The Storm Before the Storm полностью

Inside the Senate, the assumption was that this revolt would soon peter out, but every new batch of reinforcements sent to Sicily never came back. The Senate dispatched a praetor to bring the province back under control, and when he failed they had to send another the following year. But by now the slaves numbered some two hundred thousand and no Roman force appeared capable of defeating them. And it wasn’t just the slaves. Many of the poor Sicilian peasants had taken to raiding wealthy estates out of a mix of greed, desperation, and revenge. Anarchy reigned.²⁰

So as the Senate dealt with the quagmire in Spain, and the sudden Gracchan Revolution, they also dealt with this ongoing Sicilian slave revolt. The Senate was frustrated by the whole affair, and were aware that out in the streets of Rome the disruption to the food supply was making the plebs urbana angry. With the rebellion still ongoing in the summer of 132—fully three years since the initial revolt—the Senate dispatched consul Publius Rupilius to Sicily. Having wrapped up his work on the anti-Gracchan tribunal, Rupilius was now off to crush yet another seditious insurrection.²¹

If Rupilius succeeded where other Roman commanders had failed, it was thanks to the devastation of Sicily. The insurrectionary slaves had naturally cast aside their plows, so the farms and pastures of the island went uncultivated. By the time Rupilius arrived in 132, the great breadbasket of Rome was barren. With conditions so grim, it was not hard for Rupilius to find desperate souls inside each slave-held city to open the gates in exchange for food and leniency. When the Romans arrived at Enna, Cleon led a slave army out into the field, but Cleon himself was killed in the subsequent battle and his army defeated. Rupilius then found a willing traitor to open the gates of Enna and King Antiochus fled out the back door. The King was found hiding in a cave a few days later with “his cook, his barber, the man who rubbed him in the bath and the jester at his banquets.” Rupilius tossed King Antiochus in a cell where he was consumed by lice and died. After three years, what later became known as the First Servile War was over.²²

The Senate was thrilled by the end of the slave rebellion, and coupled with the victory in Numantia and the eradication of the Gracchan menace, the noble leadership of Rome was no doubt ready to enjoy a measure of peace and quiet. But within months of the victory in Sicily, reports came in from the east that Rome had another massive provincial revolt on its hands. The embassy sent to annex the Kingdom of Pergamum discovered that many did not want their independent kingdom to be turned into a mere province of Rome’s growing empire.

FOR THE ROMANS a provincae originally meant the general sphere within which a magistrate would wield authority in Rome’s name. It could be a geographic area, or a military assignment, or a legal jurisdiction. But as Rome accepted its permanent imperial responsibilities, the annual provincae of the various magistrates began to take on stable geographic boundaries. By 146, the Senate annually assigned magistrates to the provinces of Sicily, Sardinia, Nearer and Further Spain, Macedonia, and Africa. Though it was not a term used by the Romans, these provincial magistrates can reasonably be called provincial governors. In the early days of Rome’s empire, a governor’s work was primarily focused on military security. Political affairs were limited to securing alliances with local cities and tribes, and economic matters restricted to collecting taxes and paying for the military occupation.²³

The administration in a province consisted of a small group of functionaries. A newly arrived praetor or consul would bring with him a household staff and an informal group of advisers called legati drawn from among the magistrate’s friends and family. The governor was also assigned a quaestor—a young man entering public service for the first time who would be entrusted with the provincial treasury. For some young quaestors this was a nerve-wracking experience, for others an opportunity to prove their virtue, and still others an opportunity for graft and bribery.

Because the Roman administrative presence was so slight, provincial governors mostly relied on local leaders and existing legal and social institutions. The aristocracy of a given city were courted and co-opted, their sons sent back to Rome as hostages, where they would be well treated and given a full Roman education. As a matter of practical governance, local laws, social customs, and institutions were retained—the final fount of authority now simply Rome rather than a local royal court.²⁴