Summary: The Roman Slave Riots

Imagine, will you, of being the ultimate power over the most phenomenal, outstanding, unmeasurably incredible creature on the face of this earth. It’s not the elephant, dolphin, or tiger, nor the goldfish, the bear, or the kiwi. The animal in mind is the human, and though slavery is a thing of taboo, it was greatly practiced by what is thought of as the golden state in the ancient world, Caesar's own Roman empire. While slaves were thought to be outcast from the rest of the civilization, they had a wrecking ball of an effect on the social standing inside the empire. What you may believe to be a few hundred or thousands of slaves was truthfully millions, spanning all over the empire in an expansive brigade. Surely this expanse of slavery had …show more content…
Even with violent slave riots, many lasting multiple years, and millions of deaths, slavery was barely affected. The worst that happened to the slave owners and the Roman population was a little fear being shot through them until they realize that they were still in control. The strange thing about a large percentage of Roman slave riots, unlike the Jewish slave riots while under Egyptian oppression in the past, or the African slave riots of the future, was that they had no main goals or priorities. The city of Capua, a town southwest of Rome, close to Mt. Vesuvius, was home to a well-known and prestigious gladiator school. This was the spawning point of one of the largest slave riots in history, the Spartacus Rebellion. Spartacus was a Thracian, a group of indo-European tribes. He was enslaved and put into gladiator work. What gave Spartacus such an advantage against the rest of the gladiators, and later, the Legion, was his mercenary background with the Roman Legion. Spartacus understood and knew the Roman tactics and fighting styles, and that gave him the ability to exploit the weak spots of the Legion. When Spartacus started out his rebellion, he meant business. He first started building an army out of oppressed peoples, such as other enslaved gladiators, slaves, and lower classmen, along with anyone else who proved loyal to the weak and wished to join. Spartacus’s army got so large due to so many slaves and poor citizens were willing to join to escape the oppressive lifestyle and to see the rest of Italy, which very little people got to do. The Spartacus Rebellion would last 2 long years and kill millions of both slaves and Legion-men. Any citizens and slaves involved in the riot were to be sentenced to being crucified along the path in which the rebellion took place. If you visit Italy today, you can tour the path that the