Spartucs and the Slavew Wars

Runyon 1         September 29, 2010

Spartucs and the Slavew Wars

It’s hard to tell what the complete reason for the slave revolt was; because of the outcome of the war.   There are no first hand reports from the slaves, as to why they revolted.   Mistreatment, lack of food and water, all of these played a role in the slave revolt of the first and second century.   But what role did religion play in the slave wars? Was there any religion and how did it help the slaves in there rebellion?
The first slave war, on the island of Sicily, was guided by a magician named Eunus.   The slaves on Sicily were maltreated beyond tolerance, and left to fend for themselves, forming gangs of bandits and causing murder all over the island.   There was one group of slaves under the masters, Damophilos, and his wife Megallis; they decided to rebel against their masters.   Before they could go through with their plan to rebel they went to Eunus and asked him if the God’s supported their plans to rebel.   The fact that they did not rebel without asking for the God’s blessings shows some of how important religion played in the first rebellion.   Eunus, being a magician used some wonder working and told the slaves that the God’s favored them, and they should undertake their plans at once.
So for the most part theirs was no religious reason that helped the slave’s motivation to rebel against their masters, slaves believed in God’s but they believed in many different God’s.

The second slave was extremely similar to the first one in the sense of where and why it occurred.   The major difference was the causes.   But there is no real religious reason that helped the slaves come to the decision to revolt against their masters.   For the most part the people with wealth and land had more religion than the slaves, simply because they could afford to be more knowledgeable on the God’s.   But usually the slave that lead the revolt would use religion when trying to get more slaves to...