Second Servile War

Second Servile War
	Part of the Servile Wars
	; Plaque in Caltabellotta marking the 2,100th anniversary of the revolt. (2001)
Date	104–100 BC
Location	Sicily
Result	Roman victory
Territorial; changes	None
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Slaves of Sicily
Commanders and leaders
Publius Licinius Nerva; Lucius Licinius Lucullus; Gaius Servilius; Manius Aquilius	Salvius; Athenion †

The Second Servile War was an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic on the island of Sicily. The war lasted from 104 BC until 100 BC.

Background

The

Teutones in the North. He requested support from King Nicomedes III of Bithynia near the Roman province of Asia, and was refused, on the grounds that every able-bodied man in Bithynia had been enslaved by Roman tax-gatherers for being unable to pay their dues. The Senate replied by issuing orders that no slaves were to be taken from among allies of Rome, and that all such slaves should be immediately freed.^[1]

The

slaves in his province of Sicily; aside from awakening discontent among slaves from other nationalities who were not freed, this had the effect of alienating the rich Sicilian plantation owners who saw their human chattel unceremoniously being taken out of their hands. Alarmed, Nerva revoked the sentence of manumission (the freeing of the slaves), which provoked the slave population into revolt.^[1]

Salvius Tryphon

Nerva failed to react decisively; by false promises he was able to return one body of the rebels to slavery, while neglecting to address a more serious outbreak near

Seleucid ruler.^[1]

After his victory, Salvius besieged the city of Morgantina. Nerva now marched against him with Sicily's militia but he was also defeated. The slaves then managed to take the city. After Morgantina, Salvius' slave army swelled to 2,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot. Meanwhile, another revolt had broken out in western Sicily; there Athenion, a Cilician slave with a career analogous to Cleon's, rose in revolt. He marched his slave army to join with Salvius upon hearing of the Morgantina victory.^[1]

Lucullus

In 103 BC the Senate sent the praetor Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who had just put down a revolt in Campania (the Vettian Revolt), to quell the rebellion. Lucullus, at the head of a 17,000 strong Roman and allied army, landed in western Sicily and marched on the rebel stronghold of Triocala.^[2]

The Battle of Scirthaea

When Salvius Tryphon, the Slave King, heard of Lucullus‘ arrival he wanted to hold out against the Romans inside Triocala. His general Athenion, however, persuaded him not to hide but instead face the Romans in open battle. Marching to meet Lucullus, the rebels encamped at Scirthaea, twelve miles distant from the Roman camp and, the next day, the two sides lined up for battle. According to Diodorus, Tryphon's host numbered around 40,000.^[2]

After much skirmishing, the main battle began as the two armies closed the gap and came together. At first it seemed as if the rebels would drive the Romans back, with Athenion and his cavalry inflicting heavy losses upon Lucullus‘ flanks. However, just as it seemed that the slaves might be victorious, Athenion was wounded and fell from his horse. He was forced to feign death in order to save himself. The rebels, believing their general to be dead, lost heart and fled. Salvius Tryphon, seeing his army routed, turned and joined them in flight back to Triocala. Later that night, under cover of darkness, the wounded Athenion escaped the battlefield. With thousands of slaves cut down in the rout, Diodorus estimates that, as night fell, around 20,000 rebels lay dead, half of Tryphon's army.^[2]

The Siege of Triocala

After the battle, Lucullus slowly but surely worked his way to Triocala, restoring Roman Rule while he marched. At Triocala the rebels had dug in; Lucullus started a siege while waiting for his command to be extended, but when he heard that he had been replaced he spitefully ended the siege, burned his siegeworks, camp and provisions, retreated and disbanded his army.^[3] Lucullus did this to render the task harder for his successor, Gaius Servilius the Augur; Lucullus intended, by ensuring the failure of his successor, to prove his own innocence from any alleged incompetence.^[4]

Athenion

In 102 BC Athenion, who had succeeded as slave-king after Salvius' death (he had passed after the earlier battle) was able to take Gaius Servilius's camp by surprise; Servilius' army was routed and dispersed, undoing all of Lucullus' previous success.^[5]

The revolt suppressed

Finally, in 101 BC, the Roman consul

three slave revolts

in the Roman Republic fueled by the same abuses in Sicily and Southern Italy.

Second Servile War in literature

Athenaeum, 10 September 1920 [1]
) is set in Sicily in the aftermath of the Slave War.

In
Arms of Nemesis (the second book in his Roma Sub Rosa series) the Second Slave War (Servile War) is mentioned in detail during a dinner party with Marcus Licinius Crassus who is about to campaign against the rebel slaves of Spartacus in the Third Slave War
.

In Colleen McCullough‘s novel The First Man in Rome (the first book in her Masters of Rome series) the Second Servile War is mentioned several times. It figures as the background for the story line about Lucius Appuleius Saturninus.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d A. H. Beesely, The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History, (Kindle edition), ch. VI., p. 57
^ ^a ^b ^c Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 36.8.
^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 36.9.
^ Mike Duncan, The Storm before the Storm, p. 140.
^ ^a ^b A. H. Beesely, The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History, VI, p. 58.

Shaw, Brent (2001). Spartacus and the Slave Wars: a brief history with documents. pp. 107–129.(at google books)

[BtG57-1] A. H. Beesely, The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History, (Kindle edition), ch. VI., p. 57

[DBH368-2] Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 36.8.

[3] Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 36.9.

[4] Mike Duncan, The Storm before the Storm, p. 140.

[BtG58-5] A. H. Beesely, The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History, VI, p. 58.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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