Slaves in rural affrays 189 



rebellions, a notorious danger. It was an age of violence in city and 

 country. Rich politicians at last took to keeping private bands 1 of 

 swordsmen ( gladiator es). And it is to be borne in mind that, while a 

 citizen might be unwilling to risk the life of a costly 2 slave, his own 

 property, a slave would feel no economic restraint to deter him from 

 killing his master's citizen enemy. 



The employment of slaves in the affrays that took place in country 

 districts over questions of disputed right is fully illustrated in the 

 speeches 3 delivered in cases of private law. The fact was openly 

 recognized in the legal remedies provided, for instance in the various 

 interdicta framed to facilitate the trial and settlement of disputes as to 

 possessio. The forms contemplated the probability of slaves being en- 

 gaged in assailing or defending possession on behalf of their masters, 

 and the wording even varied according as the force in question had been 

 used by men armed or unarmed. Counsel of course made much or little 

 of the happenings in each case according to the interest of their clients. 

 But that bloodshed occurred at times in these fights is certain. And 

 there was no regular police force to keep order in remote corners of 

 the land. When slaves were once armed and set to fight, they would 

 soon get out of hand, and a slaveowner might easily lose valuable men. 

 Nay more, an epidemic of local brigandage might result, particularly 

 in a time of civil war and general unrest, and none could tell where 

 the mischief would end. We can only form some slight notion of the 

 effect of such conditions as these on the prospects of peaceful agri- 

 culture. The speech pro Quinctio belongs to 81 BC, the pro Tullio 

 to 71, the pro Caecina to 69. When we reflect that the slave rising 

 under Spartacus lasted from 73 to 71, and swept over a large part 

 of Italy, we may fairly conclude that this period was a bad one for 

 farming. 



The most striking picture of the violence sometimes used in the 

 disputes of rustic life meets us in the mutilated speech pro Tullio, of 

 which enough remains to make clear all that concerns us. First, the 

 form of action employed in the case was one of recent 4 origin, devised 

 to check the outrages committed by bands of armed slaves, which had 

 increased since the disturbances of the first civil war. The need for 

 such a legal remedy must have been peculiarly obvious at the time of 

 the trial, for the rising of Spartacus had only just been suppressed. 

 Cicero refers to the notorious scandal of murders committed by these 



1 Cf the famous case of Clodius and Milo. 



2 Ci pro Rose com 32, 49, 54, pro Tullio 21. 



3 For a discussion of these see Greenidge in the Appendix to The legal procedure of 

 Cicero's time. 



4 pro Tullio 7-12. 



