Late Roman Republic, Society [2/2]: Roman Citizenship, First Servile War

Roman Citizenship

In the early second century BC the leges Porcia gave citizens the right to appeal against corporal punishment. There were three such laws: (i) in 199 BC the tribune ⁰³Porcius Laeca gave the right of appeal to Romans in Italy and the provinces; (ii) in 198 or 195 BC ⁰²Porcius Cato prohibited the flogging of citizens without appeal; (iii) in 184 BC the consul ⁰⁴Porcius Licinus protected citizens from summary execution when on military service.

In 193 BC the tribune ⁰⁹Sempronius Tuditanus passed the lex Sempronia, a statute that virtually instructed the praetor peregrinus to apply Roman laws of usury to all Latins and Italians in their dealings with Roman citizens.

Because the Roman Republic was mostly a conquest state, run by and for Romans, it was advantageous to be a Roman citizen, even a relatively poor one. When the Latin cities complained that they could not fulfil their military obligations because so many of their citizens had migrated to Rome, twelve thousand men were struck off the citizen-roll and sent back to their colonies (187 BC). 

When the Latin colonies appealed again in 177 BC, the consul ¹⁴Claudius Pulcher carried through the lex Claudia de sociis requiring the sons of Latins and allies who had migrated to Rome and were now Roman citizens, to renounce their citizenship and return to their places of origin.

First Servile War (135-132 BC): Sicily

In 135 BC a landowner Damophilos at Enna in central Sicily maltreated his slaves and they revolted. A Syrian slave, Eunus of Apamea, signalled an insurrection and some four hundred slaves cut down the inhabitants of the town. Another slave Achaios raided the ergastula (slave workshops) and released a number of his fellow slaves. In the Agrigentum region a second rebellion occurred under a Cilician named Cleon and the revolt soon spread over the whole island. 

Eunus adopted the royal name of Antiochus, gained control of much of Sicily and defeated several Roman armies. In 134 BC the consul ¹³Fulvius Flaccus was sent to Sicily but achieved little. The following year the consul ⁰⁵Calpurnius Piso won the first major successes against the rebels. Eunus was finally captured in 132 BC by the consul Publius Rupilius and died in prison at Morgantina. Around this time there were also slave uprisings at Sinuessa in Campania, at the silver mines in Attica and on the island of Delos (134 BC).