 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
| Second Servile War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman Servile Wars | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Roman Republic | Slaves of Sicily | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Manius Aquilius, consul | Salvius, Athenion |
||||||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
The Second Servile War was an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic on the island of Sicily. The war lasted from 104 BC until 100 BC.
The Consul Gaius Marius was recruiting for his eventually successful war against the Cimbri in Cisalpine Gaul. He requested support from King Nicomedes III of Bithynia. Additional troops were not supplied due to the claim that contracted Roman tax collectors had enslaved those unable to pay. Marius decreed that allied/friendly freemen should be released if they were in Roman slavery.
Around 800 slaves were released from Sicily, leading to many others leaving their masters in order to seek their own freedom. The war broke out when they were ordered back by the Governor. A slave by the name of Salvius was following in the footsteps of Eunus, fighting for his rights and elected leader of this rebellion. He 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 Cicilian 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, but fuelled by the same slave abuse in Sicily and Southern Italy.
Second Servile War in Literature
- F. L. Lucas's short story "The Boar" (Athenaeum, 10 Sept. 1920) is set in Sicily in the aftermath of the Slave War.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
