The Servile Wars: The Slave Wars

The Servile Wars, also known as the Slave Wars, were a series of events that occurred in the Roman empire. These wars took place roughly between 140 BCE and 70 BCE. The events that took place throughout these three wars will be highlighted in this paper through the analysis of Brent D. Shaw’s translations of written works regarding the wars. When analyzing many of the documents it is important to keep in mind many of the translations were documents wrote by historians and politicians many years after the events had occurred. This can lead to biases and misinterpreted information. With saying that, many of these sources are known to be reliable, but take them with a grain of salt. Around the time the First Slave War began, the Roman Empire …show more content…
An influx in these rebellions led to the Slave Wars. One of the first documented slave rebellions was led by a man named Drimakos. Drimakos is known to have lived in the 3rd or 4th Century BCE. He managed to escape his captors and made his way into the mountains. He collectively rounded up other slaves and became the leader of an army, a slave army. His Army became powerful enough to come to agreements with the local government. He was able to carry out this task, because he was able to rise up and become a leader despite being oppressed. Anthenaeus says, “Since he was a brave man who had a lot of luck when it came to fighting, he became the leader of the fugitive slaves in the same way that a king is the commander of an army” (Athenaeus, 65). This may have taken place before the slave wars, but it shows that there was a gradual buildup of slave rebellions that lead to the slave …show more content…
Although, the enslaved individual may not have won the wards, they did make an effort to gain back their freedom. By doing this each Slave War lasted for multiple years. This was in part due to the fact that many of the enslaved individuals were once free people. After being thrown into a life of servitude, they desired to freedom they once were privileged with. A brief period of freedom was possible due to the three uprisings. With saying that, all three of these events were possible due to the Romans inability to initially see their revolts as a serious threat. By not pouncing on the slave revolts as the first arose, the Romans gave the slaves the opportunity to rise up and stand their ground, which they did. In doing this, the enslaved individuals were able to become leaders and warriors. This feature was possible due to slaves being trained as gladiators and also being trained as leaders while doing their assigned tasks. Enslaved individuals were also relatively successful due to how much freedom some of them reserved, such as the herdsmen. They fought, protected, and took care of themselves year-round. The Romans may not have realized it, but by enslaving these individuals and making them live a life of servitude, they were training them to be independent of their owners. This is return allowed enslaved individuals of the Roman Empire to be