1 62 Slave risings 



to promote order (and, so far as posible, contentment) none is more 

 significant than the advice 1 not to have too many slaves of the same 

 race. Dictated by the desire to make rebellious combinations difficult, 

 this advice is at least as old as Plato 2 and Aristotle. 



So early as IQ6BC we hear 3 of a slave-rising in Etruria, put down 

 with great severity by a military force. In 185 there was a great 

 rising 4 of slave-herdsmen (pastores) in Apulia, put down by the officer 

 then commanding the SE district. In about another half-century we 

 begin the series of slave-wars which troubled the Roman world for 



..some 60 or 70 years and caused a vast destruction of lives and property. 



' It was the growth of the plantation system under a weak and distracted 

 government that made such horrors possible. In 139 we hear of a 

 rising in Sicily, where the plantation system was in full swing. From 

 135 there was fierce war 5 in the island, not put down till 131 after 

 fearful bloodshed. The war of Aristonicus 6 in the new province of 

 Asia, from 132 to 130, seems to have been essentially a slave- war. In 

 Sicily the old story 7 was repeated 103-99 with the same phenomena 

 and results. And in the last age of the Republic, 73 to 71 BC, Italy 

 was devastated by the bands of Spartacus, a joint force of gladiators 8 

 and rustic slaves. For many months the country was at their mercy, 

 and their final destruction was brought about more by their own dis- 

 union than by the sword of Roman legions. \ It is recorded 9 to the 

 credit of Catiline that he refused to enlist rustic slaves in the armed force 

 with which he fought and fell at Pistoria, resisting the less scrupulous 

 advice of his confederates in Rome. During the upheaval of the great 

 civil wars the slaves enjoyed unusual license. Many took arms: 

 probably many others escaped from bondage. But the establishment 

 of the Empire, though the supply of slave labour was not equal to the 

 demand, did not put an end to slave-risings. For instance, in 24 AD 

 a former soldier of the Imperial Guard planned an insurrection 10 in the 

 neighbourhood of Brundisium. By promising freedom to the bold slave- 

 herdsmen scattered about the Apennine forests he got together what 

 was evidently a force of considerable strength. The lucky arrival of a 

 squadron of patrol vessels enabled the local quaestor to break up the 

 conspiracy before it could make head. But Tiberius did not dally with 

 so serious a matter : a detachment of troops carried off the ringleader 



1 Varro I 17 3-6. 



3 Plato Laws 777 d, Arist Pol vn 10 13, [Ar] Oec I 5 6. 



3 Livy xxxni 36 i. * Livy xxxix 29 8, 9, cf 41 6. 



6 Diodorus book xxxiv, and other authorities enumerated in my Roman Republic 683. 



6 Strabo xiv i 38 [p 646], Diodorus xxxiv * 26. 



7 Diodorus xxxvi. 



8 According to Appian civ I 1 16 2 he was at first joined by some free rustics. The same 

 seems to have been the case in Sicily and Asia. 



9 Sallust Catil 44 5, 6, 56 5. 10 Tacitus ann iv 27. 



