15. Slavery, Italy Threatened, The Domination of Sulla

How much Roman evidence do we have for slavery?

• Tons of evidence

Roughly how much of the Italy population were slaves?

• 35%

What were the 3 main sources of slaves? Of the three which is most common?

1. War captives 

2. Piracy 

3. Bred slaves <- most common source

How were slaves treated? 

• Considered a capital good 

• Mostly mistreated 

• All cultures practiced slavery 

What would the owners of the slaves have to do if they were selling them?

• Disclose every possible information they knew about the slave 

How would slaves resist? 

• Would sabotage/ laziness 

• Would flee (become bandits)

Silanianum meaning?

• A law that was passed 

• If a master was murdered by his slave, all the slaves post puberty that he owned would be tortured and killed 

• To ensure there wouldn’t be a slave uprising where they kill their masters 

What is this an image of? 

• A collar permanently put onto a slave as a tag in case they run away 

• The tag says to return to the owner

What was the most common type of abuse?

Flogging/whipping

Why did Romans introduce laws that would protect slaves?

• Slaves were beginning to snap and fighting back 

What law did they introduce to help slaves? 

• A shrine was set up in cities as a place of refuge for slaves 

• They would then be sold to a new master 

Manumission 

• Freeing a slave

• A slave could by their own freedom 

• When freed, they would take on their masters last name and their status 

1st Slave War 

Location?

Led by who?

Who won?

• Happened in Sicily because it was a site for widespread farms 

• Led by Eunus, a slave

• Crushed by Rome 

2nd Slave War

Location?

What caused it?

• Also happened in Sicily because of its widespread farms 

• Happened because many slaves were claiming they were free so the governor held a trial 

• The trial then stopped because the masters said they spent a lot of money on these slaves and these trails would take them away 

• The slaves were angered and revolted 

3rd Slave War - Sparacus’ Slave Revolt 

• Led by spartacus and gladiators 

• Huge number of enslaved people revolting 

Changes in Roman Society (army)

• No longer ranks of infantry 

• Romans did not serve as cavalry or light armed troops 

What does Equestrian mean? 

• A title for Romans who met a certain wealth threshold 

What two groups does the upperclass separate into? 

• Equestrians 

• Senators 

War with Jugurtha

Civil war in Numidia 
What triggered this civil war? 

• A king had died and he decided to divide his kingdom into 3 for his sons and a cousin called King Jugurtha

• Jugurtha killed the brothers and made himself king of Numidia and Italians who supported the brothers 

• The killing of Italians triggered the war 

Why were the Romans ineffective in dealing with King Jugurtha?

• Jugurtha was bribing the roman commanders to not push the war too hard 

What did the tribune do when King Jugurtha came to Rome to formally answer questions with immunity? 

• Jugurtha was asked if he had been bribing romans and before jugurtha could answer, the tribune vetoed the meeting

Who is Marius? 

• A successful soldier 

• Ran for office and was elected consul 

• Put in charge of war with king jugurtha 

What did Marius reward his soldiers with?

• Land in Africa 

Italy threatened from the North 

What were the Cimbri and Teutons doing in Rome?

• 2 tribes that were wandering (displaying valour) 

• Romans tried to drive them back 

• Romans were defeated 4x 

What happened with Marius after the 4 battles?

• Marius ran for consul again and was put in charge of war

•  His soldiers were NOT voted land this time

How many times was Marius elected as consul? 

• 6 times

Marius's career in Roman Politics

• A novo homo 

• Most of the senate opposed him 

• Had very famous election speech

Sixth Consulship of Marius and Second Tribuneship of Saturnius 

• Marius allied himself with Saturninus, a politician 

• Sat. came up with the idea to present a bill that would simultaneously….

1. give marius soldiers their land 

2. give citizenship to soldiers who fought for a long time

3. give free land to romans 

• The bill passed

What is the pledge of allegiance in the bill made my saturninus?

• Saturninus included in the bill that all of the senators have to pledge that they will support the bill 

• Insults the senators 

What did the senate advise Marius to do to Saturninus? What was Marius’ response?

• The senate thought Saturninus was getting out of hand so they “Senatus Consultum Ultimatum” for Marius to arrest Saturninus

• Marius arrested Saturninus 

The Social War

Tribunate of Livius Drusus - what bill did he pass? And what happened to it?

• Livius, a tribune, put forward a bill to give citizenship to all italians 

• Bill was passed but then reversed 

What was the response of Italians after the Roman citizenship bill was reversed?

• Italy revolted

• Created new capitol ‘Italica’

Who did the Romans put in charge against the Italians in the Social war?

• Sulla

• 2nd in command to Marius 

What was the result of the social war? 

• Full citizenship was given to all italians 

Tribunate of Sulpicius Rufus 

What is the first war that Rome fights against a RICH kingdom after a very long time?

• War declared against RICH kingdom of Pontus 

Who was the consul during the war w/ Pontus?

• Sulla is elected

• However, Marius allies himself with Sulpicius in return for command in war

• Marius wins

• The assembly ends up voting Marius as consul 

Who is this image of?

Sulla 

Sulla's first March on Rome

 What illegal move does Sulla make with his army after he discovered he got outvoted?

• When he heard the outcome of the vote, he would march into Rome with the armies

What did Sulla declare Marius as in Rome? What was the result of this for who led the campaign against pontus?

• Enemies of the state 

• Sulla wins the vote and is officially leading the war against pontus 

What does Marius do after Sulla leaves for Pontus?

• Marius and his supporters enter Rome and are in charge 

Cinna's Rule 

What do Cinna and Marius do while Sulla is away in Pontus?

• After being expelled from Rome, Cinna allied with Marius, retook the city by force, and dominated Roman politics while Sulla was away in the East. 

Sullas 2nd March on Rome 

What does Sulla do when he comes back from Pontus?

• After returning from the East, Sulla invaded Italy to reclaim power from the Marian/Cinnan faction.

• Captured Rome, and became dictator

What did Sulla do to the people who opposed him? 

Had them crucified

What is Sulla's proscription? 

• Sulla put forward a list of Roman citizens who were enemies of the state and could be killed 

• 500 equestrians and 100 senators killed 

Sulla declared himself ‘dictator perpetuus’, what does that mean?

• His position was unending

• Dictator position is supposed to be 6 months only 

The verdicts on Sulla’s Program?

• what was said about his reforms

• what did he do for the politicians

• None of his reforms dealt with the actual problem 

• He made it really easy to get your way as a politician 

Lepidus’ Rising and its aftermath 

What did Lepidus do after Sulla’s death? How is he copying Sulla?

• After Sulla’s death, a few years later

• A politician, Lepidus, tried to raise an army and convince them to follow him into Rome and make him dictator = basically copying Sulla 

Who is Pompey? 

• Supported sulla 

• Raised his own army that fought with sulla to take over rome

• Demanded a reward from sulla for helping 

Challenge from Sertorius in Spain

• What did sertorius think of sulla? What actions does he take based off this?

• Sertorius was a roman politician who refused to support sulla 

• He went to spain and banded together romans that also didn't like sulla 

• They set up “New Rome”, a rebel roman senate 

• Sertorius was assassinated by his own officers

Who is Crassus?

• Richest man in Roman empire

• Had 0 military recognition

Spartacus’ Slave Revolt (Crassus + Pompey)

Who is put in charge of the slave revolt?

• Crassus was put in charge but had to share the credit w/ Pompey 

What was the consulship of Crassus and Pompey 

• Both elected consul but did not end well 

Pompey frees the Mediterranean

What is the issues in the shorelines?

• There was an increase in bandits 

• An idea was given that pompey should be given imperium over the shorelines as a province 

So, how did Pompey solve the bandit problem? 

• Assembled a fleet and offered the bandits property if they surrendered 

Threat from King Mithridates of Pontas 

We thought Sulla defeated Pontas? What happened?

• Sulla did defeat pontas 

• Made a truce with Mithridates 

• So Mithradates was still around stirring up trouble 

Rome's 2nd war with Mithradates

What was the Mutiny of legions involving cinna?

• While preparing to fight Sulla, Cinna’s soldiers mutinied and killed Cinna.

Control of the war given to Pompey

• Pompey conquers Pontus, Syria and Judea and makes them into 4 provinces 

Who is Cicero?

• Novus homo 

• A lawyer 

• Was elected as consul unexpectedly 

What is Catiline’s Rising 

• He failed twice to be elected as consul 

• Had a conspiracy against him that he was planning to set fire to the city and impose himself by dictator with them help of allies (conspiring to take power of Rome) 

Who is this?

Crassus