been sold in Sicily. After this folly of Eunous we are surprised to hear that he formed a council of the wisest of his new subjects, among whom the chief was Achaeus, an Achaean by birth, a man of counsel and action too. If we can believe the story, this choice of Achaeus would prove Eunous to have had some sense. Achaeus was not pleased with the savage behaviour of the slaves, and he boldly expressed his opinion that they would soon bring on themselves signal vengeance. Eunous so far from being displeased at this freedom of speech gave Achaeus the property of his former master and made him his adviser. In three days Eunous had more than six thousand men, whom he armed as well as he could. He was joined by others who had only axes, slings and cutting hooks, pieces of wood hardened in the fire, and even spits from the kitchens. With this disorderly band he plundered all the island, destroying the very industry by which he and his men were supported. The history of all servile insurrections and of people as ignorant as slaves shows that if they were not checked, such men would destroy the accumulated savings of ages without ever thinking of producing, and would finally perish amidst the waste that they had made. Eunous was at last bold enough to encounter the Roman generals, and he often defeated them, says Diodorus. He had now above ten thousand men. The slaves improved on the Roman practice of cutting off prisoners' hands: they cut off their arms.

About the time of the massacre of Henna there was a rising of the slaves in another part of Sicily under Cleon a Cilician. The Sicilians hoped that the two slave leaders would quarrel and so they would be rid of both of them; but contrary to expectation Cleon submitted to Eunous, and served him as general with the five thousand slaves whom he had collected.

The narrative of Diodorus does not enable us to fix the time of this Sicilian outbreak with accuracy. Florus, whose single authority is worth nothing, says that four Roman praetors were defeated by the slaves and lost their camps. He names them Manilius, Lentulus, Piso and Hypsaeus. Diodorus speaks of the union of Cleon and Eunous taking

place about thirty days after the revolt, by which he probably means the massacre of Henna, for this was the real insurrection, though the country had been in a disturbed state some time before. Soon after the expiration of the thirty days the praetor L. Hypsaeus came from Rome, and raised a force of eight thousand men in Sicily; but he was defeated by the slaves who were now twenty thousand. After this success the numbers of the rebels increased and finally reached, as we are told, two hundred thousand; the meaning of which is that the number was very large and that all the field slaves of Sicily joined in the insurrection. In fact there is little doubt that except a few of the strong towns, the slaves were masters of the whole island. I find no means of determining in what year L. Hypsaeus was praetor of Sicily; nor do the fragments of Diodorus, which are copious as to the circumstances of the outbreak, give any information about the history of the struggle except its termination.

In B.C. 134 the consul C. Fulvius Flaccus, the colleague of P. Scipio Africanus, was sent to Sicily, but it is not known what he did. He was succeeded in the next year by the consul L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, who took the town of Messana from the rebels, and killed eight thousand of them. Those whom he made prisoners were crucified. Piso was strict in his discipline. C. Titius, commander of the cavalry, being surrounded by a body of insurgents gave up his arms to save his life. The consul deprived Titius of his military rank and punished him ignominiously. He took their horses from the cavalry and transferred the men into the companies of the slingers.

It was probably about this time, though it is impossible to fix the dates accurately, that servile insurrections broke out in other parts of the Roman dominions. A conspiracy was formed at Rome by one hundred and fifty slaves. This rising was soon suppressed, but it was discovered that the conspiracy extended to other parts of Italy. Four hundred and fifty slaves were crucified at Minturnae. At Sinuessa Q. Metellus and Cn. Servilius Caepio, who were commissioned to check the insurrection, destroyed four thousand slaves. In Attica there was a revolt of the slaves who worked in the

silver mines of Laurium, but it was suppressed by Heraclitus to whom Orosius gives the name of praetor. At Delos too there was an attempt at a rising, but it was stopped. This small island in the middle of the Aegean had become a great market for the sale of slaves, which were brought there by the pirates of Cilicia and dealers from other parts. The slaves in Delos probably made an attempt to rise on the dealers and recover their liberty. Macedonia also is said to have been disturbed by servile tumults.

In B.C. 132 the consul P. Rupilius was sent into Sicily. He conducted the war with great vigour and success. His son-in-law Q. Fabius had by his carelessness lost the citadel of Tauromenium (Taormina), and the consul ordered him to quit the province. The two strong holds of the rebels were Tauromenium and Henna. The larger towns had probably been able to protect themselves against the insurgents. Tauromenium is on the east coast of Sicily between Messina and Catania. A steep ascent from the south leads up to a narrow ledge, which overhangs the sea and is the termination of a mountain range. This ledge is the site of Tauromenium. Still higher are two rocky peaks, between which the theatre was built. The highest peak is about fourteen hundred feet above the sea, and on it the antient impregnable citadel stood. From the site of the theatre the whole outline of Aetna with its snow-crowned summit is visible, and the coast to the south as far as Catania and even Syracuse. In front of the town the wide sea spreads out, and in the remote distance are dimly seen the coast and mountains of Calabria.

This strong place could only be taken by blockade, and accordingly the consul invested it completely. His ships prevented the enemy from receiving any supplies by sea. The slaves could expect no mercy from a Roman, and they held out till they were compelled to feed on human flesh, first on children, then on the women, and last on one another. Comanus a brother of Cleon commanded in Tauromenium. He attempted to make his escape, but was caught. The citadel was finally surrendered to the Romans by the treachery of a Syrian slave named Sarapion. All the slaves who were

taken were put to torture, and then pitched down from the rocks of Tauromenium.

Near the centre of Sicily and near one of the sources of the southern Himera, the modern Salso, stands the mountain of Enna, or Henna, as the Romans generally write it, perhaps the highest point in Sicily next to Aetna. The summit of the mountain is flat: the sides are precipitous and only accessible in a few places. From the south a long winding road leads to the level on the top, and there the modern town of Castro Giovanni stands, on the northern edge of the mountain plain. The place is well supplied with water.

This mountain fortress could not be taken by assault and the consul after investing it waited for the slow results of hunger. Cleon who commanded in Henna was captured in a sally after fighting heroically. He died of his wounds in the Roman camp and his dead body was exposed in view of the besieged. Shortly after the place was treacherously betrayed to the consul. Twenty thousand slaves, as Orosius states it, perished at Tauromenium and Henna. Eunous with his guard of a thousand men fled to some of the rugged parts of Sicily, but he was closely pursued by the consul, and escape being impossible and mercy hopeless, his men killed one another after barbaric fashion. The slave king was a coward and unworthy to be the ruler of the brave men who had risen against their masters. He was dragged out of a hole in which he had hid himself with four of his servants, his cook, breadmaker, the man who rubbed him in the bath and the court fool, for he had not neglected even this appendage of royalty. He was cast into prison at Morgantia in Sicily, or as another story reports, which is less credible, he was taken to Rome. He lingered in his chains till he was devoured by the vermin of his own body, and thus added one more to the examples recorded in antiquity of this loathsome disease. It is not said what became of his queen.

The pacification of the whole island followed the capture of Henna. Rupilius, who was now proconsul (B.c. 131), had the assistance of ten commissioners from Rome, with whom he settled the affairs of Sicily on a durable foundation. Sicily contributed largely to the revenue of Rome, and it was neces

sary to provide for the raising of the taxes, which, we may assume, were not paid during the rebellion. The ordinances of Rupilius which were named Lex Rupilia, became the basis of the administration of the island. We shall have occasion to speak of them again when we treat of the government of Sicily under C. Verres and his prosecution for malversation. Rupilius, who put an end to the slave war, and then was the wise legislator of Sicily, had been employed in the earlier part of his life under the publicani or farmers of the public revenue. Rupilius was a friend of P. Scipio Africanus the younger, to whose influence he was indebted for the consulship. He was rewarded for his services in Sicily with an ovation only, a kind of triumph which was considered sufficient honour for a victory over slaves.

Florus in his chapter on this Servile war in Sicily (iii. 19) says that M. Perperna took Henna and put an end to the war. Some critics have supposed that the name of Perperna stands in the text of Florus through a mistake of the transcribers of the manuscripts; but the name Perperna occurs in two different passages in this chapter, and the error may be due to Florus. It is not a matter worth notice, except so far as some modern writers still follow Florus, whose blunders, one would suppose, would hardly be repeated now. There is no evidence, except in Florus, that Perperna even served in this slave war; for the entry in the Capitoline Fasti, as they are now printed, is only foisted in on the authority of Florus.

The rich slaveholders of Sicily and the Italian capitalists were the great sufferers by this rebellion. The poorer sort of free Sicilians had little to lose. They had no sympathy with the rich whom they envied for their wealth, and hated for their pride and arrogance. Thus envy had its satisfaction in seeing the indolent and luxurious brought down to the low estate of those whom they had formerly despised; for insurrection and riot, as wise men have observed, may make the rich poor, but never make the poor rich.

A passage in Diodorus records a fact which, if true, shows that after the first violence of the outbreak, the slaves were directed by abler heads. Probably Achaeus may have done