and consul M. Aquilas, several decades past and Romans began to forget of the severity of the conditions in Sicily that led to these clashing of forces. The Third Servile War, otherwise known as the Spartacus Rebellion, was the third and final revolt of slaves within the Roman Republic. There are many ancient sources that help historians understand how the slave rebellions took place, several of which are more specific to Spartacus and Roman society, all of which indicate Spartacus and the slave rebellions to be realistic rather than legend.
There is a small pool of sources that are used for referencing these events, but whether these sources are reliable or not is questionable. Shaw’s book gives readers plenty to choose from, but after investigating I
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found that only several were actually alive and old enough to remember and record what happened during the slave rebellions, specifically the Spartacus slave rebellion or the Third Servile War. Such sources are Varro, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Diodorus Siculus, and Posidonius. This does not discredit the other sources given in Shaw’s work, but rather means that the later author’s writings are based off of the men I previously stated to some degree. Although Varro, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Diodorus Siculus and Posidonius were alive during the Spartacus slave rebellion and wrote on such events, they all wrote on different aspects and have different takes or strategies to their writing. Varro wrote one piece on slave herdsmen and another about Spartacus simply stating, “Although he was an innocent man, Spartacus was condemned to a gladiatorial school [or to the professional life of a gladiator?]”. On the other hand, Cicero wrote several works, one correlating with Julius Caesar’s. Both Cicero and Julius Caesar wrote about the start of civil war and the quarantine of Caesar’s gladiators after his crossing the Rubicon. Cicero wrote, “The gladiators belonging to Caesar are at Capua…. There were 2,000 of these armed men in the gladiatorial school. It was rumored that the men were just about to make a breakout. This was surely a very wise course of action to take on behalf of the state.” In comparison, Caesar wrote: The consul Lentulus ordered that the gladiators that Caesar had in his gladiatorial school in the city were to be brought to the forum. He encouraged their loyalty with the hope of freedom, gave horses to them, and ordered them to follow him. After he had been cautioned by his own people and his rash act had been universally condemned, Lentulus distributed the gladiators among the Roman families resident in Campania for the purpose of keeping these dangerous men under guard. Cicero and Caesar’s works contradict each other. In Cicero’s writing, he stated that the gladiators were about to revolt and were at Capua, whereas Caesar wrote that Lentulus had earned the loyalty of the gladiators but had to send them to Campania. Caesar and Cicero were not on the best of terms, as they had opposing views. This uncongenial relationship is evident with the harshness of Cicero’s work, whereas Caesar’s not only mentions how civil the gladiators were, but also does not mention or slander Cicero in any way. Unfortunately the relocation of Caesar’s gladiators is not mentioned by the other sources. Posidonius wrote briefly on the First Servile War about Damophilos the slave and his lavishness, along with how he died at the hands of his own slaves. While Posidonius does not mention much detail about Damophilos’ actions that caused the First Servile War, Posidonius does discuss his lavishness and frivolity. Posidonius was born the same year that the First Servile War started, and so I infer that he relied on other sources, possibly even Cicero as he had a harsher standpoint. In comparison to Posidonius’ standpoint on the First Servile War, there are Cicero’s accounts of the Second Servile War, which are mentioned often in Shaw’s work.
Cicero wrote mostly about Verres’ failings in Sicily while Publius Rupilius and Manius Aquillius attempted to save Sicily from complete destruction. Cicero wrote, “Is not Verres’ entire treatment of Sicily of such a kind that even if Athenion himself, the king of the fugitive slaves, had won the war, he would not have acted this way?”. In another passage, Cicero stated, “And during the war with the fugitive slaves, Manius Aquillius even had to make loans of cereal grain to the cities of Sicily”. Cicero essentially ‘bashed’ Verres and his treatment of Sicily and how much turmoil it had created, having left no one unaffected, including Manius Aquillius who had helped defeat the Second Servile
War. Cicero also wrote briefly about his time as the Roman governor of Cilicia, the Roman governor Verres’ actions on the slave rebellions in Sicily and consequently how horrible the conditions were for people in Sicily. Cicero was governor of Cilicia from 51-50 B.C.E., a province in modern day parts of northern Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. Cicero wrote, “I thought that it was important for the prestige of our rule that their arrogance and audacity be crushed-then it would be easier to break the spirits of other peoples in the region who are hostile to our authority”. The aggression towards the freed and runaway slaves is rather prevalent within the work, although Cicero was governor and could be looking out for the Roman Republic’s best interest with trying to stifle a fourth slave rebellion. This possible philosophy is evident in another passage, where Cicero wrote: And the affairs of the Sicilians themselves are so well organized that peace is something that is very useful to them. Indeed, they so cherish the rule of the Roman people that they have no desire at all that our government should be diminished or radically changed. The measures taken by our governors and the discipline enforced by the slave masters safeguard them against the dangers of another slave war. Therefore, no internal troubles could possibly arise from the province itself. Cicero definitely dealt with the pressures of being governor in an area full of refugee and freed slaves not even two decades after the Spartacus slave rebellions, and there is an obvious correlation between his passage on the province of Cilicia and his passage on Sicily, both needing discipline and strict governors. On the other hand, Diodorus Siculus wrote about all three of the Servile Wars, with two versions on the First Servile War, a background and two versions on the Second Servile War, and a brief description of Spartacus. Diodorus wrote, “Spartacus the barbarian, having been done a favor by someone, showed himself to be grateful to the man. For even among barbarians, human nature is self-taught to return an equal favor to those who bestow benefits on us”. On the other hand, Cicero wrote about Spartacus while slandering Verres in another passage, although it is not to the same standard as the description Diodorus gave. Cicero wrote: In the region of Triocala, the same city the fugitive slaves occupied in an earlier time, the slaves owned by a Sicilian named Leonidas were suspected of forming a conspiracy. The matter was reported to that man [Verres]…. And the slaves, whom Verres himself, in agreement with his judicial council, had found guilty on the charge of inciting a slave war, now, without seeking any evidence from his council, were freed from all punishment on nothing but his own whim. While there is little evidence given from the passage, there is still information about Spartacus given. Cicero had continually slandered Verres for his failed attempts at containing the Spartacus Slave Rebellion, while the Romans saw Verres’ actions as a success. While the Servile Wars ranged with decades in between and left the Romans to practically forgetting the conditions that led to such fighting in Sicily and part of Italia, the rebellions left a mark on the government of the Roman Republic and its philosophy on Subsequently, these slave rebellions had an altering affect on not only the consuls and governors present during their course of events, but also how future governors, consuls and the senate took care of their positions and the Roman Republic, as well as the ancient sources that wrote about these events and whether or not they are completely credible and reliable. I find that while there are many sources to choose from in terms of reading material, there are only a few who are somewhat credible. Varro, Diodorus Siculus and Cicero are whom I find the most reliable, while all take different approaches and have varying amounts of work on Spartacus himself. While there is not much information on Spartacus as a person from the sources, there are mentions of his actions and his slave rebellion continuously, which leads me to think that Spartacus is in fact real, while the personal ideas of him might be myth.
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The word “slavery” brings back horrific memories of human beings. Bought and sold as property, and dehumanized with the risk and implementation of violence, at times nearly inhumane. The majority of people in the United States assumes and assures that slavery was eliminated during the nineteenth century with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth; rather, slavery and the global slave trade continue to thrive till this day. In fact, it is likely that more individuals are becoming victims of human trafficking across borders against their will compared to the vast number of slaves that we know in earlier times. Slavery is no longer about legal ownership asserted, but instead legal ownership avoided, the thought provoking idea that with old slavery, slaves were maintained, compared to modern day slavery in which slaves are nearly disposable, under the same institutionalized systems in which violence and economic control over the disadvantaged is the common way of life. Modern day slavery is insidious to the public but still detrimental if not more than old American slavery.