CC 302/347 INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME

Outline for Lecture 13: Slavery (ii)


- Lex Fufia-Canina (2 BCE) limits manumission by will:

  • 1-2 owned -- all can be freed
  • 3-10 -- half
  • 11-30 -- 1/3
  • 31-100 -- 1/4
  • 101-500 -- 1/5

Rural Slavery

- e.g. latifundia or mines: "slave labor" is the norm

- slaves locked at night in ergastula

- in latifundia, one slave overseer: the vilicus ['steward']

Resistance

- small scale: running way; committing suicide; killing master

- a few large-scale rebellions

Servile Wars in Sicily

a) 135 BCE

-led by a Syrian slave Eunus and a Cilician named Cleon,

- slave forces reached a size of 60,000 troops

b) 104 BCE

- led by Athenion (a Cilician) and one called Salvius.

Spartacus

- 73-71 BCE

- Spartacus was a gladiator of Thracian origin

- had military experience in the auxiliary forces

- he broke loose from his barracks at Capua, 73 BCE

- followers were primarily rural slaves

- after a string of military victories, defeated in 71


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