First Servile War

Quick Facts: Who was First Servile War?

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First Servile War

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A massive slave uprising in Sicily (135–132 BCE) against the Roman Republic.

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2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

The First Servile War of 135–132 BC (also known as the First Sicilian Slave War) was a slave rebellion against the Roman Republic, which took place in Sicily. The revolt started in 135 when Eunus, a slave from Syria who claimed to be a prophet, captured the city of Enna in the middle of the island with 400 fellow slaves. Soon after, Cleon, a Cilician slave, stormed the city of Agrigentum on the southern coast, slaughtered the population, and then joined Eunus' army and became his military commander. Eunus even proclaimed himself king, under the name of Antiochus, after the Seleucid emperors of his native Syria. The former slaves then moved to the eastern coast and took control of Catana and Tauromenium.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Their exploit triggered several minor revolts in Italy and as far as Delos in the Aegean Sea. Eunus and Cleon were able to repel several Roman attempts to quell the rebellion until an army commanded by consul Publius Rupilius arrived in Sicily in 134 and besieged the cities controlled by the slaves. The revolt ended in 132 with the fall of Enna and Tauromenium. Following the final expulsion of the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, there were great changes in land ownership in Sicily. Speculators from Italy rushed onto the island, buying up large tracts of land at low prices, or occupied estates which had belonged to Sicilians of the Carthaginian party.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

These were forfeited to Rome after the execution or flight of their owners. The newly arrived Roman Sicilians exploited their slaves more brutally than their predecessors. According to Diodorus Siculus, politically influential slave-owners, often Roman equites, did not provide enough food and clothing for their slaves. The Roman conquest of Macedonia, in which thousands of the conquered were sold into slavery, the slave-dealing of the Cretan and Cilician pirates whose activity was practically unchecked at this time, as well as the oppression of corrupt Roman provincial governors, who were known to organize man-hunts after lower-class country provincials (to be sold as slaves)—all contributed to a constant supply of new slaves at very cheap price, which made it more profitable for their masters to wear them out by unremitting labor, harshness, exposure and malnutrition, to be cheaply replaced, than to take proper care for their nourishment, health, and accommodation. Accordingly, the plantation system which took shape in Sicily led to thousands of slaves dying every year of toil in the fields from dawn to dusk with chains around their legs, and being locked up in suffocating subterranean pits by night.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: First Servile War

True or False: “The First Servile War was primarily fought over disputes regarding citizenship rights among free Italian farmers.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The conflict was fundamentally a slave rebellion driven by brutal plantation conditions and the desire for freedom.

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