First Servile War (135-132 BC): The Slave Revolt in Sicily

The First Servile War was a large slave revolt in Roman Sicily that lasted from about 135 to 132 BC. Led by a Syrian slave named Eunus, who proclaimed himself king, the rebels seized the cities of Enna and Tauromenium and defeated several Roman armies. It was the first of three great slave wars of the Roman Republic, followed by a second Sicilian revolt and the rising of Spartacus.

Background

Sicily became Rome’s first province after the First Punic War. By the 2nd century BC much of its fertile land was held as large estates producing grain and livestock, worked by large numbers of slaves. Many of these were prisoners of war or kidnapping victims from Syria, Cilicia and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean.

The historian Diodorus Siculus, himself from Sicily, describes conditions harshly. Slaves were branded and worked hard, and herdsmen were given little food or clothing and told to support themselves, which led many to banditry. Roman governors did little to control the violence because the slave-owners were often powerful men.

Our knowledge of the war depends mainly on Diodorus, whose account survives only in later summaries and excerpts, and on brief notes in the summaries of Livy’s lost books. Dates and numbers are therefore uncertain.

Eunus and the outbreak

Eunus was a slave from Apamea in Syria, owned by a man of Enna. He was known for prophecies and tricks; Diodorus says he could appear to breathe fire by hiding a nut filled with burning material in his mouth. He claimed that the Syrian goddess Atargatis had promised him he would become king.

The revolt began on the estates of Damophilus, a wealthy and notoriously cruel landowner of Enna. About 400 slaves, inspired by Eunus, attacked the city at night, killed many inhabitants, and later killed Damophilus and his wife Megallis. According to Diodorus, their daughter, who had treated the slaves kindly, was spared and sent safely to relatives.

Eunus was proclaimed king and took the royal name Antiochus, after the Seleucid kings of his homeland. He called his followers “Syrians”, set up a council and minted bronze coins, some of which survive.

Spread of the revolt

Shortly afterwards, a Cilician slave named Cleon led a separate rising near Agrigentum in the south. Instead of fighting Eunus, he placed himself under the king’s command and became his general. Thousands more slaves and some poor free people joined them.

Livy’s summaries give the rebel numbers as about 70,000, while Diodorus speaks of up to 200,000. The rebels defeated several Roman praetors, including Lucius Hypsaeus, and captured Tauromenium, modern Taormina, on the east coast. The revolt alarmed Rome, which was also facing a long war in Spain at Numantia.

The rebel kingdom

Eunus tried to give his movement the forms of a Hellenistic monarchy. He wore a diadem, appointed advisers and, according to Diodorus, called his wife his queen. Bronze coins attributed to him show the head of the goddess Demeter, closely linked with Enna, and the name of King Antiochus in Greek. Diodorus says the rebels spared farmers and workshops that could supply them, and they made weapons from tools.

Suppression

In 133 BC the consul Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi won some success against the rebels. The decisive campaign was led by his successor, the consul Publius Rupilius, in 132 BC.

Rupilius besieged Tauromenium, where the defenders were reduced to terrible hunger before the city was betrayed. He then turned to Enna, a natural fortress on a high plateau. Cleon was killed in a sortie, and the city fell through treachery. Eunus fled with a bodyguard and was found hiding in a cave. He died in prison at Morgantina.

Rupilius and a senatorial commission then reorganised the province under a set of rules known as the Lex Rupilia.

Consequences

The revolt revealed the dangers of an economy built on huge numbers of mistreated slaves. It was followed by a second Sicilian slave war in 104–100 BC and the great revolt of Spartacus in Italy in 73–71 BC. In the same years, the reforms of the Gracchi raised related questions about land and the replacement of free farmers by slave labour.

Timeline

• 241 BC: Western Sicily becomes Rome’s first province after the First Punic War.
• c. 135 BC: Slaves led by Eunus seize Enna; Eunus is proclaimed King Antiochus.
• c. 135–134 BC: Cleon leads a rising near Agrigentum and joins Eunus.
• c. 134–133 BC: Rebels defeat Roman praetors and hold Tauromenium.
• 133 BC: The consul Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi campaigns in Sicily.
• 132 BC: Publius Rupilius takes Tauromenium and Enna; Cleon is killed and Eunus captured.

Why it matters

The First Servile War was one of the largest slave revolts of the ancient world and the first to challenge Roman rule on a large scale. It is one of the best examples of enslaved people creating their own short-lived state, with a king, coinage and army, and it exposed the social tensions that troubled the late Roman Republic.