02: Ancient Strikes - Secessio Plebis and the Servile Wars

WEBVTT
00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:23.600
Let's go. Let's go. Welcome back, everybody,
00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:26.440
to a brand spanking new episode of Boot Biters,
00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:29.559
a labor history podcast with me, Dakota. Have
00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:31.579
you had your recommended daily intake of Roman
00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:34.299
Empire content today? Because if not, this episode
00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:37.159
will give it to you. Well, kinda. Because in
00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.560
continuing along our theme of ancient strikes,
00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:42.240
today we're going to be traveling to the earlier
00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:45.000
Roman Republic to talk about a little thing called
00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:50.399
secessio plebis, which is Latin for withdrawal
00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:53.090
of the commoners. In addition, we're going to
00:00:53.090 --> 00:00:55.750
explore the Three Servile Wars, when enslaved
00:00:55.750 --> 00:00:58.310
laborers in Rome rebelled against their oppressors.
00:00:58.649 --> 00:01:00.549
And you actually might have heard of the third
00:01:00.549 --> 00:01:03.009
one already, because it was the Gladiator Rebellion
00:01:03.009 --> 00:01:06.549
led by Spartacus. Although Secessio Plebis was
00:01:06.549 --> 00:01:09.250
not strictly a strike tied to any one laboring
00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:12.109
group, like artisans or farmers or enslaved workers,
00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:15.439
It was tied to economic challenges at the time
00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:18.180
and led by the predominantly lower class, who
00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:20.739
withheld their labor to make demands and gain
00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:23.760
additional political power. It's an incredible
00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.739
example of collective organizing, and it's arguably
00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:28.980
the first recorded general strike in history,
00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:32.319
so I do think it's worth covering early. Going
00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.620
forward, episodes are not going to be chronological
00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:37.379
because, frankly, I'm just not that organized,
00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:39.689
nor can I be bothered. But I thought that since
00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:41.670
we started with the first recorded labor strike,
00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:43.849
it would be fitting to follow it up with the
00:01:43.849 --> 00:01:45.909
first general strike and talk a bit about labor
00:01:45.909 --> 00:01:48.689
organizing and forced labor in general in ancient
00:01:48.689 --> 00:01:52.750
Rome. A lot of this info comes from a fantastic
00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:55.489
book that just came out called Strike, Labor,
00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:58.150
Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire by
00:01:58.150 --> 00:02:01.069
Sarah E. Bond. Highly recommend picking up a
00:02:01.069 --> 00:02:03.769
copy from your local bookstore or from bookshop
00:02:03.769 --> 00:02:06.709
.org if you want to shop online. It's worth it.
00:02:07.370 --> 00:02:10.169
I also pulled some of this from the Global Nonviolent
00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:13.069
Action Database and the book The Material Life
00:02:13.069 --> 00:02:16.349
of Roman Slaves by Sandra R. Joshel and Lauren
00:02:16.349 --> 00:02:19.210
Hackworth Peterson. A list of those resources
00:02:19.210 --> 00:02:21.669
will also be available for free on the Patreon
00:02:21.669 --> 00:02:23.789
site if you want to do any additional reading.
00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:27.169
So let's get a little bit of that juicy context
00:02:27.169 --> 00:02:31.939
and start with Secessio Plebis. This event took
00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:34.759
place in the early Roman Republic between 500
00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:39.439
to 287 BCE, during a period of time that sounds
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:41.479
like it could easily be the next Star Wars movie
00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:45.620
title, The Struggle of the Orders. And I'm gonna
00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:48.759
restrain myself and save you from my really shitty
00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:52.719
Star Wars impressions. The Orders refers to the
00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:56.120
social class orders in Rome at the time. The
00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.699
upper class, called the patricians, were the
00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:01.879
political and social elite. These were aristocrats
00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:04.699
who held a monopoly on political power and significant
00:03:04.699 --> 00:03:07.740
religious influence. Because remember, in Rome,
00:03:07.819 --> 00:03:10.060
worship and deference to the different gods was
00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:13.780
baked into the culture in many aspects. Patricians
00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:16.460
also held judicial power, controlling both the
00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:20.039
creation and interpretation of laws. Their status
00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:22.759
was hereditary. They were the descendants of
00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:25.020
the first senators under the Roman kings, and
00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:27.000
that status was passed down to their children.
00:03:27.819 --> 00:03:30.199
Although sometimes noble families from conquered
00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:32.039
cities would be brought under that umbrella,
00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:35.780
too. Plebeians, on the other hand, were the lower
00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.259
class, and they filled the army ranks in many
00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:42.120
conflicts. Today, we kind of use the term plebeian
00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:45.479
and pleb as a synonym for poor, but it wasn't
00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.840
necessarily a class distinction as we think of
00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:50.139
them today, with lower, middle, and upper economic
00:03:50.139 --> 00:03:53.719
classes, as there were, in fact, wealthy plebeians,
00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:57.400
too. Essentially, they were a political and social
00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.900
grouping rather than an economic class. But,
00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.539
big caveat, as we'll sometimes see, that political
00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:07.599
power was tied to economic power too in many
00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:12.060
ways. The patrician's overall attitude towards
00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:15.199
the plebeian class and towards labor, particularly
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.459
towards manual and unskilled labor, tended to
00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:21.480
be very dismissive. They even looked down on
00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:24.379
trade even though they participated and benefited
00:04:24.379 --> 00:04:28.139
from it themselves. They just used intermediaries
00:04:28.139 --> 00:04:31.259
to do the dirty work for them. Shout out to my
00:04:31.259 --> 00:04:34.519
brother who would say, hypocrisy shakes the foundations
00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:38.500
of this republic. Perhaps in response to that
00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:41.319
disenfranchisement and cultural stigma, there
00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:44.160
was, from the republic's inception, an undercurrent
00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:46.579
of organizing amongst various professions and
00:04:46.579 --> 00:04:50.360
trades. Bond in her book noted that a lot of
00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:52.860
scholars have discounted labor organizing in
00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:55.300
Rome because it often doesn't fit nicely into
00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:57.920
the definition that we have in the modern day
00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.019
when we think of unions and striking. But just
00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:03.439
because it isn't a cookie cutter, copy and paste,
00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.000
doesn't mean that it wasn't happening. There
00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:07.980
are also a couple of reasons why we might not
00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:10.660
have as much direct information about labor organizing
00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:14.139
at the time. As little as 4 % of writings from
00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:17.800
the ancient world have survived. Because we will
00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:20.639
all succumb to the passage of time. So there
00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:24.259
just isn't a lot of written evidence to go off
00:05:24.259 --> 00:05:29.100
of, period. Another thing, though, is the biases
00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:31.879
of the recorders and historians at the time,
00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:34.220
who didn't think that covering the daily life
00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:36.759
of the working class was worth it. There was
00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:39.500
a really big tendency to minimize events led
00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:43.319
by plebeians, using terms like crowds and mobs,
00:05:43.379 --> 00:05:45.399
which is something we still see today in our
00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:48.610
media. And the danger of that is that it takes
00:05:48.610 --> 00:05:51.490
away the specificity of what those quote -unquote
00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:54.629
crowds and mobs were actually doing. It makes
00:05:54.629 --> 00:05:56.829
it unclear why they were gathering, and it tends
00:05:56.829 --> 00:06:01.110
to delegitimize their causes. The TLDR, or for
00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.149
those that aren't chronically online, the Too
00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:06.050
Long Didn't Read of It All, is that the Romans
00:06:06.050 --> 00:06:08.430
did organize themselves, it just came under a
00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:11.850
different name. Collegia, or associations, is
00:06:11.850 --> 00:06:13.850
probably the closest word we could come up with.
00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.779
These trade and craft associations were a widespread
00:06:17.779 --> 00:06:20.019
practice in the ancient world, especially in
00:06:20.019 --> 00:06:24.439
Greece. But in Rome, Numa Pompilius, who was
00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:26.600
the second king of early Rome and came after
00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.379
Romulus, was credited with starting associations
00:06:29.379 --> 00:06:34.019
there. That story was later used in the Roman
00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:36.560
Empire to grant legitimacy to some of the early
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.560
established collegia while banning others. Collegia
00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:43.519
served a lot of different purposes. They had
00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:45.939
a religious function. Many of them had patron
00:06:45.939 --> 00:06:49.360
deities. There was also a social and extracurricular
00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:52.560
function, with collegia organizing feasts and
00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:56.180
other kinds of social gatherings. But most often,
00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:58.920
they were used by shared businesses, trades,
00:06:59.139 --> 00:07:03.100
or industries. Some were organized basically
00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:05.860
like frats or sororities, with dues that members
00:07:05.860 --> 00:07:08.680
had to pay. They had their own clubhouses, many
00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.089
of them located on Aventine Hill. but others
00:07:12.089 --> 00:07:15.430
with less funding were more informal. A big thing
00:07:15.430 --> 00:07:18.449
is that many offered protections, providing safety
00:07:18.449 --> 00:07:21.810
and security to occupations to reduce their risk.
00:07:22.529 --> 00:07:25.550
They also provided networking opportunities and
00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:28.829
even things like burial insurance. And that might
00:07:28.829 --> 00:07:31.129
seem really random, but the burial insurance
00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:34.089
aspect is super interesting because it filled
00:07:34.089 --> 00:07:37.629
a void where a state service did not exist. Otherwise,
00:07:37.810 --> 00:07:40.350
burial costs had to come out of the deceased's
00:07:40.350 --> 00:07:43.689
wealth. or be a debt on the family. So this was
00:07:43.689 --> 00:07:46.769
essentially like life insurance. And associations
00:07:46.769 --> 00:07:49.709
wouldn't just cover the cost of the burial, but
00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:52.829
they also offered services like cleaning of tombs,
00:07:52.910 --> 00:07:56.050
placing flowers on the tombs, and transportation
00:07:56.050 --> 00:07:59.449
of the deceased, sometimes over really long distances.
00:08:00.230 --> 00:08:02.970
A quote from Bond that sums it up pretty nicely
00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:06.110
is that, the small but essential social units
00:08:06.110 --> 00:08:08.610
were capable of providing financial and social
00:08:08.610 --> 00:08:12.819
support. local prestige, reputation, and networks
00:08:12.819 --> 00:08:15.779
of trust to thousands in a society that largely
00:08:15.779 --> 00:08:18.980
rejected the funding of state welfare programs
00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:22.600
and social safety nets. Well, if that doesn't
00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:26.459
sound familiar for us in the U .S.. Collegia
00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:31.300
were numerous and all over the place. The estimate
00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:36.139
is that there were 3 ,200 collegia from 500 to
00:08:36.139 --> 00:08:39.340
300 BCE. But the likelihood is that there were
00:08:39.340 --> 00:08:41.820
even more than that. And those are just the ones
00:08:41.820 --> 00:08:45.360
we know about. And most importantly, for our
00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.159
topic today, their structure offered members
00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:51.200
the ability to organize and mobilize quickly.
00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:54.000
And maybe that was the reason that there was
00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:57.259
a growing distrust of associations from the patricians
00:08:57.259 --> 00:09:00.179
and senators who feared these pockets of people
00:09:00.179 --> 00:09:03.399
coming together in secret and essentially coalition
00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:07.649
building. Another large source of that paranoia
00:09:07.649 --> 00:09:10.690
was that Rome was engaged in constant military
00:09:10.690 --> 00:09:13.549
campaigns at this time, with neighboring states
00:09:13.549 --> 00:09:16.789
and groups. First, they were more defensive in
00:09:16.789 --> 00:09:19.889
nature, and then as they started to expand, obviously
00:09:19.889 --> 00:09:24.129
became more on the offense. With that increased
00:09:24.129 --> 00:09:27.230
contact with the external groups, there was growing
00:09:27.230 --> 00:09:30.730
xenophobia or fear of strangers and a fear of
00:09:30.730 --> 00:09:34.529
uprisings. Another important side effect of that
00:09:34.529 --> 00:09:37.230
military expansion, though, was that with citizens
00:09:37.230 --> 00:09:39.490
constantly being pushed into military service,
00:09:39.769 --> 00:09:42.809
they couldn't make any money. Because it turns
00:09:42.809 --> 00:09:45.049
out that leaving your shops and farms behind
00:09:45.049 --> 00:09:48.409
constantly to go fight isn't exactly lucrative.
00:09:48.889 --> 00:09:52.389
And people still had to pay debts. Even back
00:09:52.389 --> 00:09:55.929
then, the rent was too damn high. And their growing
00:09:55.929 --> 00:09:58.389
debt and the constant expectation of military
00:09:58.389 --> 00:10:01.649
service led to really significant economic hardship.
00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:05.440
and resulted in the city essentially withholding
00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.580
their military labor, and even fully withdrawing
00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:12.419
physically from the city. This is the first secessio
00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:15.580
plebis. And it was a self -fulfilling prophecy
00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:19.200
in some ways. One thing that Bond emphasized
00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:22.259
in her book that I think is worth repeating is
00:10:22.259 --> 00:10:25.000
the sort of myth and history overlap that we
00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.980
see when looking back at this time period. If
00:10:27.980 --> 00:10:30.159
you know about the creation myth of Rome with
00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:32.759
Regulus and Romulus, you'll know that there's
00:10:32.759 --> 00:10:35.159
a lot of embellishment and storytelling that's
00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.500
just a part of the early history of the kingdom.
00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:40.960
Additionally, most of what we know about the
00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.519
early Roman Republic comes to us from historians
00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.799
who wrote about it many centuries later, like
00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.320
the Roman historian Livy and a Greek historian
00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:53.259
with officially the coolest name ever, Dionysus.
00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:59.879
Alright, focus up, I got this. Dionysius. Dionysius.
00:10:59.940 --> 00:11:03.940
There we go. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. And
00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:06.059
to give you a frame of reference, they were writing
00:11:06.059 --> 00:11:11.899
in 27 BCE to 14 CE about these events from 400
00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:15.360
years before that. And like we said, they had
00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:19.440
biases. It's still important to learn about these
00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:21.559
events, even if there are parts that are exaggerated
00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:24.539
or mythologized, because it shows a few things.
00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:27.600
One, that there were very real financial and
00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:29.960
political issues at the time reflected in these
00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:33.820
stories of collective organizing. Two, we do
00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:35.919
actually have evidence of some of these actions
00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.559
through the laws that were passed in retaliation
00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.960
to these events, or as a result of them. And
00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:45.240
three, it demonstrates what people in the later
00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:48.299
Roman Republican Empire were capable of imagining
00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:50.899
as a response to overreach from those in power.
00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:54.440
These were stories and accounts that fueled later
00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:59.039
action, too. Because that's the power of storytelling.
00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:05.320
So let's travel back in time, to 495 BCE, in
00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.019
the Roman Republic, to the first secessio plebis.
00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:10.659
There were several, but we're just focusing on
00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:13.559
the first one today. It all started when the
00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.519
Senate voted for another war, this time against
00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:19.840
some nearby peeps called the Volscians. Remember,
00:12:20.019 --> 00:12:22.460
Rome had been fighting non -stop with its neighbors,
00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:25.360
so conflicts were growing pretty unpopular at
00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:28.720
this point. A farmer and a soldier in deep debt
00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.360
went to the Forum, which was like a town square,
00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.759
where public speeches, elections, trials, and
00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:38.019
more events were held. The farmer pleaded with
00:12:38.019 --> 00:12:41.700
his fellow citizens to listen to his story. You
00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:44.379
see, he was freeborn, so he was not a slave.
00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:47.970
But he and his two sons were now being forced
00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:52.830
into debt servitude. How is that possible? Well,
00:12:52.970 --> 00:12:55.590
in ancient Rome, you could put yourself and even
00:12:55.590 --> 00:12:58.470
your children up as collateral to take out a
00:12:58.470 --> 00:13:01.610
loan. It made you something called "bound people"
00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:05.610
or nexi. Because of the constant conflicts pulling
00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:07.789
the farmer away from being able to earn money,
00:13:07.990 --> 00:13:10.570
he was no longer able to pay the taxes on his
00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:13.710
farm. And he had taken out a loan after his farm
00:13:13.710 --> 00:13:16.870
was raided in another conflict, so now he couldn't
00:13:16.870 --> 00:13:21.409
pay that back. To make matters worse, the moneylender,
00:13:21.529 --> 00:13:23.889
who now basically owned his labor while he worked
00:13:23.889 --> 00:13:27.570
off the debt, had beaten him. The man showed
00:13:27.570 --> 00:13:30.809
the assembly in the forum the lashes on his body.
00:13:32.269 --> 00:13:37.730
And according to, I got this, Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
00:13:38.139 --> 00:13:41.200
Yes. And yes, I will be using his full title
00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:44.679
every time because it's awesome. Dionysius said
00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:47.740
that the crowd grew outraged and people fled
00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:51.080
into the streets protesting. And let me tell
00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:54.379
you, it scared the living shit out of the patricians.
00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:59.700
Appius Claudius Sabinus, who was one of the consuls
00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:01.559
for that year, which was the highest position
00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:05.000
in the Roman Republic, fled the forum after the
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:10.429
incident. His co -consul, Publius Servilius Prissus,
00:14:10.610 --> 00:14:14.850
who was slightly less of a coward, sent out a
00:14:14.850 --> 00:14:18.029
crier to ask people not to riot and promised
00:14:18.029 --> 00:14:20.970
to pause all arrests related to debts until the
00:14:20.970 --> 00:14:24.269
Senate could convene on the matter. They also
00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:26.669
tried to quell discontent among those called
00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:30.090
to fight by allowing plebeian soldiers confiscation
00:14:30.090 --> 00:14:33.909
of property, which included slaves. And that
00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:36.289
went for any conflict that they took part in.
00:14:36.889 --> 00:14:40.669
So essentially, they were offering compensation
00:14:40.669 --> 00:14:43.730
to soldiers going forward, just in the shittiest
00:14:43.730 --> 00:14:47.809
way possible. But it was too late. Discontent
00:14:47.809 --> 00:14:50.230
with the ruling class was already there, and
00:14:50.230 --> 00:14:52.649
it continued to brew over the next months in
00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:56.269
spite of these attempts at placating them. For
00:14:56.269 --> 00:14:59.049
example, when asked to choose between the two
00:14:59.049 --> 00:15:01.690
consuls for who would dedicate a new temple to
00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:05.440
Mercury, the god, which... was a role that didn't
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:08.600
just involve dedicating a building. It also involved
00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:11.820
oversight of the city's grain supply, heading
00:15:11.820 --> 00:15:14.820
a religious mercantile association to care for
00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:18.960
the temple and the surrounding area. So it was
00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.340
pretty significant. And the plebeians chose a
00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:26.039
centurion, a commander of the army, instead of
00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:28.899
one of the consuls. If that doesn't indicate
00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:32.830
deep distrust, I don't know what does. They did
00:15:32.830 --> 00:15:35.490
not want to leave things that would impact their
00:15:35.490 --> 00:15:38.690
day -to -day, their well -being, to their consuls
00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:42.149
any longer. The next year, the new consuls kept
00:15:42.149 --> 00:15:44.730
calling up citizens to fight against other groups,
00:15:44.889 --> 00:15:47.909
and the seeds of dissent began to bear fruit.
00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:52.149
Citizens began meeting together, sometimes blatantly
00:15:52.149 --> 00:15:55.309
outside the forum, and other times in secret
00:15:55.309 --> 00:15:59.669
at night. The historian Livy reported that these
00:15:59.669 --> 00:16:02.409
meetings caused significant alarm amongst the
00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:05.429
senators, to the extent that they appointed a
00:16:05.429 --> 00:16:09.629
guy named Manius Valerius to overrule the consuls.
00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:13.509
The senators directed Valerius to continue the
00:16:13.509 --> 00:16:16.870
military campaigns, but refused to tackle the
00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:20.090
debt issue, to the point where Valerius even
00:16:20.090 --> 00:16:23.950
condemned the senators and resigned. He said
00:16:23.950 --> 00:16:28.049
they were basically asking for mutiny. And if
00:16:28.049 --> 00:16:30.730
there's any Our Flag Means Death fans out there,
00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:36.549
all I can think of is buttons saying, "Mutiny is a brewing!" Thank you,
00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:39.129
thank you, I'm here all night. The last straw
00:16:39.129 --> 00:16:41.870
was the senators asking citizens to rise up against
00:16:41.870 --> 00:16:45.289
yet another group, the Acqui, which was a tribe
00:16:45.289 --> 00:16:49.929
in central Italy. At that point, there was straight
00:16:49.929 --> 00:16:53.190
-up talk of just killing the consuls. Fed up
00:16:53.190 --> 00:16:57.100
and at wit's end, the people seceded. They up
00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:00.120
and left the city of Rome and headed for a large
00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:02.480
hill, which was three miles north of the Tiber
00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:05.460
River, and that later became known as the Sacred
00:17:05.460 --> 00:17:09.140
Mount after this event. By just leaving, they
00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:11.420
brought everything in the city to a crashing
00:17:11.420 --> 00:17:14.119
halt. And this is why it could be considered
00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:18.019
a general strike. All work ceased, shops closed,
00:17:18.299 --> 00:17:21.480
there was no commercial activity, and the impact
00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:24.900
was immediate. Not only was this a blow to...
00:17:25.549 --> 00:17:28.410
the city's wealth, but given the ongoing conflicts,
00:17:28.690 --> 00:17:31.170
there were very real fears amongst the consuls
00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:33.369
and senators that this would leave the city vulnerable
00:17:33.369 --> 00:17:37.750
and open to invasion. Left with literally no
00:17:37.750 --> 00:17:40.109
other choice, the Senate sent an envoy to work
00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:43.430
out a deal. The biggest change was granting the
00:17:43.430 --> 00:17:46.049
plebeian class greater access to political power.
00:17:46.430 --> 00:17:48.829
Through the deal, they formed a plebeian -only
00:17:48.829 --> 00:17:52.029
magistracy, called a tribunate, that would administer
00:17:52.029 --> 00:17:55.670
civic law. And it also resulted in the creation
00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:58.529
of the Council of the Plebs, which would be a
00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:01.009
sick band name, and meant that the plebeians
00:18:01.009 --> 00:18:03.890
could create legislation. That's a huge deal.
00:18:04.609 --> 00:18:07.690
It also appointed two new plebeian magistrates,
00:18:07.750 --> 00:18:10.750
who had power over infrastructure like roads
00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:13.930
and buildings, took a greater role in the city
00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:16.670
games, and helped with regulation of the markets.
00:18:17.690 --> 00:18:20.430
So while the success of the first secessio plebis
00:18:20.430 --> 00:18:22.809
can't be denied, and was an enormous win for
00:18:22.809 --> 00:18:25.710
the plebeian class, it still didn't fully resolve
00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:27.650
that power imbalance, and there was a lot of
00:18:27.650 --> 00:18:30.589
work to be done. We're not going to get into
00:18:30.589 --> 00:18:32.529
the others. There were a total of five known
00:18:32.529 --> 00:18:35.849
instances of secessio plebis where the plebeians
00:18:35.849 --> 00:18:37.630
withdrew from the city to make their demands
00:18:37.630 --> 00:18:42.210
met. In summary, their reasons ranged from protests
00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:45.589
against inadequate and corrupt leadership, abuses
00:18:45.589 --> 00:18:48.519
of power, demands for changes in specific laws,
00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:52.099
and generally for more fair representation. Some
00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:55.039
of the biggest outcomes overall were that creation
00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:58.539
of the Council of the Plebs, as well as the Laws
00:18:58.539 --> 00:19:01.099
of the Twelve Tables, which was a set of codified
00:19:01.099 --> 00:19:04.000
laws that was first put up for public viewing
00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.500
and feedback, and amended to meet the people's
00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:09.920
demands. These events continued until the end
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:14.599
of the struggle of the Orders in 287 BCE. And
00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:16.519
I think that's a good stopping point before we
00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:19.299
switch to talking about the Servile Wars. So I
00:19:19.299 --> 00:19:26.839
will see you all after the lunch break. This
00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:28.900
is going to be a quick one, though I hope in
00:19:28.900 --> 00:19:31.240
real life you use your full breaks because we
00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.759
don't work for free. So originally I was envisioning
00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:37.039
a bi -weekly podcast that would come out every
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:39.680
other Tuesday, basically trying to give myself
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.019
some time since the prep for these episodes can
00:19:42.019 --> 00:19:45.160
be pretty intense. But the world is chaos right
00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:47.660
now, and so am I. So even though in the long
00:19:47.660 --> 00:19:50.779
run this might be more work, I'm finding it hard
00:19:50.779 --> 00:19:53.380
to have the patience to wait to release episodes,
00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:56.259
so I am probably going to be releasing things
00:19:56.259 --> 00:19:58.440
on a more frequent or even on a rolling basis
00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:01.779
as they're ready. If there are episodes that
00:20:01.779 --> 00:20:03.799
may need more time to develop, or if we end up
00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:05.920
sticking to a more spread out schedule like a
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.700
bi -weekly one in the future, I'll be sure to
00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:11.640
let you all know in advance. Which is a great
00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.599
segue to the next thing that I want to mention.
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.900
You can follow the podcast on social media, on
00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:21.900
Instagram at bootbiterspod, and on bluesky at
00:20:21.900 --> 00:20:26.359
bootbiterspod .blsky .social. That's the best
00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:28.279
way to stay up to date on the latest episodes
00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:31.440
and any announcements. Please make sure to follow
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:33.839
the podcast, too, on whatever platform you listen
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.460
to podcasts on, as that will also bring any new
00:20:36.460 --> 00:20:39.700
episodes up on your homepage. The current best
00:20:39.700 --> 00:20:42.220
way to support this podcast is still by heading
00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:45.579
over to my Patreon at patreon .com slash bootbiters,
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:48.960
with tiers as low as just a dollar a month. At
00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.079
the $5 a month tier, you do get access to a fun
00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:54.400
and informal monthly bonus episode called The
00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:56.920
Water Cooler. But even if you can't contribute
00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.680
monetarily, do not worry, there are other ways
00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:02.259
to support. Sharing the podcast with your friends
00:21:02.259 --> 00:21:04.940
and family on whatever platform they listen to
00:21:04.940 --> 00:21:08.750
podcasts on is incredibly helpful. or even leaving
00:21:08.750 --> 00:21:11.970
a review on Apple Podcasts. The links to the
00:21:11.970 --> 00:21:14.250
Patreon and those social media accounts will
00:21:14.250 --> 00:21:16.990
always be in the episode descriptions for each
00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:20.829
episode, too. Alright, we've got a lot to cover
00:21:20.829 --> 00:21:23.210
on this one, so we are jumping right back in.
00:21:23.289 --> 00:21:32.710
Let's go! The other example of labor organizing
00:21:32.710 --> 00:21:34.910
in ancient Rome that I want to talk about today
00:21:34.910 --> 00:21:39.220
are the Three Servile Wars. That's S -E -R -V
00:21:39.220 --> 00:21:43.599
-I -L -E. Like servant. I feel like you can't
00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:46.140
talk about labor history without talking about
00:21:46.140 --> 00:21:49.859
enslaved labor and slave rebellions. And maybe
00:21:49.859 --> 00:21:51.880
I'm just missing something, but at least from
00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.180
what I've seen, it's an area that, up until recently,
00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:57.559
seems to have been kind of discounted and not
00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:00.759
focused on as much in labor history. We'll also
00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:02.900
be talking about other examples of organizing
00:22:02.900 --> 00:22:06.039
by enslaved workers in future episodes. probably
00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:09.420
with a two -parter on U .S. slavery and the Reconstruction
00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:11.960
period. So I think this is a great foundation
00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:15.880
to start on. Alright, let's talk a little bit
00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:19.400
about the absolute brutality of the Roman Republic
00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:23.000
and the extent of enslavement, noting that this
00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.819
all continued well into and expanded further
00:22:25.819 --> 00:22:29.720
in the Roman Empire. Rome sucked, y 'all. I don't
00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:32.039
know what else to say. It was a slave society.
00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:36.059
And treating human beings with that kind of abuse
00:22:36.059 --> 00:22:39.160
and degradation takes a certain kind of evil,
00:22:39.299 --> 00:22:43.019
and it does something to the psyche. Like most
00:22:43.019 --> 00:22:45.559
places that used enslaved labor, slaves were
00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:48.660
treated as property in Rome, with taxes paid
00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:50.799
on them to the state like any other property,
00:22:50.980 --> 00:22:54.700
as well as taxes paid on their sale, and even
00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:59.259
on their manumission. Manumission is like emancipation,
00:22:59.799 --> 00:23:02.039
But emancipation is when freedom is more widely
00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:05.220
granted by a state versus manumission, which
00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:09.559
is on an individual basis. And the reason for
00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:12.200
that manumission tax is, I guess, because the
00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:14.720
state was losing out on their property tax revenue.
00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:19.420
Gross! Some slaves did get something called a
00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:22.839
peculium, which was a self -purchase fund, technically
00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:25.140
owned by their master, but that went towards
00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:28.380
them buying their manumission. Otherwise, enslaved
00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:30.500
people didn't really own property themselves
00:23:30.500 --> 00:23:34.700
in Rome. There were so many examples I found
00:23:34.700 --> 00:23:37.599
that illustrated the general brutality toward
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:41.019
enslaved people in Rome, so I'm just going to
00:23:41.019 --> 00:23:45.420
highlight a few. The most obvious and well -known
00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:47.839
are probably the gladiator and beast fights,
00:23:48.019 --> 00:23:50.619
where they would pit enslaved peoples, like prisoners
00:23:50.619 --> 00:23:54.599
of war, as well as gladiators, against wild animals
00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:59.710
for show. just for the spectacle of it. But even
00:23:59.710 --> 00:24:03.490
beyond those enslaved entertainers, in general,
00:24:03.529 --> 00:24:07.150
slaves were treated like dirt. Many enslaved
00:24:07.150 --> 00:24:10.049
people were marked and branded, especially if
00:24:10.049 --> 00:24:12.970
they tried to escape. It was common to brand
00:24:12.970 --> 00:24:16.450
people's foreheads with the letters F -U -G or
00:24:16.450 --> 00:24:20.309
F -V -G, which was shorthand for the Latin word
00:24:20.309 --> 00:24:23.609
fugitivus, basically calling them a fugitive.
00:24:24.549 --> 00:24:27.759
And they were often given minimal food and clothing.
00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:31.099
There were social and cultural taboos against
00:24:31.099 --> 00:24:34.299
slaves, too. For example, they couldn't anoint
00:24:34.299 --> 00:24:37.720
corpses, probably because they were seen as dirty.
00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.339
And this ill -treatment was something that was
00:24:41.339 --> 00:24:45.160
baked into the very laws of the Republic. For
00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.880
example, the punishment for theft. If a free
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:51.539
person was caught stealing, they were flogged.
00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:55.200
But if a slave was caught stealing, They were
00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:57.980
flogged too, but then they were pushed off of
00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:00.160
a cliff beside the forum called the Tarpeian
00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:05.700
Rock. Just fucking wild stuff. And one of the
00:25:05.700 --> 00:25:08.180
craziest and most stomach -turning things that
00:25:08.180 --> 00:25:09.799
I learned about with regard to the treatment
00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:13.319
of enslaved people was a festival called Matralia,
00:25:13.460 --> 00:25:17.000
which was held on June 11th. It was for the goddess
00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:22.019
Mater Matuta. And basically... A bunch of free
00:25:22.019 --> 00:25:24.579
women would gather in the temple and ritually
00:25:24.579 --> 00:25:27.200
beat an enslaved woman before throwing her out
00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.180
of the building. You can't make this shit up.
00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:34.980
I think that goes to demonstrate just the horrendous
00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:37.960
way that slaves were treated in Rome. But how
00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:40.160
widespread was slavery in the Roman Republic?
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:46.420
Between 297 and 167 BCE, Rome enslaved around
00:25:46.420 --> 00:25:53.759
672 ,000 to 731 ,000 captives of war. And that
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.200
was just captives of war. There were another
00:25:56.200 --> 00:25:59.779
55 ,000 enslaved after the fall of Carthage.
00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.380
And there were an untold number of slaves brought
00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:07.500
in from other conflicts. Many were forced into
00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:10.500
agricultural or shepherding work. But enslaved
00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:13.740
people also worked in homes and workshops and
00:26:13.740 --> 00:26:17.680
were engaged on public works projects. They were
00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:21.660
an integral part of why the Roman Republic and
00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:24.059
the later Roman Empire expanded the way that
00:26:24.059 --> 00:26:27.859
it did, and often are an invisible part of that
00:26:27.859 --> 00:26:32.099
narrative. But, as we'll continue to see, there
00:26:32.099 --> 00:26:34.259
is only so far that you can push people before
00:26:34.259 --> 00:26:38.059
they fight back. The day -to -day lives of enslaved
00:26:38.059 --> 00:26:40.160
people is something that we don't often have
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:43.420
clear records of in history, but there are hints
00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:45.019
of their resistance if you know where to look.
00:26:46.059 --> 00:26:48.920
In their book, The Material Life of Roman Slaves,
00:26:49.099 --> 00:26:51.740
Joshua and Peterson noted that there were records
00:26:51.740 --> 00:26:54.660
of slaveholders complaining constantly about
00:26:54.660 --> 00:26:57.440
the behavior of the slaves, saying that they
00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.619
were idle, avoiding work, working too slowly,
00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:03.319
accusing them of damaging property and stealing.
00:27:04.170 --> 00:27:06.890
and complaining about things seemingly as banal
00:27:06.890 --> 00:27:10.269
as, quote, muttering and making noise. Those
00:27:10.269 --> 00:27:13.150
complaints from slaveholders are not indicative
00:27:13.150 --> 00:27:16.529
of a moral failing on the part of the enslaved
00:27:16.529 --> 00:27:19.190
people, as the historical sources will often
00:27:19.190 --> 00:27:23.390
frame it. That, quote, insolence is actually
00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:28.150
proof of purposeful obstruction. Those are slowdowns.
00:27:28.369 --> 00:27:32.650
That's sabotage. Those are intentional acts of
00:27:32.650 --> 00:27:36.190
labor resistance. And we are going to get into
00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:38.509
that heavily in our next episode when we talk
00:27:38.509 --> 00:27:41.329
about slavery in the U .S. and the roots of labor
00:27:41.329 --> 00:27:44.230
organizing that took place during that time and
00:27:44.230 --> 00:27:46.650
throughout Reconstruction, where we have even
00:27:46.650 --> 00:27:48.890
more records given how much more recent it was.
00:27:50.730 --> 00:27:53.309
However, in ancient Rome, what does survive in
00:27:53.309 --> 00:27:56.390
greater detail are the escalations by enslaved
00:27:56.390 --> 00:28:00.579
people. that spurred three large -scale revolts.
00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:05.440
The first Servile War took place between 135 to
00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:09.720
132 BCE on the island of Sicily. By this point,
00:28:09.740 --> 00:28:12.480
there was a huge number of enslaved people on
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:16.059
farms and fields. Sicily was basically a plantation
00:28:16.059 --> 00:28:19.200
economy at this point that ran off of free enslaved
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.700
labor. And combined with the harsh treatment
00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:25.380
that happened from landowners, there was growing
00:28:25.380 --> 00:28:29.000
dissent. The spark was when the enslaved people
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:32.180
of a particularly shitty Dominus, or the owner,
00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:36.500
named Demophilius and his wife Megalus, were
00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:39.480
at the end of their rope. The workers sought
00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:42.059
out the advice of a well -known house slave who
00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:46.460
was originally from Syria, named Eunus. He was
00:28:46.460 --> 00:28:49.500
paraded around as an entertainer, he was a magician
00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:53.099
and a fire breather, and was known for his inflammatory
00:28:53.099 --> 00:28:56.940
speeches as part of his acts. According to these
00:28:56.940 --> 00:29:02.180
accounts, he would basically cheekily threaten
00:29:02.180 --> 00:29:05.960
the audience, saying that the roles in Rome would
00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:08.940
reverse at some point, and if they were good
00:29:08.940 --> 00:29:11.759
to him and tipped him, he might have mercy on
00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:14.019
them when it was time to turn things around.
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:18.359
Given his reputation, these workers came to him
00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:23.440
for advice. And Eunus didn't hold back. He encouraged
00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:26.720
them to rise up and take revenge against their
00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:29.799
dominus, and even promised them the favor of
00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:33.559
the gods. Inspired and encouraged, they killed
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:37.460
their slaveholders, sparing their daughter. And
00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:42.420
that action set off a chain reaction. These enslaved
00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:45.259
farmers and sheepherders, numbering about 400,
00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:49.640
captured the city of Enna and began enacting
00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:53.230
revenge on other slave owners. They nominated
00:29:53.230 --> 00:29:56.670
Eunus as their charismatic leader, and he created
00:29:56.670 --> 00:29:59.369
a royal council, and under him they worked to
00:29:59.369 --> 00:30:02.470
arm and mobilize other enslaved workers, even
00:30:02.470 --> 00:30:05.730
forming a popular assembly. This group formed
00:30:05.730 --> 00:30:08.549
bands that moved across the whole island of Sicily,
00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:12.509
gathering more and more numbers. It inspired
00:30:12.509 --> 00:30:15.430
others, too. Another group on the south coast
00:30:15.430 --> 00:30:18.680
formed, reaching about 6 ,000 strong. And they
00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:21.000
appointed a Cilician from modern -day Turkey
00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:24.779
named Cleon, who led them. And the two groups
00:30:24.779 --> 00:30:27.759
coordinated before unifying under Eunus, with
00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:29.980
Cleon actually becoming his military commander.
00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:34.640
They then took control of two other cities, and
00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:37.480
by the end, they had mobilized an enormous number
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:40.920
of formerly enslaved people, with estimates ranging
00:30:40.920 --> 00:30:45.980
pretty wildly from 70 ,000 to 200 ,000. And they
00:30:45.980 --> 00:30:49.759
beat back the Roman army several times. Sources
00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:52.160
at the time basically attacked Eunice's character,
00:30:52.500 --> 00:30:54.880
citing the fact that he styled himself the king
00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:57.700
of the slaves and thought himself a prophet as
00:30:57.700 --> 00:31:02.359
reasons why he wasn't credible. He did rename
00:31:02.359 --> 00:31:06.539
himself Antiochus and minted coins. They call
00:31:06.539 --> 00:31:09.660
that lacking credibility, but to me that's just
00:31:09.660 --> 00:31:12.539
giving shitposting and having a good time. Good
00:31:12.539 --> 00:31:16.319
for him. Those same sources. once again called
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.119
those bands mobs, referred to them as a contagion.
00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:22.220
So there is just a tiny smidge of bias there
00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:26.259
to wade through. And Bond makes a great point
00:31:26.259 --> 00:31:28.599
in her book that the fact that Eunus was able
00:31:28.599 --> 00:31:31.259
to coordinate those distinct bands of significant
00:31:31.259 --> 00:31:34.519
numbers of enslaved workers to carry out these
00:31:34.519 --> 00:31:38.740
impressive actions speaks otherwise to his leadership
00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:42.299
abilities. Unfortunately, the response to this
00:31:42.299 --> 00:31:45.269
uprising was, as you can imagine, Not great.
00:31:46.450 --> 00:31:49.190
Eventually, an army commanded by one of the consuls
00:31:49.190 --> 00:31:52.930
came down on the captured cities. Cleon died
00:31:52.930 --> 00:31:55.069
fighting, and after fleeing with some of the
00:31:55.069 --> 00:31:59.309
men, Eunus was imprisoned. Where he died, probably
00:31:59.309 --> 00:32:02.269
from neglect, it's mentioned that he died from
00:32:02.269 --> 00:32:06.589
lice. But their actions inspired other uprisings
00:32:06.589 --> 00:32:08.950
in different cities, and probably inspired the
00:32:08.950 --> 00:32:12.130
next large -scale rebellion. Because it was only
00:32:12.130 --> 00:32:14.700
a few years later... in the Second Servile War
00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:19.200
from 104 to 100 BCE, which also happened in Sicily,
00:32:19.299 --> 00:32:22.819
that Rome had another uprising on their hands.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:27.440
So what happened here? Rome was dealing with
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:29.599
another war to the north and couldn't get allied
00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:33.339
support because they kept enslaving their allies,
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:37.069
and many of them were working on farms. Realizing
00:32:37.069 --> 00:32:39.430
how problematic that was for their own interests,
00:32:39.769 --> 00:32:42.109
the Senate issued a decree that allies would
00:32:42.109 --> 00:32:45.410
no longer be enslaved, and as a result they began
00:32:45.410 --> 00:32:49.109
conducting widespread manumissions. I bet you
00:32:49.109 --> 00:32:51.349
can already guess which group of people was not
00:32:51.349 --> 00:32:56.690
thrilled about this. The enslavers begged the
00:32:56.690 --> 00:32:59.230
praetor, which was a kind of judicial officer,
00:32:59.609 --> 00:33:02.930
in Sicily not to free their property after over
00:33:02.930 --> 00:33:06.970
800 were freed in just a few days. Their request
00:33:06.970 --> 00:33:11.369
was granted, abruptly and illegally, but when
00:33:11.369 --> 00:33:14.710
they halted the manumissions, the enslaved people
00:33:14.710 --> 00:33:17.410
were not going to just take that lying down.
00:33:18.690 --> 00:33:22.049
The enslaved workers for two rich brothers banded
00:33:22.049 --> 00:33:25.970
together and also killed their masters. They
00:33:25.970 --> 00:33:29.049
similarly mobilized and formed a popular assembly
00:33:29.049 --> 00:33:32.150
that elected a man named Salvius as their leader.
00:33:32.750 --> 00:33:36.640
He was also an entertainer. He was an aulos player,
00:33:36.859 --> 00:33:38.839
which was a wind instrument that kind of looks
00:33:38.839 --> 00:33:42.220
like a two -pronged flute. Salvius also took
00:33:42.220 --> 00:33:44.380
a little inspiration from Eunice and renamed
00:33:44.380 --> 00:33:48.539
himself to Tryphon. Quoting Bond, Tryphon set
00:33:48.539 --> 00:33:51.220
up his own capital with a palace and advisors.
00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:55.059
He adopted the visual signs of power accorded
00:33:55.059 --> 00:33:58.240
a consul. That included wearing a Roman toga.
00:33:58.920 --> 00:34:01.970
Under Tryphon, they took the city. in the south
00:34:01.970 --> 00:34:04.569
of Heraclea, and killed the Roman army that was
00:34:04.569 --> 00:34:07.970
sent to quell them. With those new arms that
00:34:07.970 --> 00:34:10.630
they got from the army that they defeated, they
00:34:10.630 --> 00:34:14.530
besieged the city of Morgantia. They grew to
00:34:14.530 --> 00:34:18.389
about 40 ,000 strong, but unfortunately, similar
00:34:18.389 --> 00:34:22.110
to the First Servile War, Tryphon died in a later
00:34:22.110 --> 00:34:25.150
battle. In this instance, though, the war actually
00:34:25.150 --> 00:34:27.909
continued under another slave leader named Athenion.
00:34:28.519 --> 00:34:31.380
and even went so far as to cause famine in Rome
00:34:31.380 --> 00:34:33.760
because they were dependent on Sicily for their
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:38.000
wheat. After this, Rome cracked down not just
00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:41.079
on enslaved Sicilians, but they also blamed the
00:34:41.079 --> 00:34:43.679
parts of the empire to the east and the lands
00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:45.579
that they were conquering, since many of the
00:34:45.579 --> 00:34:47.679
leaders of these rebellions had been from there.
00:34:50.500 --> 00:34:54.170
The co -consul at the time, Gaius Achilles, put
00:34:54.170 --> 00:34:56.809
down the rebellion, and tried to send a thousand
00:34:56.809 --> 00:34:59.250
enslaved captives back to Rome to be in a beast
00:34:59.250 --> 00:35:03.869
fight. Rather than suffer that kind of humiliation
00:35:03.869 --> 00:35:08.130
and pain, all of them committed suicide rather
00:35:08.130 --> 00:35:12.050
than participate. And it wasn't done there. From
00:35:12.050 --> 00:35:17.719
73 to 71 BCE, we had the Spartacan War. This
00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:20.420
one happened on the actual Italian peninsula,
00:35:20.559 --> 00:35:24.179
and is probably the reason that it is so well
00:35:24.179 --> 00:35:26.880
-known, is because it was closer to home for
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:31.119
the Romans and scared them. Spartacus, as you
00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:33.619
might know, was a Thracian, which is from an
00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:35.860
area that covers parts of modern -day Bulgaria,
00:35:36.019 --> 00:35:39.780
Greece, and Turkey. He was brought to a gladiator
00:35:39.780 --> 00:35:44.079
training camp at Capua in southern Italy. These
00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:47.250
gladiator camps, called ludi, were owned by the
00:35:47.250 --> 00:35:50.429
wealthy elite. In this case, the camp was owned
00:35:50.429 --> 00:35:54.670
by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Vatia, and is referred
00:35:54.670 --> 00:35:59.510
to, thankfully, as just the Vatia school. Gladiators
00:35:59.510 --> 00:36:03.070
both trained and lived in those camps, and it's
00:36:03.070 --> 00:36:05.409
thought that their numbers, but also just the
00:36:05.409 --> 00:36:09.150
existing structures within those camps, helped
00:36:09.150 --> 00:36:12.909
mobilize these groups to rebel. Gladiator camps
00:36:12.909 --> 00:36:18.769
were structured by familia, which were groups
00:36:18.769 --> 00:36:21.670
that provided day -to -day organization and a
00:36:21.670 --> 00:36:24.809
hierarchy. Each one was run by a gladiatorial
00:36:24.809 --> 00:36:27.929
overseer called a lanista, who could rent out
00:36:27.929 --> 00:36:30.590
their troop or familia to any game organizer
00:36:30.590 --> 00:36:33.750
that wanted to hire them. But within the familia,
00:36:33.909 --> 00:36:37.130
there were further divisions, including subunits
00:36:37.130 --> 00:36:41.159
who roomed together in dorms or tents. And there
00:36:41.159 --> 00:36:43.000
were indications that there were very strong
00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:46.780
bonds formed between these subunits. Some of
00:36:46.780 --> 00:36:49.300
this includes graffiti with all of the group's
00:36:49.300 --> 00:36:51.840
names that was signed at the theater in Pompeii,
00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:55.179
or in Smyrna in Turkey, where they inscribed
00:36:55.179 --> 00:36:57.340
a tombstone for one of their fallen gladiators.
00:36:58.099 --> 00:37:01.159
Some gladiators even kept associating with their
00:37:01.159 --> 00:37:04.400
troop after they were freed. And those bonds
00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:08.800
were instrumental to starting a rebellion. It's
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:12.099
possible that Spartacus was inspired by a broader
00:37:12.099 --> 00:37:14.719
context of increased soldier mutinies that were
00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:17.719
happening in the armies at the time, but he managed
00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:21.440
to mobilize around 74 to 78 gladiators out of
00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:25.119
about probably 250, and they escaped from the
00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:27.920
school, collecting more enslaved people from
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:32.719
nearby. In his account, Plutarch describes them
00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:35.340
grabbing knives and skewers from the school kitchen.
00:37:36.139 --> 00:37:38.780
just using whatever they could find to get out.
00:37:38.940 --> 00:37:42.139
In another account, they fled to Mount Vesuvius
00:37:42.139 --> 00:37:45.619
to organize where they chose Spartacus as their
00:37:45.619 --> 00:37:49.539
leader and seconds in command for him. They were
00:37:49.539 --> 00:37:53.679
actually besieged on Mount Vesuvius, but apparently
00:37:53.679 --> 00:37:56.780
they repelled off the back of the cliffs with
00:37:56.780 --> 00:37:59.239
vines to get away from the army on the other
00:37:59.239 --> 00:38:02.159
side of the mountain. This group essentially
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:06.489
became guerrilla fighters. And Spartacus led
00:38:06.489 --> 00:38:09.670
them successfully. He ordered weapons to be forged
00:38:09.670 --> 00:38:12.130
and supplies collected and distributed amongst
00:38:12.130 --> 00:38:15.150
the troops. He agreed that they would trade only
00:38:15.150 --> 00:38:17.269
in iron and copper because those were metals
00:38:17.269 --> 00:38:21.510
that could be melted down and useful. What ensued
00:38:21.510 --> 00:38:23.849
was two years of fighting throughout all of Italy,
00:38:24.050 --> 00:38:27.809
where their forces grew to an estimated 120 ,000.
00:38:28.369 --> 00:38:31.829
They raided estates and towns. They fought back
00:38:31.829 --> 00:38:34.369
militias and legions that were sent to stop them.
00:38:35.820 --> 00:38:38.179
But they were eventually defeated by, again,
00:38:38.300 --> 00:38:41.539
the Roman army, which had to send eight legions
00:38:41.539 --> 00:38:47.139
in 71 BCE to finally bring them down. Spartacus
00:38:47.139 --> 00:38:49.260
was speared through the thigh in a fight against
00:38:49.260 --> 00:38:53.300
Crassus, and his body was not recovered. The
00:38:53.300 --> 00:38:55.400
group fled to the mountains, but continued to
00:38:55.400 --> 00:38:59.139
fight until just 6 ,000 of them were left. Rome's
00:38:59.139 --> 00:39:03.780
response here was just as brutal as previous.
00:39:05.550 --> 00:39:07.969
Once they were apprehended, the Romans performed
00:39:07.969 --> 00:39:11.289
a mass crucifixion as an example, displaying
00:39:11.289 --> 00:39:14.309
their bodies up along the Appian Way to discourage
00:39:14.309 --> 00:39:20.349
further rebellion. There is so much more that
00:39:20.349 --> 00:39:24.309
we could talk about, about labor organizing and
00:39:24.309 --> 00:39:27.489
slave rebellions in Rome, and maybe we will in
00:39:27.489 --> 00:39:29.750
a future episode, but I think that this is a
00:39:29.750 --> 00:39:34.309
good entry point. Despite these brave acts of
00:39:34.309 --> 00:39:36.849
rebellion, slavery continued well into the Roman
00:39:36.849 --> 00:39:40.030
Empire, with some estimates that at least a quarter
00:39:40.030 --> 00:39:42.469
of the empire's total population were slaves.
00:39:43.289 --> 00:39:45.909
And I think this is why it's important not to
00:39:45.909 --> 00:39:51.110
idolize the past. When the Roman Empire and the
00:39:51.110 --> 00:39:53.829
early Republic gets talked about in public discourse,
00:39:54.150 --> 00:39:57.329
at least from what I see, it trends towards admiration.
00:39:59.369 --> 00:40:02.670
We marvel at these immense public works and monuments,
00:40:03.050 --> 00:40:07.309
like the Colosseum and the Aqueducts. We talk
00:40:07.309 --> 00:40:09.989
about the spread of an empire across vast portions
00:40:09.989 --> 00:40:13.949
of multiple continents, and the military organization
00:40:13.949 --> 00:40:16.010
that was needed for that kind of conquering.
00:40:17.349 --> 00:40:20.590
We talk about Rome's laws and its political organization
00:40:20.590 --> 00:40:23.429
that have been copied and emulated by empires
00:40:23.429 --> 00:40:26.530
since then. And when we talk about the violence
00:40:26.530 --> 00:40:29.380
and the brutality, that was a large reason for
00:40:29.380 --> 00:40:33.559
that expansion and operation, oftentimes it's
00:40:33.559 --> 00:40:35.559
only to focus on the entertainment of it all.
00:40:35.980 --> 00:40:40.340
On the games, the chariot races, the gladiator
00:40:40.340 --> 00:40:43.539
and the beast fights. And while it's important
00:40:43.539 --> 00:40:45.800
to acknowledge those, it's often done without
00:40:45.800 --> 00:40:48.760
recognizing the invisible slave labor that went
00:40:48.760 --> 00:40:51.900
into making it all run behind the scenes. Without
00:40:51.900 --> 00:40:54.159
recognizing the people that were growing and
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:56.920
harvesting the food. The ones who cleaned the
00:40:56.920 --> 00:40:59.960
homes and buildings, mined the metal, broke the
00:40:59.960 --> 00:41:03.900
rocks, built the monuments. I think it's also
00:41:03.900 --> 00:41:06.780
worth touching on the way that revisionism showed
00:41:06.780 --> 00:41:11.039
up in these stories. Rome's slaves were treated
00:41:11.039 --> 00:41:13.840
terribly, to the extent that there were multiple
00:41:13.840 --> 00:41:16.119
large -scale rebellions that have since been
00:41:16.119 --> 00:41:19.559
coined wars. But at the time, sources didn't
00:41:19.559 --> 00:41:22.139
acknowledge that. They didn't look at the root
00:41:22.139 --> 00:41:24.019
causes and analyze what could have been done
00:41:24.019 --> 00:41:27.159
better. They shat on the leaders. They called
00:41:27.159 --> 00:41:30.619
them fools and infantilized them, as these uneducated
00:41:30.619 --> 00:41:32.780
boors that were playing pretend kings instead
00:41:32.780 --> 00:41:36.800
of being effective leaders. Not recognizing that
00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:38.960
they were galvanizing hundreds of thousands of
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:41.579
their fellow men into rising up against the most
00:41:41.579 --> 00:41:46.239
inhumane conditions imaginable. They called them
00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:49.139
mobs and condemned their violence as senseless
00:41:49.139 --> 00:41:53.190
brutality, ignoring the whip marks. ignoring
00:41:53.190 --> 00:41:56.150
the branded foreheads. And that's something that's
00:41:56.150 --> 00:41:58.789
going to come up more and more as we cover events
00:41:58.789 --> 00:42:01.570
well into the modern day, because that's a conversation
00:42:01.570 --> 00:42:05.429
that hasn't stopped, particularly around nonviolent
00:42:05.429 --> 00:42:09.489
versus violent protest. Nonviolent protest gets
00:42:09.489 --> 00:42:13.070
glorified. It gets touted as the only right way
00:42:13.070 --> 00:42:15.949
to successfully make change. And I'm not saying
00:42:15.949 --> 00:42:18.309
it's not effective. I'm not saying there's not
00:42:18.309 --> 00:42:21.599
a wealth of examples to pull from. But in conditions
00:42:21.599 --> 00:42:25.019
like this, how can you look at these wars, these
00:42:25.019 --> 00:42:28.099
rebellions that took immense courage in the face
00:42:28.099 --> 00:42:31.500
of horrific state -condoned violence, and say
00:42:31.500 --> 00:42:33.719
that it's morally wrong for those people to want
00:42:33.719 --> 00:42:37.980
to fight back? In the wider history of fighting
00:42:37.980 --> 00:42:40.199
for labor rights, we're going to see many cases
00:42:40.199 --> 00:42:42.420
of violence, and I think it's just something
00:42:42.420 --> 00:42:44.659
to keep in mind as we learn, to make sure that
00:42:44.659 --> 00:42:47.340
we're analyzing our own biases and our own privileges.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:50.239
before we cast stones at a group for resorting
00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:55.639
to such means. I learned so much from this one,
00:42:55.739 --> 00:42:59.159
and I hope you did too. Be good to each other,
00:42:59.320 --> 00:43:01.219
be kind to each other, and I'll see you next
00:43:01.219 --> 00:43:23.650
time for another episode of Boot Biters. Let's
00:43:23.650 --> 00:43:23.670
go.