It is always pleasant when material written for TOPWAR readers finds its application also as a source of information for … their children! After all, children are our future, even though it sounds corny, and they should receive all the best, from food to information. And it is very good that adults read these materials (or give them read) to their schoolchildren and this broadens their horizons and allows them to get good grades. Not so long ago, one of "our comrades" expressed a desire to learn more about the slave uprisings in ancient Rome and the "slave war" led by Spartacus. I hope that this material for his fifth-grader son is not late …
Field of the crucified. F. Bronnikov (1827 - 1902). 1878 year.
Well, and will have to start with the fact that Spartacus was far from the first, albeit the most famous leader of the slave uprising. But how often did slaves revolt in ancient Rome? It turns out - very often! We can say that they just walked continuously, one after the other! For example, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus we read that the slaves in Rome rebelled already in 501, and this rebellion lasted right up to 499 BC. NS. That is, it happened at the dawn of Roman history, only 250 years after its foundation. But it must be borne in mind that at first there were only one or two slaves, and there were too few, and then slavery was patriarchal there. So 250 years is exactly the period during which there were … a lot of slaves in Rome! Well, then, after the first uprising in 458 BC. e., that is, 40 years later, followed by the second great uprising under the leadership of Gerdonius, to fight which it was necessary to send two Roman consuls at once, elected this year, that is, its scale was not at all small! Other Roman historians report a slave conspiracy in 419 BC. NS. already in Rome itself. The conspirators wanted to set fire to Rome in different places at night, cause panic, and then seize the Capitol and other vital centers of the city, and then kill all their masters, and divide their property and wives equally. Everything is downright according to V. I. Lenin and … Sharikov! But such a carefully worked out conspiracy failed: as always, a traitor was found who betrayed everyone, after which the instigators were seized and executed.
The slave brings the master a letter board. Detail of the sarcophagus of Valery Petroninus. Archaeological Museum in Milan.
It should be noted here that the wealth of Rome was based on the most ruthless plunder of the occupied lands, from where not only gold and silver came from, but also slaves in huge numbers. For example, when the Romans took Tarentum, 30 thousand people were immediately sold into slavery. Defeat of the Macedonian king Perseus in 157 BC. NS. gave the same amount. Sempronius Gracchus - Pope of the famous freedom-loving brothers Gracchus, in 177 BC. e., being in Sardinia, captured more than 30 thousand inhabitants of the island and turned everyone into slaves. Titus Livy wrote that there were so many slaves then that the word "Sardinian" became a household word for any cheap product, and in Rome they began to say "cheap as a sard".
But the pursuit of slaves also had its negative consequences, because not only peasants, but also smart and educated people fell into slaves. So, in 217 BC. e., when Rome waged the second Punic War, which demanded considerable effort and strength from him, a conspiracy of slaves arose in Rome, which Titus Livy reports. The slaves decided to take advantage of the plight of their masters and stab them in the back. The conspiracy failed again because of one slave who received as a reward for betrayal - "no, not a basket of cookies and not a barrel of jam", freedom from slavery and money - a large monetary reward, so being a traitor among slaves was very profitable and, By the way, the slave owners informed the slaves regularly about how profitable it is to betray their comrades! It is believed that the instigator of the uprising was a certain Carthaginian, who thus sought to help his compatriots.
They punished him "wittily": they cut off his hands and sent him back to Carthage, so at least that way, he found freedom, but the remaining 25 conspiratorial slaves were less fortunate, and they were hanged. Probably many more slaves were involved in the conspiracy, only they could not be found.
In 198 BC. in the city of Setia, not far from Rome, as Titus Livy again reports, another slave action was being prepared. It so happened that it was there that hostages from among the Carthaginian nobility were settled in order to ensure the inviolability of the peace treaty between Rome and Carthage. And here there were many Carthaginian slaves taken prisoner during the war. It was these slaves that the Carthaginian hostages began to agitate to raise an uprising. Since the instigators were Carthaginian slaves - people of the same nationality and the same language, so it was easy for them to agree among themselves. According to the plan of the conspirators, the uprising was to begin simultaneously in Setia, Norba, Circe, Preneste - cities near Rome. There was even a day of performance planned. In Setia, it was to begin during a festival with social games and theatrical performances for residents of nearby towns. While the Romans had to entertain themselves with games, the slaves needed to seize important urban infrastructure. But this uprising was thwarted, since now the plan of the uprising had already been issued by two and reported to the Roman praetor Cornelius Lentulus. The Roman slave owners, when they learned about the next conspiracy, gripped indescribable fear. Lentul was given extraordinary powers and instructed to deal with the conspirators in the most brutal manner. He immediately gathered a detachment of two thousand people, arrived in Setia and began the massacre. Together with the leaders of the uprising, about two thousand slaves were seized and executed, and the slightest suspicion of a conspiracy was enough for the execution. It seems that the rebellion was suppressed, but as soon as Lentulus left for Rome, he was informed that part of the conspirators among the slaves had survived and was preparing to raise an uprising in Preneste. Lentulus went there and put 500 more slaves to death.
Two years later, slaves rose up in Etruria, north of Rome, and the Romans had to send a whole legion there, which speaks of its massiveness. Desperate resistance was shown to the Roman troops. Moreover, the slaves entered into a real battle with the legionnaires. Titus Livy wrote later that the number of those killed and taken prisoner was very large. The leaders of the uprising were traditionally crucified on crosses, and all the rest were returned to their masters for punishment.
From 192 to 182 BC. slave performances almost continuously took place in the southern part of Italy (in Apulia, Lucania, Calabria). The Senate regularly sent troops there, but could do nothing. It got to the point that in 185 BC. there it was necessary to send with the troops of the praetor Lucius Postumius as if to war. The center of the conspiracy was in the area of the city of Tarentum, where about 7,000 slaves were captured, many of whom were executed.
However, neither this kind of executions, nor the natural decline in the number of slaves in Rome did not reduce. On the contrary, it only constantly increased, and with it the danger of new uprisings, conspiracies and murders. For example, in the satirical novel Petronius, who already lived under the emperor Nero, a rich freedman was depicted, who looked through the lists of slaves who were born on his vast estate, and found that in just one day he had more slaves by 30 boys and 40 girls. Some slave owners could turn entire armies out of slaves, so many of them belonged to them. And it is not surprising, because only after the campaign of Emilius Paul to Epirus, 150 thousand prisoners were turned into slavery, and such a commander as Marius, who defeated the tribes of the Cimbri and Teutons in northern Italy, made 90 thousand Teutons slaves and another 60 thousand Cimbri taken prisoner by him! Lucullus in the lands of Asia Minor and in Pontus captured so many people that slaves in the markets began to be sold for only 4 drachmas (drachma - 25 kopecks). So it is not surprising why the Romans, in the first place, attacked unaffected by war and densely populated, rich states, or the territories of "wild" peoples who could not resist them due to their lower culture.
Naturally, slaves on the lands of the Roman state were unevenly distributed. For example, there were a lot of them in Sicily, where they were engaged in agriculture, and should he be surprised that it was there that two powerful slave uprisings took place one after the other. The first is the so-called "rebellion of Eunus", which happened in 135 - 132 BC. NS. The head of the uprising was the former slave Eun, a Syrian by birth. The uprising began in Enna, where the rebels killed all the most vicious slave owners, and then chose Eunus as their king (after which he called himself "King Antiochus" and the kingdom "Novosyria") and even organized a council where slaves were selected, "the most outstanding according to your mind. " The Greek Achaeus was chosen as the commander of the army, who managed to quickly assemble a large army, which was able to repel the units of the Roman army sent to Sicily to pacify the rebels.
A slave, shackled, and so in them and died during the eruption of Vesuvius. Plaster cast. Museum in Pompeii.
Naturally, the example turned out to be contagious, and uprisings began to break out throughout Sicily. Soon, another hearth was formed with its center in the city of Agrigent, where it was led by the Cilician Cleon, under whose leadership five thousand rebels gathered. The slave owners, however, decided that this would lead to civil strife and the slaves would start fighting with each other. But Cleon arrived at Enna and voluntarily submitted to Eunus, and the united army of slaves began campaigns against the Romans. Now it numbered 200 thousand people, that is, it was a huge force. And even if ancient historians exaggerated this figure tenfold, there were still many slaves. There are many more than the Romans, so for five years they essentially became the masters of the entire island. The Roman generals suffered defeat after defeat from them. It was necessary to carry out a serious mobilization of forces, as if the enemy had invaded the country and sent two consular armies to Sicily, led by the consuls Caius Fulvius Flaccus, Lucius Calpurnius Piso and Piso's successor, the consul Publius Rupilius.
The latter managed to defeat the slaves in several battles, after which he approached the city of Taurus and took it under siege. The supplies of provisions ran out quickly, but the slaves fought, nevertheless, desperately, and did not want to surrender to the enemy. But, as always, there was a traitor - the slave Serapion, who helped Rupil to take Tauromenius, after which he went to the capital of the "Novosyrian kingdom" - Anne. Cleon and Achaeus led the defense of the city. Cleon undertook a sortie and "after a heroic struggle," says Diodorus of Siculus, "he fell covered with wounds."
And here the Romans were helped by treason, since to take the city, which stood on a rocky hill, otherwise it would be very difficult. Eun was captured, taken to the city of Morgantina, thrown into prison, where he died from the terrible conditions of detention.
While all this was happening, in 133 BC.an uprising broke out in Pergamum under the leadership of Aristonikus, which lasted until 130 BC. It is not known whether there was any connection between the two uprisings, but the fact that the Romans had to fight on two fronts at once is certain. Diodorus Siculus, describing this uprising of slaves in the Pergamon kingdom, reported: "Aristonikus sought an unbecoming royal power, and the slaves went mad with him thanks to the oppression of the masters and plunged many cities into great misfortunes."
Tetradrachm of King Eumenes II 197 - 159 BC. Berlin, Pergamon Museum
As for the kingdom of Pergamon itself, where such an important event took place, it was formed after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great in 280 BC. It was famous for its wealth, but its independence was illusory.
King Attal III. Berlin, Pergamon.
And when King Attal III died, and bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, the cup of the people's patience overflowed. An uprising began against the Romans, which was just led by Aristonikos (the son of the royal concubine), the king's side-brother, who, according to Greek law, had the right to the throne of his brother. On the side of Aristonikos came out and many cities that did not want to fall under the rule of the Romans: Levki, Colophon, Mindos, etc. Although Aristonikus was brought up at the royal court, he did not disdain the common people and actively called for his army both slaves and the poor. As a result, his speech took on not only an anti-Roman character, but actually became an uprising of slaves and the poor. It is interesting that a close friend of Tiberius Gracchus, the philosopher Blossius, fled to Aristonikos, and became his adviser, although this, of course, does not mean that both of them were "revolutionaries".
Nevertheless, Aristonikos came up with a great idea: he proclaimed that his goal was to create a "State of the Sun", where everyone will be equal. All of its citizens were "citizens of the sun" (heliopolites), which, however, is not surprising, since it was in the East that scalar cults were very popular. Aristonikus took many cities and won a number of victories over the Romans. Moreover, he even managed to defeat the Roman army led by the consul Publius Licinius Crassus, and Crassus himself considered himself so disgraced that, in fact, he initiated his murder and lost his head!
In 130 BC. Consul Mark Perpernu, a resolute and ruthless man, was sent to fight Aristonikus. It was he who finally finished off the troops of the rebellious slaves in Sicily and crucified the defeated on the crosses, so that the Senate hoped that he would act just as successfully in the East. And he really arrived in Asia Minor with all haste and with an unexpected blow, which Aristonikus did not expect, defeated his troops. The leader of the uprising was forced to take refuge in the city of Stratonikea. The city, of course, was besieged, then was forced to surrender, but Aristonica was captured and sent to Rome, he was strangled in prison by order of the Senate. Blossius did not survive the death of his friend, but he took his own life.
(To be continued)
