Roman Slave Revolts: The First and Second Servile Wars

In this video, I look at the First and Second Servile Wars and discuss some of the general problems with Rome in the Late Republic.
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[@samswift102]

Damn Thersites you’ve been killing it with all these recent uploads. I’m excited to see this channel grow!

[@Historyfan476AD]

Nice to see someone covering the first two servile wars and not just covering the Hollywood favourite Spartacus or Third Servile war.

[@decimusausoniusmagnus5719]

I feel spoiled like a patrician kid in the provinces with so much videos.

[@thinkinaboutpolitics]

Wonderful video. Our biggest fear is that some future historian might find our videos and say, "See, Americans understood the problems but were unwilling to fix them." Seeing reflections of ourselves in the past and adjusting accordingly, this is the value of history.

[@_CR_]

Thanks a lot for all the Greek and Roman videos that you are updating these days … brilliant !

[@darrynmurphy2038]

On this day of Halloween, let's not forget that absolutely nothing is as scary as a Slave Revolt was to the Romans

[@markohrga7427]

How about a Helot revolt for the Spartans 😂

[@patricktichacek6171]

And now we're worried about aliens lol

[@72Worker]

Most government tend to ignore problems. But in Romes defense it's people never thought of slavery as a problem.

[@goodman4966]

Happy Halloween Everyone

[@denizmetint.462]

Happy Reformation Day!

[@mdjones4]

Subscribed recently. Really impressive the amount of content you put out. Looking forward to the third servile war. I AM SPARTACUS

[@UncleLuke6996]

Incredible work Thersites. Thank you for all you do.

[@mueezadam8438]

Something that always struck me as odd in the primary sources concerning the first Servile War was the lack of attention given to just how _serendipitous_ it was for the rebels that their two uprisings coincided so close to each other in time and location. It makes me wonder _(and this is undoubtedly a red flag to my natural chain of reasoning)_ if the rebellions were possibly the result of some hidden third actor who coordinated the two forces to ensure their little uprising lasted long enough for the current governor to be stripped of office. We do know how lucrative the province was for seated governors, is it so out of the question that a prospecting consul or praetor would want to make sure his term ended with a nice countryside to retire in?

[@thorstenfinke2751]

subbed. Thanks for all your videos. Your channel is criminally underrated.

[@adochtre]

Hey Man, thanks for all the work you put into these

[@danielchequer5842]

Man, are you getting enough sleep? You've been uploading non-stop these days

[@thomaseriksen6885]

Backlog maybe

[@daledheyalef]

Would love to see more material on slavery in antiquity. This is fascinating stuff

[@andrejmucic5003]

well done! You should repeat this slavery formula in all your vids, because it is relevant for all your vids.

[@erinaltstadt4234]

I really enjoy your commentary, thank you

[@danlhendl]

Great stuff. Thanx

[@Vodgepie1]

Oh man, another great video!

[@tacocruiser4238]

Would you rather be a slave in Late Republic Rome or Periclean Athens?

[@ThersitestheHistorian]

The odds of receiving manumission and creating a better life for one's kids were far greater in the late Republic than in Athens.

[@Historyfan476AD]

That would depend who you are slaving for and what you job is. Some Greek educator slaves got a comfy life.

[@shanedavey6993]

Outstanding channel

[@SANCHIT18OCT]

great video

[@HxH2011DRA]

This is why to end slavery the productive forces must be improved.

[@delphinazizumbo8674]

then, those Sicilian landowners descendants went on to be Supervisors at Wal-Mart

[@LuisAldamiz]

Do we have any reliable data on the actual origin of Sicilian slaves? Because modern Sicilian genetics has this very unusual deviation towards Syria-Lebanon very specifically (distinct from Palestine or Cyprus-Anatolia) and that cannot be explained by Phoenician colonization, which was limited to the West of the island. I've argued often that it probably means that the Shekelesh (who may have given the name to Siculi and Sicels and thus to Sicily itself) were a "proto-Phoenician" group (we know they were circumcidated and hence surely Semitic, shekel = weight and coin so maybe the name meant "pirates" or "mercenaries") and that the anomaly "must" come from that, but, listening to this video I realized that at least at some point the masses of slaves were also largely from Syria and Cilicia (wonder why, Syria was conquered without resistance) and maybe that's part of the answer.

[@thomaseriksen6885]

Don't discount the middle ages

[@Sparticulous]

Sicilian slaves had very high mortality. I doubt much of their dna has survived if not drowned out by middle ages

[@LuisAldamiz]

@@Sparticulous - I also think so but just asking so I can better gauge what happened. My first theory is the Sekelesh and in general terms I stand for it but those Syrian slaves had me wondering, so I'd like to know if there's some more or less reliable data, at least good estimates, about their numbers and possible persistence in time.

[@MarkVrem]

Does anyone know the fate of Carthaginians living in Sicily after the1st, 2nd or 3rd punic wars? Were they allowed to continue their lives as freedmen, or did they turn into slaves with new Roman rulers of their Estates?

[@LuisAldamiz]

@@MarkVrem - My guess is that the upper classes that were lucky not to have been taken prisoner by the Romans migrated back to Africa or to Iberia, more lower groups would have tried in general to make a living under the new leadership, but many of them would not even be Phoenician to begin with. Prisoners would be enslaved, I don't think that holding for ransom was common yet but maybe some were rescued by their families that way, who knows? It's not like the Romans cared much about the fate of those who lost, they made "vae victims!" into their own motto. They didn't mention much their own lower classes even, they believed only the notable people deserved to be written about, interest in commoners is a modern thing.

[@MarkVrem]

Before the Second Servile War, the slaves were expecting to be freed because their homelands were now Roman allies. Does anyone know the specifics of which homelands these were? If I'm assuming my thoughts go something like this. This was before Pompey's foray into the near east. Greece, by this time, I'm assuming, is already a part of Rome. Maybe Macedon? and Thrace, Western Anatolia?... or perhaps I'm way off, and it actually lands like Syria that has some sort of alliance with Rome. Just tossing this out there if anyone wants to tackle it, lol.

[@annascott3542]

He mentioned Syria in the video.

[@decimusausoniusmagnus5719]

Thracia, Gauls, Iberians, lots of Greeks.

[@MarkVrem]

@@decimusausoniusmagnus5719 True, actually I wonder if the Sicily born children of slaves captured during the Campaigns in Greece were part of this "Freedom/Pardon" plan. Example. Your parents were captured during wartime. Now Greece is a Roman Province. You are a Roman slave. You're thinking I might get freed now. NOPE. lol.

[@decimusausoniusmagnus5719]

@@MarkVrem Yeah, especially because the general/province governor got to keep a portion of the revenue from war, that included the sale of slaves which was extremely profitable. They weren't going to give away their money just because.

[@0MVR_0]

Halloween used to be New Years Eve before I.G. Caesar adopted the Egyptian calendar, adding the months of July and August, hence the term Hallows' eve.

[@daquariussmith9772]

No.

[@0MVR_0]

@@daquariussmith9772 The Romans held a ten month calendar along with the Celts before using the twelve month Egyptian calendar, meaning that the Latin holiday of Saturnalia took place along with the Celtic Halloween until Caesar, acting as Pontifex Maximus, altered the calendar.

[@daquariussmith9772]

@@0MVR_0 No. Unfortunately you are forgetting the months of November(9th month) and December(10th month), which still existed before the Julian Calendar in the pre-Julian Roman Calendar. There was a two month period in Winter that was considered monthless, but they corresponded to what in our calendar and the Julian calendar would be January and February, not to our November and December, which are in Fall and not Winter.

[@0MVR_0]

@@daquariussmith9772 Had to look this up to identify why we are both mistaken. First Caesar only renamed a month and Augustus later renamed the month after. The adoption of a twelve month calendar happened much earlier. My own mistake. That aside, the Celtic calendar does observe a seasonal break at what is known as October 31st. Meaning that, along with the Latin Saturnalia, the intention of both holidays is the same, a reference to new years, the intention of the originial post.

[@thomasdonovan3580]

Every eighth year you add one month, =365 day pyr average.

[@henkstersmacro-world]

👍👍👍

[@ima1sthumanonearth8]

Albino i subscribe

[@ashtonbarwick6696]

I thought the cimbri/teutonis were Germanic